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T
he scientific study of the
world has its roots in
Mesopotamia. Following
the invention of agriculture and
writing, people had the time to
devote to study and the means
to pass the results of those studies
on to the next generation. Early
science was inspired by the wonder
of the night sky. From the fourth
millennium BCE, Sumerian priests
studied the stars, recording their
results on clay tablets. They did
not leave records of their methods,
but a tablet dating from 1800 BCE
shows knowledge of the properties
of right-angled triangles.
Ancient Greece
The ancient Greeks did not see
science as a separate subject
from philosophy, but the first
figure whose work is recognizably
scientific is probably Thales of
Miletus, of whom Plato said that
he spent so much time dreaming
and looking at the stars that he
once fell into a well. Possibly using
data from earlier Babylonians,
in 585 BCE, Thales predicted a
solar eclipse, demonstrating the
power of a scientific approach.
Ancient Greece was not a
single country, but rather a loose
collection of city states. Miletus
(now in Turkey) was the birthplace
of several noted philosophers. Many
other early Greek philosophers
studied in Athens. Here, Aristotle
was an astute observer, but he
did not conduct experiments;
he believed that, if he could bring
together enough intelligent men,
the truth would emerge. The
engineer Archimedes, who lived at
Syracuse on the island of Sicily,explored the properties of fluids.
A new center of learning developed
at Alexandria, founded at the
mouth of the Nile by Alexander the
Great in 331 BCE. Here Eratosthenes
measured the size of Earth,
Ctesibius made accurate clocks,
and Hero invented the steam
engine. Meanwhile, the librarians
in Alexandria collected the best
books they could find to build the
best library in the world, which was
burned down when Romans and
Christians took over the city.Science in Asia
Science flourished independently
in China. The Chinese invented
gunpowder—and with it fireworks,
rockets, and guns—and made
bellows for working metal. They
invented the first seismograph
and the first compass. In 1054 CE,INTRODUCTION
585 BCE
C.530 BCE
C.325 BCE
C.300 BCE
C.500 BCE
C.450 BCE
C.250 BCE
Aristotle writes a string
of books on subjects
including physics,
biology, and zoology.Pythagoras founds a
mathematical school at
Croton in what is now
southern Italy.Xenophanes finds
seashells on mountains,
and concludes that the
whole Earth was once
covered with water.Archimedes discovers
that a king’s crown
is not pure gold by
measuring the
upthrust of
displaced water.Empedocles suggests
that everything on
Earth is made from
combinations of earth,
air, fire, and water.Thales of Miletus
predicts the eclipse of
the Sun that brings
the Battle of Halys
to an end.Aristarchus of Samos
suggests that the Sun,
rather than Earth,
is the center of
the universe.Theophrastus writes
Enquiry into plants
and The causes of
plants, founding
the discipline
of botany.C.240 BCE