History of science

The history of science covers the development of science from ancient times to the present. It encompasses all three major branches of science: natural, social, and formal.^[1] Protoscience, early sciences, and natural philosophies such as alchemy and astrology during the Bronze Age, Iron Age, classical antiquity, and the Middle Ages declined during the early modern period after the establishment of formal disciplines of science in the Age of Enlightenment.

Science's earliest roots can be traced to

The nature of the history of science is a topic of debate (as is, by implication, the definition of science itself). The history of science is often seen as a linear story of progress^[27] but historians have come to see the story as more complex.^[28][29][30] Alfred Edward Taylor has characterised lean periods in the advance of scientific discovery as "periodical bankruptcies of science".^[31]

Science is a human activity, and scientific contributions have come from people from a wide range of different backgrounds and cultures. Historians of science increasingly see their field as part of a global history of exchange, conflict and collaboration.^[32]

The

Historians have emphasized^[citation needed] that trust is necessary for agreement on claims about nature. In this light, the 1660 establishment of the Royal Society and its code of experiment – trustworthy because witnessed by its members – has become an important chapter in the historiography of science.^[37] Many people in modern history (typically women and persons of color) were excluded from elite scientific communities and characterized by the science establishment as inferior. Historians in the 1980s and 1990s described the structural barriers to participation and began to recover the contributions of overlooked individuals.^[38][39] Historians have also investigated the mundane practices of science such as fieldwork and specimen collection,^[40] correspondence,^[41] drawing,^[42] record-keeping,^[43] and the use of laboratory and field equipment.^[44]

Prehistoric times

In prehistoric times, knowledge and technique were passed from generation to generation in an oral tradition. For instance, the domestication of maize for agriculture has been dated to about 9,000 years ago in southern Mexico, before the development of writing systems.^[45][46][47] Similarly, archaeological evidence indicates the development of astronomical knowledge in preliterate societies.^[48][49]

The oral tradition of preliterate societies had several features, the first of which was its fluidity.^[2] New information was constantly absorbed and adjusted to new circumstances or community needs. There were no archives or reports. This fluidity was closely related to the practical need to explain and justify a present state of affairs.^[2] Another feature was the tendency to describe the universe as just sky and earth, with a potential underworld. They were also prone to identify causes with beginnings, thereby providing a historical origin with an explanation. There was also a reliance on a "medicine man" or "wise woman" for healing, knowledge of divine or demonic causes of diseases, and in more extreme cases, for rituals such as exorcism, divination, songs, and incantations.^[2] Finally, there was an inclination to unquestioningly accept explanations that might be deemed implausible in more modern times while at the same time not being aware that such credulous behaviors could have posed problems.^[2]

The development of writing enabled humans to store and communicate knowledge across generations with much greater accuracy. Its invention was a prerequisite for the development of philosophy and later science in ancient times.^[2] Moreover, the extent to which philosophy and science would flourish in ancient times depended on the efficiency of a writing system (e.g., use of alphabets).^[2]

Earliest roots in the Ancient Near East

The earliest roots of science can be traced to the Ancient Near East, in particular Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia in around 3000 to 1200 BCE.^[2]

Ancient Egypt

Number system and geometry

Starting in around 3000 BCE, the ancient Egyptians developed a numbering system that was decimal in character and had oriented their knowledge of geometry to solving practical problems such as those of surveyors and builders.

Egypt was also a center of

The ancient Egyptians even developed an official calendar that contained twelve months, thirty days each, and five days at the end of the year.[2] Unlike the Babylonian calendar or the ones used in Greek city-states at the time, the official Egyptian calendar was much simpler as it was fixed and did not take lunar and solar cycles into consideration.^[2]

Mesopotamia

The ancient Mesopotamians had extensive knowledge about the

In

To the Babylonians and other Near Eastern cultures, messages from the gods or omens were concealed in all natural phenomena that could be deciphered and interpreted by those who are adept.^[2] Hence, it was believed that the gods could speak through all terrestrial objects (e.g., animal entrails, dreams, malformed births, or even the color of a dog urinating on a person) and celestial phenomena.^[2] Moreover, Babylonian astrology was inseparable from Babylonian astronomy.

Mathematics

The Mesopotamian cuneiform tablet Plimpton 322, dating to the eighteenth-century BCE, records a number of Pythagorean triplets (3,4,5) (5,12,13) ...,^[61] hinting that the ancient Mesopotamians might have been aware of the Pythagorean theorem over a millennium before Pythagoras.^[62][63][64]

Ancient and medieval South Asia and East Asia

Mathematical achievements from Mesopotamia had some influence on the development of mathematics in India, and there were confirmed transmissions of mathematical ideas between India and China, which were bidirectional.^[65] Nevertheless, the mathematical and scientific achievements in India and particularly in China occurred largely independently^[66] from those of Europe and the confirmed early influences that these two civilizations had on the development of science in Europe in the pre-modern era were indirect, with Mesopotamia and later the Islamic World acting as intermediaries.^[65] The arrival of modern science, which grew out of the Scientific Revolution, in India and China and the greater Asian region in general can be traced to the scientific activities of Jesuit missionaries who were interested in studying the region's flora and fauna during the 16th to 17th century.^[67]

