Who invented the word scientist

Last Update: Jan 03, 2023

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How The Word ‘Scientist’ Came To Be In 1834, Cambridge University historian and philosopher of science William Whewell

William Whewell

He also organized thousands of volunteers internationally to study ocean tides, in what is now considered one of the first citizen science projects. He received the Royal Medal for this work in 1837. One of Whewell’s greatest gifts to science was his wordsmithing.

coined the term «scientist» to replace such terms as «cultivators of science.» Historian Howard Markel discusses how «scientist» came to be, and lists some possibilities that didn’t make the cut.

What were scientists originally called?

“Although, we do know that it was philosopher William Whewell who first coined the term ‘scientist. ‘ Prior to that, scientists were called ‘natural philosophers’.” Whewell coined the term in 1833, said my friend Debbie Lee. She’s a researcher and professor of English at WSU who wrote a book on the history of science.

When was the word science first used?

It originally came from the Latin word scientia which meant knowledge, a knowing, expertness, or experience. By the late 14th century, science meant, in English, collective knowledge.

What did they called scientists before the 1830s?

Until the late 19th or early 20th century, scientists were still referred to as «natural philosophers» or «men of science».

Why was the word scientist coined?

In a pinch, the well-known wordsmith coined the term “scientist” for Somerville. Whewell did not intend for this to be a gender-neutral term for “man of science;” rather, he made it in order to reflect the interdisciplinary nature of Somerville’s expertise.

17 related questions found

Who is known as father of science?

Albert Einstein called Galileo the “father of modern science.” Galileo Galilei was born on February 15, 1564, in Pisa, Italy but lived in Florence, Italy for most of his childhood. His father was Vincenzo Galilei, an accomplished Florentine mathematician, and musician.

Who is the best scientist alive in the world?

Arguably the world’s most famous living scientist, Stephen Hawking is known for his landmark contributions to our understanding of the big bang, black holes, and relativity.

Who is the first woman scientist in the world?

When it comes to the topic of women in science, Marie Curie usually dominates the conversation. After all, she discovered two elements, was the first women to win a Nobel Prize, in 1903, and was the first person to win a second Nobel, in 1911.

Who is the best scientist in the world?

The 10 Greatest Scientists of All Time

  • Albert Einstein (Credit: Mark Marturello)
  • Marie Curie (Credit: Mark Marturello)
  • Isaac Newton (Credit: Mark Marturello)
  • Charles Darwin (Credit: Mark Marturello)
  • Nikola Tesla (Credit: Mark Marturello)
  • Galileo Galilei (Credit: Mark Marturello)
  • Ada Lovelace (Credit: Mark Marturello)

Who was the first ever scientist?

But for his pioneering use of experiment, observation and maths to understand nature, the Italian genius Galileo Galilei arguably best fits the description of ‘first scientist’.

Who invented science first?

Aristotle is considered by many to be the first scientist, although the term postdates him by more than two millennia. In Greece in the fourth century BC, he pioneered the techniques of logic, observation, inquiry and demonstration.

What year did science begin?

The earliest roots of science can be traced to Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia in around 3000 to 1200 BCE.

Who is the king of science?

Physics is the king of all sciences as it helps us understand the way nature works.

Do you call a scientist Doctor?

Scientists who are called «Doctor» are not medical doctors, like the ones who take care of you when you’re sick. Their title refers to the level of specialization and education that they have achieved in their field of study.

Which country has best scientist?

The top 10 countries for scientific research in 2018

  1. United States of America. The United States is the most prolific publisher of high-quality science in the world, but China is closing the gap with astonishing rapidity. …
  2. China. …
  3. Germany. …
  4. United Kingdom. …
  5. Japan. …
  6. France. …
  7. Canada. …
  8. Switzerland.

Who is the most famous female?

Here are the 12 women who changed the world

  • Jane Austen (1775 – 1817) …
  • Anne Frank (1929 – 1945) …
  • Maya Angelou (1928 – 2014) …
  • Queen Elizabeth I (1533 – 1603) …
  • Catherine the Great (1729 – 1796) …
  • Sojourner Truth (1797 – 1883) …
  • Rosa Parks (1913 – 2005) …
  • Malala Yousafzai (1997 — Present)

Who is the best female scientists in the world?

Meet 10 Women in Science Who Changed the World

  • Ada Lovelace, Mathematician. Dec. …
  • Marie Curie, Physicist and Chemist. Nov. …
  • Janaki Ammal, Botanist. Nov. …
  • Chien-Shiung Wu, Physicist. May 31, 1912-Feb. …
  • Katherine Johnson, Mathematician. Aug. …
  • Rosalind Franklin, Chemist. …
  • Vera Rubin, Astronomer. …
  • Gladys West, Mathematician.

Who is the richest scientist in the world?

1. James Watson, $20 Billion. According to Wealthy Gorilla, James Watson is the richest scientist in the world as he has a net worth of $20 billion. Watson is a biologist, geneticist, and zoologist who is best known for his work on the double helix structure of the DNA molecule.

Who is the best scientist in 2020?

  • The Nature’s 10 list explores key developments in science this year and some of the people who played important parts in these milestones. …
  • Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus: Warning the world. …
  • Verena Mohaupt: Polar patroller. …
  • Gonzalo Moratorio: Coronavirus hunter. …
  • Adi Utarini: Mosquito commander. …
  • Kathrin Jansen: Vaccine leader.

Who is the greatest scientist of 21st century?

The Greatest Scientists of the 21st Century

  • Andre Konstantin Geim. …
  • Konstantin Sergeevich Novoselov. …
  • John Craig Venter. …
  • Stephen William Hawking. …
  • Michio Kaku. …
  • Tiera Guinn Fletcher. …
  • Jennifer Doudna.

Who is the famous scientists in the world?

Isaac Newton attended Cambridge University upon finishing school in 1661. He developed a variety of scientific methods and discoveries including those in optics and colors. 2. Albert Einstein — In his younger years, Albert Einstein had always shown a great interest in mathematics and science.

Who was one of 100 greatest scientists of all time?

THE 100 GREATEST SCIENTISTS

  1. ISAAC NEWTON. (January 4, 1643 – March 31, 1727)
  2. LEONHARD EULER. (April 15, 1707 – September 18, 1783)
  3. GOTTFRIED von LEIBNIZ. (July 1, 1646 – November 14, 1716)
  4. CARL FRIEDRICH GAUSS. (April 30, 1777 – February 23, 1855)
  5. MICHAEL FARADAY. …
  6. ALHAZEN IBN al-HAYTHAM. …
  7. GALILEO GALILEI. …
  8. NIKOLA TESLA.

IRA FLATOW, host:

This week, something new. We call it Science Diction. It’s a little science history, the story of how a scientific word came to be. And what better place to start off our series of Science Diction with the word scientist. How did the word scientist come to be?

Joining us now to talk more about that is my guest Howard Markel. He’s professor of the history of medicine at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He’s also director of the Center for the History of Medicine there. And he joins us from WUOM out there in Ann Arbor. Welcome back to SCIENCE FRIDAY.

Dr. HOWARD MARKEL (University of Michigan): Well, thanks for having me, Ira.

FLATOW: The history of the word scientist. Scientist is not that old a word, is it?

Dr. MARKEL: No. I was really amazed. It’s only about 176 years old, to be precise. It came around in 1834. And a Cambridge University historian and philosopher of science named William (technical difficulties) coined it.

FLATOW: William, again? We missed that name.

Dr. MARKEL: William Whewell. It’s spelled W-H-E-W-E-L-L. And he (technical difficulties) science, and it was an early point in science, at least experimental science, when a lot of the game rules were actually being developed. So he was really quite an umpire and was consulting with people like Darwin and Faraday and a lot of other prominent scientists that we idolize today.

FLATOW: Mm-hmm. And so how did they get around to using that word?

Dr. MARKEL: Well, no one really knew what to call a scientist. There was all these different names like cultivators of science and…

FLATOW: Wasn’t there a natural philosopher used?

Dr. MARKEL: Natural philosopher, yes. And so he thought — you know, there’s a lot of consilience. In other words, he came up with a lot of jumping together of all fields of science. And we ought to come up with a word that refers to all of them. And so he was actually writing in 1834. He came up with (technical difficulties) terms. The first he considered was savant, or men of learning. But he dismissed that for both being presumptuous and French. He was British, as you recall. He also considered the German term naturforscher, which is really naturalist. But he worried that some might make fun of that term, calling it nature-poker or nature-peeper. And as you just mentioned, natural philosopher was dismissed because it was simply too wide and too lofty a term.

But eventually he came up with, by analogy with artist, that they might (technical difficulties) word scientist. But he had a few qualms about that because it was close to a few other words that were not held in high regard. The first was economist. That may still be true to this day. And the other was atheist, which was a real problematic term back in those days. But he came back to it, nevertheless and he said, you know, I think this is a word, a cultivator of science in general ought to be called a scientist.

And a review of his work in Blackwell’s magazine later on that year, in 1840, described it even better. They said Leonardo da Vinci was mentally a seeker after truth. He was a scientist. Well, Correggio, who as you may recall like to play with lightness and (technical difficulties) so the size of body parts, was an asserter of truth. He was an artist.

