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Book 8: Military Tactics in the War of the Asuras

jhadian — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 10:53:54 CDT

In book 8 of The Years of Rice and Salt, by Kim Stanley Robinson, titled The War of the Asuras, advanced military tactics are displayed by both the Muslims and the Chinese. At the beginning of the book the Chinese use the power of the sun to their advantage by blinding the Muslims and staying in the trenches and the caves. Later on in the book poison gas infiltration and major artillery is used by both the Muslims and the Chinese. Such advanced war technology is interesting coming from this time period. The commanding major for the Muslims and Chinese were Iwa and Kuo, respectively. Later on in the story Kuo and Bai see each other in the bardo, or a state of consciousness between death and rebirth. Bai comes back to the real world and discovers another battle is occurring. After Bai and Iwa travel to India to escape the violence they come to find that the Indian army is going to attack in defence and they are asking the Chinese for help. Bai later learns that he was a butterfly in his past life and Kou was Admiral Kheim, from a discussion he had with Kou where the Buddha was enlightened. Bai is distraught from this news and discusses it with Iwa. Bai probably realizes he will be reincarnated, just as he has been, to ultimately find success and possibly enlightenment.

Book 8

bboyd1 — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 10:33:30 CDT

In Kim Stanley Robinsons “The Years of Rice and Salt” book eight, “War of The Asuras” was about a war going on in Asia in which various groups desired power. Throughout the war there were three soldiers in which narrated the struggle of the war and how it devastated humankind. Parallel to the war which is the main idea in the book was a religious conflict which involved the main characters Bai, Iwa, and Kuo. All three soldiers are friends whom have endured the long war together. Kuo acts as the leader of three being the most intelligent about war plans, and diversions because he listens to the wireless on a regular basis to keep up to date on what is going on in the war. Kuo dies which upsets the harmony of the group and deeply saddens Bai. Bai sees Kuo after he dies and Kou guides him along the way throughout the remainder of the war. Kuo introduces the notion of the war as being a phase in the bardo to Bai and that they are all dead in saying, “You need to see you’re in the bardo to be able to understand what’s happening to you. It’s the war in the bardo that matters, after all. The battle for our souls” (Robinson 563-564). At first Bai ponders the thought but dispels the notion after talking to Iwa about it. As the story unravels Bai begins to feel as though some of the war tasks that he is performing, has already done before; in this case he begins to remember parts of his previous life’s. Later on in the story Bai sees Kuo again at the scene of the destroyed the Bodhi Tree and Kuo suggests to Bai that:

“In any case we’re all in the bardo together now, and headed for the lower realms again, at best the realm of hum, but possibly spinning down the death spiral into the hell worlds always underfoot, we may have done it and are in the spin you can’t pull out of, humanity lost to us for a time even as a possibility, so much harm have we done.”

“But we failed! We killed reality itself, do you understand me!”

“So. Now we are in this lower realm. We must make do. Our dharma still commands action, even here. In the hope of small advances upward. Until reality itself be reestablished, by many millions of lives of effort. The whole world will have to be rebuilt. That’s where we are now,”… (Robinson 580).

From what Kuo says, Bai realizes that man will continue to kill man until there is none left; and then mankind will have to be restored again. Bai takes what he has learned from Kuo to carry out the rest of his life, to perform his dharma as the other soldiers do. In the end they all share their religion as their destiny as all the armies sit amongst one another in peace, saying the Buddhists prayers.

Book 8: War of the Asuras

mmason7 — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 14:56:42 CDT

Book 8 starts off the morning before a battle. The Chinese and the Muslim Empire have been fighting a war for twenty years. The battle takes place in trenches, basically the same trench warfare of WWI. Artillery showers and poisonous gas attacks were used extensively by both sides. Major Kuo, Bai and Iwa were commanding the troops. Each night they would get together, have a drink, and talk. One night a large artillery shell landed at their quarters, killing Kuo. The shell was a dud so Bai and Iwa escaped with minor injuries. The Muslims have started a huge offensive. As Bai started to head out he is confronted by Kou. Bai thought Kou was dead. Kuo then tells Bai that he is dead, and so is he. He tells Bai that they are in the bardo and Bai wouldn't accept the fact that he is dead. Kuo tells Bai that there is another war, in the bardo, which is far more important. Then Bai wakes up and finds himself in the comm room and tells Iwa alll about it. The Muslims began another assault and Bai and Iwa have evacuated and headed south on trains. They were going to India. They had to get throught Tibet and the Himalayas which was defended by the Muslims. They blasted the Mt. Everest so it isn't the worlds tallest mountain. They wanted the mountain in Afghanistan to be the worlds tallest. Bai was reading The Book of the Dead which he got from Iwa and started to zone out into the bardo. He looked outside and saw many armies of dead men gathered by different faction. He figured out that there was a war in the bardo between the gods. Bai then awakes from his dazed coma and finds the Chinese defenses destroyed at the Himalayas. Soon they met up with Indian generals. The Indians were planning a counter attack and asked the Chinese for support. The Indians were successful at routing the Muslims and then Bai and Iwa found themselves at the ruins of Bodh-Gaya. This is the location of the where the Bodhi tree once stood, where the Buddha had achieved enlightenment. The area was ravaged because of the artillery bombardment of the Muslims.The Kou appears before Bai and hands him a branch of the tree. He tells Bai that they both had past-lives, Kou was admiral Kheim and Bai was Butterfly. Bai doesnt recall anything so Kou tells him the story. (Book 3). Kou tells Bai that they are at the lowest realm of existence and that they failed at life. Bai is scared and wakes up finding Iwa. Iwa then talks to Bai about life, asking if there is an after-life or not. then they met up with the Indian officers and relaxed, they were at peace.

Extra Credit Assignment

kthomps4 — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 10:47:00 CST

Add your extra credit summaries of chapters in Years of Rice and Salt we did not read here. Make sure you are on this page when you click add a new page to put up your summary. Describe in detail what happens in the chapter and set out any references to real history you see. Write the equivalent of two typed pages.

Calendar

pdelrio — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 02:12:45 CST

Introduction

In The Years of Rice and Salt, there are several methods of dating used to identify the period of time during which the story occurs. This article will briefly explain the background of each method.

The Chinese Calendar - 舊曆

In Books Three and Seven the "Ancient" Chinese Calendar system (舊曆 jiuli) is used. Rather than continual counting of the years from a certain event, such as the birth of Christ or the journey to Medina by Mohammed, time is counted in shorter periods, from the beginning of an emperor's rule until his death.

The first line of Book Three states that it is the 35th Year of Wanli's reign. The historical figure Wanli lived from 1563-1620 and reigned from the age of 9 until his death, from 1572-1620.

In Book Seven, the emperor ruling China is Xianfeng. The historical figure Xianfeng lived from 1831-1861 and reigned from the age of 21 until his death, from 1850-1861. At the beginning of Book Seven it states that it is the 12th Year of Xianfeng's reign. In the final paragraphs of Book Seven, another emperor is mentioned, Guangxu. The historical figure Guangxu lived from 1871-1908 and reigned from the age of 4 until his death, from 1875-1908.

With this information, all that needs to be done to convert the date is to subtract the current regnal year from the first year of the emperor's reign in the Christian Calendar. Using this information the following dates can be calculated:

Wanli's Reign
35th Year/1598 AD - The year at the beginning of Book Three.
38th Year/1601 AD - The year Admiral Kheim begins his journey.
39th Year/1602 AD - The year Admiral Kheim returns home.

Xianfeng's Reign
12th Year/1862 AD - The year in which excessive rains occur in Fangzhang and cause floods.

Guangxu's Reign

21st Year/1896 AD - The year in which the Muslims of southern China revolt, but are quickly quelled.

The Islamic Calendar - التقويم الهجري

In Books Four and Seven the Islamic Calendar (Arabic: التقويم الهجري - at-taqwīm al-hijrī) is used. Just as the Christian Calendar measures time continually from the year of Christ's birth, the Islamic Calendar measures the years since the Prophet Mohammed travelled to Medina, in what is called the Hijra (Arabic: هِجْرَة). In the Christian Calendar this date is equivalent to 622 AD. It is important to note however that due to the fact that the Islamic Calendar only has 354/355 days (it is based on the lunar, not solar cycle), it is not easily converted. For example, the current year is 2007 in the Christian Calendar and 1428 in the Islamic Calendar. Subtracting 622 from 2007 yields 1385, which is off by about 40 years. As a result, a somewhat accurate method of converting the date is to multiply the Islamic year by 0.97 and then adding 622. While this method is not exact, it yields an approximate result.

Dates Mentioned in the text:

1202 AH/~1788 AD - The year the Jannisaries revolt against the sultan and are quelled. The bodies of those that were executed are given to Ismail for autopsy and dissection.
1207 AH/~1793 AD - Konstantiyye (Arabic for Constantinople) is conquered by Kerala.

Sources:

Chinese Calendar from English Wikipedia, accessed 01/20/07.
Wanli Emperor from English Wikipedia, accessed 01/20/07.
Xianfeng Emperor from English Wikipedia, accessed 01/20/07.
Guangxu Emperor from English Wikipedia, accessed 01/20/07.
Islamic Calendar from English Wikipedia, accessed 01/20/07.
Hijra (Islam) from English Wikipedia, accessed 01/20/07.

Alternative History

pdelrio — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 02:08:12 CST

Definition:

(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
Alternative history or alternate history develops out of historiography to identify historical points of view that have been ignored, overlooked, or unseeable. It usually denotes a history told from an alternative viewpoint, rather than from the view (actual or ascribed, obvious or inferred) of imperialists, conquerors or explorers.

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Group 2: Misha Vinokur, Pablo del Rio, Nick Razeghi & Jennifer Newgen (group 2 also did pages on science & technology)

The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson is an alternative history book about a world in which there is no "West". Christianity and European cultures no longer exist because 99% of the population in Europe was wiped out by the Black Death. Our Alternative History section of the Years of Rice and Salt Wiki compares aspects of the book that parallel or relate to our own history.

Quick Links:

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Group 3: Vanessa Tamangan, Brooke Boyd, Lyndsi Humphreys, Roha Abate, and Johann Hadian (group 3 also did pages on science & technology)

The Years of Rice and Salt showcases Kim Stanley Robinson's extensive knowledge of world history. Instead of simply making up historical events, Robinson provides alternate parallels in history that help the readers look into and understand how our story came to be. The following are some of the episodes the writer changed in order to educate us:

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What to do:

Group members should add page entries under this page by clicking the Add a new page button to the left, under the Navigation box. After your pages have been entered (and edited) your group is responsible for adding an introduction and links to your entries on this page. Non group members can add comments but not pages. All page entries should include the title, URL and date accessed as well as an active link to your source. Also add any licenses--like the Wikipedia GNU Free Documentation License--here.

Those not in this group should click on the add comments button to add the names of people, places, events and references you think the group doing research on Book III should add information on when they add pages. (Note: Those not in the group should add comments, those in the group pages).

Kublai Khan

ctaitt — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 12:21:45 CST

In Book 3 of The Years of Rice and Salt Kublai Khan tried to invade Nippon. But this Mongol warlord tried to conquer Japan in the 1270's but his fleet was turned back by high winds. The Japanese came to call these winds Kamikaze (神風) or "Divine Wind(s)".

