This timeline of the history of the scientific method shows an overview of the development of the
scientific method up to the present time. For a detailed account, see
History of the scientific method.
BC
c.
1600 BC – The
Edwin Smith Papyrus, a unique
ancient Egyptian text, contains practical and objective advice to physicians regarding the examination, diagnosis, treatment and prognosis, of injuries and ailments.[1] It provides evidence that medicine in Egypt was at this time practised as a quantifiable science.[2]
624 – 548 BC –
Thales of Miletus raises the study of nature from the realm of the mythical to the level of empirical study.[3]
c.320 BC –
Aristotle categorises and subdivides knowledge into physics, poetry, zoology, logic, rhetoric, politics, and biology. His Posterior Analytics defended the ideal of science as originating from known axioms. Aristotle believed that the world was real and that we can learn the truth by experience.[7]
c.341-270 BC –
Epicurus and his followers develop an
epistemology as a result of their rivalry with other
philosophical schools. His treatise Κανών ('Rule'), now lost, explained his methods of investigation and theory of knowledge.[7][8]
c.200 BC – The
Great Library of Alexandria is built as part of a larger research institution called the
Mouseion, with the intention that it becomes a collection of all
Greek knowledge.[9]
c.150 BC –
The first chapter of the Book of Daniel describes an early (and flawed) version of a
clinical trial proposed by the young
Jewish noble Daniel, in which he and his three companions eat vegetables and water for ten days, rather than the royal food and wine.[10]
1st–12th centuries
c.90–168 –
Ptolemy writes the
astronomical treatise now known as the Almagest. His writings reveal his understanding of the scientific method, his recognition of the importance of both systematically ordered observations and hypotheses.[11]
c. 800–900 –
Early Muslim scientists such
al-Kindi (801–873) and the authors writing under the name of
Jabir ibn Hayyan (died c. 806–816) started to put a greater emphasis on the use of experiment as a source of knowledge.[12][13]
c. 1025 – The scholar
al-Biruni develops experimental methods for
mineralogy and
mechanics, and conducts elaborate experiments related to
astronomical phenomena.
1220–1235 –
Robert Grosseteste, an English scholastic philosopher, theologian and later the
Bishop of Lincoln during 1253, publishes his Aristotelian commentaries, laying out the framework for the proper methods of science.[15]
1265 – The English monk
Roger Bacon, inspired by the writings of
Robert Grosseteste, describes a scientific method based on a repeating cycle of observation,
hypothesis, experimentation, and the need for independent
verification. He recorded the manner in which he conducted his experiments in precise detail so that others could reproduce and independently test his results.[16][17]
1327 –
Ockham's razor appears, a principle which states that among competing hypotheses, the one with the fewest assumptions should be selected.
1581 – The
scepticFrancisco Sanches uses classical sceptical arguments to show that science, in the Aristotelian sense of giving necessary reasons or causes for the behavior of nature, cannot be attained.
1620 – The Novum Organum, fully Novum Organum, sive indicia vera de Interpretatione Naturae ("New Organon, or true directions concerning the interpretation of nature"), a philosophical work by English philosopher and statesman
Francis Bacon, is published.
1650 – The world's oldest national scientific institution, the
Royal Society, is founded in London. It establishes
experimental evidence as the arbiter of truth.
c.1665 – The British scientist
Robert Boyle reveals his scientific methods in his writings, and commends that a subject be generally researched before detailed experiments are undertaken; that results that are inconsistent with current theories are reported; that experiments should be regarded as 'provisional' in nature; and that experiments are shown to be
repeatable.[21]
1665 –
Academic journals are published for the first time, in France and Great Britain.[22]
1675 – To encourage the publicising of new discoveries in science, the German-born
Henry Oldenburg pioneers the practice now known as
peer reviewing, by sending scientific manuscripts to experts to judge their quality.[23]
1753 – The first description of a
controlled experiment using identical populations with only one variable is published, when
James Lind, a Scottish doctor, undergoes research into
scurvy among sailors.[24]
1833, 1840 –
William Whewell invents the term scientist, previously 'natural philosopher' or 'man of science'. In his Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences he coins the term "
consilience" the principle that evidence from independent, unrelated sources can 'converge' to strong conclusions.
1937 – The first complete
placebo trial is undertaken. The American
pharmacologist Harry Gold, studying the effect of
xanthines on
cardiac pain, alternates them with a placebo and shows them to be ineffective.[26]
1950 – Research based on the
double blind test is published for the first time, by Greiner et al.[28]
1962 – The American physicist
Thomas S. Kuhn publishes his book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, which controversially challenged powerful and entrenched philosophical assumptions about the progress of science through history.[29]
1976 – The British-born, professor emeritus of statistics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison
George E. P. Box publishes his Journal Article Science and Statistics, which sets a framework for statistical modeling of phenomena, and the need for only appropriate complexity in model.[31]
2009 –
Robot Scientist (also known as Adam) is created, the first machine in history to have discovered new scientific knowledge independently of its human creators.[32]
2012 –
Constructor theory, a proposal for a new mode of explanation in fundamental physics, is sketched out by the British physicist
David Deutsch.[33]
^Ireland, Maynooth James McEvoy Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy National University of (31 August 2000).
Robert Grosseteste. Oxford University Press.
ISBN9780195354171. Retrieved 9 March 2015.
Stephen M. Stigler (November 1992). "A Historical View of Statistical Concepts in Psychology and Educational Research". American Journal of Education. 101 (1): 60–70.
doi:
10.1086/444032.
S2CID143685203.