It Started With Copernicus by Howard Margolis, McGraw-Hill, $24.95, ISBN 007138507X Reviewed by Roy Herbert
A SHOCKING table confronts the reader at the beginning of this book. One column shows notable scientific discoveries made around the year 1600: Margolis lists nine fundamental ones, such as the laws of planetary motion, the magnetism of the Earth and the distinction between magnetism and electricity. The other shows notable discoveries made in the previous 14 centuries. It’s blank.
For all those centuries, Ptolemy’s model of the Earth as the centre of the Universe, with the stars and planets fixed in invisible concentric spheres…