India

Indian astronomy and mathematics

The earliest traces of mathematical knowledge in the Indian subcontinent appear with the Indus Valley Civilisation (c. 4th millennium BCE ~ c. 3rd millennium BCE). The people of this civilization made bricks whose dimensions were in the proportion 4:2:1, which is favorable for the stability of a brick structure.^[68] They also tried to standardize measurement of length to a high degree of accuracy. They designed a ruler—the Mohenjo-daro ruler—whose unit of length (approximately 1.32 inches or 3.4 centimetres) was divided into ten equal parts. Bricks manufactured in ancient Mohenjo-daro often had dimensions that were integral multiples of this unit of length.^[69]

Indian astronomer and mathematician

Findings from Neolithic graveyards in what is now Pakistan show evidence of proto-dentistry among an early farming culture.^[78] The ancient text Suśrutasamhitā of Suśruta describes procedures on various forms of surgery, including rhinoplasty, the repair of torn ear lobes, perineal lithotomy, cataract surgery, and several other excisions and other surgical procedures.

Politics and state

An ancient Indian treatise on statecraft, economic policy and military strategy by Kautilya^[79] and Viṣhṇugupta,^[80] who are traditionally identified with Chāṇakya (c. 350–283 BCE). In this treatise, the behaviors and relationships of the people, the King, the State, the Government Superintendents, Courtiers, Enemies, Invaders, and Corporations are analyzed and documented. Roger Boesche describes the Arthaśāstra as "a book of political realism, a book analyzing how the political world does work and not very often stating how it ought to work, a book that frequently discloses to a king what calculating and sometimes brutal measures he must carry out to preserve the state and the common good."^[81]

China

Chinese mathematics

From the earliest the Chinese used a positional decimal system on counting boards in order to calculate. To express 10, a single rod is placed in the second box from the right. The spoken language uses a similar system to English: e.g. four thousand two hundred and seven. No symbol was used for zero. By the 1st century BCE, negative numbers and decimal fractions were in use and

Although the first attempts at an axiomatization of geometry appear in the

Mohist canon in 330 BCE, Liu Hui developed algebraic methods in geometry in the 3rd century CE and also calculated pi to 5 significant figures. In 480, Zu Chongzhi

improved this by discovering the ratio ${\displaystyle {\tfrac {355}{113}}}$ which remained the most accurate value for 1200 years.

Astronomical observations

Main article: Chinese astronomy

star maps from Su Song's Xin Yi Xiang Fa Yao published in 1092, featuring a cylindrical projection similar to Mercator, and the corrected position of the pole star thanks to Shen Kuo's astronomical observations.^[83]

Astronomical observations from China constitute the longest continuous sequence from any civilization and include records of sunspots (112 records from 364 BCE), supernovas (1054), lunar and solar eclipses. By the 12th century, they could reasonably accurately make predictions of eclipses, but the knowledge of this was lost during the Ming dynasty, so that the Jesuit

incomplete short citation

From antiquity, the Chinese used an equatorial system for describing the skies and a star map from 940 was drawn using a cylindrical (Mercator) projection. The use of an armillary sphere is recorded from the 4th century BCE and a sphere permanently mounted in equatorial axis from 52 BCE. In 125 CE Zhang Heng used water power to rotate the sphere in real time. This included rings for the meridian and ecliptic. By 1270 they had incorporated the principles of the Arab torquetum.

In the

To better prepare for calamities, Zhang Heng invented a seismometer in 132 CE which provided instant alert to authorities in the capital Luoyang that an earthquake had occurred in a location indicated by a specific cardinal or ordinal direction.^[85][86] Although no tremors could be felt in the capital when Zhang told the court that an earthquake had just occurred in the northwest, a message came soon afterwards that an earthquake had indeed struck 400 to 500 km (250 to 310 mi) northwest of Luoyang (in what is now modern Gansu).^[87] Zhang called his device the 'instrument for measuring the seasonal winds and the movements of the Earth' (Houfeng didong yi 候风地动仪), so-named because he and others thought that earthquakes were most likely caused by the enormous compression of trapped air.^[88]

There are many notable contributors to early Chinese disciplines, inventions, and practices throughout the ages. One of the best examples would be the medieval Song Chinese

It was not that there was no order in nature for the Chinese, but rather that it was not an order ordained by a rational personal being, and hence there was no conviction that rational personal beings would be able to spell out in their lesser earthly languages the divine code of laws which he had decreed aforetime. The

Taoists, indeed, would have scorned such an idea as being too naïve for the subtlety and complexity of the universe as they intuited it.^[94]

During the

Plato and Aristotle produced the first systematic discussions of natural philosophy, which did much to shape later investigations of nature. Their development of deductive reasoning was of particular importance and usefulness to later scientific inquiry. Plato founded the Platonic Academy in 387 BCE, whose motto was "Let none unversed in geometry enter here," and also turned out many notable philosophers. Plato's student Aristotle introduced empiricism and the notion that universal truths can be arrived at via observation and induction, thereby laying the foundations of the scientific method.^[106] Aristotle also produced many biological writings that were empirical in nature, focusing on biological causation and the diversity of life. He made countless observations of nature, especially the habits and attributes of plants and animals on Lesbos, classified more than 540 animal species, and dissected at least 50.^[107] Aristotle's writings profoundly influenced subsequent Islamic and European scholarship, though they were eventually superseded in the Scientific Revolution.^[108][109]

