Science
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Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable explanations about nature and society.[1]: 49–71 [2] It is driven by the scientific method: an empirical cycle that typically involves making observations, producing hypotheses, testing them with evidence, and drawing conclusions. Science encompasses this process and the body of knowledge it produces, which the scientific community continuously challenges, validates, and organises.
Modern science is typically divided into two – or three – major branches:[3] the natural sciences, which study the physical world, and the social sciences, which study individuals and societies.[4][5] While referred to as the formal sciences, the study of logic, mathematics, and theoretical computer science are typically regarded as separate because they rely on deductive reasoning instead of the scientific method as their main methodology.[6][7][8][9] Meanwhile, applied sciences are disciplines that use scientific knowledge for practical purposes, such as engineering and medicine.[10][11][12]
The history of science spans the majority of the historical record, with the earliest identifiable predecessors to modern science dating to the Bronze Age in Egypt and Mesopotamia (c. 3000–1200 BCE). Their contributions to mathematics, astronomy, and medicine entered and shaped the Greek natural philosophy of classical antiquity and later medieval scholarship, whereby formal attempts were made to provide explanations of events in the physical world based on natural causes; while further advances, including the introduction of the Hindu–Arabic numeral system, were made during the Golden Age of India and Islamic Golden Age.[13]: 12 [14]: 1–26 [15][16][13]: 163–192
The recovery and assimilation of Greek works and Islamic inquiries into Western Europe during the Renaissance revived natural philosophy,[13]: 193–224, 225–253 [17] which was later transformed by the Scientific Revolution that began in the 16th century[18] as new ideas and discoveries departed from previous Greek conceptions and traditions.[13]: 357–368 [14]: 274–322 The scientific method soon played a greater role in the acquisition of knowledge, and in the 19th century, many of the institutional and professional features of science began to take shape,[19][20] along with the changing of "natural philosophy" to "natural science".[21]
New knowledge in science is advanced by research from scientists who are motivated by curiosity about the world and a desire to solve problems.[22][23] Contemporary scientific research is often highly collaborative and is frequently carried out by teams in academic and research institutions,[24] government agencies,[13]: 163–192 and companies.[25] At the same time, many major advances—particularly in fundamental science—have come from individual researchers and are widely recognised through major international awards such as the Nobel Prize. The practical results of scientific work have led to the emergence of science policies that seek to prioritise the responsible development of commercial products, health care, public infrastructure, environmental protection, and defense capabilities.
Etymology
The word science has been used in English since the 14th century (Middle English) in the sense of "the state of knowing". The word was borrowed from the Anglo-Norman language as the suffix -cience, which was borrowed from the Latin word scientia, meaning 'knowledge, awareness, understanding', a noun derivative of sciens meaning 'knowing', itself the present active participle of sciō 'to know'.[26]
There are many hypotheses for science's ultimate word origin. According to Michiel de Vaan, Dutch linguist and Indo-Europeanist, sciō may have its origin in the Proto-Italic language as *skije- or *skijo- meaning 'to know', which may originate from Proto-Indo-European language as *skh1-ie, *skh1-io meaning 'to incise'. The Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben proposed sciō is a back-formation of nescīre, meaning 'to not know, be unfamiliar with', which may derive from Proto-Indo-European *sekH- in Latin secāre, or *skh2- from *sḱʰeh2(i)- meaning 'to cut'.[27]
In the past, science was a synonym for "knowledge" or "study", in keeping with its Latin origin. A person who conducted scientific research was called a "natural philosopher" or "man of science".[28] In 1834, William Whewell introduced the term scientist in a review of Mary Somerville's book On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences,[29] crediting it to "some ingenious gentleman" (possibly himself).[30]
History
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| History of science |
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| Historiography of science |
Early history
Science has no single origin. Rather, scientific thinking emerged gradually over the course of tens of thousands of years,[32][33] taking different forms around the world, and few details are known about the very earliest developments. Women likely played a central role in prehistoric science,[34] as did religious rituals.[35] Some scholars use the term "protoscience" to label activities in the past that resemble modern science in some but not all features;[36][37][38] however, this label has also been criticised as denigrating,[39] or too suggestive of presentism, thinking about those activities only in relation to modern categories.[40]
Direct evidence for scientific processes becomes clearer with the advent of writing systems in the Bronze Age civilisations of Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia (c. 3000–1200 BCE), creating the earliest written records in the history of science.[13]: 12–15 [14] 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.[41][13]: 12
From the 3rd millennium BCE, the ancient Egyptians developed a non-positional decimal numbering system,[42] solved practical problems using geometry,[43] and developed a calendar.[44] Their healing therapies involved drug treatments and the supernatural, such as prayers, incantations, and rituals.[13]: 9 Ancient Nubians pioneered early antibiotics and established a system of geometrics which served as the basis for initial sunclocks. Nubians also exercised a trigonometric methodology comparable to their Egyptian counterparts.[45][46][47][48]
