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For other uses, see Science (disambiguation).

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Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of
testable explanations about nature and society.[1]: 49–71 [2] It is driven by the scientific
method: an empirical cycle that typically involves making observations,
producing hypotheses, testing them with evidence, and drawing conclusions.
Science encompasses this process and the body of knowledge it produces, which
the scientific community continuously challenges, validates, and organises.

Modern science is typically divided into two – or three – major branches:[3] the natural
sciences, which study the physical world, and the social sciences, which study
individuals and societies.[4][5] While referred to as the formal sciences, the study
of logic, mathematics, and theoretical computer science are typically regarded as
separate because they rely on deductive reasoning instead of the scientific
method as their main methodology.[6][7][8][9] Meanwhile, applied sciences are disciplines
that use scientific knowledge for practical purposes, such as engineering and
medicine.[10][11][12]

The history of science spans the majority of the historical record, with the earliest
identifiable predecessors to modern science dating to the Bronze
Age in Egypt and Mesopotamia (c. 3000–1200 BCE). Their contributions to
mathematics, astronomy, and medicine entered and shaped the Greek natural
philosophy of classical antiquity and later medieval scholarship, whereby formal
attempts were made to provide explanations of events in the physical world based
on natural causes; while further advances, including the introduction of the Hindu–
Arabic numeral system, were made during the Golden Age of India and Islamic
Golden Age.[13]: 12 [14]: 1–26 [15][16][13]: 163–192

The recovery and assimilation of Greek works and Islamic inquiries into Western
Europe during the Renaissance revived natural philosophy,[13]: 193–224, 225–253 [17] which was
later transformed by the Scientific Revolution that began in the 16th century[18] as
new ideas and discoveries departed from previous Greek conceptions and
traditions.[13]: 357–368 [14]: 274–322 The scientific method soon played a greater role in the
acquisition of knowledge, and in the 19th century, many of
the institutional and professional features of science began to take shape,[19][20] along
with the changing of "natural philosophy" to "natural science".[21]

New knowledge in science is advanced by research from scientists who are

motivated by curiosity about the world and a desire to solve
problems.[22][23] Contemporary scientific research is often highly collaborative and is
frequently carried out by teams in academic and research institutions,[24] government
agencies,[13]: 163–192 and companies.[25] At the same time, many major advances—
particularly in fundamental science—have come from individual researchers and are
widely recognised through major international awards such as the Nobel Prize. The
practical results of scientific work have led to the emergence of science policies that
seek to prioritise the responsible development of commercial products, health care,
public infrastructure, environmental protection, and defense capabilities.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For the journal, see Science (journal). For a topical guide, see Outline of science.
For other uses, see Science (disambiguation).

Part of a series on

Science

General

 History
 Literature
 Method
 Philosophy

Branches
 Formal
 Natural
 Physical
 Life
 Social
 Behavioral
 Cognitive
 Applied

In society
 Communication
 Community
 Education
 Funding
 Policy
 Pseudoscience
 Scientist
  Science portal
 Outline
 Category
 Article indexes
 Glossaries
 v
 t
 e

Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of
testable explanations about nature and society.[1]: 49–71 [2] It is driven by the scientific
method: an empirical cycle that typically involves making observations,
producing hypotheses, testing them with evidence, and drawing conclusions.
Science encompasses this process and the body of knowledge it produces, which
the scientific community continuously challenges, validates, and organises.

