Editing Science (section)

== History ==
{{Main|History of science}}

=== Early history<span class="anchor" id="Earliest roots"></span> ===
{{Main|Science in the ancient world}}
[[File:Plimpton_322.jpg|thumb|The [[Plimpton 322|Plimpton 322 tablet]] by the [[Babylonia]]ns records [[Pythagorean triple]]s, written {{circa|1800&nbsp;BCE}}|alt=Clay tablet with markings, three columns for numbers and one for ordinals]]
Science has no single origin. Rather, scientific thinking emerged gradually over the course of tens of thousands of years,<ref>{{Citation |last=Carruthers |first=Peter |title=The roots of scientific reasoning: infancy, modularity and the art of tracking |date=2 May 2002 |work=The Cognitive Basis of Science |pages=73–96 |editor-last=Carruthers |editor-first=Peter |publisher=Cambridge University Press |doi=10.1017/cbo9780511613517.005 |isbn=978-0-521-81229-0 |editor2-last=Stich |editor2-first=Stephen |editor3-last=Siegal |editor3-first=Michael}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Lombard |first1=Marlize |last2=Gärdenfors |first2=Peter |year=2017 |title=Tracking the Evolution of Causal Cognition in Humans |journal=Journal of Anthropological Sciences |volume=95 |issue=95 |pages=219–234 |doi=10.4436/JASS.95006 |pmid=28489015 |issn=1827-4765}}</ref> taking different forms around the world, and few details are known about the very earliest developments. [[Women in science|Women]] likely played a central role in prehistoric science,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Graeber |first1=David |last2=Wengrow |first2=David |author-link1=David Graeber |author-link2=David Wengrow |year=2021 |title=The Dawn of Everything |title-link=The Dawn of Everything |page=248}}</ref> as did [[Ritual#Religious perspectives|religious rituals]].<ref>{{cite journal |title=The Faerie Smith Meets the Bronze Industry: Magic Versus Science in the Interpretation of Prehistoric Metal-Making |jstor=124782 |last1=Budd |first1=Paul |last2=Taylor |first2=Timothy |journal=World Archaeology |year=1995 |volume=27 |issue=1 |pages=133–143 |doi=10.1080/00438243.1995.9980297}}</ref> Some scholars use the term "[[protoscience]]" to label activities in the past that resemble modern science in some but not all features;<ref>{{cite book |last=Tuomela |first=Raimo |year=1987 |chapter=Science, Protoscience, and Pseudoscience |editor-last1=Pitt |editor-first1=J. C. |editor-last2=Pera |editor-first2=M. |title=Rational Changes in Science |series=Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science |volume=98 |pages=83–101 |publisher=Springer |location=Dordrecht |doi=10.1007/978-94-009-3779-6_4 |isbn=978-94-010-8181-8}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1086/599864 |first=Pamela H. |last=Smith |title=Science on the Move: Recent Trends in the History of Early Modern Science |journal=Renaissance Quarterly |volume=62 |number=2 |year=2009 |pages=345–375 |pmid=19750597 |s2cid=43643053}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Fleck |first=Robert |date=March 2021 |title=Fundamental Themes in Physics from the History of Art |journal=Physics in Perspective |volume=23 |issue=1 |pages=25–48 |doi=10.1007/s00016-020-00269-7 |bibcode=2021PhP....23...25F |s2cid=253597172 |issn=1422-6944 |doi-access=free}}</ref> however, this label has also been criticised as denigrating,<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Scott |first=Colin |encyclopedia=The Postcolonial Science and Technology Studies Reader |title=Science for the West, Myth for the Rest? |chapter=The Case of James Bay Cree Knowledge Construction |publisher=Duke University Press |location=Durham, NC |editor-last=Harding |editor-first=Sandra |isbn=978-0-8223-4936-5 |year=2011 |pages=175–197 |doi=10.2307/j.ctv11g96cc.16 |jstor=j.ctv11g96cc.16}}</ref> or too suggestive of [[Presentism (historical analysis)|presentism]], thinking about those activities only in relation to modern categories.<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1177/007327531205000203 |first=Peter |last=Dear |title=Historiography of Not-So-Recent Science |journal=History of Science |volume=50 |number=2 |year=2012 |pages=197–211 |s2cid=141599452}}</ref>

Direct evidence for scientific processes becomes clearer with the advent of [[writing systems]] in the [[Bronze Age]] civilisations of [[Ancient Egypt]] and [[Mesopotamia]] ({{circa|3000–1200&nbsp;BCE}}), creating the earliest written records in the [[history of science]].<ref name="Lindberg2007"/>{{rp|pp=12–15}}<ref name="Grant2007" /> Although the words and concepts of "science" and "nature" were not part of the conceptual landscape at the time, the ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians made contributions that would later find a place in Greek and medieval science: mathematics, astronomy, and medicine.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rochberg |first1=Francesca |author-link=Francesca Rochberg |editor1-last=Shank |editor1-first=Michael |editor2-last=Numbers |editor2-first=Ronald |editor3-last=Harrison |editor3-first=Peter |title=Wrestling with Nature: From Omens to Science |year=2011 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-31783-0 |page=9 |chapter=Ch.1 Natural Knowledge in Ancient Mesopotamia}}</ref><ref name="Lindberg2007"/>{{rp|p=12}} From the 3rd millennium&nbsp;BCE, the ancient Egyptians developed a non-positional [[Decimal#Origin|decimal numbering system]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Krebs |first=Robert E. |title=Groundbreaking Scientific Experiments, Inventions, and Discoveries of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance |publisher=[[Greenwood Publishing Group]] |year=2004 |isbn=978-0313324338 |page=127}}</ref> solved practical problems using [[geometry]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Erlich |first1=Ḥaggai |author-link=Haggai Erlich |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LcsJosc239YC&q=egyptian%20geometry%20Nile&pg=PA80 |title=The Nile: Histories, Cultures, Myths |last2=Gershoni |first2=Israel |year=2000 |publisher=Lynne Rienner |isbn=978-1-55587-672-2 |pages=80–81 |quote=The Nile occupied an important position in Egyptian culture; it influenced the development of mathematics, geography, and the calendar; Egyptian geometry advanced due to the practice of land measurement "because the overflow of the Nile caused the boundary of each person's land to disappear." |access-date=9 January 2020}}</ref> and developed a [[Egyptian calendar|calendar]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Telling Time in Ancient Egypt |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/tell/hd_tell.htm |access-date=27 May 2022 |website=The Met's Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History |date=February 2017 |archive-date=3 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220303133140/https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/tell/hd_tell.htm |url-status=live}}</ref> Their healing therapies involved drug treatments and the supernatural, such as prayers, [[incantation]]s, and rituals.<ref name="Lindberg2007"/>{{rp|p=9}}

