History of Science

1. What characterised the ancient Greeks view of the

world that differentiated them from many previous
cultures and allowed the practise of science to occur?
2. Explain deductive logic ?
3. Contrast deductive and inductive reasoning.
4. What key shifts occurred in the nature of
scholarship that allowed the Scientific revolution to
occur?
5. Comment on the statement: “Newton’s view of
the process of science was very similar to our
modern of science”
6. What are the elements of our understanding of the
universe that underpin so called modern science?
7. Give some examples of “big science”
Origin and History of
Science
 Indigenous cultures connected closely with
natural world:
 Highly "tuned" and accurate observers of nature
 Pattern recognition important for survival:
 Prediction of availability of resources
 Ultimate explanations and links between patterns
often relied on myths
Science in the Ancient World :
Egypt and Mesopotamia
Formal science's earliest roots recorded from Ancient
Egypt and Mesopotamia around 3000 to 1200 BCE.

Mathematics Astronomy Medicine

 The pillar of Egyptian culture was
religion: the basis of their view of the
world.
 Had some advanced scientific
technologies, with special emphasis in
the fields of irrigation and medicine.
 World view more constrained by religion
limited the ability to understand natural
phenomena and develop new
technologies
Origin and History of Science;
Eurocentric View
• Ancient Greece
• Distinguished between two fundamentally
different approaches to viewing the World
• mythos : approach based on supernatural
explanations (irrational) (hence mythology)
• logos : approach based on logical or rational
explanations
Origin and History
– Other implications of this view
associated with:
– Observation of natural world as material
rather than as mythical or supernatural
(in part at least)

– Shift from observing the universe as a

manifestation of mystical forces to
seeing things as material objects –
describable and knowable
– They were in search of explanations
within the universe itself
– No longer satisfied with entirely religious
explanations
• Search commenced for unifying
natural laws

– Principles that would help to

explain observations of natural
phenomena.

– Initial thoughts around the

fundamental nature of matter.
Aristotle : Natural
Philosopher

 Observationsof the natural

world were accurate and
repeatable however:
 Mostof his specific conclusions
and hypotheses about nature of
world inaccurate because
theoretical basis was wrong
“Theoretical” basis for
Aristotle’s explantions
Natural species are fixed and unchanging

Scale of perfection in nature with humans

at the top of the animals

Final cause or teleology in nature

• Major contribution of Greek civilization with
implications for modern science:
formalisation of the logic of deduction

Remains an important component of the

modern scientific method.

What is deductive reasoning ?

 Deduction : process of deriving certain
conclusions from the logical analysis of a
set of premises
 Ifpremises true then conclusion must
follow (if premises correct)
More examples?

 All men are mortal. (Major premise)

 Socrates is a man. (Minor premise)
 Conclusion?
 Everyone who eats carrots can see in
the dark
 John eats carrots
 Conclusion?

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1lIdkoIn0Y
Science in Ancient Rome

 Aware of Greek texts by Greek

natural philosophers and assimilated
aspects of this science
 Little theoretical science or
innovation beyond that from Greece
 Significant advances representing
practical use of Greek Science
 Engineering
 Architecture
Science in India

 Indian thinkers were involved in

thinking about geometry and developed
a number of mathematical ideas as well
as basis for the numbers that we use
today.
 Concept of zero as nothing
 use of “0” as a place holder used prior
to the use (invention or discovery) of 0
as nothing.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndmwB8F2kxA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-oxsEknlIc

Suggests earlier origin 3-4 century AD Bakhshali

manuscript)
Science in China
 Independently of Greek philosophers
and other significant advances in
science, technology, mathematics
and astronomy.
 Important technological
developments: Gunpowder, printing
and the compass
 In spite of technological developments:
philosophical approach was not
aimed at developing an understanding of
the natural world. i.e. rational
explanations of laws governing their
environment

 “ It was not that there was no order in nature for the

Chinese, but rather that it was not an order ordained
by a rational personal being, and hence there was no
conviction that rational personal beings would be able
to spell out in their lesser earthly languages the divine
code of laws which he had decreed aforetime.
 Needham, J. Science and Civilization in China, volume
1. Cambridge University Press, 1954. 581.

 Pre-modern Chinese science developed precariously

without solid scientific theory,
Science in the Islamic
world
 Spread of Islam : 7th and 8th centuries, a
period of Muslim scholarship (lasted until
the 16th century).
 Facilitated by
 use of single language
 access to Greek and Latin texts from
Byzantine Empire plus Indian sources
 Larger emphasis on experimentation than
the Greeks: early scientific method
developed
 Astronomy, mathematics, medicine
important
 Developments in Science in Islamic world:
continued during the Middle Ages or Dark
Ages in the west where development of
scientific idea restrained by religious
dogma and feudal power structures.
Science in Medieval
Europe
 Intellectual revitalization of Europe associated
with start of medieval universities (12th century)
 Gowns: origins in the everyday dress of the
mediæval clergy who dominated scholarship
Location and dates of formation
of Universities in western Europe
 Al-Azhar University (Cairo, Egypt) founded 970 CE
 University of Al Quaraouiyine (Fez, Morocco)
founded 859 CE
 Nalanda University (Rajgriha, India) 427 CE
 World's first residential university and among the
greatest centers of learning in the ancient world
 https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=560532
532&rlz=1C1GCEA_enNZ924NZ924&q=Is+Naland
a+the+oldest+university+in+the+world&sa=X&v
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=ive&vld=cid:2dc1977a,vid:aG5WeudruRw
Important Trends in the new Universities:
Scholasticism

Albertus Magnus
(1193/1206 – 1290 CE)

The introduction of lost Greek texts into the

medieval curriculum.

