The Scientific Revolution Has Interesting History
October 14, 2019 at 10:23 p.m.
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Science has been described in numerous ways, but the best definition may be that is the study of the nature and behavior of natural things and the knowledge that we obtain about them. The knowledge is based on facts learned through experiments and observation. Physics, chemistry and biology are examples of a science. The word “scientist” was not coined until 1833 when William Whewell described that person as an expert in the study of nature. Whewell was a Cambridge professor, Master of Trinity College, theologian, philosopher and historian. Prior to then, scientists were called natural philosophers.
The scientific revolution may have begun with three publications somewhere around the mid-1500s. They were instrumental in moving civilization from the dark ages to what historians refer to as the Renaissance. One was the translation from ancient Greek to Latin of Archimedes work written around 200 BC. The second was Andreas Vesalius seminal description of the human body, and the last was the revolutionary astronomical discoveries by Nicolaus Copernicus. The revolution may be considered closed in 1704 when Isaac Newton published his Opticks.
Archimedes
Archimedes was a Greek mathematician, philosopher and inventor, who wrote important works on geometry, arithmetic, and mechanics. He began the science of hydrostatics, which deals with the pressure of liquids. Hydrostatics are sometimes known as “Archimedes principle” stating that a body immersed in fluid loses weight equal to the weight of the amount of fluid it displaces. He discovered the laws of the lever and pulleys, which led to machines that could move heavy loads, or increase speeds, or change directions. He discovered the principle of buoyancy, which tells us why some things float and some things sink and some things rise into the air. Archimedes discovered that every element, and even every combination of elements, has a different density, or weight for its size—and that this is a good way to tell one substance from another, even if they look alike. He invented the Archimedean screw, a device that is still used to drain or irrigate fields and load grain and run high-speed machines and a type of astronomical machine that showed eclipses of the sun and moon. He also estimated the length of the year, and the distances to the five planets that were known to the ancient world.
Vesalius
According to author Sherwin Nuland, Andreas Vesalius wrote the book that epitomizes the confluence of science, technology and culture in a way that few, perhaps no other books have every done. It was an outgrowth of vigorous spirit of the Renaissance and celebrated a return to the logical thoughts and observational methods of the ancient Greeks like Archimedes. De Humani Corporis Fabrica paved the way for modern scientific medicine by presenting the world with the first accurate description and knowledge of human anatomy and a method by which it can be studied. Even the language of the text, a brilliant form of Latin is reminiscent of the finest of Roman rhetoric. With the book’s publication, medicine was finally lifted out of the medieval murkiness represented by much earlier so-called anatomists. The book was technically accurate, based on Vesalius’ dissections of human cadavers and annotated with remarkable illustrations that brought anatomy to life. The illustrations were done by a pupil of Titian. Unfortunately the text of Fabrica remains the least read of the great books of medicine, and to this day only fragments of it have been translated into English. Nevertheless, modern medicine owes much to his dissections.
Copernicus
Nicolaus Copernicus’ book De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium, published in 1543 gave the world the most important scientific insight into the modern age. (He was seventy years old at that time.) It was the radical theory that the earth and other planets revolve around sun (the heliocentric model). Prior to Copernicus nearly everyone believed that a perfectly still earth rested in the middle of the cosmos, where all the heavenly bodies revolved around it. Copernicus was also the first to proclaim that the earth rotates on its axis once every twenty four hours. He began his research around the year 1510, but concealed the theory for thirty years, fearful of ridicule from his mathematician peers. Decades after his death in 1543, when the first telescopic discoveries lent credence to his intuitions, the Catholic Church’s Holy Office of the Inquisition condemned his efforts. In 1616, On the Revolutions was listed on the Index of Prohibited Books, where it remained for more than two hundred years. The philosophical conflict and change in perception that his ideas engendered are sometimes referred to as the Copernican Revolution.
Final thoughts
According to David Wootton in his book, The Invention of Science, “the vast scientific revolution has transformed the nature of knowledge and the capacities of humankind. Without it there would be no Industrial Revolution and none of the modern technologies on which we depend; human life would be drastically poorer and shorter and most of us would live lives of unremitting toil.”
Max Sherman is a medical writer and pharmacist retired from the medical device industry. He has taught college courses on regulatory and compliance issues at Ivy Tech, Grace College and Butler University. Sherman has an unquenchable thirst for knowledge on all levels. Eclectic Science, the title of his column, touches on famed doctors and scientists, human senses, aging, various diseases, and little-known facts about many species, including their contributions to scientific research. He can be reached by email at [email protected].
