Timeline by xavier

1473-1543 Nicolas Copernicus

6hli530 — 2025-05-20 15:19:15 UTC

Polish priest and mathematician. He denies the medieval belief, inherited from the classical Greek astronomer Ptolemy, that the earth is the center of the universe. He develops the revolutionary theory (heliocentric theory) that the earth and planets revolve around the sun in his De Revoltionibus orbium coelestium (1530).

1514-1564 Andreas Vesalius

6hli530 — 2025-05-20 15:23:04 UTC

Belgian physician and anatomist. In his De humani corporis fabrica libri septem (1543), he describes the human anatomy more accurately than the classical Greek scientist Galen, whose works have been the standard reference throughout medieval Europe. His work brings a sentence of death from the Inquisition for immorality, but he is not executed.

1561-1626 Francis Bacon

6hli530 — 2025-05-20 15:25:46 UTC

English philosopher. His Novum organum (1620) stresses the importance of proper scientific method: theories must be supported by proof acquired by experimentation and observation.

1564-1642 Galileo Galilei

6hli530 — 2025-05-20 15:31:27 UTC

Italian mathematician and scientist. The first to use telescopes for astronomy. He describes the surface of the moon and the rotation of the moons of Jupiter. Also establishes basic laws of motion from experimentation. He was arrested by the Inquisition and forced to recant the endorsement of the heliocentric theory made in his Dialogo dei due massimi sistemi del mondo (1632).

1571-1630 Johannes Kepler

6hli530 — 2025-05-20 15:35:44 UTC

German mathematician and astronomer. Accepts the heliocentric theory after examining data gathered by the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe. His Astronomia Nova (1609) and De harmonice mundi (1619) explain that the orbits of the planets are elliptical and not as circular as Copernicus has suggested.

1578-1657 William Harvey

6hli530 — 2025-05-20 15:38:47 UTC

English physician and anatomist. He discovers the circulation of blood and describes the purpose of Arteries, veins, and the heart in De motu cordis et sanguinis in animalibus (1628).

1596-1650 Rene Descartes

6hli530 — 2025-05-20 15:47:59 UTC

French philosopher and mathematician. Develops analytic geometry and other mathematical techniques useful in theoretical science. He believes that mathematical proof is the model for rational scientific inquiry. His best known philosophical work, Meditationes de prima philosophia (1641), emphasizes the importance of accepting only indubitable evidence.

1627-1691 Robert Boyle

6hli530 — 2025-05-20 15:50:48 UTC

Irish physicist and chemist. He investigates in the properties of air and develops a theory describing the relationship between the pressure and volume of gases. In the sceptical chemist, he questions the accepted belief that the world is made up of just 4 elements (Earth, air, water, fire) and argues that they can be broken down into more fundamental, chemical elements.

1629-1693 Christiaan Huygens

6hli530 — 2025-05-20 15:51:25 UTC

Dutch physicist and astronomer. He proposes the wave theory of light, discovers the rings of saturn, and builds the worlds first reliable pendulum clock.

1632-1723 Anton van Leeuwenhoek

6hli530 — 2025-05-21 00:12:38 UTC

Dutch biologist. He designs a powerful microscope and uses it to describe bacteria, protozoa, spermatozoa, and blood corpuscles

1642-1727 Issac Newton

6hli530 — 2025-05-21 00:17:50 UTC

English physicist and mathematician. One of the greatest theoretical scientists in history. He discovers the law of gravitation after studying Keplers laws of planetary motion, and formulates 3 laws of motion which form the basis of physics until the 20th century. He also invents the reflecting telescope and develops the mathematical system known as calculus. Best known work is Philosophiae naturalis principia (1687).

1743-1794 Antoine Lavoisier

6hli530 — 2025-05-21 00:21:22 UTC

French chemist. In Traite elementaire de chimie (1789) he describes the constituent gasses of air and shows that combustion can only take place in the presence of oxygen. Develops the modern system for naming chemical compounds and proposes that matter is never destroyed in chemical reactions.