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Classic Books of Science?
half_cocked_jack writes "What are the classic books of science from throughout history? I'm currently reading On the Origin of Species on my Kindle 2, and it's sparked an interest in digging up some of the classic books of science. I'm looking for books from the ancient and medieval worlds and books from the golden ages of scientific discovery. Books like: Galileo's The Starry Messenger; Newton's Principia; Copernicus's On The Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres; and Faraday's The Chemical History of a Candle. I know that I can likely find these books in a format I can use on my Kindle (found a few on Gutenberg already), but what I need is a checklist of these books to guide my reading. Suggestions?"
the Bible. The Whole Truth is there. Right Ms. Palin?
Going on means going far
Going far means returning
Great ideas like these great discoveries are only notable if someone does something with it. The Middle East did very little, if anything, with these discoveries, hence... Sorry about bursting the bubble.
Bull crap. It's because an idea is ahead of its' time that it's non-obvious, not easy to implement immediately, and takes a combination of insight, genius, and sometimes serendipity.
Not like todays "take an idea, add the words 'on the internet', and file for a patent" crap.
It's like the first person to eat lobster - they were either drunk, lost a bet, or really, really hungry. Non-obvious when looking at one - "Why would anyone even THINK of eating THAT? Yuck!" Or marketing snails as delicacies. Or using botox for removing frown lines.