More I dived into the history, more amazing stories I discovered. To top it, if there was an awesome story teller then it indeed became a treat. My latest book, Cosmos by Carl Sagan, is one such treat. In first few hours into it, it takes us thru the journey of human discoveries about the things floating in the sky. Our affection and ability of finding explanations to the heavenly bodies is amusing and commendable at the same time.
There is a story about Comets. While people had just started figuring out what a planet is and what a star is, suddenly an object with a tail appeared in the sky for a few days and disappeared. As a species, we all have this obsessive Compulsive disorder. We can't live with a unknown. So there. Everyone attached a meaning to this random object in the sky. These objects were not like the falling stars that appeared for a few seconds and vanished. These objects stayed for a few days making the suspense grow even further. Religious people attached a godly meaning to it. They found either a blessings or a curse in these objects. A few connected them to the calamity on the princes or kings. A few decided to make them the source of all the spirits. A few also called them the sperms of the universe. Everyone was super sure about how their explanation was right! बंदो का कॉन्फिडन्स देखो. बेसिक वाल्या गोष्टी सुधरत नव्हत्या तरी जे नवं दिसेल त्याला काहीतरी थेरी होतीच तैय्यार! काहीतरी करून कसंतरी करून connect all the dots and complete the circle. मग तुमची थेरी पॉप्युलर. These stories of our ancestors reminded me again of how philosphy and science parted their ways.
During the Aristotle days, we used debates to settle down the discoveries. Scientific postulates were debated in the room until one of the sides was reduced to absurdity. For example, we debated if sun is at the centre of the planetary system or if earth is at the centre of the universe. It wasn't a popular option to take a bunch readings at night and deduce the truth. (You see where we inherited our fascination of debating certain important issues in a news room?). But it wasn't too long before a group of misfits, stepped out to really find out what happens out there. This "too long" was a few hundreds of years and a few tortured and behaeded early scientists (well, "आमच्या भावना दुखावल्या" brigade isn't a new thing anyway. We had them from the past). Finally debates continued to be a tool fkr philosophical and religious matters and science took the experimentation route. Make no mistake, even this pre-experimentation era imagination was quite commendable. We discovered many things in this process.
Coming back to the comets.
It took us so many years to finally understand how comets work. There is also a theory about Venus where one said, it used to be a comet and then got converted into a planet. पब्लिक सोडत नाही एकूणच. Some of these theories may sound funny today but if we imagine the time a few thousands of years ago, these thoughts were no short of grand disruptions and for sure made a huge contribution to new discoveries. या सगळ्यात एक केप्लर नावाच्या बाबाची गोष्ट कमाल वाटली मला. त्याच्या काळी टीवी आणि फोन नसल्यामुळे म्हणा किंवा एकूणच काही नसल्यामुळे, दररोज प्राईम टाईम ला आकाशा कडं बघायची सवय समस्त जनतेला होती. तेव्हा तिथे बारीक होणाऱ्या हालचाली पण सहसा सगळ्यांना माहिती असत. "तू खुर्चीमधून उठला म्हणून विकेट पडली" वगैरे किस्से तेव्हाही असायचेच. म्हणजे तो तारा कुठेतरी हलला आणि इकडे पाऊस पडला. वगैरे. यापैकी काही गोष्टी खूप बरोबर पण होत्या. समुद्राची भारती ओहोटी आणि चंद्राच्या जागा यांचा संबंध आपल्याला ज्ञात आहेच की. पण मग जरा जास्तीच लाडात येऊन आता या ग्रह ताऱ्यांच्या जागेचा लोकांच्या वागण्या बोलण्यावर पण परिणाम होतो पर्यंत मजल गेली लोकांची. Astrology has been a popular topic since then. या astrology आणि astronomy च्या intersection मध्ये सापडलेला पहिला इसम म्हणजे कदाचित केप्लर. हा भाऊ astrology करता करता, खरी खुरी readings पण घ्यायचा. गणितं सोडवायचा. वर science ficiton पण लिहायचा. कदाचित One of the first science fiction writers. Now you can imagine the chaos he caused. You get real and then extend the imaginations to a whole new level taking an artistic liberty! समोरच्याला कळलंच नाही पाहिजे की ही जी काय पुडी सोडलाय ही काय आहे?
I find this urge to find the truth and also satisfy your creative buds at the same time amusing, that too on the backdrop of plenty of new discoveries, religious and philosophical debates and what not. The tone of many of these stories from past is often how everyone obviously discarded what we today take for granted. May it be the planetary motions, or be it the falling stars. At times I feel, there must be many things around us today as well which perhaps we have discarded but who knows they might emerge as the fundamental theories of universe tomorrow. Best thing about Science is that it is a self-correcting affair. Old theories get overwritten and that is okay. There is an acknowledgement of pushing the boundaries.
