Cradles of Early Science

INTRODUCTION
A number of technological innovations begun at the rise of intelligent human beings.
As they continue to advance and encounter problems down their path, they began inventing
solutions to make their life easier.
They are responsible for how our world has changed and evolved throughout the years; they
are responsible for our civilization; they are responsible for how people live and the known
structure of our society.
Our five senses are vital for early humans to find their bearing and understand how things
work around them.
The Egyptians were the pioneers that have explained the existence of our universe. The
earliest civilization known to recorded history started with the Egyptians and Sumerians five
millenniums ago.
Have you wondered how these early civilizations pushed beyond their known realities and
explored the possibility of a universe, a concept that is alien to them? Here we shall embark
on a journey through time as we discuss the STS of the ancient, middle, and modern ages.
OBJECTIVES

After studying this module, you should be able to:

Describe the development of Science and Technology during Ancient, Middle,

Modern Ages;

Identify inventions and discoveries that changed the world over the course of history.
 Ancient Times
Sumerian Civilization

Sumeria, found on the southernmost tip of the ancient Mesopotamia, 3500 BCE, is a great city with a
civilization known as Sumer.

The concept of inventing the wheel came during 3500 B.C. the Sumerian people are perplexed about the
limitations on just how much weight humans can carry over land. The idea came about to connect a
non-moving platform to a rolling cylinder—the sail and plow, which improved trade and farming.
The Sumerians introduced the 360-day calendar, and they devised the Sexagesimal number system, it is a
number system through which counting is in units and intervals of sixty (60). This has become the basis for
graduating the circumference of a circle to 360 degrees and the sixty-minute equal graduations to an hour
duration in time.
Sumerians developed the first writing system known as cuneiform. It utilizes word pictures and
triangular symbols that are carved on clay using wedge instruments and then left to dry. This
was used to keep records of things with great historical value or their everyday life.
 Babylonian Civilization

� Babylonian civilization emerged from about 3,500 until 500 BC. They were located on the
border of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers in Iraq. The Babylonians dig canals and
developed earthen dikes to irrigate their crops and provide water to their livestock. They
innovate upon the Sumerian sexagesimal system. Astronomers of Babylon compiled lists of
planets and stars which somewhat accurately pictured the positions of the celestial bodies
of our solar system in terms of 12 equally-spaced signs, each one associated with a zodiacal
constellation.
 Egyptian Civilization
� Ancient Egypt began between 5,000-3,100BC and is found in the
northeast area of continental Africa. The River Nile has sustained the
Egyptians with the necessary water requirements to support
agricultural activities. Egyptians produced a variety of earthenware
and pottery items. They also worked on metals to produce tools,
weapons, and agricultural implements. They constructed dwellings
made of reeds and air-dried mud bricks. They built the famous
pyramids, and they devised a 365-day calendar. This solar calendar
has 365-day per cycle. The year is made up of three seasons that have
a hundred and twenty days each; this includes an intercalary month
consisting of epagomenal days of five; this is treated separately from
the year proper. Another contribution is the papyrus. They were able
to process the Papyrus plant in order to produce thin sheets on which
one could write down things. Egyptians developed a system of writing
using symbols, known as hieroglyphs.
Greek Civilization
� This civilization shaped the modern intellectual world we
know today. It emerged at around 1,100 BC; the Greek
civilization focused on scientific works of great Greek
philosophers in the likes of Socrates, Thales,
Hippocrates, Archimedes, Aristotle, Archimedes, and
Ptolemy. Their contributions became the foundation and
pillars of western ideals and civilization.
� The alarm clock was invented by the ancient Greeks.
They made use of water that dropped into drums, which
sounded the alarm. Another contribution of Greek
civilization is windmills, which were used in agricultural
processing like milling of grains.
 Roman Civilization
� Roman's great contribution is the Gazette, the first
newspaper which contains announcements of the
Roman Empire to the people. These were engraved in
metal or stone tablets and then publicly displayed.
Record-keeping was easier when the paper was
invented; the Roman Empire was able to produce the
first book or codex, which was composed of papyrus
pages bound together with an animal skin as its cover
� The Romans devised their own number system
specifically to address the need for a standard
counting method that would meet their increasing
communication and trade concerns.
The Chinese Civilization
� The oldest civilization in Asia is Chinese civilization. Silk
is one of the things that connect Far East China to the
world. Another was the use of acupuncture, which uses
needles in which Chinese doctors used this to treat diseases.
Tea, which is made of crushed dried tea leaves, was
developed, and the first tea was drunk by a Chinese
emperor.
� Gun powder was developed by Chinese alchemists. It is
made up of charcoal, sulfur, and potassium nitrate, which
can generate large amounts of heat and gas in an instant.
� China is also famous for its largest and most extensive
infrastructure, the great wall of china. It is made of stone,
brick, wood, earth, and other materials.
 Medieval/ Middle Ages

