13 OCT 2013 by ideonexus
The Glory of the Library of Alexandria
Alexander had already devoted considerable sums to finance the enquiries of Aristotle, but Ptolemy I was the first person to make a permanent endowment of science. He set up a foundation in Alexandria which was formerly dedicated to the Muses, the Museum {151}of Alexandria. For two or three generations the scientific work done at Alexandria was extraordinarily good. Euclid, Eratosthenes who measured the size of the earth and came within fifty miles of its true diameter, Apollonius who wrote o...The star scientists and inventions that came out of it's first century.
31 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
We Know Too Much About the Wrong Things
In science, attempts at formulating hierarchies are always doomed to eventual failure. A Newton will always be followed by an Einstein, a Stahl by a Lavoisier; and who can say who will come after us? What the human mind has fabricated must be subject to all the changes—which are not progress—that the human mind must undergo. The 'last words' of the sciences are often replaced, more often forgotten. Science is a relentlessly dialectical process, though it suffers continuously under the nec...Folksonomies: information overload analysis paralysis
Folksonomies: information overload analysis paralysis
The Library of Alexandria was "both symptom and cause of the ossification of the Greek intellect."