Heritage & Ancestors
Universal Heritage Is Important
“Every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labours of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving”.
Albert Einstein
Heritage is incredibly important and many cultures place great reverence on ancestors, both living and dead. In contrast, the younger generations in today’s society should be encouraged to have the same level of “connectedness” with their elders or ancestors. Therein lies a golden opportunity for nourishing the minds and hearts of our future generations!
From scientists, mathematicians, philosophers, astronomers, artists, musicians, to noble world leaders, they have all left their mark and an enormous contribution in the advancement of human civilization.
Throughout the history of the world, many scientists have dedicated their lives for research and innovation. Some of them even faced immense torture for their theories but they continued their mission and thus we should remember our heritage and give thanks for the wonderful modern world we now live.
The really interesting fact is the diversity of these ancestors and their wide breadth of interests and expertise. Many philosophers and scientists had a multitude of interests and were great artists, poets and even musicians. Some had no formal education and were self taught. A true testament to the potential of the human mind and spirit, still untapped by many people. Ask yourself, what was the key differentiating factor that allowed these great people to become so talented and how can “I” aspire to explore and empower the full potential of what lies within me!
Although it is important to learn about heritage and gain knowledge of historical facts and data. The most important thing to remember is that one should digest the information but then seek within themselves the “Truth” of the data and knowledge being presented. Does it resonate with your “inner voice”.
If the information you are researching stirs a doubt or question within your heart and mind, dig deeper and investigate/explore other potential scenarios. What if these great philosophers, scientists or inventors “missed something critical”. All the answers or Truth lie within every individual on this planet. Like a ladder every generation has built their knowledge based on great minds that lived prior to them. You never know, you could end up making a brand new discovery, a ground breaking scenario that perhaps may never have been considered in the past!
The following list represents a small sample of some great minds that ever lived. They left legacies for future generations to pick up the baton and “run for the gold’. Pick up the baton but remember, shake rattle and roll it a little, and perhaps you may discover a hidden gem that was missed by our ancestors! A gem that could potentially open up a whole new brilliant world of opportunity!
Data Source: WikiPedia
Sample of Great Minds
Aristotle
Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC) was a Greek philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. He wrote on many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, politics, government, ethics, biology and zoology. Together with Plato and Socrates (Plato’s teacher), Aristotle is one of the most important founding figures in Western philosophy.
Illumination: Aristotle not only studied almost every subject possible at the time, but made significant contributions to most of them. In physical science, Aristotle studied anatomy, astronomy, economics, embryology, geography, geology, meteorology, physics and zoology. In philosophy, he wrote on aesthetics, ethics, government, metaphysics, politics, psychology, rhetoric and theology. He also studied education, foreign customs, literature and poetry. His combined works constitute a virtual encyclopedia of Greek knowledge. It has been suggested that Aristotle was probably the last person to know everything there was to be known in his own time.
Anaximander
Anaximander (Ancient Greek: (c. 610 BC–c. 546 BC) was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher who lived in Miletus, a city of Ionia. He belonged to the Milesian school and learned the teachings of his master Thales. Anaximander was one of the earliest Greek thinkers at the start of the Axial Age, the period from approximately 700 BC to 200 BC, during which similarly revolutionary thinking appeared in China, India, Iran, the Near East, and Ancient Greece.
Illumination: Anaximander was an early proponent of science and tried to observe and explain different aspects of the universe, with a particular interest in its origins, claiming that nature is ruled by laws, just like human societies, and anything that disturbs the balance of nature does not last long.
Like many thinkers of his time, his contributions to philosophy relate to many disciplines. In astronomy, he tried to describe the mechanics of celestial bodies in relation to the Earth. In physics, he postulated that the indefinite (or apeiron) was the source of all things. His knowledge of geometry allowed him to introduce the gnomon in Greece. He created a map of the world that contributed greatly to the advancement of geography. He was also involved in the politics of Miletus as he was sent as a leader to one of its colonies.