Aristotle also contributed to theories of the elements and the cosmos. He believed that the celestial bodies (such as the planets and the Sun) had something called an unmoved mover that put the celestial bodies in motion. Aristotle tried to explain everything through mathematics and physics, but sometimes explained things such as the motion of celestial bodies through a higher power such as God. Aristotle did not have the technological advancements that would have explained the motion of celestial bodies.^[110] In addition, Aristotle had many views on the elements. He believed that everything was derived of the elements earth, water, air, fire, and lastly the Aether. The Aether was a celestial element, and therefore made up the matter of the celestial bodies.^[111] The elements of earth, water, air and fire were derived of a combination of two of the characteristics of hot, wet, cold, and dry, and all had their inevitable place and motion. The motion of these elements begins with earth being the closest to "the Earth," then water, air, fire, and finally Aether. In addition to the makeup of all things, Aristotle came up with theories as to why things did not return to their natural motion. He understood that water sits above earth, air above water, and fire above air in their natural state. He explained that although all elements must return to their natural state, the human body and other living things have a constraint on the elements – thus not allowing the elements making one who they are to return to their natural state.^[112]

The important legacy of this period included substantial advances in factual knowledge, especially in

"Men were weighing for thousands of years before Archimedes worked out the laws of equilibrium; they must have had practical and intuitional knowledge of the principals involved. What Archimedes did was to sort out the theoretical implications of this practical knowledge and present the resulting body of knowledge as a logically coherent system."

and again:

"With astonishment we find ourselves on the threshold of modern science. Nor should it be supposed that by some trick of translation the extracts have been given an air of modernity. Far from it. The vocabulary of these writings and their style are the source from which our own vocabulary and style have been derived."^[115]

Greek astronomy

The astronomer Aristarchus of Samos was the first known person to propose a heliocentric model of the Solar System, while the geographer Eratosthenes accurately calculated the circumference of the Earth. Hipparchus (c. 190 – c. 120 BCE) produced the first systematic star catalog. The level of achievement in Hellenistic astronomy and engineering is impressively shown by the Antikythera mechanism (150–100 BCE), an analog computer for calculating the position of planets. Technological artifacts of similar complexity did not reappear until the 14th century, when mechanical astronomical clocks appeared in Europe.^[116]

Hellenistic medicine

There was not a defined societal structure for healthcare during the age of Hippocrates.^[117] At that time, society was not organized and knowledgeable as people still relied on pure religious reasoning to explain illnesses.^[117] Hippocrates introduced the first healthcare system based on science and clinical protocols.^[118] Hippocrates' theories about physics and medicine helped pave the way in creating an organized medical structure for society.^[118] In medicine, Hippocrates (c. 460 BC – c. 370 BCE) and his followers were the first to describe many diseases and medical conditions and developed the Hippocratic Oath for physicians, still relevant and in use today. Hippocrates' ideas are expressed in The Hippocratic Corpus. The collection notes descriptions of medical philosophies and how disease and lifestyle choices reflect on the physical body.^[118] Hippocrates influenced a Westernized, professional relationship among physician and patient.^[119] Hippocrates is also known as "the Father of Medicine".^[118]Herophilos (335–280 BCE) was the first to base his conclusions on dissection of the human body and to describe the nervous system. Galen (129 – c. 200 CE) performed many audacious operations—including brain and eye surgeries— that were not tried again for almost two millennia.

Greek mathematics

In

During the rule of Rome, famous historians such as Polybius, Livy and Plutarch documented the rise of the Roman Republic, and the organization and histories of other nations, while statesmen like Julius Caesar, Cicero, and others provided examples of the politics of the republic and Rome's empire and wars. The study of politics during this age was oriented toward understanding history, understanding methods of governing, and describing the operation of governments.

The Roman conquest of Greece did not diminish learning and culture in the Greek provinces.^[126] On the contrary, the appreciation of Greek achievements in literature, philosophy, politics, and the arts by Rome's upper class coincided with the increased prosperity of the Roman Empire. Greek settlements had existed in Italy for centuries and the ability to read and speak Greek was not uncommon in Italian cities such as Rome.^[126] Moreover, the settlement of Greek scholars in Rome, whether voluntarily or as slaves, gave Romans access to teachers of Greek literature and philosophy. Conversely, young Roman scholars also studied abroad in Greece and upon their return to Rome, were able to convey Greek achievements to their Latin leadership.^[126] And despite the translation of a few Greek texts into Latin, Roman scholars who aspired to the highest level did so using the Greek language. The Roman statesman and philosopher Cicero (106 – 43 BCE) was a prime example. He had studied under Greek teachers in Rome and then in Athens and Rhodes. He mastered considerable portions of Greek philosophy, wrote Latin treatises on several topics, and even wrote Greek commentaries of Plato's Timaeus as well as a Latin translation of it, which has not survived.^[126]

