Timeline by Elva Cam

1473-1543 Nicolas Copericus

6ecam659 — 2025-05-20 15:17:37 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, and develops the revolutionary theory that the Earth and planets revolve around the Sun (heliocentric theory) in his De Revoltionibus orbium coelestium

1514-1564 Andreas Vesalius

6ecam659 — 2025-05-20 15:22:05 UTC

Belgian physician and anatomist. In his De humanicorporis fabrica librium septem he describes human anatomy more accurately than the classical Greek scientists Galen, whose works have been the standard reference throughout medieval Europe. His work brings a sentence of death from the Inquistion for immorality, but he is not executed

1561-1626 Francis Bacon

6ecam659 — 2025-05-20 15:24:51 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

6ecam659 — 2025-05-20 15:28:44 UTC

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

1571-1630 Johannes Kepler

6ecam659 — 2025-05-20 15:32:02 UTC

German mathematician and astronomer. Accepts the heliocentric theory after examining data gathered by the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe (1546-1601). His astronomia Nova and De Harmonice mundi explain that the orbits of the planets are elliptical and not circular as Copernicus has suggested

1578-1657 William Harvey

6ecam659 — 2025-05-20 15:34:23 UTC

English physician and anatomist. He discovers the circulation of the blood and describes the purpose of arteries, veins, and the heart in De Motu cordis et sanguinis in animalibus.

1596-1650 Rene Descartes

6ecam659 — 2025-05-20 15:37:53 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, emphasizes the importance of accepting only indubitable evidence

1627 - 1691 Robert Boyle

6ecam659 — 2025-05-20 15:42:51 UTC

Irish physicist and chemist. He investigates the properties of air and develops a theory describing the relationship between the pressure and volume of gasses. In The Sceptical Chemist (1661) he questions the accepted belief that the world is made up of just four elements Earth, Air, Fire, Water and argues that they can be broken down into more fundamental, chemical elements

1629-1693 Christiaan Huygens

6ecam659 — 2025-05-20 15:46:02 UTC

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

1632-1723 Anton van Leeuwenhoek

6ecam659 — 2025-05-20 15:47:38 UTC

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

1642-1727 Issac Newton

6ecam659 — 2025-05-20 15:50:13 UTC

English physicist and mathematician. One of the greatest theoretical scientists in history. He discovers the law of gravitation after studying Keplers law of planetary motion, and formulates three law of motion which form the basis of physics until the 20th century. Also invents the reflecting telescope, and develops the mathematical system known and calculus. Best known work Is Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica

1743-1796 Antoine Lavoisier

6ecam659 — 2025-05-20 16:35:11 UTC

French chemist. In elementary treatise on chemistry,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.