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500 BCE
Natural Philosophers
These philosophers relied on religious teachings and the works of classical Greek and Roman thinks for the explanation of the mysteries of nature. -
100
Ptolemy
Ptolemy is an astronomer that stated that Earth was the center of the universe. He thought that the sun and the planets move around Earth, this theory is called the geocentric theory. -
1200
Roger Bacon
English philosopher and scientist, Roger Bacon. He was a Franciscan monk who had studied and Oxford and Paris. He was one of the earliest people to choose a system of scientific experimentation instead of ancient beliefs and religious ideas. -
1500
Magic to Science
Most Europeans saw little difference between science and magic. Alchemists used spells and magic formulas to try to change one substance to another. Astrologers believed that the position of the stars in the sky influenced human life. -
1543
Nicolaus Copernicus
Copernicus was a Polish scientist who created heliocentric theory. Helio is the Greek word for "sun". He realized that his theory explained many of the then-known facts about astronomy. His theory was published in 1543. People paid little attention because the people didn't accept that the sun was the center of the universe since they couldn't feel the Earth move. They thought the sun and other planets were moving around Earth. -
1543
Andreas Vesalius
Vesalius was a scientist who did a lot of work on the ideas of Leonardo da Vinci. He pioneered the study of anatomy by refusing to accept the previous descriptions of human body. He later published a book on the human body with very detailed illustrations that were incredible for the time. This was important because it influenced illustrations in the future. -
Johannes Kepler
Johannes Kepler was a brilliant mathematician who used models, observations, and mathematics to test the heliocentric theory. Kepler eventually proved the heliocentric theory was correct. He published his laws of planetary motion in 1609. -
Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon was an English philosopher and scientist. He believed that scientific theories could be developed only through observation. He didn't trust any assumption unless it could be proven by repeatable experiments. Bacon relied on truths that could be demonstrated physically. In 1620 he published Novum Organum, a book that outlined this new system of knowledge. -
Galileo Galilei
Galileo Galilei built a telescope and began studying the heavens. He was able to see things no one had ever seen. He saw mountains of the moon, the rings around Saturn, and spots on the sun. He also saw many moon circling Jupiter. Galilei published his findings in 1632. Many scholars who still believed in Ptolemy's old geocentric theory refused to accept Galileo's findings. -
René Descartes
René Descartes was a french philosopher and mathematician. He was a leader of the Scientific Revolution. His ideas led to great advances in math, science, and philosophy. He developed a philosophy based on his own reason. He created an explanation of how light reflects from a smooth surface. This explanation led to the law of refraction, a basic principle in the study of optics. Then he was forced to live in the Protestant kingdom of Sweden, where he died in 1650 -
Robert Boyle
Robert Boyle was an English-Irish scientist. He helped to pioneer the modern science of chemistry. Chemistry studies the composition of matter and how it changes. In 1662, he showed that temperature and pressure affect the space that a gas occupies. -
Antoni van Leeuwenhoek
Antoni van Leeuwenhoek is a Dutch scientist that used a microscope to discover bacteria. He called them animalcules. He studied and wrote about a whole range of tiny life forms never before seen by the human eye. -
Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton published a book building on the work of Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo. After many experiments, Newton realized that the force that holds the planets in their orbits and the force of this attraction can be measured. Kepler's proof and Galileo's discoveries were examples of the law of universal gravitation. This was a big step in scientific studies and provided us with information we still use today. -
Joseph Priestley
Joseph Priestley was an English chemist. He discovered the element of oxygen in 1774. -
Antoine Lavoisier
Lavoisier proved that matter can change form, but that it can neither be destroyed nor created. This idea is known as the law of conservation of matter. This is one of the most important principles in the study of chemistry.
