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Oct 2, 2021Liked by Book Club by Numlock

I’m slow to get started with this one. But I’m only on page 4 of the intro, I think, and I’ve already learned at least three new things. So looking forward to what else is to come!

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Yes! The density of neat new things per page is so high, i’m loving it

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Never have I learned so much new info in an intro & four chapters!

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Oct 3, 2021Liked by Book Club by Numlock

In no particular order or priority, these things pleased, intrigued, provoked much thought, stretched my ability to comprehend: 1. Meanwhile—well, over the next couple hundred million years into the Permian period, so more “mean” than “while,” I guess—. 2. “(Before that [second half of 18th century] English factories had imported kaolin from the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina—Cherokee land.) 3. “It turns out that water vapor—particles of water dispersed in air—preferentially scatters blue light…why the sky, full of teeny-tiny bits of water, is blue.” 4. Peace allows for “showy arts and crafts” in the Tang era p. 25. Only woman emperor Wu Zeitan 690 promoted qualified commoners to important bureaucratic jobs instead of the usual rich kids…this made a whole lot of society start working better. P. 25 5. Importance of Arab scientists 6. George Palmer 1777…first time anyone had connected the physical world of light, the chemical world of color, and the biological world of the eye and brain.

This book is opening a whole world to me.

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Oct 3, 2021Liked by Book Club by Numlock

Btw the Spirits of Saturn is an amazing name for makeup! Also, had no idea until reading this book how important Porcelain ever was. Finally, I give the author an A+ for weaving in Moby Dick & Dickens into this book.

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Oct 3, 2021Liked by Book Club by Numlock

Color became a symbol when it became a science! Science & Civilization In China!! The Book of Corrective Optics!!! A fascinating read so far on a subject that I had little familiarity with and until I started reading this book any interest in. That's been the beauty of this Book Club for me, especially for someone who reads mostly novels. My favorite sections were about the Ship Wreck and Isaac Newton. Both in which I could read full books on.

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