Humanism and its study of the classical writing of the past had an indirect impact on science during the

Renaissance. We know that Nicholaus Copernicus was influenced by studying the writing of antiquity. The study of Platos works contributed to a new concept that mathematics could answer many questions about the universe. The humanisms acceptance of curiosity and experimentation were important for the future of science. The humanist attempted to be objective and used experience and experiments to observe their world. This was in stark difference to the past when abstract ideas were simply accepted as truths. The experimentation and the objective, impartial questioning and acceptance of the results had more influence on the world of science than any other achievement. Scientific advance during the Renaissance crossed into many fields. Andreas Vesalius of Belgium began dissecting cadavers and made many discoveries about the human anatomy. The discovery that there were some mathematic relationships in the world of nature created even more questions. In art, they studied how to depict objects in the same way they appear to the eye (perspective). Leonardo da Vinci combined art and science in his studies of nature and structures. Both art and science can be seen in his designs for the different types of machines and devices he conceived. Some significant inventions during the Renaissance were the printing press, the compass and gunpowder. Most of the scientific advances during the Renaissance were made by scholastic thinkers and not humanists. The humanists, and their inherent dislike for ordered, logical thought may actually have slowed the advance of science. Humanists believed that scholastic thinkers were not addressing the real needs of humanity. Scholastic thinking was used to break the long held belief that the entire physical universe was centered on humankind. For example, gravity was believed to be the desire for all objects to be at the center of the earth. Acceleration could be explained by an objects eagerness as it moved closer to its natural home. The works of Aristotle and Christian theologians were responsible for these long held views. These beliefs in the past relied on the supernatural and could not be explained by objectivity or experimentation. The scholastic thinkers were responsible for breakthrough thinking regarding the nature of the universe. The idea that the universe could be studied and approached objectively was a radical new concept. Scholars traveled to the University of Padua in Italy and it became the scientific center of Europe. Nearly every great scientist of the time was in some way associated with Padua and its university. Padua was the home of Copernicus during the 16th century and Galileo and William Harvey in the 17th century. The scientific attitude in Padua relied on experimentation and objectivity and that attitude provided the basis for further advances in science in other parts of Europe. Renaissance scientific inquiry emphasized the recovery of ancient texts and their correction based on observation. In the biological sciences the recovery of the works of Hippocrates led to greater interest in anatomy and advances in the setting of broken bones. The treatment of disease was heavily influenced by the work of Galen which explained disease as an imbalance of bodily humors. At the same time new engineering techniques developed through the search for solutions to practical problems by Renaissance craftsmen and artists working on the building projects of the Renaissance.The Italian Renaissance began the opening phase of the Renaissance, a period of great cultural change and achievement in Europe that spanned the period from the end of the 13th century to about 1600, marking the transition between Medieval and Early Modern Europe. The term renaissance is in essence a modern one that came into currency in the 19th century, in the work of historians such as Jacob Burckhardt. Although the origins of a movement that was confined largely to the literate culture of intellectual endeavor and patronage can be traced to the earlier part of the 14th century, many aspects of Italian culture and society remained largely Medieval; the Renaissance did not come into full swing until the end of the century. The word renaissance (Rinascimento in Italian) means rebirth, and the era is best known for the renewed interest in the culture of classical antiquity after the period that Renaissance humanists labelled the Dark Ages.

