Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form

of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe.[1][2] Modern science is

typically divided into two or three major branches:[3] the natural sciences (e.g.,
physics, chemistry, and biology), which study the physical world; and the
behavioural sciences (e.g., economics, psychology, and sociology), which study
individuals and societies.[4][5] The formal sciences (e.g., logic, mathematics, and
theoretical computer science), which study formal systems governed by axioms and
rules,[6][7] are sometimes described as being sciences as well; however, they are
often regarded as a separate field because they rely on deductive reasoning instead
of the scientific method or empirical evidence as their main methodology.[8][9]
Applied sciences are disciplines that use scientific knowledge for practical
purposes, such as engineering and medicine.[10][11][12]

The history of science spans the majority of the historical record, with the
earliest identifiable predecessors to modern science dating to the Bronze Age in
Egypt and Mesopotamia (c. 3000–1200 BCE). Their contributions to mathematics,
astronomy, and medicine entered and shaped the Greek natural philosophy of
classical antiquity, whereby formal attempts were made to provide explanations of
events in the physical world based on natural causes, while further advancements,
including the introduction of the Hindu–Arabic numeral system, were made during the
Golden Age of India.[13]: 12 [14][15][16] Scientific research deteriorated in these
regions after the fall of the Western Roman Empire during the Early Middle Ages
(400–1000 CE), but in the Medieval renaissances (Carolingian Renaissance, Ottonian
Renaissance and the Renaissance of the 12th century) scholarship flourished again.
Some Greek manuscripts lost in Western Europe were preserved and expanded upon in
the Middle East during the Islamic Golden Age,[17] along with the later efforts of
Byzantine Greek scholars who brought Greek manuscripts from the dying Byzantine
Empire to Western Europe at the start of the Renaissance.

The recovery and assimilation of Greek works and Islamic inquiries into Western
Europe from the 10th to 13th centuries revived natural philosophy,[18][19][20]
which was later transformed by the Scientific Revolution that began in the 16th
century[21] as new ideas and discoveries departed from previous Greek conceptions
and traditions.[22][23] The scientific method soon played a greater role in
knowledge creation and it was not until the 19th century that many of the
institutional and professional features of science began to take shape,[24][25]
along with the changing of "natural philosophy" to "natural science".[26]

New knowledge in science is advanced by research from scientists who are motivated
by curiosity about the world and a desire to solve problems.[27][28] Contemporary
scientific research is highly collaborative and is usually done by teams in
academic and research institutions,[29] government agencies,[30] and companies.[31]
The practical impact of their work has led to the emergence of science policies
that seek to influence the scientific enterprise by prioritising the ethical and
moral development of commercial products, armaments, health care, public
infrastructure, and environmental protection.

Etymology
The word science has been used in Middle English since the 14th century in the
sense of "the state of knowing". The word was borrowed from the Anglo-Norman
language as the suffix -cience, which was borrowed from the Latin word scientia,
meaning "knowledge, awareness, understanding". It is a noun derivative of the Latin
sciens meaning "knowing", and undisputedly derived from the Latin sciō, the present
participle scīre, meaning "to know".[32]

There are many hypotheses for science's ultimate word origin. According to Michiel
de Vaan, Dutch linguist and Indo-Europeanist, sciō may have its origin in the
Proto-Italic language as *skije- or *skijo- meaning "to know", which may originate
from Proto-Indo-European language as *skh1-ie, *skh1-io, meaning "to incise". The
Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben proposed sciō is a back-formation of nescīre,
meaning "to not know, be unfamiliar with", which may derive from Proto-Indo-
European *sekH- in Latin secāre, or *skh2-, from *sḱʰeh2(i)- meaning "to cut".[33]

In the past, science was a synonym for "knowledge" or "study", in keeping with its
Latin origin. A person who conducted scientific research was called a "natural
philosopher" or "man of science".[34] In 1834, William Whewell introduced the term
scientist in a review of Mary Somerville's book On the Connexion of the Physical
Sciences,[35] crediting it to "some ingenious gentleman" (possibly himself).[36]

