Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Making History - Hebrew podcast review

Ran Levy of עושים היסטוריה replied to my previous review about his podcast with a delicate hint about my Hebrew. He suggested to write my reviews about Hebrew shows in English, because the audience masters English anyway. I took this as a discouragement to write in Hebrew. Too bad, I could do with the exercise, but maybe he is right that here is not the place.

Since the last review Ran has made a new episode of Making History and continued on a sidetrack of the previous subject. Previously, when dealing with simultaneous discoveries in science, he already mentioned how Leibniz and Newton discovered differential equations. In the latest episode this comes back because ran has decided to deal with Newton altogether. The differential equations are a side in a much larger tale of a poor boy who by chance got the opportunity to learn and become the genius he became.

Rather than the picture of the genius, Ran paints us Newton as the sociopath. In all stages of his life, Isaac Newton, in Ran's biography is unstoppable in his career and not willing to share the fame with others. Among his victims are not just Leibniz, but also Robert Hook. Newton took Hook's findings in optics and elaborate upon them without reference to Hook as if the findings were his, Newton's that is. It seems a leading thought in Ran's podcast: without sweeping away what stands as well accepted in history (Newton was a genius with the most important effect on science), but Ran feels the need to make some marks on the side and put all this in perspective.

Previously:
Making History with Ran Levy

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