Islamic Science - Why Then But Not Now?

Abbas Ibn Firnas, (810 – 887 A.D., Spain) an inventor of corrective lenses, an improved method of cutting glass and stone, and who hurt himself with the glider he'd fashioned, also built a room where spectators witnessed stars, clouds, thunder, and lightning, produced by mechanisms hidden in his basement.
His work is among that featured at an exhibit of Islamic scientists at the Dallas Islamic Center.