The ancient [[Mesopotamia]]ns used knowledge about the properties of various natural chemicals for manufacturing [[pottery]], [[faience]], glass, soap, metals, [[lime plaster]], and waterproofing.<ref name="McIntosh2005">{{cite book |last1=McIntosh |first1=Jane R. |author-link=Jane McIntosh |title=Ancient Mesopotamia: New Perspectives |year=2005 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |location=Santa Barbara, CA |isbn=978-1-57607-966-9 |pages=273–276 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9veK7E2JwkUC&q=science+in+ancient+Mesopotamia |access-date=20 October 2020}}</ref> They studied [[animal physiology]], [[anatomy]], [[animal behavior|behaviour]], and [[astrology]] for [[divinatory]] purposes.<ref>{{Cite journal |title=Scientific Astronomy in Antiquity |last=Aaboe |first=Asger |author-link=Asger Aaboe |journal=[[Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society]] |volume=276 |issue=1257 |date=2 May 1974 |pages=21–42 |doi=10.1098/rsta.1974.0007 |bibcode=1974RSPTA.276...21A |jstor=74272 |s2cid=122508567}}</ref> The Mesopotamians had an [[Babylonian medicine|intense interest in medicine]] and the earliest [[medical prescription]]s appeared in [[Sumerian language|Sumerian]] during the [[Third Dynasty of Ur]].<ref name="McIntosh2005" /><ref>{{cite journal |title=Medicine, Surgery, and Public Health in Ancient Mesopotamia |first=R. D. |last=Biggs |journal=Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies |volume=19 |number=1 |year=2005 |pages=7–18}}</ref> They seem to have studied scientific subjects which had practical or religious applications and had little interest in satisfying curiosity.<ref name="McIntosh2005" />

=== Classical antiquity ===
{{Main|Science in classical antiquity}}
[[File:MANNapoli 124545 plato's academy mosaic.jpg|left|thumb|[[Plato's Academy mosaic]], made between 100&nbsp;BCE and 79&nbsp;CE, shows many Greek philosophers and scholars|alt=Framed mosaic of philosophers gathering around and conversing]]
In [[classical antiquity]], there is no real ancient analogue of a modern scientist. Instead, well-educated, usually upper-class, and almost universally male individuals performed various investigations into nature whenever they could afford the time.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lehoux |first1=Daryn |editor1-last=Shank |editor1-first=Michael |editor2-last=Numbers |editor2-first=Ronald |editor3-last=Harrison |editor3-first=Peter |title=Wrestling with Nature: From Omens to Science |year=2011 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-31783-0 |page=39 |chapter=2. Natural Knowledge in the Classical World}}</ref> Before the invention or discovery of the [[concept]] of ''[[phusis]]'' or nature by the [[pre-Socratic philosopher]]s, the same words tend to be used to describe the natural "way" in which a plant grows,<ref>An account of the pre-Socratic use of the concept of φύσις may be found in {{cite book |last=Naddaf |first=Gerard |year=2006 |title=The Greek Concept of Nature |publisher=SUNY Press |postscript=,}} and in {{cite journal |last1=Ducarme |first1=Frédéric |last2=Couvet |first2=Denis |year=2020 |title=What does 'nature' mean? |journal=[[Palgrave Communications]] |volume=6 |issue=14 |publisher=[[Springer Nature]] |doi=10.1057/s41599-020-0390-y |doi-access=free |url=https://hal.science/hal-02554932/file/s41599-020-0390-y.pdf |access-date=16 August 2023 |archive-date=16 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230816053756/https://hal.science/hal-02554932/file/s41599-020-0390-y.pdf |url-status=live}} The word φύσις, while first used in connection with a plant in Homer, occurs early in Greek philosophy, and in several senses. Generally, these senses match rather well the current senses in which the English word ''nature'' is used, as confirmed by {{cite book |last=Guthrie |first=W. K. C. |title=Presocratic Tradition from Parmenides to Democritus |postscript=none}} (volume 2 of his ''History of Greek Philosophy''), Cambridge University Press, 1965.</ref> and the "way" in which, for example, one tribe worships a particular god. For this reason, it is claimed that these men were the first philosophers in the strict sense and the first to clearly distinguish "nature" and "convention".<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Strauss |first1=Leo |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cpx2j0TumyIC |title=An Introduction to Political Philosophy: Ten Essays by Leo Strauss |last2=Gildin |first2=Hilail |publisher=[[Wayne State University Press]] |isbn=978-0814319024 |chapter=Progress or Return? The Contemporary Crisis in Western Education |year=1989 |access-date=30 May 2022 |page=209}}</ref>

The early [[Greek philosophers]] of the Milesian school, which was founded by [[Thales of Miletus]] and later continued by his successors [[Anaximander]] and [[Anaximenes of Miletus|Anaximenes]], were the first to attempt to explain [[natural phenomena]] without relying on the [[supernatural]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=O'Grady |first1=Patricia F. |author-link=Patricia O'Grady |title=Thales of Miletus: The Beginnings of Western Science and Philosophy |year=2016 |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |isbn=978-0-7546-0533-1 |page=245 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZTUlDwAAQBAJ&q=Thales+of+Miletus+first+scientist&pg=PA245 |access-date=20 October 2020}}</ref> The [[Pythagoreans]] developed a complex number philosophy<ref name="Burkert1972">{{cite book |last=Burkert |first=Walter |author-link=Walter Burkert |date=1 June 1972 |title=Lore and Science in Ancient Pythagoreanism |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0qqp4Vk1zG0C&q=Pythagoreanism |location=Cambridge, MA |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-53918-1}}</ref>{{rp|467–468}} and contributed significantly to the development of mathematical science.<ref name="Burkert1972" />{{rp|465}} The [[atomism|theory of atoms]] was developed by the Greek philosopher [[Leucippus]] and his student [[Democritus]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Pullman |first1=Bernard |title=The Atom in the History of Human Thought |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-19-515040-7 |pages=31–33 |publisher=Oxford University Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IQs5hur-BpgC&q=Leucippus+Democritus+atom&pg=PA56 |bibcode=1998ahht.book.....P |access-date=20 October 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Cohen |editor1-first=Henri |editor2-last=Lefebvre |editor2-first=Claire |title=Handbook of Categorization in Cognitive Science |year=2017 |publisher=Elsevier |location=Amsterdam |isbn=978-0-08-101107-2 |page=427 |edition=2nd |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zIrCDQAAQBAJ&q=Leucippus+Democritus+atom&pg=PA427 |access-date=20 October 2020}}</ref> Later, [[Epicurus]] would develop a full natural cosmology based on atomism, and would adopt a "canon" (ruler, standard) which established physical criteria or standards of scientific truth.<ref>[[Lucretius]] ({{floruit}}1st cenruty&nbsp;BCE) ''{{lang|la|[[De rerum natura]]}}''</ref> The Greek doctor [[Hippocrates]] established the tradition of systematic medical science<ref>{{cite book |last=Margotta |first=Roberto |year=1968 |title=The Story of Medicine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vFZrAAAAMAAJ |location=New York |publisher=[[Golden Press]] |access-date=18 November 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Touwaide |first1=Alain |title=Medieval Science, Technology, and Medicine: An Encyclopedia |year=2005 |editor1-last=Glick |editor1-first=Thomas F. |editor2-last=Livesey |editor2-first=Steven |editor3-last=Wallis |editor3-first=Faith |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |isbn=978-0-415-96930-7 |page=224 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=77y2AgAAQBAJ&q=Hippocrates+medical+science&pg=PA224 |access-date=20 October 2020}}</ref> and is known as "[[List of persons considered father or mother of a scientific field#Medicine and physiology|The Father of Medicine]]".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Leff |first1=Samuel |last2=Leff |first2=Vera |year=1956 |title=From Witchcraft to World Health |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HjNrAAAAMAAJ |location=London |publisher=Macmillan |access-date=23 August 2020}}</ref>

