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For a topic outline of science, see Outline of science.

Meissner effect

A magnet levitates above a superconductor

Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe.

Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for scientific reasoning is tens of thousands of years old. The earliest written records in the history of science come from Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia in around 3000 to 1200 BCE. Their contributions to mathematics, astronomy, and medicine entered and shaped Greek natural philosophy of classical antiquity, whereby formal attempts were made to provide explanations of events in the physical world based on natural causes. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, knowledge of Greek conceptions of the world deteriorated in Western Europe during the early centuries (400 to 1000 CE) of the Middle Ages, but was preserved in the Muslim world during the Islamic Golden Age.

The recovery and assimilation of Greek works and Islamic inquiries into Western Europe from the 10th to 13th century revived "natural philosophy", which was later transformed by the Scientific Revolution that began in the 16th century as new ideas and discoveries departed from previous Greek conceptions and traditions. The scientific method soon played a greater role in knowledge creation and it was not until the 19th century that many of the institutional and professional features of science began to take shape; along with the changing of "natural philosophy" to "natural science".

Modern science is typically divided into three major branches: natural sciences (e.g., biology, chemistry, and physics), which study the physical world; the social sciences (e.g., economics, psychology, and sociology), which study individuals and societies; and the formal sciences (e.g., logic, mathematics, and theoretical computer science), which study formal systems, governed by axioms and rules. There is disagreement whether the formal sciences are science disciplines, because they do not rely on empirical evidence. Applied sciences are disciplines that use scientific knowledge for practical purposes, such as in engineering and medicine.

New knowledge in science is advanced by research from scientists who are motivated by curiosity about the world and a desire to solve problems. Contemporary scientific research is highly collaborative and is usually done by teams in academic and research institutions, government agencies, and companies. The practical impact of their work has led to the emergence of science policies that seek to influence the scientific enterprise by prioritizing the ethical and moral development of commercial products, armaments, health care, public infrastructure, and environmental protection. (Full article...)

Featured article -

  Featured articles are displayed here, which represent some of the best content on English Wikipedia.

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  Skull of Triaenops menamena

  
  Triaenops menamena is a bat in the genus Triaenops found on Madagascar, mainly in the drier regions. It was known as Triaenops rufus until 2009, when it was discovered that that name had been incorrectly applied to the species. Triaenops rufus is a synonym of Triaenops persicus, a Middle Eastern species closely related to T. menamena— the Malagasy species had previously been placed as a subspecies of T. persicus by some authors. Triaenops menamena is mostly found in forests, but also occurs in other habitats. It often roosts in large colonies and eats insects such as butterflies and moths. Because of its wide range, common occurrence, and tolerance of habitat degradation, it is not considered to be threatened.
  
  With a forearm length of 50 to 56 mm (2.0 to 2.2 in) in males and 46 to 53 mm (1.8 to 2.1 in) in females, this is a medium-sized bat. Its fur color is variable, ranging from reddish brown to gray, but it is generally darker than the species in the closely related genus Paratriaenops which also occur on Madagascar. The skull contains a pronounced swelling around the nose and the second upper premolar is displaced outside the toothrow. The maximum frequency of the echolocation call averages 94.2 kHz and the species can easily be recognized on the basis of its call. (Full article...)
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  The king brown snake (Pseudechis australis) is a species of highly venomous snake of the family Elapidae, native to northern, western, and Central Australia. Despite its common name, it is a member of the genus Pseudechis (black snakes) and only distantly related to true brown snakes. Its alternative common name is the mulga snake, although it lives in many habitats apart from mulga. First described by English zoologist John Edward Gray in 1842, it is a robust snake up to 3.3 m (11 ft) long. It is variable in appearance, with individuals from northern Australia having tan upper parts, while those from southern Australia are dark brown to blackish. Sometimes, it is seen in a reddish-green texture. The dorsal scales are two-toned, sometimes giving the snake a patterned appearance. Its underside is cream or white, often with orange splotches. The species is oviparous. The snake is considered to be a least-concern species according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, though may have declined with the spread of the cane toad.
  
