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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... )
Fourteenth-century drawing of angels turning the celestial spheres
Ancient, medieval and
Renaissance astronomers and philosophers developed many different theories about the
dynamics of the celestial spheres . They explained the motions of the various
nested spheres in terms of the materials of which they were made, external movers such as celestial intelligences, and internal movers such as motive souls or impressed forces. Most of these models were qualitative, although a few of them incorporated quantitative analyses that related speed, motive force and resistance. (
Full article... )
List of selected articles
An
anthropometric device (side view) by Major A.J.N. Tremearne designed "for measuring the living head" for "the use of anthropologists", invented in 1913 with later additions made at the suggestion of A. Keith and
Karl Pearson .
Luther Burbank (March 7, 1849 – April 11, 1926) was an American
botanist ,
horticulturist and pioneer in
agricultural science .
He developed more than 800
strains and
varieties of
plants over his 55-year career. Burbank's developments included those of
fruits ,
flowers ,
grains ,
grasses , and
vegetables . He developed (but did not create) a spineless
cactus (useful for
cattle -feed) and the
plumcot .
Burbank's most successful strains and varieties included the
Shasta daisy , the fire poppy (note possible confusion with the California wildflower,
Papaver californicum , which is also called a fire poppy), the "July Elberta"
peach , the "Santa Rosa"
plum , the "Flaming Gold"
nectarine , the "Wickson"
plum (named after the agronomist
Edward J. Wickson ), the freestone peach, and the
white blackberry . A natural
genetic variant of the Burbank potato with
russet -colored skin later became known as the
russet Burbank potato . This large, brown-skinned, white-fleshed potato has become the world's predominant
potato in
food processing . The Russet Burbank potato was in fact invented to help with the devastating situation in Ireland following the
Great Famine . This particular potato variety was created by Burbank to help "revive the country's leading crop" as it is slightly late blight-resistant.
Late blight is a disease that spread and destroyed potatoes all across Europe, but caused extreme chaos in Ireland due to the high dependency on potatoes as a crop by the Irish. (
Full article... )
List of selected biographies
The following are images from various history of science-related articles on Wikipedia.
Image 1
Apollonius wrote a comprehensive study of
conic sections in the
Conics . (from
Science in classical antiquity )
Image 3 A
mosaic depicting Plato's Academy, from the Villa of T. Siminius Stephanus in
Pompeii (1st century AD). (from
Science in classical antiquity )
Image 4 Title page from
The Sceptical Chymist , a foundational text of chemistry, written by Robert Boyle in 1661 (from
Scientific Revolution )
Image 6 A coloured illustration from
Mansur 's
Anatomy ,
c. 1450 (from
Science in the medieval Islamic world )
Image 7
Matteo Ricci (left) and
Xu Guangqi (right) in
Athanasius Kircher ,
La Chine ... Illustrée , Amsterdam, 1670 (from
Scientific Revolution )
Image 8
Vesalius 's intricately detailed drawings of human dissections in
Fabrica helped to overturn the medical theories of
Galen . (from
Scientific Revolution )
Image 9
George Trebizond 's Latin translation of Ptolemy's Almagest (c. 1451) (from
Science in classical antiquity )
Image 10 The 1698
Savery Engine was the first successful
steam engine . (from
Scientific Revolution )
Image 11 The
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 )
Image 12 the
octahedral shape of diamond. (from
Science in the ancient world )
Image 13 The first treatise about optics by
Johannes Kepler ,
Ad Vitellionem paralipomena quibus astronomiae pars optica traditur (1604) (from
Scientific Revolution )
Image 15 Detail showing columns of glyphs from a portion of the 2nd century CE
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 )
Image 16
Isaac Newton 's
Principia developed the first set of unified scientific laws. (from
Scientific Revolution )
Image 17 The
Abbasid Caliphate , 750–1261 (and later in Egypt) at its height, c. 850 (from
Science in the medieval Islamic world )
Image 19
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 )
Image 20 An early
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, north at the bottom) (from
Science in the ancient world )
Image 22
Ptolemaic model of the spheres for
Venus ,
Mars ,
Jupiter , and
Saturn .
Georg von Peuerbach ,
Theoricae novae planetarum , 1474. (from
Scientific Revolution )
Image 23 An
Egyptian practice of treating
Migraine in ancient Egypt. (from
Science in the ancient world )
Image 25
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 )
Image 27 Diagram from
William Gilbert 's
De Magnete , a pioneering 1600 work of experimental science (from
Scientific Revolution )
Image 28
Pliny the Elder : an imaginative 19th Century portrait (from
Science in the ancient world )
Image 29 The physician
Hippocrates , known as the "Father of Modern Medicine" (from
Science in classical antiquity )
Image 30 The
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 )
Image 31
Francis Bacon was a pivotal figure in establishing the
scientific method of investigation. Portrait by
Frans Pourbus the Younger (1617). (from
Scientific Revolution )
Image 32 Self trimming lamp in
Ahmad ibn Mūsā ibn Shākir 's treatise on mechanical devices, c. 850 (from
Science in the medieval Islamic world )
Image 34 An ivory set of
Napier's Bones , an early calculating device invented by
John Napier (from
Scientific Revolution )
Image 36 Page from the
Kitāb al-Hayawān (
Book of Animals ) by
Al-Jahiz . Ninth century (from
Science in the medieval Islamic world )
Image 37 Portrait of
Johannes Kepler , one of the founders and fathers of modern
astronomy , the
scientific method ,
natural and
modern science (from
Scientific Revolution )
Image 38 The physical exercise chart; a
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 )
Image 41 Image of
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 42 The four
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 )
Image 44 The French
Academy of Sciences was established in 1666. (from
Scientific Revolution )
Image 45
Mesopotamian clay tablet-letter from 2400 BC,
Louvre . (from King of
Lagash , found at
Girsu ) (from
Science in the ancient world )
Image 46
Ibn Sina teaching the use of drugs. 15th-century
Great Canon of Avicenna (from
Science in the medieval Islamic world )
Image 48 Modern copy of
al-Idrisi 's 1154
Tabula Rogeriana , upside-down, north at top (from
Science in the medieval Islamic world )
Image 49 Ancient India was an early leader in
metallurgy , as evidenced by the
wrought iron
Pillar of Delhi . (from
Science in the ancient world )
Image 52 Diagram of the
Antikythera mechanism , an analog astronomical calculator (from
Science in classical antiquity )
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