Anaximander explains how the four elements of ancient physics (air, earth, water and fire) are formed, and how Earth and terrestrial beings are formed through their interactions. Unlike other Pre-Socratics, he never defines this principle precisely, and it has generally been understood (e.g., by Aristotle and by Saint Augustine) as a sort of primal chaos.
According to him, the Universe originates in the separation of opposites in the primordial matter. It embraces the opposites of hot and cold, wet and dry, and directs the movement of things; an entire host of shapes and differences then grow that are found in “all the worlds” (for he believed there were many).
Leonardo of Pisa
Leonardo of Pisa (c. 1170 – c. 1250), also known as Leonardo Pisano, Leonardo Bonacci, Leonardo Fibonacci, or, most commonly, simply Fibonacci, was an Italian mathematician, considered by some “the most talented mathematician of the Middle Ages”.
Illumination: As a young boy, Leonardo traveled to the Middle East where he learned Hindu Arabic numerals. This is where he learned about the Hindu-Arabic numeral system. Recognizing that arithmetic with Hindu-Arabic numerals is simpler and more efficient than with Roman numerals, Fibonacci traveled throughout the Mediterranean world to study under the leading Arab mathematicians of the time.
In the Liber Abaci (1202), Fibonacci introduces the so-called modus Indorum (method of the Indians), today known as Arabic numerals (Sigler 2003; Grimm 1973). The book advocated numeration with the digits 0–9 and place value. Liber Abaci also posed, and solved, a problem involving the growth of a hypothetical population of rabbits based on idealized assumptions. The solution, generation by generation, was a sequence of numbers later known as Fibonacci numbers. The number sequence was known to Indian mathematicians as early as the 6th century, but it was Fibonacci’s Liber Abaci that introduced it to the West.
René Descartes
René Descartes (31 March 1596 – 11 February 1650), was a French philosopher, mathematician, scientist, and writer who spent most of his adult life in the Dutch Republic. He has been dubbed the “Father of Modern Philosophy,” and much of subsequent Western philosophy is a response to his writings, which continue to be studied closely to this day. In particular, his Meditations on First Philosophy continues to be a standard text at most university philosophy departments. Descartes’ influence in mathematics is also apparent, the Cartesian coordinate system allowing geometric shapes to be expressed in algebraic equations being named for him. He is accredited as the father of analytical geometry. Descartes was also one of the key figures in the Scientific Revolution.
Descartes also made contributions to the field of optics. He showed by using geometric construction and the law of refraction (also known as Descartes’ law) that the angular radius of a rainbow is 42 degrees (i.e. the angle subtended at the eye by the edge of the rainbow and the ray passing from the sun through the rainbow’s centre is 42°). He also independently discovered the law of reflection, and his essay on optics was the first published mention of this law.
Illumination: Physics, the heart, the soul of man and animals. Descartes describes how he in other writings discusses the idea of laws of nature, of the sun and stars, the idea of the moon being the cause of ebb and flood, on gravitation, going to examine light and fire, and goes on to medicine, the motion of the blood in the heart and arteries. He describes that these motions seem to be totally independent of what we think, and concludes that our bodies are separate from our souls.
He does not seem to distinguish between mind, spirit and soul, which are identified as our faculty for rational thinking. Hence the term “I think, therefore I am”. All three of these words (particularly “mind” and “soul”) can be identified by the single French term âme.
Galileo
Galileo Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642) was an Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher who played a major role in the Scientific Revolution. His achievements include improvements to the telescope and consequent astronomical observations, and support for Copernicanism. Galileo has been called the “father of modern observational astronomy”, the “father of modern physics”, the “father of science”, and “the Father of Modern Science.”
The motion of uniformly accelerated objects, taught in nearly all high school and introductory college physics courses, was studied by Galileo as the subject of kinematics. His contributions to observational astronomy include the telescopic confirmation of the phases of Venus, the discovery of the four largest satellites of Jupiter, named the Galilean moons in his honour, and the observation and analysis of sunspots. Galileo also worked in applied science and technology, improving compass design.
