Word: democritus
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Many great minds - Democritus, Isaac Newton, James Clerk Maxwell, Albert Einstein - took giant steps toward bringing the universe's lost unity out of hiding. In 1964, Peter Higgs, a shy scientist in Edinburgh, added his name to that list by coming up with an ingenious theory that gave scientists the tools to explain how two classes of particles, which now appear to be different, were once one and the same. His theory proposes the existence of a single particle responsible for imparting mass to all things - a speck so precious it has come to be known as the "God particle...
Contrary to popular belief, speculation that we are not alone in the universe is as old as philosophy itself. The essential steps in the reasoning were based on the atomic theory of the ancient Greek philosopher Democritus. First, the laws of nature are universal. Second, there is nothing special or privileged about Earth. Finally, if something is possible, nature tends to make it happen...
...debated among the ancient Greeks, until philosophers like Democritus and Plato concluded correctly that the pain-perception center is the brain. Greek scientists found support for this theory by discovering that the brain is connected to a network of two types of nerve fibers, one set controlling motion, the other, sensation. This knowledge was lost in the Middle Ages, and superstition again took hold. Only when taboos against dissection were lifted during the Renaissance did thinkers like Leonardo da Vinci once again understand pain in terms of the nervous system...
...convention there is color, by convention sweetness, by convention bitterness, but in reality there are atoms and space. -Democritus...
...characters by telling what finally happens to them first. Aside from the old man's large memory, Creation is unified by a single irony: Cyrus tells of his search for religious certainty to the person who will one day become an eminent philosopher of materialism. Near the end, Democritus interjects: "Matter is all. All is matter." According to his secretary, then, Cyrus spent his life pursuing phantoms...