Carlo Rovelli - Anaximander (Westholm, 2007) ****

 In the list of thinkers who shaped our world of today, Anaximander should be high in the rankings. According to physicist Carlo Rovelli for the simple reason that he put forth the statement that all things have a reason in nature. He described how clouds are formed from heating up water and how clouds that cool down start raining, replenishing the rivers and oceans that can evaporate again. Before Anaximander, all natural events were the result of the interference of gods: Poseidon, Zeus, Athena, ...

Even more, by tracking the trajectories of stars across the sky, he came to the astonishing conclusion that the earth is not "down here" and the stars "up there", but that the earth is floating in space, and that all planets and stars are revolving around us. This explained why the sun and the moon disappear only to re-appear again on the other side with such fixed regularity. 

Of course we know little about Anaximander himself - his pupil Thales of Miletus is probably better known - but Rovelli uses his revolutionary approach to describe the value and the history of scientific thought up until today. Especially today, religious bigotry, conspiracy theories and intentional obfuscation of the facts for political gain requires a good understanding of science. Today, scientific thought has never been so widespread, but technology also allows the dumbest superstitions to get traction across the world. 

His conclusions are worth repeating.