  Its venom is not as potent as those of Australia's other dangerous snakes, but can still cause severe effects if delivered in large enough quantities. Its main effect is on striated muscle tissue, causing paralysis from muscle damage, and also commonly affects blood clotting (coagulopathy). Often, extensive pain and swelling occur, rarely with necrosis, at the bite site. Deaths from its bites have been recorded, with the most recent being in 1969. Its victims are treated with black snake (not brown snake) antivenom. (Full article...)
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  Dom Pedro II around age 61, c. 1887

  
  Dom Pedro II (2 December 1825 – 5 December 1891), nicknamed "the Magnanimous" (Portuguese: O Magnânimo), was the second and last monarch of the Empire of Brazil, reigning for over 58 years. He was born in Rio de Janeiro, the seventh child of Emperor Dom Pedro I of Brazil and Empress Dona Maria Leopoldina and thus a member of the Brazilian branch of the House of Braganza. His father's abrupt abdication and departure to Europe in 1831 left the five-year-old as emperor and led to a grim and lonely childhood and adolescence, obliged to spend his time studying in preparation for rule. His experiences with court intrigues and political disputes during this period greatly affected his later character; he grew into a man with a strong sense of duty and devotion toward his country and his people, yet increasingly resentful of his role as monarch.
  
  Pedro II inherited an empire on the verge of disintegration, but he turned Brazil into an emerging power in the international arena. The nation grew to be distinguished from its Hispanic neighbors on account of its political stability, zealously guarded freedom of speech, respect for civil rights, vibrant economic growth, and form of government—a functional representative parliamentary monarchy. Brazil was also victorious in the Platine War, the Uruguayan War, and the Paraguayan War, as well as prevailing in several other international disputes and domestic tensions. Pedro II steadfastly pushed through the abolition of slavery despite opposition from powerful political and economic interests. A savant in his own right, the Emperor established a reputation as a vigorous sponsor of learning, culture, and the sciences, and he won the respect and admiration of people such as Charles Darwin, Victor Hugo, and Friedrich Nietzsche, and was a friend to Richard Wagner, Louis Pasteur, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, among others. (Full article...)
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  Conant in 1932

  
  James Bryant Conant (March 26, 1893 – February 11, 1978) was an American chemist, a transformative President of Harvard University, and the first U.S. Ambassador to West Germany. Conant obtained a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Harvard in 1916. During World War I he served in the U.S. Army, working on the development of poison gases, especially Lewisite. He became an assistant professor of chemistry at Harvard in 1919 and the Sheldon Emery Professor of Organic Chemistry in 1929. He researched the physical structures of natural products, particularly chlorophyll, and he was one of the first to explore the sometimes complex relationship between chemical equilibrium and the reaction rate of chemical processes. He studied the biochemistry of oxyhemoglobin providing insight into the disease methemoglobinemia, helped to explain the structure of chlorophyll, and contributed important insights that underlie modern theories of acid-base chemistry.
  
  In 1933, Conant became the President of Harvard University with a reformist agenda that involved dispensing with a number of customs, including class rankings and the requirement for Latin classes. He abolished athletic scholarships, and instituted an "up or out" policy, under which scholars who were not promoted were terminated. His egalitarian vision of education required a diversified student body, and he promoted the adoption of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and co-educational classes. During his presidency, women were admitted to Harvard Medical School and Harvard Law School for the first time. (Full article...)
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  Confirmation bias is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms or supports one's prior beliefs or values. People display this bias when they select information that supports their views, ignoring contrary information, or when they interpret ambiguous evidence as supporting their existing attitudes. The effect is strongest for desired outcomes, for emotionally charged issues, and for deeply entrenched beliefs. Confirmation bias cannot be eliminated, but it can be managed, for example, by education and training in critical thinking skills.
  
  Biased search for information, biased interpretation of this information, and biased memory recall, have been invoked to explain four specific effects:

  1. attitude polarization (when a disagreement becomes more extreme even though the different parties are exposed to the same evidence)
  2. belief perseverance (when beliefs persist after the evidence for them is shown to be false)
  3. the irrational primacy effect (a greater reliance on information encountered early in a series)
  4. illusory correlation (when people falsely perceive an association between two events or situations).

  (Full article...)
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  Olms in Postojna Cave, Slovenia

  
  The olm or proteus (Proteus anguinus) is an aquatic salamander in the family Proteidae, the only exclusively cave-dwelling chordate species found in Europe. In contrast to most amphibians, it is entirely aquatic, eating, sleeping, and breeding underwater. Living in caves found in the Dinaric Alps, it is endemic to the waters that flow underground through the extensive limestone bedrock of the karst of Central and Southeastern Europe in the basin of the Soča River (Italian: Isonzo) near Trieste, Italy, southwestern Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Introduced populations are found near Vicenza, Italy, and Kranj, Slovenia.
  