� There’s a point in time between ancient times and the modern times that we live in
today. This time period is reflected to be one of the most creative times in
mankind’s history. It is believed that it’s here that sparked the beginning of the
first industrial revolution.
Johan Gutenberg and the Printing Press
� Johan Gutenberg was able to invent the first
printing press which is a more reliable way
of printing using a cast type. He utilized
wooden machines that extracted juices from
fruits, attached to them a metal impression of
the letters, and pressed firmly the cast metal
into a piece of paper, which then made an
exact impression on paper.
� The printing press was invented to address
the need for publishing books that would
spread information to many people at a faster
rate.
Zacharias Janssen and the Compound
Microscope
� Guided by the principles used for the
invention of eyeglasses in earlier years, the
compound microscope was developed by
Zacharias Janssen. The microscope was key
in discovering new means in preventing
and curing various illnesses. It is a device
that magnify things invisible to the naked
eye.
Galileo Galilei and the Telescope

� Galileo Galilei improved the telescope. He

used that telescope to discovered new
celestial bodies such as four of the moons
circling Jupiter, to study Saturn, the
observation of the phases of Venus, and the
study sunspots on the Sun and found support
for a heliocentric solar system, Copernicus’
theory.
 Modern Times

� The rise of the modern industry was witnessed

in the 19th century. The effects of scientific and
technological developments are evident in the
areas of communication, transportation, and
electricity. Food processing and medicine posed
some of the bigger challenges since health was
of great concern.
Louis Pasteur and Pasteurization

� A French Biologist, Microbiologist, and

Chemist by the name of Louis Pasteur found
a way to solve the problem of food
deterioration for dairy products due to
spoiling. These goods need to be consumed
immediately after production, or they would
cause illnesses like diphtheria, food
poisoning, and typhoid fever. The answer is
pasteurization, wherein it is a process of
heating dairy products to kill the harmful
bacteria that cause them to spoil faster.
Alexander Graham Bell and the telephone

� Alexander Graham Bell was the first

to be awarded a patent for the electric
telephone in 1876. Though several
inventors did pioneering work on
electronic voice transmission, the
invention quickly took off and
revolutionized global business and
communication.
Alexander Fleming and the Penicillin
� In 1928, the Scottish scientist Alexander
Fleming noticed a bacteria-filled Petri dish in
his laboratory, the sample had become
contaminated with mold, and everywhere the
mold was, the bacteria were dead. That
antibiotic mold turned out to be the fungus
Penicillium, and over the next two decades,
chemists purified it and developed the drug
Penicillin, which fights a huge number of
bacterial infections in humans without harming
the humans themselves. Penicillin was being
mass-produced and advertised in 1944.
Samuel M. Kier and the Kerosene

� Samuel M. Kier was able to invent

kerosene by refining petroleum.
Illuminating oil was the other name of
kerosene because it was used to
provide lighting to homes and later
was applied for heating purposes.