To My Readers 3
that the spirit of trying to describe the physical world we live in is
universal and can be traced back to preliterate societies and their oral
creation myths. It was with writing that the first signs of scientific
thinking began to emerge. We will also explain how alphabetic writing
influenced the development of abstract science in the West despite the
fact that most of technology emerged in China. We will also document
the contributions to science by other non-European cultures once
again demonstrating the universality of scientific thinking. Hindu
mathematicians invented zero and Arab mathematicians transmitted it to
Europe providing the mathematical tools for modern science. Arab
scientists and scholars contributed to the scientific revolution in
Renaissance Europe through their accomplishments in algebra, chemistry
and medicine.
Finally, I hope that through this book I will be able to share with the
reader the mystical feelings that once characterized our response to our
physical environment. Unfortunately, there has arisen in many people's
minds a division between the mystical and the scientific. For those in
tune with their universe there is no division. In fact quite the opposite is
true as these words of Albert Einstein reveal:
The most beautiful and most profound emotion we can
experience is the sensation of the mystical. It is the power of
all true science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who
can no longer stand, rapt in awe, is as good as dead. That
deeply emotional conviction of the presence of a superior
reasoning power, which is revealed in the incomprehensible
universe, forms my idea of God.Hopefully, the beauty of the concepts of physics will be conveyed so that
the reader will come to appreciate the poetry of physics.
In addition to the poetry of physics we will also examine in this book
the physics of poetry by which we mean the ways in which physics has
influenced the development of poetry and all of the humanities including
painting, music, literature and all of the fine arts. Interspersed within our
description of the evolution of science we will examine how the arts
were influenced by science and vice-versa how the arts and humanities
influenced science. There will be more of a focus on poetry because like
science it is pithy and it will be easy to demonstrate how science
impacted on this art form by quoting from poets ranging from the poetry
of creation myths to the poetry of modern times.