History
Main article: History of science
Early history
Main article: Science in the ancient world
Clay tablet with markings, three columns for numbers and one for ordinals
The Plimpton 322 tablet by the Babylonians records Pythagorean triples, written c.
1800 BCE
Science has no single origin. Rather, scientific thinking emerged gradually over
the course of tens of thousands of years,[37][38] taking different forms around the
world, and few details are known about the very earliest developments. Women likely
played a central role in prehistoric science,[39] as did religious rituals.[40]
Some scholars use the term "protoscience" to label activities in the past that
resemble modern science in some but not all features;[41][42][43] however, this
label has also been criticised as denigrating,[44] or too suggestive of presentism,
thinking about those activities only in relation to modern categories.[45]

Direct evidence for scientific processes becomes clearer with the advent of writing
systems in the Bronze Age civilisations of Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia (c. 3000–
1200 BCE), creating the earliest written records in the history of science.[13]:
12–15 [14] Although the words and concepts of "science" and "nature" were not part
of the conceptual landscape at the time, the ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians
made contributions that would later find a place in Greek and medieval science:
mathematics, astronomy, and medicine.[46][13]: 12 From the 3rd millennium BCE, the
ancient Egyptians developed a non-positional decimal numbering system,[47] solved
practical problems using geometry,[48] and developed a calendar.[49] Their healing
therapies involved drug treatments and the supernatural, such as prayers,
incantations, and rituals.[13]: 9

The ancient Mesopotamians used knowledge about the properties of various natural
chemicals for manufacturing pottery, faience, glass, soap, metals, lime plaster,
and waterproofing.[50] They studied animal physiology, anatomy, behaviour, and
astrology for divinatory purposes.[51] The Mesopotamians had an intense interest in
medicine and the earliest medical prescriptions appeared in Sumerian during the
Third Dynasty of Ur.[50][52] They seem to have studied scientific subjects which
had practical or religious applications and had little interest in satisfying
curiosity.[50]

Classical antiquity
Main article: Science in classical antiquity
Framed mosaic of philosophers gathering around and conversing
Plato's Academy mosaic, made between 100 BCE and 79 CE, shows many Greek
philosophers and scholars
In classical antiquity, there is no real ancient analogue of a modern scientist.
Instead, well-educated, usually upper-class, and almost universally male
individuals performed various investigations into nature whenever they could afford
the time.[53] Before the invention or discovery of the concept of phusis or nature
by the pre-Socratic philosophers, the same words tend to be used to describe the
natural "way" in which a plant grows,[54] and the "way" in which, for example, one
tribe worships a particular god. For this reason, it is claimed that these men were
the first philosophers in the strict sense and the first to clearly distinguish
"nature" and "convention".[55]

The early Greek philosophers of the Milesian school, which was founded by Thales of
Miletus and later continued by his successors Anaximander and Anaximenes, were the
first to attempt to explain natural phenomena without relying on the supernatural.
[56] The Pythagoreans developed a complex number philosophy[57]: 467–468 and
contributed significantly to the development of mathematical science.[57]: 465 The
theory of atoms was developed by the Greek philosopher Leucippus and his student
Democritus.[58][59] Later, Epicurus would develop a full natural cosmology based on
atomism, and would adopt a "canon" (ruler, standard) which established physical
criteria or standards of scientific truth.[60] The Greek doctor Hippocrates
established the tradition of systematic medical science[61][62] and is known as
"The Father of Medicine".[63]

A turning point in the history of early philosophical science was Socrates' example
of applying philosophy to the study of human matters, including human nature, the
nature of political communities, and human knowledge itself. The Socratic method as
documented by Plato's dialogues is a dialectic method of hypothesis elimination:
better hypotheses are found by steadily identifying and eliminating those that lead
to contradictions. The Socratic method searches for general commonly-held truths
that shape beliefs and scrutinises them for consistency.[64] Socrates criticised
the older type of study of physics as too purely speculative and lacking in self-
criticism.[65]

