Jacob Bronowski (18 January 1908 – 22 August 1974) was a British mathematician and biologist of Polish-Jewish origin. Just recently, I have started watching a documentary he made called,
The Ascent Of Man on DVD. I have only finished watching the second episode and it is turning out to be a wonderful documentary. It is very powerful, very insightful and I want everyone to watch it. I found the links for it in Google so you can preview it for yourself. I have orderred them according to how they were titled in the series.
- Lower than the Angels — Evolution of man from proto-ape to 400,000 years ago.
- The Harvest of the Seasons — Early human migration, agriculture and the first settlements, war.
- The Grain in the Stone — Tools, development of architecture and sculpture.
- The Hidden Structure — Fire, metals and alchemy.
- Music of the Spheres — The language of numbers.
- The Starry Messenger — Galileo's universe.
- The Majestic Clockwork — Explores Kepler and Newton's laws.
- The Drive for Power — The Industrial Revolution.
- The Ladder of Creation — Darwin and Wallace's ideas on the origin of species.
- World within World — The story of the periodic table.
- Knowledge or Certainty — Physics and the clash of absolute knowledge, the oppressive state, and its misgivings realizing the result of its terrible outcome.
- Generation upon Generation — Life, genetics, and the cloning of identical forms.
- The Long Childhood — Bronowski's treatise on the commitment of man.