An Illustrated History of Science

From Agriculture to Artificial Intelligence

Mary Cruse

• Publisher: Arcturus
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781838577339
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Science History
• Index: History

To be human is to wonder. The impulse to ask questions is hardwired into our DNA, and for three hundred millennia people have been searching for answers. In An Illustrated History of Science, Mary Cruse takes readers on a fascinating journey through the evolution of this discipline in its many strands. Throughout the centuries, our conception of what constitutes 'science' has developed hugely - from ancient natural philosophers and medieval alchemists to Renaissance scholars and Enlightenment reformers. Modern science evokes images of bubbling test tubes and spotless lab coats, but this limited perception inhibits us in truly understanding the progress of science throughout history. Cruse does not fall into this trap. Learn about the development of agricultural tools, the study of weather patterns, mapmaking, mathematics and modern geology. Delve into the cutting-edge science of the 21st century - genetic engineering, artificial intelligence, sustainable energy projects. Cruse even speculates on which breakthroughs are yet to come...Filled with useful timelines, fun facts and profiles of key characters, Illustrated History of Science is a fascinating read that the whole family can enjoy.

Part One

ANCIENT HISTORY

3000 BC–5TH CENTURY

 

WHEN WE THINK ABOUT SCIENCE, we tend to turn to familiar tropes: futuristic machines, complex experimental set-ups, people in lab coats. But science has existed for far longer than any of that; in fact, you could say that human beings have been doing science in some form or another for thousands of years.

If we understand science to mean the pursuit of evidence-based knowledge, then it’s clear that humanity and science go back well before historical records began. So let’s take a look at the early days of civilisation and the years leading up to it. In place of what we call science, another belief system prevailed. Early civilisations perceived a universe in which events were made to happen by deities, or in which spirits and energies governed the natural world. While they might not have understood the scientific method, they probably still questioned the world around them and created theories for how things worked. So what were some of the earliest examples of ‘science’ as we understand it today, and what part did the scientific method play in the important developments and transitions that underpinned human progress?

We’ve established that humanity has been asking questions for as long as our species has existed. Now, let’s look at how we began using science to find answers.

The era of ancient history begins with the advent of writing in 3200 BC, and ends around 476 BC with the fall of the western Roman Empire. We tend to associate science in this period with Ancient Greece, but it was actually a global endeavour. From India to Egypt to Mesoamerica, the ancient period saw different groups of people begin making scientific progress in different areas and in different ways. One quality that united the early scientists – whether they were philosophers in Ancient Greece or medics in Aryuvedic India – was their desire to seek order in nature, and it was around this time that the first scientists began looking for consistent laws and structures that could explain the phenomena they observed around them. This wasn’t science as we imagine it today. Protoscientific ideas were frequently – though not always – intermingled with religion and mysticism. But this type of thinking did represent an important shift away from the use of observation and logic solely to achieve practical goals, towards the pursuit of knowledge for knowledge’s sake. People were no longer content to merely observe and exploit the natural environment and physical phenomena; they wanted to understand them. And as they began to acquire a deeper understanding of the world, they became better able to manipulate the environment around them, contributing to the rise of larger and more powerful civilisations. Science is fundamental to the story of human civilisations, and it always has been, right from the very start.

An asteroid falling through the night sky on its way to Earth. Since the dawn of time, humans have looked to the sky to unlock the mysteries of life.

