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1450
Scholars generally decided what was true or false by referring to an ancient Greek or Roman author or to the Bible.
These "specialists" had one of two ideas to go off of. They could either as a Greek or Roman author about something they thought, and whatever that author said was essentially correct unless the Bible said otherwise. -
1543
Nicolaus Copernicus published his findings into a book.
He thought the stars, earth, and all other planet revolved around the Sun. He waited to publish his ideas because he thought other scholars would reject it due to their religious beliefs. His findings lead to Danish astronomer, Tycho Brahe, to record the movement of the planets. Brahe had massive amounts of accurate data, but died in 1601, leaving the mathematics to his followers. -
1581
Galileo proved Aristotle wrong.
Galileo was a 17-year old Italian student who closely watched a chandelier swing in a cathedral. Aristotle said that a pendulum would slow down as it reached a resting place. Galileo carefully timed the chandelier using his pulse. Instead of slowing down, each swing of the pendulum took exactly the same amount of time. Galileo had discovered the law of the pendulum. -
Tycho Brahe died.
After Brahe's death his assistant, Johannes Kepler, took over his work. He concluded that planetary motion was governed my mathematical laws. One of these laws showed that revolved the sun in elliptical orbits instead of circles. Kepler's laws showed that Copernicus' idea was true; planets do revolve around the sun. -
Galileo studied the heavens
He learned that a Dutch lens maker, Zacharias Janssen, had created an instrument that enlarged far-away objects. He had made his own telescope without seeing one. After some improvements, Galileo used it to study the heavens. One year later he published a series of newsletters called Starry Messenger. Discovering that Jupiter had four moons and the sun had dark spots. He also saw that the Earth's moon had an uneven surface. He once again proved Aristotle wrong and supported Copernicus' theories. -
Galileo goes to court.
His findings scared Catholic/Protestant leaders because it went against the teaching and authority of the church. They warned him not to defend Copernicus' ideas. He published Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World System which showed he supported the theory. Galileo was sent to Rome to stand trial. He stood in front of the court with the threat of torture and read aloud a signed confession saying the ideas were false. He was no longer a free man, and was under house arrest then died in 1642. -
The Sceptical Chymist.
Robert Boyle is considered the founder of modern chemistry. With the book The Sceptical Chymist he challenged Aristotle's idea that the world only consisted of four elements which were earth, air, fire, and water. Boyle thought that matter was made up of smaller particles that joined together in different ways. -
Leeuwenhoek discovers red blood cells.
He used a microscope to look at bacteria swimming in tooth scrapings. With this, he also saw red blood cells for the first time. He examined grubs, maggots, and other organisms to show that they did not appear out of nowhere; but were rather immature insects. -
Newton published his ideas.
His book Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy turned out to be one of the most important scientific books ever written. It contained his thought on the law of universal gravitation. Every object in the universe attracts every other object. The degree depends on the mass of the objects and the distance between them. -
Discovery of oxygen.
In 1774, Joseph Priestley separated one pure gas from the air. He felt very good after breathing in the new air and he watched how alert two mice were while breathing it. Priestly wrote, "Who can tell but that, in time, this pure air may become a fashionable article of luxury? Hithero only two mice and I have had the privilege of breathing it." At the same time, Antoine Lavoisier of France, was preforming similar experiments. Lavoisier named this new gas oxygen in 1779.