FLATOW: Hmm. How did he get to be friends with all those famous people, Faraday, Darwin?

Dr. MARKEL: Well, he was the master of Trinity College at Cambridge, so he had a very good position. He was also a fairly good scientist in his own right. He was a mineralogist. He wrote about geology. He wrote about oceanic tides, mathematics. So he was around.

And he was actually writing a book that became very well known, «The Philosophy of the Inductive Science,» at this time, where he was trying to set up — how do you come up with a hypothesis? How do you prove it? Should it be universal? And you know, this all seems, you know, so basic to us today. But (technical difficulties) back in 1830s, 1840s, when real science, as we understand it, was just being laid out.

FLATOW: 1-800-989-8255 is our number, if you’d like to talk with Howard Markel about the origin of the word scientist.

Howard, how do you come up with this stuff?

(Soundbite of laughter)

Dr. MARKEL: Well, I’m afraid to tell you because it’s so easy. You may not ask me to come back. We want to look up a word, any word in English language. The best place to start is the Oxford English Dictionary because it not only gives you definitions of the word, but it tells you every point in English history where it first appeared.

FLATOW: Yeah.

Dr. MARKEL: (Technical difficulties) look it up. But that’s the fun of it because you never know what you’re going to find, and it’s always something good, and you find all these connections. And so finding out about that scientist was a relatively new word led to Whewell’s works and then it led to me finding about who his friends were and so on. I even learned that he died, unfortunately, falling off a horse at the age of 71. But it’s really just — you know, you start with that Oxford English Dictionary and you’re off to the races. And so, you know, it’s so much fun looking up things. So I hope the listeners want to do that as well.

FLATOW: You know, it seems like there was sort of an evolution. The first words that you mentioned were — ended in ER, nature-poker, nature-peeper, natural philosopher. And now it seems like you take the words and you put an ist, scientist, naturalist, you know, biologist.

Dr. MARKEL: Yeah — biologist, geologist.

FLATOW: Yeah. They just decide, well, we’re going to go with that kind of ending. We’ll take the same things — the discipline that these people do, put an ist on it instead.

Dr. MARKEL: Well, what’s really neat is that it all comes from the word artist. And you know, often there’s great art in great science, just as there often is great science in great art. I think it’s a really neat coming together (technical difficulties)…

FLATOW: Mm-hmm. Is there another source that’s just as good, besides the OED, maybe other sources? I mean, there’s the Internet. The Internet must serve now as a great source to find the history of all these words.

Dr. MARKEL: Well, the Internet is wonderful because once you find (technical difficulties) then you can do this on Internet, you know, services as well, then you can find the books without even, God forbid, going to the library at all. You could actually find the books on the Internet. And that’s really quite easy too. So you can do it really from your home.

FLATOW: Yeah. And of course you always have to — as everything on the Internet, you have to watch out for the source, right?

Dr. MARKEL: Absolutely. You don’t want to go to Bob’s really cool word site as opposed to the Oxford English Dictionary. So you want to weigh your sources just as you would between bound covers. You can’t necessarily judge a book by its cover, and you can’t judge an Internet source by its Web page.

FLATOW: What other juicy words are you investigating?

Dr. MARKEL: We’re working on a few. X-ray is really a fun term. You know, we talk about it, but where did that come from? But what would really be great is if the listeners try to come up with their own words of what they want to find out, and I’ll be happy to look them up for you.

But there’s so many terms in science that we can find out together, also in medicine as well. You know, the sky is really the limit. But we can find out -also fields about — for example, orthopedics, the bone doctors, you know, doctors of broken bones. That comes from bent bone, which (technical difficulties) born with birth defects.

FLATOW: We’re talking — let me…

Dr. MARKEL: But one thing leads to another.

FLATOW: Yeah.

(Soundbite of laughter)

FLATOW: We’re talking with Howard Markel this hour in SCIENCE FRIDAY from NPR. There’s nothing wrong with your radio. If you hear little dropouts, that’s because we’re in the digital age and digital lines are sometimes a little finicky as they try to get all those packets to go through the same place at the same time and put themselves back together. So if you hear a little dropout, please hang in there with us.

And I guess new scientific terms, Howard, are always — are now being born all the time as we have new disciplines coming up.

Dr. MARKEL: Yeah. You know, the technical term for that is neologism, where you combine two different (technical difficulties) to come up with a new meaning. It also, as I recall from my medical school days, is a sign or symptom of schizophrenia, so you have to be careful about the new words that you invent. But, you know, we’re doing this all the time when we come up with, you know, blog, Weblog or…

FLATOW: Right.

Dr. MARKEL: …website or all these kinds of things and…

FLATOW: Tweet, tweeting, twittering.

Dr. MARKEL: Yeah. Yeah.

FLATOW: But even new disciplines that were not around years ago, like nanotechnology.

Dr. MARKEL: Sure, yeah. I mean, that’s what’s so great. I mean, linguists always talk about how language changes with each time period, but I (technical difficulties) anywhere more true anywhere than in the world of science and medicine, yes.

FLATOW: Are there words that are just no longer used anymore, science words that were in the common vernacular that you never hear anymore?

Dr. MARKEL: Well, you brought up naturalist, for example…

FLATOW: Right.

Dr. MARKEL: …which was a very popular word. I remember the first time I saw that was reading Dr. Doolittle books. I don’t think…

(Soundbite of laughter)

FLATOW: (Unintelligible)

(Soundbite of laughter)

Dr. MARKEL: You may recall.

FLATOW: That’s right.

Dr. MARKEL: (Technical difficulties) a naturalist. And there’s all sorts of medical terms as well or spellings of terms, like surgeon, chirurgal(ph) (technical difficulties) with a C-H-I was the older term for surgical. Physic…

FLATOW: Oh, that’s right. That’s right.

Dr. MARKEL: But it (technical difficulties) internist (technical difficulties) specialist. You deal with the internal part of the body.

FLATOW: Mm-hmm. And even the spelling of things, right? Just the spelling…

Dr. MARKEL: Yeah. They change too.

FLATOW: And so what’s the biggest challenge then for someone who wants to follow words, for a historian? Is there — is it finding resources to find out who was first first? Because I know in science, one of the hardest things in science is when you discover who you think was the first, there’s always someone who is firster before that one.

Dr. MARKEL: And I’ve learned (technical difficulties) historian never to say anyone was first, because I automatically get a call or an email or a letter saying no (technical difficulties) but you can get an approximation. What the Oxford English Dictionary does in terms of firsts is that they use the first time it appeared in print.

FLATOW: Yeah. Well, given the state of our phone line, I don’t want people to keep filling in the blanks, Howard. I want to thank you…

Dr. MARKEL: Oh, I’m sorry.

FLATOW: It’s okay. Thank you very much. We’re going to — we’ll continue with our series of Science Diction — in fact, if you have an idea, a word you’d like to hear in Science Diction, leave a comment on our Science Diction page at sciencefriday.com. We’ll give them — we’ll shoot them over to Howard, and Howard can help us find some words for you. So thanks for being with us today, Howard.

Dr. MARKEL: Oh, thanks so much, Ira.

FLATOW: You’re welcome. Howard Markel is professor of the history of medicine at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He’s also a director of the Center for the History of Medicine there. And he joins us from WUOM in Ann Arbor.

That’s about all the time we have for today. Surf over to our website if you want to leave us a Science Diction word while you’re there. You can also look at our Video Pick of the Week. Flora’s Video Pick of the Week, the red-eyed tree frog, great little frog that’s shaking up the branches out there.

Also, take our survey. We have a new survey. We want to know about who you are, whom you are, whichever is grammatically correct. And so just click on the button. There’s just a few questions. We’ll ask you about what you like, what your preferences are, how you like SCIENCE FRIDAY, where you hear it. Click on that, and we’ll take that little survey.

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Have a great weekend. We’ll see you next week. I’m Ira Flatow in New York.

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Scientist

Pierre and Marie Curie.jpg

Pierre Curie and Marie Curie demonstrating an apparatus that detects radioactivity. They received the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics for their scientific research; Marie also received the 1911 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Occupation
Names Scientist

Occupation type

Profession

Activity sectors

Laboratory, field research
Description
Competencies Scientific research

Education required

Science

Fields of
employment

Academia, industry, government, nonprofit

Related jobs

Engineers

A scientist is a person who researches to advance knowledge in an area of the natural sciences.[1][2]

In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, philosophers engaged in the philosophical study of nature called natural philosophy, a precursor of natural science.[3] Though Thales (circa 624–545 BC) was arguably the first scientist for describing how cosmic events may be seen as natural, not necessarily caused by gods,[4][5][6][7][8][9] it was not until the 19th century that the term scientist came into regular use after it was coined by the theologian, philosopher, and historian of science William Whewell in 1833.[10][11]

History[edit]

«No one in the history of civilization has shaped our understanding of science and natural philosophy more than the great Greek philosopher and scientist Aristotle (384-322 BC), who exerted a profound and pervasive influence for more than two thousand years» —Gary B. Ferngren[12]

Francesco Redi, referred to as the «father of modern parasitology», is the founder of experimental biology.