In the beginning, support for scholarship in Greek knowledge was almost entirely funded by the Roman upper class.^[126] There were all sorts of arrangements, ranging from a talented scholar being attached to a wealthy household to owning educated Greek-speaking slaves.^[126] In exchange, scholars who succeeded at the highest level had an obligation to provide advice or intellectual companionship to their Roman benefactors, or to even take care of their libraries. The less fortunate or accomplished ones would teach their children or perform menial tasks.^[126] The level of detail and sophistication of Greek knowledge was adjusted to suit the interests of their Roman patrons. That meant popularizing Greek knowledge by presenting information that were of practical value such as medicine or logic (for courts and politics) but excluding subtle details of Greek metaphysics and epistemology. Beyond the basics, the Romans did not value natural philosophy and considered it an amusement for leisure time.^[126]

Commentaries and encyclopedias were the means by which Greek knowledge was popularized for Roman audiences.^[126] The Greek scholar Posidonius (c. 135-c. 51 BCE), a native of Syria, wrote prolifically on history, geography, moral philosophy, and natural philosophy. He greatly influenced Latin writers such as Marcus Terentius Varro (116-27 BCE), who wrote the encyclopedia Nine Books of Disciplines, which covered nine arts: grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, musical theory, medicine, and architecture.^[126] The Disciplines became a model for subsequent Roman encyclopedias and Varro's nine liberal arts were considered suitable education for a Roman gentleman. The first seven of Varro's nine arts would later define the seven liberal arts of medieval schools.^[126] The pinnacle of the popularization movement was the Roman scholar Pliny the Elder (23/24–79 CE), a native of northern Italy, who wrote several books on the history of Rome and grammar. His most famous work was his voluminous Natural History.^[126]

After the death of the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius in 180 CE, the favorable conditions for scholarship and learning in the Roman Empire were upended by political unrest, civil war, urban decay, and looming economic crisis.^[126] In around 250 CE, barbarians began attacking and invading the Roman frontiers. These combined events led to a general decline in political and economic conditions. The living standards of the Roman upper class was severely impacted, and their loss of leisure diminished scholarly pursuits.^[126] Moreover, during the 3rd and 4th centuries CE, the Roman Empire was administratively divided into two halves: Greek East and Latin West. These administrative divisions weakened the intellectual contact between the two regions.^[126] Eventually, both halves went their separate ways, with the Greek East becoming the Byzantine Empire.^[126] Christianity was also steadily expanding during this time and soon became a major patron of education in the Latin West. Initially, the Christian church adopted some of the reasoning tools of Greek philosophy in the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE to defend its faith against sophisticated opponents.^[126] Nevertheless, Greek philosophy received a mixed reception from leaders and adherents of the Christian faith.^[126] Some such as Tertullian (c. 155-c. 230 CE) were vehemently opposed to philosophy, denouncing it as heretic. Others such as Augustine of Hippo (354-430 CE) were ambivalent and defended Greek philosophy and science as the best ways to understand the natural world and therefore treated it as a handmaiden (or servant) of religion.^[126] Education in the West began its gradual decline, along with the rest of Western Roman Empire, due to invasions by Germanic tribes, civil unrest, and economic collapse. Contact with the classical tradition was lost in specific regions such as Roman Britain and northern Gaul but continued to exist in Rome, northern Italy, southern Gaul, Spain, and North Africa.^[126]

Middle Ages

In the Middle Ages, the classical learning continued in three major linguistic cultures and civilizations: Greek (the Byzantine Empire), Arabic (the Islamic world), and Latin (Western Europe).

Byzantine Empire

Preservation of Greek heritage

The fall of the Western Roman Empire led to a deterioration of the classical tradition in the western part (or Latin West) of Europe during the 5th century. In contrast, the Byzantine Empire resisted the barbarian attacks and preserved and improved the learning.^[127]

While the Byzantine Empire still held learning centers such as Constantinople, Alexandria and Antioch, Western Europe's knowledge was concentrated in monasteries until the development of medieval universities in the 12th centuries. The curriculum of monastic schools included the study of the few available ancient texts and of new works on practical subjects like medicine^[128] and timekeeping.^[129]

In the sixth century in the Byzantine Empire, Isidore of Miletus compiled Archimedes' mathematical works in the Archimedes Palimpsest, where all Archimedes' mathematical contributions were collected and studied.

John Philoponus, another Byzantine scholar, was the first to question Aristotle's teaching of physics, introducing the theory of impetus.^[130][131] The theory of impetus was an auxiliary or secondary theory of Aristotelian dynamics, put forth initially to explain projectile motion against gravity. It is the intellectual precursor to the concepts of inertia, momentum and acceleration in classical mechanics.^[132] The works of John Philoponus inspired Galileo Galilei ten centuries later.^[133][134]

Collapse

During the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, a number of Greek scholars fled to North Italy in which they fueled the era later commonly known as the "Renaissance" as they brought with them a great deal of classical learning including an understanding of botany, medicine, and zoology. Byzantium also gave the West important inputs: John Philoponus' criticism of Aristotelian physics, and the works of Dioscorides.^[135]

Islamic world

This was the period (8th–14th century CE) of the Islamic Golden Age where commerce thrived, and new ideas and technologies emerged such as the importation of papermaking from China, which made the copying of manuscripts inexpensive.

