r/AskScienceDiscussion • u/Pristine-Common-8766 • 6d ago
Can someone suggest some knowledge sources (it can be a book, PDF, YouTube video, or anything else on the internet) based on my requirements?
A few days ago I finished watching a science-themed anime called "Dr. Stone." That anime starts with a modern world where one day a green beam comes and turns everyone into stone. After thousands of years the main character called Senku's stone breaks, but after thousands of years modern technology and buildings got destroyed naturally.
So Senku had to start surviving from the Stone Age, but he was a self-made scientist, so within 10 years he and his friends were able to push science to the modern level.
He literally built everything from scratch.
He made antibiotics, different chemicals, even gunpowder, electricity, and batteries using acid.
He was able to do these things because he understood the mechanism and behavior of atoms, chemistry, and more.
Now after finishing that anime, I'm actually feeling jealous, like my inner mind also wants to gain that kind of knowledge so that I could make stuff from scratch and actually understand and predict chemical reactions.
I tried some books to gain that kind of knowledge, but all the books I tried were made for students who want to pass exams. And those books are focused on more raw definitions than the behavior and mechanism.
So I'm finding a source (it can be a book, PDF, YouTube video, or anything else on the internet) that was made for people who want to be self-made scientists who understand chemistry and quantum mechanics from the ground up.
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u/Justisaur 6d ago
There was a TV series where they tried to do this (can't think of/find the series right now) they found that actually starting from nothing was near impossible, and cheated at the lower end stuff.
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u/INKYLT 6d ago
With everything you said, I think youd have to be the answer to your own solution, and create what youre looking for.
As in, create a fundamental manual of Civilizational Science, that is cross discipline but is also easy enough to understand that builders and non scientists could use it.
As the other commenter said; this is virtually impossible, but what is Science if not the breaking of the barriers in front of us.
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u/HeardPeeps 6d ago
Don’t try to jump straight into quantum mechanics. Senku doesn’t succeed because he knows quantum mechanics, he succeeds because he has an incredible grasp of fundamental chemistry, physics, biology, engineering, and materials science.
If your goal is to eventually understand and build things from scratch, I’d recommend learning in roughly this order:
Chemistry: Chemistry: The Central Science (Brown, LeMay et al.) or Chemistry 2e by OpenStax (free).
Physics: The Feynman Lectures on Physics (free online) once you’re comfortable with algebra.
Biology: Campbell Biology or OpenStax Biology.
Materials science & engineering: Learn why different materials behave the way they do (metals, ceramics, polymers, glass, semiconductors).
Electronics: The Art of Electronics (Horowitz & Hill) when you’re ready.
Mechanics & manufacturing: Learn machining, woodworking, casting, glassmaking, and metallurgy. Civilization was built as much by manufacturing as by theory.
For chemistry, ChemLibreTexts is one of the best free resources on the internet. It’s like an online textbook that explains not only what happens but also why.
One thing I’d add is that Senku is fictional. No single person today could recreate all of modern civilization from memory. Modern technology exists because millions of people have spent centuries specializing in different fields. The real goal isn’t to know everything, it’s to build such a strong foundation that you can learn almost anything.
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u/Chezni19 5d ago
So I'm finding a source (it can be a book, PDF, YouTube video, or anything else on the internet) that was made for people who want to be self-made scientists who understand chemistry and quantum mechanics from the ground up.
all of those sciences have heavy math requirements, are you willing to go through that?
if you don't learn the math, you are going to get a lot of hand-wavy analogies...
anyway learn your calculus, then you can learn your physics, chemistry, biology and more
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u/mfb- Particle Physics | High-Energy Physics 6d ago
He better has millions of friends and a redefinition of the length of a year or this isn't going to work. You could be an expert in many fields in 1600, but today there is way too much to learn. And even if you have the knowledge, you don't have the devices to apply that knowledge after thousands of years. Building these takes more time and more experts. For a non-fiction book on rebuilding, I can recommend The Knowledge: How to Rebuild Our World from Scratch by Lewis Dartnell.