Table Of ContentThanks to my family – Alan Macedo Elliott, Russell, Mary
and Anna Cruse – for their encouragement and guidance;
and to my cat, Bean, for moral support.
CONTENTS
Preface
Introduction
Part One: Ancient History, 3000 BC–5th Century
Chapter 1: Mathematics
Chapter 2: Medicine
Chapter 3: Philosophy
Part Two: The Post-Classical Era, 5th–15th Centuries
Chapter 4: Geography
Chapter 5: Optics
Chapter 6: Plant Science
Part Three: The Early Modern Period, 15th–18th Centuries
Chapter 7: Anatomy
Chapter 8: Astronomy
Chapter 9: Chemistry
Part Four: The 19th Century
Chapter 10: Engineering
Chapter 11: Geology
Chapter 12: Microbiology
Part Five: The 20th and 21st Centuries
Chapter 13: Physics
Chapter 14: Brain Science
Chapter 15: Computer Science
Chapter 16: Genetics
Part Six: The Future of Science
Chapter 17: Looking Ahead
Conclusion
Further Reading
Picture Credits
PREFACE
LET’S START WITH THE SIMPLE STUFF: what is the history of
science?
Well, as it turns out, that’s not actually such a simple question
after all. In its most basic terms, the history of science is the study of
how human beings have developed scientific theories, disciplines and
knowledge over time. But, of course, what science is – the wider
context and understanding of its purpose – has also shifted over
time. Throughout the centuries, our conception of what constitutes
‘science’ has developed; from ancient natural philosophers and
medieval alchemists to Renaissance scholars and Enlightenment
reformers, we have travelled a long way to arrive at the modern
conception of science and scientists that we recognise today.
Given that science is a fluid concept, it’s not so surprising that the
history of science is also a tricky topic to pin down. In his seminal
1962 text On the Structure of Scientific Revolutions, the American
physicist Thomas Kuhn established the idea of the history of science
as a series of paradigm shifts. Under Kuhn’s model, scientific history
is the process through which new theories gradually rise to
prominence until they take over and replace the previous scientific
paradigm; for example, quantum physics overtook Newtonian
mechanics in the early 20th century. With this notion, Kuhn did
away with the idea that the history of science represents a steady,
cumulative march towards progress. In reality, the history of science
is messy, plagued by flawed ideas and long periods of stagnation.
As we’ll see, science itself is as complex and multifaceted as the
problems it seeks to unpick. To make sense of it, we’ll be looking at
the process of knowledge-making chronologically and in the context
of specific disciplines. But in order to talk in any broad sense about
the history of science, it is necessary to omit large parts of the story,
and there are many important and worthy topics and events that
we’re not able to cover within these pages.
The slipperiness of the subject matter, the vastness of the story –
there are many considerations to bear in mind when exploring the
history of science. But, perhaps most importantly of all, we must
acknowledge that the history of science is not a static product; it is
constantly shifting and evolving. This book would look very different
if it were written in a few decades’ time, and indeed, we’ll be
exploring some of the ways in which future historians of science
might look back on the era we are currently experiencing.
Ultimately, the period in which we currently live is just another
stop on the long timeline of scientific enquiry. As you read this book,
you experience it amid a history that is still being created all around
us, every day. To commandeer the words of the great American
writer William Faulkner, ‘The past is never dead. It’s not even past.’
And so the story continues.
INTRODUCTION
‘The most beautiful thing we can experience is the
mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science.’ –
ALBERT EINSTEIN 1879–1955, THEORETICAL PHYSICIST
OUR STORY BEGINS WITH A BANG. It begins with the entirety of
the universe clustered together; a hot, dense mass many times
smaller than a pinhead. A fraction of a second passes, and the
universe bursts free, expanding outwards into immensity. It
continues to grow. Stars develop and die; entire galaxies are formed;
solar systems spring up, and from the grand chaos that is the
cosmos, our own little corner of the universe is born.
And that is where our story truly begins. On a little blue planet
nestled in the Milky Way galaxy, a complex set of chemical
phenomena align in just the right way so as to create something
miraculous: life. Fast forward a couple of billion years, and one
group of creatures splits into two. A succession of animals follow,
each one looking more like the face you see in the mirror – homo
habilis, the handy man; homo erectus, the upright man – until
finally, around 300,000 years ago, homo sapiens, the wise man, is
born.
We homo sapiens live up to our name. We are defined by our
capacity for wonder, and for the short time that we have been on the
planet we have stared up at the vast, infinite expanse of darkness
above and have been filled with questions.
To be human is to wonder. This is our legacy as members of the
human race. The impulse to ask questions is hardwired into our
DNA, and for three hundred millennia our people have been
searching for answers. Carl Sagan, the great American astronomer
and science communicator, famously said that we are all made of
star stuff, because the atoms that make up the human brain also
make up the stars. And so, in a sense, the human brain is the
universe attempting to understand itself, and humanity’s way of
understanding the universe is science.
The history of science is the history of human endeavour; a
testament to our will to discover and our determination to uncover
truth and meaning amidst the multitude of unknowns. Of course,
that history is by no means neat. There are rapid accelerations and
sudden stops, there are periods of silence, wrong turns and
disagreements. But over the course of our journey, the wise man has
slowly chipped away at the vast mysteries that surround us.
In the early days of our story, we did this by painting what we saw
around us onto cave walls; these days, we do it by splicing genomes,
sending rovers to Mars and smashing particles together in giant
colliders. We still don’t have all the answers; there is still so much
left to discover. But if there is a common thread that runs through
the entire history of science, it is this: all that we know about the
world is the product of humanity’s capacity for wonder.
You are part of this story, because you share in the spirit of
curiosity that drives scientific progress. Our innate sense of wonder
is what makes us human, and it is what makes us – all of us –
scientists. And so, before you delve into the history of science, know
this: the story is not over yet. It continues with all of us; it continues
with you.