A turning point in the history of early philosophical science was [[Socrates]]' example of applying philosophy to the study of human matters, including human nature, the nature of political communities, and human knowledge itself. The [[Socratic method]] as documented by [[Plato]]'s dialogues is a [[dialectic]] method of hypothesis elimination: better hypotheses are found by steadily identifying and eliminating those that lead to contradictions. The Socratic method searches for general commonly-held truths that shape beliefs and scrutinises them for consistency.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0170%3Atext%3DApol.%3Apage%3D17 |title=Plato, Apology |page=17 |access-date=1 November 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180129145253/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0170%3Atext%3DApol.%3Apage%3D17 |archive-date=29 January 2018}}</ref> Socrates criticised the older type of study of physics as too purely speculative and lacking in [[self-criticism]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0170%3Atext%3DApol.%3Apage%3D27 |title=Plato, Apology |page=27 |access-date=1 November 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180129145253/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0170%3Atext%3DApol.%3Apage%3D27 |archive-date=29 January 2018}}</ref>

In the 4th century&nbsp;BCE, [[Aristotle]] created a systematic programme of [[teleological]] philosophy.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Aristotle |title=Nicomachean Ethics |edition=H. Rackham |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0054%3Abekker%20page%3D1139b |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120317140402/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc= |archive-date=17 March 2012 |access-date=22 September 2010 |at=1139b}}</ref> In the 3rd century&nbsp;BCE, Greek astronomer [[Aristarchus of Samos]] was the first to propose a [[heliocentric model]] of the universe, with the Sun at the centre and all the planets orbiting it.<ref name="McClellan2015">{{cite book |last1=McClellan |first1=James E. III |last2=Dorn |first2=Harold |title=Science and Technology in World History: An Introduction |year=2015 |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |location=Baltimore |isbn=978-1-4214-1776-9 |pages=99–100 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ah1ECwAAQBAJ&q=Aristarchus+heliocentrism&pg=PA99 |access-date=20 October 2020}}</ref> Aristarchus's model was widely rejected because it was believed to violate the laws of physics,<ref name="McClellan2015" /> while Ptolemy's ''[[Almagest]]'', which contains a geocentric description of the [[Solar System]], was accepted through the early Renaissance instead.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Graßhoff |first=Gerd |title=The History of Ptolemy's Star Catalogue |year=1990 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-4612-8788-9 |series=Studies in the History of Mathematics and Physical Sciences |volume=14 |location=New York |doi=10.1007/978-1-4612-4468-4}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Hoffmann |first=Susanne M. |title=Hipparchs Himmelsglobus |year=2017 |publisher=Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden |isbn=978-3-658-18682-1 |location=Wiesbaden |language=de |doi=10.1007/978-3-658-18683-8 |bibcode=2017hihi.book.....H}}</ref> The inventor and mathematician [[Archimedes of Syracuse]] made major contributions to the beginnings of [[calculus]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Edwards |first1=C. H. Jr. |title=The Historical Development of the Calculus |year=1979 |publisher=Springer |location=New York |isbn=978-0-387-94313-8 |page=75 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ilrlBwAAQBAJ&q=Archimedes+calculus&pg=PA75 |access-date=20 October 2020}}</ref> [[Pliny the Elder]] was a Roman writer and polymath, who wrote the seminal encyclopaedia ''[[Natural History (Pliny)|Natural History]]''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lawson |first1=Russell M. |title=Science in the Ancient World: An Encyclopedia |year=2004 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |location=Santa Barbara, CA |isbn=978-1-85109-539-1 |pages=190–191 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1AY1ALzh9V0C&q=Pliny+the+Elder+encyclopedia&pg=PA190 |access-date=20 October 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Murphy |first1=Trevor Morgan |title=Pliny the Elder's Natural History: The Empire in the Encyclopedia |year=2004 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-926288-5 |page=1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6NC_T_tG9lQC&q=Pliny+the+Elder+encyclopedia |access-date=20 October 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Doody |first1=Aude |title=Pliny's Encyclopedia: The Reception of the Natural History |year=2010 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-139-48453-4 |page=1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YoEhAwAAQBAJ&q=Pliny+the+Elder+encyclopedia |access-date=20 October 2020}}</ref>

[[Positional notation]] for representing numbers likely emerged between the 3rd and 5th centuries&nbsp;CE along Indian trade routes. This numeral system made efficient [[arithmetic]] operations more accessible and would eventually become standard for mathematics worldwide.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Conner |first=Clifford D. |title=A People's History of Science: Miners, Midwives, and "Low Mechanicks" |year=2005 |publisher=Nation Books |isbn=1-56025-748-2 |location=New York |pages=72–74}}</ref>

=== Middle Ages ===
{{Main|History of science#Middle Ages}}
[[File:ViennaDioscoridesEndpaperPeacock.jpg|thumb|The first page of [[Vienna Dioscurides]] depicts a [[peacock]], made in the 6th century|alt=Picture of a peacock on very old paper]]

Due to the [[collapse of the Western Roman Empire]], the 5th century saw an intellectual decline, with knowledge of classical Greek conceptions of the world deteriorating in Western Europe.<ref name="Lindberg2007"/>{{rp|p=194}} Latin encyclopaedists of the period such as [[Isidore of Seville]] preserved the majority of general ancient knowledge.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Grant |first1=Edward |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YyvmEyX6rZgC |title=The Foundations of Modern Science in the Middle Ages: Their Religious, Institutional and Intellectual Contexts |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-521-56762-6 |series=Cambridge Studies in the History of Science |pages=7–17 |access-date=9 November 2018}}</ref> In contrast, because the [[Byzantine Empire]] resisted attacks from invaders, they were able to preserve and improve prior learning.<ref name="Lindberg2007"/>{{rp|p=159}} [[John Philoponus]], a Byzantine scholar in the 6th century, started to question Aristotle's teaching of physics, introducing the [[theory of impetus]].<ref name="Lindberg2007"/>{{rp|pp=307, 311, 363, 402}} His criticism served as an inspiration to medieval scholars and Galileo Galilei, who extensively cited his works ten centuries later.<ref name="Lindberg2007"/>{{rp|pp=307–308}}<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Philoponus |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2016/entries/philoponus/ |encyclopedia=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |first=Christian |last=Wildberg |editor-first=Edward N. |editor-last=Zalta |date=1 May 2018 |publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University |access-date=1 May 2018 |archive-date=22 August 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190822110331/https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2016/entries/philoponus/ |url-status=live}}</ref>