Physicist Albert Einstein developed the general theory of relativity and made many substantial contributions to physics.

Physicist Enrico Fermi is credited with the creation of the world’s first atomic bomb and nuclear reactor.

Atomic physicist Niels Bohr made fundamental contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum theory.

The roles of «scientists», and their predecessors before the emergence of modern scientific disciplines, have evolved considerably over time. Scientists of different eras (and before them, natural philosophers, mathematicians, natural historians, natural theologians, engineers, and others who contributed to the development of science) have had widely different places in society, and the social norms, ethical values, and epistemic virtues associated with scientists—and expected of them—have changed over time as well. Accordingly, many different historical figures can be identified as early scientists, depending on which characteristics of modern science are taken to be essential.

Some historians point to the Scientific Revolution that began in 16th century as the period when science in a recognizably modern form developed. It wasn’t until the 19th century that sufficient socioeconomic changes had occurred for scientists to emerge as a major profession.[13]

Classical antiquity[edit]

Knowledge about nature in classical antiquity was pursued by many kinds of scholars. Greek contributions to science—including works of geometry and mathematical astronomy, early accounts of biological processes and catalogs of plants and animals, and theories of knowledge and learning—were produced by philosophers and physicians, as well as practitioners of various trades. These roles, and their associations with scientific knowledge, spread with the Roman Empire and, with the spread of Christianity, became closely linked to religious institutions in most of European countries. Astrology and astronomy became an important area of knowledge, and the role of astronomer/astrologer developed with the support of political and religious patronage. By the time of the medieval university system, knowledge was divided into the trivium—philosophy, including natural philosophy—and the quadrivium—mathematics, including astronomy. Hence, the medieval analogs of scientists were often either philosophers or mathematicians. Knowledge of plants and animals was broadly the province of physicians.

Middle Ages[edit]

Science in medieval Islam generated some new modes of developing natural knowledge, although still within the bounds of existing social roles such as philosopher and mathematician. Many proto-scientists from the Islamic Golden Age are considered polymaths, in part because of the lack of anything corresponding to modern scientific disciplines. Many of these early polymaths were also religious priests and theologians: for example, Alhazen and al-Biruni were mutakallimiin; the physician Avicenna was a hafiz; the physician Ibn al-Nafis was a hafiz, muhaddith and ulema; the botanist Otto Brunfels was a theologian and historian of Protestantism; the astronomer and physician Nicolaus Copernicus was a priest. During the Italian Renaissance scientists like Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Galileo Galilei and Gerolamo Cardano have been considered as the most recognizable polymaths.

Renaissance[edit]

During the Renaissance, Italians made substantial contributions in science. Leonardo da Vinci made significant discoveries in paleontology and anatomy. The Father of modern Science,[14][15]
Galileo Galilei, made key improvements on the thermometer and telescope which allowed him to observe and clearly describe the solar system. Descartes was not only a pioneer of analytic geometry but formulated a theory of mechanics[16] and advanced ideas about the origins of animal movement and perception. Vision interested the physicists Young and Helmholtz, who also studied optics, hearing and music. Newton extended Descartes’s mathematics by inventing calculus (at the same time as Leibniz). He provided a comprehensive formulation of classical mechanics and investigated light and optics. Fourier founded a new branch of mathematics — infinite, periodic series — studied heat flow and infrared radiation, and discovered the greenhouse effect. Girolamo Cardano, Blaise Pascal Pierre de Fermat, Von Neumann, Turing, Khinchin, Markov and Wiener, all mathematicians, made major contributions to science and probability theory, including the ideas behind computers, and some of the foundations of statistical mechanics and quantum mechanics. Many mathematically inclined scientists, including Galileo, were also musicians.

There are many compelling stories in medicine and biology, such as the development of ideas about the circulation of blood from Galen to Harvey. Some scholars and historians attributes Christianity to having contributed to the rise of the Scientific Revolution.[17][18][19][20][21]

Age of Enlightenment[edit]

During the age of Enlightenment, Luigi Galvani, the pioneer of the bioelectromagnetics, discovered the animal electricity. He discovered that a charge applied to the spinal cord of a frog could generate muscular spasms throughout its body. Charges could make frog legs jump even if the legs were no longer attached to a frog. While cutting a frog leg, Galvani’s steel scalpel touched a brass hook that was holding the leg in place. The leg twitched. Further experiments confirmed this effect, and Galvani was convinced that he was seeing the effects of what he called animal electricity, the life force within the muscles of the frog. At the University of Pavia, Galvani’s colleague Alessandro Volta was able to reproduce the results, but was sceptical of Galvani’s explanation.[22]

Lazzaro Spallanzani is one of the most influential figures in experimental physiology and the natural sciences. His investigations have exerted a lasting influence on the medical sciences. He made important contributions to the experimental study of bodily functions and animal reproduction.[23]

Francesco Redi discovered that microorganisms can cause disease.

19th century[edit]

Until the late 19th or early 20th century, scientists were still referred to as «natural philosophers» or «men of science».[24][25][26][27]

English philosopher and historian of science William Whewell coined the term scientist in 1833, and it first appeared in print in Whewell’s anonymous 1834 review of Mary Somerville’s On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences published in the Quarterly Review.[28] Whewell wrote of «an increasing proclivity of separation and dismemberment» in the sciences; while highly specific terms proliferated—chemist, mathematician, naturalist—the broad term «philosopher» was no longer satisfactory to group together those who pursued science, without the caveats of «natural» or «experimental» philosopher. Whewell compared these increasing divisions with Somerville’s aim of «[rendering] a most important service to science» «by showing how detached branches have, in the history of science, united by the discovery of general principles.»[29] Whewell reported in his review that members of the British Association for the Advancement of Science had been complaining at recent meetings about the lack of a good term for «students of the knowledge of the material world collectively.» Alluding to himself, he noted that «some ingenious gentleman proposed that, by analogy with artist, they might form [the word] scientist, and added that there could be no scruple in making free with this term since we already have such words as economist, and atheist—but this was not generally palatable».[30]

Whewell proposed the word again more seriously (and not anonymously) in his 1840[31] The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences:

The terminations ize (rather than ise), ism, and ist, are applied to words of all origins: thus we have to pulverize, to colonize, Witticism, Heathenism, Journalist, Tobacconist. Hence we may make such words when they are wanted. As we cannot use physician for a cultivator of physics, I have called him a Physicist. We need very much a name to describe a cultivator of science in general. I should incline to call him a Scientist. Thus we might say, that as an Artist is a Musician, Painter, or Poet, a Scientist is a Mathematician, Physicist, or Naturalist.

He also proposed the term physicist at the same time, as a counterpart to the French word physicien. Neither term gained wide acceptance until decades later; scientist became a common term in the late 19th century in the United States and around the turn of the 20th century in Great Britain.[28][32][33] By the twentieth century, the modern notion of science as a special brand of information about the world, practiced by a distinct group and pursued through a unique method, was essentially in place.

20th century[edit]

Marie Curie became the first female to win the Nobel Prize and the first person to win it twice. Her efforts led to the development of nuclear energy and Radiotherapy for the treatment of cancer. In 1922, she was appointed a member of the International Commission on Intellectual Co-operation by the Council of the League of Nations. She campaigned for scientist’s right to patent their discoveries and inventions. She also campaigned for free access to international scientific literature and for internationally recognized scientific symbols.

Profession[edit]

As a profession, the scientist of today is widely recognized[citation needed]. However, there is no formal process to determine who is a scientist and who is not a scientist. Anyone can be a scientist in some sense. Some professions have legal requirements for their practice (e.g. licensure) and some scientists are independent scientists meaning that they practice science on their own, but to practice science there are no known licensure requirements.[34]

Education[edit]

In modern times, many professional scientists are trained in an academic setting (e.g., universities and research institutes), mostly at the level of graduate schools. Upon completion, they would normally attain an academic degree, with the highest degree being a doctorate such as a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD).[35] Although graduate education for scientists varies among institutions and countries, some common training requirements include specializing in an area of interest,[36] publishing research findings in peer-reviewed scientific journals[37] and presenting them at scientific conferences,[38] giving lectures or teaching,[38] and defending a thesis (or dissertation) during an oral examination.[35] To aid them in this endeavor, graduate students often work under the guidance of a mentor, usually a senior scientist, which may continue after the completion of their doctorates whereby they work as postdoctoral researchers.[39]

Career[edit]

After the completion of their training, many scientists pursue careers in a variety of work settings and conditions.[40] In 2017, the British scientific journal Nature published the results of a large-scale survey of more than 5,700 doctoral students worldwide, asking them which sectors of the economy they would like to work in. A little over half of the respondents wanted to pursue a career in academia, with smaller proportions hoping to work in industry, government, and nonprofit environments.[41][42]

Other motivations are recognition by their peers and prestige. The Nobel Prize, a widely regarded prestigious award,[43] is awarded annually to those who have achieved scientific advances in the fields of medicine, physics, and chemistry.

