Critical mind & scientific spirit for modernity

The recent discovery of Higgs Boson and the authoritative statement that mermaids are not real should serve as a point of departure to re-'read all 'old' books with more critical minds and also scientific spirit. However, as British scientist  Dr. Joseph Needham ( 1900-1995 ) had discovered and recorded in Science & Civilisation in China, many 'old' or even very 'old'' books contain a vast amount of scientific thinkings articulated in a language that was not widely understood in the West. Galileo Galilei''s 'heliocentrism, 'as opposed to the geocentrism of the Catholic Church in the Middle Age, 'was first advanced by Aristarchus of Samos (''310-230 BC'') who was a mathematician in ancient Greece.