Illumination: Galileo is perhaps the first to clearly state that the laws of nature are mathematical. In The Assayer he wrote “Philosophy is written in this grand book, the universe … It is written in the language of mathematics, and its characters are triangles, circles, and other geometric figures…”
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein (14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist. He is best known for his theory of relativity and specifically mass–energy equivalence, expressed by the equation E = mc2. Einstein received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics “for his services to Theoretical Physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect.”
Illumination: In his book The World as I See It, he wrote: “A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, of the manifestations of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which are only accessible to our reason in their most elementary forms—it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute the truly religious attitude; in this sense, and in this alone, I am a deeply religious man.”
Rather than completing high school, Einstein decided to apply directly to the Eidgenössische Polytechnische Schule in Zürich, Switzerland. Lacking a school certificate, he was required to take an entrance examination, which he did not pass, although he got exceptional marks in mathematics and physics. Einstein wrote that it was in that same year, at age 16, that he first performed his famous thought experiment visualizing traveling alongside a beam of light.
Sir Isaac Newton
Sir Isaac Newton, (4 January 1643 – 31 March 1727) was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian and one of the most influential men in human history.
His Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, published in 1687, is considered to be the most influential book in the history of science, laying the groundwork for most of classical mechanics. In this work, Newton described universal gravitation and the three laws of motion which dominated the scientific view of the physical universe for the next three centuries. Newton showed that the motions of objects on Earth and of celestial bodies are governed by the same set of natural laws by demonstrating the consistency between Kepler’s laws of planetary motion and his theory of gravitation, thus removing the last doubts about heliocentrism and advancing the scientific revolution.
In optics, he built the first practical reflecting telescope and developed a theory of colour based on the observation that a prism decomposes white light into the many colours which form the visible spectrum. He also formulated an empirical law of cooling and studied the speed of sound.
Illumination: Newton’s postulate of an invisible force able to act over vast distances led to him being criticized for introducing “occult agencies” into science.
Michael Faraday
Michael Faraday, (22 September 1791 – 25 August 1867) was an English chemist and physicist (or natural philosopher, in the terminology of the time) who contributed to the fields of electromagnetism and electrochemistry.
Faraday studied the magnetic field around a conductor carrying a DC electric current, and established the basis for the electromagnetic field concept in physics. He discovered electromagnetic induction, diamagnetism, and laws of electrolysis. He established that magnetism could affect rays of light and that there was an underlying relationship between the two phenomena. His inventions of electromagnetic rotary devices formed the foundation of electric motor technology, and it was largely due to his efforts that electricity became viable for use in technology.
As a chemist, Faraday discovered benzene, investigated the clathrate hydrate of chlorine, invented an early form of the bunsen burner and the system of oxidation numbers, and popularized terminology such as anode, cathode, electrode, and ion.
Faraday was the first to report what later came to be called metallic nanoparticles. In 1847 he discovered that the optical properties of gold colloids differed from those of the corresponding bulk metal. This was probably the first reported observation of the effects of quantum size, and might be considered to be the birth of nanoscience.
Faraday also was active in what would now be called environmental science, or engineering. He investigated industrial pollution at Swansea (UK) and was consulted on air pollution at the Royal Mint. In July 1855, Faraday wrote a letter to The Times on the subject of the foul condition of the River Thames, which resulted in an oft-reprinted cartoon in Punch. (See also The Great Stink.)
Illumination: Although Faraday received little formal education and knew little of higher mathematics, such as calculus, he was one of the most influential scientists in history. Some historians of science refer to him as the best experimentalist in the history of science.
Faraday was highly religious; he was a member of the Sandemanian Church, a Christian sect founded in 1730 which demanded total faith and commitment. Biographers have noted that “a strong sense of the unity of God and nature pervaded Faraday’s life and work.
Marie Currie
Marie Skłodowska Curie (November 7, 1867 – July 4, 1934) was a physicist and chemist of Polish upbringing and, subsequently, French citizenship. She was a pioneer in the field of radioactivity, the first person honored with two Nobel Prizes, and the first female professor at the University of Paris.
