User:CharlesGillingham/More/Birth of Science

The Birth of Science
There is no single time and place, no civilization or historical period that all historians agree is the "birth of science." Each of these moments have been considered, by one historian or another, as the "true" birth of science.
 * Many historians of science begin their study in paleolithic times and emphasize the foundation laid by Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Chinese and Indian astronomers and craftsman.
 * The Greeks of the Hellenistic world developed logic, geometry, rational argument and a preference for explanations without supernatural beings (i.e, naturalism) and fundamental discoveries were made by the philosophers of Alexandria and by thinkers like Archimedes of Sicily.
 * In Medieval Islam, the empirical experiment was developed by Ibn al-Haytham and a renewed program of mathematical astronomy was initiated al-Batani, who emphasized the importance of skepticism.
 * In 13th century Europe, the first lasting independent institutions of "natural philosophy" were founded by Scholastics like Anselm and Roger Bacon, who encouraged the use of both observation and skepticism.
 * At the beginning of 17th century Francis Bacon and Rene Descartes, inspired by the work of Vesalius, Copernicus, Kepler and Galileo, argued persuasively that only these "scientific" methods could remove superstition and lead ultimately to the truth about nature. In that century, science became fully established and practiced so widely that this period is often called the "Scientific Revolution."
 * Finally, in the 19th century, the term "scientist" was coined (by William Whewell) and science became professionalized.