BY JOEL LEVY
A handy source of information for 50 important discoveries in human history
4 stars out of 5 stars
“History’s Greatest Discoveries – and the People Who Made Them” seems a perfect sequel to read after just finishing “Great Physicists – The Life and Times of Leading Physicists from Galileo to Hawking”.
In 251 pages, the author profiles 50 discoveries, from the stone age to 2012, the year the Higgs Boson was discovered. The selection was based more on “true eureka moment”. In other words, he prioritized flashes of inspiration over slow dawnings. The discoveries were grouped into eight headings: Astronomy, Biology, Chemistry, Explorations, Mathematics, Medicine, Physics, and Technology.
From my personal perspective, the discoveries selected fall into three categories: (a) those I am reasonably familiar; (b) those I have heard of but do not know much about the details; and (c) those I am completely ignorant. I am happy to say that, even for those in category (a), there is always something new that I learn. Let me give an example of each category.
Example of category (a) – The Pythagorean Theorem: An Ancient Geometric Rule
Anyone who had taken trigonometry in high school knows Pythagorean Theorem. I of course was familiar with the Theorem, but I also had read about the life and work of Pythagoras. In particular, I recently read the book “Fermat’s Enigma”, in which author Simon Singh credited Pythagoras as the originator of the concept of mathematical proof, and that Pythagoras actually proved the Theorem that bears his name. Believe it or not, I actually knew how to prove the Theorem. However, I did not know that the relationship enunciated in the theorem was first perceived by rope stretching surveyors at work in the very earliest civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, or China.
a2 + b2 = c 2
To prove the Theorem, consider the diagram below. On the left is any right-angle triangle and on the right is a square with the sides form using the sides of the triangle on the left, as shown. Figuring two ways of calculating the area of the big square will lead to the proof of the Pythagorean Theorem. This is left as an exercise (try it, it is fun).
Example of category (b) – The Great Falls of the Missouri: Lewis and Clark’s Corps of Discovery
After the Louisiana Purchase, President Thomas Jefferson enlisted the service of Captain Meriwether Lewis to form the “Corps of Discovery” to explore the new territory. Lewis enlisted the help of his old Army friend, William Clark. In August 1803, the Lewis and Clark expedition started from St. Louis, Missouri, along the Missouri River, across the Continental Divide, all the way to the Pacific Ocean in the Northwest. They returned to St. Louis in September 1806. I was familiar with the Expedition as one of the great achievements of the Jefferson Presidency. However, even though I lived and worked in Missouri for five years, the only great Fall I was aware of in the United States was Niagara Falls. Thus, I was surprised to see the title “The Great Falls of the Missouri”. Actually, “Missouri” here refers to the River and not the State. The location of the Falls was in Montana and not Missouri. Lewis described the Fall he saw as the “grandest sight I ever beheld”, “a sheet of whitest beaten froath of 200 yards in length and 80 feet perpendicular”.
After learning about this spectacular natural wonder, it was sad to read that, although Lewis became Governor of the Louisiana Territories in 1807, he killed himself in a grip of depression in 1809. Clark ran unsuccessfully to be governor of Missouri in 1821.
Route of Lewis and Clark Expedition (Source: Wikipedia)
Source: Wikipedia
The Great Missouri Falls (Source: Wikipedia)
Example of category (c) – No Laughing Matter: The Pain-Numbing Effects of Nitrous Oxide
While I had heard of “laughing gas” before, I did not know anything beyond the name. After reading the book, I now know that it is Nitrous Oxide (N2O). It was the famous chemist Humphrey Davy (onetime President of Royal Society) who discovered that it would make him laugh. To find out what different types of gases had on human functions, Davy inhaled them himself, in increasing doses, and asked his assistants observe and record the effects. At one time he was almost killed by inhaling too much carbon monoxide. His efforts resulted in the finding that, in addition to cause people laugh, nitrous oxide could trigger pain- and anxiety-relieving mechanisms in the brain. However, it was some forty years after Davy’s discovery that nitrous oxide was developed into one of the main pain-numbing medicines. It remains the most widely used of all general anesthetic agents and is used in both dentistry and medicine and is particularly associated with childbirth.
Source: Wikipedia
In conclusion, the book is a handy source of information for 50 important discoveries in human history. Readers will be surprised by the selection of some discoveries. For me, I was surprised to see “Napier’s Logarithms” and “The Butterfly Effect” on the list. But after reading the author’s narratives, I can understand why they were among the important discoveries.
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