Her achievements include the creation of a theory of radioactivity (a term coined by her), techniques for isolating radioactive isotopes, and the discovery of two new elements, polonium and radium. It was also under her personal direction that the world’s first studies were conducted into the treatment of neoplasms (”cancers”), using radioactive isotopes.
In 1896 Henri Becquerel discovered that uranium salts emitted rays that resembled X-rays in their penetrating power. Marie decided to look into uranium rays as a possible field of research for a thesis. She used a clever technique to investigate samples. Fifteen years earlier, her husband and his brother had invented the electrometer, a device for measuring extremely low electrical currents. Using the Curie electrometer, she discovered that uranium rays caused the air around a sample to conduct electricity. Her first result, using this technique, was the finding that the activity of the uranium compounds depended only on the amount of uranium present. She had shown that the radiation was not the outcome of some interaction between molecules but must come from the atom itself. In scientific terms, this was the most important single piece of work that she carried out.
Illumination: Skłodowska–Curie was the first person to win or share two Nobel Prizes. She is one of only two people who have been awarded a Nobel Prize in two different fields. Nevertheless in 1911 the French Academy of Sciences refused to abandon its prejudice against women and she failed by two votes to be elected to membership, losing to Édouard Branly, an inventor who had helped Guglielmo Marconi develop the wireless telegraph.
Due to their levels of radioactivity, her papers from the 1890s (and even her cookbook) are considered too dangerous to handle. They are kept in lead-lined boxes; those who wish to consult them must wear protective clothing.
James Clerk Maxwell
James Clerk Maxwell (13 June 1831 – 5 November 1879) was a Scottish theoretical physicist and mathematician. His most significant achievement was the development of the classical electromagnetic theory, synthesizing all previous unrelated observations, experiments and equations of electricity, magnetism and even optics into a consistent theory. His set of equations—Maxwell’s equations—demonstrated that electricity, magnetism and even light are all manifestations of the same phenomenon: the electromagnetic field. From that moment on, all other classical laws or equations of these disciplines became simplified cases of Maxwell’s equations. Maxwell’s work in electromagnetism has been called the “second great unification in physics“, after the first one carried out by Isaac Newton.
Illumination: Maxwell demonstrated that electric and magnetic fields travel through space in the form of waves, and at the constant speed of light. He is also known for creating the first true colour photograph in 1861.
Walter Russell
Walter Russell (1871–1963) was an American polymath, known for his achievements in painting, sculpture, architecture, and for his unified theory in physics and cosmogony. He posited that the universe was founded on a unifying principle of rhythmic balanced interchange. This physical theory, laid out primarily in his books “The Secret of Light” and “The Message of the Divine Iliad”, has not been accepted by mainstream scientists. Russell asserted that this was mainly due to differences between himself and scientists in their assumptions about the existence of mind or matter. Russell was also practiced philosophy, music, ice-skating, and was a professor at the institution he founded, the University of Science and Philosophy. He believed mediocrity is self-inflicted and genius is self-bestowed.
In 1963, Walter Cronkite in the national television evening news, commenting on Dr. Walter Russel’s passing, referred to him as “…the Leonardo DaVinci of our time.”
Born in Boston, MA on May 19, 1871, Russell left formal schooling at the age of eight (ten in some accounts) in order to help support his family. At age thirteen he became a church organist.
Walter Russell presented theories on the “fundamental principles of energy dynamics,” the nature of matter and the progression of the evolution of matter, and the depiction of the universe as a continuously changing, creating effort sustained by the systematic work effort of the energy of light. His depictions laws was a nonstandard cosmology. Students of his work today call it “Russelian science.”
Russell portrayed the principles of the unity of universal law in a way which he believed brought many mainstream theories into direct conflict, or incompleteness, such as some of the principles of Issac Newton e. g. weight as Dr. Russell explains: “…Weight should be measured dually as temperature is. It should have an above and below zero…”.
