Historical Antecedents

ANCIENT TIMES TO 600 B.C

- Ceremonies/ physical or hands on / health practices
- Egyptian doctors would try one remedy and if it work they will continue it, and if the
remedy that they tried didn’t work the patient may die, but at least the doctor learned that
next time they should try other remedy.
What is the importance of clay tablets as evidence for Mesopotamian history?
It shows the tablets which they wrote their notes arts showing they think and how they
record their lives before were things such as paper or computers.
When Egyptians began writing on papyrus, all of that changed.
Papyrus was easy to roll into scrolls
Egyptians writing became easy to store or transport
And as a result the knowledge of scholar could be down from generation to generation.
Egyptian medicine became the most respected in the word.
SUMMERIAN WRITING The Cuneiform
*earliest writing system
*The writing system takes the name cuneiform from the shape of the strokes that form
the symbols (from Latin cuneus, “wedge”)
*With cuneiform, writers could tell stories, relate histories, and support the rule of
kings. Cuneiform was used to record literature such as the Epic of Gilgamesh—the
oldest epic still known.
MESOPOTAMIA
*Mesopotamia is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates
river system.
*The word “Mesopotamia” is formed from the ancient words “meso,” meaning between
or in the middle of, and “potamos,” meaning river.
THE ADVENT OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY (600-500 AD)
• Anatomy is the study of the body's structure. It is a branch of science that
investigates organs, bones, structures, and cells that exist in animals and people.
• Zoology is the study of the animal kingdom including biology, the environment
and evolution in a controlled or natural environment
• Botany is the scientific study of plants—how plants function, what they look like,
how they are related to each other, where they grow, how people make use of
plants, and how plants evolved.
• Mineralogy is the study of the chemistry, crystal structure and physical properties
of the mineral constituents of rocks.
• Geography is the study of places and the relationships between people and
their environments. Geographers explore both the physical properties of Earth's
surface and the human societies spread across it
• Mathematics is the science and study of quality, structure, space, and change.
Mathematicians seek out patterns, formulate new conjectures, and establish truth
by rigorous deduction from appropriately chosen axioms and definitions.
• Astronomy is a science that seeks to explain everything that we observe in the
Universe, from the comets and planets in our own solar system to distant galaxies
to the echoes of the Big Bang.

GEOCENTRIC MODEL
An astronomer named Eudoxus created the first model of a geocentric universe
around 380 B.C. Eudoxus designed his model of the universe as a series of cosmic
spheres containing the stars, the sun, and the moon all built around the Earth at its
center.
The geocentric model says that the earth is at the center of the cosmos or universe,
and the planets, the sun and the moon, and the stars circles around it. The early
heliocentric models consider the sun as the center, and the planets revolve around
the sun.
PHILOSOPHERS
THALES - Regarded as the first philosopher in Western tradition
Greek Mathematician
He is remembered primarily for his cosmology based on water as the essence of all matter,
with Earth a flat disk floating on a vast sea.
PHYTAGORAS -Pythagorean Theorem
Pythagorean Theorem, the well-known geometric theorem
Pythagoras was a Greek philosopher who made important developments in mathematics,
astronomy, and the theory of music.
SOCRATES Socratic Method
Developed by the Greek philosopher, Socrates, the Socratic Method is a dialogue
between teacher and students, instigated by the continual probing questions of the
teacher, in a concerted effort to explore the underlying beliefs that shape the students
views and opinions.
The goal is to learn how to analyse legal problems, to reason by analogy, to think
critically about one's own arguments and those put forth by others, and to understand the
effect of the law on those subject to it.
PLATO
Father of idealism which holds that the phenomena of our world are to be truly known
by contemplating them in their ideal forms or abstract essences.
Theory of Forms -according to which the world we know through the senses is only an
imitation of the pure, eternal, and unchanging world of the Forms.
ERATOSTHENES Greek Mathematician, made the first measurement of the size of
Earth
He invented a system of longitude and latitude and made a map of the known world.
EUCLID GREAT MATHEMATICIAN
Father of Geometry
He wrote the 13 Elements
ARISTARCHU OF SAMOS Mathematician and Astronomer
Greek astronomer who maintained that Earth rotates on its axis and revolves around the
Sun.

