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Book Cover for: The Science of Leonardo: Inside the Mind of the Great Genius of the Renaissance, Fritjof Capra

The Science of Leonardo: Inside the Mind of the Great Genius of the Renaissance

Fritjof Capra

Leonardo da Vinci's scientific explorations were virtually unknown during his lifetime, despite their extraordinarily wide range. He studied the flight patterns of birds to create some of the first human flying machines; designed military weapons and defenses; studied optics, hydraulics, and the workings of the human circulatory system; and created designs for rebuilding Milan, employing principles still used by city planners today. Perhaps most importantly, Leonardo pioneered an empirical, systematic approach to the observation of nature-what is known today as the scientific method.Drawing on over 6,000 pages of Leonardo's surviving notebooks, acclaimed scientist and bestselling author Fritjof Capra reveals Leonardo's artistic approach to scientific knowledge and his organic and ecological worldview. In this fascinating portrait of a thinker centuries ahead of his time, Leonardo singularly emerges as the unacknowledged "father of modern science."

Book Details

  • Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
  • Publish Date: Dec 2nd, 2008
  • Pages: 352
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 9.10in - 6.10in - 0.80in - 1.10lb
  • EAN: 9781400078837
  • Categories: Science & TechnologyArtists, Architects, PhotographersEurope - Renaissance

About the Author

Fritjof Capra, Ph.D., physicist and systems theorist, is a founding director of the Center for Ecoliteracy in Berkeley, California, which promotes ecology and systems thinking in primary and secondary education. Dr. Capra is the author of four international bestsellers, The Tao of Physics (1975), The Turning Point (1982), Uncommon Wisdom (1988), and The Web of Life (1996). His most recent book, The Hidden Connections, was published in 2002.Capra has been the focus of over 50 television interviews, documentaries, and talk shows in Europe, the United States, Brazil, Argentina, and Japan, and has been featured in major international magazines and newspapers. He was the first subject of the BBC's new documentary series "Beautiful Minds" (2002).

More books by Fritjof Capra

Book Cover for: The Tao of Physics: An Exploration of the Parallels Between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism, Fritjof Capra
Book Cover for: The Systems View of Life, Fritjof Capra
Book Cover for: Patterns of Connection: Essential Essays from Five Decades, Fritjof Capra
Book Cover for: The Turning Point: Science, Society, and the Rising Culture, Fritjof Capra
Book Cover for: The Hidden Connections: A Science for Sustainable Living, Fritjof Capra
Book Cover for: El Tao de la Fisica, Fritjof Capra
Book Cover for: The Web of Life: A New Scientific Understanding of Living Systems, Fritjof Capra
Book Cover for: Learning from Leonardo: Decoding the Notebooks of a Genius (Large Print 16pt), Fritjof Capra

Praise for this book

"Minutely researched, vividly written, and endlessly fascinating, The Science of Leonardo opens up a realm which has never been adequately appreciated." --Dr. Oliver Sacks"Illuminating and impassioned . . . . A profound and clear exploration of Leonardo's scientific thought."--The San Francisco Chronicle"A delight . . . . Lucid and spirited, it sparks a whole series of ideas and questions for further investigation."--American Scientist"A fascinating glimpse of the road not taken by Western Science. Capra makes a compelling case that the science of the future may look a lot more like Leonardo's than Bacon's or Descartes -- a science of systems, non-reductive and akin to an art." --Michael Pollan, author of Botany of Desire and Omnivore's Dilemma"Vivid and compelling. . . . Leonardo himself would have nodded in approval of this book, because for the first time it crystallizes the entire body of his work into a coherent, unified whole." --Michio Kaku, author of Physics of the Impossible