The Complete History of Science

Scientific thought was rejuvenated in the 10th century as the Christians in the north came into contact with Islamic culture in Iberia.  Gerbert, a monk from Aurillac in Southern France played a key …

After the collapse of the Roman Empire, western Europe fractured into many small petty states.  A period of economic contraction coincided with a decline in learning and during the early medieval age…

In the late 10th, early 11th century two great men debated the causes of natural phenomena.  One of them was the greatest philosopher of the age, Ibn Sina, who had refined Aristotle's philosophy into…

While al-Haytham's visual theory was a clear triumph, his work also had a more subtle but profound effect.  His treatment of light as a quanitity which was related to but independent of vision was an…

Tracing the emergence of medicine in the Islamic world and its embrace of Galen, this week's episode explores the progress made in treatments and anatomy by Islamic scientists.  

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The Greek Philosophers had long debated the nature of vision, without any definitive conclusion.  They were divided, between the belief that it was either a stimulus entering the eye or a visual ray …

Astronomy was king of the sciences in the ancient world, but since the death of Ptolemy progress had all but stalled.  Fortunately astronomy was rediscovered by the Arabs, who undertook a huge transl…

After the death of Ptolemy and Galen the progress of science in the ancient world started to slow.  Roughly between the years 200-800 A.D. very little advances were made in most areas of science and …

Galen was the greatest medical man in the ancient world.  His fame rested upon his abilities as a healer, but also his unparalleled knowledge of the human body.  This episode explores Galen's time in…

In the 5th century B.C. a new form of medicine emerged in the ancient world.  This new 'Hippocratic' medicine emerged to sweep away traditional medicine, at least in learned circles, and would become…

Medicine is the most urgent of all the sciences and for as long as there have been disease, injury and death, humans have attempted to treat it.  In this episode we delve into the very early history …

Many Greek scientific fields were born out of simple questions.  Optics was one such field, which was not so much the study of light, but an attempt to answer the question, "How do we see?".  This ep…

Archimedes is a unique indiviudal in the history of science.  Unlike all of his ancient contemporaries, his scientific legacy is still largely intact and widely accepted in the modern era.  While man…

Ancient Greece was the birthplace of many scientific fields.  The men we have to thank for this are the Greek philosophers, who while not scientists in our sense, were frequently exploring scientific…

By the beginning of the 1st century A.D. the great age of astronomy in ancient Greece was coming to an end.  However, before it did, there was one last noteworthy figure, who would take ancient astro…

In the second century B.C. Greek astronomy came of age.  While it had previously been closely connected with philosophy and mathematics, the increased use of observation pushed astronomy into the rea…

We take for granted that science is quantitative.  But the early Greeks were primarily interested in philosophical argument rather than careful measurement.  This began to change in the 3rd century B…

The Greeks were undoubtedly the most important culture in the development of early science.  This episodes investigates how Greek astronomy world grew out of their philosophical traditions and was su…

Arguably the first science, was the science of astronomy.  Beginning in the middle east I begin with a look at science in ancient Egypt, before moving onto their more sophisticated neighbours The Bab…