Читать книгу Think Like Da Vinci: 7 Easy Steps to Boosting Your Everyday Genius - Michael Gelb - Страница 17

He made significant discoveries about the nature of fossilization, and he was the first to document the phenomenon of soil erosion. As he wrote, “Water gnaws at mountains and fills valleys.”

His physics studies anticipated the modern disciplines of hydrostatics, optics, and mechanics.

Leonardo’s investigations led him to anticipate many great scientific discoveries including breakthroughs by Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, and Darwin.

40 years before Copernicus – Da Vinci noted, in large letters for emphasis, “IL SOLE NO SI MUOVE,” “The sun does not move.” He added, “The earth is not in the center of the circle of the sun, nor in the center of the universe.”

60 years before Galileo – He suggested that “a large magnifying lens” should be employed to study the surface of the moon and other heavenly bodies.

200 years before Newton – Anticipating the theory of gravitation, Leonardo wrote, “Every weight tends to fall towards the center by the shortest possible way.” And elsewhere he added that because “every heavy substance presses downward, and cannot be upheld perpetually, the whole earth must become spherical.”

400 years before Darwin – He placed man in the same broad category as monkeys and apes and wrote, “Man does not vary from the animals except in what is accidental.”

More valuable than any of his specific scientific achievements, Leonardo’s approach to knowledge set the stage for modern scientific thinking.

Self-portrait in red chalk.