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Period: Jan 1, 1514 to
Middle Ages
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Jan 1, 1532
Otto Brunfels
The publication of Portraits of Living Plants. It was a botanical work that employed freshly drawn illustrations from living plants, undermining the practice of copying drawings from existing accounts. He is often called a father of botany, because, in his botanical writings, he relied not so much on the ancient authors as on his own observations and described plants according to the latter. -
Jan 1, 1543
The Ptolemaic System
The Ptolemaic system is geocentric because it places earth at the center of the universe. The universe is seen as a series of concentric spheres, one inside the other. Earth is fixed, or motionless, at the center. The heavenly bodies pure orbs of light are embedded in the crystal-like, transparent spheres, which rotate the earth. -
Jan 1, 1543
Andreas Vesalius "anatomical book "
One of the most famous publications in natural philosophy was the anatomical book of Andreas Vesalius, De fabrica. It was arguably the most important anatomical texts of the century, at once criticizing the work of the ancients, principally Galen, which offering new illustrations based on first-hand observation and fresh dissections. -
May 1, 1543
Copernicus "On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres"
Published his famous book, on the Revolutions of the Heavenly spheres. Thought that his heliocentric, or suncentered, conception of the universe offered a more accurate explanation then did the Ptomemaic system. In his system the sun, not earth, was at the center of the universe, and that the planets revolved around the sun and the moon revolved around the earth. -
Jan 1, 1561
Gabriele Falloppio
Discovered the fallopian tubes in his Anatomical Observations. first to use an aural speculum for the diagnosis and treatment of diseases of the ear. -
Jan 1, 1566
Pedro Nunez
Publication on navigation, explaining the use of new instruments and how to sail on a great circle course. Considered to beone of the greatest mathematicians of his time and is best known for his contributions to the technical field of navigation. -
Francois Viète's
Published his Introduction to the Analytical Art.Vieta wrote, "These things which are new are wont in the beginning to be set forth rudely and formlessly and must then be polished and perfected in succeeding centuries. Behold, the art which I present is new, but in truth so old, so spoiled and defiled by the barbarians, that I considered it necessary, in order to introduce an entirely new form into it, to think out and publish a new vocabulary, having gotten rid of all its pseudo-technical terms -
Galileo's discoveries
Published "The Starry Messenger". Discovered mountains of earth's moon, four moons revolving around Jupiter, and sunspots. His observations seemed to destroy yet another aspect of the Ptolemaic conception. The Heavenly bodies had been seen as pure orbs of light. They now would appear to be composed of material substances, just like earth. -
Kepler's laws of planetary motion
The first law is that the orbit of every planet is an ellipse with the Sun at one of the two foci. The Sun is not at the center of the ellipse, but at one of its foci. The second law states that a line joining a planet and the Sun sweeps out equal areas during equal intervals of time. The third law states that the square of the orbital period of a planet is directly proportional to the cube of the semi-major axis of its orbit. -
Francis Bacon
Developed the scientific method which was crucial to the evolution of science in the modern world. Believed that scientists should not rely on their ideas of ancient authorities but they should learn about nature by using inductive reasoning, proceeding from the particular to the general. -
William Harvey "Blood Circulation".
William Harvey dissected both living and dead animals. Proved that the ancient Greek anatomist Galen's ideas about blood movement was wrong. He first studied the heartbeat, establishing the existence of the pulmonary circulation process and noting the one-way flow of blood. Realized that there was a constant amount of blood flowing through the arteries. -
Rene Descartes
From his first principle "I think, therefore I am" Descartes used his reason to arrive at a second principle. He argued that because "the mind cannot be doubted but the body and material world can, the two must be radically different".From these idea's came the principle of the separation of mind and matter. Descartes has rightl been called the father of modern rationalism. -
Robert Boyle "Boyle's Law"
Boyle's law states that the absolute pressure and volume of a given mass of confined gas are inversely proportional, if the temperature remains unchanged within a closed system. It states that the product of pressure and volume is a constant for a given mass of confined gas as long as the temerature is constant. -
Isaac Newton Principles of Natural Philosophy
Isaac Newton wrote "Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy", which is known simply as the Principia. In the Principia, Newton defined the three laws of motion that govern the planetary bodies. His ideas created a new picture of the universe. It was now seen as one huge, regulated, uniform machine that worked according to natural laws. -
Universal law of gravitation
This law explains why the planetary bodies continue their elliptical orbits about the sun. The law states, in mathematical terms, that every object in the universe is attracted to every other object by a force called gravity. This one law, mathematically proved, could explain all motion in the universe. -
Maria Winkelmann Kirch
Worked with Gottfried on observations and calculations, as well as weather observations, to produce calendars, ephemeredes and almanacs that were used for navigation. Discovered her own comet (C/1702H1) and in doing so became the first woman to make such a discovery, but the German scientist would not let her to publish the discovery in Germany. -
Antoine Lavoisier Law of conservation of Matter
The law of conservation of matter was the first breakthrough in the study of chemical reactions. The total mass of the products of a chemical reaction is always the same as the total mass of the starting materials consumed in the reaction. The law states that matter is conserved in a chemical reaction.
