On the Nature of Things

Infrared radiation was discovered by Herschel [58] in 1800, using a mercury thermometer to detect sunlight dispersed by a prism. However, the Latin poet Lucretius in his De rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things, about 50 BC) clearly showed a clear feeling of the infrared radiation. Of course Lucretius s terminology was far from the modern one, and he had no thermometer at his disposal ... 

So much may be obtained by changing only the component arrangement) (Titus Lucretius Caro On the nature of Things )... 

Lucretius (Titus Lucretius Caras, 99 BCE - 55 CE) of Rome wrote a poem, De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things) (24) in which he described the atomic theory of Epicums of Samos (342-271 BCE). For Epicurus, atoms were indivisible, invisible, and indestmctible, and they differ in size, shape and weight. He believed that a void exists because there can be no motion of the atoms without it. The motions of atoms included the downward motion of free atoms because of their weight, swerve, the deviation of atomic motion from straight downward paths, and blow, which results from collisions and motion in compoimd bodies. Lucretius called atoms poppy seeds, bodies, principals, and shapes (25). 

Lucretius. De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things), Leonard, W. E., Translator http //classics.mit.edu/Carus/nature things.html (accessed Febmaiy 1, 2010). 

The allusions to Democritus by Vitruvius, writing a century or more before Pliny, seem to apply to the real Democritus. Vitruvius says he wrote several works on the nature of things. Seneca attributes to him the invention of the reverbatory furnace, and the art of imitating natural gems, particularly the emerald, though it is probable that here also the real Democritus is confused with the pseudo-Democritus. 

On the nature of things, tr. by Cyril Bailey, Oxford, 1910. Lullus, Raymundus. 

Smith MF (2001) Lucretius on the nature of things. Hackett, Indianapolis/Cambridge... 

Although Aristotle developed a powerful matter theory, he was, like Plato, not an atomist. He argued that there were too many logical problems with the idea of indivisible, imperceptible objects that nonetheless had fixed existence. While Platonic and then later Aristotelian philosophy came to dominate Western thinking about the material world, the atomist thought of Democritus did not disappear completely. The philosophical school founded by Epicurus of Samos (341-270 b.c.e.) based its theory of matter on atoms. Our best record of Epicurean atomism comes from the Roman poet Lucretius (95—55 b.c.e.), who wrote a poem entitled De rerum natura (On the Nature of Things). Lucretius says ... 

T. L. Cams, De remm natura (50 BC), On the Nature of Things, Harvard University Press,... 

C. Bailey (transL), Lucretius on the Nature of Things, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1910, p. 43. 

Pauling s classic text, The Nature of the Chemical Bond," first edition in 1939, third edition in 1960, has a title that is equally magisterial and mysterious. It evokes Lucretius ancient classic De Return Natura (On the Nature of Things). Indeed, his goal was perhaps no less than leading a diving expedition into the depths of chemical bonds to sample their electronic contours, waves, and currents. 

Atomism did not die out altogether, however. The Greek philosopher Epicurus (c. 342-270 b.c.) made atomism part of his way of thought, and Epicureanism won many adherents in the next few centuries. One of these adherents was the Roman poet Titus Lucretius Cams (c.95-c.55 b.c.), usually known simply as Lucretius. He expounded the atomist viewpoint of Democritus and Epicums in a long poem entitled De Rerum Natura ( On the Nature of Things ). It is considered by many to be the finest didactic poem (one intended to teach) ever written. 

Roman poet and philosopher born at the beginning of the 1st century bc, wrote in his poem De Rerum Natura (On the nature of things) ... 

Among Cicero s contemporaries, the works of Lucretius (De rerum natura On the Nature of Things ) and of Sallust (Conspiracy of Catiline and Jugurthine War) are available in Penguin translations (and many others) the biography of Cicero s friend Atticus by Cornelius Nepos is translated with commentary by N. Horsfall in the Clarendon Ancient History Series (Oxford, 1989). 

Munita tenere / edita doctrina sapientum templa serena. [ To inhabit lofty, serene sanctuaries which are fortified by the teachings of the wise .] Lucretius, De rerum natura [On the Nature of Things], 2.7. 

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