GeoCities introduction

Wikipedia, Kublai Khan

Qubilai Khan twice attempted to invade Japan in search of gold; however, both times the samurai resisted firmly, and bad weather destroyed the fleets. The first invasion attempt took place in 1274, with a fleet of 900 ships. The second invasion occurred in 1281, with a fleet of over 1,170 large war junks, each close to 240 feet long. The Japanese were prepared for this invasion and they had built a wall several feet high on the island where Mongols were predicted to land (remnants of this wall are still visible), in order to prevent horses from coming ashore easily. The campaign was badly organized as the Korean fleet reached Japan much ahead of the Chinese fleet. Japanese samurai fought and defeated the largely Chinese and Korean army of Mongols. Dr. Kenzo Hayashida, the marine archaeologist, headed the investigation that discovered the wreckage of the second invasion fleet off the western coast of Dokdo. His team's findings strongly indicate that Kublai Khan rushed to conquer Japan and attempted to construct his enormous fleet in only one year (a task that should have taken up to 5 years), which forced the Chinese to use any available ships, including river boats, in order to achieve readiness. Most importantly, the Chinese, then under the Khan's control, were forced to build many ships quickly in order to contribute to the fleet in both of the invasions. Had Kublai used standard, well-constructed ocean-going ships, which have a curved keel to prevent capsizing, his navy might have survived the journey to and from Japan and might have conquered it as intended. John Pearson, author of Qubilai Khan (2005), writes, "The cost of these defeats led the Khan to devalue the central currency, further exacerbating growing inflation. He also increased tax assessments. These economic problems lead to growing resentment of the Mongols, who paid no taxes, among the Chinese populace." David Nicole writes in The Mongol Conquerors that "these disastrous defeats shattered the myth of Mongol invincibility throughout Asia." He also wrote that Kublai Khan was determined to mount a third invasion, despite the horrendous cost to the economy and to his and Mongol prestige of the first two defeats, and only his death prevented such a third attempt, despite the unanimous agreement of his advisors against such an attempt." In early 2006, previous theories that Qubilai's fleet was made up entirely of river boats were weakened when archaeologists discovered evidence of keel-building. One current theory is that the new Mongol technology of explosives (grenade-like weapons) may have backfired owing to inexperience when the Mongols attempted to apply it against Japan.

License

The Great Alchemist Jabir Ibn Haiyan

kknodt — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 11:34:17 CST

Introduction: Jabir Ibn Haiyan, known as the alchemist Geber of the Middle Ages, is generally known as the Father of Chemistry. In the fourth book he is known as a great Alchemist whom Khalid, Bahram, and Iwang also the many servants that help them with the experiments look up too. Jabir is famous for his studies of science and medicine and is directly acknowledged for the same accomplishments in the book, The Alchemist. Jabir's knowledge layed out in his book, set a strong path for Khalid, Bahram, and Iwang's experiments of the speed of light, sound, and the mystery of alchemy.

His full name was Abu Musa Jabir Ibn Hayyan. He had established himself as one of the leading scientist while he practiced medicine and alchemy in Kufa (in present day Iraq) around 776 C.E. In his early days, he was under the patronage of the Barmaki Vizier during the Abbasid Caliphate of Haroon al-Rashid. Jabir died in Kufa in 803 C.E.

Jabir's major contribution was in the field of Chemistry. He is famous for writing more than one hundred monumental treatises, of which twenty-two deal with chemistry and alchemy. He introduced experimental investigation into alchemy (derived from Arabic word al-Kimiya), creating the momentum for the modern chemistry. Jabir emphasized experimentation and development of methods to achieve reproducibility in his work. He devoted his effort to the development of basic chemical methods and the study of various mechanisms of chemical reactions and thus helped evolve chemistry as a science from the legends of alchemy. Jabir emphasized that definite quantities of various substances are involved in a chemical reaction. Therefore, it can be said that he paved the way for the law of constant proportions.

Jabir discovered mineral and others acids, which he prepared for the first time in his alembic (Anbique). Apart from several contributions of basic nature to alchemy, involving largely the preparation of new compounds and development of chemical methods, he also developed a number of applied chemical processes, thus becoming a pioneer in the field of applied science. His achievements in this field include preparation of various metals, development of steel, dyeing of cloth and tanning of leather, varnishing of water-proof cloth, use of manganese dioxide in glass-making, prevention of rusting, lettering in gold, identification of paints, greases, etc. He also developed aqua regia to dissolve gold. The alembic is his great invention, which made easy and systematic the process of distillation. Jabir was mostly interested in experimentation and was well known for his accuracy in his work.

Jabir's experimental ideas paved the way for now commonly known classification of substances as metals, nonmetals and volatile substances. He discussed three distinct types of substances based on their properties: a) spirits, i.e., those which vaporize on heating, like camphor, arsenic and ammonium chloride, b) metals, e.g., gold, silver, lead, copper, iron, and c) compounds that can be converted into powders.

Although known as an alchemist, Jabir did not seem to have seriously pursued the preparation of noble metals as an alchemist; instead he gave greater attention to the development of basic chemical methods and study of mechanisms of chemical reactions in themselves and thus helped evolve chemistry as a science from the legends of alchemy. He stated that, in chemical reactions, definite quantities of various substances are involved and thus can be said to have paved the way for the law of constant proportions.

Together with chemistry, Jabir was also interested in other sciences such as medicine and astronomy, and had great achievements and contribution in these fields. His books on chemistry, including his Kitab-al-Kimya, and Kitab al-Sab'een were translated into Latin and various European languages. Wit these books being translated to European languages, Jabir’s books became famous in Europe for several centuries and have influenced the evolution of modern chemistry.

Jabir invented several technical terms, such as alkali, which are found today in various European languages and have become part of scientific vocabulary.

Summary: Jabir was a well celebrated and respected alchemist in book four, "The Alchemist." Jabir in the novel helped prove Khalid's point that all the great alchemists come to the conclusion that all metals are various combinations of sulpher and mercury or more pure substances thereof. During the countless experiments and trials, Khalid, Braham, and Iwang read Jabir's novels for knowledge such as Sum of Perfections, Books of Rectification, and The Secret of Creation. These were books that Khandid sent Braham to retrieve in Samarqand that previously belonged to a chemical family in Demascus. These books helped immensly when it came to the gentelmans experiments for they directely related to Alchemy, chemistry, medicine, and mathematics of speed and light. I believe the author, Kim Stanley Robinson, used the non-fictional character of Jabir to prove that the study of alchemy does exist in the present time the book was published. The authors other intentions were to prove that the characters in the book were using the actual studies of modern chemistry and science in order to produce these experiments to impress Abdul Aziz Khan.

Date Accessed: February 12, 2007
Source of Information: http://www.islamonline.com/cgi-bin/news_service/profile_story.asp?service_id=910
Another Source: http://www.geocities.com/heiankyo794/tyoras-guide.html

Printing press

lhumphr2 — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 02:14:22 CST

In Book 4: The Alchemist, the character K(halid) and the character I(wang) eventually devise the technology of the printing press. This development touches on both aspects of alternative history and science & technology. The printing press allowed many people to print several sheets of the same information that could have been very useful. With out the bright inventions like the printing press books might not have been as readily available. Not having books filled with information such as notes and directions of what other alchemists did; Khalid along with many other alchemists of his time might not have had the knowledge he did.

According to Wikipedia:

The printing press is a mechanical printing device for making copies of identical text on multiple sheets of paper. It was invented in Germany by the goldsmith and printer Johannes Gutenberg in 1447. Printing methods based on Gutenberg's printing press spread rapidly throughout first Europe and then the rest of the world, replacing most block printing and making it the sole progenitor of modern movable type printing. Printing's effect on civilization has often been discussed in terms of the effect of the "printing press" on civilization—a rhetorical device, which alludes to the pivotal role of the printing press in the global spread of printing.
Movable type printing, which allowed individual characters to be arranged to form words, is a separate invention from the printing press. In what is regarded as an independent invention, movable type printing as we know it today was invented in Germany by Gutenberg in the 1440s, although the first known invention was in China by Bi Sheng between 1041 and 1048.

Invention of the printing press
Johannes Gutenberg is credited with inventing the first printing press, although there are several local claims for the invention of the printing press in other parts of Europe, including Laurens Janszoon Coster in the Netherlands and Panfilo Castaldi in Italy. Screw presses for olives and wine were known in Europe since Roman times; presses for the binding of manuscript books were also in use. Gutenberg was the first to convert the concept for printing uses. Gutenberg's use of mechanical presses, along with other innovations of his, made printing from the start a proto-industrial process with a far greater printing output than with manual work.
Having previously worked as a professional goldsmith, Gutenberg also made skillful use of the knowledge of metals he had learned as a craftsman. He was the first to make his type from an alloy of lead, tin, and antimony, which was critical for producing durable type that produced high-quality printed books, and proved to be more suitable for printing than the clay, wooden or bronze types used in East Asia. To create these lead types, Gutenberg used what some considered his most ingenious invention, a special matrix wherewith the moulding of new movable types at short notice and with unprecedented precision.
In the Gutenberg Bible, Gutenberg made a trial of coloured printing for a few of the page headings, present only in some copies. (Albert Kapr, "Johannes Gutenberg", Scolar 1996, p. 172)

For more details on this topic, see Gutenberg Bible.

A later work, the Mainz Psalter of 1453, presumably designed by Gutenberg but published under the imprint of his successors Johann Fust and Peter Schoeffer, had elaborate red and blue printed initials. (Kapr, p.203). Gutenberg is also credited with the introduction of an oil-based ink which was more durable than the previously used water-based inks. As printing material he used both vellum and paper, the latter having been introduced in Europe somewhat earlier from China by way of the Arabs, who had a paper mill in operation in Baghdad as early as 794.

(From Wikipedia article "Printing press", accessed 2/19/07, GNU Free Documentation License)

The Age of Enlightenment

lhumphr2 — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 01:53:36 CST

In The Years of Rice and Salt, Kim Stanley Robinson introduces many alternative parallels in history. One was to centralize the Age of Enlightenment in Samarkand, India instead of Europe. This is especially evident in Book 4: The Alchemist, with the character K(halid) and the character I(wang) posing various questions about the universe. Enlightenment-period philosophy is also focal in Book 7: The Age of Great Progress, with the character K(erala)'s notion of "no more empires or kingdoms, no more caliphs, sultans, emirs, khans, or zamindars, no more kings or queens or princes, no more qadis or mullahs or ulema, no more slavery and no more usury, no more property and no more taxes, no more rich and no more poor..., no more generals, soldiers, armies or navies, no more patriarchy, no more clans, no more caste...." (Robinson 522)

According to Wikipedia:

The Age of Enlightenment (from the German word Aufklärung, meaning "Enlightenment") refers to eighteenth century in European and American philosophy, or the longer period including the seventeenth century and the Age of Reason. It can more narrowly refer to the historical intellectual movement The Enlightenment, which advocated Reason as a means to establishing an authoritative system of aesthetics, ethics, government, and logic, to allow philosophers to obtain objective truth about the universe.