The ancient Mesopotamians used knowledge about the properties of various natural chemicals for manufacturing pottery, faience, glass, soap, metals, lime plaster, and waterproofing.[49] They studied animal physiology, anatomy, behaviour, and astrology for divinatory purposes.[50] The Mesopotamians had an intense interest in medicine and the earliest medical prescriptions appeared in Sumerian during the Third Dynasty of Ur.[49][51] They seem to have studied scientific subjects which had practical or religious applications and had little interest in satisfying curiosity.[49]
Classical antiquity
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.[52] Before the invention or discovery of the concept of phusis or nature by the pre-Socratic philosophers, the same words tend to be used to describe the natural "way" in which a plant grows,[53] 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".[54]
The early Greek philosophers of the Milesian school, which was founded by Thales of Miletus and later continued by his successors Anaximander and Anaximenes, were the first to attempt to explain natural phenomena without relying on the supernatural.[55] The Pythagoreans developed a complex number philosophy[56]: 467–468 and contributed significantly to the development of mathematical science.[56]: 465 The theory of atoms was developed by the Greek philosopher Leucippus and his student Democritus.[57][58] 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.[59] The Greek doctor Hippocrates established the tradition of systematic medical science[60][61] and is known as "The Father of Medicine".[62]
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.[63] Socrates criticised the older type of study of physics as too purely speculative and lacking in self-criticism.[64]
In the 4th century BCE, Aristotle created a systematic programme of teleological philosophy.[65] In the 3rd century 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.[66] Aristarchus's model was widely rejected because it was believed to violate the laws of physics,[66] while Ptolemy's Almagest, which contains a geocentric description of the Solar System, was accepted through the early Renaissance instead.[67][68] The inventor and mathematician Archimedes of Syracuse made major contributions to the beginnings of calculus.[69] Pliny the Elder was a Roman writer and polymath, who wrote the seminal encyclopaedia Natural History.[70][71][72]
Positional notation for representing numbers likely emerged between the 3rd and 5th centuries CE along Indian trade routes. This numeral system made efficient arithmetic operations more accessible and would eventually become standard for mathematics worldwide.[73]
Middle Ages
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.[13]: 194 Latin encyclopaedists of the period such as Isidore of Seville preserved the majority of general ancient knowledge.[74] In contrast, because the Byzantine Empire resisted attacks from invaders, they were able to preserve and improve prior learning.[13]: 159 John Philoponus, a Byzantine scholar in the 6th century, started to question Aristotle's teaching of physics, introducing the theory of impetus.[13]: 307, 311, 363, 402 His criticism served as an inspiration to medieval scholars and Galileo Galilei, who extensively cited his works ten centuries later.[13]: 307–308 [75]
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.[76] Many Greek classical texts were preserved by the Byzantine Empire and Arabic translations were made by Christians, mainly Nestorians and Miaphysites. Under the Abbasids, these Arabic translations were later improved and developed by Arabic scientists.[14]: 62–67 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.[77]
Islamic study of Aristotelianism flourished in the House of Wisdom established in the Abbasid capital of Baghdad, Iraq[78] and it flourished[79] until the Mongol invasions in the 13th century. Ibn al-Haytham, better known as Alhazen, used controlled experiments in his optical study.[a][81][82] 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.[83]
By the 11th century most of Europe had become Christian,[13]: 204 and in 1088, the University of Bologna emerged as the first university in Europe.[84] As such, demand for Latin translation of ancient and scientific texts grew,[13]: 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.[85] 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.[86]
Renaissance
From a single print shop in Mainz, Germany around 1440, the movable type printing-press had spread to no less than around 270 cities in Central, Western and Eastern Europe and had already produced more than 20 million volumes by the end of the 15th century.[87] Printing made scholarly books more widely accessible, allowing researchers to consult ancient texts freely and to compare their own observations with those of fellow scholars.[88] Printing ended the manuscript culture of the Middle Ages, where facts were few and far between, and replaced it with a printing culture where reliable and documented facts rapidly proliferated and became the secure foundation for scientific knowledge.[89]
In the 16th century, Nicolaus Copernicus formulated a heliocentric model of the Solar System, with the Sun positioned near the centre of the Universe,[90][91] motionless, with Earth and the other planets orbiting around it in circular motions,[92] modified by epicycles, and at uniform speeds. The Copernican model challenged the dominant geocentric model of Ptolemy, which had placed Earth at the centre of the Universe. 16th-century astronomers believed that Copernicus' elimination of the equant was his chief achievement[93] but his model never displaced Ptolemy's, which only fell out of favour 70 years later after Galileo's telescopic observations of 1610.[94]
Scientific Revolution
Tycho Brahe's unprecedentedly accurate