Some scientists have a desire to apply scientific knowledge for the benefit of people’s health, the nations, the world, nature, or industries (academic scientist and industrial scientist). Scientists tend to be less motivated by direct financial reward for their work than other careers. As a result, scientific researchers often accept lower average salaries when compared with many other professions which require a similar amount of training and qualification.[citation needed]

Research interests[edit]

Scientists include experimentalists who mainly perform experiments to test hypotheses, and theoreticians who mainly develop models to explain existing data and predict new results. There is a continuum between two activities and the division between them is not clear-cut, with many scientists performing both tasks.

Those considering science as a career often look to the frontiers. These include cosmology and biology, especially molecular biology and the human genome project. Other areas of active research include the exploration of matter at the scale of elementary particles as described by high-energy physics, and materials science, which seeks to discover and design new materials. Others choose to study brain function and neurotransmitters, which is considered by many to be the «final frontier».[44][45][46] There are many important discoveries to make regarding the nature of the mind and human thought as much still remains unknown.

By specialization[edit]

Natural science[edit]

Physical science[edit]
  • Chemist
    • Agrochemist
    • Analytical chemist
    • Astrochemist
    • Atmospheric chemist
    • Biophysical chemist
    • Clinical chemist
    • Computational chemist
    • Electrochemist
    • Femtochemist
    • Geochemist
    • Green chemist
    • Chemical laboratory technician
    • Inorganic chemist
    • Medicinal chemist
    • Nuclear chemist
    • Organic chemist
    • Organometallic chemist
    • Pharmacologist
    • Physical chemist
    • Quantum chemist
    • Solid-state chemist
    • Stereochemist
    • Structural chemist
    • Supramolecular chemist
    • Theoretical chemist
    • Thermochemist
  • Earth scientist
    • Astrogeologist
    • Biogeochemist
    • Climatologist
    • Dendroarchaeologist
    • Dendrologist
    • Edaphologist
    • Gemologist
    • Geoarchaeologist
    • Geobiologist
    • Geographer
    • Geologist
    • Geomicrobiologist
    • Geomorphologist
    • Geophysicist
    • Glaciologist
    • Hydrogeologist
    • Hydrologist
    • Hydrometeorologist
    • Limnologist
    • Meteorologist
    • Mineralogist
    • Oceanographer
    • Paleoclimatologist
    • Paleoecologist
    • Paleogeologist
    • Paleoseismologist
    • Palynologist
    • Petrologist
    • Sedimentologist
    • Seismologist
    • Speleologist
    • Volcanologist
  • Physicist
    • Agrophysicist
    • Astrophysicist
    • Atmospheric physicist
    • Atomic physicist
    • Biological physicist
    • Chemical physicist
    • Computational physicist
    • Cosmologist
    • Condensed-matter physicist
    • Engineering physicist
    • Material physicist
    • Molecular physicist
    • Nuclear physicist
    • Particle physicist
    • Plasma physicist
    • Polymer physicist
    • Psychophysicist
    • Quantum physicist
    • Theoretical physicist
  • Astronomer
    • Planetary science
    • Space science
    • Cosmology
Life science[edit]
  • Biologist
    • Acarologist
    • Aerobiologist
    • Anatomist
    • Arachnologist
    • Bacteriologist
    • Bioclimatologist
    • Biogeographer
    • Bioinformatician
    • Biotechnologist
    • Bioarcheologist
    • Biochemist
    • Biolinguist
    • Biophysicist
    • Biostatistician
    • Botanist
    • Cell biologist
    • Chronobiologist
    • Cognitive biologist
    • Computational biologist
  • Conservation biologist
  • Dendrochronologist
  • Developmental biologist
  • Ecologist
  • Electrophysiologist
  • Embryologist
  • Endocrinologist
  • Entomologist
  • Epidemiologist
  • Ethologist
  • Evolutionary biologist
  • Geneticist
  • Hematologist
  • Herbchronologist
  • Herpetologist
  • Histologist
  • Human behavioral ecologist
  • Human biologist
  • Ichnologist
  • Ichthyologist
  • Immunologist
  • Integrative biologist
  • Lepidopterist
  • Mammalogist
  • Marine biologist
  • Medical biologist
  • Microbiologist
  • Molecular biologist
  • Mycologist
  • Neuroendocrinologist
  • Neuroscientist
  • Ornithologist
  • Osteologist
  • Paleoanthropologist
  • Paleobotanist
  • Paleobiologist
  • Paleontologist
  • Paleopathologist
  • Parasitologist
  • Pathologist
  • Physiologist
  • Phytopathologist
  • Population biologist
  • Primatologist
  • Quantum biologist
  • Radiobiologist
  • Sclerochronologist
  • Sociobiologist
  • Structural biologist
  • Theoretical biologist
  • Toxicologist
  • Virologist
  • Wildlife biologist
  • Zoologist

[edit]

  • Anthropologist
    • Archaeologist
    • Biological anthropologist
    • Cultural anthropologist
  • Communication scientist
  • Criminologist
  • Demographer
  • Economist
  • Linguist
  • Management scientist
  • Political economist
  • Political scientist
  • Psychologist
    • Abnormal psychologist
    • Behavioral psychologist
    • Biopsychologist
    • Clinical psychologist
    • Cognitive psychologist
    • Comparative psychologist
    • Developmental psychologist
    • Educational psychologist
    • Evolutionary psychologist
    • Experimental psychologist
    • Forensic psychologist
    • Health psychologist
    • Industrial and organizational psychologist
    • Medical psychologist
    • Neuropsychologist
    • Psychopharmacologist
    • Psychophysicist
    • Social psychologist
    • Sport psychologist
  • Sociologist

Formal science[edit]

  • Computer scientist
    • Computational scientist
    • Data scientist
  • Mathematician[31]
    • Algebraist
    • Analyst
    • Geometer
    • Logician
    • Probabilist
    • Statistician
    • Topologist
  • Systems scientist

Applied[edit]

  • Agriculturist
  • Applied physics
    • Health physicist
    • Medical physicist
  • Biomedical scientist
  • Engineering scientist
  • Environmental scientist
  • Food scientist
  • Kinesiologist
  • Nutritionist
  • Operations research and management analysts
  • Physician scientist

Interdisciplinary[edit]

  • Materials scientist
  • Mathematical biologist
  • Mathematical chemist
  • Mathematical economist
  • Mathematical physicist
  • Mathematical sociologist

By employer[edit]

  • Academic
  • Independent scientist
  • Industrial/applied scientist
  • Citizen scientist
  • Government scientist

Demography[edit]

By country[edit]

The number of scientists is vastly different from country to country. For instance, there are only four full-time scientists per 10,000 workers in India, while this number is 79 for the United Kingdom, and 85 for the United States.[47]

Scientists per 10,000 workers for selected countries[47]

  • Nigeria: 1
  • Indonesia: 1
  • Malaysia: 2
  • Thailand: 2
  • Bangladesh: 2
  • Pakistan: 3
  • India: 4
  • Kenya: 6
  • Chile: 7
  • Brazil: 14
  • Egypt: 14
  • United Arab Emirates: 15
  • Saudi Arabia: 15
  • China: 18
  • South Africa: 20
  • New Zealand: 35
  • Spain: 54
  • Russia: 58
  • France: 68
  • Australia: 69
  • Germany: 70
  • Italy: 70
  • Canada: 73
  • United Kingdom: 79
  • Japan: 83
  • United States: 85
  • Israel: 140

United States[edit]

According to the National Science Foundation, 4.7 million people with science degrees worked in the United States in 2015, across all disciplines and employment sectors. The figure included twice as many men as women. Of that total, 17% worked in academia, that is, at universities and undergraduate institutions, and men held 53% of those positions. 5% of scientists worked for the federal government, and about 3.5% were self-employed. Of the latter two groups, two-thirds were men. 59% of scientists in the United States were employed in industry or business, and another 6% worked in non-profit positions.[48]

By gender[edit]

Scientist and engineering statistics are usually intertwined, but they indicate that women enter the field far less than men, though this gap is narrowing. The number of science and engineering doctorates awarded to women rose from a mere 7 percent in 1970 to 34 percent in 1985 and in engineering alone the numbers of bachelor’s degrees awarded to women rose from only 385 in 1975 to more than 11000 in 1985.[49][clarification needed]

See also[edit]

  • Engineers
  • Inventor
  • Researcher
  • Fields Medal
  • Hippocratic Oath for Scientists
  • History of science
  • Intellectual
  • Independent scientist
  • Licensure
  • Mad scientist
  • Natural science
  • Nobel Prize
  • Protoscience
  • Normative science
  • Pseudoscience
  • Scholar
  • Science
  • Social science
Related lists
  • List of engineers
  • List of mathematicians
  • List of Nobel laureates in Physics
  • List of Nobel laureates in Chemistry
  • List of Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine
  • List of Russian scientists
  • List of Roman Catholic cleric-scientists

References[edit]