During [[late antiquity]] and the [[Early Middle Ages]], natural phenomena were mainly examined via the Aristotelian approach. The approach includes Aristotle's [[four causes]]: material, formal, moving, and final cause.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Aristotle on Causality |last=Falcon |first=Andrea |editor-last=Zalta |year=2019 |editor-first=Edward |encyclopedia=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |edition=Spring 2019 |publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2019/entries/aristotle-causality/#FouCau |access-date=3 October 2020 |archive-date=9 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201009032459/https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2019/entries/aristotle-causality/#FouCau |url-status=live}}</ref> Many Greek classical texts were preserved by the [[Byzantine Empire]] and [[Arabic]] translations were made by Christians, mainly [[Nestorian schism|Nestorians]] and [[Miaphysites]]. Under the Abbasids, these Arabic translations were later improved and developed by Arabic scientists.<ref>{{cite book |last=Grant |first=Edward |url=https://archive.org/details/historynaturalph00gran |title=A History of Natural Philosophy: From the Ancient World to the Nineteenth Century |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-521-68957-1 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/historynaturalph00gran/page/n77 62]–67 |chapter=Islam and the eastward shift of Aristotelian natural philosophy |url-access=limited}}</ref> By the 6th and 7th centuries, the neighbouring [[Sasanian Empire]] established the medical [[Academy of Gondishapur]], which was considered by Greek, Syriac, and Persian physicians as the most important medical hub of the ancient world.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Cambridge history of Iran |date=1968–1991 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |last=Fisher |first=W. B. |isbn=978-0-521-20093-6}}</ref>

Islamic study of [[Aristotelianism#Islamic world|Aristotelianism]] flourished in the [[House of Wisdom]] established in the Abbasid capital of [[Baghdad]], Iraq<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Bayt-al-Hikmah |title=Bayt al-Hikmah |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date=3 November 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161104043313/https://www.britannica.com/place/Bayt-al-Hikmah |archive-date=4 November 2016}}</ref> and the flourished<ref>{{Cite book |editor-last=Hossein Nasr |editor-first=Seyyed |title=History of Islamic Philosophy |title-link=History of Islamic Philosophy |editor-last2=Leaman |editor-first2=Oliver |publisher=Routledge |year=2001 |isbn=978-0415259347 |pages=165–167 |editor-link=Seyyed Hossein Nasr}}</ref> until the [[Mongol invasions]] in the 13th century. [[Ibn al-Haytham]], better known as Alhazen, used controlled experiments in his optical study.{{efn|name=doubtPtolemy|1= Ibn al-Haytham's ''[[Book of Optics]]'' Book I, [6.54]. pages 372 and 408 disputed Claudius Ptolemy's extramission theory of vision; "Hence, the extramission of [visual] rays is superfluous and useless". —A.Mark Smith's translation of the Latin version of [[Ibn al-Haytham]].<ref name="Smith2001" />{{rp|Book I, [6.54]. pp. 372, 408}} }}<ref>{{cite journal |jstor=228328 |last1=Toomer |first1=G. J. |title=Reviewed work: Ibn al-Haythams Weg zur Physik, Matthias Schramm |journal=Isis |volume=55 |issue=4 |pages=463–465 |year=1964 |doi=10.1086/349914}} See p. 464: "Schramm sums up [Ibn Al-Haytham's] achievement in the development of scientific method.", p. 465: "Schramm has demonstrated .. beyond any dispute that Ibn al-Haytham is a major figure in the Islamic scientific tradition, particularly in the creation of experimental techniques." p. 465: "only when the influence of Ibn al-Haytham and others on the mainstream of later medieval physical writings has been seriously investigated can Schramm's claim that Ibn al-Haytham was the true founder of modern physics be evaluated."</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Cohen |first1=H. Floris |author-link=Floris Cohen |chapter=Greek nature knowledge transplanted: The Islamic world |title=How modern science came into the world. Four civilizations, one 17th-century breakthrough |year=2010 |pages=99–156 |publisher=Amsterdam University Press |isbn=978-90-8964-239-4 |edition=2nd}}</ref> [[Avicenna]]'s compilation of ''[[The Canon of Medicine]]'', a medical encyclopaedia, is considered to be one of the most important publications in medicine and was used until the 18th century.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures |url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopaediahis00seli |url-access=limited |year=2006 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/encyclopaediahis00seli/page/n168 155]–156 |publisher=Springer |bibcode=2008ehst.book.....S |isbn=978-1-4020-4559-2 |editor-last1=Selin |editor-first1=Helaine |editor-link=Helaine Selin}}</ref>

By the 11th century most of Europe had become Christian,<ref name="Lindberg2007"/>{{rp|p=204}} and in 1088, the [[University of Bologna]] emerged as the first university in Europe.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Russell |first=Josiah C. |year=1959 |title=Gratian, Irnerius, and the Early Schools of Bologna |journal=[[The Mississippi Quarterly]] |volume=12 |issue=4 |pages=168–188 |jstor=26473232 |quote=Perhaps even as early as 1088 (the date officially set for the founding of the University)}}</ref> As such, demand for Latin translation of ancient and scientific texts grew,<ref name="Lindberg2007"/>{{rp|p=204}} a major contributor to the [[Renaissance of the 12th century]]. Renaissance [[scholasticism]] in western Europe flourished, with experiments done by observing, describing, and classifying subjects in nature.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Albertus-Magnus |title=St. Albertus Magnus |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date=27 October 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171028045424/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Albertus-Magnus |archive-date=28 October 2017}}</ref> In the 13th century, medical teachers and students at Bologna began opening human bodies, leading to the first anatomy textbook based on human dissection by [[Mondino de Luzzi]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Numbers |first=Ronald |url=http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674057418 |title=Galileo Goes to Jail and Other Myths about Science and Religion |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-674-03327-6 |page=45 |access-date=27 March 2018 |archive-date=20 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210120190509/https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674057418 |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== Renaissance ===
{{Main|Scientific Revolution|Science in the Renaissance}}
[[File:De Revolutionibus manuscript p9b.jpg|thumb|Drawing of the heliocentric model as proposed by the Copernicus's ''{{lang|la|[[De revolutionibus orbium coelestium]]}}''|alt=Drawing of planets' orbit around the Sun]]
New developments in optics played a role in the inception of the [[Renaissance]], both by challenging long-held [[metaphysical]] ideas on perception, as well as by contributing to the improvement and development of technology such as the [[camera obscura]] and the [[telescope]]. At the start of the Renaissance, [[Roger Bacon]], [[Vitello]], and [[John Peckham]] each built up a scholastic [[ontology]] upon a causal chain beginning with sensation, perception, and finally [[apperception]] of the individual and universal [[theory of forms|forms]] of Aristotle.<ref name="Smith2001">{{cite book |last=Smith |first=A. Mark |title=Alhacen's Theory of Visual Perception: A Critical Edition, with English Translation and Commentary, of the First Three Books of Alhacen's ''De Aspectibus'', the Medieval Latin Version of Ibn al-Haytham's ''Kitāb al-Manāẓir'', 2 vols |title-link=De Aspectibus |publisher=[[American Philosophical Society]] |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-87169-914-5 |series=Transactions of the American Philosophical Society |volume=91 |location=Philadelphia |issue=4–5}}</ref>{{rp|Book I}} A model of vision later known as [[perspectivism]] was [[One-point perspective|exploited and studied]] by the artists of the Renaissance. This theory uses only three of Aristotle's four causes: formal, material, and final.<ref name="Smith1981">{{Cite journal |jstor=231249 |doi=10.1086/352843 |pmid=7040292 |title=Getting the Big Picture in Perspectivist Optics |journal=Isis |volume=72 |issue=4 |pages=568–589 |last1=Smith |first1=A. Mark |year=1981 |s2cid=27806323}}</ref>