Inspired by the revolution in physics commenced by Newtonian kinematics, Enlightenment thinkers argued that same kind of systematic thinking could apply to all forms of human activity. Hence the Enlightenment is often closely linked with the Scientific Revolution, for both movements emphasized empiricism, reason, science or rationality, but here applied also with natural law to the ethical and governmental spheres in exploration of the individual, society and the state. Its leaders believed they would lead the world into progress from a long period of doubtful tradition, irrationality, superstition, and tyranny which they imputed to the Dark Ages, though not from religious belief. The movement helped create the intellectual framework for the American and French Revolutions, the Latin American independence movement, and the Polish Constitution of May 3; and led to the rise of classical liberalism, democracy, and capitalism.

The Enlightenment is matched with the high baroque and classical eras in music, and the neo-classical period in the arts; it receives modern attention as being one of the central models for many movements in the modern period.

The Enlightenment as a movement solely occurred in Germany, France, Britain, and Spain, but spread beyond. Many of the Founding Fathers of the United States were also heavily influenced by Enlightenment era ideas, particularly in the religious (Deism), economic (the "free market"), and governmental (United States Bill of Rights) spheres.

History of Enlightenment philosophy
Another important movement in the 18th century philosophy, closely related to it, focused on belief and piety. Some of its proponents, such as George Berkeley, attempted to demonstrate rationally the existence of a supreme being. Piety and belief in this period were integral to the exploration of natural philosophy and ethics, in addition to political theories of the age. However, prominent Enlightenment philosophers such as Thomas Paine, Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and David Hume questioned and attacked the existing institutions of both Church and State. The 19th century also saw a continued rise of empiricist ideas and their application to political economy, government and sciences such as physics, chemistry and biology.

The Enlightenment (if thought of as a short period) was preceded by the Age of Reason or (if thought of as a long period) by the Renaissance and the Reformation. It was followed by Romanticism.

The boundaries of the Enlightenment cover much of the seventeenth century as well, though others term the previous era "The Age of Reason." For the present purposes, these two eras are split; however, it is equally acceptable to think of them conjoined as one long period.

Europe had been ravaged by religious wars; when peace in the political situation had been restored, after the Peace of Westphalia and the English Civil War, an intellectual upheaval overturned the accepted belief that mysticism and revelation are the primary sources of knowledge and wisdom—which was blamed for fomenting political instability. Instead, (according to those that split the two periods), the Age of Reason sought to establish axiomatic philosophy and absolutism as foundations for knowledge and stability. Epistemology, in the writings of Michel de Montaigne and René Descartes, was based on extreme skepticism and inquiry into the nature of "knowledge." The goal of a philosophy based on self-evident axioms reached its height with Baruch (Benedictus de) Spinoza's Ethics, which expounded a pantheistic view of the universe where God and Nature were one. This idea then became central to the Enlightenment from Newton through to Jefferson. The ideas of Pascal, Leibniz, Galileo and other philosophers of the previous period also contributed to and greatly influenced the Enlightenment; for instance, according to E. Cassirer, Leibniz’s treatise On Wisdom "... identified the central concept of the Enlightenment and sketched its theoretical programme" (Cassirer 1979: 121–123). There was a wave of change across European thinking, exemplified by Newton's natural philosophy, which combined mathematics of axiomatic proof with mechanics of physical observation, a coherent system of verifiable predictions, which set the tone for what followed Newton's Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica in the century after.
(From Wikipedia article "Age of Enlightenment", accessed 2/18/07, GNU Free Documentation License)

History of Alchemy | Scientific Revolution in Europe | Spanish vs. British | The Age of Enlightenment

Archimedes

rabate1 — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 00:07:57 CST

In book Four, The Alchemist, by Kim Stanley Robinson, Archimedes made a great impact on Bahrams views and what he learned through his studies of philosophy, physics and engineering. His studies and inventions helped great scientists such as Galileo and Sir Issac Newton and there studies continued on into how gravity worked, how boats stay afloat and how canals were made.

Archimedes (Greek: Άρχιμήδης; c. 287 BC – c. 212 BC) was an ancient Greek mathematician and philosopher who made fundamental discoveries in the fields of physics and engineering. He is widely regarded as the greatest scientist in classical antiquity. The 18th century German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss described Archimedes as one of the three most influential mathematicians of all time, with the others being Sir Isaac Newton and the lesser known Ferdinand Eisenstein.

Discoveries and inventions
Archimedes is regarded as the first mathematical physicist, and he was the key contributor to this field prior to Galileo and Newton. The most famous anecdote told about his work is how he discovered the principle of buoyancy. According to Vitruvius, a new crown in the shape of a laurel wreath had been made for King Hiero, and Archimedes was asked to determine whether it was of solid gold, or whether silver had been added by a dishonest goldsmith. Archimedes had to solve the problem without damaging the crown, so he could not melt it down in order to measure its volume. While taking a bath, he noticed that the level of the water rose as he got in. He realized that this effect could be used to determine the volume of the crown, and therefore its density after weighing it. The density of the crown would be lower if cheaper and lighter metals had been added. He then took to the streets naked, being so elated with his discovery that he forgot to dress, crying "Eureka!" ("I have found it!").[5][6] This discovery is known in the field of hydrostatics as Archimedes' Principle, which states that a body immersed in a fluid experiences a buoyant force equal to the weight of the displaced fluid.[7] Archimedes screw

Another invention bearing his name is the Archimedes screw. This was a machine with a revolving screw shaped blade, and was used to drain ships and transfer water from a low-lying body of water into irrigation canals. Versions of the Archimedes screw are still in use today in developing countries.
While Archimedes did not invent the lever, he gave the first rigorous explanation of the principles involved, which are the transmission of force through a fulcrum and moving the effort applied through a greater distance than the object to be moved. His Law of the Lever states: Magnitudes are in equilibrium at distances reciprocally proportional to their weights. His work on levers caused him to remark: "Give me a place to stand on, and I will move the Earth."[8] Plutarch describes how Archimedes designed block and tackle pulley systems, allowing sailors to use the principle of leverage to lift objects that would otherwise have been too heavy to move.
A large part of Archimedes' work in engineering arose from fulfilling the needs of his home city of Syracuse. The Greek writer Athenaeus describes how King Hiero II commissioned Archimedes to design a huge ship, the Syracusia, which could be used for luxury travel, carrying supplies and as a naval warship. The Syracusia is said to have been the largest ship built in classical antiquity. According to Athenaeus, it was capable of carrying 600 people and contained garden decorations, a gymnasium and a temple dedicated to the goddess Aphrodite. Since a ship of this size would leak a considerable amount of water through the hull, the Archimedes Screw was purportedly developed in order to remove the bilge water.[9] A conceptual diagram of the "Archimedes death ray"
During the Second Punic War, Archimedes is said to have repelled an attack by Roman forces by using a "burning glass" to focus sunlight on the approaching ships, causing them to catch fire. This claim, sometimes called the "Archimedes death ray", has been the subject of ongoing debate about its credibility since the Renaissance. Rene Descartes rejected it as false, while modern researchers have attempted to recreate the effect using only the means that would have been available to Archimedes. It has been suggested that a large array of highly polished bronze shields acting as mirrors could have been employed to focus sunlight on to a ship, utilizing the principle of the parabolic reflector. In October 2005 a group of students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology carried out an experiment with 127 one foot square mirror tiles, focused on a mocked-up wooden ship at a range of around 100 feet. Flames broke out on a patch of the ship, but only after the sky had been cloudless and the ship had remained stationary for around ten minutes. Nevertheless, it was concluded that the weapon was a feasible device under these conditions. The MIT group repeated the experiment for the television show Mythbusters, using a wooden fishing boat in San Francisco as the target. Again some charring occurred, along with a small amount of flame. When Mythbusters broadcast the result of the San Francisco experiment in January 2006, the claim was placed in the category of "myth" due to the length of time and ideal weather conditions required for combustion to occur. In real life a ballista (catapult) with flaming bolts would have been a far more dangerous weapon, while the effects of the "Archimedes death ray" might have been limited to confusing or temporarily blinding people on board the ship.[10][11][12]
The Claw of Archimedes is another weapon that he is said to have designed in order to defend the city of Syracuse. Also known as "the ship shaker", the claw consisted of a crane-like arm from which a large metal grappling hook was suspended. When the claw was dropped on to an attacking ship the arm would swing upwards, lifting the ship out of the water and possibly sinking it. As with the "Archimedes death ray" there have been modern experiments to test the feasibility of the claw, and in 2005 a television documentary entitled Superweapons of the Ancient World built a version of the claw and concluded that it was a workable device. No contemporary drawings of the Claw of Archimedes exist, although the weapon may have been similar in design to a trebuchet.[13]
Archimedes has also been credited with improving the power and accuracy of the catapult, and with inventing the odometer during the First Punic War.
Cicero wrote that after the capture of Syracuse, General Marcellus took two mechanical devices back to Rome that were used as aids in astronomy. He credits Thales and Eudoxus with constructing these devices. The motions of the Sun, Moon and five planets were shown by one device, and it was demonstrated to Cicero some 150 years later by a man named Gallus. Cicero described the event as follows:
Hanc sphaeram Gallus cum moveret, fiebat ut soli luna totidem conversionibus in aere illo quot diebus in ipso caelo succederet, ex quo et in [caelo] sphaera solis fieret eadem illa defectio, et incideret luna tum in eam metam quae esset umbra terrae, cum sol e regione. - When Gallus moved the globe, it happened that the Moon followed the Sun by as many turns on that bronze [contrivance] as in the sky itself, from which also in the sky the Sun's globe became [to have] that same eclipse, and the Moon came then to that position which was [its] shadow [on] the Earth, when the Sun was in line.[14]
The device described by Cicero is a planetarium or orrery. Pappus of Alexandria stated that Archimedes had written a manuscript (now lost) on the construction of these devices entitled On Sphere-Making. Recent research in this area has been focused on the Antikythera mechanism, another device from classical antiquity that was probably designed for the same use. Constructing devices of this kind would have required a knowledge of differential gearing. This was once thought to have been beyond the range of the technology available in ancient times, but the discovery of the Antikythera mechanism in 1902 has confirmed that devices of this kind were known to the ancient Greeks.[15][16]

For other uses, see Archimedes (disambiguation).
(From Wikipedia article "Archimedes" accessed 2/20/07,GNU Free Documentation License)

Years of Rice and Salt, Book 4 (The Alchemist)

carlos4ever21 — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 22:31:47 CST

Years of Rice and Salt

Book IV (The Alchemist)
Group members: Carlos Urtecho, Julia Wetzel, Katie Knodt, & Megan Woo

Book Four - The Alchemist - Is about the study of alchemy, calculus, and the testing of light and sound. The story begins with Khalid, the alchemist, who is caught cheating while performing alchemy to the khan, Sayed Abdul-Aziz and to a multitude of people. Nadir, Sayed Abdul-Aziz's right hand man, catches Khalid cheating because his ladle was hollow. As a result, Khalid is expected to be executed, however Sayed Abdul-Aziz shows mercy as he realizes the potential Khalid has. As a result, Khalid is labeled a fraud after being caught by Nadir and his right hand is chopped off and branded as a punishment. This punishment makes Khalid crazy as he is in a state of misery and depression since he will have to do everything with his left hand from now on. This act will make Khalid unclean for the rest of his life. Khalid feels betrayed by alchemy and desires to burn all of his alchemy books and equipment. I-Chin, Khalid's adviser and a wise man, tells him to sell the equipment and books or find other things to do with it. Hence, it is because of the rejection of alchemy that a new science is born and the scientific revolution begins. Khalid and I-Chin then explore several aspects of science including the speed of light, the speed of sound, the prism, and gravity. While Khalid is infatuated with these new discoveries, Sayed Abdul-Aziz demands that Khalid use his skill and wisdom to design more advanced weapons which would effectively help them fight the war raging in Asia. Hence, Kim Stanley Robinson's main point in Book Four is the fact that through the rejection and dismissal of alchemy, a new revolution in science began.

