HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS IN WHICH SOCIAL CONSIDERATIONSCHANGED THE

COURSEOF SCIENCEAND TECHNOLOGY

INTRODUCTION
An antecedent is described as a precursor to the unfolding of life. Historical
backgrounds in science and technology are thereforeinfluences which paved for
advanced and sophisticated advancements in science and technology that are
present today. The development of science during ancient , middle ages and
modern ages will provide more information on changes that led to the
developmentof scienceand technology.

MainPoints
IN THE WORLD:ANCIENT, MIDDLEAND MODERN AGES
ANCIENTTIME – ancient history covers theperiod 3000BC -AD 500.
MIDDLE AGES – began around 476 A.D may span roughly 1,000 years ending
between 1400 and 1450.
MODERN AGES – I t is also referred to as Modernity, is the post Medieval area,
beginning 1500 to present, wide span of time marked in part by technological
innovations, urbanization, scientific discoveries and globalization.
The first Inklings of Science (FromAncient Times to606 B.C)
EGYPTIANS

*Egyptians medicine was trial anderror

• Egyptians doctors learned that if you covered an open wound with moldy
bread, the wound heal quickly and clearly
➢ Modern science tells us that certain bread molds producepenicillin, a
chemical that kills germs that infect germs.
• Egyptian doctors gavea seeds of poppy to relieve the patient’s pain

➢ The study showed that Poppy seeds contain both morphine and codeine
which are excellent pain-relieving drugs and areused today/
• Egyptians medicinebecame the mostrespected formof medicine

Papyrus – an ancient form of paper , made from a plant of the same name

• As early as 3.000BC , Egyptian formed of paper named as Papyrus.

Papyrus is a thick type of paper made from the pith of the papyrus palnt ,
the Cyperus papyrus . Papyrus can also refer to a document written on
sheets of papyrus joined together side by side and rolled into a scroll an
early formof book.
➢ The invention of the ancient formof paper revolutionized the way
information was transmitted fromperson to generationeasily done
compared to clay tablets or smooth rocks been used by Egyptians,
Sumerians and other races/.
Other cultures

- Mesopotamians weremaking pottery using the firstknown potter’s wheel

Horsedrawn chariots werebeing used.

_ 1000 BC , the Chinesewere using compasses to aids themselves in their

Travels.
The Science begins toEmerge ( 600 BC to500 A.D)
THE GREEKS

As far as historians can tell . the firsttrue scientists werethe Ancient Greeks

• Thales studied the heavens and tried to develop a unifying terms that
explain the movementof the heavenly bodies (the planets and the stars)
He predicted certain planetary event , he predicted the short term
disappearanceof the sun
➢ The prediction he made is actually what we called today is a solar
eclipse, an event in which the moon moves between the earth and the
sun, mostly blocking the sun fromview.

• Anaximander was interestedin the study of life. He was the firstscientist

who concluded that all life began in the sea and some sort of a fish. His
idea was later resurrected by other scientists , most notably Charles
Darwin and is today called evolution,

• Anaximenes however, believed that all things wereconstructed of air

since what he knew that air was the mostbasic substancein nature.
>>His ideas led to the introductionof the Greeks concepton
that things in natureis made by singlesubstanceATOMS/
 • Leucippus a Greek scientist who lived up to 150 years further developed
the concepts of Atoms that all matter is composed of little unit known as
atoms, he was named as the Father of Atomic Theory
• Democritus believed that all matter was similar to sand. Even though a
piece of wood appears to be solid, it is in fact made up of little individual
particles which he called it atoms. Democritus was notwell as accepted in
his time, but later scientists utilized his ideas and modified them.

Two Novel GreekScientistswere recognized

• Aristotle
The father of the life sciences who wrotevolumes of works on many things.
Including Philosophy , mathematics, logics and physics.
He was the first to make a large scale attempt with the classification of
animal and plants. Although Aristotle is noted to contributelarge studies n
science not all the ideas were without flaw . One was his idea on
spontaneous generation, he believed that living things spontaneously
formed from nonliving things.
• Archimedes
He was one of the scientists who demonstrated how closely scienceand
mathematics. He was best known for his works on fluid. He was the firstto
show how fluid may float or not in liquid,
 THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCESTALLS FOR A WHILE ( 500AD to1000 (A.D )

• The Roman Empire had a great deal of influence throughout the world.
Rome disliked science much, did not mind inventions especially those that
made work productive, buta little use for the explaining the world around
us. As a resultthe real science was actively discouraged atmost part of the
world.