In the 16th century, [[Nicolaus Copernicus]] formulated a [[heliocentric model]] of the Solar System, stating that the planets revolve around the Sun, instead of the [[geocentric model]] where the planets and the Sun revolve around the Earth. This was based on a theorem that the [[orbital period]]s of the planets are longer as their orbs are farther from the centre of motion, which he found not to agree with Ptolemy's model.<ref>{{Cite journal |doi=10.1177/002182860203300301 |title=Copernicus and the Origin of his Heliocentric System |journal=Journal for the History of Astronomy |volume=33 |issue=3 |pages=219–235 |year=2016 |last1=Goldstein |first1=Bernard R. |s2cid=118351058 |url=http://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/e610/194b7b608cab49e034a542017213d827fb70.pdf |access-date=12 April 2020 |archive-date=12 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200412211013/http://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/e610/194b7b608cab49e034a542017213d827fb70.pdf |url-status=dead}}</ref><!-- Censorship and such from the church -->

[[Johannes Kepler]] and others challenged the notion that the only function of the eye is perception, and shifted the main focus in optics from the eye to the propagation of light.<ref name="Smith1981" /><ref>{{cite book |last1=Cohen |first1=H. Floris |author-link=Floris Cohen |chapter=Greek nature knowledge transplanted and more: Renaissance Europe |title=How modern science came into the world. Four civilizations, one 17th-century breakthrough |year=2010 |pages=99–156 |publisher=Amsterdam University Press |isbn=978-90-8964-239-4 |edition=2nd}}</ref> Kepler is best known, however, for improving Copernicus' heliocentric model through the discovery of [[Kepler's laws of planetary motion]]. Kepler did not reject Aristotelian metaphysics and described his work as a search for the [[Harmony of the Spheres]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Koestler |first=Arthur |url=https://archive.org/details/sleepwalkershist00koes_0/page/1 |title=The Sleepwalkers: A History of Man's Changing Vision of the Universe |publisher=Penguin |year=1990 |isbn=0-14-019246-8 |location=London |page=[https://archive.org/details/sleepwalkershist00koes_0/page/1 1] |author-link=Arthur Koestler |orig-date=1959}}</ref> [[Galileo]] had made significant contributions to astronomy, physics and engineering. However, he became persecuted after Pope Urban VIII sentenced him for writing about the heliocentric model.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://galileo.rice.edu/gal/urban.html |title=Pope Urban VIII |last=van Helden |first=Al |year=1995 |website=The Galileo Project |access-date=3 November 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161111033150/http://galileo.rice.edu/gal/urban.html |archive-date=11 November 2016}}</ref>

The [[printing press]] was widely used to publish scholarly arguments, including some that disagreed widely with contemporary ideas of nature.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Gingerich |first=Owen |title=Copernicus and the Impact of Printing |journal=Vistas in Astronomy |volume=17 |year=1975 |issue=1 |pages=201–218 |doi=10.1016/0083-6656(75)90061-6 |bibcode=1975VA.....17..201G}}</ref> [[Francis Bacon]] and [[René Descartes]] published philosophical arguments in favour of a new type of non-Aristotelian science. Bacon emphasised the importance of experiment over contemplation, questioned the Aristotelian concepts of formal and final cause, promoted the idea that science should study the [[Physical law|laws of nature]] and the improvement of all human life.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Zagorin |first=Perez |title=Francis Bacon |page=84 |year=1998 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-00966-7}}</ref> Descartes emphasised individual thought and argued that mathematics rather than geometry should be used to study nature.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Davis |first1=Philip J. |last2=Hersh |first2=Reuben |year=1986 |title=Descartes' Dream: The World According to Mathematics |location=Cambridge, MA |publisher=[[Harcourt Brace Jovanovich]]}}</ref><!-- This updated approach to studies in nature was seen as [[mechanistic]]. discuss -->

=== Age of Enlightenment ===
{{Main|Science in the Age of Enlightenment}}
[[File:Newton's Principia title page.png|thumb|upright|Title page of the 1687 first edition of ''{{lang|la|[[Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica]]}}'' by Isaac Newton]]
At the start of the [[Age of Enlightenment]], [[Isaac Newton]] formed the foundation of [[classical mechanics]] by his ''{{lang|la|[[Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica]]}}'', greatly influencing future physicists.<ref>{{cite book |last=Gribbin |first=John |title=Science: A History 1543–2001 |year=2002 |page=241 |publisher=Allen Lane |isbn=978-0-7139-9503-9 |quote=Although it was just one of the many factors in the Enlightenment, the success of Newtonian physics in providing a mathematical description of an ordered world clearly played a big part in the flowering of this movement in the eighteenth century}}</ref> [[Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz]] incorporated terms from [[Aristotelian physics]], now used in a new non-[[teleological]] way. This implied a shift in the view of objects: objects were now considered as having no innate goals. Leibniz assumed that different types of things all work according to the same general laws of nature, with no special formal or final causes.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Leibniz/ |title=Gottfried Leibniz – Biography |website=Maths History |access-date=2 March 2021 |archive-date=11 July 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170711221621/http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Leibniz.html |url-status=live}}</ref>

During this time the declared purpose and value of science became producing wealth and inventions that would improve human lives, in the [[Economic materialism|materialistic]] sense of having more food, clothing, and other things. In [[Novum Organum|Bacon's words]], "the real and legitimate goal of sciences {{em|is the endowment of human life with new inventions and riches}}", and he discouraged scientists from pursuing intangible philosophical or spiritual ideas, which he believed contributed little to human happiness beyond "the fume of subtle, sublime or pleasing [speculation]".<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PgmbZIybuRoC&pg=PA162 |title=The Social and Economic Roots of the Scientific Revolution: Texts by Boris Hessen and Henryk Grossmann |last1=Freudenthal |first1=Gideon |last2=McLaughlin |first2=Peter |date=20 May 2009 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-4020-9604-4 |access-date=25 July 2018}}</ref>

Science during the Enlightenment was dominated by [[scientific societies]] and academies,<ref>{{Cite book |editor-last1=Goddard Bergin |editor-first1=Thomas |editor1-link=Thomas G. Bergin |url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofre0000unse_d0p5 |title=Encyclopedia of the Renaissance |editor-last2=Speake |editor-first2=Jennifer |editor2-link=Jennifer Speake |year=1987 |publisher=Facts on File |isbn=978-0816013159}}</ref> which had largely replaced universities as centres of scientific research and development. Societies and academies were the backbones of the maturation of the scientific profession. Another important development was the [[popular culture|popularisation]] of science among an increasingly literate population.<ref>{{Cite book |last=van Horn Melton |first=James |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/rise-of-the-public-in-enlightenment-europe/BA532085A260114CD430D9A059BD96EF |title=The Rise of the Public in Enlightenment Europe |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2001 |isbn=978-0511819421 |doi=10.1017/CBO9780511819421 |access-date=27 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |pages=82–83 |archive-date=20 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220120143805/https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/rise-of-the-public-in-enlightenment-europe/BA532085A260114CD430D9A059BD96EF |url-status=live }}</ref> Enlightenment philosophers turned to a few of their scientific predecessors&nbsp;– [[Galileo]], [[Kepler]], [[Robert Boyle|Boyle]], and Newton principally&nbsp;– as the guides to every physical and social field of the day.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment (1500–1780) |url=https://www.tamaqua.k12.pa.us/cms/lib07/PA01000119/Centricity/Domain/119/TheScientificRevolution.pdf |access-date=29 January 2024 |archive-date=14 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240114191547/https://www.tamaqua.k12.pa.us/cms/lib07/PA01000119/Centricity/Domain/119/TheScientificRevolution.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Scientific Revolution |url=https://www.britannica.com/science/Scientific-Revolution |access-date=29 January 2024 |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |archive-date=18 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190518105004/https://www.britannica.com/science/Scientific-Revolution |url-status=live}}</ref>