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  20. ^ Gilley, Sheridan (2006). The Cambridge History of Christianity: Volume 8, World Christianities C.1815-c.1914. Brian Stanley. Cambridge University Press. p. 164. ISBN 0-521-81456-1.
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  30. ^ Holmes, R (2008). The age of wonder: How the romantic generation discovered the beauty and terror of science. London: Harper Press. p. 449. ISBN 978-0-00-714953-7.
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  33. ^ Tamara Preaud, Derek E. Ostergard, The Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory. Yale University Press 1997. 416 pages. ISBN 0-300-07338-0 Page 36.
  34. ^ «Everyone is a Scientist – Scientific Scribbles».
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  36. ^ «STEM education: To build a scientist». Nature. 523 (7560): 371–373. 2015. doi:10.1038/nj7560-371a.
  37. ^ Gould, Julie (2016). «What’s the point of the PhD thesis?». Nature. 535 (7610): 26–28. Bibcode:2016Natur.535…26G. doi:10.1038/535026a. PMID 27383968.
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  39. ^ Lee, Adrian; Dennis, Carina; Campbell, Phillip (2007). «Nature’s guide for mentors». Nature. 447 (7146): 791–797. Bibcode:2007Natur.447..791L. doi:10.1038/447791a. PMID 17568738.
  40. ^ Kwok, Roberta (2017). «Flexible working: Science in the gig economy». Nature. 550: 419–421. doi:10.1038/nj7677-549a.
  41. ^ Woolston, Chris (2007). Editorial (ed.). «Many junior scientists need to take a hard look at their job prospects». Nature. 550: 549–552. doi:10.1038/nj7677-549a.
  42. ^ Lee, Adrian; Dennis, Carina; Campbell, Phillip (2007). «Graduate survey: A love–hurt relationship». Nature. 550 (7677): 549–552. doi:10.1038/nj7677-549a.
  43. ^ Stockton, Nick (7 October 2014), «How did the Nobel Prize become the biggest award on Earth?», Wired, retrieved 3 September 2018
  44. ^ Foreword. National Academies Press (US). 1992.
  45. ^ «The Brain: The Final Frontier?». November 2014.
  46. ^ «The Last Frontier — Carnegie Mellon University | CMU».
  47. ^ a b van Noorden, Richard (2015). «India by the numbers». Nature. 521 (7551): 142–143. Bibcode:2015Natur.521..142V. doi:10.1038/521142a. PMID 25971491.
  48. ^ «Employment: Male majority». Nature. 542 (7642): 509. 2017-02-22. doi:10.1038/nj7642-509b. S2CID 256770781.
  49. ^ Margaret A. Eisenhart, Elizabeth Finkel (1998). Women’s Science: Learning and Succeeding from the Margins. University of Chicago Press. p. 18.

External articles[edit]

Further reading
  • Alison Gopnik, «Finding Our Inner Scientist», Daedalus, Winter 2004.
  • Charles George Herbermann, The Catholic Encyclopedia. Science and the Church. The Encyclopedia press, 1913. v.13. Page 598.
  • Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 1962.
  • Arthur Jack Meadows. The Victorian Scientist: The Growth of a Profession, 2004. ISBN 0-7123-0894-6.
  • Science, The Relation of Pure Science to Industrial Research. American Association for the Advancement of Science. Page 511 onwards.
Websites
  • For best results, add a little inspiration – The Telegraph about What Inspired You?, a survey of key thinkers in science, technology and medicine
  • Peer Review Journal Science on amateur scientists
  • The philosophy of the inductive sciences, founded upon their history (1847) – Complete Text
Audio-Visual
  • «The Scientist», BBC Radio 4 discussion with John Gribbin, Patricia Fara and Hugh Pennington (In Our Time, Oct. 24, 2002)

As a scientist, I found Prof. Laura Snyder’s TED talk fascinating. I suspect her narrative on the history of science will have wide appeal, which is why Im sharing it here as a blog post rather than tweet. 

Prof. Laura Synder is a Fulbright Scholar and Professor of Philosophy at St. John’s University. In her talk, she illuminates to me and I suspect to you as well that the word «scientist» was shockingly first used in 1833, not that long ago! We owe its origins to a poet’s inquisitiveness. Ultimately, it was the scientist William Whewell who coined the term scientist in response to the poet’s plea that «natural philosophers» upgrade the name of their profession. How could it be that the word scientist was invented so recently?

She gives flesh to four Cambridge University students who in 1812 formed the «Philosophical Breakfast Club» to talk about the state of science in Britain and the world. In ushering in a new scientific revolution that even reached to Charles Darwin, the Philosophical Breakfast Club rapturously changed science. She also reminds us loud and clear that «science is not just for scientists». These six words spoken at the end of her talk resonate boldly with me. They are an anthem for science communication and outreach and for social media platforms like Twitter and Blogging that build bridges between scientists and those interested in science.

And for those that prefer reading over watching, here is Laura Snyder’s TED talk transposed to text. Ive highlighted in blue some key sections that stand out to me. 

«I’d like you
to come back with me for a moment to the 19th century, specifically to June 24,
1833
. The British Association for the Advancement of Science is holding its
third meeting at the University of Cambridge. It’s the first night of the
meeting, and a confrontation is about to take place that will change science
forever.

An elderly,
white-haired man stands up. The members of the Association are shocked to
realize that it’s the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who hadn’t even left his
house in years until that day. They’re even more shocked by what he says.

«You must
stop calling yourselves natural philosophers.»

Coleridge felt
that true philosophers like himself pondered the cosmos from their armchairs.
They were not mucking around in the fossil pits or conducting messy experiments
with electrical piles like the members of the British Association.

The crowd grew
angry and began to complain loudly. A young Cambridge scholar named William
Whewell stood up and quieted the audience. He politely agreed that an appropriate
name for the members of the association did not exist.

«If
‘philosophers’ is taken to be too wide and lofty a term,» he said,
«then, by analogy with ‘artist,’ we may form ‘scientist.'» This was
the first time the word scientist was uttered in public, only 179 years ago.

I first found
out about this confrontation when I was in graduate school, and it kind of blew
me away. I mean, how could the word scientist not have existed until 1833? What
were scientists called before? What had changed to make a new name necessary
precisely at that moment? Prior to this meeting, those who studied the natural
world were talented amateurs. Think of the country clergyman or squire
collecting his beetles or fossils, like Charles Darwin, for example, or, the
hired help of a nobleman, like Joseph Priestley, who was the literary companion
to the Marquis of Lansdowne when he discovered oxygen. After this, they were
scientists, professionals with a particular scientific method, goals, societies
and funding.

Much of this
revolution can be traced to four men who met at Cambridge University in 1812:
Charles Babbage, John Herschel, Richard Jones and William Whewell.
These were
brilliant, driven men who accomplished amazing things. Charles Babbage, I think
known to most TEDsters, invented the first mechanical calculator and the first
prototype of a modern computer. John Herschel mapped the stars of the southern
hemisphere, and, in his spare time, co-invented photography. I’m sure we could
all be that productive without Facebook or Twitter to take up our time. Richard
Jones became an important economist who later influenced Karl Marx. And Whewell
not only coined the term scientist, as well as the words anode, cathode and
ion, but spearheaded international big science with his global research on the
tides. In the Cambridge winter of 1812 and 1813, the four met for what they
called philosophical breakfasts. They talked about science and the need for a
new scientific revolution. They felt science had stagnated since the days of the
scientific revolution that had happened in the 17th century. It was time for a
new revolution, which they pledged to bring about, and what’s so amazing about
these guys is, not only did they have these grandiose undergraduate dreams, but
they actually carried them out, even beyond their wildest dreams. And I’m going
to tell you today about four major changes to science these men made.

About 200
years before, Francis Bacon and then, later, Isaac Newton, had proposed an
inductive scientific method. Now that’s a method that starts from observations
and experiments and moves to generalizations about nature called natural laws,
which are always subject to revision or rejection should new evidence arise.
However, in 1809, David Ricardo muddied the waters by arguing that the science
of economics should use a different, deductive method. The problem was that an
influential group at Oxford began arguing that because it worked so well in
economics, this deductive method ought to be applied to the natural sciences too.
The members of the philosophical breakfast club disagreed. They wrote books and
articles promoting inductive method in all the sciences that were widely read
by natural philosophers, university students and members of the public. Reading
one of Herschel’s books was such a watershed moment for Charles Darwin that he
would later say, «Scarcely anything in my life made so deep an impression
on me. It made me wish to add my might to the accumulated store of natural
knowledge.» It also shaped Darwin’s scientific method, as well as that
used by his peers. [Science for the public good]

