More than 1,000 international science historians convened in
Beijing on Saturday to discuss the development of science and
technology and their interactions with globalization and
diversity.
Lu
Yongxiang, vice chairman of China's National People's Congress
Standing Committee and president of the Chinese Academy of
Sciences, said that Albert Einstein's Theory of Relativity is an
example of one man having made a great impact on the scientific
community and the world as a whole.
Describing the significance of researching the history of
science, Lu referred to Zheng
He, the Ming dynasty general who led a mammoth fleet across the
Indian Ocean on voyages of discovery 600 hundreds ago.
"The first marine exploration by the Chinese did not necessarily
mean scientific revolution would occur first in China," Lu said,
explaining that China lagged far behind Western powers in science
and technology, a point that was clearly explained by well-known
British science historian Dr. Joseph Needham.
This congress is the first of its kind in China since the
establishment of the International Union of History and Philosophy
of Science's Division of History of Science in 1929. Only five
countries outside of Europe have hosted the event.
Liu Dun, vice executive president of the International Union of
History and Philosophy of Science's Division of History of Science,
said: "Science is regarded as having originated in the West. The
non-Western origins of science are always ignored."
Liu, who also heads the CAS Institute of History of Natural
Science said he hopes those non-Western features of science history
will be highlighted at the congress, particularly when the congress
looks at "Globalization and Diversity: Diffusion of Science and
Technology Throughout History."
Some plenary lectures will show such diversity, including
"Transmission of Islamic Exact Science to India and its Neighbors
and Repercussions Thereof" by Razaullah Ansari of India; "Moral and
Political Significance of Nature in Ancient China" by Sun Xiaochun
of China; and "The Development of the Number System in Mathematics
in Ancient Iraq" by Khalid Salim Ismael of Iraq.
The seven-day congress covers 36 scientific categories and
comprises work meetings, 62 symposia and two public lectures.
(Xinhua News Agency July 25, 2005)