Translations and Hellenization

The eastward transmission of Greek heritage to Western Asia was a slow and gradual process that spanned over a thousand years, beginning with the Asian conquests of

Education and scholarly pursuits

Madrasas were centers for many different religious and scientific studies and were the culmination of different institutions such as mosques based around religious studies, housing for out-of-town visitors, and finally educational institutions focused on the natural sciences.^[136] Unlike Western universities, students at a madrasa would learn from one specific teacher, who would issue a certificate at the completion of their studies called an Ijazah. An Ijazah differs from a western university degree in many ways one being that it is issued by a single person rather than an institution, and another being that it is not an individual degree declaring adequate knowledge over broad subjects, but rather a license to teach and pass on a very specific set of texts.^[137] Women were also allowed to attend madrasas, as both students and teachers, something not seen in high western education until the 1800s.^[137] Madrasas were more than just academic centers. The Suleymaniye Mosque, for example, was one of the earliest and most well-known madrasas, which was built by Suleiman the Magnificent in the 16th century^[138] The Suleymaniye Mosque was home to a hospital and medical college, a kitchen, and children's school, as well as serving as a temporary home for travelers.^[138]

Higher education at a madrasa (or college) was focused on Islamic law and religious science and students had to engage in self-study for everything else.^[5] And despite the occasional theological backlash, many Islamic scholars of science were able to conduct their work in relatively tolerant urban centers (e.g., Baghdad and Cairo) and were protected by powerful patrons.^[5] They could also travel freely and exchange ideas as there were no political barriers within the unified Islamic state.^[5] Islamic science during this time was primarily focused on the correction, extension, articulation, and application of Greek ideas to new problems.^[5]

Advancements in mathematics

Most of the achievements by Islamic scholars during this period were in mathematics.

Scholars with geometric skills made significant improvements to the earlier classical texts on light and sight by Euclid, Aristotle, and Ptolemy.[5] The earliest surviving Arabic treatises were written in the 9th century by Abū Ishāq al-Kindī, Qustā ibn Lūqā, and (in fragmentary form) Ahmad ibn Isā. Later in the 11th century, Ibn al-Haytham (known as Alhazen in the West), a mathematician and astronomer, synthesized a new theory of vision based on the works of his predecessors.^[5] His new theory included a complete system of geometrical optics, which was set in great detail in his Book of Optics.^[5][143] His book was translated into Latin and was relied upon as a principal source on the science of optics in Europe until the 17th century.^[5]

Institutionalization of medicine

The medical sciences were prominently cultivated in the Islamic world.^[5] The works of Greek medical theories, especially those of Galen, were translated into Arabic and there was an outpouring of medical texts by Islamic physicians, which were aimed at organizing, elaborating, and disseminating classical medical knowledge.^[5] Medical specialties started to emerge, such as those involved in the treatment of eye diseases such as cataracts. Ibn Sina (known as Avicenna in the West, c. 980–1037) was a prolific Persian medical encyclopedist^[144] wrote extensively on medicine,^[145][146] with his two most notable works in medicine being the Kitāb al-shifāʾ ("Book of Healing") and The Canon of Medicine, both of which were used as standard medicinal texts in both the Muslim world and in Europe well into the 17th century. Amongst his many contributions are the discovery of the contagious nature of infectious diseases,^[145] and the introduction of clinical pharmacology.^[147] Institutionalization of medicine was another important achievement in the Islamic world. Although hospitals as an institution for the sick emerged in the Byzantium empire, the model of institutionalized medicine for all social classes was extensive in the Islamic empire and was scattered throughout. In addition to treating patients, physicians could teach apprentice physicians, as well write and do research. The discovery of the pulmonary transit of blood in the human body by Ibn al-Nafis occurred in a hospital setting.^[5]

Decline

Islamic science began its decline in the 12th–13th century, before the

By the eleventh century, most of Europe had become Christian; stronger monarchies emerged; borders were restored; technological developments and agricultural innovations were made, increasing the food supply and population. Classical Greek texts were translated from Arabic and Greek into Latin, stimulating scientific discussion in Western Europe.^[149]

In classical antiquity, Greek and Roman taboos had meant that dissection was usually banned, but in the Middle Ages medical teachers and students at Bologna began to open human bodies, and Mondino de Luzzi (c. 1275–1326) produced the first known anatomy textbook based on human dissection.^[150][151]

As a result of the Pax Mongolica, Europeans, such as Marco Polo, began to venture further and further east. The written accounts of Polo and his fellow travelers inspired other Western European maritime explorers to search for a direct sea route to Asia, ultimately leading to the Age of Discovery.^[152]

Technological advances were also made, such as the early flight of Eilmer of Malmesbury (who had studied mathematics in 11th-century England),^[153] and the metallurgical achievements of the Cistercian blast furnace at Laskill.^[154][155]