Modern science is typically divided into two – or three – major branches:[3] the natural
sciences, which study the physical world, and the social sciences, which study
individuals and societies.[4][5] While referred to as the formal sciences, the study
of logic, mathematics, and theoretical computer science are typically regarded as
separate because they rely on deductive reasoning instead of the scientific
method as their main methodology.[6][7][8][9] Meanwhile, applied sciences are disciplines
that use scientific knowledge for practical purposes, such as engineering and
medicine.[10][11][12]

The history of science spans the majority of the historical record, with the earliest
identifiable predecessors to modern science dating to the Bronze
Age in Egypt and Mesopotamia (c. 3000–1200 BCE). Their contributions to
mathematics, astronomy, and medicine entered and shaped the Greek natural
philosophy of classical antiquity and later medieval scholarship, whereby formal
attempts were made to provide explanations of events in the physical world based
on natural causes; while further advances, including the introduction of the Hindu–
Arabic numeral system, were made during the Golden Age of India and Islamic
Golden Age.[13]: 12 [14]: 1–26 [15][16][13]: 163–192

The recovery and assimilation of Greek works and Islamic inquiries into Western
Europe during the Renaissance revived natural philosophy,[13]: 193–224, 225–253 [17] which was
later transformed by the Scientific Revolution that began in the 16th century[18] as
new ideas and discoveries departed from previous Greek conceptions and
traditions.[13]: 357–368 [14]: 274–322 The scientific method soon played a greater role in the
acquisition of knowledge, and in the 19th century, many of
the institutional and professional features of science began to take shape,[19][20] along
with the changing of "natural philosophy" to "natural science".[21]

New knowledge in science is advanced by research from scientists who are

motivated by curiosity about the world and a desire to solve
problems.[22][23] Contemporary scientific research is often highly collaborative and is
frequently carried out by teams in academic and research institutions,[24] government
agencies,[13]: 163–192 and companies.[25] At the same time, many major advances—
particularly in fundamental science—have come from individual researchers and are
widely recognised through major international awards such as the Nobel Prize. The
practical results of scientific work have led to the emergence of science policies that
seek to prioritise the responsible development of commercial products, health care,
public infrastructure, environmental protection, and defense capabilities.

Etymology
The word science has been used in English since the 14th century (Middle English)
in the sense of "the state of knowing". The word was borrowed from the Anglo-
Norman language as the suffix -cience, which was borrowed from
the Latin word scientia, meaning 'knowledge, awareness, understanding', a noun
derivative of sciens meaning 'knowing', itself the present active participle of sciō 'to
know'.[26]

There are many hypotheses for science's ultimate word origin. According to Michiel
de Vaan, Dutch linguist and Indo-Europeanist, sciō may have its origin in the Proto-
Italic language as *skije- or *skijo- meaning 'to know', which may originate
from Proto-Indo-European language as *skh1-ie, *skh1-io meaning 'to incise'.
The Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben proposed sciō is a back-
formation of nescīre, meaning 'to not know, be unfamiliar with', which may derive
from Proto-Indo-European *sekH- in Latin secāre,
or *skh2- from *sḱʰeh2(i)- meaning 'to cut'.[27]

In the past, science was a synonym for "knowledge" or "study", in keeping with its
Latin origin. A person who conducted scientific research was called a "natural
philosopher" or "man of science".[28] In 1834, William Whewell introduced the
term scientist in a review of Mary Somerville's book On the Connexion of the
Physical Sciences,[29] crediting it to "some ingenious gentleman" (possibly himself).[30]

History

Title page of the 1713 edition of Isaac

Newton's Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica

History of science
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Main article: History of science
Early history
Main article: Science in the ancient world

Megaliths from Nabta Playa, constructed

by Neolithic populations to coordinate astronomical observations located
in Aswan, Upper Egypt.[31] The Plimpton 322 tablet
by the Babylonians records Pythagorean triples, written c. 1800 BCE
Science has no single origin. Rather, scientific thinking emerged gradually over the
course of tens of thousands of years,[32][33] taking different forms around the world,
and few details are known about the very earliest developments. Women likely
played a central role in prehistoric science,[34] as did religious rituals.[35] Some
scholars use the term "protoscience" to label activities in the past that resemble
modern science in some but not all features;[36][37][38] however, this label has also been
criticised as denigrating,[39] or too suggestive of presentism, thinking about those
activities only in relation to modern categories.[40]

