Page 6 - BBC History The Story of Science & Technology - 2017 UK

Timeline

History of science

From early humans to the 21st century,
Patricia Fara traces history’s major
milestones in science and technology

A 15th-century
woodcut of
Pythagoras
formulating
2,100 BC a mathematical
Sumerian calendars are theory of music
in use, the first ones
divided into 12 lunar
months. Each begins
Stone tools unearthed
in Kenya in 2015 pre date when the new crescent
modern humans moon appears at sunset.
By using astronomical 6th century BC
3.3 million calculations, occasionally The most famous theorem in geometry is crucial
a 13th month is introduced
for astronomy, building and mathematics. But
years ago to keep the calendar although it is named after the Greek philosopher
The oldest surviving aligned with the sea- Pythagoras, there is no firm evidence that he proved
stone tools are made in sons. Every seventh day it. In another apocryphal story, Pythagoras is said
Kenya by predecessors is reserved for rest. to have mathematised the musical scale after
of modern humans. hearing different notes from a blacksmith’s anvils.
2,000 BC 500 BC

5th century BC
According to modern science,
matter is composed of tiny
particles moving through
empty space. Democritus
is one of the earliest
Greeks to propose an
atomic model, but it is
largely rejected at the time.
He envisages several types
of atoms – including hooked,
slippery and pointed – corre- A Greek drachma
sponding to the characteristics honouring the great
of different substances. thinker Democritus

5th century BC
The discovery of cave paintings in South Sulawesi, Indonesia
suggests that art may have been universal among early people A Greek philosopher from Sicily, Empedocles
(pictured below) suggests that the world is
composed of four fundamental princi-
c35,000 BC ples or elements – air, earth, fire and
Like later examples in Europe, Indonesian cave water. Although they never change, they
MPK-WTAP/ALAMY/GETTY
paintings prove that prehistoric people observed combine in different proportions to make
animals closely and knew how to make coloured up ordinary matter. This view dominated
materials. Their carefully chosen locations may scientific theories for 2,000 years.
indicate religious rituals and beliefs.

6 The Story of Science & Technology