GEH1018: A Brief History of Science 1

HSI2008: A Brief History of Science & Why

Things Often Go Wrong

Lecture 1- Introduction

THOMAS OSIPOWICZ|GEH1018 & HSI2008

 Course Description 2

 To give both non-science and science  Location: S1A-02-17

students an insight into the enormous  Lectures: Mo & Thur, 12 noon - 2pm
contribution which natural sciences have
made in shaping the modern world.  Lecturer: Thomas Osipowicz

 To give a perspective on how  Office: S12-03-10

fundamental new ideas and theories  Phone: 6516 6745
were received at the time, how they
changed perceptions and ideas, and  Email: phyto@nus.edu.sg
how societies were able to move forward  Teaching Support: Dr Ren Minqin
as a result.
 Email: phyrenmq@nus.edu.sg
What this course is and is not I 3

 not a comprehensive description of science in the last 2500 years.

 a selection, chosen by me. History is such a vast field that one
can arrive at very different conclusions, depending on ones
“philosophical” positions Others might focus on other topics and
arrive at different interpretations. We are not dealing with
absolutes.
 This course concentrates heavily on the physical sciences and
mathematics and contains little on the history of medical and
biological sciences (with the notable exception of evolution).
 Medical and biological sciences deserve their own course and I
cannot cover that here.
What this course is and is not II
 This course concentrates heavily on the development of science
4
in Western Europe (including the Islamic World). Scientific
developments in other Civilizations (China, India, South America)
are not considered in similar detail.
 Mainly because I do not know very much about the latter.
 Also because not as much is known/documented. The rise of
China and India will change the picture: much research is under
way, for example:
 In 1974 near Xi'An, a farmer, ploughing a field, found the
Terracotta Army, forgotten since 210 BC, when Qin Shi Huang,
the first Emperor of China, put them there.
 Qin Shi Huang was also responsible for the “Burning of books
The Terracotta Army held more than
and scholars”, when (it is said) he had many books destroyed
8,000 individualised soldiers, 130
and scholars killed, which he regarded as subversive.
chariots with 520 horses and 150
Somewhat similar things happened during the cultural
cavalry horses.
revolution in the last century. (The movie “The red violin” shows
some of this, and dismal western history as well).
 Similarly, the History of Science in India is also a promising field.
What this course is and is not III 5

 This course examines the role of societies and religions

(particularly Christianity), both positive and negative, in the
development and acceptance of new scientific ideas.
 If you don't want to listen and participate in such discussions,
then this may not be the course for you.
 Philosophy and History 6

 In order to understand the evolution of scientific knowledge and thinking,

we need to spend some time looking at ancient philosophers, who started
the process in some sense. Their outlook on the world had an enormous
effect on science.
 To fully appreciate the impact of science on humanity, and why and how it
evolved, we also need to talking about history, particularly European history.
Who will benefit? 7
Science Students ? Non-Science students ?
 Yes !  Yes!
 The focus of undergraduate science  Only an elementary knowledge of
courses is to gain a thorough Physics, Mathematics and Chemistry is
understanding of the derivations and needed.
applications of mathematical and
 It is just as important and (hopefully) just
scientific laws and principles, rather than
as interesting to everyone to have an
how they fit into a more comprehensive
appreciation of scientific discoveries
historical framework of the development
that have changed the world.
of scientific ideas through the ages.
 Since there is no hard Mathematics,
 Even science and mathematics students
most of the learning and testing
are often unaware of how modern
involved in this course is historical and
concepts have arisen, what their impact
knowledge-based.
was at the time and how they changed
the world.
Will there be any Mathematics? 8

 The course will be taught with an absolute minimum of mathematics

and equations.
 Instead we will concentrate on describing the discovery and
importance of fundamental concepts used through history in
deducing the nature of a scientific and mathematical view of the
world.
Overview of GEH1018 I 9

