Greece is the Word: How science was born: With Kenny Curtis and Jillian Hughes, Greeking Out, Nat Geo Kids

<p>Hello everyone! This week on The Cosmic Companion, we are pondering why Greece is the Word, discussing the birth of science in the ancient world, and what it means for us today. </p><p>Later on, we'll be talking with Kenny Curtis and Jillian Hughes, hosts of the Greeking Out podcast, and authors of a new book of the same name, from Nat Geo Kids.</p><p>Once upon a time, in the sunny lands of Ancient Greece more than 25 centuries ago, a bunch of curious folks decided to ask some big questions. "Why does the sun rise?" "What are stars?" "Why do planets move?". They were tired of attributing everything to the whims of gods. Much like overgrown toddlers, they wanted ANSWERS, and they wanted them NOW! (errr… then)...</p><p></p><p><em>Jillian Hughes and Kenny Curtis appear on The Cosmic Companion 7 October 2023. Creative Commons 4.0 Attribution 2023 The Cosmic Companion</em></p><p>The Greeks had a knack for asking questions that were way ahead of their time. More than 2,500 years before our age, a woman named Aspasia was known for holding gatherings of some of the greatest minds of her day, including Plato and Socrates. A gifted conversationalist, tales tell that she founded a school for girls, a groundbreaking advance for the era.  </p><p>Democritus of Abdera had the crazy idea that all matter was composed of individual bits, which we call atoms. Building on the work of his mentor, one day around 425 BCE, he may have just been walking around, minding his own business when he thought, "What if everything is made up of tiny, invisible particles?" Boom! The concept of atoms was born.</p><p>Then there was Pythagoras who had a thing for triangles. He may have been sitting around one day, doodling triangles in the sand when he realized that the square of the hypotenuse (the side opposite the right angle) is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides. Mind blown! And thus, the Pythagorean theorem came into existence.</p><p>During the 4th Century BCE, Hippocrates took one look at medicine and said, "This needs s