Direct evidence for scientific processes becomes clearer with the advent of writing
systems in the Bronze Age civilisations of Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia (c. 3000–
1200 BCE), creating the earliest written records in the history of science.[13]: 12–
15 [14]
Although the words and concepts of "science" and "nature" were not part of the
conceptual landscape at the time, the ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians made
contributions that would later find a place in Greek and medieval science:
mathematics, astronomy, and medicine.[41][13]: 12

From the 3rd millennium BCE, the ancient Egyptians developed a non-
positional decimal numbering system,[42] solved practical problems
using geometry,[43] and developed a calendar.[44] Their healing therapies involved drug
treatments and the supernatural, such as prayers, incantations, and
rituals.[13]: 9 Ancient Nubians pioneered early antibiotics and established a system
of geometrics which served as the basis for initial sunclocks. Nubians also exercised
a trigonometric methodology comparable to their Egyptian counterparts.[45][46][47][48]

The ancient Mesopotamians used knowledge about the properties of various natural
chemicals for manufacturing pottery, faience, glass, soap, metals, lime plaster, and
waterproofing.[49] They studied animal physiology, anatomy, behaviour,
and astrology for divinatory purposes.[50] The Mesopotamians had an intense interest
in medicine and the earliest medical prescriptions appeared in Sumerian during
the Third Dynasty of Ur.[49][51] They seem to have studied scientific subjects which had
practical or religious applications and had little interest in satisfying curiosity. [49]

Classical antiquity
Main article: Science in classical antiquity
 Plato's Academy mosaic, made between
100 BCE and 79 CE, shows many Greek philosophers and scholars.
In classical antiquity, there is no real ancient analogue of a modern scientist. Instead,
well-educated, usually upper-class, and almost universally male individuals
performed various investigations into nature whenever they could afford the
time.[52] Before the invention or discovery of the concept of phusis or nature by
the pre-Socratic philosophers, the same words tend to be used to describe the
natural "way" in which a plant grows,[53] and the "way" in which, for example, one tribe
worships a particular god. For this reason, it is claimed that these men were the first
philosophers in the strict sense and the first to clearly distinguish "nature" and
"convention".[54]

The early Greek philosophers of the Milesian school, which was founded by Thales
of Miletus and later continued by his successors Anaximander and Anaximenes,
were the first to attempt to explain natural phenomena without relying on
the supernatural.[55] The Pythagoreans developed a complex number philosophy[56]: 467–
468
and contributed significantly to the development of mathematical
science.[56]: 465 The theory of atoms was developed by the Greek
philosopher Leucippus and his student Democritus.[57][58] Later, Epicurus would
develop a full natural cosmology based on atomism, and would adopt a "canon"
(ruler, standard) which established physical criteria or standards of scientific
truth.[59] The Greek doctor Hippocrates established the tradition of systematic medical
science[60][61] and is known as "The Father of Medicine".[62]

A turning point in the history of early philosophical science was Socrates' example of
applying philosophy to the study of human matters, including human nature, the
nature of political communities, and human knowledge itself. The Socratic method as
documented by Plato's dialogues is a dialectic method of hypothesis elimination:
better hypotheses are found by steadily identifying and eliminating those that lead to
contradictions. The Socratic method searches for general commonly held truths that
shape beliefs and scrutinises them for consistency.[63] Socrates criticised the older
type of study of physics as too purely speculative and lacking in self-criticism.[64]

In the 4th century BCE, Aristotle created a systematic programme

of teleological philosophy.[65] In the 3rd century BCE, Greek astronomer Aristarchus
of Samos was the first to propose a heliocentric model of the universe, with the Sun
at the centre and all the planets orbiting it.[66] Aristarchus's model was widely rejected
because it was believed to violate the laws of physics,[66] while Ptolemy's Almagest,
which contains a geocentric description of the Solar System, was accepted through
the early Renaissance instead.[67][68] The inventor and mathematician Archimedes of
Syracuse made major contributions to the beginnings of calculus.[69] Pliny the
Elder was a Roman writer and polymath, who wrote the seminal
encyclopaedia Natural History.[70][71][72]

