Bilimin Büyüsü (eng. the Magic of Science) was written by Prof. Dr. h.c. (mult.) Ali Mehmet Celal Şengör and was published in 2019. A.M. Celal Şengör is Turkish academics, geologist and scientist. He was born on 24 March 1955 in Istanbul, Turkey. He graduated from Robert Academy in 1973 and graduated from University at Albany (State University of New York) as geologist in 1978. He did a PhD on geology in University at Albany (State University of New York) in 1982. He worked in here with two important geologists and scientists, Kevin Charles Anthony Burke (1929 - 2018) and John Frederick Dewey ( 1937 -). Celal Şengör has made a reputation for his works about structural geology and tectonics. Seventeen books, two hundred sixty two scientific papers, two hundred seventeen communique summaries and seventy four popular scientific papers were written by Celal Şengör about these topics of geology. Celal Şengör is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, American Philosophy Society ,and Russian Academy of Sciences. These days, he works in Istanbul Technical University. Celal Şengör speaks English, German and French.
Bilimin Büyüsü has eighteen chapters (except prelude and introduction) and is one hundred fifty nine pages long. It is a collection of writings of Celal Şengör in HaberTurk newspaper. Because the newspaper closed, Celal Şengör and Fatih Altaylı (Turkish journalist and writer of prelude of Bilimin Büyüsü) collected these writings and formed them in a book. Celal Şengör wrote that “This book’s purpose is to introduce variety topics and developments about natural sciences” (Şengör, 19). It starts with steps of modern science and ends with the theory of evolution. There are writings about important scientists, scientific developments, scientific theories, and other topics which are related to science (e.g. exhibition about Ptolemy’s World Map) . Also Celal Şengör recommends places to readers to answer this question (and also this question is the name of these parts.): “Where should we visit to understand science during our world trip?”.
According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, the first meaning of science is the state of knowing, knowledge as distinguished from ignorance and misunderstanding. This statement is true but the accepted meaning of science is given by Austrian science philosopher Sir Karl Raimund Popper (1902- 1994). He said : “Science is called systems of thought, whose expressions can be falsified by observing them.”. So if we know the meaning of science, why should we do science? Celal Şengör said that science is done to get information and understanding. To understand this statement, we have to know the meaning of the information. According to Celal Şengör, information is all of those that can be encoded from those that are accessible among any object and/or the features of the process that are of interest to the observer. Thanks to these statements, we can understand meanings of science and information. These two words are so important for human history and the development of mankind. Before writing about the development of science and its effects on the development of mankind, I have to write the most important part of general scientific statements. It is falsifying. In science, falsifying statements is important because it shows that humans’ observations are in contact with reality. Because of that science does not accept lies and it exposes these lies and liars. That means we can trust science and anything related with science.
In the following paragraphs, I will write about scientific topics and developments which are in the book, but before I want to tell my thoughts about science and scientific development. The most significant difference between humans and animals is mind. Also in the book, Celal Şengör said that the mind was the only weapon of humans. During human history, it is our only weapon because it saves our lives, develops our cities, increases our life standards. How? We think with our mind to solve our problems, to earn more money or to gain power. Briefly, our minds help us to recover from any situations. Besides the desire to live, I think that the most effective way to use our mind is science. Because science causes development in any area which is related to humans. For example, if there is no science, there are not any scientists or people who are interested in science. So maybe, when any disease like coronavirus comes, humans may not develop any vaccines. Basically, we may die quickly. Another example is there are not any smartphones, computers, or any technological device. Because we may not have enough knowledge to discover or make them. Briefly, science is the most important thing in our lives because it brings development and comfort to humans.
According to the book, modern science was started by two important people from Ancient Greek. They are Thales of Miletus and his pupil Anaximander. Both lived between BC 7 and BC 6. When Thales visited Ancient Egypt, he saw Egyptian farmers used geometrical shapes. Egyptian farmers learned this information from their ancestors. Thales recognized that this information is provable so he tried and achieved to put information to geometrical theorems. In the end, he found the term, “proof”. When Thales arrived at Miletus, he started to think about this question with Anaximander : “ Is there any sensible explanation of the world like geometry?”. Answers of this question - especially Anaximander’s answer- caused the birth of a new tradition called “science” among Greek-spoken cities. This is the beginning of science.
