The Dawn of Science

Prof. Thanu Padmanabhan, a gifted theoretical physicist and cosmologist, is currently a Distinguished Professor at IUCAA, Pune, India. An internationally acclaimed researcher and teacher, he has published nearly 300 technical papers and authored eleven books which have made significant impact. His research has won prizes seven times in recent years from the Gravity Research Foundation, USA including the First Award in 2008. He was the Chairman of the IUPAP Astrophysics Commission (2011-14), the President of the IAU Cosmology Commission (2009-12) and a Sackler Distinguished Astronomer of Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge. He has received numerous national and international awards including the Padma Shri, the presidential medal of honor in India. Dr. Vasanthi Padmanabhan obtained her Ph.D in astrophysics from TIFR, Mumbai working in the field of dark matter and structure formation in the universe, establishing constraints on decaying dark matter scenarios. An expert in scientific computing, writing and production, she has been actively involved with the end-to-end editing and formatting of the books authored by her spouse, Thanu Padmanabhan, over several decades, including the preparation of most of their technical and scientific figures. She is keenly interested in the history of science.

In the Beginning.- The Athenian Contribution.- From the Ishango Bone to Euclid.- Archimedes - the Giant among the Ancients.- The Healing Art and Its Science.- The Legacy from the Arab World.- The Indo-Arabic Numerals.- The Printing of a Page.- Exploring the 'Seven Seas'.- The First Steps of Modern Medicine.-  Making the Earth Move.- The Logarithm - An Unsung Hero.- The Way of the Wanderers.- The Galileo and the Dynamical World.- Affairs of the Heart.- The Weight of the Intangible.- Geometry Without Figures.- Life's Infinite Vaiety: Finding Order in Species.- A Measure of the Heavens.- Calculus Developed in South India.- Story of the Calendar.- And Then All was Light - The Thirst for Power.- Chemistry Comes of Age.