Alchemist

The Beginning of Alchemy
Galileo Galilei
The Great Alchemist Jabir Ibn Haiyan
The Philosopher's Stone

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The Beginning of Alchemy

jwetzel2 — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 22:07:30 CST

This reference discusses what is known about the creation of alchemy and how it possibly originated in China. This source discusses the practice of alchemy throughout the years. Evidence, namely Chinese literature, indicates that alchemy was likely practiced in China. The practice of alchemy fascinated some, while others thought it should be banned. In Years of Rice and Salt Khalid tries to turn lead into gold but fails and is labeled a fraud. (Page originally posted by Julia Wetzel)

According to the Mystica contributors:

Both the origin and source of Chinese alchemy are uncertain, if not unknown. Perhaps two or three centuries before the Greek writings on alchemy there appeared Chinese literature describing beliefs and processes which might be called alchemical. Even with the previous statement, there remains a question whether such knowledge migrated from East to West, or vice versa.

Unlike its Western counterpart, Chinese alchemy had one pursuit which was longevity and gradually immortality. The mentioning of a drug that could function as an elixir to promote immortality is found in Indian literature as early as 1000 BCE, as well as indications of alchemy in the Atharva-veda. But it is impossible to say whether these are sources of Chinese alchemy.

Evidence indicates that alchemy was practiced in China in the fourth century BCE by Dzou Yen. This evidence seems conclusive by the existence of a law enacted against counterfeiting gold by alchemical methods in 175 BCE; thus alchemy existed some time before then and became scandalous. From thenceforth no alchemical practice could be performed except to obtain longevity. It was even thought gold made from cinnabar that composed vessels for eating and drinking would help prolong life.

Since most Chinese alchemy was concerned with the attainment of longevity and immortality, it was primarily based on the Tao philosophy. This philosophy, or Taoism, is concerned with being in harmony with the universe, which is perfectly reasonable because anyone seeking a long life should want to live it harmoniously. This harmony could only be achieved by men with great spiritual gifts. It might be supposed one such gift was feeling superiority over women who were incapable of such gifts. Men not possessing such gifts probably took short cuts trying to get longevity.

Longevity or immortality was obtained though the use of a drug, made on the Chinese theory of matter based on the yang (male element) and yin (female element) principle. Substances rich with yang supposedly imparted life and longevity. The most highly prized of these was cinnabar (native red mercuric sulphide), next in potency was gold. Most probably the favoring of the color of red for life and longevity was an association with red blood of health, and that its power to for liquid mercury ("living" metal or "quick" silver) also entered into it. From deduction, it must have gradually appeared that cinnabar was not going to yield longevity and then, in typical alchemical fashion, the goal was transferred to manufacturing a drug or elixir, which underwent the same changes in color, from white to red, as the philosopher's stone of the West.

The Chinese idea of transmuting cinnabar into gold appeared around the second century BCE. They, like all men in the pre-scientific age supposed all minerals matured in rocks gradually becoming more precious. The enrichment of cinnabar was thought to follow this progression: cinnabar to lead, lead to silver, and silver to gold. It never seemed unreasonable that this process could not be achieved in a laboratory. The Chinese method of transmutation differed from that of the West. They chiefly used boilings and fusions; they certainly knew about sublimation with which they made vermilion. They also developed some sort of distillation process.

As can be seen from preserved accounts it is difficult to exactly describe all of their processes. For example, the Chinese alchemist, Go-Hung, said a man may prolong his life by taking medicine made from plants, but can become immortal only by the use of a Divine Elixir made from metals and minerals. The substances composing this elixir are difficult to identify. Though there is evidence of the use of red and yellow arsenic sulphides, sulphur, cinnabar, alum, salt, white arsenic, oyster shells, mica, chalk, and the resin of the pine tree. This resulting elixir when thrown on onto mercury or a mixture of lead and tin, converted the metal into gold or silver-gold from mercury, and silver from lead-tin alloy. As a medicine, if taken one hundred days man would become immortal. This is probably the earliest description of mosaic gold (stannic sulphide, yellow sulphide of tin).

Another intriguing fact about Chinese alchemy is the attached importance to the number 5. There were five elements: wood, fire, earth, metal, and water, five zones of space; five directions: north, south, east, west, and centre; five colors: yellow, blue, red, white, and black; and the five stones from which man was first taught to extract copper. In the Chinese alchemical theory the five elements, directions, and colors were associated with one another and to the five metals gold, silver, lead, copper, and iron; thus earth was connected to the color yellow, the direction centre, and the metal gold. The other linked groupings were wood, blue, east, and lead; fire, red, south, and copper; metal, white, west, and silver; and water, black, north, and iron. A further connection was between these groupings and the five planets: water corresponding to Mercury, fire to Mars, wood to Jupiter, metal to Venus, earth to Saturn. These equations foreshadow future supposed correspondences.

By the 11th CE Chinese alchemy had almost been abandoned; the realization that immortality obtained from metals and minerals was impossible had settled in. Alchemical vocabulary and terminology had turned toward spiritual and mystical pursuits as it would eventually do in the West. The pursuit of immortality was raised to a higher plane without abandoning alchemical thinking which still proved useful.

(Mystica contributors, "Chinese Alchemy" accessed 2/13/07)

Alternative History in Retrospect

jhadian — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 21:55:40 CST

Kim Stanley Robinson uses Alternative History, as a genre, to create a world where European cultures have no influence after 1405 in The Years of Rice and Salt. In order to understand Robinson's methods used in the book it helps a great deal to understand the history of this genre. This genre has been used constantly, in many different works, to explore what could have happened. Only by learning how this genre is written and by understanding the question "What if historical events occurred in a completely different way?" can we really understand why this novel was written.

According to Wikipedia.org (the free encyclopedia):

History of alternate history fiction
Antiquity
The earliest example of alternate history appears to be Book IX, sections 17-19, of Livy's History of Rome from Its Foundation. Livy contemplates the possibility of Alexander the Great expanding his father's empire westward instead of eastward and attacking Rome in the 4th century BC. His main question is: "What would have been the results for Rome if she had been engaged in war with Alexander?"[1]
19th century
In the English language, the first known complete alternate history is Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story "P.'s Correspondence", published in 1845. It recounts the tale of a man who is considered "a madman" due to his perceiving a different 1845, a reality in which long-dead famous people are still alive such as the poets Burns, Byron, Shelley, and Keats, the actor Edmund Kean, the British politician George Canning Napoleon Bonaparte.
The first novel-length alternate history in English would seem to be Castello Holford's Aristopia (1895). While not as nationalistic as Napoléon et la conquête du monde, 1812-1823, Aristopia is another attempt to portray a utopian society. In Aristopia, the earliest settlers in Virginia discover a reef made of solid gold and are able to build a Utopian society in North America.
Early 20th century and the era of the pulps
Although a number of alternate history stories and novels appeared in the late 1800s and early 1900s, the next major work is perhaps the strongest anthology of alternate history ever assembled. In 1931, British historian Sir John Squire collected a series of essays, many of which could be considered stories, in If It Had Happened OtherwiseLouis XVI Had Had an Atom of Firmness." The essays range from serious scholarly efforts through Hendrik Willem van Loon's fanciful and satiric portrayal of an independent 20th century Dutch city state on the island of Manhattan.
Four of the fourteen pieces examined the two most popular themes in alternate history prior to the Second World War: Napoleon's victory and the American Civil War. One of the entries in Squire's volume was Winston Churchill's "If Lee Had Not Won the Battle of Gettysburg"[2], written from the viewpoint of a historian in a world where the Confederacy had won the American Civil War, considering what would have happened if the North had been victorious (in other words, a character from an alternate world imagining a world more like the real one we live in, although not necessarily getting all the details right). This kind of speculative work which posts from the point of view of an alternate history is variously known as a "recursive alternate history", a "double-blind what-if" or an "alternate-alternate history". Other authors appearing in Squire's book included Hilaire Belloc and André Maurois.
Another example of alternate history from this period (and arguably the first to explicitly posit cross-time travel from one universe to another as anything more than a visionary experience) was H.G. Wells' Men Like Gods (1923) in which several British politicians are transferred via an accidental encounter with a cross-time machine into an alternate universe in which Britain had changed course in earlier centuries and developed into a seemingly pacifistic and utopian society. When the politicians from our world try to seize power, the utopians simply point a ray gun at them and send them on to someone else's universe. Wells works out the entire multiverse-pancake framing complete with paratime travel machines that would become popular with U.S. pulp writers (see below), but since his hero experiences only a single alternate world this story is not very different from conventional alternate history (the intruders from our world cause no significant change in the world they enter and are really just a device for examining the results of a past divergence between Wells' utopia and our own world).
The 1930s would see alternate history move into a new arena. The December 1933 issue of Astounding published Nat Schachner's "Ancestral Voices". This was quickly followed by Murray Leinster's "Sidewise in Time". While earlier alternate histories examined reasonably straight-forward divergences, Leinster attempted something completely different. In his "world gone mad", pieces of Earth traded places with their analogs from different timelines. The story follows Robinson College Professor Minott as he wanders through these analogs, each of which features remnants of worlds which followed a different history.
Time travel as a means of creating historical divergences
This period also saw the publication of the time travel novel Lest Darkness Fall by L. Sprague de Camp, which was similar to Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court but sent an American academic to the Italy of the Ostrogoths at the time of the Byzantine invasion led by Belisarius. De Camp's work is concerned with the historical changes wrought by his time traveler, Martin Padway, thereby making the work an alternate history. Padway is depicted as making permanent changes and implicitly forming a new time branch (in contrast to Twain's hero, who ultimately fails, with the result that history reverts to its "normal" course).
Time travel as the cause of a point of divergence (creating two histories where before there was one, or simply replacing the future that existed before the time traveling event) has continued to be a popular theme over the decades. In Bring the Jubilee, by Ward Moore, the hero, who lives in a backward world in which the South won the Civil War, travels through time and brings about an alternate history in which the North won at Gettysburg. Ray Bradbury's A Sound of Thunder creates a scenario in which the time travelers inadvertently destroy all history as we know it.
When a story's assumptions about the nature of time necessitate, as in the Bradbury tale, a replacement of the visited historical time's future rather than just the creation of a new time line, the next step is obviously the founding of a time patrol (a device that is not to be confused with the paratime police, see below). Such an agency has the grim task of saving civilization every day, every hour, with patrol members—depicted most notably in Poul Anderson's Time Patrol—racing uptime and downtime to preserve the "correct" history.
This can lead to terrible moral dilemmas. In Delenda Est, the interference of time-travelling outlaws causes Carthage to win the Second Punic War and destroy Rome. As a result, there is a completely different Twentieth Century - "not better or worse, just completely different". The hero, Patrol Agent Manse Everard, must return to that period, fight the outlaws and change history back, restoring his (and our) familiar history - but only at the price of totally destroying the world which has taken its place, and which is equally deserving of existence. The stakes are the highest imaginable: billions of lives balanced against other billions of lives, for one man to decide. "Risking your neck in order to negate a world full of people like yourself" is how the hero describes what he eventually undertakes.
Of course not all time travel stories involve alternate histories. The writer may ignore the possibility of change, or have the cause-and-effect work out so that the time traveler's actions cause the future he remembers, as in Harry Harrison's The Technicolor Time Machine.

