Scholar in Residence, Beckman Center for the History of Chemistry, CHF
Curator of Rare Books, Chemical Heritage Foundation
During the 16th and 17th centuries, something that resembled modern science emerged from something that did not. Though the nature and cause of that transition are contested, there were unquestionably many pivotal developments in the content and conduct of science, and it is in this period that many of the 'founding' figures of science, from Copernicus to Galileo to Newton, are identified. This course will examine the many elements that went into the transition, including the revolution in cosmology, the revolt against ancient natural philosophy, the rise of experimentalism, the new philosophies of inquiry, new social structures for natural inquiry, and the conceptual foundations of classical physics."
STSC 202: Scientific Revolution (Spring 2013)