These changes, while significant, were concentrated in the elite, and for the vast majority of the population life was little changed from the Middle Ages.According to some recent scholarship the 'father of modern science' is Leonardo Da Vinci whose experiments and clear scientific method earn him this title, Italian universities such as Padua, Bologna and Pisa were scientific centres of renown and with many northern European students, the science of the Renaissance moved to Northern Europe and flourished there, with such figures as Copernicus, Francis Bacon, and Descartes. Galileo, a contemporary of Bacon and Descartes, made an immense contribution to scientific thought and experimentation, paving the way for the scientific revolution that later flourished in Northern Europe.Renaissance Scientists - Part I86 rate or flag this page By Jerilee Wei Ads by Google Ever Questioning Minds Ever questioning minds is something that is gifted at birth to just about every child. Yet, somehow in most cases, we manage to thwart this natural tendency in our children. As a mother and grandmother, this fact is one that I think about a lot. Perhaps, it is our need to protect our children from what we perceive as "dangerous" experimentation. Perhaps it is our educational system, that cares more about fitting children into little well behaved slots of "normalcy" or expected behaviors that kills the natural questioning minds of children. All I know is that most scientists have that special variety of "ever questioning minds" and for that we should be grateful.Renaissance Scientists And After - Part II85 rate or flag this pagePractical and Theoretical Chemistry Before naming names -- no discussion of the men of science of the Renaissance times, would be complete without pointed out an obvious set of facts. Practical chemistry, including the arts of making dyes, paints, glass, pottery, and other useful things were developed long ago by the Egyptians and other ancient peoples. The theoretical side of chemistry did not develop as early as the practical, and the early theories seem rather wild to us today. For hundreds of years many men gave up their lives to the study of alchemy, a kind of chemistry whose chief object was to change (or transmute) cheap metals to gold. The alchemists believed that gold was the most perfect of metals and that if one could only find the right formula one could achieve enormous wealth by changing lead, tin, silver, mercury, or even iron into yellow gold. They also believed that the "philosopher's stone" had these strange and magical powers. During the Middle Ages many so-called alchemists wandered from country to country. some were scientific experimenters. Some were rogues who disappeared in the night with the treasures entrusted to them for their experiments. Emperors and kings were among the alchemists. Many of the unfortunate alchemists were executed by kings for whom they had promised to make gold. Once prince even built a special gold gilded hanging gallow devoted entirely to hanging alchemists. Men of Diversity On feature of the Renaissance was this -- many of its greatest minds were great in more than one

field. Michelangelo, for instance, was both sculptor and painter. Leonardo da Vinci, painter, sculptor, architect, engineer, scientist, inventor and scholar, has often been called a typical man of the Renaissance because he excelled in so many ways. His was a questioning mind, ever seeking more knowledge. Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo Da Vinci - The Man and Artist In Leonardo's time, a man's first name was usually his only formal name, except among the great houses where family names were used. Leonardo was born in the little Tuscan town of Vinci, and so he came to be called Leonard do (from Vinci). When he was a boy he showed a skill in art, so he was apprenticed to Verrocchio, a painter, sculptor, and goldsmith of Florence. Leonardo lived and worked in Florence for almost twenty years. He became a member of the Painters' Guild, one of the foremost organizations of the day. Artists of the time generally sought the patronage of kings or other rich persons. While in Florence, Leonardo enjoyed the favor of Lorenzo the Magnificent, head of the house of Medici, a bountiful, intelligent and sympathetic patron of the arts. For twenty-five years after that, Leonardo lived at the court of Milan, working for the duke, Ludovico Sforza. At Milan, however, he worked more as an engineer than as painter. The last years of Leonardo's life were spent in France, under the patronage of Francis I, and it was in this country that he died. Leonardo felt that he needed an exact knowledge of anatomy to be a fine painter. Since there were no good pictures of the structure of the body in existence, he many many for himself from careful studies.As an engineer, Leonardo conceived ideas vastly ahead of his own time, conceptually inventing a helicopter, a tank, the use of concentrated solar power, a calculator, a rudimentary theory of plate tectonics and the double hull. In practice, he greatly advanced the state of knowledge in the fields of anatomy, astronomy, civil engineering, optics, and the study of water (hydrodynamics). Leonardo's most famous drawing, the Vitruvian Man, is a study of the proportions of the human body, linking art and science in a single work that has come to represent Renaissance Humanism. His anatomical drawings are so beautiful that they are considered to be works of fine art, and so accurate that they could be used as illustrations in textbooks today.Leonardo the Scientist Leonardo made a vast number of scientific studies but he wrote down very little about his scientific research. Sir Willam Dampier thought that if Leonardo had published his work, "science must at one step have advanced almost to the place it reach a century later." Few people would disagree with that observation. For example, a hundred years before Harvey re-discovered it, it seems that Leonardo already understood the principle of circulation of the blood. Like some of the Greeks long before him, he recognized the true nature of fossils and he pointed out that the presence of fossils of salt-water animals in high mountains shows that the mountains must once have been below sea level. Leonardo's keen imagination foreshadowed many of the great inventions of recent times. He understood the impossibility of "perpetual motion."