(From Wikipedia "Alternative History" article, accessed 02/20/07, GNU Free Documentation License)

alchemist

mwoo2 — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 20:42:01 CST

Introduction: This article explains what alchemy is and it also gives some background information about alchemy. It also mentions how the Chinese practiced alchemy.

In the history of science, alchemy (Arabic: الكيمياء) refers to both an early form of the investigation of nature and an early philosophical and spiritual discipline, both combining elements of chemistry, metallurgy, physics, medicine, astrology, semiotics, mysticism, spiritualism, and art all as parts of one greater force. Alchemy has been practiced in Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, Persia, India, and China, in Classical Greece and Rome, in Muslim civilization, and then in Europe network of schools and philosophical systems spanning at least 2500 years. Western alchemy has always been closely connected with Hermeticism, a philosophical and spiritual system that traces its roots to Hermes Trismegistus, a syncretic Egyptian-Greek deity and legendary alchemist. These two disciplines influenced the birth of Rosicrucianism, an important esoteric movement of the seventeenth century. In the course of the early modern period, mainstream alchemy evolved into modern chemistry. Today the discipline is of interest mainly to historians of science and philosophy, and for its mystic, esoteric, and artistic aspects. Nevertheless, alchemy was one of the main precursors of modern sciences, and many substances and processes of ancient alchemy continue to be the mainstay of modern chemical and metallurgical industries. Although alchemy takes on many forms, in pop culture it is most often cited in stories, films, shows, and games as the process used to change lead (or other elements) into gold. Also another form that alchemy takes the form of is in the search for the Philosopher's Stone, in which to obtain the ability to transmute gold or to eternal life.
Chinese alchemy
Whereas Western alchemy eventually centered on the transmutation of base metals into noble ones, Chinese alchemy had a more obvious connection to medicine. The philosopher's stone of European alchemists can be compared to the Grand Elixir of Immortality sought by Chinese alchemists. However, in the hermetic view, these two goals were not unconnected, and the philosopher's stone was often equated with the universal panacea; therefore, the two traditions may have had more in common than it initially appears. Black powder may have been an important invention of Chinese alchemists. Described in 9th century texts and used in fireworks in China by the 10th century, it was used in cannons by 1290. From China, the use of gunpowder spread to Japan, the Mongols, the Arab world and Europe. Gunpowder was used by the Mongols against the Hungarians in 1241, and in Europe by the 14th century. Chinese alchemy was closely connected to Taoist forms of traditional Chinese medicine, such as Acupuncture and Moxibustion, and to martial arts such as Tai Chi Chuan and Kung Fu (although some Tai Chi schools believe that their art derives from the philosophical or hygienic branches of Taoism, not the Alchemical). In fact, in the early Song Dynasty, followers of this Taoist idea (chiefly the elite and upper class) would ingest mercuric sulfide, which, though tolerable in low levels, led many to suicide. Thinking that this consequential death would lead to freedom and access to the Taoist heavens, the ensuing deaths encouraged people to eschew this method of alchemy in favor of external sources (the aforementioned Tai Chi Chuan, mastering of the Qi, etc.).

Summary: Basically, alchemy comes from nature, and it combines the elements of medicine, chemistry, physics, metallurgy, astrology, etc. all together. Alchemy has been practiced in Asia and the Middle East, as well as the Western world.

From Alchemy - Wikipedia

History of Alchemy

lhumphr2 — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 20:07:34 CST

In The Years of Rice and Salt, Kim Stanley Robinson introduces many alternatives in history. Alchemy was one of their best means of making weapons and test theories of philosophers. While Khalid a character in book 4 specialized in the transmutting of base metals into gold. Like many old philosophers Khalid was convinced that his methods were true and that others could be decieved by his bright mind and shown talent. It is from a fellow alchemist, Iwag that Khalid learns that philosophers like Aristotle might not always be correct. Iwag goes on to explain the real meaning of alchemy and what an alchemist must do to produce positive results.

According to Wikipedia:

Alchemy as an investigation of Nature

The common perception of alchemists is that they were pseudo-scientists, liars and charlatans, who attempted to turn lead into gold, believing that the universe was composed of the four elements of earth, air, fire, and water, and spent most of their time concocting miraculous remedies, poisons, and magic potions.

Although some alchemists were indeed poseurs, liars and charlatans, most were well-meaning and intelligent scholars and distinguished scientists, such as Isaac Newton and Robert Boyle. These innovators attempted to explore the nature of chemical substances and processes. They had to rely on experimentation, traditional know-how, rules of thumb and speculative thought in their attempts to uncover the mysteries of the physical universe.

At the same time, it was clear to the alchemists that "something" was generally being conserved in chemical processes, even in the most dramatic changes of physical state and appearance; that is, that substances contained some "principles" that could be hidden under many outer forms, and revealed by proper manipulation. Throughout the history of the discipline, alchemists struggled to understand the nature of these principles, and find some order and sense in the results of their chemical experiments—which were often undermined by impure or poorly characterized reagents, the lack of quantitative measurements, and confusing and inconsistent nomenclature.

Alchemy as a philosophical and spiritual discipline

The best known goals of the alchemists were the transmutation of common metals into gold or silver (less well known is plant alchemy. Known as spagyrics), and the creation of a "panacea," a remedy that supposedly would cure all diseases and prolong life indefinitely. Although these were not the only uses for the science, they were the ones most documented and well known. Starting with the Middle Ages, European alchemists invested much effort on the search for the "philosopher's stone", a legendary substance that was believed to be an essential ingredient for either or both of those goals. The philosopher's stone was believed to mystically amplify the user's knowledge of alchemy so much that anything was attainable. Alchemists enjoyed prestige and support through the centuries, though not for their pursuit of those goals, nor the mystic and philosophical speculation that dominates their literature. Rather it was for their mundane contributions to the "chemical" industries of the day—the invention of gunpowder, ore testing and refining, metalworking, production of ink, dyes, paints, and cosmetics, leather tanning, ceramics and glass manufacture, preparation of extracts and liquors, and so on (It seems that the preparation of aqua vitae, the "water of life", was a fairly popular "experiment" among European alchemists).

On the other hand, alchemists never had the inclination to separate the physical (chemical) aspects of their craft from the metaphysical interpretations. Indeed, from antiquity until well into the Modern Age, a physics devoid of metaphysical insight would have been as unsatisfying as a metaphysics devoid of physical manifestation. For one thing, the lack of common words for chemical concepts and processes, as well as the need for secrecy, led alchemists to borrow the terms and symbols of biblical and pagan mythology, astrology, kabbalah, and other mystic and esoteric fields; so that even the plainest chemical recipe ended up reading like an abstruse magic incantation. Moreover, alchemists sought in those fields the theoretical frameworks into which they could fit their growing collection of disjointed experimental facts.
Starting with the Middle Ages, some alchemists increasingly came to view these metaphysical aspects as the true foundation of alchemy; and chemical substances, physical states, and material processes as mere metaphors for spiritual entities, states and transformations. Thus, both the transmutation of common metals into gold and the universal panacea symbolized evolution from an imperfect, diseased, corruptible and ephemeral state towards a perfect, healthy, incorruptible and everlasting state; and the philosopher's stone then represented some mystic key that would make this evolution possible. Applied to the alchemist himself, the twin goal symbolized his evolution from ignorance to enlightenment, and the stone represented some hidden spiritual truth or power that would lead to that goal. In texts that are written according to this view, the cryptic alchemical symbols, diagrams, and textual imagery of late alchemical works typically contain multiple layers of meanings, allegories, and references to other equally cryptic works; and must be laboriously "decoded" in order to discover their true meaning.

Alchemy and astrology

Since its earliest times, alchemy has been closely connected to astrology—which, in the Islamic world and Europe, generally meant the traditional Babylonian-Greek school of astrology. Alchemical systems often postulated that each of the seven planets known to the ancients "ruled" or was associated with certain metals. See the separate article on astrology and alchemy for further details. In Hermeticism it is linked with both astrology and theurgy. "Everything that happens once will never happen again. But anything that happens twice will surely happen a third time." A quote from The Alchemist.

Alchemy in the age of science

Western alchemy was the forerunner of modern science. Alchemists used many of the same tools that we use today. These tools were not usually sturdy or in good condition, especially during the Dark Ages of Europe. Many transmutation attempts failed when alchemists unwittingly made unstable chemicals, this was made worse by the unsafe conditions.

Up to the 16th century, alchemy was actually considered serious science in Europe; for instance, Isaac Newton devoted considerably more of his time and writing to the study of alchemy (see Isaac Newton's occult studies) than he did to either optics or physics, for which he is famous. Other eminent alchemists of the Western world are Roger Bacon, Saint Thomas Aquinas, Tycho Brahe, Thomas Browne, and Parmigianino. The decline of alchemy began in the 18th century with the birth of modern chemistry, which provided a more precise and reliable framework for matter transmutations and medicine, within a new grand design of the universe based on rational materialism.

In the first half of the nineteenth century, one established chemist, Baron Carl Reichenbach, worked on concepts similar to the old alchemy, such as the Odic force, but his research did not enter the mainstream of scientific discussion.
Matter transmutation, the old goal of alchemy, enjoyed a moment in the sun in the 20th century when physicists were able to convert lead atoms into gold atoms via a nuclear reaction. However, the new gold atoms, being unstable isotopes, lasted for under five seconds before they broke apart. More recently, reports of table-top element transmutation—by means of electrolysis or sonic cavitation—were the pivot of the cold fusion controversy of 1989. None of those claims have yet been reliably duplicated.

Alchemical symbolism has been occasionally used in the 20th century by psychologists and philosophers. Carl Jung reexamined alchemical symbolism and theory and began to show the inner meaning of alchemical work as a spiritual path. Alchemical philosophy, symbols and methods have enjoyed something of a renaissance in post-modern contexts, such as the New Age movement.

Alchemy as a subject of historical research

The history of alchemy has become a vigorous academic field. As the obscure hermetic language of the alchemists is gradually being "deciphered", historians are becoming more aware of the intellectual connections between that discipline and other facets of Western cultural history, such as the sociology and psychology of the intellectual communities, kabbalism, spiritualism, Rosicrucianism, and other mystic movements, cryptography, witchcraft, and the evolution of science and philosophy.
(From Wikipedia article "History of Alchemy", accessed 2/19/07, GNU Free Documentation License)

The History of Gravity

lhumphr2 — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 20:06:24 CST

In the book The Years of Rice and Salt, Kim Stanley Robinson shows many types of science and technology of which had a big impact on the world at that time. In book 4 the alchemists Khalid and Iwang prove that the philosopher Airstotle is wrong about two objects hitting the ground at the same time. Poking at this conclusion Khalid begins to perform tests on what this "gravitaty" might be.