  It is also called the "human fish" by locals because of its fleshy skin color (translated literally from Slovene: človeška ribica, Macedonian: човечка рипка, Croatian: čovječja ribica, Bosnian: čovječja ribica Serbian: човечја рибица), as well as "cave salamander" or "white salamander". In Slovenia, it is called močeril (from *močerъ 'earthworm, damp creepy-crawly'; moča 'dampness'). It was first mentioned in 1689 by the local naturalist Valvasor in his Glory of the Duchy of Carniola, who reported that, after heavy rains, the olms were washed up from the underground waters and were believed by local people to be a cave dragon's offspring. (Full article...)
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  Holotype specimen, with tail and uncertain bones at left, and body at right

  
  Podokesaurus is a genus of coelophysoid dinosaur that lived in what is now the eastern United States during the Early Jurassic Period. The first fossil was discovered by the geologist Mignon Talbot near Mount Holyoke, Massachusetts, in 1910. The specimen was fragmentary, preserving much of the body, limbs, and tail. In 1911, Talbot described and named the new genus and species Podokesaurus holyokensis based on it. The full name can be translated as "swift-footed lizard of Holyoke". This discovery made Talbot the first woman to find and describe a non-bird dinosaur. The holotype fossil was recognized as significant and was studied by other researchers, but was lost when the building it was kept in burned down in 1917; no unequivocal Podokesaurus specimens have since been discovered. It was made state dinosaur of Massachusetts in 2022.
  
  Estimated to have been about 1 m (3 ft) in length and 1–40 kg (2–90 lb) in weight, Podokesaurus was lightly constructed with hollow bones, and would have been similar to Coelophysis, being slender, long-necked, and with sharp, recurved teeth. The vertebrae were very light and hollow, and some were slightly concave at each end. The cervical (neck) vertebrae were relatively large in length and diameter compared to the dorsal (back) vertebrae, and the caudal (tail) vertebrae were long and slender. The humerus (upper-arm bone) was small and delicate, less than half the length of the femur (thigh-bone). The pubis (pubic bone) was very long, expanding both at the front and hind ends. The femur was slender, nearly straight, had thin walls, and was expanded at the back side of its lower end. The three metatarsals of the lower leg were closely appressed together forming a compact structure. (Full article...)
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  Red kite (Milvus milvus) in flight, showing remiges and rectrices

  
  
  Flight feathers (Pennae volatus) are the long, stiff, asymmetrically shaped, but symmetrically paired pennaceous feathers on the wings or tail of a bird; those on the wings are called remiges (/ˈrɛmɪdʒiːz/), singular remex (/ˈriːmɛks/), while those on the tail are called rectrices (/rɛkˈtraɪsiːs/), singular rectrix (/ˈrɛktrɪks/). The primary function of the flight feathers is to aid in the generation of both thrust and lift, thereby enabling flight. The flight feathers of some birds have evolved to perform additional functions, generally associated with territorial displays, courtship rituals or feeding methods. In some species, these feathers have developed into long showy plumes used in visual courtship displays, while in others they create a sound during display flights. Tiny serrations on the leading edge of their remiges help owls to fly silently (and therefore hunt more successfully), while the extra-stiff rectrices of woodpeckers help them to brace against tree trunks as they hammer on them. Even flightless birds still retain flight feathers, though sometimes in radically modified forms.
  
  The remiges are divided into primary and secondary feathers based on their position along the wing. There are typically 11 primaries attached to the manus (six attached to the metacarpus and five to the phalanges), but the outermost primary, called the remicle, is often rudimentary or absent; certain birds, notably the flamingos, grebes, and storks, have seven primaries attached to the metacarpus and 12 in all. Secondary feathers are attached to the ulna. The fifth secondary remex (numbered inwards from the carpal joint) was formerly thought to be absent in some species, but the modern view of this diastataxy is that there is a gap between the fourth and fifth secondaries. Tertiary feathers growing upon the adjoining portion of the brachium are not considered true remiges. (Full article...)
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  in New Zealand

  
  The song thrush (Turdus philomelos) is a thrush that breeds across the West Palearctic. It has brown upper-parts and black-spotted cream or buff underparts and has three recognised subspecies. Its distinctive song, which has repeated musical phrases, has frequently been referred to in poetry.
  
