"The Story of Civilization", Vol. IX, "The Age of Voltaire",  "Jethro Tull was a lawyer, his health failing, he went back to his father's farm; his sharpened mind was fascinated by the miracle and profits of growth, but was repelled by the wasteful methods of tillage that he saw--farmers broadcasting nine or ten pounds of sead to an acre so carelessly "that two thirds of the ground was unplanted, and on the rest 'twas so thick that it did not prosper."  Taveling in France and Italy, he studied agricultural methods, returning, he bought a farm, and shocked his neighbors with inventions that doubled production.  He began (c. 1730) by making a four-coultered plow that would uproot and bury weeds instead of merely shoving them aside.  But his most decisive invention (c. 1733) was a horse drawn drill mechanism that fed seed through notched funnels at a specific spacing and depth in two paralel rows, and then covered the seeds by a harrow attached to the drill.  The machine saved seed and labor and allowed the cult

www.umces.edu/imet/release/2013/aug/01/scientists-discover-key-easing-aquaculture’s-reliance-wild-caught-fish  A vegetarian diet for meat eating fish.  Important for aquaculture.www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-08/acs-agm080713.php  Using light to make olive oil into plastics.www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-08/acs-nii080713.php Better ways to make artificial ball lightning.www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-08/ez-iao080613.php  Useful information on orbital cycles and climate change.www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-08/asa-cms080613.php  What do women know about pregnancy and how do they get those ideas?www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-08/aiop-nii080913.php  Interesting work on the quantum mechanical aspects of electrical conductivity in polymers.oregonstate.edu/ua/ncs/archives/2013/aug/pass-salt-common-condiment-could-enable-new-high-tech-industry  Interesting work using table salt for the manufacture of nanostructures.www.eurekalert.o

www.vtnews.vt.edu/articles/2013/08/080113-research-rockfinding.html  Sugars play a role in biomineral formation.  Interesting.www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-07/ps-apc072913.php  Enriched environment increases brain development in fish.www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-08/wifb-nct080213.php  Amazing new slippery coating for glass.  www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-08/uotf-bdm080213.php  Water veins in your windows to cool the house and heat water?  It is an amazing idea.  Not sure how practical.  wyss.harvard.edu/viewpressrelease/119  is a better description of the system.www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-08/ncsu-rc080113.php  Fascinating work in soft robotics.  www.news.pitt.edu/news/light-moves-and-molds-gels a different technique for similar effects.www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-08/niob-uph072913.php  Ultrasound therapy to speed wound healing.  Wow.www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-08/uow-bsd080113.php  Promising work o

This week we proceed to "The Age of Voltaire", Volume IX of "The Story of Civilization".  Who was Voltaire?"The Story of Civilization" quotes Voltaire on Voltaire (doubtless one of his favorite subjects) "thin, long, and fleshless, without buttocks".  It continues further on, "On May 16, 1717, a lettre de cache directed "that Sieur Arouet be arrested and taken to the Bastille".  The poet was surprised in his rooms and was allowed to take with him nothing but the clothes he wore."His stay at the Bastille was not entirely unpleasant.  Denied paper lest he pen something seditious, he wrote a play on the margins of the books he was allowed to read.  The play written carefully to please all the factions of France in different lines was a hit after his release.The lettre de cache was a warrant for arrest without due process.  Anyone with the power to issue one could order the arrest, detainment, torture, or execution of anyone they chose without investigation or trial of any kind.  It is one of the reasons why Due

"The Story of Civilization", Vol. VIII, "The Age of Louis XIV", "The Protestants of Ireland denounced the treaty as a surrender to papists, and appealed to the English Parliament.  This assembly at once (October 22, 1691) passed an act debarring from the Irish Parliament any man who would not take the oath of supremacy and declare against transubstantiation.  The new Irish Parliament, entirely Protestant, refused to recognize the Treaty of Limerick.  While William absorbed himself in organizing Europe against Louis XIV, the Dublin Parliament laid upon Irish Catholics a new series of penal acts frankly overriding the peace that William and Mary had signed.  Catholic schools and colleges were made illegal; Cathlic priests were subject to deportation; no Catholic was to carry arms, or possess a horse worth more than five pounds; and any Protestant heiress who married a Catholic was to suffer the forfeiture of her estate.  The confiscation of Irish property went on until "there was practically no more land to con

news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/24751.aspx  This article on the genetic history of rice is interesting and thought provoking.www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-07/su-ssb071813.php  Promising work on new materials for solar cells.www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-07/ip-ctc071813.php  Useful new tool in screening for toxicity.www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-07/vt-lsp071613.php  Pretty amazing.  Old sea wall from the nineteenth century saves homes from Hurricane Sandy.www.uni-mainz.de/presse/16545_ENG_HTML.php  Important work on brain maintenance at the cellular level.www.cfa.harvard.edu/news/2013/pr201319.html  Scientists suggest that gold is produced from the collision of two neutron stars.  Wow!www.per-central.org/press/2/  I can see this performed as a ballet or dance production.www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-07/su-cfb071913.php  This will probably be important in manufacture of high quality mechanisms.  Friction.www.eurekalert.org/pub_