HIPPARCHUS

During this period he may have invented the planispheric astrolabe, a device on which
the celestial sphere is projected onto the plane of the equator.
ARCHIMEDES
Archimedes was well known for his inventions and scientific discoveries

ISLAMIC GOLDEN AGE

House of wisdom
(Library of Wisdom) that included manuscripts and books collected by his father and
grandfather about various subjects in the arts and the sciences and in different languages.
In the House of Wisdom, translators, scientists, scribes, authors, men of letters, writers,
authors, copyists and others used to meet every day for translation, reading, writing,
scribing, discourse, dialogue and discussion. Many manuscripts and books in various
scientific subjects and philosophical concepts and ideas, and in different languages were
translated there.
Harun al Rashid
Harun established a School of translation Bait ul Hikmah (house of wisdom) and
surrounded himself with men of learning. His administration was in the hands of viziers
of exceptional capabilities, the Bermecides. His courtiers included great juris doctors,
poets, musicians, logicians, mathematicians, writers, scientists, men of culture and
scholars of Fiqh.

• Alchemy based on the supposed transformation of matter,

• Chemistry is a branch of science that deals with atoms, molecules, ions which
makes the compounds that are essential for daily life by means of some
chemical reactions.
• Agronomy is a branch of agricultural science that deals with the study of crops
and the soils in which they grow.
• Geography is the study of places and the relationships between people and
their environments.
• Cartography is 'the discipline dealing with the conception, production,
dissemination and study of maps'
• Ophthalmology is the study of medical conditions relating to the eye.
Ophthalmologists are doctors who specialize in the medical and surgical treatment
of this organ.

Al'Khwarizmi was an Islamic mathematician who wrote on Hindu-Arabic

numerals. The word algorithm derives from his name. His algebra treatise Hisab al-
jabr w'al-muqabala gives us the word algebra and can be considered as the first book
to be written on algebra.
Αl-Biruni was an astronomer, mathematician and philosopher, studying physics and
natural sciences too. He was the first able to obtain a simple formula for
measuring the Earth's radius
Avicenna made advances in pharmacology and in clinical practice, his greatest
contribution was probably in the philosophy of medicine. He created a system of
medicine that today we would call “holistic” and in which physical and psychological
factors, drugs, and diet were combined in treating patients.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY IN ACIENT CHINA

• In Chinese, gunpowder is called huo yao, meaning flaming medicine. Unlike
paper and printing, the birth of gunpowder was quite accidental. It was first
invented inadvertently by alchemists while attempting to make an elixir of
immortality. It was a mixture of sulphur, salt peter, and charcoal.
• Paper was used for many things in ancient China including books, writing paper,
maps, money, packaging, hats, and screens. It was a valuable commodity and so
used to pay taxes and tribute.
• The earliest form of Chinese printing relied on blocks cut from wood. These
blocks were used to print textiles and reproduce Buddhist texts. Short religious
texts printed in this fashion was carried as charms. Eventually, the Chinese also
began printing longer scrolls and books.
 RENAISSANCE PERIOD (1300AD - 1600AD)
Marie Boas Hall was a historian of science and is considered one of the post war
period pioneers of the study of the Scientific Revolution during the 16th and 17th
centuries.
Peter Dear is professor of history and science and technology studies at Cornell
University. He is the author of several books, including The Intelligibility of
Nature: How Science Makes Sense of the World.
The Scientific Renaissance was a period of world history which saw the
emergence of modern science and overturning the medieval understanding of the
world and science
• Printing Press.
• Woodblock printing.
• Pendulum.
• Eyeglasses.
• Telescope.
• Microscope.
• Barometer.
• Muske
The Scientific Revolution was characterized by an emphasis on abstract reasoning,
quantitative thought, an understanding of how nature works, the view of nature as
a machine , and the development of an experimental scientific method
The scientific revolution began in Europe toward the end of the Renaissance period, and
continued through the late 18th century, influencing the intellectual social movement
known as the Enlightenment.
• Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543) was a mathematician and astronomer
who proposed that the sun was stationary in the center of the universe and the
earth revolved around it.
• Cardano He was one of the most influential mathematicians of the Renaissance
• René Descartes invented analytical geometry and introduced skepticism as an
essential part of the scientific method. Descartes argued the theory of innate
knowledge and that all humans were born with knowledge through the higher power
of God.
• Francis Bacon's theory was that scientific knowledge must come from the careful
observation of nature filtered through inductive reasoning. His philosophy of
science was revolutionary for Bacon's time when the most widely accepted authority
on truth and knowledge of the universe was the Bible and the Church