  The song thrush breeds in forests, gardens and parks, and is partially migratory with many birds wintering in southern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East; it has also been introduced into New Zealand and Australia. Although it is not threatened globally, there have been serious population declines in parts of Europe, possibly due to changes in farming practices. (Full article...)
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  The red rail (Aphanapteryx bonasia) is an extinct species of flightless rail. It was endemic to the Mascarene island of Mauritius, east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. It had a close relative on Rodrigues island, the likewise extinct Rodrigues rail (Erythromachus leguati), with which it is sometimes considered congeneric. Its relationship with other rails is unclear. Rails often evolve flightlessness when adapting to isolated islands, free of mammalian predators. The red rail was a little larger than a chicken and had reddish, hairlike plumage, with dark legs and a long, curved beak. The wings were small, and its legs were slender for a bird of its size. It was similar to the Rodrigues rail, but was larger, and had proportionally shorter wings. It has been compared to a kiwi or a limpkin in appearance and behaviour.
  
  It is believed to have fed on invertebrates, and snail shells have been found with damage matching an attack by its beak. Human hunters took advantage of an attraction red rails had to red objects by using coloured cloth to lure the birds so that they could be beaten with sticks. Until subfossil remains were discovered in the 1860s, scientists only knew the red rail from 17th century descriptions and illustrations. These were thought to represent several different species, which resulted in a large number of invalid junior synonyms. It has been suggested that all late 17th-century accounts of the dodo actually referred to the red rail, after the former had become extinct. The last mention of a red rail sighting is from 1693, and it is thought to have gone extinct around 1700, due to predation by humans and introduced species. (Full article...)
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  Xixiasaurus (/ˌʃiːʃiəˈsɔːrəs/) is a genus of troodontid dinosaur that lived during the Late Cretaceous Period in what is now China. The only known specimen was discovered in Xixia County, Henan Province, in central China, and became the holotype of the new genus and species Xixiasaurus henanensis in 2010. The names refer to the areas of discovery, and can be translated as "Henan Xixia lizard". The specimen consists of an almost complete skull (except for the hindmost portion), part of the lower jaw, and teeth, as well as a partial right forelimb.
  
  Xixiasaurus is estimated to have been 1.5 metres (5 ft) long and to have weighed 8 kilograms (18 lb). As a troodontid, it would have been bird-like and lightly built, with grasping hands and an enlarged sickle-shaped claw on the second toe. Its skull was long, with a long, low snout that formed a tapering U-shape when seen from below. The frontal bone of the forehead was dome-like in side view, which indicates it had an enlarged braincase. It differed from other troodontids in that the front of the dentary bone of the lower jaw was down-turned. Unlike in most troodontids, the teeth of Xixiasaurus did not have serrations; instead, their carinae (front and back edges) were smooth and sharp. It was distinct among troodontids in having 22 teeth in each maxilla (in other genera the maxillary tooth count was either higher or lower). (Full article...)
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  The porbeagle (Lamna nasus) is a species of mackerel shark in the family Lamnidae, distributed widely in the cold and temperate marine waters of the North Atlantic and Southern Hemisphere. In the North Pacific, its ecological equivalent is the closely related salmon shark (L. ditropis). It typically reaches 2.5 m (8.2 ft) in length and a weight of 135 kg (298 lb); North Atlantic sharks grow larger than Southern Hemisphere sharks and differ in coloration and aspects of life history. Gray above and white below, the porbeagle has a very stout midsection that tapers towards the long, pointed snout and the narrow base of the tail. It has large pectoral and first dorsal fins, tiny pelvic, second dorsal, and anal fins, and a crescent-shaped caudal fin. The most distinctive features of this species are its three-cusped teeth, the white blotch at the aft base of its first dorsal fin, and the two pairs of lateral keels on its tail.
  
  The porbeagle is an opportunistic hunter that preys mainly on bony fishes and cephalopods throughout the water column, including the bottom. Most commonly found over food-rich banks on the outer continental shelf, it makes occasional forays both close to shore and into the open ocean to a depth of 1,360 m (4,460 ft). It also conducts long-distance seasonal migrations, generally shifting between shallower and deeper water. The porbeagle is fast and highly active, with physiological adaptations that enable it to maintain a higher body temperature than the surrounding water. It can be solitary or gregarious, and has been known to perform seemingly playful behavior. This shark is aplacental viviparous with oophagy, developing embryos being retained within the mother's uterus and subsisting on non-viable eggs. Females typically bear four pups every year. (Full article...)
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  The ACFEL ice auger showing an ice core pushed up into the core remover barrel.

