The Order of Time

* I have been criticized for telling the history of science as if it were just the result of the ideas of a few brilliant minds rather than the painstaking work of generations. It’s a fair enough criticism, and I apologize to the generations who have done and are doing the necessary work. My only excuse is that I am not attempting a detailed historical analysis or scientific methodology. I am only synthesizing a few crucial steps. Slow, technical, cultural, and artistic advances made by innumerable workshops of painters and artisans were necessary before the Sistine Chapel was possible. But in the end, it was Michelangelo who painted it.