Science has been described in numerous ways, but the best definition may be that is the study of the nature and behavior of natural things and the knowledge that we obtain about them. The knowledge is based on facts learned through experiments and observation. Physics, chemistry and biology are examples of a science. The word “scientist” was not coined until 1833 when William Whewell described that person as an expert in the study of nature. Whewell was a Cambridge professor, Master of Trinity College, theologian, philosopher and historian. Prior to then, scientists were called natural philosophers.
The scientific revolution may have begun with three publications somewhere around the mid-1500s. They were instrumental in moving civilization from the dark ages to what historians refer to as the Renaissance. One was the translation from ancient Greek to Latin of Archimedes work written around 200 BC. The second was Andreas Vesalius seminal description of the human body, and the last was the revolutionary astronomical discoveries by Nicolaus Copernicus. The revolution may be considered closed in 1704 when Isaac Newton published his Opticks.
Archimedes
Archimedes was a Greek mathematician, philosopher and inventor, who wrote important works on geometry, arithmetic, and mechanics. He began the science of hydrostatics, which deals with the pressure of liquids. Hydrostatics are sometimes known as “Archimedes principle” stating that a body immersed in fluid loses weight equal to the weight of the amount of fluid it displaces. He discovered the laws of the lever and pulleys, which led to machines that could move heavy loads, or increase speeds, or change directions. He discovered the principle of buoyancy, which tells us why some things float and some things sink and some things rise into the air. Archimedes discovered that every element, and even every combination of elements, has a different density, or weight for its size—and that this is a good way to tell one substance from another, even if they look alike. He invented the Archimedean screw, a device that is still used to drain or irrigate fields and load grain and run high-speed machines and a type of astronomical machine that showed eclipses of the sun and moon. He also estimated the length of the year, and the distances to the five planets that were known to the ancient world.
Vesalius
According to author Sherwin Nuland, Andreas Vesalius wrote the book that epitomizes the confluence of science, technology and culture in a way that few, perhaps no other books have every done. It was an outgrowth of vigorous spirit of the Renaissance and celebrated a return to the logical thoughts and observational methods of the ancient Greeks like Archimedes. De Humani Corporis Fabrica paved the way for modern scientific medicine by presenting the world with the first accurate description and knowledge of human anatomy and a method by which it can be studied. Even the language of the text, a brilliant form of Latin is reminiscent of the finest of Roman rhetoric. With the book’s publication, medicine was finally lifted out of the medieval murkiness represented by much earlier so-called anatomists. The book was technically accurate, based on Vesalius’ dissections of human cadavers and annotated with remarkable illustrations that brought anatomy to life. The illustrations were done by a pupil of Titian. Unfortunately the text of Fabrica remains the least read of the great books of medicine, and to this day only fragments of it have been translated into English. Nevertheless, modern medicine owes much to his dissections.
Copernicus
Nicolaus Copernicus’ book De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium, published in 1543 gave the world the most important scientific insight into the modern age. (He was seventy years old at that time.) It was the radical theory that the earth and other planets revolve around sun (the heliocentric model). Prior to Copernicus nearly everyone believed that a perfectly still earth rested in the middle of the cosmos, where all the heavenly bodies revolved around it. Copernicus was also the first to proclaim that the earth rotates on its axis once every twenty four hours. He began his research around the year 1510, but concealed the theory for thirty years, fearful of ridicule from his mathematician peers. Decades after his death in 1543, when the first telescopic discoveries lent credence to his intuitions, the Catholic Church’s Holy Office of the Inquisition condemned his efforts. In 1616, On the Revolutions was listed on the Index of Prohibited Books, where it remained for more than two hundred years. The philosophical conflict and change in perception that his ideas engendered are sometimes referred to as the Copernican Revolution.
Final thoughts
According to David Wootton in his book, The Invention of Science, “the vast scientific revolution has transformed the nature of knowledge and the capacities of humankind. Without it there would be no Industrial Revolution and none of the modern technologies on which we depend; human life would be drastically poorer and shorter and most of us would live lives of unremitting toil.”
Max Sherman is a medical writer and pharmacist retired from the medical device industry. He has taught college courses on regulatory and compliance issues at Ivy Tech, Grace College and Butler University. Sherman has an unquenchable thirst for knowledge on all levels. Eclectic Science, the title of his column, touches on famed doctors and scientists, human senses, aging, various diseases, and little-known facts about many species, including their contributions to scientific research. He can be reached by email at [email protected].
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