  
  
  Ice drilling allows scientists studying glaciers and ice sheets to gain access to what is beneath the ice, to take measurements along the interior of the ice, and to retrieve samples. Instruments can be placed in the drilled holes to record temperature, pressure, speed, direction of movement, and for other scientific research, such as neutrino detection.
  
  Many different methods have been used since 1840, when the first scientific ice drilling expedition attempted to drill through the Unteraargletscher in the Alps. Two early methods were percussion, in which the ice is fractured and pulverized, and rotary drilling, a method often used in mineral exploration for rock drilling. In the 1940s, thermal drills began to be used; these drills melt the ice by heating the drill. Drills that use jets of hot water or steam to bore through ice soon followed. A growing interest in ice cores, used for palaeoclimatological research, led to ice coring drills being developed in the 1950s and 1960s, and there are now many different coring drills in use. For obtaining ice cores from deep holes, most investigators use cable-suspended electromechanical drills, which use an armoured cable to carry electrical power to a mechanical drill at the bottom of the borehole. (Full article...)
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  Live female in 1896/98, kept in the aviary of C. O. Whitman

  
  The passenger pigeon or wild pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius) is an extinct species of pigeon that was endemic to North America. Its common name is derived from the French word passager, meaning "passing by", due to the migratory habits of the species. The scientific name also refers to its migratory characteristics. The morphologically similar mourning dove (Zenaida macroura) was long thought to be its closest relative, and the two were at times confused, but genetic analysis has shown that the genus Patagioenas is more closely related to it than the Zenaida doves.
  
  The passenger pigeon was sexually dimorphic in size and coloration. The male was 390 to 410 mm (15.4 to 16.1 in) in length, mainly gray on the upperparts, lighter on the underparts, with iridescent bronze feathers on the neck, and black spots on the wings. The female was 380 to 400 mm (15.0 to 15.7 in), and was duller and browner than the male overall. The juvenile was similar to the female, but without iridescence. It mainly inhabited the deciduous forests of eastern North America and was also recorded elsewhere, but bred primarily around the Great Lakes. The pigeon migrated in enormous flocks, constantly searching for food, shelter, and breeding grounds, and was once the most abundant bird in North America, numbering around 3 billion, and possibly up to 5 billion. A very fast flyer, the passenger pigeon could reach a speed of 100 km/h (62 mph). The bird fed mainly on mast, and also fruits and invertebrates. It practiced communal roosting and communal breeding, and its extreme gregariousness may be linked with searching for food and predator satiation. (Full article...)
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  The Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) (palawa kani: purinina) is a carnivorous marsupial of the family Dasyuridae. Until recently, it was only found on the island state of Tasmania, but it has been reintroduced to New South Wales in mainland Australia, with a small breeding population. The size of a small dog, the Tasmanian devil became the largest carnivorous marsupial in the world, following the extinction of the thylacine in 1936. It is related to quolls, and distantly related to the thylacine. It is characterised by its stocky and muscular build, black fur, pungent odour, extremely loud and disturbing screech, keen sense of smell, and ferocity when feeding. The Tasmanian devil's large head and neck allow it to generate among the strongest bites per unit body mass of any extant predatory land mammal. It hunts prey and scavenges on carrion.
  
  Although devils are usually solitary, they sometimes eat and defecate together in a communal location. Unlike most other dasyurids, the devil thermoregulates effectively, and is active during the middle of the day without overheating. Despite its rotund appearance, it is capable of surprising speed and endurance, and can climb trees and swim across rivers. Devils are not monogamous. Males fight one another for females, and guard their partners to prevent female infidelity. Females can ovulate three times in as many weeks during the mating season, and 80% of two-year-old females are seen to be pregnant during the annual mating season. (Full article...)

Selected image

Falkirk Wheel

Photo credit: SeanMack

The Falkirk Wheel is a rotating boat lift connecting the Forth and Clyde Canal with the Union Canal near Falkirk in central Scotland. It consists of two diametrically opposed caissons which rotate to transfer boats between the two canals through a height of 35 metres. Thanks to Archimedes' principle, the caissons always weigh the same, whether carrying up to 600 tonnes worth of canal barges, or just water. As such, the wheel is always perfectly balanced and despite its enormous mass, rotates through 180° in less than four minutes using just a few kilowatts.

