Quick question…
what is stuff?
Maybe that’s too big.
Fine, how about this one…
Where are we?
Like, all of us, Earth, the solar system, the galaxy… where the heck are we?
These questions are kind of a starting point for the scientific method and have been asked
by thinkers for a long time.
They’re questions that not only make us try to find answers, but make us think about
How we find answers.
I’m Hank Green and for most of my life I’ve been obsessed with questions, answers, why
we ask questions, and how we get those answers.
To that end, ever since we started making Crash Course I’ve wanted to make a series
about the History of Science.
AND NOW I GET TO DO IT!
If we look at that first question I asked, “what is stuff”: while physicists will
say that stuff is made of atoms, and atoms are made of quarks and leptons, we still don’t
know, like... why quarks exist.
Or why there appears to be far more matter in the universe than we can account for.
Which is… weird!
And we don’t have the answers yet.
But, we use a method to get at the answers.
A method that we’ve been developing for many centuries.
The Scientific Method.
This series is going to be our chance to explore that method’s development through the ages.
From people like Aristotle and Plato and their schools/cults, to the Mauryan empire and how
they tied science and religion to practical things like irrigation.
The pre-industrial world is full of science and people trying to answer big questions.
Both because they were fascinated and because they wanted to… not die.
But we won’t stop there.
Modern history is full of us expanding our knowledge and coming up with new answers to
age old questions.
Making planes fly, the discovery of DNA, the space race, and yes… unfortunately a few
bombs, have all opened new doors to our understanding of what stuff is and where we are.
So please, join me this year as we look at the storied, messy, and amazing history of
humans figuring stuff out, here on Crash Course History of Science.