Chapter 1
Mathematics

‘Wherever there is number, there is beauty.’ – PROCLUS DIADOCHUS, GREEK PHILOSOPHER

Mathematics is the science of numbers, quantities, measurement and shapes. But it’s not a science in the way that biology or physics are sciences. Rather than using the scientific method, which is based on observation, theories and evidence, maths is based purely on logic; so its findings are abstract, not tied to the physical world. But while maths isn’t quite like the other sciences, it is fundamental to scientific enquiry. From microbiologists to astrophysicists, all sorts of different scientists use maths as a tool to explore the world. Mathematics has supported and strengthened civilisations around the globe. From its origins as a tool in Mesopotamia and Egypt to its maturation into a scientific discipline in Ancient Greece, the history of maths is long and complex, but its impact on our daily lives is completely clear. When we think of maths, we might initially envisage fractions and long division, but there’s so much more to it than that. Mathematics has helped researchers to better understand the world around us, and has played a part in a whole host of innovations – from architecture, to aeroplanes, to androids. And none of that would have been possible without the ingenuity of ancient peoples who, thousands of years ago, imagined mathematics into existence.

Ancient Mathematics

Although it has since become a discipline of study, mathematics was originally born out of necessity. The first written evidence comes from the Sumerian peoples of Mesopotamia, in what is now mostly modern-day Iraq. This civilisation – which lasted from around 4500 to 1900 BC – used maths as a tool to support their emerging agricultural society. Around the third millennium BC, the Sumerians began practising geometry and multiplication, carving their calculations into wet clay. From taxing harvests to measuring plots of land, mathematics helped the Sumerians to quantify and organise material.

Did You Know?

The Sumerian, Mayan and Indian civilisations all independently invented the concept of zero.

Sumerian cuneiform tablet, c.2300 BC, concerning commercial matters. Cuneiform was not a language; instead it used a system of characters to record words, syllables, signs and an early form of numbers.

The Bakhshali manuscript contains the oldest recorded use of the zero symbol, and is believed to have been written in 3rd or 4th-century India.

A later Mesopotamian civilisation, the Babylonians, further developed mathematics. They were the first to design a positional number system, in which the position of the number denotes its meaning. We still use a positional number system today – the number 5 written alone denotes only 5, but when it precedes another number, it comes to signify 50; when it precedes another two numbers, it comes to mean 500. The Babylonians used their sophisticated mathematical knowledge to help chart the stars, allowing them to predict lunar eclipses and planetary cycles, and to create their own 12-month calendar. Having a calendar enabled better control over agricultural seasons and supported the growth of religious occasions and feast days.

Did You Know?

An abacus is an ancient calculating device that was probably invented by the Babylonians. Modern abacuses mostly work by sliding counters across rods on a frame, but the humble abacus has seen many different iterations in various cultures over the centuries.

The Ancient Egyptians’ grasp of mathematics was less advanced than the Babylonians, but still left a mark on its history. Mathematical activity in this region was largely concentrated around the activity of scribes: young men who were among the few Egyptians trained to read and write. The scribes were the civil servants of their time, practising accountancy, note and letter writing, and many other administrative activities that required mathematical knowledge. Scribes used hieroglyphs to represent numbers, employing a decimal scheme that revolved around the number 10. However, the Egyptians didn’t have a positional system, which meant that they had to count each number individually. So 600 would be represented by drawing the sign for 100 six times. This method was laborious and inefficient, but it did provide a uniform system for calculating large numbers. It’s likely that the Egyptian system of mathematics influenced Ancient Greeks – like Thales and Plato – who visited Egypt and brought ideas back home with them. This impact is important, because the Greeks would go on to embrace the science of mathematics like never before.

While the Greeks were by no means the first thinkers to explore mathematical concepts, it was in Ancient Greece that mathematics became a discipline in its own right. The Greeks were also the inventors of the word ‘mathematics’, from the ancient Greek word máthẽma, meaning ‘that which is learnt’.

Thinkers were interested in mathematical concepts rather than what maths could be used for. They devised the concept of ‘proofs’: logical formulae which demonstrate that a mathematical rule – such as a² + b² = c² – is always true. By proving the existence of solid mathematical laws, the Ancient Greeks established maths as an independent field of study and a way of understanding the world.

The abacus was invented between 2700 and 2300 BC.

The Rhind papyrus is one of the best-known examples of Ancient Egyptian mathematics.

Pythagoras and his followers were among the first philosophers to fully embrace mathematics in the 6...