DISCUSSION

The scientific revolution was the emergence of modern science during the early modern
period, when developments ill mathematics, physics astronomy, biology and chemistry
transformed the views of society and nature. The scientific revolution began in Europe towards
the end of the Renaissance period and continued through the late 8th century, influencing the
intellectual social movement known as the Enlightenment.
 
Science and Technology Development:

1. Nicolaus Copernicus in 1543, De revolutionibus orbium coelestiurn is often cited as

marking the beginning of the scientific revolution.

2. William Gilbert (1544—1603) published books On the Magnet and Magnetic Bodies,
and the Great Magnet the Earth in 1600, which laid the foundations of a theory of
magnetism and electricity. Gilbert provided a hyper-empirical study of magnets,
magnetism, and electricity with speculations about cosmology.

3. Tycho Brahe (1546—1601), a Danish nobleman. He is known for his accurate and
comprehensive astronomical and planetary observations. He was assisted by Johannes
Kepler, where the latter used the information to develop his own theories in Astronomy.
In November 1 572, He discovered the ‘Tycho’s Star’ or the ‘Star of 1572, a dramatic
supernova believed to appear in Cassiopeia constellation which became the talk of
Europe and the great Comet of 1577. Proposed a system in which the sun and moon
orbited the earth, while the other planets orbited the sun. (Geo-Heliocentric theory or
tychonic theory). The crater Tycho on the moon is named after him, as in the crater
Tycho Brahe on Mars.

4. Johannes Kepler ( 1 57 1 — 1 630) first publication in astronomy, called Cosmographic

Mystery presented a stridently Copernican worldview dedicated to drawing together
mathematical astronomy, physics, and a quasi-Pythogorean religious perspective in hope
of a new astronomy; He published the first two ofhis three laws of planetary motion in
1609; published his Ad vitellioem paralipomena quibus astronomiae pars optica traditor
(The Optical Part of Astranomy) where he argues that light rays are rectilinear, that they
diminish in intensity by the inverse square of their distance as they travel from the light
source; Astronomia nova (New Astronomy) shows that Mars moves non-uniformly in an
elliptical path and proposes a quasi-magnetic power or virtue emanating from the sun as
partial explanation for the planetary motions; Harmonice mundi (Harmonies ofthe World)
presents his so-called "Third Law" which draws attention to the relationship between the
annual periods of the planets and their mean distances from the sun.
5. Sir Francis Bacon (1561—1626) published Novum Organum in 1620, which outlined a
new system of logic based on the process of reduction, which he offered as an
improvement over Aristotle’s Philosophical process of syllogism. He was a pivotal figure
in establishing the scientific method of investigation.

6. Galileo Galilei ( 1564—- 1642) the famous Italian Astronomer who (demonstrated that a
projectile follows a parabolic Path; 1608, he invented the telescope’ (‘spyglass’) which
employs a convex objective lens and a concave eyepiece; 1609, he constructed his first
telescope and turns it toward the heavens and able to discover and argues there are
innumerable stars invisible to the naked eye; He discovered mountains on the Moon and
four moons circling Jupiter; later in 1610, Galileo observes the phases of Venus, which
suggested to him that waning and waxing planet must circle the Sun; discovered the
sunspots; noted that Saturn appeared to have ‘handles’ and troubled over what could give
rise to such an appearance; 1616, the year of the infamous Injunction against Galileo, was
warned by the Inquisition not to hold or defend the hypothesis asserted in Copernicus’ On
the Revolutions, though it has been debated whether he was admonished not to ‘teach in
any way’ the heliocentric theory. This work was in turn placed on the Index of Prohibited
Books until corrected.

7. René Descartes (1596—1650) published his Discourse on the Method in 1637, which
helped to establish the scientific method.

8. Antoine van Leeuwenhoek (1632—1723) constructed powerful single lens microscopes

and made extensive observations that he published around 1660, opening up the micro-
world of biology.

9. Isaac Newton (1643—1727) built upon the work of Kepler and Galileo. He showed that
an inverse square law for gravity explained the elliptical orbits of the planets, and
advanced the law of universal gravitation; In his Principia, Newton theorized his
axiomatic three laws of motion.

10. Alexandre Koyré, in the 20th century, introduced the term, "Scientific Revolution”,
centering his analysis on Galileo, and the term was popularized by Butterfield in his
Origins of Modern Science.

11. John Locke is recognized founder of empiricism and proposed in An Essay Concerning
Human Understanding (1689) that the only true knowledge that could be accessible to
the human mind was that which was based on experience. He argued that the human
mind was created as a tabula rasa, a “blank tablet’ upon which sensory impressions were
recorded and built up knowledge through a process of reflection.
12. Robert Boyle (1627—1691) an English chemist considered to have refined the modern
scientific method for alchemy and to have separated chemistry further from alchemy.
Boyle is largely regarded today as the first modern chemist, and therefore one of the
founders of modern chemistry, and one of the pioneers of modern experimental scientific
method. Although Boyle was not an original discover, he is best known for Boyle’s Law,
which he presented in 1662: the law describes the inversely proportional relationship
between the absolute pressure and volume of gas, if the temperature is kept constant
within a closed system.