De Lemos, Alyssa Michelle D.
Science, Technology and Society
INVENTIONS AND DISCOVERIES OF SCIENCTISTS FROM ANCIENT TO MIDDLE AGE
ANCIENT
BIOLOGY
Theophrastus (c. 372 - c. 287 The four elements: c.450 BC
B.C.).
Ancient Greek philosopher,
successor of Aristotle as
head of the Lyceum.
His Enquiry into
Plants (Historia
plantarum) and Origins of
Plants (Causae plantarum)
are the beginning of all
subsequent botanical
thought. Remarkably,
Theophrastus knew that
plants engaged in sexual
reproduction, a fact
thereafter forgotten and not
rediscovered until the
eighteenth century.
Aristotle (384-322 BCE).
Greek: Greek science in Alexandria:
Greek philosopher and
scientist. Set up an organized
framework of knowledge that
served as the foundation for
much of the science and
philosophy of ancient and
CHEMISTRY
The Greek philosopher
Empedocles
a native of Sicily,
introduces a theory which
will be accepted in Europe
until the 17th century. He
states that all matter is
made up, in differing
proportions, of four
elemental substances -
earth, air, fire and water.
Not until the arrival of a
'sceptical chemist' (the title
of a book by Robert
Boyle in 1661) is there a
serious threat to this Greek
theory of the elements
from the 3rd century BC
Among the practical
scientists of Alexandria are
men who can be seen as
the first alchemists and the
PHYSICS & ASTRONOMY
Anaxagoras of Clazomenae
(born about 499 BCE)
Anaxagoras made
important contributions to
astronomy. He saw valleys,
mountains, and plains on
the moon. He determined
the cause of an eclipse—
the moon coming between
the sun and Earth or the
Earth between the sun and
the moon depending on
whether it's a lunar or solar
eclipse. He recognized that
the planets Jupiter, Saturn,
Venus, Mars, and Mercury
move.
Eudoxus of Knidos (c. 390–c.
340 BCE)
Eudoxus improved the sundial
(called an Arachne or spider)
De Lemos, Alyssa Michelle D.
Science, Technology and Society
medieval times, and therefore
for science of the present day.
The tutor of Alexander the
Great, he is sometimes called
the father of biology.
o Aristotle's most important
extant works in connection
with biology are his
Historia animalium
(Enquiry into Animals), De
motu animalium (On the
Motion of Animals), De
incessu animalium (On the
Gait of Animals), De
partibus animalium (On the
Parts of Animals), and De
generation animalium (On
the Generation of
Animals).
Galen (c.129-c.200-216)
Nationality: Greek
Known for: First to introduce
medicinal experimentation
 Galen performed
dissections on animals
in hopes of learning
more about the human
anatomy. He was the
first to discover that the
voice comes from the
first experimental chemists. and made a map of the known
Their trade, as workers in
precious metals, involves
melting gold and silver,
mixing alloys, changing
the colour of metals by
mysterious process.
These are the activities of
chemistry. The everyday
items of a chemical
laboratory - stills, furnaces,
flasks - are all in use in
Alexandria.
Asian Alchemist science. He developed a model
Arab & Chinese
Alchemist sphere inside a larger sphere of
There are two important
centres of alchemical
experiment in medieval Asia.
One is Baghdad under the
caliphate, where from the 8th
century there is enthusiastic
translation and study of Greek
scientific texts. Arab
alchemists, in their pursuit of
synthesized gold, make
practical advances in
techniques of distillation. And
stars. He also devised:
 A theory of proportion,
which allowed for
irrational numbers
 A concept of
magnitude
 A method for finding
areas and volumes of
curvilinear objects
Eudoxus used deductive
mathematics to explain
astronomical phenomena,
turning astronomy into a
in which the earth is a fixed
the fixed stars, which rotate
around the earth in circular
orbits.