The University of Science and Philosophy was a home-study educational institution founded in 1949 by Russell and his wife Lao Russell, originally located at the Swannanoa estate in Virginia, USA.
The original idea was based on the Twilight Club, originating in 1870 with Herbert Spencer and Ralph Waldo Emerson and dedicated to the “upliftment of mankind.” In 1921, it was reorganized and renamed “Society of Arts and Sciences” by Walter Russell, Edwin Markham and Thomas J. Watson Sr., Founder and Chairman of IBM.
Illumination: Once, when asked how he acquired his scientific knowledge, he answered: “…I always looked for the Cause behind things and didn’t fritter away my time analyzing Effect. All knowledge exists as Cause. It is simple. It is limited to Light of Mind and the electric wave of motion which records God’s thinking in matter.”
Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Graham Bell (3 March 1847 – 2 August 1922) was an eminent Scottish-born (lived in Canada and US) scientist, inventor and innovator who is credited with inventing the first practical telephone.
From his early years, Bell showed a sensitive nature and a talent for art, poetry and music that was encouraged by his mother. With no formal training, he mastered the piano and became the family’s pianist. Bell’s preoccupation with his mother’s deafness led him to study acoustics. Alexander Graham Bell astounded audiences with his abilities in deciphering Latin, Gaelic and even Sanskrit symbols.
Although Alexander Graham Bell is most often associated with the invention of the telephone, his interests were extremely varied. The range of Bell’s inventive genius is represented only in part by the 18 patents granted in his name alone and the 12 he shared with his collaborators. These included 14 for the telephone and telegraph, four for the photophone, one for the phonograph, five for aerial vehicles, four for “hydroairplanes” and two for selenium cells. Bell’s inventions spanned a wide range of interests and included a metal jacket to assist in breathing, the audiometer to detect minor hearing problems, a device to locate icebergs, investigations on how to separate salt from seawater, work on finding alternative fuels and composting toilets!
Illumination: At the homestead, Bell set up his own workshop in the converted carriage house near to what he called his “dreaming place”, a large hollow nestled in trees at the back of the property above the river. He continued his interest in the study of the human voice and when he discovered the Six Nations Reserve across the river at Onondaga, he learned the Mohawk language and translated its unwritten vocabulary into Visible Speech symbols. For his work, Bell was awarded the title of Honorary Chief and participated in a ceremony where he donned a Mohawk headdress and danced traditional dances.
Many other inventions marked Bell’s later life, including groundbreaking work in hydrofoils and aeronautics. In 1888, Alexander Graham Bell became one of the founding members of the National Geographic Society.
Jagadish Chandra Bose
Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose, CSI, CIE, FR (November 30, 1858–November 23, 1937) was a Bengali polymath: a physicist, biologist, botanist, archaeologist, and writer of science fiction. He pioneered the investigation of radio and microwave optics, made very significant contributions to plant science, and laid the foundations of experimental science in the Indian subcontinent. He is considered one of the fathers of radio science, and is also considered the father of Bengali science fiction. He was the first from the Indian subcontinent to get a US patent, in 1904.
Born in Bengal during the British Raj, Bose graduated from St. Xavier’s College, Calcutta. He then went to the University of London to study medicine, but couldn’t complete his studies due to health problems. He returned to India and joined the Presidency College as a Professor of Physics. There, despite racial discrimination and a lack of funding and equipment, Bose carried on his scientific research. He made remarkable progress in his research of remote wireless signaling and was the first to use semiconductor junctions to detect radio signals. However, instead of trying to gain commercial benefit from this invention Bose made his inventions public in order to allow others to develop on his research. Subsequently, he made some pioneering discoveries in plant physiology.
Illumination: Bose used his own invention crescograph to measure plant response to various stimuli, and thereby scientifically proved parallelism between animal and plant tissues. Although Bose filed for patent for one of his inventions due to peer pressure, his reluctance to any form of patenting was well known. Now, some 70 years after his death, he is being recognized for many of his contributions to modern science.
Let Go. Simply Trust Life.