STS

• Roman civilization was built upon the tradition of Greek natural philosophy
• The Romans are better known for engineering than theoretical science
• The Romans were responsible, through the application and development of available machines, for an important technological transformation: the widespread introduction of rotary motion.
• This was exemplified in the use of the treadmill for powering cranes and other heavy lifting operations, the introduction of rotary water-raising devices for irrigation works, and the development of the waterwheel as a prime mover.
• The 1st-century-BCE Roman engineer Vitruvius gave an account of watermills, and by the end of the Roman era many were in operation.
• The Romans copied the Greek style for most ceremonial purposes, but in other respects they were important innovators in building technology.
• They made extensive use of fired brick and tile as well as stone; they developed a strong cement that would set under water; and they explored the architectural possibilities of the arch, the vault, and the dome.
• They then applied these techniques in amphitheatres, aqueducts, tunnels, bridges, walls, lighthouses, and roads. Taken together, these constructional works may fairly be regarded as the primary technological achievement of the Romans.
• The Romans made good quality pottery available throughout their empire through the manufacture and trade of the standardized red ware called terra sigillata, which was produced in large quantities at several sites in Italy and Gaul.
• Cato (b. 234 BCE) - The famous orator also wrote a valuable treatise (De agricultura) which gave advice on how to run a good estate with notes on wine and oil production and various remedies for crop diseases.
• Varro (b. 116 BCE) - was the most prolific scientific author, although very little of his work survives. One exception is the Res Rusticae, which describes the best ways to manage a large estate
• Lucretius (b. c. 94 BCE) - Wrote De rerum natura on the major Greek works of atomist philosophy and was especially interested in optics and biology.
• Vitruvius (1st century BCE) - Wrote an influential work on architecture (De architectura) which included surveying, town planning, mathematics, principles of proportion, materials, astronomy, and mechanics.
• Galen (b. 129 CE) - Of Greek origin who became a physician to emperors after starting his career administering medical aid to gladiators. He is an invaluable source on earlier medical matters, notably Hippocrates, but was also a successful practitioner of complex surgeries himself.
• Claudius Ptolemy (85–165 CE) taught that the Earth was the center of the universe.
• Ptolemaic System - Also called geocentric system or geocentric model proposed by Claudius Ptolemy by assuming that Earth is stationary and at the center of the universe.
• Rome’s fall ended the ancient world and the Middle Ages were borne. These “Dark Ages” brought the end to much that was Roman.
• In western Europe, population dropped, literacy virtually disappeared, and Greek knowledge was lost.
• In eastern Europe, Greek knowledge was suppressed by orthodox Christianity in the Byzantine Empire (which finally fell in 1453)
• The scientific revolution was the emergence of modern science during the early modern period, when developments in mathematics, physics, astronomy, biology (including human anatomy), and chemistry transformed societal views about nature.
• The change to the medieval idea of science occurred for four reasons: collaboration, the derivation of new experimental methods, the ability to build on the legacy of existing scientific philosophy, and institutions that enabled academic publishing.
• Seventeenth century scientists and philosophers were able to collaborate with members of the mathematical and astronomical communities to effect advances in all fields.
• Scientists realized the inadequacy of medieval experimental methods for their work and so felt the need to devise new methods (some of which we use today).
• Academics had access to a legacy of European, Greek, and Middle Eastern scientific philosophy that they could use as a starting point (either by disproving or building on the theorems).
• Institutions (for example, the British Royal Society) helped validate science as a field by providing an outlet for the publication of scientists’ work.
• The term British empiricism came into use to describe philosophical differences perceived between two of its founders—Francis Bacon, described as empiricist, and René Descartes, who was described as a rationalist.
• Bacon’s works established and popularized inductive methodologies for scientific inquiry, often called the Baconian method, or sometimes simply the scientific method.
• Francis Bacon was an English philosopher who wrote Advancement of Learning.
• Bacon popularized the scientific method and used it with philosophy and knowledge.
• Bacon argued that truth could not be known at the beginning of a question, but only at the end after a long process of investigation.
• Empiricism: A theory stating that knowledge comes only, or primarily, from sensory experience. It emphasizes evidence, especially the kind of evidence gathered through experimentation and by use of the scientific method.
• Scientific Method – painstaking method used to confirm findings and to prove or disprove a hypothesis.
• Scientists observed nature, made hypotheses, or educated guesses, and then tested these hypotheses through experiments.
• Unlike earlier approaches, the scientific method did not rely on the classical thinkers or the Church, but depended upon a step-by-step process of observation and experimentation.
• Scientists soon discovered that the movements of bodies in nature closely followed what could be predicted by mathematics.
• The scientific method set Europe on the road to rapid technological progress.
• The Scientific Method 1. State the problem 2. Collect information 3. Form a hypothesis 4. Test the hypothesis 5. Record & analyze data 6. State a conclusion 7. Repeat steps 1 – 6
• The heliocentric model involved the radical displacement of the earth to an orbit around the sun (as opposed to being seen as the center of the universe).
• Studying human anatomy based upon the dissection of human corpses, rather than the animal dissections, as practiced for centuries.
• Discovering and studying magnetism and electricity, and thus, electric properties of various materials