एकूण काय? शोधत राहा. अजून कोणालाच काहीच सापडलेलं नाही आहे.
There is a story about Comets. While people had just started figuring out what a planet is and what a star is, suddenly an object with a tail appeared in the sky for a few days and disappeared. As a species, we all have this obsessive Compulsive disorder. We can't live with a unknown. So there. Everyone attached a meaning to this random object in the sky. These objects were not like the falling stars that appeared for a few seconds and vanished. These objects stayed for a few days making the suspense grow even further. Religious people attached a godly meaning to it. They found either a blessings or a curse in these objects. A few connected them to the calamity on the princes or kings. A few decided to make them the source of all the spirits. A few also called them the sperms of the universe. Everyone was super sure about how their explanation was right! बंदो का कॉन्फिडन्स देखो. बेसिक वाल्या गोष्टी सुधरत नव्हत्या तरी जे नवं दिसेल त्याला काहीतरी थेरी होतीच तैय्यार! काहीतरी करून कसंतरी करून connect all the dots and complete the circle. मग तुमची थेरी पॉप्युलर. These stories of our ancestors reminded me again of how philosphy and science parted their ways.
During the Aristotle days, we used debates to settle down the discoveries. Scientific postulates were debated in the room until one of the sides was reduced to absurdity. For example, we debated if sun is at the centre of the planetary system or if earth is at the centre of the universe. It wasn't a popular option to take a bunch readings at night and deduce the truth. (You see where we inherited our fascination of debating certain important issues in a news room?). But it wasn't too long before a group of misfits, stepped out to really find out what happens out there. This "too long" was a few hundreds of years and a few tortured and behaeded early scientists (well, "आमच्या भावना दुखावल्या" brigade isn't a new thing anyway. We had them from the past). Finally debates continued to be a tool fkr philosophical and religious matters and science took the experimentation route. Make no mistake, even this pre-experimentation era imagination was quite commendable. We discovered many things in this process.
Coming back to the comets.
It took us so many years to finally understand how comets work. There is also a theory about Venus where one said, it used to be a comet and then got converted into a planet. पब्लिक सोडत नाही एकूणच. Some of these theories may sound funny today but if we imagine the time a few thousands of years ago, these thoughts were no short of grand disruptions and for sure made a huge contribution to new discoveries. या सगळ्यात एक केप्लर नावाच्या बाबाची गोष्ट कमाल वाटली मला. त्याच्या काळी टीवी आणि फोन नसल्यामुळे म्हणा किंवा एकूणच काही नसल्यामुळे, दररोज प्राईम टाईम ला आकाशा कडं बघायची सवय समस्त जनतेला होती. तेव्हा तिथे बारीक होणाऱ्या हालचाली पण सहसा सगळ्यांना माहिती असत. "तू खुर्चीमधून उठला म्हणून विकेट पडली" वगैरे किस्से तेव्हाही असायचेच. म्हणजे तो तारा कुठेतरी हलला आणि इकडे पाऊस पडला. वगैरे. यापैकी काही गोष्टी खूप बरोबर पण होत्या. समुद्राची भारती ओहोटी आणि चंद्राच्या जागा यांचा संबंध आपल्याला ज्ञात आहेच की. पण मग जरा जास्तीच लाडात येऊन आता या ग्रह ताऱ्यांच्या जागेचा लोकांच्या वागण्या बोलण्यावर पण परिणाम होतो पर्यंत मजल गेली लोकांची. Astrology has been a popular topic since then. या astrology आणि astronomy च्या intersection मध्ये सापडलेला पहिला इसम म्हणजे कदाचित केप्लर. हा भाऊ astrology करता करता, खरी खुरी readings पण घ्यायचा. गणितं सोडवायचा. वर science ficiton पण लिहायचा. कदाचित One of the first science fiction writers. Now you can imagine the chaos he caused. You get real and then extend the imaginations to a whole new level taking an artistic liberty! समोरच्याला कळलंच नाही पाहिजे की ही जी काय पुडी सोडलाय ही काय आहे?
I find this urge to find the truth and also satisfy your creative buds at the same time amusing, that too on the backdrop of plenty of new discoveries, religious and philosophical debates and what not. The tone of many of these stories from past is often how everyone obviously discarded what we today take for granted. May it be the planetary motions, or be it the falling stars. At times I feel, there must be many things around us today as well which perhaps we have discarded but who knows they might emerge as the fundamental theories of universe tomorrow. Best thing about Science is that it is a self-correcting affair. Old theories get overwritten and that is okay. There is an acknowledgement of pushing the boundaries.
एकूण काय? शोधत राहा. अजून कोणालाच काहीच सापडलेलं नाही आहे.