Medieval universities

An intellectual revitalization of Western Europe started with the birth of medieval universities in the 12th century. These urban institutions grew from the informal scholarly activities of learned friars who visited monasteries, consulted libraries, and conversed with other fellow scholars.^[156] A friar who became well-known would attract a following of disciples, giving rise to a brotherhood of scholars (or collegium in Latin). A collegium might travel to a town or request a monastery to host them. However, if the number of scholars within a collegium grew too large, they would opt to settle in a town instead.^[156] As the number of collegia within a town grew, the collegia might request that their king grant them a charter that would convert them into a universitas.^[156] Many universities were chartered during this period, with the first in Bologna in 1088, followed by Paris in 1150, Oxford in 1167, and Cambridge in 1231.^[156] The granting of a charter meant that the medieval universities were partially sovereign and independent from local authorities.^[156] Their independence allowed them to conduct themselves and judge their own members based on their own rules. Furthermore, as initially religious institutions, their faculties and students were protected from capital punishment (e.g., gallows).^[156] Such independence was a matter of custom, which could, in principle, be revoked by their respective rulers if they felt threatened. Discussions of various subjects or claims at these medieval institutions, no matter how controversial, were done in a formalized way so as to declare such discussions as being within the bounds of a university and therefore protected by the privileges of that institution's sovereignty.^[156] A claim could be described as ex cathedra (literally "from the chair", used within the context of teaching) or ex hypothesi (by hypothesis). This meant that the discussions were presented as purely an intellectual exercise that did not require those involved to commit themselves to the truth of a claim or to proselytize. Modern academic concepts and practices such as academic freedom or freedom of inquiry are remnants of these medieval privileges that were tolerated in the past.^[156]

The curriculum of these medieval institutions centered on the

The first half of the 14th century saw much important scientific work, largely within the framework of scholastic commentaries on Aristotle's scientific writings.^[163] William of Ockham emphasized the principle of parsimony: natural philosophers should not postulate unnecessary entities, so that motion is not a distinct thing but is only the moving object^[164] and an intermediary "sensible species" is not needed to transmit an image of an object to the eye.^[165] Scholars such as Jean Buridan and Nicole Oresme started to reinterpret elements of Aristotle's mechanics. In particular, Buridan developed the theory that impetus was the cause of the motion of projectiles, which was a first step towards the modern concept of inertia.^[166] The Oxford Calculators began to mathematically analyze the kinematics of motion, making this analysis without considering the causes of motion.^[167]

In 1348, the Black Death and other disasters sealed a sudden end to philosophic and scientific development. Yet, the rediscovery of ancient texts was stimulated by the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, when many Byzantine scholars sought refuge in the West. Meanwhile, the introduction of printing was to have great effect on European society. The facilitated dissemination of the printed word democratized learning and allowed ideas such as algebra to propagate more rapidly. These developments paved the way for the Scientific Revolution, where scientific inquiry, halted at the start of the Black Death, resumed.^[168][169]

Renaissance

The discovery of Cristallo contributed to the advancement of science in the period as well with its appearance out of Venice around 1450. The new glass allowed for better spectacles and eventually to the inventions of the telescope and microscope.

Theophrastus' work on rocks, Peri lithōn, remained authoritative for millennia: its interpretation of fossils was not overturned until after the Scientific Revolution.

During the

The

Other significant scientific advances were made during this time by

Heliocentrism

The heliocentric astronomical model of the universe was refined by Nicolaus Copernicus. Copernicus proposed the idea that the Earth and all heavenly spheres, containing the planets and other objects in the cosmos, rotated around the Sun.^[175] His heliocentric model also proposed that all stars were fixed and did not rotate on an axis, nor in any motion at all.^[176] His theory proposed the yearly rotation of the Earth and the other heavenly spheres around the Sun and was able to calculate the distances of planets using deferents and epicycles. Although these calculations were not completely accurate, Copernicus was able to understand the distance order of each heavenly sphere. The Copernican heliocentric system was a revival of the hypotheses of Aristarchus of Samos and Seleucus of Seleucia.^[177] Aristarchus of Samos did propose that the Earth rotated around the Sun but did not mention anything about the other heavenly spheres' order, motion, or rotation.^[178] Seleucus of Seleucia also proposed the rotation of the Earth around the Sun but did not mention anything about the other heavenly spheres. In addition, Seleucus of Seleucia understood that the Moon rotated around the Earth and could be used to explain the tides of the oceans, thus further proving his understanding of the heliocentric idea.^[179]

Newly defined scientific method

The scientific method was also better developed as the modern way of thinking emphasized experimentation and reason over traditional considerations. Galileo ("Father of Modern Physics") also made use of experiments to validate physical theories, a key element of the scientific method.

Age of Enlightenment

Continuation of Scientific Revolution

The Scientific Revolution continued into the Age of Enlightenment, which accelerated the development of modern science.

Planets and orbits

The heliocentric model revived by Nicolaus Copernicus was followed by the model of planetary motion given by Johannes Kepler in the early 17th century, which proposed that the planets follow elliptical orbits, with the Sun at one focus of the ellipse.

Calculus and Newtonian mechanics

In 1687, Isaac Newton published the Principia Mathematica, detailing two comprehensive and successful physical theories: Newton's laws of motion, which led to classical mechanics; and Newton's law of universal gravitation, which describes the fundamental force of gravity.

