Tech Enthusiast

Excited about all things Maths, edTech and AI related. Head of Maths /also involved with Digital strategy. At the intersection of technology and ed research.

[Ihtesham Ali @ihteshamali]

An Arab scholar in 1011 was placed under house arrest in Cairo for 10 years. He used the time to invent the scientific method, prove how vision actually works, and write a 7-volume book that Newton studied 600 years later.

I read about him last night and could not stop thinking about it.

His name was Ibn al-Haytham. The book is called the "Book of Optics."

The textbook story names Bacon, Galileo, and Descartes as the founders of modern science. All three of them came 600 years after Ibn al-Haytham. All three of them studied his work directly or through Latin translations. The man who actually invented the scientific method was working alone in a single room in Cairo while Europe was still in the Dark Ages.

Here is the story almost nobody tells you.

He was born in Basra around 965 CE. By his 40s he had a reputation across the Arab world as one of the most original minds alive. Then he made the mistake that almost killed him. He claimed publicly that he could regulate the flooding of the Nile. The mad caliph al-Hakim of Cairo summoned him to Egypt to do it.

Ibn al-Haytham took one look at the river and realized the project was impossible with the technology of his era. The caliph had executed dozens of scholars for less. So he faked madness. The caliph believed him and put him under house arrest in his own home in Cairo for the next 10 years.

Most people would have lost their actual mind. He used the time to invent science.

Before him, knowledge worked one way. You quoted authority. If Aristotle had said it, it was true. If Galen had written it, it was correct. The role of a scholar was to memorize and defend the ancient Greeks. I

Ibn al-Haytham broke this completely. He wrote a sentence in the Book of Optics that quietly destroyed 1,400 years of intellectual culture. "The seeker after truth," he said, "is not the one who follows his natural disposition to trust the writings of the ancients. The seeker after truth is the one who suspects them, questions them, and submits only to argument and experiment."

That single sentence is the foundation of modern science. He wrote it 600 years before the European Renaissance.

The second thing he did was build the actual machinery of experimentation.

He insisted that no claim about the physical world was acceptable until it had been verified by an experiment anyone could repeat. He gave detailed instructions for every experiment in his book. He told his readers, in writing, not to take his word for any of it. Build the equipment. Run the tests yourself. Verify or destroy my claims with your own eyes.

The third thing he did was use the method to overturn one of the most settled questions in physics.

The Greeks had taught for centuries that vision worked because the eye emitted invisible rays. Ibn al-Haytham proved them wrong with a darkened room, a small hole, and a wall. The first camera obscura. He showed that light from the outside world enters the eye, the exact opposite of what every Greek thinker had taught.

Two hundred years later his book was translated into Latin in Spain. Roger Bacon cited him. Kepler cited him. Galileo's work on the telescope was built on his optics. Newton's foundational work on light rested on his framework.

Walk into any physics department today. Ask who founded the scientific method. Almost nobody will say Ibn al-Haytham.

The man who invented the way humanity actually knows things did the work under house arrest, with no funding, no laboratory, and a paranoid caliph next door waiting for an excuse to kill him.

He did it anyway. Most of the world is still pretending it was someone else's idea.

[Save Gaza @Alee93ale]

This is Israel, world

An Israeli soldier ordered a Palestinian youth to continue walking, then used him as a target for long-range shooting practice before killing him.

Tell us what you think of their actions!

Repost please

[Jaspreet Kaur @behindthenetra]

Let me tell you a secret: I used to HATE networking 😣

The sometimes-awkward introvert in me dreaded it. Walking into a room full of confident people who seemed to know exactly what to say, how to say it, and who to say it to? No thanks. I’d overthink everything 😅🙂 from how I was standing, to whether I sounded “smart enough,” to whether I even belonged there at all. Spoiler: I did. I just didn’t know it yet.

To make things even more fun, my husband is excellent at networking. Classic extrovert. He walks into a room and people just gravitate toward him... charming, chatty, completely in his element. Meanwhile, I’d be hanging back, trying to make eye contact with the snack table. 😍

But here’s what helped me step out of that shadow, not by becoming like him, but by embracing my own way of connecting.

✨ I began reminding myself: “I belong in this room.” Not just by chance or luck, but because of the work I’ve done and the story I bring. That small mindset shift made a big difference. Suddenly, I wasn’t shrinking myself or playing small, I was showing up.

✨ I also started to approach networking less like a performance, and more like a conversation. “I’m not here to impress. I’m here to connect.” That one changed everything. When I stopped trying to be the most polished person in the room, I actually started having real, meaningful conversations.

✨ Because here’s the truth: Everyone has a story. And I realised I didn’t need to have mine all tied up in a perfect bow. I just had to be willing to share it, and more importantly, to listen. Deeply.