In the 4th century BCE, Aristotle created a systematic programme of teleological

philosophy.[66] In the 3rd century BCE, Greek astronomer Aristarchus of Samos was
the first to propose a heliocentric model of the universe, with the Sun at the
centre and all the planets orbiting it.[67] Aristarchus's model was widely rejected
because it was believed to violate the laws of physics,[67] while Ptolemy's
Almagest, which contains a geocentric description of the Solar System, was accepted
through the early Renaissance instead.[68][69] The inventor and mathematician
Archimedes of Syracuse made major contributions to the beginnings of calculus.[70]
Pliny the Elder was a Roman writer and polymath, who wrote the seminal
encyclopaedia Natural History.[71][72][73]

Positional notation for representing numbers likely emerged between the 3rd and 5th
centuries CE along Indian trade routes. This numeral system made efficient
arithmetic operations more accessible and would eventually become standard for
mathematics worldwide.[74]

Middle Ages
Main article: History of science § Middle Ages
Picture of a peacock on very old paper
The first page of Vienna Dioscurides depicts a peacock, made in the 6th century
Due to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, the 5th century saw an
intellectual decline, with knowledge of classical Greek conceptions of the world
deteriorating in Western Europe.[13]: 194 Latin encyclopaedists of the period such
as Isidore of Seville preserved the majority of general ancient knowledge.[75] In
contrast, because the Byzantine Empire resisted attacks from invaders, they were
able to preserve and improve prior learning.[13]: 159 John Philoponus, a Byzantine
scholar in the 6th century, started to question Aristotle's teaching of physics,
introducing the theory of impetus.[13]: 307, 311, 363, 402 His criticism served as an
inspiration to medieval scholars and Galileo Galilei, who extensively cited his
works ten centuries later.[13]: 307–308 [76]

During late antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, natural phenomena were mainly
examined via the Aristotelian approach. The approach includes Aristotle's four
causes: material, formal, moving, and final cause.[77] Many Greek classical texts
were preserved by the Byzantine Empire and Arabic translations were done by groups
such as the Nestorians and the Monophysites. Under the Abbasids, these Arabic
translations were later improved and developed by Arabic scientists.[78] By the 6th
and 7th centuries, the neighbouring Sasanian Empire established the medical Academy
of Gondishapur, which was considered by Greek, Syriac, and Persian physicians as
the most important medical hub of the ancient world.[79]

Islamic study of Aristotelianism flourished in the House of Wisdom established in

the Abbasid capital of Baghdad, Iraq[80] and the flourished[81] until the Mongol
invasions in the 13th century. Ibn al-Haytham, better known as Alhazen, used
controlled experiments in his optical study.[a][83][84] Avicenna's compilation of
The Canon of Medicine, a medical encyclopaedia, is considered to be one of the most
important publications in medicine and was used until the 18th century.[85]

By the 11th century, most of Europe had become Christian,[13]: 204 and in 1088, the
University of Bologna emerged as the first university in Europe.[86] As such,
demand for Latin translation of ancient and scientific texts grew,[13]: 204 a major
contributor to the Renaissance of the 12th century. Renaissance scholasticism in
western Europe flourished, with experiments done by observing, describing, and
classifying subjects in nature.[87] In the 13th century, medical teachers and
students at Bologna began opening human bodies, leading to the first anatomy
textbook based on human dissection by Mondino de Luzzi.[88]

Renaissance
Main articles: Scientific Revolution and Science in the Renaissance
Drawing of planets' orbit around the Sun
Drawing of the heliocentric model as proposed by the Copernicus's De revolutionibus
orbium coelestium
New developments in optics played a role in the inception of the Renaissance, both
by challenging long-held metaphysical ideas on perception, as well as by
contributing to the improvement and development of technology such as the camera
obscura and the telescope. At the start of the Renaissance, Roger Bacon, Vitello,
and John Peckham each built up a scholastic ontology upon a causal chain beginning
with sensation, perception, and finally apperception of the individual and
universal forms of Aristotle.[82]: Book I A model of vision later known as
perspectivism was exploited and studied by the artists of the Renaissance. This
theory uses only three of Aristotle's four causes: formal, material, and final.[89]

