Portal:History of science
The History of Science Portal
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. 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 Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia around 3000 to 1200 BCE. These civilizations' contributions to mathematics, astronomy, and medicine influenced later Greek natural philosophy of classical antiquity, wherein formal attempts were made to provide explanations of events in the physical world based on natural causes. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, knowledge of Greek conceptions of the world deteriorated in Latin-speaking Western Europe during the early centuries (400 to 1000 CE) of the Middle Ages, but continued to thrive in the Greek-speaking Byzantine Empire. Aided by translations of Greek texts, the Hellenistic worldview was preserved and absorbed into the Arabic-speaking Muslim world during the Islamic Golden Age. The recovery and assimilation of Greek works and Islamic inquiries into Western Europe from the 10th to 13th century revived the learning of natural philosophy in the West. Traditions of early science were also developed in ancient India and separately in ancient China, the Chinese model having influenced Vietnam, Korea and Japan before Western exploration. Among the Pre-Columbian peoples of Mesoamerica, the Zapotec civilization established their first known traditions of astronomy and mathematics for producing calendars, followed by other civilizations such as the Maya.
Natural philosophy was transformed during the Scientific Revolution in 16th- to 17th-century Europe, as new ideas and discoveries departed from previous Greek conceptions and traditions. The New Science that emerged was more mechanistic in its worldview, more integrated with mathematics, and more reliable and open as its knowledge was based on a newly defined scientific method. More "revolutions" in subsequent centuries soon followed. The chemical revolution of the 18th century, for instance, introduced new quantitative methods and measurements for chemistry. In the 19th century, new perspectives regarding the conservation of energy, age of Earth, and evolution came into focus. And in the 20th century, new discoveries in genetics and physics laid the foundations for new sub disciplines such as molecular biology and particle physics. Moreover, industrial and military concerns as well as the increasing complexity of new research endeavors ushered in the era of "big science," particularly after World War II. (Full article...)
Selected article -
Physics is a branch of science whose primary objects of study are matter and energy. Discoveries of physics find applications throughout the natural sciences and in technology. Historically, physics emerged from the scientific revolution of the 17th century, grew rapidly in the 19th century, then was transformed by a series of discoveries in the 20th century. Physics today may be divided loosely into classical physics and modern physics.
Many detailed articles on specific topics are available through the Outline of the history of physics. (Full article...)Selected image
This famous color photograph of the "Trinity" shot, the first nuclear test explosion, was taken by Jack Aeby on July 16, 1945. Aeby was a member of the Special Engineering Detachment at Los Alamos National Laboratory, working under the aegis of the Manhattan Project.
Did you know
...that the history of biochemistry spans approximately 400 years, but the word "biochemistry" in the modern sense was first proposed only in 1903, by German chemist Carl Neuberg?
...that the Great Comet of 1577 was viewed by people all over Europe, including famous Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe and the six year old Johannes Kepler?
...that the Society for Social Studies of Science (often abbreviated as 4S) is, as its website claims, "the oldest and largest scholarly association devoted to understanding science and technology"?
Selected Biography -
Albert Einstein (/ˈaɪnstaɪn/ EYEN-styne; German: [ˈalbɛɐt ˈʔaɪnʃtaɪn] ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist who is widely held to be one of the greatest and most influential scientists of all time. Best known for developing the theory of relativity, Einstein also made important contributions to quantum mechanics, and was thus a central figure in the revolutionary reshaping of the scientific understanding of nature that modern physics accomplished in the first decades of the twentieth century. His mass–energy equivalence formula E = mc2, which arises from relativity theory, has been called "the world's most famous equation". He received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his services to theoretical physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect", a pivotal step in the development of quantum theory. His work is also known for its influence on the philosophy of science.