Selected biography

Barry Voight (/vɔɪt/; born 1937) is an American geologist, volcanologist, author, and engineer. After earning his Ph.D. at Columbia University, Voight worked as a professor of geology at several universities, including Pennsylvania State University, where he taught from 1964 until his retirement in 2005. He remains an emeritus professor there and still conducts research, focusing on rock mechanics, plate tectonics, disaster prevention, and geotechnical engineering.

In April 1980, Voight's publications on landslides, avalanches, and other mass movements attracted the attention of Rocky Crandell of the United States Geological Survey (USGS), who asked him to look at a growing bulge on the Mount St. Helens volcano in the state of Washington. Voight foresaw the collapse of the mountain's north flank as well as a powerful eruption. His predictions came true when St. Helens erupted in May 1980; Voight was then hired by the USGS to investigate the debris avalanche that initiated the eruption. After his work at Mount St. Helens brought him international recognition, Voight continued researching and guiding monitoring efforts at several active volcanoes throughout his career, including Nevado del Ruiz in Colombia, Mount Merapi in Indonesia, and Soufrière Hills, a volcano on the Caribbean island of Montserrat. For his research, publications, and disaster prevention work as a volcanologist and engineer, Voight has been honored with numerous awards, appointments, and medals.

More did you know...

• ...that in recent years Mediterranean alcoholic beverages (pictured) have been subject of intense scientific study?
• ...that the supermassive black hole at the center of the quasar OJ287 has been measured as weighing 18 billion times the mass of the Sun, six times heavier than the previous record holder?
• ...that the origins of Castle Lake (pictured) in California date to the Pleistocene Era (more than 10,000 years ago) when a glacier carved a basin in the location of the current lake?
• ...that 2002's Hurricane Elida was the first hurricane to be observed by the MERIS sensor aboard the ESA's satellite Envisat?
• ...that for a pure wave motion in fluid dynamics, the Stokes drift velocity is the average velocity when following a specific fluid parcel as it travels with the fluid flow?

Topics and categories

See the portal's Topics and categories page for a comprehensive overview.

Science News

Further information: 2022 in science

23 August 2022 – Holocene extinction

The dugong is declared extinct in China after scientists report no verified sightings of the large marine mammal since 2000. However, dugongs still exist in the wild in parts of Southeast Asia and Australasia. (BBC News)

9 August 2022 – Discoveries of exoplanets

Radio astronomers have discovered a newborn, Jupiter-size exoplanet orbiting the star AS 209, using the Atacama Large Millimeter Array telescope in Chile. (Space.com)

28 July 2022 –

Researchers using AlphaFold have predicted the structures of 200 million proteins from 1 million species, covering nearly every known protein on the planet. (Nature)

21 July 2022 – Holocene extinction

Conservation-reliant species

The monarch butterfly is added by the International Union for Conservation of Nature to its endangered species list because of rapidly decreasing population numbers. (AP)

18 July 2022 –

Wild European bison are reintroduced to the United Kingdom for the first time in over a thousand years after three are released into a pine forest in Kent, England. (BBC News

General images -

The following are images from various science-related articles on Wikipedia.

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  Star list with distance information, Uruk (Iraq), 320-150 BCE, the list gives each constellation, the number of stars and the distance information to the next constellation in ells (from History of science)

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  Süleymaniye Mosque (from History of science)

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  Image of veins from William Harvey's Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis et Sanguinis in Animalibus. Harvey demonstrated that blood circulated around the body, rather than being created in the liver. (from Scientific Revolution)

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  Lui Hui's Survey of sea island (from History of science)

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  Air pump built by Robert Boyle. Many new instruments were devised in this period, which greatly aided in the expansion of scientific knowledge. (from Scientific Revolution)

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  Clay models of animal livers dating between the nineteenth and eighteenth centuries BCE, found in the royal palace at Mari in what is now Syria (from History of science)

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  Portrait of Johannes Kepler (from Scientific Revolution)

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  Einstein's prediction (1907): Light bends in a gravitational field (from Scientific method)

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  The frontispiece of the Vienna Dioscurides, which shows a set of seven famous physicians (from History of science)

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  Watson and Crick used many aluminium templates like this one, which is the single base Adenine (A), to build a physical model of DNA in 1953. (from History of science)

