This timeline of the history of scientific
method shows an overview of the cultural inventions
that have contributed to the development of
the scientific method. For a detailed account,
see History of the scientific method.
== BC ==
c. 1600 BC — The Edwin Smith Papyrus, an
Egyptian surgical textbook, which applies:
examination, diagnosis, treatment and prognosis,
to injuries, paralleling rudimentary empirical
methodology.
624 - 548 Thales raised the study of nature
from the realm of the mythical to the level
of empirical study.
610 - 547 Anaximander extends the idea of
"law" to the physical world and uses maps
and models.
c. 400 BC — In China, Mozi and the School
of Names advocate using one's senses to observe
the world, and develop the "three-prong method"
for testing the truth or falsehood of statements.
c. 400 BC — Democritus advocates inductive
reasoning through a process of examining the
causes of sensory perceptions and drawing
conclusions about the outside world.
c. 400 BC — Plato first provides a detailed
definitions for idea, matter, form and appearance
as abstract concepts.
c. 320 BC — First comprehensive documents
categorising and subdividing knowledge, dividing
knowledge into different areas by Aristotle,(physics,
poetry, zoology, logic, rhetoric, politics,
and biology). Aristotle's Posterior Analytics
defends the ideal of science as necessary
demonstration from axioms known with certainty.
Aristotle believes that the world is real
and that we can learn the truth by experience.
Latin:experimentum
c. 341-270 Epicurus scientific method with
multiple variables.
c. 300 BC — Euclid's Elements expound geometry
as a system of theorems following logically
from axioms known with certainty.
c. 240 BC — Eratosthenes best known for
being the first person to calculate the circumference
of the Earth, which he did by applying a measuring
system using stadia, which was a standard
unit of measure during that time period. His
calculation was remarkably accurate.
c. 200 BC — First Cataloged library (at
Alexandria)
c. 150 BC — The Book of Daniel describes
a clinical trial proposed by Daniel in which
he and his three companions eat vegetables
and water for 10 days rather than the royal
food and wine.
== 1st through 12th centuries ==
c 90-c168 Claudius Ptolemy
1021 — Ibn al-Haytham introduces the experimental
method and combines observations, experiments
and rational arguments in his Book of Optics.
c. 1025 — Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī, develops
experimental methods for mineralogy and mechanics,
and conducts elaborate experiments related
to astronomical phenomena.
1027 — In The Book of Healing, Avicenna
criticizes the Aristotelian method of induction,
arguing that "it does not lead to the absolute,
universal, and certain premises that it purports
to provide", and in its place, develops examination
and experimentation as a means for scientific
inquiry.
== 13th through 17th centuries ==
1220–1235 — Robert Grosseteste, an English
scholastic philosopher, theologian and the
bishop of Lincoln, published his Aristotelian
commentaries, which laid out the framework
for the proper methods of science.
1265 — Roger Bacon, an English monk, inspired
by the writings of Grosseteste, described
a scientific method, which he based on a repeating
cycle of observation, hypothesis, experimentation,
and the need for independent verification.
He recorded the manner in which he conducted
his experiments in precise detail so that
others could reproduce and independently test
his results.
1327 — Ockham's razor clearly formulated
(by William of Ockham) which states that among
competing hypotheses, the one with the fewest
assumptions should be selected.
1403 — Yongle Encyclopedia, the first collaborative
encyclopedia
1581 — Francisco Sanches uses classical
skeptical arguments to show that science,
in the Aristotelian sense of giving necessary
reasons or causes for the behavior of nature,
cannot be attained.
1581 — Tycho Brahe builds large scale research
facility, Stjerneborg dedicated to obtaining
high precision measurements of the planets.
1595 — Microscope invented in the Netherlands
1600 — First dedicated laboratory
1608 — Telescope invented in the Netherlands
1620 — Novum Organum published, (Francis
Bacon)
1637 — First Scientific method (René Descartes)
1638 — Galileo's Two New Sciences published,
containing two thought experiments, namely
Galileo's Leaning Tower of Pisa experiment
and Galileo's ship, which are intended to
disprove existing physical theories by showing
that they have contradictory consequences.
1650 — Society of experts (the Royal Society)
1650 — Experimental evidence established
as the arbiter of truth (the Royal Society)
1665 — Repeatability established (Robert
Boyle)
1665 — Scholarly journals established
1675 — Peer review begun
1687 — Hypothesis/prediction (Isaac Newton)
== 18th and 19th centuries ==
1739 — David Hume's Treatise of Human Nature
argues that the problem of induction is unsolvable.
1753 — First description of a controlled
experiment using identical populations with
only one variable: James Lind's research into
Scurvy among sailors.
1763 — Reverend Thomas Bayes published An
Essay towards solving a Problem in the Doctrine
of Chances laying the basis for Bayesian inference,
a method of inference used to update the probability
estimate for a hypothesis as additional evidence
is acquired.
1812 — The formulation by Hans Christian
Ørsted of the Latin-German mixed term Gedankenexperiment
(lit. experiment conducted in the thoughts,
or thought experiment). Although the method
had been in use by philosophers since antiquity.
1815 — An optimal design for polynomial
regression is published by Joseph Diaz Gergonne.
1833 - William Whewell invents the term scientist.
They had previously been known as natural
philosophers or men of science.
1840 - William Whewell in Philosophy of the
Inductive Sciences coins the term "consilience"
the principle that evidence from independent,
unrelated sources can "converge" to strong
conclusions.
1877–1878 — Charles Sanders Peirce publishes
"Illustrations of the Logic of Science", popularizing
his trichotomy of Abduction, Deduction and
Induction. Peirce explains randomization as
a basis for statistical inference.
1885 — C. S. Peirce with Joseph Jastrow
first describes blinded, randomized experiments,
which become established in psychology.
1897 — Thomas Chrowder Chamberlin proposes
the use of multiple hypotheses to assist in
the design of experiments.
== 20th and 21st centuries ==
1926 — Randomized design popularized and
analyzed by Ronald Fisher (following Peirce)
1934 — Falsifiability as a criterion for
evaluating new hypotheses is popularized by
Karl Popper's The Logic of Scientific Discovery
(following Peirce)
1937 — Controlled placebo trial
1946 — First computer simulation
1950 — Double blind experiment
1962 — Meta study of scientific method (Thomas
Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions)
1964 — Strong inference proposed by John
R. Platt
2009 — Adam - First working prototype of
a "robot scientist" able to perform independent
experiments to test hypotheses and interpret
findings without human guidance.
2012 — Constructor theory, a proposal for
a new mode of explanation in fundamental physics,
was first sketched out by David Deutsch.
== See also ==
Artistic research