Born in the German Empire, Einstein moved to Switzerland in 1895, forsaking his German citizenship (as a subject of the Kingdom of Württemberg) the following year. In 1897, at the age of seventeen, he enrolled in the mathematics and physics teaching diploma program at the Swiss federal polytechnic school in Zürich, graduating in 1900. In 1901, he acquired Swiss citizenship, which he kept for the rest of his life. In 1903, he secured a permanent position at the Swiss Patent Office in Bern. In 1905, he submitted a successful PhD dissertation to the University of Zurich. In 1914, he moved to Berlin in order to join the Prussian Academy of Sciences and the Humboldt University of Berlin. In 1917, he became director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics; he also became a German citizen again, this time as a subject of the Kingdom of Prussia. (Full article...)Selected anniversaries
- 1633 - Birth of Jean de Thévenot, French traveler and scientist (d. 1667)
- 1801 - Birth of Julius Plücker, German mathematician and physicist (d. 1868)
- 1806 - Birth of Edward Davy, English physician, chemist, and inventor (d. 1885)
- 1826 - Birth of Constantin von Ettingshausen, Austrian geologist and botanist (d. 1897)
- 1840 - Birth of Ernst Otto Schlick, German engineer (d. 1913)
- 1871 - Universities Tests Act 1871 allows students to enter the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Durham without religious tests, except for courses in theology.
- 1880 - Birth of Otto Eisenschiml, Austrian-American chemist and historian (d. 1963)
- 1888 - Birth of Alexander Alexandrovich Friedman, Russian physicist (d. 1925)
- 1897 - Birth of Georg Wittig, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1987)
- 1902 - Birth of Barbara McClintock, American geneticist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1992)
- 1902 - Death of Ernst Schröder, German mathematician (b. 1841)
- 1902 - Birth of George Gaylord Simpson, American paleontologist (d. 1984)
- 1903 - Ford Motor Company incorporates.
- 1909 - Birth of Archie Fairley Carr, biologist (d. 1987)
- 1915 - Birth of John Tukey, American statistician
- 1920 - Birth of Raymond U. Lemieux, Canadian scientist (d. 2002)
- 1930 - Death of Elmer Ambrose Sperry, American inventor (b. 1860)
- 1963 - Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space in the Soviet Space Program Vostok 6 Mission.
- 1977 - Death of Wernher von Braun, German-born rocket scientist (b. 1912)
- 1981 - Death of Jule Gregory Charney, meteorologist (b. 1917)
- 2000 - The Science Council, the umbrella body for scientific professional institutes and learned societies in the UK, is launched.
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General images
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al-Idrisi's 1154 Tabula Rogeriana, upside-down, north at top (from Science in the medieval Islamic world)Modern copy of
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Tusi couple, a mathematical device invented by the Persian polymath Nasir al-Din Tusi to model the not perfectly circular motions of the planets (from Science in the medieval Islamic world)The
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painting on silk depicting calisthenics; unearthed in 1973 in Hunan Province, China, from the 2nd-century BC Western Han burial site of Mawangdui, Tomb Number 3. (from Science in the ancient world)The physical exercise chart; a
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George Trebizond's Latin translation of Ptolemy's Almagest (c. 1451) (from Science in classical antiquity)
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Omar Khayyam's "Cubic equation and intersection of conic sections" (from Science in the medieval Islamic world)
- An ivory set of
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Hippocrates, known as the "Father of Modern Medicine" (from Science in classical antiquity)The physician
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Western Han (202 BC – AD 9) silk map found in tomb 3 of Mawangdui, depicting the Kingdom of Changsha and Kingdom of Nanyue in southern China (note: the south direction is oriented at the top) (from Science in the ancient world)An early
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Quince, cypress, and sumac trees, in Zakariya al-Qazwini's 13th century Wonders of Creation (from Science in the medieval Islamic world)
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Isaac Newton's Principia developed the first set of unified scientific laws. (from Scientific Revolution)
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classical elements (fire, air, water, earth) of Empedocles illustrated with a burning log. The log releases all four elements as it is destroyed. (from Science in classical antiquity)The four
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Anahita in Persia (from Science in the ancient world)Scholar Nersi with
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Johannes Kepler, Ad Vitellionem paralipomena quibus astronomiae pars optica traditur (1604) (from Scientific Revolution)The first treatise about optics by
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veins from William Harvey's Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis et Sanguinis in Animalibus. Harvey demonstrated that blood circulated around the body, rather than being created in the liver. (from Scientific Revolution)Image of
