Science is the activity which defines humans as human.
The writing reminds me of Timecube:
"Therefore narrow minded petty European Scholastic Doctors with inflated national egos tried to make British Newton their own. The French created Laplace who wrote giant tomes with megalomaniacal titles causing serious damage to European forests. Laplace’s monumental books made British Newton’s cosmogonic speculations palatable to French Scholastic Doctors."