Goldsmith and inventor Johannes Gutenberg was a political exile from Mainz,
Germany when he began experimenting with printing in Strasbourg, France in 1440.
He returned to Mainz several years later and by 1450, had a printing machine perfected
and ready to use commercially: THE GUTENBERG PRESS
Block printing is the process of printing patterns by means of engraved wooden
blocks. It is the earliest, simplest and slowest of all methods of textile printing. Block
printing by hand is a slow process. It is, however, capable of yielding highly artistic
results, some of which are unobtainable by any other method.

THE ENLIGHTENMENT PERIOD (1715 A.D. - 1789 A.D.)

Superstitious beliefs / pamahiin based on old ideas about luck and magic rather than
science or reasoning.
Romanticism was a revolt against the aristocratic social and political norms of the
Age of Enlightenment and also a reaction against the scientific rationalization of
nature. Romanticism legitimized the individual imagination as a critical authority,
which permitted freedom from classical notions of form in art.
Romanticism is attitudes, ideals, and feelings which are romantic rather than
realistic.
“Principia Mathematica”
Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy is a book of Newton that expounds
his law of motions and his law of universal gravitation, the principia is written in
latin and comprises of 3 volumes, published on july 5, 1687
Considered one of the most important works in the history of science.
“Essay Concerning Human Understanding”
One of the first great defences of modern empiricism and concerns itself with
determining the limits of human understanding in respect to wide topics.
 SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION
Galileo Galilei – he was the 1st to report telescopic observation of the mountains on
the moon
He invented the thermometer
Astronomer and scientist during the Italian Renaissance period
Together with Kepler they accepted scientific facts
Kepler – astronomer is the best known for his discovery of the three principle of
Planetary Motion
The Planetary Motion –all planets travel in elliptical orbits around the sun from
focus point, planets move fastest when closer to the sun
He founded modern optics by presenting the earliest explanation of how human
being see.

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz- German rationalist , philosopher , he was made a

significant contribution in several fields like mathematics, physics, logic, ethics, and
theology.
- Integral calculus

Isaac Newton – Father of Calculus , Gravity

John Locke - reflected in Enlightenment
Values , rights, equality of individuals
His advocacy in religion toleration and its general empirical.

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
Yerkes Observatory -40 inch
Discovered the atomic explosion of the star named T-corona Borealis and took pictures of
globular star clusters which help with the study of stars.
It was the largest refracting telescope for astronomical research , built in 1895 , the
telescope contains two lenses, one made of crown glass and one made of flint glass.
Semi -conductor – materials which have conductivity between conductors generally meals
and non - conductors or insulator (ceramics) examples silicon and germanium
Nanotechnology – used to manufacture structures in coal, silicon, metals, it is based on
biological system presented in aqueous environment.
-it also used in range of energy areas to improve the effiency and effectiveness of solar
panels.

DNA – molecules inside cells that carry genetic information and pass it from one
generation to the next.
DNA – is essential for inheritance coding proteins and providing instruction for life and
process. DNA – also indicates how human or animal develop and reproduce.

Biotechnology – based on biology , create novel, diagnostics , vaccines, drugs and other
medical countermeasure needed to detect , prevent and treat disease.