Posted on 01/07/2011 5:39:21 PM PST by SunkenCiv
January's Physics World features a fanciful re-imagining of the 10-year period in the life of the medieval Muslim polymath, written by Los Angeles-based science writer Jennifer Ouellette...
In 11th-century Egypt, Aristotle's ancient thought that visible objects and our own eyes emit rays of light to enable our vision still held...
As Ouellette writes, "This is a work of fiction -- a fanciful re-imagining of a 10-year period in the life of Ibn al-Haytham, considered by many historians to be the father of modern optics. Living at the height of the golden age of Arabic science, al-Haytham developed an early version of the scientific method 200 years before scholars in Western Europe."
Released from prison after the Caliph's death, Al-Haytham (AD 965-1040) went on to make contributions to astronomy, mathematics, engineering and medicine, as well as physics. But it his seven-volume Book of Optics, which he wrote while imprisoned, that remain his most famous contributions to science, covering visual perception, psychology and physical optics...
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencedaily.com ...
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Pleazzz, one lone example of Mohammadian exceptionalism does nothing to assuage a sea of blood unleased by the Caliphate.
And yes, their translations of the great works helped western Scholars immensely. However, their greatest contribution was to frighten Greek scholars west into Italy.
While it would be churlish to deny their influence on Western Civilization or even their negative role in "jump starting" the Renaissance, it is also fair to recognize that the intellectual contributions of Islam to the world have gone precipitately downhill ever since then.
Their share of the fallen Byzantine Empire, that is the Eastern Empire, became a filthy dysfunctional backwater with 200 years of their ascendancy and has remained a foul stain on the planet since. It was true when the Muslims were in abject poverty, and true when they achieved great wealth.
Jihad, they hope, will get them back the Fountains of Córdoba, and allow them to conquer Europe. But the record is clear. They ruin wherever they stay for long.
Well said. Very.
I think light bulbs are actually “dark suckers”. They suck the dark out of a room.
Same for the Sun, it sucks cold dark matter which allows warm light ether to replace it.
The speed of dark must exceed the speed of light, because when the light goes on, one never sees dark leaving the room.
No they have the same speed.
No they have the same speed.
... as it does to this day, insofar as we accept uncritically the plausibility of Superman's X-ray vision, which works on the same principle.
I hope your interest in X-Ray Vision, Superman, and Aristotle has no prurient aspects. May I recommend St. Thomas Aquinas as an "antidote?"
Yours truly,
Sr. Mary Josephine, OEM, SAE
Principal
It’s always possible for a civilization to regress. Look at what happened to Europe during the so-called Dark Ages.
I mean, how could you lose the formula for the Roman invention of concrete?
Isn’t that the problem with human history? We never know the great ideas that were once common knowledge, but were lost as tribes, nations, and people were decimated and extinguished. The cause might have been disease, famine, war, natural calamities, or sheer vitiation of the genetic line.
But once the wise ones are gone, their knowledge is gone with them.
“How the Irish Saved Civilization” is a great book on this very point. But for the geographical isolation and absolute determination of a small, consecrated band of brothers, most of the knowledge and philosophy of antiquity would have been lost forever.
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