1) Classical Antiquity: Natural philosophy, science and geometry of the Ancient

Greeks, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, The Roman Empire
2) Islam and the Middle Ages: Preservation and further development of Greek
culture, Early Islam, the Dark Ages and Medieval Europe
3) The Renaissance: The re-birth (in the Christian West) of natural philosophy from
antiquity
4) The Scientific Revolution: Development of the Scientific Method, Heliocentric Solar
System, conflicts provoked by new ways of looking at the world, Copernicus,
Kepler, Galileo, the Scientific Societies, Newton, Hooke, Halley
5) Mathematics: Descartes, Pascal, Fermat, Newton, Leibniz and the development of
calculus, Laplace.
6) What stuff is made of: Atoms, Nuclei, Particles: Birth of modern chemistry, atomic,
nuclear and particle physics
Overview of GEH1018 10

6) Let there be light (A History of Electricity and Magnetism): Coulomb and his Law,
Oersted, Ampere, Faraday and the Law of Induction, James Clark Maxwell and
his equations, Hertz, Marconi, Edison, Tesla
7) Planet Earth - A History of Geology and Earth Sciences: The Stone Breakers:
Opposing theories of geology, Hutton, Charles Lyell Evolution by Natural Selection:
History of Evolutionary Thought, Age of the Earth
8) Method: A brief introduction to the Philosophy of Science, Logic, the Scientific
Method, the Vienna Circle, Popper, Kuhn and later developments
9) Modern Astronomy and The Solar System: The Earth-Moon System, Asteroids,
Meteors and Comets, The Asteroid Belt, The Kuiper Belt, The Oort Cloud, Pluto,
Discovery of Uranus and Neptune, The Voyager Probes, The Size of the Universe,
Edwin Hubble, The Big Bang
Literature and
recommended texts 11

• A Short History of Nearly Everything, by Bill Bryson

• Sophie's World, by Jostein Gaarder
Reading • Science: A History, by John Gribbin
• Failure - Why Science Is So Successful, by Stuart Firestein
• Philosophy of Science: a Contemporary Introduction, by A. Rosenberg

Project • List of possible topics below, suggestions welcome!

Technology/Tools • Wikipedia, YouTube, Science Library

Assessment
12

 Everyone is capable of passing. All you have to do is:

Give group tutorial presentations: 30%
Questions/Quiz after lecture 10%
One term test, 20%
One Final Exam 40%

Ask questions!
What we will do 13
 Lectures
 Group Tutorials:
Everyone to participate in producing/presenting a 7- 8 minute presentation on topics
related to this course.
Class to be divided into groups of four, in the third week. Students are grouped according
to their individually-chosen presentation time slot. Slots are available on a first-come, first-
serve basis. If you are in a group already and want to work together, choose the same time
slot.
Three weeks prior to your presentation time slot, settle on a topic, either from the list or
maybe come up with your own idea (in this case consult me first).
Week 7 (Two Groups, A & B) Week 8 (Two Groups, A & B) Week 9(Two Groups, A & B)
Week 10 (Two Groups, A & B) Week 11 (Two Groups, A & B)

Select your choice at Canvas. Everyone to prepare the presentation, each to present
his/her part,
Presentations will count for 30% of the course mark.
Alternatively, if you absolutely do not wish to, or are not able to, participate in the
presentations, you may instead write a ten page individual essay of original work on a
subject of your choice. Consult me first!
Presentations - Guidelines 14

 Ctrl C/Ctrl V is not a good idea!

 Choose a topic (Person, Scientific Theory/History) you are
interested in
 Wikipedia is not the only source of knowledge
 Be creative and critical
Instructor Contact Information 15

Lecturer
phyto@nus.edu.sg 6516 6745
Thomas Osipowicz

Teaching Support: phyrenmq@nus.edu.sg

65162638
Dr Ren Minqin
The Scientific Revolution
 Nicolaus Copernicus: Religion versus science
16
 Tycho Brahe: Naked eye Astronomy.
 Johannes Kepler: Kepler's Mathematics
Possible Presentation Topics

 Francis Bacon: Herald of the Scientic Revolution

 Giordano Bruno: a martyr for science?
 Galileo Galilei: the first scientist
 Galileo Galilei: his life and his trial for heresy
 Hans Lippershey and the invention of the telescope
 Newton's Opticks
 Robert Hooke and Micrographia
 Robert Hooke and the wave theory of light
 Christian Huygens: optics and wave theory of light
 John Flamsteed: cataloguing the stars
 Edmund Halley: transit of Venus
 Edmund Halley: independent motion of the stars
Mathematics
17
 Rene Descartes: coordinate systems.
Possible Presentation Topics