The 18th century saw significant advancements in the practice of medicine<ref>{{cite book |title=Brock Biology of Microorganisms |publisher=Prentice Hall |year=2006 |isbn=978-0131443297 |editor-last=Madigan |editor-first=M. |editor-last2=Martinko |editor-first2=J. |edition=11th}}</ref> and physics;<ref>{{cite book |last=Guicciardini |first=N. |url=https://archive.org/details/readingprincipia0000guic |title=Reading the Principia: The Debate on Newton's Methods for Natural Philosophy from 1687 to 1736 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1999 |isbn=978-0521640664 |location=New York |url-access=registration}}</ref> the development of biological [[Taxonomy (biology)|taxonomy]] by [[Carl Linnaeus]];<ref>{{cite journal |author1-link=Charles Calisher |last1=Calisher |first1=CH |year=2007 |title=Taxonomy: what's in a name? Doesn't a rose by any other name smell as sweet? |journal=Croatian Medical Journal |volume=48 |issue=2 |pages=268–270 |pmc=2080517 |pmid=17436393}}</ref> a new understanding of [[magnetism]] and electricity;<ref>{{cite book |last1=Darrigol |first1=Olivier |url=https://archive.org/details/electrodynamicsf0000darr |title=Electrodynamics from Ampère to Einstein |year=2000 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0198505949 |location=New York |url-access=registration}}</ref> and the maturation of [[chemistry]] as a discipline.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Olby |first1=R. C. |last2=Cantor |first2=G. N. |last3=Christie |first3=J. R. R. |last4=Hodge |first4=M. J. S. |year=1990 |title=Companion to the History of Modern Science |location=London |publisher=Routledge |page=265}}</ref> Ideas on human nature, society, and economics evolved during the Enlightenment. Hume and other Scottish Enlightenment thinkers developed ''[[A Treatise of Human Nature]]'', which was expressed historically in works by authors including [[James Burnett, Lord Monboddo|James Burnett]], [[Adam Ferguson]], [[John Millar (philosopher)|John Millar]] and [[William Robertson (historian)|William Robertson]], all of whom merged a scientific study of how humans behaved in ancient and primitive cultures with a strong awareness of the determining forces of [[modernity]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Magnusson |first=Magnus |date=10 November 2003 |title=Review of James Buchan, ''Capital of the Mind: how Edinburgh Changed the World'' |url=http://www.newstatesman.com/200311100040 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110606015918/http://www.newstatesman.com/200311100040 |archive-date=6 June 2011 |access-date=27 April 2014 |work=New Statesman}}</ref> Modern sociology largely originated from this movement.<ref>{{Cite journal |jstor=588406 |title=Origins of Sociology: The Case of the Scottish Enlightenment |journal=The British Journal of Sociology |volume=21 |issue=2 |pages=164–180 |last1=Swingewood |first1=Alan |year=1970|doi=10.2307/588406 }}</ref> In 1776, [[Adam Smith]] published ''[[The Wealth of Nations]]'', which is often considered the first work on modern economics.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fry |first=Michael |url=https://archive.org/details/adamsmithslegacy0000unse |title=Adam Smith's Legacy: His Place in the Development of Modern Economics |publisher=[[Routledge]] |others=[[Paul Samuelson]], [[Lawrence Klein]], [[Franco Modigliani]], [[James M. Buchanan]], [[Maurice Allais]], [[Theodore Schultz]], [[Richard Stone]], [[James Tobin]], [[Wassily Leontief]], [[Jan Tinbergen]] |year=1992 |isbn=978-0-415-06164-3 |url-access=registration}}</ref>

=== 19th century ===
{{Main|19th century in science}}[[File:Darwin Tree 1837.png|thumb|upright|The first diagram of an [[Phylogenetic tree|evolutionary tree]] made by [[Charles Darwin]] in 1837|alt=Sketch of a map with captions]]
During the 19th century, many distinguishing characteristics of contemporary modern science began to take shape. These included the transformation of the life and physical sciences; the frequent use of precision instruments; the emergence of terms such as "biologist", "physicist", and "scientist"; an increased professionalisation of those studying nature; scientists gaining cultural authority over many dimensions of society; the industrialisation of numerous countries; the thriving of popular science writings; and the emergence of science journals.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lightman |first1=Bernard |editor1-last=Shank |editor1-first=Michael |editor2-last=Numbers |editor2-first=Ronald |editor3-last=Harrison |editor3-first=Peter |title=Wrestling with Nature: From Omens to Science |year=2011 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-31783-0 |page=367 |chapter=13. Science and the Public}}</ref> During the late 19th century, psychology emerged as a separate discipline from philosophy when [[Wilhelm Wundt]] founded the first laboratory for psychological research in 1879.<ref>{{cite book |last=Leahey |first=Thomas Hardy |title=A History of Psychology: From Antiquity to Modernity |year=2018 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-138-65242-2 |edition=8th |location=New York |pages=219–253 |chapter=The psychology of consciousness}}</ref>

During the mid-19th century [[Charles Darwin]] and [[Alfred Russel Wallace]] independently proposed the theory of evolution by [[natural selection]] in 1858, which explained how different plants and animals originated and evolved. Their theory was set out in detail in Darwin's book ''[[On the Origin of Species]]'', published in 1859.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Padian |first=Kevin |title=Darwin's enduring legacy |journal=Nature |volume=451 |issue=7179 |pages=632–634 |year=2008 |doi=10.1038/451632a |pmid=18256649 |bibcode=2008Natur.451..632P |doi-access=free}}</ref> Separately, [[Gregor Mendel]] presented his paper, "[[Experiments on Plant Hybridisation]]" in 1865,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Henig |first=Robin Marantz |author-link=Robin Marantz Henig |url=https://archive.org/details/monkingardenlost00heni |title=The monk in the garden: the lost and found genius of Gregor Mendel, the father of genetics |year=2000 |pages=134–138}}</ref> which outlined the principles of biological inheritance, serving as the basis for modern genetics.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Miko |first=Ilona |title=Gregor Mendel's principles of inheritance form the cornerstone of modern genetics. So just what are they? |journal=Nature Education |volume=1 |issue=1 |page=134 |year=2008 |url=https://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/gregor-mendel-and-the-principles-of-inheritance-593/ |access-date=9 May 2021 |archive-date=19 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190719224056/http://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/gregor-mendel-and-the-principles-of-inheritance-593 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Early in the 19th century [[John Dalton]] suggested the modern [[atomic theory]], based on Democritus's original idea of indivisible particles called ''atoms''.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rocke |first1=Alan J. |year=2005 |title=In Search of El Dorado: John Dalton and the Origins of the Atomic Theory |journal=Social Research |volume=72 |issue=1 |pages=125–158 |doi=10.1353/sor.2005.0003 |jstor=40972005 |s2cid=141350239}}</ref> The laws of [[conservation of energy]], [[conservation of momentum]] and [[conservation of mass]] suggested a highly stable universe where there could be little loss of resources. However, with the advent of the [[steam engine]] and the [[Industrial Revolution]] there was an increased understanding that not all forms of energy have the same [[energy quality|energy qualities]], the ease of conversion to useful [[Work (thermodynamics)|work]] or to another form of energy.<ref name="Reichl1980" /> This realisation led to the development of the laws of [[thermodynamics]], in which the free energy of the universe is seen as constantly declining: the [[entropy]] of a closed universe increases over time.{{efn|name= HelmholtzGibbsGuthLinde|1= Whether the universe is closed or open, or the [[shape of the universe]], is an open question. The 2nd law of thermodynamics,<ref name="Reichl1980" >{{cite book |last=Reichl |first=Linda |author-link=Linda Reichl |year=1980 |title=A Modern Course in Statistical Physics |url= |location= |publisher=Edward Arnold |isbn=0-7131-2789-9}}</ref>{{rp|9}}<ref>{{cite book |last=Rao |first=Y. V. C. |title=Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics |publisher=Universities Press |isbn=978-81-7371-048-3 |year=1997 |page=158}}</ref> and the 3rd law of thermodynamics<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1016/j.aop.2016.07.031 |title=Bounded energy exchange as an alternative to the third law of thermodynamics |year=2016 |last1=Heidrich |first1=M. |journal=Annals of Physics |volume=373 |pages=665–681 |bibcode=2016AnPhy.373..665H}}</ref> imply the [[heat death of the universe]] if the universe is a closed system, but not necessarily for an expanding universe.}}

