His fields of expertise are history of science, history of mathematics, the scientific revolution, sociology of science, intellectual history, 17-18th centuries, history of Chinese science, and the history of botany.
China | People's Republic of China | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Bachelor of Science | National Science Foundation | history | American Association for the Advancement of Science | California Institute of Technology | American Museum of Natural History | Natural History Museum | political science | Master of Science | Science | History | Communist Party of China | Computer Science | History (U.S. TV channel) | Georgia Institute of Technology | computer science | science | Political Science | Rochester Institute of Technology | Queensland University of Technology | natural history | technology | Royal Institute of Technology | Field Museum of Natural History | Delft University of Technology | Mystery Science Theater 3000 | Vienna University of Technology |
He sees specific influences in Alhazen's physical optical theory, Chinese mechanical technologies leading to the perception of the world as a machine, the Hindu-Arabic numeral system, which carried implicitly a new mode of mathematical atomic thinking, and the heliocentrism rooted in in ancient Egyptian religious ideas associated with Hermeticism.