1 The Birth of Science - MSRI

220 9. Science, Technology and Economy
vine-growers has advanced during the last 2200 years. It shows that
Greek genius raised viticulture to a very high level of achievement. 27
If, as is likely, Theophrastus judged the value of a theory by its usefulness
and simplicity, he would be amazed to read that his theories are
considered “defective” today by those who still follow his advice in spite
of having acquired vastly more complex knowledge.
Some of the advances lay simply in the adoption and spread throughout
the Hellenistic world of the best techniques practiced in the various parts
of the ancient empires. For example, the seeder, already used in Mesopotamia,
was introduced to Egypt, while egg incubators, 28 long traditional
in Egypt, became known to the Greeks. 29 (In the early sixteenth century
Thomas More wrote admiringly that in Utopia “vast numbers of eggs are
laid in a gentle and equal heat, in order to be hatched”, 30 but incubators
would remain a mere literary memory still long after that.)
In Hellenistic times, as in classical Greece, honey and wax had multifarious
and extensive uses, and apiculture enjoyed considerable economic
importance. The growth of knowledge in this field (and, for that matter,
in entomology in general 31 ), is demonstrated by the existence of treatises
on apiculture. Pliny mentions two: one by Aristomachus of Soli, who “did
nothing else” in his whole life but study bees, and one by Philiscus of Thasus.
32 We do not have these works, but a lovely page of Pappus gives us
a taste of the scientific level of these studies and an example of the interaction
between exact and empirical sciences. Pappus, in the introduction
to the book where he deals with minima, passes on the observation that
bees, in building hexagonal hives, have solved an optimization problem,
because among regular polygons that tile the plane the hexagon is the one
with the least perimeter for a given area, and therefore the one that allows
the use of the least amount of wax to hold a given amount of honey. 33 This
remark was made again many times in the modern age, becoming a cliché
of sorts.
27
[Forbes: FD], pp. 131-132.
28
Artificial incubation in a temperature-controlled environment is mentioned by Pliny (Naturalis
historia, X, 154).
29
Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca historica, I, lxxiv, 4–5; Aristoteles, Historia animalium, VI, 559b, 1–5.
30
Thomas More, Utopia, book II, at 3%.
31
Incidentally, Plutarch offers us a glimpse of the introduction and subsequent abandonment of
the experimental method in entomology when he berates certain scientists (whom he nonetheless
uses as sources!) for having systematically cut up anthills to study their internal structure (Plutarch,
De sollertia animalium, 968A–B).
32
Pliny, Naturalis historia, XI, 19.
33 Pappus, Collectio, V, 304–306.
Revision: 1.4 Date: 2002/10/12 00:00:03