Editing Paradigm shift (section)

=== Natural sciences ===
Some of the "classical cases" of Kuhnian paradigm shifts in science are:

* 1543 – The transition in [[cosmology]] from a [[Geocentric model|Ptolemaic cosmology]] to a [[Copernican heliocentrism|Copernican]] one.<ref>Kuhn, 1970, pp. 154 and passim</ref>
* 1543 – The acceptance of the work of [[Andreas Vesalius]], whose work ''[[De humani corporis fabrica]]'' corrected the numerous errors in the previously held system of [[human anatomy]] created by [[Galen]].<ref>{{Cite journal|title=[Vesalius and De humani corporis fabrica: Galen's errors and the change of anatomy in the sixteenth century] | pmid=11625189 | journal=Hippokrates (Helsinki) | pages=98–112 | last1 = Joutsivuo | first1 = T| year=1997 }}</ref>
* 1687 – The transition in [[mechanics]] from [[Aristotelian mechanics]] to [[classical mechanics]].<ref>Kuhn, 1970, pp. 148 and passim</ref>
* 1783 – The acceptance of [[Lavoisier]]'s theory of chemical reactions and combustion in place of [[phlogiston theory]], known as the [[chemical revolution]].<ref>Paradigm Shifts: Technology & Culture</ref><ref>Kuhn, 1970, p. 157</ref>
* The transition in [[optics]] from [[geometrical optics]] to [[physical optics]] with [[Augustin-Jean Fresnel]]'s wave theory.<ref>Kuhn, 1970, p. 155</ref>
* 1826 – The discovery of [[hyperbolic geometry]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Trudeau|first1=Richard J|title=The non-Euclidean revolution|url=https://archive.org/details/noneuclideanrevo0000trud|url-access=registration|date=1987|publisher=Birkhäuser|location=Boston|isbn=978-0-8176-3311-0}}</ref>
* 1830 to 1833 – [[Geologist]] [[Charles Lyell]] published ''[[Principles of Geology]]'', which not only put forth the concept of [[uniformitarianism]], which was in direct contrast to the popular geological theory, at the time, [[catastrophism]], but also utilized geological proof to determine that the age of the Earth was  [[Age of the Earth|older than 6,000 years]], which was previously held to be true.
* 1859 – The revolution in [[evolution]] from goal-directed change to [[Charles Darwin]]'s [[natural selection]].<ref>Kuhn, 1970, pp. 151 and passim</ref>
* 1880 – The [[germ theory of disease]] began overtaking Galen's [[miasma theory]].
* 1905 – The development of [[quantum mechanics]], which replaced [[classical mechanics]] at microscopic scales.<ref>Kuhn, 1970, pp. 83–84, 151 and passim</ref>
* 1887 to 1905 – The transition from the [[luminiferous aether]] present in [[space]] to [[electromagnetic radiation]] in [[spacetime]].<ref>Kuhn, 1970, p. 107</ref>
* 1919 – The transition between the worldview of [[Newtonian gravity]] and [[general relativity]].
* 1920 – The emergence of the modern view of the [[Milky Way]] as just one of countless galaxies within an immeasurably vast universe following the results of the Smithsonian's [[Shapley-Curtis Debate|Great Debate]] between astronomers [[Harlow Shapley]] and [[Heber Curtis]].
* 1952 – [[Chemist]]s [[Stanley Miller]] and [[Harold Urey]] perform an [[Miller–Urey experiment|experiment]] which simulated the conditions on the [[Hadean|early Earth]] that favored chemical reactions that synthesized more complex [[organic compounds]] from simpler inorganic precursors, kickstarting decades of research into the [[abiogenesis|chemical origins of life]].
* 1964 – The [[discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation]] leads to the [[Big Bang theory]] being accepted over the [[steady state theory]] in [[cosmology]].
* 1965 – The acceptance of [[plate tectonics]] as the explanation for large-scale geologic changes.
* 1969 – [[Astronomer]] [[Victor Safronov]], in his book ''Evolution of the protoplanetary cloud and formation of the Earth and the planets'', developed the early version of the current [[nebular hypothesis|accepted theory of planetary formation]].
* 1974 – The November Revolution, with the discovery of the [[J/psi meson]], and the acceptance of the existence of [[quarks]] and the [[Standard Model]] of particle physics.
* 1960 to 1985 – The acceptance of the ubiquity of [[nonlinearity|nonlinear]] [[dynamical systems]] as promoted by [[chaos theory]], instead of a [[Laplace|laplacian]] world-view of [[determinism|deterministic]] predictability.<ref>{{cite book |last=Gleick |first=James |author-link=James Gleick |date=1988 |title=Chaos:making a new science |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=upcJCIH8M_oC |location=New York |publisher=Viking Penguin|pages=35–56|chapter=Chapter 2:Revolution|isbn=0-670-81178-5}}</ref>