How often do you think about nature? Can you think deep enough to initiate a new branch of science? Well, in ancient Greece, Egypt, India and China there were significant deep thinkers who observed nature and pondered "Hmm wait a minute..."
The field of physics started with employing critical thinking about the natural phenomena. Thinking about what basic elements make up the universe, why water flows the way it flows, what would be the role of time in all there is, and how planets and stars move. So many seemingly weird questions to contemplate..
Have you ever engaged in critical thinking and felt like you see things differently like never before about the world or the life you are currently living?
Those were the times where there was no smartphones, no TVs, no electricity, no printed books, no glass windows, no stoves, no running water and no toilets at homes. Pretty much primitive and boring times... Other than trying to keep yourself and family safe and sound, farming, military training, weaving clothes, making tools, cups and wine... For some, life was all about these mundane routines; however, for a few others there was more to life; thinking about nature, asking the questions how and why, having conversations with other thinkers and trying to make sense of the world and the universe.
Observing, thinking, thinking, observing the science-related part of this loop started around 600BC and this movement was called Natural Philosophy. Later on some calculations were involved in the thinking processes of natural philosophers. For instance, the foundations of geometry were set around 300BC, the circumference of Earth was calculated around 200BC.
Until 1500s all the endeavours about scientific knowledge was called Natural Philosophy. Then Copernicus followed by Galilei, Descartes, and Newton helped shaping up the momentous scientific revolution which planted the seeds of a new era in the ultimate inquiry of understanding the world and the universe. Natural Philosophy has eventually become "science" and consequently science branched out as physics, astronomy, medicine, chemistry and biology along with mathematics and its sibling calculus.
Around 1900s the foundations of classical physics were firmly established, physicists knew about the in ad outs of mechanical problems and the laws of motion. Some even thought that scientists reached to the ultimate level science and all they needed to do was more experiments for more precise measurements. Nobel Laureate Michelson suggested that the future of science would be found in the sixth place of decimals. But then something unexpected happened! It was shocking, it was controversial, it was the science that confronted reality... It was quantum mechanics!
What is the first thing you can think of when you read this quote? "People ask why do we need art or science... The things that do not help for our survival are the very things that make us human" - Savas Dimopoulos, in the documentary Particle Fever.
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