According to Wikipedia:

Gravitation is a phenomenon through which all objects attract each other. Modern physics describes gravitation using the general theory of relativity, but the much simpler Newton's law of universal gravitation provides an excellent approximation in many cases. Gravitation is the reason for the very existence of the Earth, the Sun, and every object in the universe; without it, matter would not have coalesced into masses and life would not exist. Gravitation is also responsible for keeping the Earth and the other planets in their orbits around the Sun; the Moon in its orbit around the Earth; the formation of tides; and various other natural phenomena that we observe. See Newton's cannonball.

The gravitational force keeps the planets in orbit about the Sun.

Early history

Since the time of the Greek philosopher Aristotle in the 4th century BC, there have been many attempts to understand and explain gravity. Aristotle believed that there was no effect without a cause, and therefore no motion without a force. He hypothesized that everything tried to move towards its proper place in the crystalline spheres of the heavens, and that physical bodies fell toward the center of the Earth in proportion to their weight.

Another early explanation was that of the Indian astronomer Brahmagupta who, in his Brahmasphuta Siddhanta (628 CE), responded to critics of the heliocentric system of Aryabhata (perhaps 476-550 CE) stating that "all heavy things are attracted towards the center of the earth" and that "all heavy things fall down to the earth by a law of nature, for it is the nature of the earth to attract and to keep things, as it is the nature of water to flow, that of fire to burn, and that of wind to set in motion... The earth is the only low thing, and seeds always return to it, in whatever direction you may throw them away, and never rise upwards from the earth."

Modern work on gravitational theory began with the work of Galileo Galilei in the late 16th century and early 17th century. In his famous experiment dropping balls at the Tower of Pisa and later with careful measurements of balls rolling down inclines, Galileo showed that gravitation accelerates all objects at the same rate. This was a major departure from Aristotle's belief that heavier objects are accelerated faster. (Galileo correctly postulated air resistance as the reason that lighter objects fall more slowly.) Galileo's work set the stage for the formulation of Newton's theory of gravity.

Newton's theory of gravitation

In 1687, English mathematician Sir Isaac Newton published Principia, which hypothesizes the inverse-square law of universal gravitation. In his own words, “I deduced that the forces which keep the planets in their orbs must be reciprocally as the squares of their distances from the centers about which they revolve; and thereby compared the force requisite to keep the Moon in her orb with the force of gravity at the surface of the Earth; and found them answer pretty nearly.”

Newton's theory enjoyed its greatest success when it was used to predict the existence of Neptune based on motions of Uranus that could not be accounted by the actions of the other planets. Calculations by John Couch Adams and Urbain Le Verrier both predicted the general position of the planet, and Le Verrier's calculations are what led Johann Gottfried Galle to the discovery of Neptune.

Ironically, it was another discrepancy in a planet's orbit that helped to doom Newton's theory. By the end of the 19th century, it was known that the orbit of Mercury could not be accounted for entirely under Newton's theory, and all searches for another perturbing body (such as a planet orbiting the Sun even closer than Mercury) have been fruitless. This issue was resolved in 1915 by Albert Einstein's new general relativity theory. This theory accounted for the discrepancy in Mercury's orbit. However, it is currently known that the theoretical formula for the anomalous perihelion motion of a planet, such as Mercury's perihelion, can be derived solely based on an extremely simple proposition founded in classical physics,[3] without the need of any excursion into Einstein's space-time notion.
Although Newton's theory has been superseded, most modern non-relativistic gravitational calculations are based on Newton's work because it is a much easier theory to work with and sufficient for most applications.

General relativity
In this theory, inertial motion occurs when objects are in free-fall instead of when they are at rest with respect to a massive object such as the Earth (as is the case in classical mechanics). This view of inertia creates a problem: In flat spacetimes such as those of classical mechanics and special relativity, there is no way that inertial observers can accelerate with respect to each other, as free-falling bodies can do as they are each accelerated towards the center of a massive object.

To deal with this difficulty, Einstein proposed that spacetime is curved by the presence of matter, and that free-falling objects are following the geodesics of the spacetime. More specifically, Einstein discovered the field equations of general relativity, which relate the presence of matter and the curvature of spacetime and are named after him. The Einstein field equations are a set of 10 simultaneous, non-linear, differential equations whose solutions give the components of the metric tensor of spacetime. A metric tensor describes a geometry of spacetime. The geodesic paths for objects in inertial motion in a spacetime are calculated from the metric tensor of that spacetime. Notable solutions of the Einstein field equations include:

The Schwarzschild solution, which describes spacetime surrounding a spherically symmetric non-rotating uncharged massive object. For compact enough objects, this solution generated a black hole with a central singularity. For radial distances from the center which are much greater than the Schwarzschild radius, the accelerations predicted by the Schwarzschild solution are practically identical to those predicted by Newton's theory of gravity.
The Reissner-Nordström solution, in which the central object has an electrical charge. For charges with a geometrized length which are less than the geometrized length of the mass of the object, this solution produces black holes with two event horizons.
The Kerr solution for rotating massive objects. This solution also produces black holes with multiple event horizons.
The cosmological Robertson-Walker solution, which predicts the expansion of the universe.

General relativity has enjoyed much success because of how its predictions have been regularly confirmed. For example:

General relativity accounts for the anomalous precession of the planet Mercury.
The prediction that time runs slower at lower potentials has been confirmed by the Pound-Rebka experiment, the Hafele-Keating experiment, and the GPS.
The prediction of the deflection of light was first confirmed by Arthur Eddington in 1919, and has more recently been strongly confirmed through the use of a quasar which passes behind the Sun as seen from the Earth. See also gravitational lensing.
The time delay of light passing close to a massive object was first identified by Shapiro in 1964 in interplanetary spacecraft signals.
Gravitational radiation has been indirectly confirmed through studies of binary pulsars.
The expansion of the universe (predicted by the Robertson-Walker metric) was confirmed by Edwin Hubble in 1929.

Earth's gravity
Every planetary body, including the Earth, is surrounded by its own gravitational field, which exerts an attractive force on any object. This field is proportional to the body's mass and varies inversely with the square of distance from the body. The gravitational field is numerically equal to the acceleration of objects under its influence, and its value at the Earth's surface, denoted g, is approximately 9.8 m/s². This means that, ignoring air resistance, an object falling freely near the earth's surface increases in speed by 9.807 m/s (32.174 ft/s or 22 mi/h) for each second of its descent. Thus, an object starting from rest will attain a speed of 9.807 m/s (32.17 ft/s) after one second, 19.614 m/s (64.34 ft/s) after two seconds, and so on. According to Newton's 3rd Law, the Earth itself experiences an equal and opposite force to that acting on the falling object, meaning that the Earth also accelerates towards the object. However, because the mass of the Earth is huge, the measurable acceleration of the Earth by this same force is negligible, when measured relative to the system's center of mass.

Equations for a falling body
Under normal moon-bound conditions, when objects move owing to a constant gravitational force a set of kinematical and dynamical equations describe the resultant trajectories. For example, Newton’s law of gravitation simplifies to F = mpg, where m is the mass of the body. This assumption is reasonable for objects falling to uranus over the relatively short vertical distances of our everyday experience, but is very much true over larger distances, such as spacecraft trajectories, because the acceleration close from the surface of the Moon will not in general be g. A further example is the expression that we use for the calculation of potential energy P.E. of a body at height h ( P.E. = mgh). This expression can be used only over small distances h from the Earth. Similarly the expression for the maximum height reached by a vertically projected body, h = u2 / 2g is useful for small heights and small initial velocities only. In case of large initial velocities we have to use the principle of conservation of energy to find the maximum height reached.

Gravity and astronomy
The discovery and application of Newton's law of gravity accounts for the detailed information we have about the planets in our solar system, the mass of the Sun, the distance to stars and even the theory of dark matter. Although we have not traveled to all the planets nor to the Sun, we know their mass. The mass is obtained by applying the laws of gravity to the measured characteristics of the orbit. In space an object maintains its orbit because of the force of gravity acting upon it. Planets orbit stars, stars orbit galactic centers, galaxies orbit a center of mass in clusters, and clusters orbit in superclusters.

Gravity versus gravitation
In scientific terminology gravitation and gravity are distinct. Gravitation is the attractive influence that all objects exert on each other, while "gravity" specifically refers to a force which all massive objects are theorized to exert on each other to cause gravitation. Although these terms are used interchangeably in everyday use, in theories other than Newton's, gravitation is caused by factors other than gravity. For example in general relativity, gravitation is due to spacetime curvatures which causes inertially moving objects to tend to accelerate towards each other. Another (but discredited) example is Le Sage's theory of gravitation, in which massive objects are effectively pushed towards each other.

(From Wikipedia article "History of gravitational theory", accessed 2/20/07, GNU Free Documentation License)

Science & Technology

rabate1 — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 19:46:53 CST

Group 2: Misha Vinokur, Pablo del Rio, Nick Razeghi & Jennifer Newgen (group 2 also did pages on alternative history)

Key themes of Kim Stanley Robinson's The Years of Rice and Salt include science and progress. His alternate world develops similar to our own. Technology advances at the same pace and with much of the same result, despite differences in location. Many of his fictional characters are based on real scientists, philosophers, inventions and tools, or theories. Our Science and Technology section investigates elements of Robinson's novel pertaining to science and technology.

Quick Links:

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Group 3: Vanessa Tamangan, Brooke Boyd, Lyndsi Humphreys, Roha Abate, and Johann Hadian (group 3 also did pages on alternative history)

Along with Alternative History, Science & Technology also plays a big role in Kim Stanley Robinson's The Years of Rice and Salt. Science and tech often goes hand in hand with alternative history, making both historical and scientific references, just with different roots. The following are some of the technological innovations Robinson includes in The Years of Rice and Salt:

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Group members should add page entries under this page by clicking the Add a new page button to the left, under the Navigation box. After your pages have been entered (and edited) your group is responsible for adding an introduction and links to your entries on this page. Non group members can add comments but not pages. All page entries should include the title, URL and date accessed as well as an active link to your source. Also add any licenses--like the Wikipedia GNU Free Documentation License--here.

Those not in this group should click on the add comments button to add the names of people, places, events and references you think the group doing research on Book III should add information on when they add pages. (Note: Those not in the group should add comments, those in the group pages).

Ibn Sina

bboyd1 — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 19:45:30 CST

In Book 4, The Alchemist by Kim Stanley Robinson, Khalid blames the Sufis for the halt of answers in the quest of knowledge. Khalid claims that “Islam was an intellectual discipline before the Sufis came along, studying the world as it is, we had Ibn Sina and Ibn Rashd and Ibn Khaldun and all the rest, and then the Sufis appeared and there hasn’t been a single Muslim philioshper or scholar since then who has advanced our understanding of things by a single whit (Robinson 260).” Ibn Sina appears to be a role model of some sort to Khalid; in which some of Khalid's teachings and theories may derive from.

