The light ages by seb falk7/1/2023 ![]() ![]() Seasonal changes in the heavens could be read like a calendar, helping farmers plant their crops and fixing the dates of important festivals. Since ancient times, astronomy had been a source of stories and had inspired religious belief. People have always gazed at the sky and wondered.Įverything from Stonehenge to SpaceX comes from the same sense of wonder. The more we bring the anonymous men and women of science into the light, the harder it is to claim that anyone is ever ahead of their time. This is how science really works-legions of people carrying out experiments, studying and teaching, building up data, working through ideas, and communicating them to others. No one has heard of him, but by studying math and astronomy, working on astronomical instruments, and inventing his own planetary computer called an equatorium, he made his own tiny contribution to the development of science. ![]() In The Light Ages, I write about John of Westwyk, a monk who lived in England in the late 14th century. ![]() They make great stories, these isolated geniuses ahead of their time, but telling the story of science as a parade of great men completely misrepresents how science is done. We’ve all heard the myths-Archimedes and his bath, Newton and his apple tree, Einstein at the patent office.
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