Positional notation for representing numbers likely emerged between the 3rd and 5th
centuries CE along Indian trade routes. This numeral system made
efficient arithmetic operations more accessible and would eventually become
standard for mathematics worldwide.[73]

Middle Ages
Main article: History of science § Middle Ages

The first page of Vienna Dioscurides depicts

a peacock, made in the 6th century.
Due to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, the 5th century saw an
intellectual decline, with knowledge of classical Greek conceptions of the world
deteriorating in Western Europe.[13]: 194 Latin encyclopaedists of the period such
as Isidore of Seville preserved the majority of general ancient knowledge.[74] In
contrast, because the Byzantine Empire resisted attacks from invaders, they were
able to preserve and improve prior learning.[13]: 159 John Philoponus, a Byzantine
scholar in the 6th century, started to question Aristotle's teaching of physics,
introducing the theory of impetus.[13]: 307, 311, 363, 402 His criticism served as an inspiration to
medieval scholars and Galileo Galilei, who extensively cited his works ten centuries
later.[13]: 307–308 [75]

During late antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, natural phenomena were mainly
examined via the Aristotelian approach. The approach includes Aristotle's four
causes: material, formal, moving, and final cause.[76] Many Greek classical texts were
preserved by the Byzantine Empire and Arabic translations were made by Christians,
mainly Nestorians and Miaphysites. Under the Abbasids, these Arabic translations
were later improved and developed by Arabic scientists.[14]: 62–67 By the 6th and 7th
centuries, the neighbouring Sasanian Empire established the medical Academy of
Gondishapur, which was considered by Greek, Syriac, and Persian physicians as the
most important medical hub of the ancient world.[77]

Islamic study of Aristotelianism flourished in the House of Wisdom established in the

Abbasid capital of Baghdad, Iraq[78] and the flourished[79] until the Mongol invasions in
the 13th century. Ibn al-Haytham, better known as Alhazen, used controlled
experiments in his optical study.[a][81][82] Avicenna's compilation of The Canon of
Medicine, a medical encyclopaedia, is considered to be one of the most important
publications in medicine and was used until the 18th century.[83]

By the 11th century most of Europe had become Christian, [13]: 204 and in 1088,
the University of Bologna emerged as the first university in Europe.[84] As such,
demand for Latin translation of ancient and scientific texts grew, [13]: 204 a major
contributor to the Renaissance of the 12th century. Renaissance scholasticism in
western Europe flourished, with experiments done by observing, describing, and
classifying subjects in nature.[85] In the 13th century, medical teachers and students
at Bologna began opening human bodies, leading to the first anatomy textbook
based on human dissection by Mondino de Luzzi.[86]

Renaissance
Main article: Science in the Renaissance
Further information: Printing press § Circulation of information and ideas,
and Copernican heliocentrism

The spread of printing between 1440 and 1500.

From a single print shop in Mainz, Germany around 1440, the movable type printing-
press had spread to no less than around 270 cities in Central, Western and Eastern
Europe and had already produced more than 20 million volumes by the end of the
15th century.[87] Printing made scholarly books more widely accessible, allowing
researchers to consult ancient texts freely and to compare their own observations
with those of fellow scholars.[88] Printing ended the manuscript culture of the Middle
Ages, where facts were few and far between, and replaced it with a printing
culture where reliable and documented facts rapidly proliferated and became the
secure foundation for scientific knowledge.[89]
In the 16th century, Nicolaus Copernicus formulated a heliostatic model of the Solar
System, with the Sun positioned near the center of the Universe, [90][91] motionless, with
Earth and the other planets orbiting around it in circular motions,[92] modified
by epicycles, and at uniform speeds. The Copernican model challenged the
dominant geocentric model of Ptolemy, which had placed Earth at the center of the
Universe. 16th-century astronomers believed that Copernicus' elimination of
the equant was his chief achievement[93] but his model never displaced Ptolemy's,
which only fell out of favor 70 years later after Galileo's telescopic observations of
1610.[94]

