The Stone-breakers

"The field attracted many extraordinary figures, not least the aforementioned Murchison...he discovered an interest in rocks and became with rather astounding swiftness a titan of geological thinking." I liked this quote and the man they talked about. Many people think that just because someone is not good in some things, they're not good at anything. This quote shows that people that are not skilled in one particular subject don't have to be stupid; they can actually show surprising knowledge in other things that no one would have imagined.

I thought it was amusing how men were very curious and eager to discover the age of the Earth, coming up with weird and most likely impossible ways to try to calculate it. Edmond Halley's method was amusing and creative, I liked it, but it was obviously impossible to find out the planet's age with that.

As I read further, I also found out the odd behaviors those great men have. For example, Buckland, and Lyell. Does odd behavior have to do with great intelligence and findings? Many people that I have come across with and are very intelligent have some peculiar tendencies and habits, too. Does the intelligence influence these habits, or viceversa?

Chapt. 4- The Measure of Things

"Almost at once...a man named Pierre Godin, ran off with a thirteen-year-old and could not be induced to return." Okay, the last sentence of this paragraph was indeed very weird and...Messed up, but the whole paragraph itself was very radical and intense. I mean, how did everything go wrong out of the simple attempt of studying measurements? How can that study be so unfortunate and difficult every time?

The unfortunes of the men that tried to research these subjects wasn't the only thing about the chapter that interested me, of course. I also liked to hear about Newton's laws, and the explanations of the measures, etc. I liked to see how some researchers took the credit for others' findings, and how others tried and tried to discover something in vain.