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The Sceptical Chymist, a foundational text of chemistry, written by Robert Boyle in 1661 (from Scientific Revolution)Title page from
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Ibn Sina teaching the use of drugs. 15th-century Great Canon of Avicenna (from Science in the medieval Islamic world)
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Matteo Ricci (left) and Xu Guangqi (right) in Athanasius Kircher, La Chine ... Illustrée, Amsterdam, 1670 (from Scientific Revolution)
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Abbasid Caliphate, 750–1261 (and later in Egypt) at its height, c. 850 (from Science in the medieval Islamic world)The
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Pliny the Elder: an imaginative 19th-century portrait (from Science in the ancient world)
- The 1698
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Air pump built by Robert Boyle. Many new instruments were devised in this period, which greatly aided in the expansion of scientific knowledge. (from Scientific Revolution)
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Academy of Sciences was established in 1666. (from Scientific Revolution)The French
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Apollonius wrote a comprehensive study of conic sections in the Conics. (from Science in classical antiquity)
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Ptolemaic model of the spheres for Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Georg von Peuerbach, Theoricae novae planetarum, 1474. (from Scientific Revolution)
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William Gilbert's De Magnete, a pioneering 1600 work of experimental science (from Scientific Revolution)Diagram from
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Vesalius's intricately detailed drawings of human dissections in Fabrica helped to overturn the medical theories of Galen. (from Scientific Revolution)
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Mesopotamian clay tablet-letter from 2400 BC, Louvre. (from King of Lagash, found at Girsu) (from Science in the ancient world)
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al-Khwarizmi's Algebra (from Science in the medieval Islamic world)A page from
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Al-Jahiz. Ninth century (from Science in the medieval Islamic world)Page from the Kitāb al-Hayawān (Book of Animals) by
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Mansur's Anatomy, c. 1450 (from Science in the medieval Islamic world)A coloured illustration from
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Royal Society had its origins in Gresham College in the City of London, and was the first scientific society in the world. (from Scientific Revolution)The
- A 19th-century portrait of
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Ahmad ibn Mūsā ibn Shākir's treatise on mechanical devices, c. 850 (from Science in the medieval Islamic world)Self trimming lamp in
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Antikythera mechanism, an analog astronomical calculator (from Science in classical antiquity)Diagram of the
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mosaic depicting Plato's Academy, from the Villa of T. Siminius Stephanus in Pompeii (1st century AD). (from Science in classical antiquity)A
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Francis Bacon was a pivotal figure in establishing the scientific method of investigation. Portrait by Frans Pourbus the Younger (1617). (from Scientific Revolution)
- Schematics of the
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Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen), (965–1039 Iraq). A polymath, sometimes considered the father of modern scientific methodology due to his emphasis on experimental data and on the reproducibility of its results. (from Science in the medieval Islamic world)
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Islamic expansion:under Muhammad, 622–632under Rashidun caliphs, 632–661under Umayyad caliphs, 661–750(from Science in the medieval Islamic world)
- Ancient India was an early leader in
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La Mojarra Stela 1 (found near La Mojarra, Veracruz, Mexico); the left column gives a Long Count calendar date of 8.5.16.9.7, or 156 CE. The other columns visible are glyphs from the Epi-Olmec script. (from Science in the ancient world)Detail showing columns of glyphs from a portion of the 2nd century CE
- Portrait of
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migraine in ancient Egypt. (from Science in the ancient world)An Egyptian practice of treating
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Johannes Kepler, one of the founders and fathers of modern astronomy, the scientific method, natural and modern science (from Scientific Revolution)Portrait of
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Hunayn ibn Ishaq, c. 1200 (from Science in the medieval Islamic world)The eye according to
- Surviving fragment of the
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