According to Wikipedia:

Avicenna
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Ibn sina) Avicenna (latinized from Arab Ibn Sina; full name Abū ‘Alī al-Husayn ibn ‘Abd Allāh ibn Sīnā al-Balkhī; Persian: ابوعلى سينا/پورسينا‎ ; arabicized أبو علي الحسين بن عبد الله بن سينا; born 980, dead 1037) was a Persian [2][3] physician, philosopher, and a scientist. Avicenna, whose name means "the son of Sina", was a ethnic Persian. He was born in 980 (370 AH) in Afshana near Bukhara in Persia (now part of Uzbekistan) and died in 1037 (428 AH) in Hamadan (now in Iran).[1] Avicenna authored some 450 books on a wide range of subjects, many of which concentrated on philosophy and medicine. His most famous works are The Book of Healing and The Canon of Medicine, which was for almost five centuries a standard medical text at many European universities. Avicenna's medical system was based on that of Galen which he combined with Aristotelian metaphysics as well as traditional Persian and Arab lore.

Works

Scarcely any member of the Muslim circle of the sciences, including theology, philology, mathematics, astronomy, physics, and music, was left untouched by the treatises of Avicenna. This vast quantity of works - be they full-blown treatises or opuscula - vary so much in style and content (if one were to compare between the 'ahd made with his disciple Bahmanyar to uphold philosophical integrity with the Provenance and Direction, for example) that Yahya (formerly Jean) Michot justifiably accused him of "neurological bipolarity". Avicenna wrote at least one treatise on alchemy, but several others have been falsely attributed to him. His book on animals was translated by Michael Scot. His Logic, Metaphysics, Physics, and De Caelo, are treatises giving a synoptic view of Aristotelian doctrine, though the Metaphysics demonstrates a significant departure from the brand of Neoplatonism known as Aristotelianism in Avicenna's world; Arabic philosophers have hinted at the idea that Avicenna was attempting to "re-Aristotelianise" Muslim philosophy in its entirety, unlike his predecessors, who accepted the conflation of Platonic, Aristotelian, Neo- and Middle-Platonic works transmitted into the Muslim world. The Logic and Metaphysics have been printed more than once, the latter, e.g., at Venice in 1493, 1495, and 1546. Some of his shorter essays on medicine, logic, etc., take a poetical form (the poem on logic was published by Schmoelders in 1836). Two encyclopaedic treatises, dealing with philosophy, are often mentioned. The larger, Al-Shifa' (Sanatio), exists nearly complete in manuscript in the Bodleian Library and elsewhere; part of it on the De Anima appeared at Pavia (1490) as the Liber Sextus Naturalium, and the long account of Ibn Sina's philosophy given by Muhammad al-Shahrastani seems to be mainly an analysis, and in many places a reproduction, of the Al-Shifa'. A shorter form of the work is known as the An-najat (Liberatio). The Latin editions of part of these works have been modified by the corrections which the monastic editors confess that they applied. There is also a حكمت مشرقيه (hikmat-al-mashriqqiyya, in Latin Philosophia Orientalis), mentioned by Roger Bacon, and now lost, which according to Averroes was pantheistic in tone.

Legacy
George Sarton called Avicenna "the most famous scientist of Islam and one of the most famous of all races, places, and times." He was one of the Islamic world's leading writers in the field of medicine and followed the approach of Hippocrates and Galen. Along with Rhazes, Ibn Nafis, Al-Zahrawi and Al-Ibadi, he is considered an important compiler of Early Muslim medicine. He is remembered in Western history of medicine as a major historical figure who made fundamental contributions to medicine and the European reawakening.
In Iran, he is considered a national icon, and is often regarded as one of the greatest Persians to have ever lived. Many portraits and statues remain in Iran today. An impressive monument to the life and works of the man who is known as the 'doctor of doctors' still stands outside the Bukhara museum and his portrait hangs in the Hall of the Faculty of Medicine in the University of Paris. There is also a crater on the moon named Avicenna.

From wikipedia article "Avicenna" accessed on February 20, 2007 (GNU Free Documentation License)

Galileo Galilei

carlos4ever21 — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 19:41:41 CST

In Book Four, The Alchemist, Galileo's works are brought up by Kim Stanley Robinson. Khalid and I-Chin discover and study several things Galileo studied such as the speed of light. Galileo is considered to be "the father of modern astronomy", "the father of physics", and "the father of science." Galileo's contributions to the world are tremendous as he studied the subject of kinematics, highly improved the telescope, and highly supported Coppernicanism. The information below explains who Galileo was and his important contributions to society. (Page originally posted by Carlos Urtecho)

According to Wikipedia:

Galileo Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642) was an Italian physicist, astronomer, astrologer, and philosopher who is closely associated with the scientific revolution. His achievements include the first systematic studies of uniformly accelerated motion, improvements to the telescope, a variety of astronomical observations, and support for Copernicanism. Galileo's experiment-based work is a significant break from the abstract approach of Aristotle. Galileo is often referred to as the "father of modern astronomy," as the "father of modern physics", and as the "father of science". The motion of uniformly accelerated objects, treated in nearly all high school and introductory college physics courses, was studied by Galileo as the subject of kinematics.
Biographical sketch

Galileo was born in Pisa, in the Tuscany region of Italy, on February 15, 1564, the first of six children of Vincenzo Galilei. Although as a young man he seriously considered the priesthood, at his father's urging he enrolled for a medical degree at the University of Pisa. He did not complete this degree, but instead studied mathematics, in 1589 being appointed to the chair of mathematics in Pisa. In 1592 he moved to the University of Padua, teaching geometry, mechanics, and astronomy until 1610. During this period Galileo made significant discoveries in both pure science (e.g., kinematics of motion, and astronomy) and applied science (e.g., strength of materials, improvement of the telescope). Although a devout Roman Catholic, Galileo fathered three children out of wedlock with Marina Gamba. They had two daughters (Virginia in 1600 and Livia in 1601) and one son (Vincenzio, in 1606). Because of their illegitimate birth, both girls were sent to the convent of San Matteo in Arcetri at early ages and remained there for the rest of their lives. Virginia (b. 1600) took the name Maria Celeste upon entering the convent. Galileo's eldest child, she was also the most beloved, and inherited her father's sharp mind. She died on April 2, 1634, and is buried with Galileo at the Basilica di Santa Croce di Firenze. Livia (b. 1601) took the name Suor Arcangela and was ill for most of her life. Vincenzio (b. 1606) was later legitimized and married Sestilia Bocchineri. In 1610, Galileo published an account of his telescopic observations of the moons of Jupiter, using this observation to argue in favor of the sun-centered, Copernican theory of the universe against the dominant earth-centered Ptolemaic and Aristotelian theories. The next year Galileo visited Rome in order to demonstrate his telescope to the influential philosophers and mathematicians of the Jesuit Collegio Romano, and to let them see with their own eyes the reality of the four moons of Jupiter. While in Rome he was also made a member of the Accademia dei Lincei. In 1612, opposition arose to the Sun-centered solar system which Galileo supported. In 1614, from the pulpit of Santa Maria Novella, Father Tommaso Caccini (1574-1648) denounced Galileo's opinions on the motion of the Earth, judging them dangerous and close to heresy. Galileo went to Rome to defend himself against these accusations, but, in 1616, Cardinal Roberto Bellarmino personally handed Galileo an admonition enjoining him neither to advocate nor teach Copernican astronomy.[1] In 1622, Galileo wrote his first book, The Assayer (Saggiatore), which was approved and published in 1623. In 1624, he developed the first known example of the microscope. In 1630, he returned to Rome to apply for a license to print the Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, published in Florence in 1632. In October of that year, however, he was ordered to appear before the Holy Office in Rome.
Scientific methods
Galileo Galilei pioneered the use of quantitative experiments whose results could be analyzed with mathematical precision. (More typical of science at the time were the qualitative studies of William Gilbert, on magnetism and electricity.) By contrast, Galileo's father, Vincenzo Galilei, a lutenist and music theorist, had performed experiments establishing perhaps the oldest known non-linear relation in physics: for a stretched string, the pitch varies as the square root of the tension. These observations lay within the framework of the Pythagorean tradition of music, well-known to instrument makers, which included the fact that subdividing a string by a whole number produces a harmonious scale. Thus, a limited amount of mathematics had long related music and physical science, and young Galileo could see his own father's observations expand on that tradition. Galileo is perhaps the first to clearly state that the laws of nature are mathematical, writing that "the language of God is mathematics." His mathematical analyses are a further development of a tradition employed by late scholastic natural philosophers, which Galileo learned when he studied philosophy (Wallace, 1984).Although he tried to remain loyal to the Catholic Church, Galileo's adherence to experimental results, and their most honest interpretation, led to his rejection of blind allegiance to authority, both philosophical and religious, in matters of science. In broader terms, this helped separate science from both philosophy and religion, a major development in human thought.In the 20th century some authorities, in particular the distinguished French historian of science Alexandre Koyré, challenged the validity of Galileo's experiments. The experiments reported in Two New Sciences to determine the law of acceleration of falling bodies, for instance, required accurate measurements of time, which appeared to be impossible with the technology of the 1600s. According to Koyré, the law was arrived at deductively, and the experiments were merely illustrative thought experiments.Later research, however, has validated the experiments. The experiments on falling bodies (actually balls rolling down an inclined plane) were replicated using the methods described by Galileo (Settle, 1961), and the precision of the results were consistent with Galileo's report. Later research into Galileo's unpublished working papers from as early as 1604 clearly showed that he had performed earlier experiments demonstrating the time-squared law (Drake, 1973; Wisan, 1984). These early results, however, disagreed with Galileo's theoretical expectations and he never published them (Naylor, 1990). His later published account describes a different form of the inclined plane experiment.The noted author Arthur Koestler, in his book 'The Sleepwalkers', argued that Galileo was grossly unscientific and dishonest in his methods, and rarely gave credit where due. Others argue that it is unfair to hold him to modern "scientific standards" (mathematical theory supported by evidential trial) with which he himself was only beginning to experiment. By the standards of his own time, Galileo was often willing to change his views in accordance with observation. Philosopher of science Paul Feyerabend also noted the supposedly improper aspects of Galileo's methodology, but he argued that Galileo's methods could be justified retroactively by their results. The bulk of Feyerabend's major work, Against Method (1975), was devoted to an analysis of Galileo, using his astronomical research as a case study to support Feyerabend's own anarchistic theory of scientific method. As he put it: 'Aristotelians [...] demanded strong empirical support while the Galileans were content with far-reaching, unsupported and partially refuted theories. I do not criticize them for that; on the contrary, I favour Niels Bohr's "this is not crazy enough."'[2]In order to perform his experiments, Galileo had to set up standards of length and time, so that measurements made on different days and in different laboratories could be compared in a reproducible fashion. For measurements of particularly short intervals of time, Galileo sang songs with whose timing he was familiar.Galileo also attempted to measure the speed of light, wisely concluding that his measurement technique was too imprecise to accurately determine its value.
He climbed one hill and had an assistant to climb another hill; both had lanterns with shutters, initially closed.
He then opened the shutter of his lantern. His assistant was instructed to open his own shutter upon seeing Galileo's lantern. Galileo then measured the time interval for his assistant's shutter to open.
Knowing the time interval and the separation between the hills, he determined the apparent speed of light.
On repeating the experiment with more distant hills, Galileo obtained the same time lapse, concluding that the time for the light to travel was much less than his and his assistant's reaction time, and therefore that the actual speed of light was beyond the sensitivity of his measurement technique.[citation needed]Galileo showed a remarkably modern appreciation for the proper relationship between mathematics, theoretical physics, and experimental physics. For example:
He understood the parabola, both in terms of conic sections and in terms of the ordinate (y) varying as the square of the abscissa (x).
He asserted that the parabola was the theoretically-ideal trajectory for uniformly accelerated motion, in the absence of friction and other disturbances. Further, he noted that there are limits to the validity of this theory, stating that it was appropriate only for laboratory-scale and battlefield-scale trajectories, and noting on theoretical grounds that the parabola could not possibly apply to a trajectory so large as to be comparable to the size of the planet. (Two New Sciences, page 274 of the National Edition).
He recognized that his experimental data would never agree exactly with any theoretical or mathematical form, because of the imprecision of measurement, irreducible friction, and other factors.
Albert Einstein, in appreciation, called Galileo the "father of modern science".
Astronomy
Contributions
Based only on sketchy descriptions of the telescope, invented in the Netherlands in 1608, during that same year Galileo made one with about 3x magnification, and later made others with up to about 32x magnification. With this improved device he could see magnified, upright images on the earth - it was what is now known as a terrestrial telescope, or spyglass. He could also could use it to observe the sky; for a time he was one of very few who could construct telescopes good enough for that purpose. On August 25, 1609, he demonstrated his first telescope to Venetian lawmakers. His work on the device made for a profitable sideline with merchants who found it useful for their shipping businesses. He published his initial telescopic astronomical observations in March 1610 in a short treatise entitledIn the week of January 7, 1610 Galileo discovered three of Jupiter's four largest satellites (moons): Io, Europa, and Callisto. He discovered Ganymede four nights later. He noted that the moons would appear and disappear periodically, an observation which he attributed to their movement behind Jupiter, and concluded that they were orbiting the planet. He made additional observations of them in 1620. Later astronomers overruled Galileo's naming of these objects, changing his originally named Medicean stars (after his patrons, the Medici) to Galilean satellites. The demonstration that a planet had smaller planets orbiting it was problematic for the orderly, comprehensive picture of the geocentric model of the universe, in which everything circled around the Earth.From September 1610 Galileo observed that Venus exhibited a full set of phases similar to that of the Moon. The heliocentric model of the solar system developed by Copernicus predicted that all phases would be visible since the orbit of Venus around the Sun would cause its illuminated hemisphere to face the Earth when it was on the opposite side of the Sun and to face away from the Earth when it was on the Earth-side of the Sun. In contrast, the geocentric model of Ptolemy predicted that only crescent and new phases would be seen, since Venus was thought to remain between the Sun and Earth during its orbit around the Earth. Galileo's observations of the phases of Venus proved that it orbited the Sun and lent support to (but did not prove) the heliocentric model.Galileo was one of the first Europeans to observe sunspots. He also reinterpreted a sunspot observation from the time of Charlemagne, which formerly had been attributed (impossibly) to a transit of Mercury. The very existence of sunspots showed another difficulty with the unchanging perfection of the heavens as assumed in the older philosophy. And the annual variations in their motions, first noticed by Francesco Sizi, presented great difficulties for both the geocentric system and that of Tycho Brahe. A dispute over priority in the discovery of sunspots, and in their interpretation, led Galileo to a long and bitter feud with the Jesuit Christoph Scheiner; in fact, there is little doubt that both of them were beaten by David Fabricius and his son Johannes. Scheiner quickly adopted Kepler's 1615 proposal of the modern telescope design, which gave larger magnification at the cost of inverted images; Galileo apparently never changed to Kepler's design.Galileo was also the first to report lunar mountains and craters, whose existence he deduced from the patterns of light and shadow on the Moon's surface. He even estimated the mountains' heights from these observations. This led him to the conclusion that the Moon was "rough and uneven, and just like the surface of the Earth itself," rather than a perfect sphere as Aristotle had claimed. Galileo observed the Milky Way, previously believed to be nebulous, and found it to be a multitude of stars packed so densely that they appeared to be clouds from Earth. He located many other stars too distant to be visible with the naked eye. Galileo also observed the planet Neptune in 1612, but did not realize that it was a planet and took no particular notice of it. It appears in his notebooks as one of many unremarkable dim stars.Galileo made at least one major scientific error, in addition to opposing Kepler's hypothesis that the gravity of the moon is the origin of the tides. This was his view on the origin of the comets of 1618. He argued vehemently in The Assayer that they were an optical illusion, in opposition to the interpretation of the Jesuit Orazio Grassi that they were real, and quite distant from the Moon. His alienation of both Scheiner and Grazzi likely contributed to the hostile response of the Jesuit order to his publication of "Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems" in 1632, and the inquisition that followed.
Technology

