When the Chinese recently tested their atomic bomb, many people realized for the first time that China was a scientific and technological power to be reckoned with. They were unaware that while the Western world was still groping through the Dark Ages, the Chinese had raised science to so advanced a level we still employ many of their discoveries and inventions today.
Their surviving records of comets, eclipses, sunspots and other astronomical phenomena from 500 BC to AD 1000 are invaluable to modern space scientists. They invented gun powder and used it for spectacular fireworks displays. Kites, paper, wheelbarrows with sails, and magnetic compasses are just a few of the ingenious wonders of ancient Chinese science that Robert Silverberg explores in carefully researched detail!
WONDERS OF ANCIENT CHINESE SCIENCE is important as both a historical study and a text relevant to current scientific developments in China. It is further dramatized by Marvin Besunder's delicate line drawings with the flow of silk screen paintings.
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