PORTRAITS FROM THE PAST/ALHAZEN - THE BOOK OF OPTICS

By the time of his release, Alhazenhad  written most of his seven-volume Book of Optics, considered to be "one of the most important books in the history of physics."  In it he discussed experiments into the new nature of light, including how light spits into its constituent colors, reflects off mirrors, and bends when passing from one medium into another.  He also studied visual perception and the anatomy and mechanics of the eye.

By the 13th century, Alhazen's work had been translated from Arabic into Latin, and for centuries thereafter,European scholars cited it as an authority. Alhazen's writings on the properties of lenses thus laid essential groundwork for European eyeglass makers who by holding lenses one in front of anther, invented the telescope and the microscope. 

THE CAMERA OBSCURA

Alhazen identified the principles that underpin photography when he built what could amount to the first camera obscura on record. This enclosure consisted of a "dark room" into which light entered through a pinhole-size aperture, projecting an inverted image of what lay outside onto a wall inside the chamber. 

In the 1800's, photographic plates were added to the camera obscura to capture images permanently.  The result?  The camera.  All modern cameras-and indeed the eye itself-use the same physical principles as the camera obscura. 

THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD

An outstanding aspect of Alhazen's work was his meticulous and systematic research into natural phenomena.  His approach was most unusual for his day.  He was one of the first investigators to test theories by experimentation, and he was not afraid to question  accepted wisdom if the evidence did not back it up.

A tenet of modern science can be summed up by the dictum:  "Prove what you believe!"  Some consider Alhazen to be "the father of the modern scientific method."  On that basis, we have much to thank him for.

Next time: THE BIBLE'S VIEWPOINT/GOD'S NAME

From the jw.org publications