Emergence of chemistry

A decisive moment came when "chemistry" was distinguished from alchemy by Robert Boyle in his work The Sceptical Chymist, in 1661; although the alchemical tradition continued for some time after his work. Other important steps included the gravimetric experimental practices of medical chemists like William Cullen, Joseph Black, Torbern Bergman and Pierre Macquer and through the work of Antoine Lavoisier ("father of modern chemistry") on oxygen and the law of conservation of mass, which refuted phlogiston theory. Modern chemistry emerged from the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries through the material practices and theories promoted by alchemy, medicine, manufacturing and mining.^{[180][181][182]}

Circulatory system

William Harvey published De Motu Cordis in 1628, which revealed his conclusions based on his extensive studies of vertebrate circulatory systems.^[174] He identified the central role of the heart, arteries, and veins in producing blood movement in a circuit, and failed to find any confirmation of Galen's pre-existing notions of heating and cooling functions.^[183] The history of early modern biology and medicine is often told through the search for the seat of the soul.^[184] Galen in his descriptions of his foundational work in medicine presents the distinctions between arteries, veins, and nerves using the vocabulary of the soul.^[185]

Scientific societies and journals

A critical innovation was the creation of permanent scientific societies and their scholarly journals, which dramatically sped the diffusion of new ideas. Typical was the founding of the

During the late 18th century, researchers such as Hugh Williamson^[188] and John Walsh experimented on the effects of electricity on the human body. Further studies by Luigi Galvani and Alessandro Volta established the electrical nature of what Volta called galvanism.^[189][190]

Developments in geology

Modern geology, like modern chemistry, gradually evolved during the 18th and early 19th centuries.

Birth of modern economics

The basis for

Social science

Anthropology can best be understood as an outgrowth of the Age of Enlightenment. It was during this period that Europeans attempted systematically to study human behavior. Traditions of jurisprudence, history, philology and sociology developed during this time and informed the development of the social sciences of which anthropology was a part.

19th century

The 19th century saw the birth of science as a profession. William Whewell had coined the term scientist in 1833,^[192] which soon replaced the older term natural philosopher.

Developments in physics

In physics, the behavior of electricity and magnetism was studied by

In astronomy, the planet Neptune was discovered. Advances in astronomy and in optical systems in the 19th century resulted in the first observation of an asteroid (1 Ceres) in 1801, and the discovery of Neptune in 1846.

Developments in mathematics

In mathematics, the notion of complex numbers finally matured and led to a subsequent analytical theory; they also began the use of

In chemistry,

Psychology as a scientific enterprise that was independent from philosophy began in 1879 when Wilhelm Wundt founded the first laboratory dedicated exclusively to psychological research (in Leipzig). Other important early contributors to the field include Hermann Ebbinghaus (a pioneer in memory studies), Ivan Pavlov (who discovered classical conditioning), William James, and Sigmund Freud. Freud's influence has been enormous, though more as cultural icon than a force in scientific psychology.

Modern sociology

Modern sociology emerged in the early 19th century as the academic response to the modernization of the world. Among many early sociologists (e.g., Émile Durkheim), the aim of sociology was in structuralism, understanding the cohesion of social groups, and developing an "antidote" to social disintegration. Max Weber was concerned with the modernization of society through the concept of rationalization, which he believed would trap individuals in an "iron cage" of rational thought. Some sociologists, including Georg Simmel and W. E. B. Du Bois, used more microsociological, qualitative analyses. This microlevel approach played an important role in American sociology, with the theories of George Herbert Mead and his student Herbert Blumer resulting in the creation of the symbolic interactionism approach to sociology. In particular, just Auguste Comte, illustrated with his work the transition from a theological to a metaphysical stage and, from this, to a positive stage. Comte took care of the classification of the sciences as well as a transit of humanity towards a situation of progress attributable to a re-examination of nature according to the affirmation of 'sociality' as the basis of the scientifically interpreted society.^[198]

Romanticism

The

Science advanced dramatically during the 20th century. There were new and radical developments in the

The beginning of the 20th century brought the start of a revolution in physics. The long-held theories of Newton were shown not to be correct in all circumstances. Beginning in 1900,

In the early 20th century, the study of heredity became a major investigation after the rediscovery in 1900 of the laws of inheritance developed by

In 1925, Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin determined that stars were composed mostly of hydrogen and helium.^[212] She was dissuaded by astronomer Henry Norris Russell from publishing this finding in her PhD thesis because of the widely held belief that stars had the same composition as the Earth.^[213] However, four years later, in 1929, Henry Norris Russell came to the same conclusion through different reasoning and the discovery was eventually accepted.^[213]

In 1987, supernova

Geologists' embrace of plate tectonics became part of a broadening of the field from a study of rocks into a study of the Earth as a planet. Other elements of this transformation include: geophysical studies of the interior of the Earth, the grouping of geology with meteorology and oceanography as one of the "earth sciences", and comparisons of Earth and the solar system's other rocky planets.

Applications

In terms of applications, a massive number of new technologies were developed in the 20th century. Technologies such as

Based on wireless transmission of electromagnetic radiation and global networks of cellular operation, the mobile phone became a primary means to access the internet.[218]

Developments in political science and economics

In political science during the 20th century, the study of ideology, behaviouralism and international relations led to a multitude of 'pol-sci' subdisciplines including

Higgs boson

On July 4, 2012, physicists working at CERN's Large Hadron Collider announced that they had discovered a new subatomic particle greatly resembling the Higgs boson, a potential key to an understanding of why elementary particles have mass and indeed to the existence of diversity and life in the universe.^[222] For now, some physicists are calling it a "Higgslike" particle.^[222] Peter Higgs was one of six physicists, working in three independent groups, who, in 1964, invented the notion of the Higgs field ("cosmic molasses"), along with Tom Kibble, Carl Hagen, Gerald Guralnik, François Englert and Robert Brout.^[222]