Initially medieval intellectuals sought to

harmonize Christianity with writings of Greek
Natural Philosophers in physics, biology, 7
 The Scientific Revolution
- Associated with the Renaissance: an intellectual and
cultural movement and the Reformation
- Renaissance: Started in Italy in 14th century and
spread to rest of Europe in 15th and 16th centuries
- The Renaissance :
- a shift in focus from explanations of the natural world
previously constricted by Aristoteleian (Greek) natural
philosophy
 The Reformation (16th Century) \
 rejected traditional authority and reinterpretation of the
Scriptures (reformation). In the same manner, the new
scientists..... began to view the world in a more
empirical way. “
 (Darian, 2003)
Scientific Revolution
 "Scientific Revolution" :
 Historical changes in thought & belief, to changes in
social & institutional organization, that unfolded in
Europe between roughly 1550-1700;
 begins with Nicholas Copernicus (1473-1543), who
asserted a heliocentric (sun-centered) cosmos,
 Ends with Isaac Newton (1642-1727), who proposed
universal laws and a Mechanical Universe.
Central ideas/themes of
scientific revolution leading
to modern science
 Willingness to admit ignorance
 Includes the idea that what we think and know can
be proven wrong. Explanations not scared and
beyond challenge
 Centrality of experimentation, observation and
mathematics
 Gathering of data (observations) using mathematical
tools to connect observations into comprehensive
and generalizable explanations (explanations have
predictive power)
 Development of technologies to explore and test
these explanations.
 Technologies may lead to acquisition of new powers
by political structure
Central ideas/themes of
scientific revolution leading
to modern science
 Reductionism:
 Introduced the idea of dividing large
and complex problems into smaller,
more manageable units
 Reductionism closely associated with
the idea
 Simpleideas are superior to
complicated ideas (Occam's Razor)
Sir Francis Bacon(1561-1626):
father of empiricism

 Credited with establishing and popularizing

the “scientific method” of inquiry into
natural phenomena.
 Described and popularized the scientific
method, whereby scienctific theories are
discovered by gathering and analyzing data
from experiments and observations, rather
than by using logic-based arguments.
 Insisted that experiments must be
consistently repeated before truth can be
known
 Inductive reasoning
◦ Starts from empirical (observation
based) premises and draws
conclusions that provide additional/
new knowledge.

◦ Generalizes from a number of

observations
Sir Isaac Newton

 Culminating figure of the Scientific Revolution of

the 17th century.
 Laws of motion
 Theory of gravity
 Optics
 Calculus
Isaac Newton Quotes

 “If I have seen further it is by standing on the

shoulders of Giants.”
 “I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies but
not the madness of people.”
 “What we know is a drop, what we don't know is
an ocean.”
 “Gravity explains the motions of the planets, but
it cannot explain who sets the planets in motion.”
 “No great discovery was ever made without a bold
guess.”
Newton’s view of Science
 “For the principles themselves, like all
conclusions derived from experience, stand
always open to the correction of further
experimental investigation”. Even though
one may formulate theories from observation
or mathematical analysis, those theories can
“be legitimately established by experimental
evidence only, and then can be overthrown
only by showing the insufficiency of the
evidence adduced in their favour, or by
producing adverse experimental evidence”
 "We are to admit no more causes of natural
things than such as are both true and
sufficient to explain their appearances."
Modern Science

 Defined as that more recent scientific

revolution based on
 germ theory in biology (cellular
including genetic basis of life)
 Understandingof relationship
between mass/energy in physics
 heliocentric astronomy
 modern atomic theory
Modern Science

 Practice of science became

professionalized and institutionalized
in 19th C (continues through to day).
 Increasing role of scientific
knowledge in society, incorporated
with many aspects of the functioning
of nation-states.
 Large scale science possible
Testing ideas around: Standard
model of particle physics

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=4HXPYO5YFG0&list=PL03115A3
D6E1E513F
Higgs Boson: first
theorised in the
1960s by Edinburgh-
based physicist Peter
Higgs, amongst
others.

Gives all other

particles mass. But
until fairly recently, it
has proved
impossible to pin
down
Large Hadron Collider

 Discovery of the Higgs Boson

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 Total cost of discovery : $13.25 billion (Forbes
https://www.newscientist.com/article-topic/large-hadron-collider/
Physicists will explore evidence for the existence of dark matter.
A hypothesised substance believed to make up more than a
quarter of the universe (compared to regular matter, which
makes up less than 5%).
 Other examples
 Human Genome Project
 Start 1990, Complete April 2003
 Sequencing of the complete human genome
 Cost : $ 2.7 billion

 Hubble Space telescope

 Cosmology
 Launch 1990
 Main mirror repair: 1993
 Initial cost: $1.5 billion
 Still operational (2030-2040?)

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 Human Brain project (EU)
https://www.humanbrainproject.eu/en/

 The Human Brain Project (HBP) is building a

research infrastructure to help advance
neuroscience, medicine and computing. It is one
of the two largest scientific projects ever funded
by the European Union.
 EUR 1.019 billion
 The 10-year Project began in 2013 and directly
employs some 500 scientists at more than 100
universities, teaching hospitals and research
centres across Europe.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03462-3
 After facing controversy for putting computer
models before neuroscience, the project now aims
to consolidate its legacy in a single, integrated,
open science platform
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James Webb Space Telescope
(JWST)
Cost : $9.7 billion over 24 years (NASA)
 $8.8 billion was spent on spacecraft development
between 2003 and 2021;
 $861 million is planned to support five years of
operations.

 &700 million (Euros) (European Space Agency)

 Among the most expensive scientific platforms in

history,
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https://edition.cnn.com/2022/09/01/world/webb-telescope-exopl
anet-image-scn/index.html
US Government spending
2020