2/4: For the Love of Mars: A Human History of the Red Planet Hardcover – May 18, 2023 by Matthew Shindell (Author)
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 15 July 2023
⏱️ 5 minutes
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2/4: For the Love of Mars: A Human History of the Red Planet Hardcover – May 18, 2023 by Matthew Shindell (Author)
https://www.amazon.com/Love-Mars-Human-History-Planet/dp/0226821897/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
Mars and its secrets have fascinated and mystified humans since ancient times. Due to its vivid color and visibility, its geologic kinship with Earth, and its potential as our best hope for settlement, Mars embodies everything that inspires us about space and exploration. For the Love of Mars surveys the red planet’s place in the human imagination, beginning with ancient astrologers and skywatchers and ending in our present moment of exploration and virtual engagement.
National Air and Space Museum curator Matthew Shindell describes how historical figures across eras and around the world have made sense of this mysterious planet. We meet Mayan astrologer priests who incorporated Mars into seasonal calendars and religious ceremonies; Babylonian astrologers who discerned bad omens; figures of the Scientific Revolution who struggled to comprehend it as a world; Victorian astronomers who sought signs of intelligent life; and twentieth- and twenty-first-century scientists who have established a technological presence on its surface. Along the way, we encounter writers and artists from each of these periods who take readers and viewers along on imagined journeys to Mars.
By focusing on the diverse human stories behind the telescopes and behind the robots we know and love, Shindell shows how Mars exploration has evolved in ways that have also expanded knowledge about other facets of the universe. Captained by an engaging and erudite expert, For the Love of Marsis a captivating voyage through time and space for anyone curious about Curiosity and the red planet.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | A job match you with Matthew Schindel, his new book is for the love of Mars, a human history |
| 0:07.5 | of the Red Planet, the medieval world inherits the understanding of the ancients, and then |
| 0:14.0 | astrology. |
| 0:15.0 | But I go to one note of clarity in Baghdad and Damascus, Matt informs us between the |
| 0:23.0 | 10th and the 16th century, which is the dark ages in the West, an age of feudal superstition. |
| 0:30.0 | They're very careful observations of the planets and stars. |
| 0:35.0 | And Matt, this sure looks like science. |
| 0:37.8 | Is that agreed upon that what was going on in Baghdad and Damascus was scientific observation? |
| 0:43.5 | Yeah, you know, we used to, pretty much solely talk about a renaissance happening in Europe |
| 0:51.0 | later. |
| 0:52.0 | And now it's pretty common for historians of science to talk about an earlier renaissance |
| 0:56.1 | that happens in the Islamic world, where all of this ancient knowledge, in addition to |
| 1:01.3 | knowledge that is being brought from different corners of the Islamic Empire, you know, |
| 1:08.4 | there are libraries built, there's a large translation movement, and then there is |
| 1:12.8 | original astronomical work being done as well. |
| 1:16.6 | So there's definitely a lot of what we would recognize today as science and knowledge |
| 1:21.7 | production happening in the Islamic world, prior to that European renaissance that in |
| 1:28.6 | many ways is seeded by the work that's being done in the Islamic world earlier. |
| 1:34.0 | And it's a lot of these texts that are produced in the Islamic world, not only the ancient |
| 1:39.2 | texts that are being translated, but commentaries on those texts and extrapolations of those |
| 1:44.4 | texts into, you know, more sort of contemporary to their time knowledge that ends up feeding |
| 1:52.1 | that great renaissance in the West that, you know, if you think about what's happening |
... |
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