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Ptolemy was an ancient Egyptian philosopher who stated that the world is geocentric. Geocentric means that the whole universe revolves around the Earth.
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Roger Bacon was a religious man who questioned the old beliefs of magic and religion and favored a system of science. He used his system of science to find the truth. His main field of "science" was alchemy, because that was how things were at the time. Without him, the scientific revolution probably wouldn't have started.
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At the time, the Church was the most powerful force in the world. Kings and royalty had to bow down to it. They used religion as their source for answers to scientific questions. Once the scientific revolution started, the Church started trying to suppress all the information that was discovered because most of it was contradictory to their religious beliefs. Nowadays the church and the state are separate.
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Copernicus stated that the world was heliocentric which means that everything revolves around the sun. This was contrary to popular belief because everyone thought that the world was geocentric. Geocentric means that the entire universe revolves around the Earth. If he didn't say that the world was heliocentric, we would have a very warped view of the universe.
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Vesalius published a seven volume series on anatomy. He went into great detail to draw pictures and write extensively of every single part of the body. The popular belief was that since you were fine, leave it and don't worry about it. Without him, our surgical and medical knowledge would be very limited.
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Kepler was a great mathematician who used mathematics to prove that Copernicus's heliocentric theory was right. Without him, we wouldn't be sure that the Earth went round the sun, because Copernicus didn't give any proof of his theory.
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Francis Bacon was a scientist who believed that scientific theories could only be developed through observation, not judgement. Without him, most of the scientific developments made after him wouldn't have happened.
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Galilei was an astronomer who used the telescope to find out that the geocentric theory was wrong. The telescope was greatly discouraged by the Church because anyone who looked through it could see things like planets that invalidated the Bible. Without him, lots of our optical tools wouldn't have taken form.
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Antoni van Leewenhoek discovered bacteria which he called animalcules. He used a microscope to do this. Without him, we wouldn't know about bacteria, sicknesses, and antibiotics.
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Rene Descartes was a scientist that thought that no assumption should be accepted without reason. This thinking has a place in our lives today, because everything that you say should have some sort of proof.
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Gottfried Liebnitz and Issac Newton developed a new form of math called calculus. Without calculus, many sciences wouldn't exist today.
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Boyle was the pioneer in the way matter could change forms. He discovered that water turned into steam and became invisible.
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Newton was a scientist who discovered that gravity was the effect that kept the planets in orbit and made things fall down. Without this discovery, air and space travel wouldn't be possible.
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Priestly was the scientist who discovered oxygen. If nobody discovered oxygen, then scuba diving and space travel wouldn't exist.
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Antoine Lavoisier proved that matter can change form. After Boyle discovered it, Lavoisier proved it