He experimented with gliders and some authorities believe that if the gasoline engine had been developed in Leonardo's day, he would have invented the airplane. Nicholas Copernius Copernicus While Leonardo's tireless brain was busy with a thousand new projects and inventions, a Polish astronomer, Copernicus was patiently working on an epoch-making theory of the universe. He cast aside the theory of Ptolemy, who believed that the earth was the center of the universe and that the sun revolved around it. Copernicus came to the conclusion that the sun was the center of a vast "solar system" and that earth and the other planets moved around the sun.Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastes von Hohenheim Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastes von Hohenheim was the first great chemist (and also one of the first great physicians) of the Renaissance. As if he had not been christened with enough names, he called himself Paracelsus, meaning better than Celsus, one of the ancient philosophers. Although Paracelsus was also an astrologer and an alchemist and many of his ideas were mistaken -- he tired bravely to reform the crude medical practices of the time. He was Swiss. When appointed lecturer at the University of Basel, Paracelsus celebrated the appointment by publicly burning the works of the ancient writers on alchemy and medicine. He then announced his own superiority to the ancients and to most men of his own day. Apparently, in spite of his egotism, his methods really were superior to those of physicians of his time. However, within a year the other doctors of Basel managed to have him driven from the city, and he spent most of his life wandering from place to place. Paracelsus died at fifty. Rural Clay Dish made by Bernard Palissy. Bernard Palissy Bernard Palissy, a French potter and artist, famous more for the beautiful glazed earthenware he made, was also a scientist. He was one of the first to realize that fossils are the remains of animals and plants. He didn't have all the pieces put together, but his use of casting models from live specimens and some of his scientific opinions caused him a great deal of controversy and bought him time in prison. Andreas Vesalius Andreas Vesalius Andreas Vesalius, was one of the first to make great progress in the study of the anatomy of the human body. Since the people of the Middle Ages considered it wicked to dissect a dead human body, nearly everything that was known about anatomy was based on the writings of Galen, an ancient Greek physician. Vesalius, who was born in Brussels, Belgium dissected many animals. He also collected human bones from places of execution until he could put together a complete skeleton, a rare thing in those days.

He based his teachings on his own observations, and not merely the writings of Galen. He even claimed that Galen had described anatomy from the lower animals and not from man. Vesalius became physician to Emperor Charles V and later to Philip II, King of Spain. One of his duties was to give public dissections, which he always did during winter so that the body would not putrefy during the three weeks the work required. He discovered the small branches at the ends of the arteries and veins, but did not realize the part they play in the circulation of the blood. While returning from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, Vesalius was shipwrecked on the island of Zante, where he died.William Gilbert Thales, the Greek, in the sixth century B.C. knew that a lodestone would attract pieces of iron. However, it was Queen Elizabeth's physician, William Gilbert who discovered the greatest of all magnets. He found that while the two poles of the magnetic needle pointed approximately north and south -the north pole dipped downward in England and that the farther north one went the more the needle dipped. From this he inferred that if one traveled far enough north, the needle would dip straight down. He made a model of the earth from a sphere of iron, magnetized it by rubbing it with a lodestone, and found that when he brought a magnetic needle near it, the needle would come to rest dipping straight down at the poles of the model. It would lie parallel to the model's surface at the Equator, and at intermediate angles at the points between the Equator and the Poles. Gilbert came to the correct conclusion that the earth is a giant magnet. It was also Gilbert who gave electricity its name (from elektron, Greek for amber). Francis Bacon A Man Of Many Titles Another official under Queen Elizabeth, was Francis Bacon. Now, he had a lot of other names, or rather titles. He was also known as Baron Verulam, Viscount St. Albans, and Lord Chancellor of England. He was one of the the first to defend the experimental method as the very baiss of science. Perhaps because he was kept so busy at his various political offices and by his writing, Bacon did almost no original scientific work himself. However, it was a scientific experiment which caused his death. Wishing to learn whether cold would delay the decay of dead bodies, he bought a fowl and stuffed it with snow. While doing this in the cold air he was seized with a child (no doubt hypothermia) and died a few weeks later. Bacon lived from 1561 to 1626. By Jerilee Wei Ads by Google Next-generation lighting www.konicaminolta.com OLED with blue phosphorescence catch the world's attention Living Room TripAdvisor.in/Living_Room Living Room reviews. Compare Prices & Hotel Reviews! Water pump solutions www.grundfos.in Powerful pump solutions for effective water distribution Galileo Galilei