• Alchemy is one of the best examples in which science been recognized in

this era. The Alchemists were the most wanted to find a means by which
lead could be transformed into gold. The alchemists began mixing and
recording , many interested things were observed , they mixed mixtures
and did the process in trial and error . They never tried to use their
observations to conclude about natural works, instead they were content
to justwritetheir observations and moveto the next experiment searching
for the next substancethey could make.
• Science thrives on the free exchangeof ideas fromone scientistto another
, this put another road block for the science progress. Many historians
refer to this period as the Dark Ages. The progress in sciencedepends on
scientists, governmentand culture. Still the progress in science not quite
observed, due to Romans remained active in discouraging science . The
Roman empire preferred to concentrate on inventions, the crumbling
governmentcaused tradeand communications to become moredifficult .
scientific progress slowed even more.
• Both Arabs and Chinese during this time period were involved in making
careful studies of the heavens. They made observations that were much
moredetailed and precisethan those of the Greek Scientists. For example
> Chinese records from 1054 A. D include detailed observations of a
phenomenon that Chinese scientist called a guest star in the heavens,
They recorded in 1054 that a star that had not been seen beforesuddenly
appearedin a certain constellation.
 >> Modern scientists have been able to use those observations to
determine that the Chinese had seen a supernova, which is actually the
explosion of a star. The observations were so detailed that modern
scientists were able to look at the same part of the night sky and when they
did , they found a cloud of dust and gas, called a nebula. Based on these
facts , modern scientists now believe that nebula is formed by the
explosion of the star.

• ROBERTGROSSETTESTE
He was a bishop in the Roman Catholic in the early 1200s A.D
He proposed theidea that the secrets of the natural world could be leared
by discovering the laws that God had set in motion.
He wanted to explain why things happened the way they did.
HE WAS THE FATHEROF SCIENTIFIC METHOD , becausehe was the first to
thoroughly useand explain

THE RENAISSANCE The GOLDEN AGE OF SCIENCE (1500 AD to1600 A.D)

• NI COLAUS COPERNICUS
➢ Copernicus believed Ptolemy ’s view of the universewas wrong
➢ Copernicus placed the sun at the center of everything and assumed
that the planets (including the Earth) traveled around the sun. This
views was called the heliocentric systemor Copernican Systemin honor
of Copernicus. The Heliocentricmodel is posted below.
• ANDREAS VESALIUS
➢ He published a Book on 1543, the book contains the detailed part of the
Human Body, The organs were clearly illustrated especially the muscles
and bones. This book led to knowing how the medicine s taught.
• BLAI ZEPASCAL

➢ He spentan enormous time in studying theair and liquids

➢ He demonstrated that the air webreathe exerts pressureon everything
“ now wecalled it as ATMOSPHERICPRESSURE
➢ He demonstrated thePASCAL LAW
 The science behind
the law allowed us to develop hydraulic lifts, like the lift a mechanic uses
to raisea car so he can get underneath i

ERA OF NEWTON ( 1660 A.D to1735 A.)

Newton wrote mostof his revolutionary work in threevolume – The Principia

➢ The FirstVolume, laid down his three laws of motion,

The Law of Inertia, Law of Acceleration and Law of Interaction
(refer to the posted image below the Three Laws of Motion
➢ The Second Volume of the Principia
Newton built on the work of Pascualand added many details to the
understanding of themotion of fluids
➢ The Third volume
Laid down his universallaw of gravitation
Newton used detailed experiments and observations to show that
gravity was the causeof both effects.
The same gravity that attractobjects to the earth (making them fall)also
keeps the planets in their orbits around the sun,
Newton also developed detailed mathematical equations and still
considered accurateto this day.
The first law also called as Law of Inertiastates that aobject continues in its state of rest or
of uniform motion unlesscompelledto cahnge the stateby an external force.
The second law of motion states that if a net forceacts on an object , it
will cause acceleration of the object, the law addresses the cause and
effectrelationship between forceand motion. F=ma

The Third Law of motion

States that when two bodies attract, they apply forces to one
another that are equal in magnitudeand oppositein direction

also known as The Lawof action and reaction

• ROBERTBOYLE
➢ The founder of modern chemistry contemporary of Newton
➢ He did many experiments with gas , like Boyle’s Law
• Anton van Leeuwenhoek
➢ The Father of microscopy, invented theFirstmicroscopewherehewas
able to examine the differentmicroorganisms
THE ENLIGHTENMENTAND THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION ( 1735 A.D-1820 A.D)

• THE age of Enlightenment Period , was a intellectual movementdeveloped

mainly in France, Britain and Germany which advocated freedom,
democracy and reason as the primary values of society.
• Utmostimportance of increasing efficiency of transportation,
communication, and production
• Industrializationtook place with greater risk in human heath food safety
and environment.
• The scientific community should critically analyzethe works of the previous
scientists since their studies were based on the data and results from the
former scientists.
• Increased scientific knowledge , led to the invention of many devices that
turned hours of manual labor into justa few minutes of work, The changed
led to making of so many inventions and this mark the period in history .

