Introduction

Bek-Thomsen, Jakob; Christiansen, Christian Olaf; Jacobsen, Stefan Gaarsmand; Thorup, Mikkel

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-52815-1_1

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Moreover, upon his arrival in Florence, Steno immediately engaged with the members of the Accademia del Cimento which followed in the 'anti-scholastic' Galilean scientific tradition of experimentation and observation, and responded by taking the middle way between scholastics and experimentalists. 112 His primary instrument was human vision with which he interpreted, or abducted, 113 in the language of geo-semiotics, 114 meaning from the landscape. It is proposed that Steno's awareness of the need for self-discipline and time spent in observation was also guided by an awareness of the qualities of observation required if his deductions were to be deemed accurate and recognizable to others.…”

Section: Steno's Methodologic Innovationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Crystalline stenonian time features from earth and beyond

Moser

2021

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The writings of Niels Stensen (Steno) on mineral growth and modification in his Prodromus, together with his work on time and process in other solids, are here synthesized as five classes of time features defined by changes in the visible continuity of either or both chemistry and orientation. This organization highlights Steno’s implicit recognition of the fractal, scale-invariant nature of natural time features with regard to space, time, and material. The effectiveness and validity of this Stenonian geochronology framework is demonstrated down to atom scale with modern case studies of the U-Pb geochronology mineral zircon from samples originating from the Earth, Moon, and Mars and spanning most of solar system history. Recently discovered nano-scale features, here termed chronostructures, were intimated by Steno in his corpuscular view of mineral behaviour. The remarkable advances in the Prodromus are seen here as a resulting from the intersection of Steno’s highly attuned approach to visual perception, his adoption of Stoic (Senecan) ethics early in his career to guide his natural philosophy, and the influence of the Galilean scientific environment of Florence. It is shown that, by virtue of its scale-invariant and intensive properties, Stenonian geochronology continues to serve as an independent and critical check on the accuracy of absolute geochronology measurements of geologic time given the latter’s inherent dependence on sample volume and the assumption of the chemically closed system. In this way Steno’s scientific legacy continues to help propel human understanding of how we see our place in time.

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Section: Steno's Methodologic Innovationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Crystalline stenonian time features from earth and beyond

Moser

2021

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“…42 A new type of anatomical observation, this time on a grand scale, so as to see the body of the Earth cut open, would have pushed him to move south where he knew he could observe fossils on the field. 43 Thévenot formed a bridge with the liberal court of Ferdinand II, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and his brother, Prince Leopold. At the Medici court another international circle had gathered, including the French oriental philologist Barthélemy d'Herbelot (1625-1695).…”

Section: That Man Is Composed Of the Four Elements Is Against Holymentioning

confidence: 99%

A man with a master plan: Steno’s observations on earth’s history

Dominici

2021

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We present specific sources, including specimens of the Medicean cabinet and geological outcrops in Tuscany, probably used by Nicolaus Steno to build a theory on the origin of organic fossils, crystals and sedimentary strata, in order to construct the history of the Earth based on universal geometric principles. Phenomena he observed in Tuscany and in precedeing travels were revealing a sequence of events consistent with the biblical account. We propose that he devised his method to reconstruct a chronology of primordial events to demonstrate the historicity of the biblical creation in contrast to unorthodox thinking. This had been spreading in philosophical circles of northern Europe since the 1650s, circles frequented by Steno before his arrival in Tuscany in 1666. Steno knew in advance what places to visit to find fossils from literature such as Michele Mercati’s Metallotheca. This was a manuscript owned by the Florentine Carlo Dati, whom Steno probably heard about while in Paris in 1664-1665. In Tuscany he soon formed a tight interaction on matters regarding the interpretation of fossils with the local community of learned men. These included Giovanni Alfonso Borelli who was asked by Prince Leopoldo de’ Medici to provide Steno with fossils from Sicily and Malta. Steno’s theory and scale-independent, geometrical method of inquiry of geological objects found in Tuscany is hinted at in his Canis Carchariae Dissectum Caput, a geological essay completed in a few months in 1666. The theory was published in its most complete form in the so-called Prodromus of 1669. In both works he demonstrated that fossils in younger strata in the Tuscan hills, such as shark teeth and molluscan shells, have an origin analogous to solids which living animals form. In both essays he explicitly related the deposition of strata with marine fossils to the biblical flood, an idea foreshadowed in his oldest known manuscript of 1659, when he was a student in Copenhagen. He found no fossils in older sandstones of the Apennines and understood those strata to have formed before the creation of life. These discoveries and other observations he made in Tuscany were, for Steno, the final proof that natural philosophy and biblical revelation disclose in synergy the mysteries of God’s creation.

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Introduction

Cited by 2 publications

References 12 publications

Crystalline stenonian time features from earth and beyond

Crystalline stenonian time features from earth and beyond

A man with a master plan: Steno’s observations on earth’s history

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