Day 1:
* The best known of ... “最有名的...”又一种写法，作为积累。
The best known of the ancient Greek philosophers, Aristotle ...
* ongoing/perpetual
* disprove
要多积累这类词，pay attention to the English pattern. The key lies in the prefix such as dis-/out-
disarm/disprove/discredit
outlive/outrun/outweigh/outrank
* empirical
empirical evidence（习惯法，注意！）/research/study/knowledge
ANTONYM theoretical
* apparent 常见意思不再赘述，简要提一下不熟悉的用法。
for no apparent reason 挺耳熟的
It was apparent from her face that she was really upset.
It soon became apparent to everyone that he could not sing. 这里的apparent相当于clear
描述图或表时，From the data in the graph above, it is apparent that... 从上图的数据明显可以看出
描述图或表的各种表达参照illustrate中的language bank
当且仅当作定语时等同于seeming之意。
e.g. My parents were concerned about my apparent lack of enthusiasm for school.
He died of an apparent heart attack.
还有如下固定搭配：apparent paradox/contradiction/discrepancy
e.g. the apparent paradox of people migrating during the periods of low employment
The potential of loss was all too apparent. 不能更明显了（in an unpleasant and worrying way）
* Alhazen's scientific method: The duty of the man who investigates the writings of scientists, if learning the truth is his goal, is to make himself an enemy of all that he reads, and ... attack it from every side. He should also suspect himself as he performs his critical examination of it, so that he may avoid falling into either prejudice or leniency（宽大，仁慈 a punishment that is not as severe as it should be）.
* If it seems to be true, then the results may be sent out for peer review, in which people working in the same or a familiar field are invited to pick holes in（挑刺儿） the argument, and to falsify the theory, or to repeat the experiment to make sure the results are correct.
falsify 篡改
e.g. the deliberate falsification of the company's records
* speculative 同样，常规词义不写。
He eyed her speculatively. 他疑惑地看了她一眼。
speculative investments 投机性的
* When the New Zealand-born scientist... 不要老写New Zealander/kiwi，可以用-born改变一下。
* deflection 偏离
e.g. the deflection of the missile away from its target
The goal was scored with a deflection off the goalkeeper. 球是打在守门员身上反弹入网的。(in sports, it refers to “反弹”）
* compelling 同，熟悉的不写。
发现了很有意思的用法，第一个是“引人入胜的，扣人心弦的”
e.g. Her novel makes compelling reading.这个句式很讨巧，看上去很妙，翻译成“她的书读起来扣人心弦”。
similarly，还可以写"His life makes a compelling story"。
第二个是“非常强烈的”。
e.g. a compelling need
* 积累复合词。long-held
* a geocentric universe/theory 地球中心论
* apparatus 同，熟悉意思不写。
注意可以用来特指政府机关 the power of the state apparatus
还可以用来指一套身体器官 the sensory apparatus
* reason
...reasoned that the Earth must be once covered by the sea. 推断
reason的其他用法，28号补。
* a scientific outlook 科学观念【惯用法】
* 复合词again, ground-breaking
* quash
His conviction was quashed by the Court of Appeal. 上诉法院撤销了对他的判决。
The rumors were quickly quashed. (=suppress) 流言很快被制止了。
* This marked the birth of Chemistry as a science, as distinct from the mystical alchemy from which it arose.
注意这个句式，后面的as应该表转折意，是否和前面的as有联系不知。28号补as 用法。
* 要注意倒装句式，with the dinosaurs came the idea of evolution.
其实句式很简单，写作的时候要想起来用，让行文更富有变化。
* 生词集合：
combustion 燃烧
phlogiston （古化学）燃素
meteorologist 气象学家
thermodynamics 热力学
stratum 岩层 （plr. strata）【还有阶层之意：people from all social strata】
palaeontology 古生物学
genome 基因组，染色体组
* technical advance 科技进步
* 又一次，复合词。leap-frogging ideas with increasing precision
* 积累名作动。
之前寒假写作里面有两个：cloud, house.
这次是harbour.
e.g. Some planets in orbit around distant stars may even harbour life.