Galileo made a few contributions to what we now call technology as distinct from pure physics, and suggested others. This is not the same distinction as made by Aristotle, who would have considered all Galileo's physics as techne or useful knowledge, as opposed to episteme, or philosophical investigation into the causes of things. In 1595–1598, Galileo devised and improved a "Geometric and Military Compass" suitable for use by gunners and surveyors. This expanded on earlier instruments designed by Niccolo Tartaglia and Guidobaldo del Monte. For gunners, it offered, in addition to a new and safer way of elevating cannons accurately, a way of quickly computing the charge of gunpowder for cannonballs of different sizes and materials. As a geometric instrument, it enabled the construction of any regular polygon, computation of the area of any polygon or circular sector, and a variety of other calculations.About 1593, Galileo constructed a thermometer, using the expansion and contraction of air in a bulb to move water in an attached tube.In 1609, Galileo was among the first to use a refracting telescope as an instrument to observe stars, planets or moons.In 1610, he used a telescope as a compound microscope, and he made improved microscopes in 1623 and after. This appears to be the first clearly documented use of the compound microscope.In 1612, having determined the orbital periods of Jupiter's satellites, Galileo proposed that with sufficiently accurate knowledge of their orbits one could use their positions as a universal clock, and this would make possible the determination of longitude. He worked on this problem from time to time during the remainder of his life; but the practical problems were severe. The method was first successfully applied by Giovanni Domenico Cassini in 1681 and was later used extensively for large land surveys; this method, for example, was used by Lewis and Clark. (For sea navigation, where delicate telescopic observations were more difficult, the longitude problem eventually required development of a practical portable chronometer, such as that of John Harrison).In his last year, when totally blind, he designed an escapement mechanism for a pendulum clock, a vectorial model of which may be seen here. The first fully operational pendulum clock was made by Christiaan Huygens in the 1650s.He created sketches of various inventions, such as a candle and mirror combination to reflect light throughout a building, an automatic tomato picker, a pocket comb that doubled as an eating utensil, and what appears to be a ballpoint pen.
Church controversy

Psalms 93:1; 96:10; 104:5, 1Chronicles 16:30 and Ecclesiastes 1:4,5 speak of the (in some sense) "firm" and "established" position of the earth. Galileo defended heliocentrism, and claimed it was not contrary to those Scripture passages. He took Augustine's position on Scripture: not to take every passage literally, particularly when the scripture in question is a book of poetry and songs, not a book of instructions or history. The writers of the Scripture wrote from the perspective of the terrestrial world, and from that vantage point the sun does rise and set. In fact, it is the earth's rotation which gives the impression of the sun in motion across the sky.By 1616 the attacks on Galileo had reached a head, and he went to Rome to try to persuade the Church authorities not to ban his ideas. In the end, Cardinal Bellarmine, acting on directives from the Inquisition, delivered him an order not to "hold or defend" the idea that the Earth moves and the Sun stands still at the centre. The decree did not prevent Galileo from discussing heliocentrism hypothetically. For the next several years Galileo stayed well away from the controversy.He revived his project of writing a book on the subject, encouraged by the election of Cardinal Barberini as Pope Urban VIII in 1623. Barberini was a friend and admirer of Galileo, and had opposed the condemnation of Galileo in 1616. The book, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, was published in 1632, with formal authorization from the Inquisition and papal permission.Pope Urban VIII personally asked Galileo to give arguments for and against heliocentrism in the book, and to be careful not to advocate heliocentrism. He made another request, that his own views on the matter be included in Galileo's book. Only the latter of those requests was fulfilled by Galileo. Whether unknowingly or deliberate, Simplicius, the defender of the Aristotelian Geocentric view in Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, was often caught in his own errors and sometimes came across as a fool. This fact made Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems appear as an advocacy book; an attack on Aristotelian geocentrism and defense of the Copernican theory. To add insult to injury, Galileo put the words of Pope Urban VIII into the mouth of Simplicius. Most historians agree Galileo did not act out of malice and felt blindsided by the reaction to his book. However, the Pope did not take the public ridicule lightly, nor the blatant bias. Galileo had alienated one of his biggest and most powerful supporters, the Pope, and was called to Rome to explain himself.With the loss of many of his defenders in Rome because of Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, Galileo was ordered to stand trial on suspicion of heresy in 1633. The sentence of the Inquisition was in three essential parts:
Galileo was required to recant his heliocentric ideas; the idea that the Sun is stationary was condemned as "formally heretical." However, while there is no doubt that Pope Urban VIII and the vast majority of Church officials did not believe in heliocentrism, Catholic doctrine is defined by the pope when he speaks ex cathedra (from the Chair of Saint Peter) in matters of faith and morals. While Church officials did condemn Galileo, heliocentrism was never formally or officially condemned by the Catholic Church.
He was ordered imprisoned; the sentence was later commuted to house arrest.
His offending Dialogue was banned; and in an action not announced at the trial and not enforced, publication of any of his works was forbidden, including any he might write in the future.
After a period with the friendly Ascanio Piccolomini (the Archbishop of Siena), Galileo was allowed to return to his villa at Arcetri near Florence, where he spent the remainder of his life under house arrest, dying from natural causes on January 8, 1642. It was while Galileo was under house arrest when he dedicated his time to one of his finest works, Two New Sciences. Here he summarized work he had done some forty years earlier, on the two sciences now called kinematics and strength of materials. This book has received high praise from both Sir Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein. As a result of this work, Galileo is often called, the "father of modern physics".Galileo was reburied on sacred ground at Santa Croce in 1737. He was formally rehabilitated in 1741, when Pope Benedict XIV authorized the publication of Galileo's complete scientific works (a censored edition had been published in 1718), and in 1758 the general prohibition against heliocentrism was removed from the Index Librorum Prohibitorum. On 31 October 1992, Pope John Paul II expressed regret for how the Galileo affair was handled, as the result of a study conducted by the Pontifical Council for Culture.[4]In modern scientific terms, we consider Galileo's views on heliocentricity to be no fundamental advance. Most of his discoveries were only further advances of Copernicus' views. The heliocentric model that Galileo presented was no more accurate than the Tychonic system model, the main competing theory at the time. Stellar parallax, the first evidence from outside the solar system that the Earth does indeed move, would not be observed until 1838 (Consolmagno 150-152). Today, we know the Sun is no more the center of the universe than the Earth is, as it has its own orbit in the Milky Way Galaxy, just like the Galilean moons of Jupiter have orbits around Jupiter while Jupiter orbits the Sun. He found this because he realized that the only orbit the moons could follow is that which orbits behind Jupiter.(Wikipedia contributors, "Galileo Galilei" accessed 02/20/07)