In the 16th century, Nicolaus Copernicus formulated a heliocentric model of the

Solar System, stating that the planets revolve around the Sun, instead of the
geocentric model where the planets and the Sun revolve around the Earth. This was
based on a theorem that the orbital periods of the planets are longer as their orbs
are farther from the centre of motion, which he found not to agree with Ptolemy's
model.[90]

Johannes Kepler and others challenged the notion that the only function of the eye
is perception, and shifted the main focus in optics from the eye to the propagation
of light.[89][91] Kepler is best known, however, for improving Copernicus'
heliocentric model through the discovery of Kepler's laws of planetary motion.
Kepler did not reject Aristotelian metaphysics and described his work as a search
for the Harmony of the Spheres.[92] Galileo had made significant contributions to
astronomy, physics and engineering. However, he became persecuted after Pope Urban
VIII sentenced him for writing about the heliocentric model.[93]

The printing press was widely used to publish scholarly arguments, including some
that disagreed widely with contemporary ideas of nature.[94] Francis Bacon and René
Descartes published philosophical arguments in favour of a new type of non-
Aristotelian science. Bacon emphasised the importance of experiment over
contemplation, questioned the Aristotelian concepts of formal and final cause,
promoted the idea that science should study the laws of nature and the improvement
of all human life.[95] Descartes emphasised individual thought and argued that
mathematics rather than geometry should be used to study nature.[96]

Age of Enlightenment
Main article: Science in the Age of Enlightenment

Title page of the 1687 first edition of Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica
by Isaac Newton
At the start of the Age of Enlightenment, Isaac Newton formed the foundation of
classical mechanics by his Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, greatly
influencing future physicists.[97] Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz incorporated terms
from Aristotelian physics, now used in a new non-teleological way. This implied a
shift in the view of objects: objects were now considered as having no innate
goals. Leibniz assumed that different types of things all work according to the
same general laws of nature, with no special formal or final causes.[98]

During this time the declared purpose and value of science became producing wealth
and inventions that would improve human lives, in the materialistic sense of having
more food, clothing, and other things. In Bacon's words, "the real and legitimate
goal of sciences is the endowment of human life with new inventions and riches",
and he discouraged scientists from pursuing intangible philosophical or spiritual
ideas, which he believed contributed little to human happiness beyond "the fume of
subtle, sublime or pleasing [speculation]".[99]

Science during the Enlightenment was dominated by scientific societies and

academies,[100] which had largely replaced universities as centres of scientific
research and development. Societies and academies were the backbones of the
maturation of the scientific profession. Another important development was the
popularisation of science among an increasingly literate population.[101]
Enlightenment philosophers turned to a few of their scientific predecessors –
Galileo, Kepler, Boyle, and Newton principally – as the guides to every physical
and social field of the day.[102][103]

The 18th century saw significant advancements in the practice of medicine[104] and
physics;[105] the development of biological taxonomy by Carl Linnaeus;[106] a new
understanding of magnetism and electricity;[107] and the maturation of chemistry as
a discipline.[108] Ideas on human nature, society, and economics evolved during the
Enlightenment. Hume and other Scottish Enlightenment thinkers developed A Treatise
of Human Nature, which was expressed historically in works by authors including
James Burnett, Adam Ferguson, John Millar and William Robertson, all of whom merged
a scientific study of how humans behaved in ancient and primitive cultures with a
strong awareness of the determining forces of modernity.[109] Modern sociology
largely originated from this movement.[110] In 1776, Adam Smith published The
Wealth of Nations, which is often considered the first work on modern economics.
[111]

19th century
Main article: 19th century in science
Sketch of a map with captions
The first diagram of an evolutionary tree made by Charles Darwin in 1837
During the 19th century, many distinguishing characteristics of contemporary modern
science began to take shape. These included the transformation of the life and
physical sciences; the frequent use of precision instruments; the emergence of
terms such as "biologist", "physicist", and "scientist"; an increased
professionalisation of those studying nature; scientists gaining cultural authority
over many dimensions of society; the industrialisation of numerous countries; the
thriving of popular science writings; and the emergence of science journals.[112]
During the late 19th century, psychology emerged as a separate discipline from
philosophy when Wilhelm Wundt founded the first laboratory for psychological
research in 1879.[113]

