The Power of Doubt
Description
Challenging the scholarly establishment in the 11th century with his paper "Doubts on Ptolemy," Ibn Al-Haytham sparked a paradigm shift in the way that learned people regarded the movement of planets and stars. In this program physics professor Jim Al-Khalili visits Italy, Egypt, and Syria to show how the spirit of inquiry among Islamic astronomers helped bring about the Copernican Revolution in Europe. But why was the work that began at the great Maragheh observatory completed in Europe and not in the Middle East? Al-Khalili also goes to Tehran to examine the role of science in Islam today.
Runtime
52 min
Series
Genre
Date of Publication
[2012], c2009
Database
Films on Demand