I won’t be able to watch this until later on, but I didn’t want to keep you from getting to it. This is the writeup on tonight’s episode that deals with science:
In 1683 the Ottoman army laid siege to Vienna, the capital of Europe’s most powerful empire. Domination of East over West was an alarmingly plausible scenario. But Islam was defeated: not so much by firepower as by science. Niall Ferguson asks why the Islamic world didn’t participate in the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment, and if the West is still capable of maintaining its scientific lead, at a time when educational attainment in science subjects is declining.
Enjoy!
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