See also

References

Sources

• ISBN 978-0-8160-2137-6
  .
• Heilbron, John L., ed. (2003). The Oxford Companion to the History of Modern Science. Oxford University Press.
  ISBN 978-0-19-511229-0
  .
• Needham, Joseph; Wang, Ling (1954). Introductory Orientations. Science and Civilisation in China. Vol. 1. Cambridge University Press.
• Needham, Joseph (1986a). Mathematics and the Sciences of the Heavens and the Earth. Science and Civilisation in China. Vol. 3. Taipei: Caves Books Ltd.
• Needham, Joseph (1986c). Physics and Physical Technology, Part 2, Mechanical Engineering. Science and Civilisation in China. Vol. 4. Taipei: Caves Books Ltd.
• Needham, Joseph; Robinson, Kenneth G.; Huang, Jen-Yü (2004). "General Conclusions and Reflections". Science and Chinese society. Science and Civilisation in China. Vol. 7. Cambridge University Press.
• Sambursky, Shmuel (1974). Physical Thought from the Presocratics to the Quantum Physicists: an anthology selected, introduced and edited by Shmuel Sambursky. Pica Press. p. 584.
  ISBN 978-0-87663-712-8
  .

Further reading

• Agar, Jon (2012) Science in the Twentieth Century and Beyond, Polity Press.
  ISBN 978-0-7456-3469-2
  .
• ISBN 978-1-4020-5631-4
  .
• OCLC 9645583
  .
• Bowler, Peter J. (1993) The Norton History of the Environmental Sciences.
• Brock, W.H. (1993) The Norton History of Chemistry.
• ISBN 978-84-297-1380-0
  . (Includes a description of the history of science in England.)
• Byers, Nina and Gary Williams, ed. (2006) Out of the Shadows: Contributions of Twentieth-Century Women to Physics, Cambridge University Press
  ISBN 978-0-521-82197-1
• Herzenberg, Caroline L. (1986). Women Scientists from Antiquity to the Present Locust Hill Press
  ISBN 978-0-933951-01-3
• ISBN 978-0-226-45807-6
  .
• ISBN 978-0-19-568003-4
• Lakatos, Imre (1978). History of Science and its Rational Reconstructions published in The Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes: Philosophical Papers Volume 1. Cambridge University Press
• Levere, Trevor Harvey. (2001) Transforming Matter: A History of Chemistry from Alchemy to the Buckyball
• ISBN 978-0-521-59448-6
  .
• Lipphardt, Veronika/Ludwig, Daniel, Knowledge Transfer and Science Transfer, EGO – European History Online, Mainz: Institute of European History, 2011, retrieved: March 8, 2020 (pdf).
• Margolis, Howard (2002). It Started with Copernicus.
  ISBN 978-0-07-138507-7
• Mayr, Ernst. (1985). The Growth of Biological Thought: Diversity, Evolution, and Inheritance.
• North, John. (1995). The Norton History of Astronomy and Cosmology.
• Nye, Mary Jo, ed. (2002). The Cambridge History of Science, Volume 5: The Modern Physical and Mathematical Sciences
• Park, Katharine, and Lorraine Daston, eds. (2006) The Cambridge History of Science, Volume 3: Early Modern Science
• Porter, Roy, ed. (2003). The Cambridge History of Science, Volume 4: The Eighteenth Century
• ISBN 978-0-521-22599-1
• Slotten, Hugh Richard, ed. (2014) The Oxford Encyclopedia of the History of American Science, Medicine, and Technology.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to History of science.

Wikiquote has quotations related to History of science.

• 'What is the History of Science', British Academy
• British Society for the History of Science
• "Scientific Change". Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
• The CNRS History of Science and Technology Research Center in Paris (France) (in French)
• Henry Smith Williams, History of Science, Vols 1–4, online text
• Digital Archives of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
• Digital facsimiles of books from the History of Science Collection, Linda Hall Library Digital Collections
• Division of History of Science and Technology of the International Union of History and Philosophy of Science
• Giants of Science (website of the Institute of National Remembrance)
• History of Science Digital Collection: Utah State University – Contains primary sources by such major figures in the history of scientific inquiry as Otto Brunfels, Charles Darwin, Erasmus Darwin, Carolus Linnaeus Antony van Leeuwenhoek, Jan Swammerdam, James Sowerby, Andreas Vesalius, and others.
• History of Science Society ("HSS") Archived 15 September 2020 at the Wayback Machine
• Inter-Divisional Teaching Commission (IDTC) of the International Union for the History and Philosophy of Science (IUHPS) Archived 13 January 2020 at the Wayback Machine
• International Academy of the History of Science
• International History, Philosophy and Science Teaching Group
• IsisCB Explore: History of Science Index An open access discovery tool
• Museo Galileo – Institute and Museum of the History of Science in Florence, Italy
• National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Archives
• The official site of the Nobel Foundation. Features biographies and info on Nobel laureates
• The Royal Society, trailblazing science from 1650 to date Archived 18 August 2015 at the Wayback Machine
• The Vega Science Trust Free to view videos of scientists including Feynman, Perutz, Rotblat, Born and many Nobel Laureates.