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  Precession of the perihelion – exaggerated in the case of Mercury, but observed in the case of S2's apsidal precession around Sagittarius A* (from Scientific method)

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  Dmitri Mendeleev (from History of science)

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  Model of DNA with David Deutsch, proponent of invariant scientific explanations (2009) (from Scientific method)

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  In mid-July 1837 Charles Darwin started his "B" notebook on the Transmutation of Species, and on page 36 wrote "I think" above his first evolutionary tree. (from History of science)

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  Adam Smith wrote The Wealth of Nations, the first modern work of economics (from History of science)

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  Statue of Roger Bacon at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History (from History of science)

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  Alessandro Volta demonstrates the first electrical cell to Napoleon in 1801. (from History of science)

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  One of the star maps from Su Song's Xin Yi Xiang Fa Yao published in 1092, featuring a cylindrical projection similar to Mercator, and the corrected position of the pole star thanks to Shen Kuo's astronomical observations. (from History of science)

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  The Royal Society had its origins in Gresham College in the City of London, and was the first scientific society in the world. (from Scientific Revolution)

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  Galileo Galilei, father of modern science. (from History of science)

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  Isaac Newton initiated classical mechanics in physics. (from History of science)

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  Vesalius's intricately detailed drawings of human dissections in Fabrica helped to overturn the medical theories of Galen. (from Scientific Revolution)

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  15th-century manuscript of Avicenna's The Canon of Medicine. (from History of science)

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  The 1698 Savery Engine was the first successful steam engine (from Scientific Revolution)

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  The French Academy of Sciences was established in 1666. (from Scientific Revolution)

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  Isaac Newton's Principia, developed the first set of unified scientific laws. (from Scientific Revolution)

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  Portrait of Galileo Galilei by Leoni (from Scientific Revolution)

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  Einstein's official portrait after receiving the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics (from History of science)

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  Diagram from William Gilbert's De Magnete, a pioneering work of experimental science (from Scientific Revolution)

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  A modern replica of Han dynasty polymath scientist Zhang Heng's seismometer of 132 CE (from History of science)

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  Isaac Newton in a 1702 portrait by Godfrey Kneller (from Scientific Revolution)

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  Newton's Opticks or a treatise of the reflections, refractions, inflections and colours of light (from Scientific Revolution)

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  Matteo Ricci (left) and Xu Guangqi (right) in Athanasius Kircher, La Chine ... Illustrée, Amsterdam, 1670. (from Scientific Revolution)

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  One of the oldest surviving fragments of Euclid's Elements, found at Oxyrhynchus and dated to c. 100 CE. (from History of science)

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  The scientific method is often represented as an ongoing process. This diagram represents one variant, and there are many others. (from Scientific method)

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  Schematic of the Antikythera mechanism (150–100 BCE). (from History of science)

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  Otto von Guericke's experiments on electrostatics, published 1672 (from Scientific Revolution)

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  An ivory set of Napier's Bones, an early calculating device invented by John Napier (from Scientific Revolution)

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  The Ebers Papyrus (c. 1550 BCE) from ancient Egypt (from History of science)

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  Ptolemaic model of the spheres for Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Georg von Peuerbach, Theoricae novae planetarum, 1474. (from Scientific Revolution)

• 

  Ancient India was an early leader in metallurgy, as evidenced by the wrought-iron Pillar of Delhi. (from History of science)

• 

  Archimedes used the method of exhaustion to approximate the value of π. (from History of science)

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  Francis Bacon was a pivotal figure in establishing the scientific method of investigation. Portrait by Frans Pourbus the Younger (1617). (from Scientific Revolution)

• 

  The atomic bomb ushered in "Big Science" in physics. (from History of science)

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  Title page from The Sceptical Chymist, a foundational text of chemistry, written by Robert Boyle in 1661 (from Scientific Revolution)

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  One possible signature of a Higgs boson from a simulated proton–proton collision. It decays almost immediately into two jets of hadrons and two electrons, visible as lines. (from History of science)

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  Plato's Academy. 1st century mosaic from Pompeii (from History of science)

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  Alfred Wegener in Greenland in the winter of 1912–13. He is most remembered as the originator of continental drift hypothesis by suggesting in 1912 that the continents are slowly drifting around the Earth. (from History of science)

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  Painting of Kopernikus observing the night sky. (from Scientific Revolution)

Sources

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