 Rene Descartes: rejection of the concept of void/vacuum

 Blaise Pascal: early computing
 Pierre de Fermat
 Gottfried von Leibniz: philosopher, mathematician and scientist
 Pierre-Simon Laplace: astronomy
 Le Verrier, Adams and Galle: the discovery of Neptune
Atoms and Molecules
 Alchemy
18
 Limitations of early technology
Robert Boyle: studies of gas pressure
Possible Presentation Topics

 The Industrial Revolution: The development of the steam engine

 James Watt: industrial pioneer
 Antoine Lavoisier: sorting chemistry out
 Henry Cavendish: weighing the Earth
 Henry Cavendish: ultimate gentleman scientist
 Humphry Davy
 John Dalton: atomic theory
 Dimitri Mendeleev: chemistry makes sense
 Michael Faraday: discoveries in chemistry
 James Joule: thermodynamics
 William Thompson: laws of thermodynamics
Let there be light
19
 Coulomb and his law
 Hans Christian Oersted: discovery but no idea what it means
Possible Presentation Topics

 Andre Ampere
 Benjamin Franklin and lightning
 Thomas Young's double slit experiment
 Michael Faraday: research on electromagnetism
 The Michelson-Morley experiment on light
 James Clark Maxwell: Maxwell's equations
 Heinrich Hertz: no uses for these radio waves
 Guglielmo Marconi
 Thomas Edison: business takes over
 Thomas Edison: his light bulb
Modern Astronomy and The Solar System
20
 The Earth-Moon System
 Asteroids, Meteors and Comets
Possible Presentation Topics

 The Asteroid Belt

 The Kuiper Belt
 The Oort Cloud
 Pluto: just what exactly is a planet?
 Discovery of Uranus and Neptune
 The Voyager Probes
 What are stars made of?
 What are supernovae?
 The Big Bang
 The expanding Universe
So what exactly is “Science”? 21

A branch of knowledge or study dealing with a body of facts or truths

systematically arranged and showing the operation of general laws
RANDOM HOUSE KERNERMAN WEBSTER’S COLLEGE DICTIONARY, Revised & Updated

The word “science” derives from the Latin scientia, meaning “knowledge.”
“Natural philosophy” was the usual term for the study of the natural world . The
term “scientist” is a neologism, coined by William Whewell in 1833, tongue in
cheek (formed like “artist”).
 As with all things, not everyone has the same view of science
Two extreme perspectives: 22
Triumphalist (Whig history) Postmodernist

• Scientific realism: progress of • Social constructivist: even fundamental natural

science is seen as a generally laws (say the laws of gravitation) are
progressive development towards constructions, in complicated ways socially
truth. agreed upon, not “out there”.
• Widespread among physicists, and • Refuses to recognize the existence of a natural
those arguing for the importance world, independent of human perception.
and uniqueness of science. • Emphasizes that it is crucial to look closely at
• Maybe the strongest point: Science the process and history of science as it is
works! actually done, as opposed to triumphant
• Tends toward arrogance and may reconstructions written much later.
be incomplete: humans do science, • Tends to downplay the immense progress that
obviously their cultural and even was made in understanding nature, and
personal peculiarities are important. concentrate on negative consequences: wars,
nuclear weapons, alienation of people from
“natural” conditions, environmental damage.
 It is good to have discussion and opposing views
 There is middle ground:
23

• Clearly, the course of scientific and technological development

depends on the intellectual, political, economic, social, and
artistic values and needs of a society and must be seen in these
contexts.
• Furthermore, the style and justification of scientific inquiry is also
culturally based, being dependent particularly upon the
philosophical and theological commitments of its practitioners.
• But: in my view, the existence of a natural world, in some sense
independent of our social arrangements, is the basic assumption
needed for any scientific progress.

These antagonistic positions fueled the “Science Wars” of the 1990ties,

Search for it in Wikipedia!

Things have changed in some way: “Listen to the science” is often

heard from radical environmentalists
One can ask:
What is the single most important thing that science 24
has taught us ?