The [[electromagnetic theory]] was established in the 19th century by the works of [[Hans Christian Ørsted]], [[André-Marie Ampère]], [[Michael Faraday]], [[James Clerk Maxwell]], [[Oliver Heaviside]], and [[Heinrich Hertz]]. The new theory raised questions that could not easily be answered using Newton's framework. The discovery of [[X-ray]]s inspired the discovery of [[radioactivity]] by [[Henri Becquerel]] and [[Marie Curie]] in 1896,<ref>{{cite book |last=Mould |first=Richard F. |title=A century of X-rays and radioactivity in medicine: with emphasis on photographic records of the early years |year=1995 |publisher=Inst. of Physics Publ. |isbn=978-0-7503-0224-1 |edition=Reprint. with minor corr |location=Bristol |page=12}}</ref> Marie Curie then became the first person to win two Nobel Prizes.<ref name="Estreicher1938">{{cite book |last=Estreicher |first=Tadeusz |title=Polski słownik biograficzny, vol. 4 |title-link=Polski słownik biograficzny |year=1938 |page=113 |language=pl |chapter=Curie, Maria ze Skłodowskich |author-link=Tadeusz Estreicher}}</ref> In the next year came the discovery of the first subatomic particle, the [[electron]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Thomson |first=J. J. |year=1897 |title=Cathode Rays |journal=[[Philosophical Magazine]] |volume=44 |issue=269 |pages=293–316 |doi=10.1080/14786449708621070}}</ref>

=== 20th century ===
{{Main|20th century in science}}
[[File:Carte trou ozone Antarctique.jpg|alt=Graph showing lower ozone concentration at the South Pole|thumb|A computer graph of the [[ozone hole]] made in 1987 using data from a space telescope]]
In the first half of the century the development of [[antibiotics]] and [[artificial fertiliser]]s improved human living standards globally.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Goyotte |first=Dolores |year=2017 |title=The Surgical Legacy of World War II. Part II: The age of antibiotics |url=https://www.ast.org/ceonline/articles/402/files/assets/common/downloads/publication.pdf |url-status=live |journal=The Surgical Technologist |volume=109 |pages=257–264 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210505180530/https://www.ast.org/ceonline/articles/402/files/assets/common/downloads/publication.pdf |archive-date=5 May 2021 |access-date=8 January 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Erisman |first1=Jan Willem |first2=M. A. |last2=Sutton |first3=J. |last3=Galloway |first4=Z. |last4=Klimont |first5=W. |last5=Winiwarter |date=October 2008 |title=How a century of ammonia synthesis changed the world |url=http://www.physics.ohio-state.edu/~wilkins/energy/Resources/Essays/ngeo325.pdf.xpdf |url-status=dead |journal=[[Nature Geoscience]] |volume=1 |issue=10 |pages=636–639 |bibcode=2008NatGe...1..636E |doi=10.1038/ngeo325 |s2cid=94880859 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100723223052/http://www.physics.ohio-state.edu/~wilkins/energy/Resources/Essays/ngeo325.pdf.xpdf |archive-date=23 July 2010 |access-date=22 October 2010}}</ref> Harmful [[environmental issues]] such as [[ozone depletion]], [[ocean acidification]], [[eutrophication]], and [[climate change]] came to the public's attention and caused the onset of [[environmental studies]].<ref>{{cite journal |editor-last1=Emmett |editor-first1=Rob |editor-last2=Zelko |editor-first2=Frank |url=http://www.environmentandsociety.org/perspectives/2014/2/minding-gap-working-across-disciplines-environmental-studies |title=Minding the Gap: Working Across Disciplines in Environmental Studies |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220121054306/https://www.environmentandsociety.org/perspectives/2014/2/minding-gap-working-across-disciplines-environmental-studies |archive-date=21 January 2022 |series=RCC Perspectives no. 2 |year=2014 |doi=10.5282/rcc/6313 |last1=Emmett |first1=Robert |last2=Zelko |first2=Frank |journal=Environment & Society Portal}}</ref>

During this period scientific experimentation became increasingly [[Big science|larger in scale and funding]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Furner |first=Jonathan |date=1 June 2003 |title=Little Book, Big Book: Before and After Little Science, Big Science: A Review Article, Part I |journal=Journal of Librarianship and Information Science |volume=35 |issue=2 |pages=115–125 |doi=10.1177/0961000603352006 |s2cid=34844169}}</ref> The extensive technological innovation stimulated by [[World War I]], [[World War II]], and the [[Cold War]] led to competitions between [[Great power|global powers]], such as the [[Space Race]] and [[nuclear arms race]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kraft |first1=Chris |url=https://archive.org/details/flight00chri |title=Flight: My Life in Mission Control |first2=James |last2=Schefter |publisher=Dutton |year=2001 |isbn=0-525-94571-7 |location=New York |author-link1=Christopher C. Kraft, Jr. |pages=3–5}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Kahn |first=Herman |author-link=Herman Kahn |year=1962 |title=Thinking about the Unthinkable |publisher=Horizon}}</ref> Substantial international collaborations were also made, despite armed conflicts.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Shrum |first=Wesley |title=Structures of scientific collaboration |year=2007 |publisher=MIT Press |others=Joel Genuth, Ivan Chompalov |isbn=978-0-262-28358-8 |location=Cambridge, MA}}</ref>

