This is a companion piece to Ham - the first space pilot.
The Scientific Method
Without a doubt, the greatest misunderstanding in today's world is the term "Science".
Science is NOT
- What you read in the magazine.
- What you or anyone "believes".
- What a scientist buddy told you.
- What a single research paper says.
- Anything preceded by "Science says..."
- Anything claimed to be a "fact".
The scientific method is a rigorous and evolving way of learning how our Universe and everything within it works. It is driven by empirical evidence subject to rational reasoning that is thoroughly peer-reviewed, tested and revised. Forever.
A theory is not some idea you cooked up in the shower. That would be a conjecture at best. You build a hypothesis based on your idea, predict outcomes of experiment. After rigorous testing by scientists worldwide over an undetermined period of time, if your predictions manage to be right 99.99999% (Six sigma) of the time, you get to call it a Theory. There are very few theories at this time - there's a lot of work to be done.
Science doesn't care about what you think or what you believe. The empirical evidence is unwavering and indisputable.
Needless to say, the scientific method is an endless loop of improvement. A theory is never done, and is never the ultimate end-all of anything. There may just be a better theory in the future. One that doesn't invalidate an existing theory, but simply offers a more complete version.
Alhazen
When it comes to scientists, a few names are household staples. Euclid, Ptolemy, Galileo, Darwin Newton, Einstein et al - you've heard about them all. Curiously, Ibn al-Haytham often gets sidelined in the history books. Latinised as Alhazen (what a cool name!) it was Ibn al-Haytham who first documented the world-changing idea that hypotheses must be rigorously proved by repeatable experiments and observations. Alhazen questioned his predecessors and all accepted ideas - including Ptolemy's.
By extension, Alhazen may be the world's first theoretical physicist. His works touched upon optics, mechanics, astronomy, mathematics, engineering, philosophy and even theology! A true renaissance man, if there ever was one. Even is writing style was revolutionary - clear, easy and concise; he strove to share his knowledge with the public as elegantly as possible.
Kitab al-Manazir
Perhaps Alhazen's magnum opus was Book of Optics. At the time, it was widely believed that eyes worked by emitting rays of light, kind of like an invisible torch. Animals' glowing eyes was said to be "evidence" for the same, after all. Aristotle had a better idea, but Alhazen got it absolutely spot on. Book of Optics was a defining point in the history of science which ultimately resulted in the use of telescopes and a birth of a whole new branch - astronomy.
Speaking of which, he cast serious doubt on Ptolemy's planetary model - widely accepted for nearly a millennium at the time, in the book aptly titled "Doubts Concerning Ptolemy". Of course, he didn't have the tools to experiment - but Galileo did half a millennium later.
Finally, the idea that a body continues to move till a force is acted upon it - guess who thought about that first? Yes, a full seven hundred years before Newton!
Science goes West
Alhazen accomplished all of this between 965 and 1040 AD. At the time, Europe was recovering, by the skin of its teeth, from the Dark Ages.
Yet, it could have been much, much more. The Islamic Golden Age was on the brink of leading to a Scientific revolution a full 400 years earlier than their European counterparts. Alas, invasions and the crazed Islamic philosopher Al Ghazani who drove cultural sentiment away from rationality towards mysticism, meant it came to a grinding halt.
Luckily, a few centuries later, European scientists learned of the progress made by Alhazen and his contemporaries. Eventually, the scientific method was the vital ingredient that sparked off the greatest in revolution in human history - the Scientific revolution in the 16th century. The human civilization would never be the same, although it could have happened a lot earlier.
Ibn al-Haytham was one of the greatest men to have ever lived, whose contributions had an enormous impact on the world. His legacy must be promoted in every history book alongside popular names like Newton or Einstein.
Further reading -
http://islamsci.mcgill.ca/RASI/BEA/Ibn_al-Haytham_BEA.htm
http://www.ibnalhaytham.com/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7810846.stm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_al-Haytham
http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/optics/timeline/people/alhazen.html
https://books.google.co.in/books?id=cSK6g_9jclQC&pg=PA39&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
All images in the public domain.