The BI RTH OF I NDUSTRIAL REVOLUTIONS

• CAROLUS LI NNAEUS
➢ His works on classification marked the beginning of the
Enlightenment .because it revolutionizedthestudy of living things.
➢ The basic classification scheme proposed by Linnaeus is still used today
the scientific name consists of genus and species
Carolus Linnaeus = Father of Modern Classification “The Binomial System -The
Scientific Name: genus and species

Man scientific name : Homo sapiens Homo is the genus, sapiens wise

• ANTOI NELAVOISER
➢ The father of modern chemistry , he was the instrumentof renaming
oxygen , the gas which combine with fuel to formcombustion
➢ He was the first to analyze chemical reactions in a systematic way, and
he was the first to realize that matter cannot be destroyed or created,
can be transformed to another form. This is known as the Law of Mass
Conservation .
➢ He was also the first to properly explain combustion which is the
process burning,.
Antoine Lavoisier Father of ModernChemistry

He disproved the Phlogiston Theory , he renamed the dephlogisticated air

oxygen, whenhe realizedthat oxygenwas the part of air that the oxygenwas
the part of air that combines with substances as they burn the process is
combustion , Lavoisier work onthis made him Father of Modern Chemistry
THE RESTOF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY(1820A.D to1900

• LOUI S PASTEUR
➢ He destroyed the idea of spontaneous generation
➢ He made greatadvances in the study of bacteria and the likr
➢ He demonstrated experimentally that fermented beverages resulted
from the action of living yeast( transforming glucoseinto ethanol
➢ He concluded that fermentation is vital process, hedefined it as
respiration withoutair (Anaerobic respiration,)
➢ I n his discovery of microbes were responsiblefor souring alcohol,came
up the process of pasteurization where bacteria are destroyed by
heating beverages and then allowing them to cool. His work in germ
theory also led him and his team created vaccination on anthrax
His experiment on Pasteurizationcontributed to the improvementof
science.
 ➢ He developed process of Pasteurization , the process of fermentation in

making wine, vinegar etc

Louis Pasteur - Father of Bacteriology

• GREGORMENDEL
➢ He was a Augustinian monk. Father of Genetics
➢ He devotedly develop much of his life in the study of reproduction.
➢ The entire field of modern genetics which studies how leads are passed
on fromparents to offspring is based on his work.
 Gregor Mendel -Father of Heredity

• MICHAELFARADAY
I t in this period in History in which sciencedeveloped a much better
understanding of electricity and magnetism
➢ Faraday’sexperiments and ideas aboutelectricity earned him the title of
The electrical giant
• JAMES CLERK MAXWELL
➢ He is known as the founder of modern Physics , he contributed on the
developmentof the mathematical equations that showed Faraday was
right that electricity and magnetism are both differentaspects of the
same phenomenon now called electromagnetism.

• JAMESJOULE
➢ He determined that like matter, energy cannotbe created or destroyed.
I t can only change forms,.
➢ This now known as Law of Thermodynamics , the guiding principle in the
study of energy,
 THE MODERN SCIENCE( 1900 A.D. TO THEPRESENT)

• MAX PLANCK
➢ He proposed an idea that matter exists in tiny packets called atoms,
energy exists in tiny packets which he called as quanta.
You can give one packet of energy to an object, or you can give two
packets of energy to an object . However you cannotgive an object any
amountof energy in between one and two packets.
➢ With his lot of evidence for his ideas, this led to the acceptance of the
scientific community the QUANTUMMECHANI CS
• ALBERT EI NSTEI N
➢ Einstein used Plank’s idea of energy quanta to explain a problemcalled
the photoelectric effectcould not be explained by Newton’s laws of
motion but could be easily explained by Planck ideas about the energy
quanta.
• NEI L BOHR
➢ Bohr developed the Bohr Model . This model of the atom is based on
solid mathematics and it required the assumption that energy comes on
small packets
➢ Using the Bohr model many of the mysteries of theatom wererevealed
OTHERSI GNIFICANTDISCOVERIES

1907 : Radiometric dating discoveries that the earth is 2.2 billion years

1915 : Einstein announced the generaltheory of relativity

1915 ; Pellagra was discovered to be a dietary disease

1924 : Hubble identified new galaxy

1927 : Big Bang theory

1928-1948 - Alexander Fleming discovered Penicillin

1932 : Chadwick discovered neutron

1938 : Electroshock therapy was introduced

1947 : Transistor was invented

1972-1985 : CT Scan and MRI wereintroduced

1979 : cellular phones, radio, telephone system wereintroduced

1982 : human growth hormonewas genetically engineered

1885 : Microsoftwindows wereintroduced

1988 : Digital cellular phones wereintroduced

1992 ; smartpill

1993 : Pentiumprocessor

1995 : Java computer language

1998 : Viagrawas invented