In the late 20th century active recruitment of women and elimination of [[sex discrimination]] greatly increased the number of women scientists, but large gender disparities remained in some fields.<ref>{{cite book |last=Rosser |first=Sue V. |title=Breaking into the Lab: Engineering Progress for Women in Science |date=12 March 2012 |publisher=New York University Press |isbn=978-0-8147-7645-2 |page=7}}</ref> The discovery of the [[cosmic microwave background]] in 1964<ref>{{cite journal |last=Penzias |first=A. A. |year=2006 |title=The origin of elements |url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1978/penzias-lecture.pdf |journal=Science |publisher=[[Nobel Foundation]] |volume=205 |issue=4406 |pages=549–554 |doi=10.1126/science.205.4406.549 |pmid=17729659 |access-date=4 October 2006 |archive-date=17 January 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110117225210/http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1978/penzias-lecture.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref> led to a rejection of the [[Steady-state model|steady-state model of the universe]] in favour of the [[Big Bang]] theory of [[Georges Lemaître]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Weinberg |first=S. |url=https://archive.org/details/gravitationcosmo00stev_0/page/495 |title=Gravitation and Cosmology |publisher=John Whitney & Sons |year=1972 |isbn=978-0-471-92567-5 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/gravitationcosmo00stev_0/page/495 464–495] |url-access=registration}}</ref>

The century saw fundamental changes within science disciplines. Evolution became a unified theory in the early 20th-century when the [[Modern synthesis (20th century)|modern synthesis]] reconciled Darwinian evolution with [[classical genetics]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Futuyma |first1=Douglas J. |title=Evolution |last2=Kirkpatrick |first2=Mark |year=2017 |isbn=978-1605356051 |edition=4th |pages=3–26 |chapter=Chapter 1: Evolutionary Biology |publisher=Sinauer}}</ref> [[Albert Einstein]]'s [[theory of relativity]] and the development of [[quantum mechanics]] complement classical mechanics to describe physics in extreme [[length]], time and [[gravity]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Miller |first=Arthur I. |title=Albert Einstein's special theory of relativity. Emergence (1905) and early interpretation (1905–1911) |year=1981 |location=Reading |publisher=Addison–Wesley |isbn=978-0-201-04679-3}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=ter Haar |first=D. |url=https://archive.org/details/oldquantumtheory0000haar |title=The Old Quantum Theory |publisher=Pergamon |year=1967 |isbn=978-0-08-012101-7 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/oldquantumtheory0000haar/page/206 206] |url-access=registration}}</ref> Widespread use of [[integrated circuit]]s in the last quarter of the 20th century combined with [[communications satellite]]s led to a revolution in information technology and the rise of the global internet and [[mobile computing]], including [[smartphone]]s. The need for mass systematisation of long, intertwined causal chains and large amounts of data led to the rise of the fields of [[systems theory]] and computer-assisted [[scientific modelling]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=von Bertalanffy |first1=Ludwig |year=1972 |title=The History and Status of General Systems Theory |journal=The Academy of Management Journal |volume=15 |issue=4 |pages=407–426 |jstor=255139}}</ref>

=== 21st century ===
{{Main|21st century#Science and technology}}
[[File:Apjlab0e85f4 EHT-images-M87-four-teams.jpg|alt=|thumb|350x350px|Four predicted images of the [[M87* black hole]] made by separate teams in the [[Event Horizon Telescope]] collaboration.]]
The [[Human Genome Project]] was completed in 2003 by identifying and mapping all of the genes of the [[human genome]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Naidoo |first1=Nasheen |last2=Pawitan |first2=Yudi |last3=Soong |first3=Richie |last4=Cooper |first4=David N. |last5=Ku |first5=Chee-Seng |date=October 2011 |title=Human genetics and genomics a decade after the release of the draft sequence of the human genome |journal=Human Genomics |volume=5 |issue=6 |pages=577–622 |doi=10.1186/1479-7364-5-6-577 |pmc=3525251 |pmid=22155605 |doi-access=free}}</ref> The first [[Induced pluripotent stem cell|induced pluripotent human stem cell]]s were made in 2006, allowing adult cells to be transformed into [[stem cell]]s and turn into any cell type found in the body.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Rashid |first1=S. Tamir |last2=Alexander |first2=Graeme J. M. |date=March 2013 |title=Induced pluripotent stem cells: from Nobel Prizes to clinical applications |journal=Journal of Hepatology |volume=58 |issue=3 |pages=625–629 |doi=10.1016/j.jhep.2012.10.026 |issn=1600-0641 |pmid=23131523 |doi-access=free}}</ref> With the affirmation of the [[Higgs boson]] discovery in 2013, the last particle predicted by the [[Standard Model]] of particle physics was found.<ref>{{cite press release |last=O'Luanaigh |first=C. |date=14 March 2013 |title=New results indicate that new particle is a Higgs boson |publisher=[[CERN]] |url=http://home.web.cern.ch/about/updates/2013/03/new-results-indicate-new-particle-higgs-boson |access-date=9 October 2013 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151020000722/http://home.web.cern.ch/about/updates/2013/03/new-results-indicate-new-particle-higgs-boson |archive-date=20 October 2015}}</ref> In 2015, [[gravitational wave]]s, predicted by [[general relativity]] a century before, were [[First observation of gravitational waves|first observed]].<ref>{{Cite journal |doi=10.3847/2041-8213/aa91c9 |title=Multi-messenger Observations of a Binary Neutron Star Merger |journal=The Astrophysical Journal |volume=848 |issue=2 |page=L12 |year=2017 |last1=Abbott |first1=B. P. |last2=Abbott |first2=R. |last3=Abbott |first3=T. D. |last4=Acernese |first4=F. |last5=Ackley |first5=K. |last6=Adams |first6=C. |last7=Adams |first7=T. |last8=Addesso |first8=P. |last9=Adhikari |first9=R. X.|last10 = Adya|first10 = V. B. |last11=Affeldt |first11=C. |last12=Afrough |first12=M. |last13=Agarwal |first13=B. |last14=Agathos |first14=M. |last15=Agatsuma |first15=K. |last16=Aggarwal |first16=N. |last17=Aguiar |first17=O. D. |last18=Aiello |first18=L. |last19=Ain |first19=A.|last20 = Ajith|first20 = P. |last21=Allen |first21=B. |last22=Allen |first22=G. |last23=Allocca |first23=A. |last24=Altin |first24=P. A. |last25=Amato |first25=A. |last26=Ananyeva |first26=A. |last27=Anderson |first27=S. B. |last28=Anderson |first28=W. G. |last29=Angelova |first29=S. V.|last30 = Antier|first30 = S. |display-authors=29 |bibcode=2017ApJ...848L..12A |arxiv=1710.05833 |s2cid=217162243 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1126/science.aar2149 |title=Merging neutron stars generate gravitational waves and a celestial light show |journal=Science |year=2017 |last1=Cho |first1=Adrian}}</ref> In 2019, the international collaboration [[Event Horizon Telescope]] presented the first direct image of a [[black hole]]'s [[accretion disc]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=20 April 2019 |title=Media Advisory: First Results from the Event Horizon Telescope to be Presented on April 10th |publisher=Event Horizon Telescope |url=https://eventhorizontelescope.org/blog/media-advisory-first-results-event-horizon-telescope-be-presented-april-10th |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190420135254/https://eventhorizontelescope.org/blog/media-advisory-first-results-event-horizon-telescope-be-presented-april-10th |archive-date=20 April 2019 |access-date=21 September 2021}}</ref><!-- Should be one paragraph until ~2040, as it represents a quarter of the century -->