The most important factor in the birth of science is criticism. Thales and Anaximander were great scientists who could accept criticism and were open minded. To understand the importance of criticism in science, we have to look at the beginning of the seventeenth century. English doctor, physician and philosopher William Gilbert (1544 - 1603) published his book known as De Magnete Magneticisque Corporibus et de Magno Magnete Tellure ( On the Magnet and Magnetic Bodies, and on That Great Magnet the Earth). He claimed that magnetic force is based on something from things that have magnetic properties. In 1799, Italian physicist Alessandro Volta (1745 - 1827) found a volta battery. With this battery, he created electrical current. Danish physicist Hans Christian Ørsted recognized that the compass needle was deflected by a wire which has electrical current. This model is like Gilbert’s model. After that French physicist André-Marie Ampere (1775 - 1836) started an experiment to observe Ørsted’s discovery. He found that two wires which have electrical current, attract and repulse themselves. And English physicist and inventor Micheal Faraday ( 1791 - 1867) realized that when he moved a magnet near a wire, he formed an electric current. This is the birth of one branch of physics known as electromagnetism. From these important and specific examples, I can say that all scientists wondered and criticized experiments which had been conducted before and tried to find new things.
While I was reading this book, I understood the effects of religion or beliefs on science and scientific developments clearly. Of course, I had already known these effects but examples from this book made it clear in my mind. Religions were useful in the development of science, especially astronomy. After development of agriculture, creating a calendar became critically important. To create a calendar, people - especially clergy- have to observe and list positions of Moon, Sun ,and stars. Because clergy took this job, most temples had an observatory. However this is not astronomy because they only observed them, not argued or thought about them. From these days to the end of the Medieval Age, the theoretical framework was religion so criticizing it was a sin.
Thales was the first person who said that humans can get the true information without the help of gods. The question I wrote about before, is based on this idea. Anaximander and Thales criticize the religion and they laid the foundations of science. In the eleventh century, there was Gregorian Reform and in the twelfth century, there was Renaissance. In these centuries, the theory of evolution came back and scientists started to think about it. Actually, since beginning of the Christianity, some Christians (e.g. Saint Augustinus) thought about the theory of evolution but because of the pressure of Catholic Church in the Dark Ages, following scientists stopped to think about it. After reform and Renaissance, they started to think about it and used previous information. In other hand, Muslim scientists like İbrahim ibn Sayyar ibn Hani Abu İshak al-Nazzam, his pupil Abu Osman Amr ibn Bahr al-Cahiz (766? - 869) thought that life was developed by natural ways. Also Ebu Musa Cabir ibn Hayyan (721 - 815) thought like that too. Briefly they thought and developed the basic (but important) theory of evolution.
A German pastor, Martin Luther ( 1483 - 1546 ) started Reformation in Germany in the first quarter of the fifteenth century. He was against commenting about the Holy Book so he thought that while anyone reads a Holy Book, this person has to accept what the book says. Like before I said, some Christians thought about the theory of evolution and they used the Holy Book as a reference. So Luther's idea stopped people to think about evolution in Protestant countries and churches. However in Catholic and Orthodox countries and churches, there were not any limitations like it. Also because people in Protestant countries were illiterate. This is also the reason why the fourteenth century Renaissance started in South Europe.
In conclusion, this book taught me lots of different and interesting things about science and its development. Sometimes it was boring ( probably because I am not interested in geology so much and there are parts about it) but generally this book is wonderful. I will recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about the history of science.
Bibliography
Şengör, Celal. Bilimin Büyüsü. İstanbul, İnkılap, 2019.
Wikipedia. “Celâl Şengör.” Celâl Şengör, Wikimedia Foundation, https://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cel%C3%A2l_%C5%9Eeng%C3%B6r. Accessed 6 February 2021.
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