Science is both a body of knowledge and a process. In school, science may sometimes seem like a collection of isolated and static facts listed in a textbook, but that's only a small part of the story. Just as importantly, science is also a process of discovery that allows us to link isolated facts into coherent and comprehensive understandings of the natural world.
Science is exciting. Science is a way of discovering what's in the universe and how those things work today, how they worked in the past, and how they are likely to work in the future. Scientists are motivated by the thrill of seeing or figuring out something that no one has before.
Science is useful. The knowledge generated by science is powerful and reliable. It can be used to develop new technologies, treat diseases, and deal with many other sorts of problems.
Science is ongoing. Science is continually refining and expanding our knowledge of the universe, and as it does, it leads to new questions for future investigation. Science will never be "finished."
Science is a global human endeavor. People all over the world participate in the process of science. And you can too!
Father of Western Philosopy
ARISTOTLE
Aristotle is a towering figure in ancient Greek philosophy, making contributions to logic, metaphysics, mathematics, physics, biology, botany, ethics, politics, agriculture, medicine, dance and theatre. He was a student of Plato who in turn studied under Socrates. He was more empirically-minded than Plato or Socrates and is famous for rejecting Plato's theory of forms. As a prolific writer and polymath, Aristotle radically transformed most, if not all, areas of knowledge he touched. It is no wonder that Aquinas referred to him simply as "The Philosopher." In his lifetime, Aristotle wrote as many as 200 treatises, of which only 31 survive. Unfortunately for us, these works are in the form of lecture notes and draft manuscripts never intended for general readership, so they do not demonstrate his reputed polished prose style which attracted many great followers, including the Roman Cicero. Aristotle was the first to classify areas of human knowledge into distinct disciplines such as mathematics, biology, and ethics. Some of these classifications are still used today.
Ptolemy
Claudius Ptolemy was born in about the year 100 AD, almost certainly in Egypt. He lived in the metropolis of Alexandria on Egypt’s Mediterranean coast. Alexandria was built by the Ancient Greeks, but later conquered by the Romans. Claudius is a Roman name and Claudius Ptolemy was a Roman citizen. Ptolemy, however, is a Greek name and Ptolemy wrote in Greek. He was possibly related to the Greek Ptolemy royal dynasty, ousted by the Romans in 30 BC. There is, however, no direct evidence to support a relationship. We do not know what Ptolemy looked like. Images we have of him were first created over a thousand years after he lived.
Ptolemy’s most famous work is the Almagest, an astronomy textbook and star catalogue.
The Almagest was a substantial, ambitious work. It taught its students how to predict the location of any heavenly body at any time from anywhere on Earth using Ptolemy’s mathematical model of planet movements. Ptolemy presented his model’s output in the form of data tables. Using his tables, one could also predict eclipses.
Nicolaus Copernicus
Polish name: Mikolaj Kopernik. Polish astronomer and mathematician who, as a student, studied canon law, mathematics, and medicine at Cracow, Bologna, Rome, Padua, and Ferrara. Copernicus became interested in astronomy and published an early description of his "heliocentric" model of the solar system in Commentariolus (1512). In this model, the sun was actually not exactly the center of the solar system, but was slightly offset from the center using a device invented by Ptolemy known as the equant point. The idea that the Sun was the center of the solar system was not new (similar theories had been proposed by Aristarchus and Nicholas of Cusa), but Copernicus also worked out his system in full mathematical detail. Even though the mathematics in his description was not any simpler than Ptolemy's, it required fewer basic assumptions. By postulating only the rotation of the Earth, revolution about the sun, and tilt of Earth's rotational axis, Copernicus could explain the observed motion of the heavens. However, because Copernicus retained circular orbits, his system required the inclusion of epicycles. Unfortunately, out of fear that his ideas might get him into trouble with the church, Copernicus delayed publication of them.
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin was a British naturalist and biologist known for his theory of evolution and his understanding of the process of natural selection. In 1831, he embarked on a five-year voyage around the world on the HMS Beagle, during which time his studies of various plants and an led him to formulate his theories. In 1859, he published his landmark book, On the Origin of Species.
Charles Darwin was born on February 12, 1809, in the tiny merchant town of Shrewsbury, England. A child of wealth and privilege who loved to explore nature, Darwin was the second youngest of six kids.
Darwin came from a long line of scientists: His father, Dr. R.W. Darwin, was a medical doctor, and his grandfather, Dr. Erasmus Darwin, was a renowned botanist. Darwin’s mother, Susanna, died when he was only eight years old.
In October 1825, at age 16, Darwin enrolled at University of Edinburgh along with his brother Erasmus. Two years later, he became a student at Christ's College in Cambridge. His father hoped he would follow in his footsteps and become a medical doctor, but the sight of blood made Darwin queasy. His father suggested he study to become a parson instead, but Darwin was far more inclined to study natural history.