The Science of Energy

This Medieval manuscript illustration represents three of the greatest ancient Greek scientists: Plato, Anaxagoras, and Democritus. Anaxagoras believed that the Universe came about through the action of a cosmic mind, or nous , on an infinite number of particles, or “seeds.” Democritus was the first person to say that matter consisted of particles that could not be divided into smaller parts. He called these particles atoms .

THE COSMIC MIND AT WORK Anaxagoras’s seeds were similar to what we would think of today as atoms. The idea that everything was made up of tiny particles too small to see had been put forward by another Greek, Leucippus, who lived around the same time as Anaxagoras. Our word “atom” comes from the Greek atomein , which means “cannot be divided.” Anaxagoras’s seeds, however, could be divided an infinite number of times. The idea that atoms could not be divided came from Leucippus’s pupil Democritus (470–380 bce ). All the order and forms around us came into being, Anaxagoras believed, by the action of nous , the cosmic mind, shaping the substance of the Universe. “Mind rules the world and has brought order out of confusion,” he said. If Anaxagoras’s seeds can be seen as atoms then perhaps we might also think of his nous as being like energy. It was the force that moved the Universe and determined its shape. 9.