The Scientific Revolution

• In biology, William Harvey (1578-1657) accurately demonstrated how blood circulates through the human body.

His seven-volume text De Humani Corporis Fabrica (The Structure of the Human Body), published in 1543, began the modern science of anatomy.

The Inquisition condemned Vesalius to death for dissecting a human body, but his connections to royalty helped reduce the sentence down to a forced pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1564.

Scientific Revolution: a new way of thinking about the natural world. Based on careful observation and a willingness to question accepted beliefs.

   Exploration: allowed Europeans to believe that there were new truths to be found. Also increased the need for new/improved instruments and research in

astronomy and mathematics. 

Printing Press: helped spread challenging ideas

Before 1500, answers to most of the people’s questions were answered by

reading classical literature and the Bible.

 During the Middle Ages:

       Geocentric Theory: the belief that

the earth was in the center of the universe and the moon, sun, and

planets all moved around the earth.

       Theory created by Aristotle Theory supported by the Christian

belief that God had put the earth in the center because it was the most

important.

Nicolaus Copernicus: •Studied planetary movement for 25 years.

•Heliocentric Theory: stars, earth, and other planets revolve around the sun.

• Feared his views would be rejected by other scholars and clergy because it went against the common religious beliefs.

• Finally published his findings during the last year of his life.

Johannes Kepler: •Used mathematics to prove that the planets revolve around the sun in elliptical orbits instead of circles.

•Helped prove Copernicus was correct.

Galileo Galilei:

•Built own telescope in 1609

•Observations included: Jupiter had four moons, the sun had dark spots and that the moon had a rough, uneven surface.

•His work also supported the theories of Copernicus.

•Galileo was ordered to stand trial before the Inquisition because his research went against the beliefs of the Catholic Church.

•Galileo, due to threat of torture, told the court that the ideas of Copernicus were false.

•Approximately 350 years later the Catholic Church officially declared that Galileo’s ideas were correct.

Francis Bacon: •English statesman and writer, who wanted scientists to use experiments to help draw

conclusions.

Rene Descartes: •French mathematician who believed that everything should be doubted until proved by reason.

•Thought that mathematics and logic should be used to draw conclusions.

•“I think, therefore I am.”

Isaac Newton: •Key belief was that the same force ruled motion of the planets and all matter on earth and in space.

•Created the law of gravity

•Believed that the universe was like a giant clock and all the parts worked together.

•God, the creator of this clock, set everything in motion.

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When he observed an apple fall from a tree, Newton thought: The apple is accelerated as it moves from the tree toward the ground. There must be a force that acts on the apple to cause this acceleration. Let's call the force gravity. If the force of gravity reaches to the top of the highest tree, might it not reach even further to the orbit of the Moon. Then, the orbit of the Moon about the Earth could be a consequence of the gravitational force.

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Newton’s First Law of Motion: An object in motion tends to stay in motion and an object at rest tends to stay at rest, unless the object is acted upon by an outside force

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Free Fall Air Resistance

Newton’s Second Law of Motion: The acceleration of an object is directly pro-portional to the net force acting upon it and inversely proportional to its mass.

20Newton’s Third Law of Motion: Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

Zacharias Janssen: •inventor of the first microscope

Anton van Leeuwenhoek:  •Used microscope to observe bacteria from tooth scrapings

•First person to examine red blood

cells

ROBERT HOOKE- first to look at cells            looked at a thin section of cork

Gabriel Fahrenheit:  •Made first thermometer to use mercury in glass

•His thermometer showed water freezing at 32 degrees.

Anders Celsius: •Created another mercury thermometer that established freezing at 0 degrees.

Edward Jenner: Created vaccine to prevent smallpox Used the idea of inoculation, the act of injecting a germ into a person’s body in order to create immunity to the disease. Used cowpox to produce the world’s first vaccination.