Galileo Galilei was another man of the Italian Renaissance, gifted with brilliant, many-sided genius. He made so many discoveries and explained them so clearly that he has been called the "father of experimental physics." Most of us have heard of his discovery of the principle of the pendulum and his important work in astronomy. Galileo was a dramatic genius, but his ideas were too bold, too modern for many people of his day. This man's life shows that the whole period in which he lived was kind of a bridge. Some minds still looked backward to the past, and were reluctant to accept new knowledge. While others were charged with the excitement of learning. Galileo belonged to the latter group. Some authorities in the past thought and even today think that Galileo's work in other branches of science was even more important than his astronomical work. He invented the first thermometer, using air (where we would now use mercury) in a glass bulb. The ancients had said "nature abhors a vacuum," but Galileo is said to have remarked that nature apparently does not abhor a vacuum above thirty-four feet, since he found that no suction pump, however powerful could raise water above that distance. He knew that it does not take any force to keep objects moving. He also knew that force is needed only to start motion or change its direction. Galileo before the Court of Inquisition. He had to avow that he did not believe in the Copernican system. Galileo Baptista van Helmont Baptista van Helmont The Belgian doctor, Jan Baptista van Helmont made many valuable discoveries and at the same time clung to old errors. He invented the word "gas" to describe the bubbles he saw rising in fermenting beer and from vinegar in which he had dropped shells. He thought this gas was made of water. In a famous experiment Van Helmont grew a tree in a pot. After five years he dug up the tree. He found it had gained one hundred and sixty-four pounds and two ounces. Since the soil had lost only two ounces in weight, Van Helmont decided that all the rest of the gain had come from the distilled water he had used to moisten the soil. What he did not know was that some of the weight had come from a gas in the air (the same gas he had seen in fermenting beer!). Van Helmont still believed that a way might be found to transmute mercury into gold, but in the years after his time this notion was gradually given up, and the study of chemistry went forward. Nicholas Lemery Nicholas Lemery Beginning in 1606 a sort of professorship of chemistry was established in France and public lectures were given at the Botanical Garden in Paris. One of these French chemists, Nicolas Lemery wrote a five hundred page textbook, Course In Chemistry, in 1675. This made the author a fortune. Lemery made a miniature volcano by burying

moistened sulphur and iron in a heap of earth. After a while, the two elements combined, cauing heat which turned the water to steam and presently there was a volcanic eruption on a small scale. William Harvey William Harvey William Harvey is remembered as the man who first explained the circulation of the blood as we now understand it. He was born in Folkestone, England, the eldest of seven children. William was small, with black eyes, black hair and a quick and alert manner. After studying at Cambridge and then in Italy under Fabricius (who demonstrated the valves in the veins), Harvey became royal physician in England. Thus, he had the opportunity to examine the hearts of animals wounded in the chase, being the first man since Galen to work in this way. In his experiments, Harvey measured the amount of blood which passed by a spot on the release of a ligature and realized that far more blood was pumped in an hour by the heart than the whole body contained. Therefore, he concluded, the blood must circulate and return. Lacking a microscope, he could not prove the passage of blood from arteries to veins. Ten years after his death, Malpighi showed this capillary connection in the lung of a frog. Harvey was one of the most modest of scientists, giving great credit to his predecessors, and scarcely claiming that his great discovery was original. William Harvey and the Circulation of Blood Evangelista Torricelli Evangelista Torricelli Evangelista Torricelli, a pupil of Galileo, was the first to construct a mercury barometer and to prove that the air exerts pressure. Aristotle had said that air has no weight or pressure. Otto von Guericke Otto von Guericke Another early worker on the problem of air pressure was Otto von Guericke of Magdeburg, Germany, who invented the air pump and carried out ingenious experiments with vacuums. He discovered that "a clock in a vacuum cannot be heard to strike. He learned that a flame dies out inside a vacuum. He learned that a bird inside a vacuum who opens it's bill wide, struggles for air, and dies. He discovered that fish perish in a vacuum. He learned that grapes can be preserved for six months in a vacuum. In his most striking experiment, he had two hollow metal hemispheres placed tightly together. Through a pump attached to this globe, he drew out the air -- so that inside the globe there was a vacuum. One day, in an open field with Emperior Ferdinand III and a group of distinguished persons