"The Story of Civilization", Vol. VIII, "The Age of Louis the XIV", "But the Revocation was a disaster for French religion.  Bacon had remarked the spectacle of the religious wars would have made Lucretius "seven times more epicure and atheist than he was", what would he have said now?  No stopping point was left for the Gallic mind between Catholicism and unbelief.  Whereas in Switzerland, Germany, Holland, and England Protestantism had served to express rebellion against the Church, no such vehicle of resentment remained in France; the reaction against Romanism found it safer to be thoroughly skeptical than openly Protestant.  The French Renaissance, unimpeded by Protestantism, passed directly into the Enlightenment after the death of the King."The Revocation was the revocation of the Edicts of Nantes and religious tolerance in France.  It gave the Catholic Church absolute religious power in France, in exchange for absolute religious support of the absolute power of the King.  It also destroyed the economy

"The Story of Civilization", Vol. VIII, "The Age of Louis XIV", "But the drain upon his people had become unbearable.  Revolts broke out in Bordeaux and Brittany; in south France the peasantry neared starvation; in the Dauphine the populace was living on bread made of acorns and roots.  When the Dutch offered peace, Louis signed with them (August 11, 1678) a treaty restoring to the United Provinces all the territory that France had taken from them, and lowering the tariffs that had kept Dutch products out of France."It is one of the common errors of philosophers to place their hopes in an enlightened monarch as the means of producing the perfect state.  Plato traveled to Syracuse in Sicily to educate the son of the tyrant there to be the perfect prince.  His efforts were frustrated.  Confucius was educating a prince in China successfully until a rival sent the Prince a gift of several beautiful concubines and he lost the boys interest and was forced to seek employment elsewhere.This idea, that it is easier to

"The Age of Louis the XIV", Volume VIII of "The Story of Civilization".  "On September 7, 1651, John Evylyn, from the Paris apartment of Thomas Hobbes, watched the procession that escorted the boy monarch, now thirteen, to the ceremony that was to mark the end of his minority.  "A young Apollo," the Englishman described him.  "He went almost the whole way with his hat in hand, saluting the ladies and aclamators who filled the windows with their beauty, and the air with Vive le Roi!"  Louis might then have taken over full authority from Mazarin, but he respected his minister's suave resourcefulness, and allowed him to hold the reins for nine more years.  Nevertheless, when the Cardinal died, he confessed, "I do not know what I should have done if he had lived much longer."  After Mazarin's death the heads of the departments came to Louis and asked to whom henceforth they should address themselves for instructions.  He answered, with decisive simplicity, "To me."  From that day (March 9, 1661) till September 1,

"The Story of Civilization", Vol VII, "The Age of Reason Begins", "All was won save honor.  In the pursuit of place Bacon had repeatedly sacrificed principle.  As attourny general he used his influence to secure judicial verdicts desired by the King.  As Keeper of the Seal he defended and protected the most oppressive monopolies, apparently to keep the good will of Buckingham.  As judge he accepted substantial presents from persons suing in his court.  All this was in the loose custom of the age: public officials were poorly paid, and they recompensed themselves with 'gifts' from those whom they aided.  James confessed, "If I were... to punish those who take bribes, I should soon not have a subject left"; and James himself took bribes.Sir Francis Bacon, who is described accurately in the above paragraph will be praised here, as a great and good man.  Let us quote him on his removal from office for corruption, "I was the justest judge that was in England these fifty years.  But it was the justest censure in Pa

"The Story of Civilization" Volume VII, "The Age of Reason Begins". "He had long hesitated to publish his conclusions, knowing the conservation of the medical profession of his time.  He pridicted that no one over forty years old would accept his theory.  "I have heard him say," reported Aubrey, "that after his book of the Circulation of the Blood came out, he fell mightily in his practice, and 'twas believed by the vulgar that he was crack-brained."  Not until Malpighi in 1660 demonstrated the existence of capillaries conveying blood from the arteries to the veins did the learned world concede the circulation to be a fact."  It is human nature to desire certainty.  We cling to the certainties we learn in our youth.  Among scientists this frequently means an unthinking acceptance of the fundamental principles they learned in college, and an unthinking ridicule of new discoveries which challenge those principles.Einstein faced this problem with Relativity.  The controversy over Einsteins theories still gets me