Aristarchus of Samos (310 -
250 BCE)
Aristarchus is thought to be
the original author of
the heliocentric
hypothesis. He believed
the sun was immovable,
like the fixed stars. He
knew that day and night
De Lemos, Alyssa Michelle D.
Science, Technology and Society
larynx. He also studied they identify several chemical
the circulatory system substances.
and discovered the
difference between The other great centre is
arterial and venous China, where alchemical
blood. experiments have a slightly
different purpose. The
quarry is still gold, but as
an elixir of eternal life.
This is the pursuit of the
Daoists (one of whom
describes, with gentle
irony, an Experiment
which goes wrong in the
9th century). It is Daoists
who make the most
startling chemical
discovery of the period -
gunpowder.
were caused by the Earth
turning around on its axis.
There were no instruments
to verify his hypothesis,
and evidence of the
senses—that the Earth is
stable—testified to the
contrary. Many did not
believe him. Even a
millennium and a half later,
Copernicus was afraid to
reveal his heliocentric
vision until he was dying.
One person who did follow
Aristarchus was the
Babylonian Seleucos (fl.
mid 2nd century BCE).
De Lemos, Alyssa Michelle D.
Science, Technology and Society
MIDDLE AGE
Carl Linnaeus – known as Nikola Tesla
the father of modern Johann J. Beecher
taxonomy (Phlogiston Theory) Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-
A botanist, physician and American inventor, best
believed in a substance called known for his development
zoologist all at the same time,
phlogiston. When a substance of alternating current
Linnaeus came up with the
is burned, phlogiston was electrical systems. He also
system of naming, ranking,
supposedly added from the air made extraordinary
and classifying organisms that
to the flame of the burning contributions to the fields of
we still use today. It was his
object. In some substances, a electromagnetism and
vast collection of specimens of
product is produced. For wireless radio
plants, animals, and shells that
example, calx of mercury plus communications. He was a
lead to Linnaeus' coming up
phlogiston gives the product of child prodigy and possessed
with a way of grouping and
mercury. eidetic memory. He also had
naming species. He separated
all living things into 3 a futuristic vision for
Charles Coulomb mankind which is evident
kingdoms; animals, plants and
(Coulomb Law) from most of his discoveries
minerals, subdividing them
into classes, then into orders and researches.
discovered that given two
and then finally into genera
particles separated by a certain
and species.
distance, the force of attraction Nicolaus Copernicus
or repulsion is directly Famous For: Formulating the
proportional to the product of heliocentric illustration of
the two charges and is the universe
Andreas Vesalius inversely proportional to the The “heliocentric theory” of
Nationality: Brabantian distance between the two Copernicus can be found in On
Known for: Published On the charges. the Revolutions of Celestial
Fabric of the Human Body Spheres. The theory presented
Often referred to as the the argument that the earth is
not the center of the universe,
and presented that the Sun
De Lemos, Alyssa Michelle D.
Science, Technology and Society
“founder of modern human
anatomy,”
Vesalius disproved theories
that were several centuries old
about the human body. His
study of the human skull
helped create the field of
biological anthropology, which
studies how the human species
has developed over time.
Antoine Lavoisier
Nationality: French
Known for: Observing
metabolism
Lavoisier is best known in
the field of biology for his
work concerning
metabolism. He hooked up a
calorimeter to a guinea pig in
order to measure the heat
produced. He also conducted
several experiments
involving combustion.
Joseph Priestley
Heated calx of mercury,
collected the colorless gas and
burned different substances in
this colorless gas. Priestley
called the gas
"dephlogisticated air", but it
was actually oxygen.
directly affects the movement
of the planets.
Christiaan Huygens
Famous For: Providing an
explanation for Saturn’s
rings
The explanation that Huygen’s
gave for the rings of Saturn
was that it was a solid flat
ecliptic ring that touched
nothing. His last
book, Cosmotheoros, he
suggested the possibility of
extra-terrestrial life on other
planets.