watching the show, he hitched horses to the two hemispheres. Not until sixteen horses attached to each side stained their utmost could the hemispheres be pulled apart. The air, pressing against the hemispheres from all sides held them together (since there was no air inside to equalize the pressure). Yet, when Guericke turned a valve in the air pump, letting air flow into the globe, the two hemispheres could easily be separated by one man. Rene Descartes Rene Descartes It is not easy to explain the great work of Rene Descartes. He was the author of the first textbook of physiology, the originator of the branch of mathematics called analytical geometry, and one of the world's greatest philosophers. Descartes was born near Tours, France, to wealthy parents. A sickly youth, he was allowed to do about as he pleased. He formed the habit of sleeping late and he claimed that he thought out most of his scientific problems in bed. Although sickly, he stated that he intended to die of old age. However after a lifetime of getting up late and pampering himself, he accepted an appointment from the Queen of Sweden. Lessons in philosophy were to begin at five in the morning. The strain was too much. After one winter of getting up early in a cold climate, he developed inflammation of the lungs and died soon after, at the age of fifty-four (or so the story goes). Rene Descartes Blaise Pascal Blaise Pascal Blaise Pascal was a French man of the Renaissance. He was a philosopher, a student of mathematics and of science. He was ill nearly all of his short life, but he made important discoveries in mathematics and science. He heard of Torricelli's mercury barometer, and he went further. He decided that if the mercury in the barometer was forced up the tube by the pressure of air, there should be less air at a high altitude and therefore the pressure should be less and the column of mercury shorter. At Pascal's request his brother-in-law climbed a mountain, the Puy-de-Dome, and to Pascal's delight they found that the mercury dropped three inches during the ascent. Among other discoveries, Pascal found that fluids transmit pressure without loss. This is called Pascal's law of fluid pressure. Every time you use a hydraulic jack to day to raise your car with only a slight effort, you have a demonstration of Pascal's law. Robert Boyle Robert Boyle Robert Boyle, born in Munster, Ireland, spent most of his life at Oxford and in London. A Frenchman, Rey, had already shown that metals increase in weight when burned. Boyle confirmed this and found that a candle would go out and a mouse die in a vacuum in about the same time. He also showed that even fishes require air (dissolved in water). Apparently Boyle was the first to produce the gas hydrogen by treating iron filings with mineral acid.

Boyle's greatest discover was what is known as Boyle's Law: "If we double the pressure on any gas, the volume shrinks to one-half. If we reduce the pressure by one-half, the volume (amount of space occupied) doubles, if the temperature remains the same." Johann Becher, Ernest Stahl, and Others One of the greatest problems of early chemistry was that of burning. When wood burns the ashes weigh less than the wood. However, when metals burn, the resultimg "calx" weighs more than the metal. Why? Johann Becher, thought that something was given off whenever a solid burned. Then, there was Ernest Stahl, physician to the King of Prussia, who called this something "phlogiston." The phlogiston theory seemed to explain many things, but since metals gained weight when they burned, it was assumed that phlogiston was a substance which weighted less than nothing. Chemists continued to believe in this strange theory until the time of the French Revolution, when it was overthrown by Lavoisier. Robert Hooke and Euclid Robert Hooke was an Englishman, a mathematician. He put some lenses together to make a microscope and with it was able to see the cell walls in cork. He was the one who named these tiny structures cells. He believed that light is a series of waves, or vibrations. Back in the third century, another scientist, Euclid believed that vision was due to particles sent out from the eye. One of the first scientists to form a theory of light resembling the modern known science in this area was Christian Huygens of Holland, who decided (as had already been suggested by Robert Hooke) that light is a series of waves. By this means he explained the refraction (or bending) of light when it goes from one medium, such as air, into another, such as water or glass. All our microscopes and telescopes are due to this fact that light changes its direction when it goes from air to glass or glass to air. Olaus Roemer Olaus Roemer Finally, the Dane, Olaus Roemer studying the moons of Jupiter, concluded that it tkes light a definite length of time to travel a given distance. Roemer estimated that the speed of light, getting a figure surprisingly near the truth. If You'd Like To Know More! Blaise Pascal biography of Blaise Pascal Galileo Galilei | Astronomer and Physicist Lucidcaf's Profile of Galileo Galilei Galileo's Lost Body Parts Found Galileo summary

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) Jan Baptista van Helmont - Crystalinks Lemery : Compleat history of drugs Otto von Guericke RENE DESCARTES ROBERT BOYLE The Galileo Project Torricelli biography Biography of Evangelista Torricelli (BB^Y-1647) William Harvey