Previously, it
was believed that scientific knowledge ought to be used for the good of the
king or queen, or for one’s own personal gain.
For example, ship captains
needed to know information about the tides in order to safely dock at ports.
Harbormasters would gather this knowledge and sell it to the ship captains. The
philosophical breakfast club changed that, working together. Whewell’s
worldwide study of the tides resulted in public tide tables and tidal maps that
freely provided the harbormasters’ knowledge to all ship captains. Herschel
helped by making tidal observations off the coast of South Africa, and, as he
complained to Whewell, he was knocked off the docks during a violent high tide
for his trouble. The four men really helped each other in every way. They also
relentlessly lobbied the British government for the money to build Babbage’s
engines because they believed these engines would have a huge practical impact
on society. In the days before pocket calculators, the numbers that most
professionals needed — bankers, insurance agents, ship captains, engineers —
were to be found in lookup books like this, filled with tables of figures.
These tables were calculated using a fixed procedure over and over by part-time
workers known as — and this is amazing — computers, but these calculations
were really difficult. I mean, this nautical almanac published the lunar
differences for every month of the year. Each month required 1,365
calculations, so these tables were filled with mistakes. Babbage’s difference
engine was the first mechanical calculator devised to accurately compute any of
these tables. Two models of his engine were built in the last 20 years by a
team from the Science Museum of London using his own plans. This is the one now
at the Computer History Museum in California, and it calculates accurately. It
actually works. Later, Babbage’s analytical engine was the first mechanical
computer in the modern sense. It had a separate memory and central processor.
It was capable of iteration, conditional branching and parallel processing, and
it was programmable using punched cards, an idea Babbage took from Jacquard’s
loom. Tragically, Babbage’s engines never were built in his day because most
people thought that non-human computers would have no usefulness for the
public. [New scientific institutions]

Founded in
Bacon’s time, the Royal Society of London was the foremost scientific society
in England and even in the rest of the world. By the 19th century, it had
become a kind of gentleman’s club populated mainly by antiquarians, literary
men and the nobility. The members of the philosophical breakfast club helped
form a number of new scientific societies, including the British Association.
These new societies required that members be active researchers publishing
their results. They reinstated the tradition of the Q&A after scientific
papers were read, which had been discontinued by the Royal Society as being
ungentlemanly. And for the first time, they gave women a foot in the door of
science.
Members were encouraged to bring their wives, daughters and sisters to
the meetings of the British Association, and while the women were expected to
attend only the public lectures and the social events like this one, they began
to infiltrate the scientific sessions as well. The British Association would
later be the first of the major national science organizations in the world to
admit women as full members. [External funding for science]

Up to the 19th
century, natural philosophers were expected to pay for their own equipment and
supplies. Occasionally, there were prizes, such as that given to John Harrison
in the 18th century, for solving the so-called longitude problem, but prizes
were only given after the fact, when they were given at all. On the advice of
the philosophical breakfast club, the British Association began to use the
extra money generated by its meetings to give grants for research in astronomy,
the tides, fossil fish, shipbuilding, and many other areas. These grants not
only allowed less wealthy men to conduct research, but they also encouraged
thinking outside the box, rather than just trying to solve one pre-set
question.
Eventually, the Royal Society and the scientific societies of other
countries followed suit, and this has become — fortunately it’s become — a
major part of the scientific landscape today.

So the
philosophical breakfast club helped invent the modern scientist. That’s the
heroic part of their story. There’s a flip side as well. They did not foresee
at least one consequence of their revolution. They would have been deeply
dismayed by today’s disjunction between science and the rest of culture. It’s
shocking to realize that only 28 percent of American adults have even a very
basic level of science literacy, and this was tested by asking simple questions
like, «Did humans and dinosaurs inhabit the Earth at the same time?»
and «What proportion of the Earth is covered in water?» Once scientists
became members of a professional group, they were slowly walled off from the
rest of us. This is the unintended consequence of the revolution that started
with our four friends.

Charles Darwin
said, «I sometimes think that general and popular treatises are almost as
important for the progress of science as original work.» In fact,
«Origin of Species» was written for a general and popular audience,
and was widely read when it first appeared. Darwin knew what we seem to have
forgotten, that science is not only for scientists.»

Thank you.

By Laura J. Snyder

William Whewell

William Whewell right around the time he invented the word scientist

It was June 24, 1833, at the meeting of the recently-founded British Association for the Advancement of Science. William Whewell (pronounced “who-ell”), a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and former professor of Mineralogy, had just finished a speech opening the conference. When the applause died down, the members were shocked to see a frail, grizzled man rise slowly to his feet. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the celebrated Romantic poet, had written a treatise on scientific method decades before. Coleridge had hardly left his home in Highgate for the past thirty years, yet he had felt obliged to make the journey to attend this meeting.

At that time, the practitioners of science were known primarily as “natural philosophers.” Coleridge remarked acidly that the members of the association should no longer refer to themselves this way. Men digging in fossil pits, or performing experiments with electrical apparatus, hardly fit the definition. They were not, he meant, “armchair philosophers,” pondering the mysteries of the universe, but practical men – with dirty hands, at that. As a “real metaphysician,” he forbade them the use of this honorific.

The hall erupted in a tumultuous din, as the assembled group took offense at the insult Coleridge clearly intended. Then Whewell rose again, quieting the crowd. He courteously agreed with the “distinguished gentleman” that a satisfactory term with which to describe the members of the association was wanting. If “philosophers” is taken to be “too wide and lofty a term,” then, Whewell suggested, “by analogy with artist, we may form scientist.”

It was fitting that the term was invented by Whewell who, along with three of his friends, transformed the natural philosopher into the modern scientist.

About the author: An expert on Victorian science and culture, Fulbright scholar Laura J. Snyder was the President of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science in 2009 and 2010. She is associate professor of philosophy at St. John’s University, and the author of Reforming Philosophy: A Victorian Debate on Science and Society (University of Chicago, 2006) and The Philosophical Breakfast Club: Four Remarkable Friends who Transformed Science and Changed the World (Broadway, February 22, 2011). Follow Laura on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/authorLauraJSnyder.

The Philosophical Breakfast Club: Four Remarkable Friends who Transformed Science and Changed the World

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Euclid,  Photo12/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Euclid (L) holds a sphaera and looks through a dioptra. Beside him sits Hermann of Carinthia, a medieval translator of Arab works on astronomy, holding an astrolabe. Euclid is ancient but can we consider him the first scientist? Photo12/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

The word «scientist» entered the English language in 1834. That’s when Cambridge University historian and philosopher William Whewell coined the term to describe someone who studies the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment. You could make the argument, then, that the first modern scientist was someone like Charles Darwin or Michael Faraday, two iconic figures who also happened to be Whewell’s contemporaries. But even if the term didn’t exist before the 1830s, people who embodied its principles did.

To find the very first scientist, we must travel back in time even further. We could go back to the most ancient of the ancient Greeks, all the way back to Thales of Miletus, who lived from about 624 B.C.E. to about 545 B.C.E. By many accounts, Thales achieved much in both science and mathematics, yet he left no written record and may have been, like Homer, a celebrated figure who received credit for many great achievements but who may never have existed at all.

We could consider other ancient Greeks as well, such as Euclid (the father of geometry) or Ptolemy (the misguided astronomer who put Earth at the center of the cosmos). But all of these men, although great thinkers, relied on making arguments instead of running experiments to prove or disprove hypotheses.

Some scholars believe that modern science had its origins in an impressive class of Arabic mathematicians and philosophers working in the Middle East decades before the European Renaissance began. This group included al-Khwarizmi, Ibn Sina, al-Biruni and Ibn al-Haytham. In fact, many experts recognize Ibn al-Haytham, who lived in present-day Iraq between 965 and 1039 C.E., as the first scientist. He invented the pinhole camera, discovered the laws of refraction and studied a number of natural phenomena, such as rainbows and eclipses. And yet it remains unclear whether his scientific method was truly modern or more like Ptolemy and his Greek predecessors. It’s also not clear whether he had emerged from the mysticism still prevalent at the time.

It’s almost impossible to determine when the influence of mysticism had faded completely among scientists. What’s easier to identify are the characteristics of a modern scientist. According to author Brian Clegg, a modern scientist must recognize the importance of experiment, embrace mathematics as a fundamental tool, consider information without bias and understand the need to communicate. In other words, he or she must be unshackled by religious dogma and willing to observe, react and think objectively. Clearly, many individuals doing scientific work in the 17th century — Christiaan Huygens, Robert Hooke, Isaac Newton — satisfied most of these requirements. But to find the first scientist with these characteristics, you have to travel to the Renaissance, to the mid-16th century.

We’ll head there next.

Gilbert Grabs First Scientist Honors

William Gilbert forges a magnet

William Gilbert forges a magnet. From William Gilbert’s «De Magnete,» London, 1600. Photo 12/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

You probably think of Galileo Galilei at the mention of Renaissance science, and rightfully so. He overturned Aristotle’s ideas on motion and began to explain such complex concepts as force, inertia and acceleration. He built one of the first telescopes and used it to study the cosmos. What he saw through the lenses of his device removed Earth from the center of the universe and put it in its proper place. In all his work, Galileo stressed the need for observation and experimentation. And yet Galileo owes much to another seminal figure born 20 years earlier.

His name was William Gilbert, a rather obscure figure in the history of science. Along with Galileo, Gilbert had been busy practicing the scientific method in his work and setting an example for his peers after the first decade of the 17th century had past. Here’s what John Gribbin had to say about Gilbert and Galileo in his 2002 book «The Scientists»:

Although Galileo is one of the towering figures in science, known by name to every educated person today, and Gilbert is less well known than he deserves, Gilbert had the earlier birth date and, chronologically speaking at least, deserves the title of first scientist.

Gilbert was born in 1544 to a prominent local family and attended Cambridge University between 1558 and 1569. Eventually, he settled in London and embarked on a successful career as a physician, attending to both Queen Elizabeth I and, upon her death in 1603, to King James I.