Scientific Revolution
Main article: Scientific Revolution
Tycho Brahe's unprecedentedly accurate astronomical observations in the late 16th
century and Galileo Galilei’s early 17th-century telescopic observations combined to
turn astronomy into the first modern science. Galileo's observations ended a
millennium of pre-modern astronomical orthodoxy[95] while Johannes Kepler used
Brahe's data to discover that planets have elliptical, not circular, orbits and develop
the laws of planetary motion.[96] Because of Kepler, astronomical phenomena came
to be seen as being governed by physical laws.[97] The "New Science" that ultimately
emerged by the end of the 17th century broke sharply with the natural philosophy
that had preceded it,[98][99][100] departed from previous Greek conceptions and
traditions,[101][102][103][104] was more mechanistic in its worldview and more integrated with
mathematics,[102][105][106] and was obsessed with the acquisition and interpretation of
new evidence.[107]

Age of Enlightenment
Main article: Science in the Age of Enlightenment

Title page of the 1687 first edition of Philosophiæ

Naturalis Principia Mathematica by Isaac Newton
At the start of the Age of Enlightenment, Isaac Newton formed the foundation
of classical mechanics by his Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica greatly
influencing future physicists.[108] Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz incorporated terms
from Aristotelian physics, now used in a new non-teleological way. This implied a
shift in the view of objects: objects were now considered as having no innate goals.
Leibniz assumed that different types of things all work according to the same general
laws of nature, with no special formal or final causes.[109]

During this time the declared purpose and value of science became producing
wealth and inventions that would improve human lives, in the materialistic sense of
having more food, clothing, and other things. In Bacon's words, "the real and
legitimate goal of sciences is the endowment of human life with new inventions and
riches", and he discouraged scientists from pursuing intangible philosophical or
spiritual ideas, which he believed contributed little to human happiness beyond "the
fume of subtle, sublime or pleasing [speculation]".[110]

Science during the Enlightenment was dominated by scientific societies and

academies,[111] which had largely replaced universities as centres of scientific
research and development. Societies and academies were the backbones of the
maturation of the scientific profession. Another important development was
the popularisation of science among an increasingly literate
population.[112] Enlightenment philosophers turned to a few of their scientific
predecessors – Galileo, Kepler, Boyle, and Newton principally – as the guides to
every physical and social field of the day.[113][114]

The 18th century saw significant advancements in the practice of medicine [115] and
physics;[116] the development of biological taxonomy by Carl Linnaeus;[117] a new
understanding of magnetism and electricity;[118] and the maturation of chemistry as a
discipline.[119] Ideas on human nature, society, and economics evolved during the
Enlightenment. Hume and other Scottish Enlightenment thinkers developed A
Treatise of Human Nature, which was expressed historically in works by authors
including James Burnett, Adam Ferguson, John Millar and William Robertson, all of
whom merged a scientific study of how humans behaved in ancient and primitive
cultures with a strong awareness of the determining forces of modernity.[120] Modern
sociology largely originated from this movement.[121] In 1776, Adam
Smith published The Wealth of Nations, which is often considered the first work on
modern economics.[122]

19th century
Main article: 19th century in science
 The first diagram of an evolutionary tree made by Charles
Darwin in 1837
During the 19th century, many distinguishing characteristics of contemporary modern
science began to take shape. These included the transformation of the life and
physical sciences; the frequent use of precision instruments; the emergence of terms
such as "biologist", "physicist", and "scientist"; an increased professionalisation of
those studying nature; scientists gaining cultural authority over many dimensions of
society; the industrialisation of numerous countries; the thriving of popular science
writings; and the emergence of science journals.[123] During the late 19th century,
psychology emerged as a separate discipline from philosophy when Wilhelm
Wundt founded the first laboratory for psychological research in 1879.[124]

During the mid-19th century Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel

