Page 16 - All About History - Issue 11-14

Science

Science across history

THE ORIGINAL The simplest revolutionised astronomy
Galileo Galilei
explanation is
MEDICAL DATABASE the best

PERSIA 1025 ENGLAND 1320
The scientific principle Occam’s razor,
Not only did Persian polymath as formulated by William of Ockham,
Avicenna write one of one the an English Franciscan friar and
largest and most comprehensive scholar, states that among competing
hypotheses the simplest and one
medical text books ever written,
with fewest assumptions should be
which his The Canon Of Medicine selected. Today, Occam’s razor is
consisting of five works that typically used as a heuristic to guide
laid out Galenic medicine in its scientists in their work.
most advanced form, but he STARGAZING
also went on to write scientific ITALY 1610
treatises on over 450 subjects Galileo Galilei’s Sidereus Nuncius treatise of
1610 was the first-ever scientific work based on
including philosophy, astronomy, observations made through a telescope, containing
mathematics and physics. such highlights as early observations of the Moon’s
Amazingly, despite Avicenna topography and various stars and planets. Its
writing in the 11th century CE, publication helped popularise astronomy, while the
over 240 of his scientific treatises Avicenna’s full name was Abū Alī al-usayn ibn Ockham was influenced by scientists treatise itself became incredibly valuable, with the
original edition now worth £180,000 ($276,000).
survive to this day. Abd Allāh ibn Al-Hasan ibn Ali ibn Sīnā as far back as Aristotle

Science timeline O Alhazen’s grand spectacle(s) O Pot of gold O Planetary science is put O Boyle delivers under
pressure
in motion
Theodoric of
The most famous book on
optics ever produced prior Freiberg completes Legendary German scientist Robert Boyle, a
O Egyptians get empirical to the Renaissance, his De Iride Johannes Kepler lays down natural philosopher,
Despite Ancient Egyptian Arab scientist Et Radialibus the first of his two laws of chemist and physicist,
medicine largely being Ibn al-Haytham Impressionibus, a planetary motion, stating: creates Boyle’s law, an
ineffective, surviving (Alhazen) publishes treatise in which he “The orbit of every planet is an experimental gas law
papyrus shows that a his Kitab al-Manazir gives the first-ever ellipse with the Sun at one of that describes how the
basic scientific empirical or Book Of Optics, geometrical analysis the two foci […] a line joining pressure of gas usually
method of examination, which becomes of the rainbow a planet and the Sun sweeps decreases as the volume
diagnosis, treatment and Ancient Egyptian papyrus the future basis for phenomena. out equal areas during equal increases. 1662 CE
prognosis was used by shows empirical methods the field. Alhazen’s book 1304 CE time intervals.” 1609 CE
physicians. 1550 BCE of working
1021 CE on optics is
very influential
1550 BCE 0 500 1000 1100 1200 1300 1400 1500 1600 1700
O Solar System model O Rhazes gets up-close O Grosseteste goes method O Copernicus puts Earth in the corner O Newton defines
Greco-Roman polymath with measles Robert Grosseteste, a After centuries of following Ptolemy’s classical physics
Ptolemy, who in his Among his myriad of scientific scholastic philosopher geocentric model of Isaac Newton publishes his
day was referred to achievements, Persian polymath and theologian, lays the Solar System, landmark Philosophiæ Naturalis
as ‘a pro-astrological Muhammad ibn Zakariyā Rāzī – down the foundations Nicolaus Copernicus’ Principia Mathematica, in
authority of the highest Latinised name Rhazes of the later scientific revolutionary which he famously describes
magnitude’, creates the – discovers smallpox method, introducing heliocentric model his laws of motion and law of
first geocentric model and measles and to the West the idea of Science owes places the Sun at its universal gravitation, which go
of the Solar System. describes them. controlled experimentation. a debt to centre, instead of Earth. Copernicus on to form the basis of classical
150 CE 900 CE 1220 CE 1543 CE physics. 1687 CE
Grosseteste
Rhazes
The first peer review THE CELL IS DISCOVERED
ENGLAND 1665 ENGLAND 1665
Of all of history’s scientific developments, perhaps the most important
was the simple publication of a journal in the mid-17th century. Today, cellular science has helped humans
The Royal Society of London, the first establishment in the world understand their bodies and those of every
dedicated to science, had been founded in England in November 1660 other organism on Earth like never before.
after being granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II. Its dedication However, prior to English scientist
to ‘natural philosophy’ soon became well known and, five years
after its establishment, its then-secretary Henry Oldenburg decided Robert Hooke’s discovery of the cell in
that its members’ research and discoveries should be published 1665, they were an entirely unknown
in a journal, which he paid for out of his own pocket. This journal aspect of biology. Hooke discovered
was the Philosophical Transactions Of The Royal Society and was cells while studying cork and then later
groundbreaking – it was the first peer-reviewed scientific journal
in the world. This one journal helped establish the peer-review in living plant tissues. The scientist even
system that any serious scientific journal today utilises and helped coined the word ‘cell’ himself in his book
disseminate the amazing power of science to a wider audience. Michael Faraday lecturing Micrographia, which he took from the Latin
Amazingly, the journal is still in publication today. at the Royal Society ‘cella’, which translates as ‘small room.’

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