Euclid (Alexandria) In his Optica he noted that light travels in straight lines and described the law of reflection. He believed that vision involves rays going from the eyes to the object seen and he studied the relationship between the apparent sizes of objects and the angles that they subtend at the eye
The Era of Biological Energy Sources: 9000 BC to AD 600
Between 9000 BC and 6000: Plants and animals are domesticated.
6000 BC: Copper artifacts are common in the Middle East.
4000 BC: Light wooden plows are used in Mesopotamia.
3500 BC: Kiln-fired bricks and pots are made in Mesopotamia.
3500 BC: Irrigation is developed in Mesopotamia.
The "Department Archive for History of Science" consists of five collections:
1. The administration archive. ( to collect and to document the history of the NHMW )
2. The collection of letters and bequests (Letters and part bequests)
3. The picture collection
4. The photograph - und glass plate negative collection ( photos und glass plates)
5. The collection of busts, small dioramas, object sources, as far as they don’t belong
to collection 1. or 2., e.g. early microscopic slides by emperor Ferdinand I.
A few miles farther on, we came to a big, gravelly roadcut that looked like an ashfall, a mudflow, glacial till, and fresh oatmeal, imperfectly blended. "I don't know what this glop is," [Kenneth Deffeyes] said, in final capitulation. "You need a new geologist. You need a Californian."
John McPhee, Assembling California, p. 11 [The Noonday Press; Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1993]
Claudius Ptolemy was an astronomer and mathematician of the 2c A.D., whose exact dates we do not know, but who must apparently have worked in Alexandria between A.D. 127 and 148 since some of his astronomical observations are consistent with those dates.
(Thus the Oxford Classical Dictionary. The Geography itself also provides at least one clue, listing the Egyptian city of Antinoöpolis, founded in A.D. 130.)
This site is an interesting project that attempts to recreate Ptolemy's maps of various locations in Europe. Though the maps were not recopied (images were more difficult for monks to transcribe than words), the index indicates that the original work included maps. In an effort to recreate these maps, Professor Thayer has used orginal coordinates. The level of detail is remarkable as map images include clickable place names - the anchored link taking the viewer to the longitudinal and latitudinal coordinates. The site includes a brief introduction to Ptolemy and his "Geography" as well as links to other sites about Ptolemy.
Many people view genetic engineering as a relatively new field of scientific pursuit, but in fact the techniques that are in use today are the result of a series of landmark discoveries that were made over a period spanning more than 125 years. This article presents a timeline of key discoveries that have culminated in the human genome project, an international effort to decipher the sequence of the 3 billion base pair subunits of DNA which reside in the chromosomes of human beings.
Hundreds of researchers have made significant contributions to cognitive science. What follows is a set of short academic biographies of people whom we believe should be counted on anyone's list of important contributors; the work of many of them is discussed in the Companion. Not every important figure is included; and some people are included, especially from the history of cognitive science, who would not describe, or could not have described, themselves as cognitive scientists despite their considerable impact on the field. We trust that the list will be useful to students doing research in cognitive science and to readers who wish to familiarize themselves with the work of specific contributors.
The main ideas which underpin the calculus developed over a very long period of time indeed. The first steps were taken by Greek mathematicians.
To the Greeks numbers were ratios of integers so the number line had "holes" in it. They got round this difficulty by using lengths, areas and volumes in addition to numbers for, to the Greeks, not all lengths were numbers.
Until recently modern thinkers believed rubber originated in 19th century Europe. According to a Tech Talk article published by Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Wednesday, July 14, 1999, Professor Dorothy Hosler, Assistant Professor Sandra Burkett and an undergraduate named Michael Tarkanian learned that the Mayan people in ancient Mesoamerica made and used rubber as long ago as 1600 BCE.
For over two thousand years people have thought about the fundamental particles from which all matter is made, starting with the gradual development of atomic theory, followed by a deeper understanding of the quantized atom, leading to the recent theory of the Standard Model.
We invite you to explore this history of particle physics with a focus on the scientists and thinkers who helped shape the field of particle physics. The four sections are arranged chronologically.