Wallace independently proposed the theory of evolution by natural selection in 1858,
which explained how different plants and animals originated and evolved. Their
theory was set out in detail in Darwin's book On the Origin of Species, published in
1859.[125] Separately, Gregor Mendel presented his paper, "Experiments on Plant
Hybridisation" in 1865,[126] which outlined the principles of biological inheritance,
serving as the basis for modern genetics.[127]

Early in the 19th century John Dalton suggested the modern atomic theory, based on
Democritus's original idea of indivisible particles called atoms.[128] The laws
of conservation of energy, conservation of momentum and conservation of
mass suggested a highly stable universe where there could be little loss of
resources. However, with the advent of the steam engine and the Industrial
Revolution there was an increased understanding that not all forms of energy have
the same energy qualities, the ease of conversion to useful work or to another form
of energy.[129] This realisation led to the development of the laws of thermodynamics,
in which the free energy of the universe is seen as constantly declining:
the entropy of a closed universe increases over time.[b]

The electromagnetic theory was established in the 19th century by the works
of Hans Christian Ørsted, André-Marie Ampère, Michael Faraday, James Clerk
Maxwell, Oliver Heaviside, and Heinrich Hertz. The new theory raised questions that
could not easily be answered using Newton's framework. The discovery of X-
rays inspired the discovery of radioactivity by Henri Becquerel and Marie Curie in
1896,[132] Marie Curie then became the first person to win two Nobel Prizes. [133] In the
next year came the discovery of the first subatomic particle, the electron.[134]

20th century
Main article: 20th century in science

A computer graph of the ozone hole made in

1987 using data from a space telescope
In the first half of the century the development of antibiotics and artificial
fertilisers improved human living standards globally.[135][136] Harmful environmental
issues such as ozone depletion, ocean acidification, eutrophication, and climate
change came to the public's attention and caused the onset of environmental
studies.[137]

During this period scientific experimentation became increasingly larger in scale and
funding.[138] The extensive technological innovation stimulated by World War I, World
War II, and the Cold War led to competitions between global powers, such as
the Space Race and nuclear arms race.[139][140] Substantial international collaborations
were also made, despite armed conflicts.[141]

In the late 20th century active recruitment of women and elimination of sex
discrimination greatly increased the number of women scientists, but large gender
disparities remained in some fields.[142] The discovery of the cosmic microwave
background in 1964[143] led to a rejection of the steady-state model of the universe in
favour of the Big Bang theory of Georges Lemaître.[144]

The century saw fundamental changes within science disciplines. Evolution became
a unified theory in the early 20th century when the modern synthesis reconciled
Darwinian evolution with classical genetics.[145] Albert Einstein's theory of
relativity and the development of quantum mechanics complement classical
mechanics to describe physics in extreme length, time and gravity.[146][147] Widespread
use of integrated circuits in the last quarter of the 20th century combined
with communications satellites led to a revolution in information technology and the
rise of the global internet and mobile computing, including smartphones. The need
for mass systematisation of long, intertwined causal chains and large amounts of
data led to the rise of the fields of systems theory and computer-assisted scientific
modelling.[148]
21st century
Main article: 21st century § Science and technology
The Human Genome Project was completed in 2003 by identifying and mapping all
of the genes of the human genome.[149] The first induced pluripotent human stem
cells were made in 2006, allowing adult cells to be transformed into stem cells and
turn into any cell type found in the body.[150] With the affirmation of the Higgs
boson discovery in 2013, the last particle predicted by the Standard Model of particle
physics was found.[151] In 2015, gravitational waves, predicted by general relativity a
century before, were first observed.[152][153] In 2019, the international
collaboration Event Horizon Telescope presented the first direct image of a black
hole's accretion disc.[154]

Branches
Main article: Branches of science
Modern science is commonly divided into three major branches: natural
science, social science, and formal science.[3] Each of these branches comprises
various specialised yet overlapping scientific disciplines that often possess their
own nomenclature and expertise.[155] Both natural and social sciences are empirical
sciences,[156] as their knowledge is based on empirical observations and is capable of
being tested for its validity by other researchers working under the same
conditions.[157]: 3–26