It was Gilbert’s investigations into the nature of magnetism, however, that may make him the first modern scientist. This work culminated in «De Magnete, Magneticisque Corporibus, et de Magno Magnete Tellure» («On the Magnet, Magnetic Bodies, and the Great Magnet of the Earth»), the first significant book about physical science published in England. In the book’s preface, Gilbert described the need for «sure experiments and demonstrated arguments» instead of «conjectures and the opinions of philosophical speculators.» He also discussed the need to conduct experiments «carefully, skilfully and deftly, not heedlessly and bunglingly.»

The scientist followed his own advice. Gilbert’s book recounted his investigations in so much detail that another person could replicate his work and verify his results. This research led to many important discoveries about magnetism. He was the first person to fully explain how a magnetic compass worked and to propose that Earth was a magnetic planet. The learned fellow also turned his inquisitive mind to the heavens.

Gilbert directly influenced Galileo. The famous Italian scientist read De Magnete and repeated many of its experiments. It’s easy to imagine Galileo poring over the book and nodding in affirmation at Gilbert’s ideas about experimentation and observation — ideas that Galileo himself would apply in his groundbreaking work. Is it any wonder Galileo proclaimed Gilbert to be the founder of the scientific method? This endorsement alone may be enough to substantiate the claim that William Gilbert was the first modern scientist.

Originally Published: Mar 15, 2011

Lots More Information

Related Articles

  • How the Scientific Method Works
  • Were Galileo’s inventions all about the cosmos?
  • How Isaac Newton Worked
  • Top 10 Ben Franklin Inventions
  • 10 Accidental Inventions You Won’t Believe
  • 10 Inventions That Changed the World
  • 5 Amazing Egyptian Inventions
  • Top 5 NASA Inventions

More Great Links

  • American Association for the Advancement of Science
  • National Science Foundation
  • The Department of the History of Science — Harvard University

Sources

  • Al-Khalili, Jim. «The ‘first true scientist.'» BBC News. Jan. 4, 2009. (Feb. 22, 2011)http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7810846.stm
  • Clegg, Brian. «Who was the first scientist?» Nature Network Science Writers Forum. Oct. 13, 2007. (Feb. 22, 2011)http://network.nature.com/groups/sciencewriters/forum/topics/609
  • Farndon, John. «The Great Scientists.» Metro Books, 2005.
  • Flatow, Ira, host. «How The Word ‘Scientist’ Came To Be.» NPR Talk of the Nation. May 21, 2010. (Feb. 22, 2011)http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127037417
  • Gribbin, John. «The Scientists.» Random House, 2002.
  • McHenry, Robert. «Thales of Miletus: The First Scientist, the First Philosopher.» Encyclopaedia Britannica Blog. April 28, 2010. (Feb. 22, 2011)http://www.britannica.com/blogs/2010/04/thales-of-miletus-hero/
  • «William Gilbert.» Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica, 2011. (Feb. 22, 2011)http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/233551/William-Gilbert

Who invented word science?

William Whewell

When was science first used?

As far as the older times are concerned, clearly no scientist could prove that the Earth was formed exactly 4 600 000 000 years ago, or that the first human settlements were established 12 000 years ago….A brief history of Science.

Years BP Events in Earth History
3 700 first alphabet developed (Palestine)
3 500 first use of iron

Is science a Greek word?

The modern English word ‘science’ is related to the Latin word ‘scientia’, the ancient Greek word for knowledge was ‘episteme’. Probably neither word is exactly carrying the meaning of our modern word ‘science’, and we use the word ‘science as a shorthand of referring to attempts to explain and understand nature.

What is the etymology of the word science?

Science comes from the Latin “scio” meaning “I know.” Scio derives from the Latin infinitive “scire” meaning “to know,” and is akin to “scindere” meaning to cut or to split. Scindere is traceable to the Greek “schizein” meaning to split, and that’s traceable to the Sanskrit “chinatti” meaning ‘he splits’.

What is science answer in one word?

a branch of knowledge or study dealing with a body of facts or truths systematically arranged and showing the operation of general laws: the mathematical sciences. systematic knowledge of the physical or material world gained through observation and experimentation. any of the branches of natural or physical science.

What is science simple definition Urdu?

Science Meaning in English to Urdu is علم سائنس, as written in Urdu and Ilm Science, as written in Roman Urdu. There are many synonyms of Science which include Art, Branch, Discipline, Education, Erudition, Information, Learning, Lore, Scholarship, Skill, System, Technique, Wisdom, Body Of Knowledge, etc.

What is science 11th?

What are the subjects in Science in class 11? The science stream has two sub-branches, divided based on the third subject you study: Medical – Physics, Chemistry, Biology, English, Optional Subject. Non-Medical – Physics, Chemistry, Maths, English, Optional Subject.

Is science class 11 hard?

Science is the most popular stream chosen by students in class 11. But, Science is also considered a very hard stream to cope with often putting the students under a lot of pressure. But nothing is too tough with the right planning, thought and hard work to you have the recipe for success.

Which group is best in 11th?

The best group in class 11 is bio maths group but it is the toughest of all. Then comes csc group and then commerce group. Commerce group is the easiest of all the group and it is also a good group and it has many opportunities nowadays. But all depends on your interest.

Is Commerce easy or science?

From Accounting to Managing, Commerce is practically everywhere. When it comes to the course structure, Commerce is easier than Science. The science subjects require you to study continuously and extensively. Commerce requires you to be clear with the basics, and you are good to go.

Is science good for future?

Science is a very diverse field with many possible job opportunities and career paths. Whether you have an interest in working with computers, the weather, or medicine (just to name a few possibilities), it is highly likely that there will be a job available in the field of your choice in the future.

Which stream is best for future?

1. Science – Science is the most popular and favourite career option for the majority of the parents and students. Science stream offers many lucrative career options such as engineering, medical, IT and you can even opt for research roles.

Which job is best after 10th?

Government Jobs After 10th In Staff Selection Commission

Sr. No. Exam Post
1 SSC MTS Watchman
Cleaning Staff
Junior Gestetner Operator
2 SSC Selection Post Office Attendant/Field Attendant

Which government job is best?

Top Government Jobs in India

  • State Public Service Commission.
  • Defence services – Army, Navy, Coast guard.
  • Government Lecturer or University Professors.
  • Railway engineers.
  • Bank Jobs.
  • Government Doctors.
  • Scientists.
  • Insurance Sector Jobs.

What government job makes the most money?

The Highest-Paying Federal Government Jobs

  • Nurse anesthetist.
  • Administrative law judge.
  • Patent administrator.
  • Technical systems program manager.
  • General mathematician/statistician.
  • Chief engineer.
  • Astronomy and space scientist. FrameStockFootages / Shutterstock.
  • Program manager. Kaspars Grinvalds / Shutterstock.

Which government job is easy?

#1 RRB Group D This is the first among the Top 10 easiest exams in India and is conducted to recruit people for Group D vacancies in Indian Railways like Cabin Man, Welder, Gatekeeper. This exam is conducted in two stages namely, written test which is held on online mode and physical efficiency test.

Who gets the highest salary in Indian government?

Salary of the government officials in India

Position in the Indian order of precedence Post Salary per month (Basic Pay)
1 President ₹500,000 (US$7,000)
2 Vice President ₹400,000 (US$5,600)
3 Prime Minister ₹280,000 (US$3,900)(salary received as a Member of Parliament in Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha)
4 Governors ₹350,000 (US$4,900)

What is the salary of PM Modi?

2 lakh

What is the salary of Narendra Modi?

The Prime Minister of India will be drawing a monthly salary of Rs. 1.6 lakh. His basic salary will be Rs 50,000, with a sumptuary allowance of Rs. 3,000, a daily allowance of Rs.

Who is the president’s salary?

a $400,000

Continue Learning about General Science

Who invented sicence?

why is science so hard


Why was science invented?

To see how the world was made


What is science in Latin?

The English word «science» comes from the Latin word scientia , which means «knowledge».


What does the word mass mean in science term?

The word mass in science means the density of an object.


What word for science starts with z?

The most likely word relating to science and starting with the
letter z is zoology.

Andre Marie Ampere

Andre Marie Ampere was born on the 20th of January 1775. His father was a prosperous businessman.

As a child, Ampere was very curious and smart. He became a voracious reader under the guidance of his father and read books on mathematics, history, travels, poetry, philosophy, and the natural sciences.

He was particularly fascinated by mathematics and began studying the subject seriously when he was 13.

Ampere started working as a private mathematics tutor in Lyon in 1797. His success as a tuition teacher brought him to the attention of the intellectuals in Lyon who were greatly impressed by the young man’s knowledge.

He obtained a teaching position at the recently opened Polytechnique School in 1804. He was much successful in this position, and was appointed a professor of mathematics at the school in 1809 despite his lack of formal qualifications, a position he would hold till 1828. Ampere was elected to the French Academy of Sciences in 1814.

