http://www.ck12.org Chapter 1. Introduction to Physical Science
1.5 History of Science
- Explain what is meant by the "evolution of science."
- Summarize the evolution of science.
- Identify major contributions in the history of science.
Who is this man with the wild white hair? Could he be an aging rock star? He’s not a famous musician, but he’s just
as famous as many celebrities. His name is Albert Einstein, and he’s arguably the most important scientist of the
20th century. Einstein really shook up science with his discoveries in the early 1900s. That may sound like a long
time ago, but in terms of the history of science, it’s as though it were only yesterday.
Evolution of Science
People have probably wondered about the natural world for as long as there have been people. So it’s no surprise
that science has roots that go back thousands of years. Some of the earliest contributions to science were made
by Greek philosophers more than two thousand years ago. It wasn’t until many centuries later, however, that the
scientific method and experimentation were introduced. The dawn of modern science occurred even more recently.
It is generally traced back to the scientific revolution, which took place in Europe starting in the 1500s.
In the Beginning
A Greek philosopher named Thales, who lived around 600 BCE, has been called the “father of science” for his ideas
about the natural world. He proposed that natural events such as lightning and earthquakes have natural causes. Up
until then, people understood such events to be the acts of gods or other supernatural forces.