Reviews for Ceramic Powder Science II

The average rating for Ceramic Powder Science II based on 2 reviews is 5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-06-27 00:00:00 Ben Rawles This book was really not my cup of tea, but it was a good historical account of three very famous scientists of old, so that was cool. It just wasn't very engaging, which is hard to accomplish in a non-fiction biographical account of scientists.

Review # 2 was written on 2009-11-12 00:00:00 Sean Galelli For those interested in Kepler, Brahe, and Galileo, this book provides many detailed events of their lives. While the author was overly deferential to the point of apologetic and missing key points regarding the religious communities in their treatment of these scientists, this author can surely be thanked for providing such vivid descriptions of many aspects of their lives. I was surprised to find that Kepler was an adamant anti atomist when it came to what the stars were made of, defying the Epicurians of his day. Galileo's life had an important point regarding his insight that the moons of Jupiter could be used as a precise clock for longitudinal navigation of our globe. This was not to be fulfilled until later by Huygen his protege. Tycho Brahe's gregarious life included secret chemical experiments and an on again off again relationship with the superstition of astrology. Kepler went through many struggles as he tried to get Tycho's vast and highly precise star catalog published, known as the Rudolphine Tables (After the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II), and publish his own works on the elliptic orbits. This book does catalog the great struggles that would have been unnecessary had religious superstition and authority not intervened, and how great effort and the raw truth overcame these authorities. I suppose that's why it is called The Martyrs of Science. Another interesting link was made in my recent reading teasers of Huygen's life here, the Astronomer that would have relied on Benedict de Spinoza for some of his Telescopes. This hand-off of atomistic (Epicurean) traditions takes us from the heights of the scientific Renaissance to the Dawn of the Enlightenment practically.