(no subject)
I finished reading Charles Darwin's Origin of Species today (I've been reading it on the bus for the last couple of months whenever I don't have a New Scientist available). It's a book that I've wanted to read for a while, and I'm really glad that I finally got around to it.
I think the thing that got me most about the book was understanding exactly where biology (or naturalism) was as a science 150 years ago. An exceedingly large portion of even high school biology was either not known or highly controversial that recently. To be fair chemistry 150 years ago was a shadow of what it is now, in terms of atomic models and the periodic table (first developed in the 1860s), and physics of the time had no comprehension of quantum effects (or general relativity). Maths in comparison is extremely old, the most advanced high school topic (calculus) was developed in the 1600s, while a lot of the geometry comes from the ancient Greeks.
Anyway, it was well worth reading. I'm happy to lend it to people if they are interested.
In other news, I'm off to Canberra in 8 days to play bridge. I'll be away for just over a week.
I think the thing that got me most about the book was understanding exactly where biology (or naturalism) was as a science 150 years ago. An exceedingly large portion of even high school biology was either not known or highly controversial that recently. To be fair chemistry 150 years ago was a shadow of what it is now, in terms of atomic models and the periodic table (first developed in the 1860s), and physics of the time had no comprehension of quantum effects (or general relativity). Maths in comparison is extremely old, the most advanced high school topic (calculus) was developed in the 1600s, while a lot of the geometry comes from the ancient Greeks.
Anyway, it was well worth reading. I'm happy to lend it to people if they are interested.
In other news, I'm off to Canberra in 8 days to play bridge. I'll be away for just over a week.