* daunting 令人气馁的
这个词明明积累过诶，又忘了。好再记一遍。
e.g. the daunting task/prospect
* relentless 这个也记过，又一个忘掉的。再记一遍。
her relentless pursuit of perfection 对完美的不懈追求
a relentless enemy 残酷的敌人
PS 这个跟开头的ongoing/perpetual是呼应的。
the relentless search for the truth continues. 可以放在一起记。
* 因为科学类文章有好多表示“提出”/“阐述”/“产生”的词or词组。总结一下，在写作的时候注意替换。
propose a theory
demonstrate
sth progress
reveal/show
(begin to) take root
produce
(re)construct
open up new fields of
be applied/developed to
lay out
suggest
Day 2:
Day 3:
Extensive reading:
* Rutherford's Alpha particle scattering experiment
see the attachment on Evernote.
* Four bodily humours 四种体液
Temperament theory has its roots in the ancient four humors theory. It may have origins in ancient Egypt or Mesopotamia, but it was the Greek physician Hippocrates (460–370 BC) who developed it into a medical theory.
He believed certain human moods, emotions and behaviors were caused by an excess or lack of body fluids (called "humors"): blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm.
Next, Galen (AD 129 – c. 200) developed the first typology of temperament in his dissertation De temperamentis, and searched for physiological reasons for different behaviors in humans. He classified them as hot/cold and dry/wet taken from the four elements. There could also be "balance" between the qualities, yielding a total of nine temperaments.
The word "temperament" itself comes from Latin "temperare", "to mix".
In the ideal personality, the complementary characteristics or warm-cool and dry-moist were exquisitely balanced. In four less ideal types, one of the four qualities was dominant over all the others. In the remaining four types, one pair of qualities dominated the complementary pair; for example, warm and moist dominated cool and dry.
These latter four were the temperamental categories Galen named "sanguine", "choleric", "melancholic" and "phlegmatic" after the bodily humors, respectively. Each was the result of an excess of one of the humors that produced, in turn, the imbalance in paired qualities.
* Empedocles' death
Diogenes Laërtius records the legend that Empedocles died by throwing himself into Mount Etna in Sicily, so that the people would believe his body had vanished and he had turned into an immortal god; the volcano, however, threw back one of his bronze sandals, revealing the deceit.
Another legend maintains that he threw himself into the volcano to prove to his disciples that he was immortal; he believed he would come back as a god after being consumed by the fire. Horace also refers the death of Empedocles in his work "Ars Poetica" and admits poets the right to destroy themselves.
* Supernova
A supernova is an astronomical event that occurs during the last stellar evolutionary stages of a massive star's life, whose dramatic and catastrophic destruction is marked by one final titanic explosion. This causes the sudden appearance of a "new" bright star, before slowly fading from sight over several weeks or months.
* House of Wisdom
The House of Wisdom (Arabic: بيت الحكمة; Bayt al-Hikma) was a major intellectual center during the Islamic Golden Age.
The House of Wisdom was founded by Caliph Harun al-Rashid (reigned 786–809) and culminated in prominence under his son al-Ma'mun (reigned 813–833) who is credited with its formal institution. Al-Ma'mun is also credited with bringing many well-known scholars to share information, ideas, and culture in the House of Wisdom.
Based in Baghdad from the 9th to 13th centuries, beside Muslim scholars, people of Jewish or Christian background were allowed to study here.
Besides translating books into Arabic and preserving them, scholars associated with the House of Wisdom also made many remarkable original contributions to diverse fields.
During the reign of al-Ma'mun, astronomical observatories were set up, and the House was an unrivalled center for the study of humanities and for science in medieval Islam, including mathematics, astronomy, medicine, alchemy and chemistry, zoology, and geography and cartography.
Drawing primarily on Greek, but also Syriac, Indian and Persian texts, the scholars accumulated a great collection of world knowledge, and built on it through their own discoveries.
By the middle of the ninth century, the House of Wisdom had the largest selection of books in the world.
It was destroyed in the sack of the city following the Mongol Siege of Baghdad (1258).
Summary of reading:
Generally it is a pretty brief but lucid introduction of science. The author deliberately divides the whole passage into two sections: how scientific methodology was formed and how scientific advances have developed.
Abundant examples and stories of science are applied by the author. In case the successions of illustrations may pose an overwhelming effect the author trys to keep the examples in short. And a clear logic helps strongly support the narration.
For me I enjoy many of the author's assertions, like:
Every experiment that gives predicted answers is supporting evidence, but one experiment that fails may bring an entire theory crashing down.
The last sentence also counts:
It seems likely that there will always be more questions than answers, but future discoveries will surely continue to amaze.