A Short History of Nearly Everything

Everything that is known was once unknown. In John M. Barry’s book, The Great Influenza, he effectively asserts this belief with the use allusions and a paradox to characterize scientific research as embracing uncertainty to make the unknown known.

Bronowski, J. (2012). Science. In The Norton reader: An anthology of nonfiction (13th ed., pp. 886-889). New York: W.W. Norton

Lisa Jardine’s Ingenious Pursuits: Building the Scientific Revolution provides a comprehensive breakdown of the discoveries that defined the Scientific Revolution and the history behind them. The story of the scientific revolution truly begins with a separation between the Catholic Church and the denizens of Europe brought on by the Protestant Reformation. This separation led directly to the questioning of the church and what they deemed to be true. The growing suspicion of the church applied not only to the politics and religious views but the scientific “facts” the church was built upon. The suspicion of these scientific facts quickly grew to an open challenging of these facts, The Scientific Revolution. The Scientific Revolution is something we have all studied in our grade school years and the discoveries of people such as Isaac Newton and Galileo Galilei are well documented and arguably common knowledge but Jardine’s book Ingenious Pursuits encapsulates the scientific revolution in a new light. Jardine accomplishes this by telling the stories of some of the greatest achievements of the Scientific Revolution. These stories reveal the collaborations of some of histories most brilliant minds as well as the secrecy amongst them and uncover the motives that fueled many of these accomplishments.

In reading a Little History of the World by E.H. Gombrich you realize that history seems so much less complicated when you are the one standing back and reflecting on the past. You realize how easy it is to often forget that every single new idea, religion and war was a struggle that lasted generations upon generations. History is more than just a page or a story, its our account of the world. That goes to show how short life and history is, you realize that history is always repeating, war after war, peace then war. There are good and bad periods in history and its up to us to learn from them. In a way history is much like a human being it goes through stages, learns about life, and has inner struggles or wars about their ideas and their beliefs.

depicts the unreal. Even though he talks about science in most of his stories, they are

A new exhibition on the sciences and their impact is opening. These exhibits will range from the very beginnings of modern science up to the modern day. But five star exhibits will be displayed in prominence for their impact shaped the course of science. First is John Snow who revolutionized the way medicine was conducted. Secondly there is Isaac Newton, who is dubbed the father of the scientific revolution. Next is Albert Einstein’s famous equation E=mc² which in many ways shaped not only science but military and politics. Rachel Carson is the next prominent exhibit for her influence on agriculture and her influence on the historical perspective of science. Lastly we have Adam Gopnik, though not a scientist himself, he has given great insight

“The best among [the scientists] move deep into a wilderness region where they know almost nothing, where the very tools and techniques needed to clear the wilderness, to bring order to it, do not exist” (25-29). By referencing the need “to clear the wilderness”, Barry conjures an image of a lumberjack, who heroically conquers the wilderness to nurture the advent of civilization. In a similar manner, he claims that scientists wield axes to chop away the foliage that obscure scientific discoveries opening the gateways for unparalleled growth and innovation. Moreover, Barry continues his claim by asserting that“If the researcher succeeds, a flood of colleagues will pave roads over the path laid, and those roads will be orderly and straight, taking an investigator in minutes to a place the pioneer spent months or years looking for” (Barry 49-53). Following the back-breaking labor of clearing forests, Barry muses how the “flood” of subsequent scientists lay down the bricks to form a continuous road that civilizes and tames the unknown. In addition, Barry channels the immense power of “floods” and bestows it upon scientists; this evokes the notion that scientists possess power of equal magnitude, when well-harnessed, can transform and innovate scientific research. Thus, by utilizing metaphors as a vessel to grant powers to

Before the 18th century, medicine had not advanced beyond the practices of bloodletting and balancing the four humors of the body. These medical practices were not effective and did more harm than good. It was not until the Scientific Revolution that physicians slowly started to learn more about the human body and how functions. The numerous advancements of medicine in the 18th century and resulting benefits to European Society are reflected in the lack of medical practices before the 1700s, the creation of the smallpox vaccine, and improved techniques.

The world of medicine, health and science, was on a fast track forward. Albert Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics in 1921. An immunization for the dreaded Diphtheria was developed in 1923. Vitamins and a discovered interest in a healthier America was on the horizon.

A Short History of Nearly Everything describes the experiences and circumstances under which scientists discovered elements of nature and invented devices that revolutionized the world. As a result of knowledge of the experiences of others that led to their prestige, I would be inspired to formulate methods by which I could maximize the quality of life within my vicinity. In addition, the amount of knowledge within Bryson’s book will satisfy my curiosity by providing a means of education in an uninteresting environment. Consequently, the contents of the novel will undoubtedly make the surrounding environment much more interesting as I would be able to relate to how some of the discoveries within the novel came about through an extensive observation of

The introduction to Bill Bryson’s A Short History Of Nearly Everything describes the world at it’s most fundamental stage, and Bryson’s thirst for answers and excitement in science since adolescence. The way that Bryson describes our time on earth is almost a statement about mortality: “The bad news is that atoms are fickle and their time of devotion is fleeting-fleeting indeed. Even a long human life adds up to only about 650,000 hours” (10). To me, it resonates like a claim about living life to the fullest, and not taking the fact that “for you to be here now trillions of drifting atoms had somehow to assemble in an intricate and intriguingly obliging manner to create you” (10) for granted. Society seems to constantly grapple with the question

discovery of nature that we commonly think of as the original physics. The town of

William Harvey was a distinguished physician of the seventeenth century. Harvey was educated by some of the great scientists of his time and was highly knowledgeable of the scientist theories preceding his time. Harvey was greatly intrigued by the views of the ancient Aristotle and developed a number of his own ideas based on Aristotle’s theories. It was from Aristotle’s theory of the primacy of blood that allowed Harvey to make breakthroughs about circulation and generation of animals. His advancements greatly enhanced the study of anatomy. Harvey also revolutionized the means by which science was performed through the use of innovative, investigational techniques. William Harvey became a

From the beginning of the universe to what society has evolved into today consists of a huge span of time. Big History is the broad yet complex study of the history of everything - from the emergence of the universe, the birth of stars, the first planets, evolution of humans, and more. The concepts of Big History is divided into thresholds of increasing complexity. Each threshold has a unique complexity different from the other thresholds. In order to move on to a new threshold, there must be a new component of complexity that is introduced. Everything is world has a relationship with the universe whether it be a human or a piece of clothing. For my “Big History” paper, I chose to compare my Wenger Swiss Military watch to the thresholds in big history because it was a gift from my grandfather and has sentimental value. Additionally, my watch is something I wear every day; it would be interesting to view my watch in the context of the eight thresholds of Big History.

Starting over 500 years ago with Nicolaus Copernicus, Galileo Galilei, Francis Bacon, and Isaac Newton paving the way for the possibility of new scientific exploration into studies such as “stratigraphy, the study of the rock and soil layers of the earth” by Robert Hooke and Carolus Linnaeus’ study of taxonomy, “the system of naming and classifying organisms” based on morphological similarities and differences, humanity would begin to uncrack the code of where life came from in a nonbiblical sense. (Fuentes, 26) Further studies by George-Louis Leclerc – Comte du Buffon, Erasmus Darwin (Charles’ grandfather), Georges Cuvier, James Hutton and Charles Lyell as well as Jean Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet – Chevalier de Lamarck’s studies in which he “correctly identified the environment as a challenge to organisms and adaptation as the result of changing to meet environmental challenges” helped prompt the formulation of the current understanding of evolution by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace each in their own special way.