During the mid-19th century Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace independently
proposed the theory of evolution by natural selection in 1858, which explained how
different plants and animals originated and evolved. Their theory was set out in
detail in Darwin's book On the Origin of Species, published in 1859.[114]
Separately, Gregor Mendel presented his paper, "Experiments on Plant Hybridisation"
in 1865,[115] which outlined the principles of biological inheritance, serving as
the basis for modern genetics.[116]

Early in the 19th century John Dalton suggested the modern atomic theory, based on
Democritus's original idea of indivisible particles called atoms.[117] The laws of
conservation of energy, conservation of momentum and conservation of mass suggested
a highly stable universe where there could be little loss of resources. However,
with the advent of the steam engine and the Industrial Revolution there was an
increased understanding that not all forms of energy have the same energy
qualities, the ease of conversion to useful work or to another form of energy.[118]
This realisation led to the development of the laws of thermodynamics, in which the
free energy of the universe is seen as constantly declining: the entropy of a
closed universe increases over time.[b]

The electromagnetic theory was established in the 19th century by the works of Hans
Christian Ørsted, André-Marie Ampère, Michael Faraday, James Clerk Maxwell, Oliver
Heaviside, and Heinrich Hertz. The new theory raised questions that could not
easily be answered using Newton's framework. The discovery of X-rays inspired the
discovery of radioactivity by Henri Becquerel and Marie Curie in 1896,[121] Marie
Curie then became the first person to win two Nobel Prizes.[122] In the next year
came the discovery of the first subatomic particle, the electron.[123]

20th century
Main article: 20th century in science
Graph showing lower ozone concentration at the South Pole
A computer graph of the ozone hole made in 1987 using data from a space telescope
In the first half of the century the development of antibiotics and artificial
fertilisers improved human living standards globally.[124][125] Harmful
environmental issues such as ozone depletion, ocean acidification, eutrophication,
and climate change came to the public's attention and caused the onset of
environmental studies.[126]

During this period scientific experimentation became increasingly larger in scale

and funding.[127] The extensive technological innovation stimulated by World War I,
World War II, and the Cold War led to competitions between global powers, such as
the Space Race and nuclear arms race.[128][129] Substantial international
collaborations were also made, despite armed conflicts.[130]

In the late 20th century active recruitment of women and elimination of sex
discrimination greatly increased the number of women scientists, but large gender
disparities remained in some fields.[131] The discovery of the cosmic microwave
background in 1964[132] led to a rejection of the steady-state model of the
universe in favour of the Big Bang theory of Georges Lemaître.[133]

The century saw fundamental changes within science disciplines. Evolution became a
unified theory in the early 20th-century when the modern synthesis reconciled
Darwinian evolution with classical genetics.[134] Albert Einstein's theory of
relativity and the development of quantum mechanics complement classical mechanics
to describe physics in extreme length, time and gravity.[135][136] Widespread use
of integrated circuits in the last quarter of the 20th century combined with
communications satellites led to a revolution in information technology and the
rise of the global internet and mobile computing, including smartphones. The need
for mass systematisation of long, intertwined causal chains and large amounts of
data led to the rise of the fields of systems theory and computer-assisted
scientific modelling.[137]

21st century
Main article: 21st century § Science and technology

Four predicted images of the M87* black hole made by separate teams in the Event
Horizon Telescope collaboration.
The Human Genome Project was completed in 2003 by identifying and mapping all of
the genes of the human genome.[138] The first induced pluripotent human stem cells
were made in 2006, allowing adult cells to be transformed into stem cells and turn
into any cell type found in the body.[139] With the affirmation of the Higgs boson
discovery in 2013, the last particle predicted by the Standard Model of particle
physics was found.[140] In 2015, gravitational waves, predicted by general
relativity a century before, were first observed.[141][142] In 2019, the
international collaboration Event Horizon Telescope presented the first direct
image of a black hole's accretion disc.[143]

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