Possible answers:
 “That everything is made of atoms”
Richard Feynman

 Humans are not special

Copernicus, Darwin and others
 Humans are not special – why? 25
 For reasons we will come to, it was
thought that the God(s) made Earth
and Man, so Earth must be the most
important place in the universe. It
was thought that the Earth was
stationary and the heavens moved
around it.
 The stars and planets were
unchanging and moved around the
Earth on a fixed crystal sphere. Since
this is where the gods lived, the
heavens were perfect.
 Man was the ultimate creation of
god, made in his image, endowed
with a soul, which other forms of life
did not posses.

Flammarion wood engraving

(probably late 19th century)
The Geocentric Solar System
26
Ptolemy's model of
the Universe –
 Here we see the
Margarira
Sun and the five (at Philosophica,
that time) known Reisch, 1503
planets, orbiting the
stationary Earth.
 The stars are held in
place at a fixed
distance from Earth
on a crystal sphere.
Man is not special – why? 27

Scientific achievements are some of the greatest manifestations of the

human mind. Now we know:
 The Earth is not the centre of the Universe. It is not even the centre of
the Solar System.
 The Earth is just an ordinary planet, orbiting an ordinary Sun, which is
just one of several hundred billion stars in our galaxy.
 Our galaxy is one of several hundred billions in the Universe
 Man is a complex form of chemistry, not much different to all other
life on Earth, there is no special “life-force”. All it takes is natural
selection and lots (and lots) of time.
 28

Andrew Z. Colvin

Where we are … in space

 29

100 light-years 1.5×105 light-years

 30

107 lightyears 1.1×108 light-years

 31

9×1010 light-years
… and in time
32

wikipedia
Scientific Progress
 In early history we will often focus on the role of individual scientists, at other times 33
we will look at the development of disciplines as a whole, particularly after 1800 -
where many people contributed, and individuals were largely replaceable. This is
even more true in modern times.
 Scientific progress is often incremental, one person building on the work of the
previous generations. Even a genius speeds things up only by a few decades.
 For example, the most famous of them all, Isaac Newton very much relied on the
work of Galileo and Descartes (& Hooke!), and his work on calculus was paralleled
independently by Leibniz (some say, in a better way).
 Many think that it is the Scientific Method, as described in various forms by Epistemology is
epistemological theories, that ensures progress (this will be discussed). the theory of
 Working scientists tend, in my experience, not to feel overly restricted by rules laid knowledge
down by the “Philosophy of Science”, and a famous quote from Einstein spells out
why this is so:
“The scientist, …, accepts gratefully the epistemological conceptual analysis; but
the external conditions, which are set for him by the facts of experience, do not
permit him to let himself be too much restricted in the construction of his
conceptual world by the adherence to an epistemological system. He therefore
must appear to the systematic epistemologist as a type of unscrupulous
opportunist.”
In the same paragraph Einstein continues:
34

He appears as realist insofar as he seeks to describe a world independent of the

acts of perception; as idealist insofar as he looks upon the concepts and theories as
the free inventions of the human spirit (not logically derivable from what is
empirically given); as positivist insofar as he considers his concepts and theories
justified only to the extent to which they furnish a logical representation of relations
among sensory experiences. He may even appear as Platonist or Pythagorean
insofar as he considers the viewpoint of logical simplicity as an indispensable and
effective tool of his research.
Albert Einstein: Philosopher-Scientist.
Einstein was asked, in 1953, why he thought science developed so much more in
the West than in the East.
35
April 23, 1953
Mr. J. E. Switzer,
San Mateo, California

Dear Sir,
Development of Western Science is based on two great achievements, the invention of
the formal logical system (in Euclidean geometry) by the Greek philosophers, and the
discovery of the possibility to find out causal relationship by systematic experiment
(Renaissance).
In my opinion one has not to be astonished that the Chinese sages have not made these
steps. The astonishing thing is that these discoveries were made at all.

Sincerely yours,
A. Einstein

(Reprinted in Derek J. de Solla Price, Science Since Babylon, New Haven, CT: Yale
University Press, 1961)
 36
 All that may convince you that it makes sense to look at Greek
philosophers at the start of our discussion.
 After our journey through the History of Science I hope the meaning
and relevance of the quotes will be clear.