Choosing courage over comfort helped me step into rooms that once intimidated me. Asking questions, owning my curiosity, and reminding myself: “My voice, my journey, and my questions matter.”

Networking still isn’t always easy. But now, it feels less like a chore and more like an opportunity... to connect, to learn, and to show up as I am.

And for anyone who’s ever felt like they don’t belong in the room: You do. You absolutely do.

🙏🏽

#NetworkingJourney #CourageOverComfort #MeaningfulConnections #IntrovertDiaries #AuthenticConnection #PersonalGrowth #OwnYourStory #YouBelongHere #QuietConfidence #VulnerabilityIsSt

[Dr. Omar Suleiman @omarsuleiman]

On a day that Israel blows up more buildings in Gaza than any other night.

The American Secretary of State participates in an illegal settler tunnel digging under Jerusalem with a wanted war criminal using Palestine colored hammers.

And 250 US legislators visit Israel under the banner of “50 states, 1 Israel”, while 250k plus civilian deaths at their hands shout from the blood stained rubble.

America, we have a serious problem.

[Dr. Omar Suleiman @omarsuleiman]

I will hold my kids tonight, and shake with anger. Dr. Alaa Elnajjar left her home this morning in Gaza to save other kids lives. 9 of her 10 kids arrived to her charred in body bags, and her 1 surviving child barely alive. May Gods mercy be upon her and her family, and may His curse be upon every complicit criminal that did this to her. Ameen

[Suppressed News. @SuppressedNws]

⚡️🇺🇸BREAKING:

Microsoft has fired Moroccan engineer Ibtihal Abou El Saad and Indian engineer Vaniyal Agrawal after they protested the company’s provision of AI technology to the Israeli military during the company’s 50th anniversary celebration.—AP.

[Al Jazeera English @AJEnglish]

Israel continues to pound Gaza, bombing a tent housing journalists near Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, killing at least two and wounding seven others.

🔴 Follow our LIVE coverage: https://t.co/1VmQGvb6Tb

[The Citizens Foundation @TCFPak]

Pakistan's education crisis has reached an alarming level.

A nationwide effort is needed to improve the current situation. Read the article by Dr. Faisal Bari published on DAWN. https://t.co/hRYLPnqphi

#ChangeBeginsWithEducation #EducationCrisis

[The Linking Network @Linking_Network]

Already thinking of next year 2024-25?
Why not find out what positive benefits #SchoolsLinking can bring to your school?
Research shows our programme is amongst the most powerful prejudice reduction tools schools can use
Repost to help us reach new schools
https://t.co/wuq3sPnBUW

[William Dalrymple @DalrympleWill]

Often called Arabic numerals, the modern number system we use today actually originates in India. Whilst in the west they were using Roman numerals, in India they were using numbers 1-9.

[William Dalrymple @DalrympleWill]

Indian numbers are arguably the nearest thing the world has to a universal language’ 

Historian William Dalrymple believes that while Indian ideas are among the crucial foundations of our world, more often than not, ancient Greece and China are touted as the most important sources of many critical existential answers

https://t.co/mGQfojH52a

[Tech Enthusiast @EdtechieF]

Olive tree harvest - a symbol of resistance that grounds a people experiencing genocide
https://t.co/C2GgtmrJjI

[Dr Rosena @DrRosena]

We must suspend all arms exports to Israel immediately.

Why this is still up for discussion, while civilians continue to be brutally killed, is simply incomprehensible.

The murder and destruction in Gaza and beyond, is morally reprehensible and sickening.

[Darshan 🦖 @darshan]

This neuroscientist worked until she was 103.

She also:

• Won a Nobel Prize at 77
• Became a senator at 92
• Stayed mentally sharp into her 100s

Her secret? 5 daily habits that prevented brain aging: 🧵

[Brendan O'Sullivan 🇮🇪🇪🇺 @ImtaBrendan]

Questioning. We want participants not performers.

[Yousuf Nazar @YousufNazar]

According to the Economic Survey of #Pakistan released today, the cumulative #education expenditures by the Federal and Provincial Governments in FY2023 amounted to approximately 1.5% of GDP, indicating a fall from 1.7% of the GDP in the prior year.

This is significantly lower than the comparable ratio of 3-4% in many Asian countries and 3% of the GDP in India.

[Tech Enthusiast @EdtechieF]

I just signed @IslamicReliefUK's petition calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in #Gaza. Will you join me? https://t.co/u83em89vjt

[Tech Enthusiast @EdtechieF]

@mathscpdchat I think a simple follow up question is good feedback and prompts a response. So going over a test..
Write down why your answer was incorrect or what you misunderstood.
Response:

Now try this similar question below.

[Claire Clay @cclay8]

I have put together a power point which shows the essential calculator buttons for both the fx-83GT X and fx-83GT CW side by side. Feel free to use in class, print off for students or put on online resources as revision.
https://t.co/Hxetwq1o7b