In April 1820, Danish physicist Hans Christian Oersted discovered a link between electricity and magnetism – electromagnetism. A few months later, Ampere’s friend François Arago demonstrated Oersted’s electromagnetic effect to the members of the French Academy in Paris.

Ampere was fascinated by Oersted’s electromagnetic discoveries and began working on them himself. After rigorous experiments, Ampere showed that two parallel wires carrying electric currents attract or repel each other, depending on whether the currents flow in the same or opposite directions, respectively.

Gifted in both mathematics and physics, Ampere applied mathematics in generalizing physical laws from these experimental results, and discovered the principle that came to be called “Ampere’s law”. His works provided a physical understanding of the electromagnetic relationship, theorizing the existence of an “electrodynamic molecule” that served as the component element of both electricity and magnetism.

After years of intensive research and experimentation, Ampere published “Memoir on the Mathematical Theory of Electrodynamic Phenomena, Uniquely Deduced from Experience” in 1827. The name of the new science, “Electrodynamics” was coined in this work which became known as its founding treatise.

He formulated Ampere’s Law which states that the mutual action of two lengths of current-carrying wire is proportional to their lengths and to the intensities of their currents.

He is considered the first person to discover electromagnetism. One of his major contributions to classical electromagnetism was Ampere’s circuital law, which relates the integrated magnetic field around a closed loop to the electric current passing through the loop.

He is credited for the invention of the astatic needle, a vital component of the modern astatic galvanometer.

Vocabulary:

voracious – ненасытный

natural science – естественные науки

fascinated – очарованный

private tutor – частный учитель

tuition teacher – преподаватель

obtain – получить

appoint – быть назначенным

to be elected – быть избранным

effect – воздействие

rigorous – суровый

wires – провод

electric current – электрический ток

attract – притягивать

repel – отталкивать

flow – протекать

respectively – одновременно

gifted – одаренный

apply – применять

generalizing – обобщение

Amperes law – закон Ампера

provide – обеспечивать

relationship – связь

electrodynamic molecule – электродинамическая молекула

component element – составной элемент

deduce – выводить

coin – разработать/придумать

treatise – трактат

mutual action – взаимное действие

length – отрезок/длина

current-carrying wire – проводник тока

contribution – вклад

circuital – циклический

relate – связывать

integrated magnetic field – интегрированное магнитное поле

closed loop – замкнутая петля

passing – проходящий

astatic needle – астатическая магнитная стрелка

vital – необходимый

astatic galvanometer – астатический гальванометр

Answer the questions:

What does Ampere’s law state?

What is a vital component of astatic galvanometer?

What did Ampere’s rigorous experiments in electromagnetic show?

Who discovered the link between electricity and magnetism?

What did Ampere’s works provide?

What is his major contribution to electromagnetism?

How long had Ampere been a professor of mathematics at the Polytechnique School?

When was Ampere elected to the French Academy of Sciences?

What made Ampere begin working on electromagnetic discoveries?

Translate the following sentences using words and word combinations from the text:

После долгих лет интенсивных исследований и экспериментов он открыл связь между электричеством и магнетизмом.

Он обобщил законы физики и открыл принцип, который был назван «Закон Ампера».

Он обеспечил физическое понимание электромагнитной связи и внес вклад в развитие классического электромагнетизма.

Он был назначен профессором, несмотря на отсутствие необходимой квалификации.

Он был любопытным и умным и был очарован математикой.

James Watt

James Watt was a Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer, known for his improvements of the stream engine.

Watt was born on January 19, 1736, in Greenock, Scotland. He worked as a mathematical-instrument maker from the age of 19 and soon became interested in improving the steam, engine which was used at that time to pump out water from mines.

Watt determined the properties of steam, especially the relation of its density to its temperature and pressure, and designed a separate condensing chamber for the steam engine that prevented large losses of steam in the cylinder. Watt’s first patent, in 1769, covered this device and other improvements on steam engine.

At that time, Watt was the partner of the inventor John Roebuck, who had financed his researches. In 1775, however, Roebuck’s interest was taken over by the manufacturer Matthew Boulton, owner of the Soho Engineering Works at Birmingham, Watt and Boulton began the manufacture of steam engines together as companions. Watt continued his research and patented several other important inventions, including the rotary engine for driving various types of machinery; the double-action, in which steam is admitted alternately into both ends of the cylinder; the steam indicator, which records the steam pressure in the engine. He retired in 1800 and thereafter devoted himself entirely to research work.

The misconception that Watt was the actual inventor of the steam engine arose from the fundamental nature of his contributions to its development. The centrifugal or flyball governor, which he invented in 1788, and which automatically regulated the speed of an engine, is of particular interest today. It embodies the feedback principle of a servomechanism, linking output to input, which is the basic concept of automation.

The watt, the unit of power, was named in his honor. Watt was also a well known civil engineer. In 1767, he invented an attachment that adapted telescopes for use in the measurement of distances. Watt died in 1819 in Heathfield, near Birmingham.

1. Answer the questions:

Who was James Watt?

How was the steam engine used at the beginning of the 18th century?

What did Watt determine?

What did Watt patent in the seventieth?

Was Watt the actual inventor of the steam engine?

What is the centrifugal or fly bale governor?

What unit of power was named in his honour?

What attachment did he invent in 1767?

2. Match the words to make correct word combinations:

the properties

to pump out

the measurement

began

prevented

basic concept

research

a separate condensing

the rotary

steam

of automation

work

engine

chamber

of steam

water

engine

of distances

large lasses of steam

the manufacture

Georg Simon Ohm

Georg Simon Ohm (16 March 1789 – 6 July 1854) was a German physicist and mathematician. As a school teacher, Ohm began his research with the new electrochemical cell, invented by Italian scientist Alessandro Volta. Using equipment of his own creation, Ohm found that there is a direct proportionality between the potential difference (voltage) applied across a conductor and the resultant electric current. This relationship is known as Ohm’s law.

From early childhood, Georg was taught by his father who brought him to a high standard in mathematics, physics, chemistry and philosophy. In 1806, Ohm accepted a position as a mathematics teacher in Gottstatt Monastery. In 1809, he became a private tutor in Neuchâtel. For two years he carried out his duties as a tutor and continued his private study of mathematics.

In 1817, Ohm spent time carrying out physics experiments in the well-equipped laboratory. Thus, he developed his important theory between the relationship of resistance, electric current and voltage. In 1825, Ohm published his first paper which examined the decrease in the electromagnetic force produced by a wire as the length of the wire increased. Ohm published two more papers in 1826, and his famous book containing Ohm’s law, in 1827 in which he detailed his complete theory of electricity.

Resigning his teaching position in 1828, Ohm was without permanent employment until 1833 when he accepted a professorship at the Polytechnic School of Nuremberg, remaining there for sixteen years.

In 1849 he became curator of the Bavarian Academy’s physics cabinet at Munich, and in 1852 was appointed to the chair of physics at the University of Munich, a position he held until his death. After extensive research, he wrote “The Galvanic Circuit Investigated Mathematically” in 1827, which formulated the relationship between voltage (potential difference), current and resistance in an electrical circuit: I = V / R

The unit of current is the ampere (I); that of potential difference is the volt (V); and that of resistance is the ohm (Ω). This equation, as defined using the unit of resistance above, was not formalized until the 1860’s.

Ohms Law states that the current flow through a conductor is directly proportional to the potential difference (voltage) and inversely proportional to the resistance. The law still remains the most widely used and appreciated of all the rules relating to the behavior of electrical circuits. Ohm died on July 6, 1854. He was 65 years old. The physical unit of electrical resistance, the Ohm (Ω), was named in his honor.

Find Russian equivalents for the following words and word combinations:

electrochemical cell;

potential difference;

voltage;

conductor;

resultant;

electric current;

private tutor;

resistance;

decrease;

electromagnetic force;

wire;

to resign;

chair of physics;

galvanic circuit;

equation;

current flow;

inversely proportional.

Answer the questions:

What did Ohm begin his first research with?

What position did Ohm hold until his death?

What relationship did he explain in “The Galvanic Circuit Investigated Mathematically”?

What does Ohm’s law state?

Match the following words to make word combinations:

potential

electric

private

electromechanical

electromagnetic

teaching

permanent

directly

physical

current

position

unit

difference

employment

proportional

force

cell

tutor

Write a short summary of the text (15-20 sentences).

Archimedes [ɑːkɪˈmiːdiːz]

Archimedes was a mathematician, inventor, and astronomer who was one of the most celebrated mathematicians of all time. He was born in Syracuse, a Greek city-state. He was educated at Alexandria.

Archimedes greatest love was theoretical mathematics. He wrote several treatises and corresponded with other mathematicians of the day. This includes a development of calculus using infinitesimals. Archimedes development of calculus remained unimproved until the 15th Century.

Using the method of approximation, he showed pi has to be greater than 223/71 and less than 22/7. He proved that the volume and surface area of a sphere was 2/3 of a cylinder of the same height and diameter.

As well as mathematics, Archimedes made discoveries in the field of mechanics. Although he did not invent the lever, he made descriptions about its use, the mathematical underpinning of levers, and made practical innovations to help sailors lift heavier objects than they could on their own. Archimedes work on the lever led to one of his most famous statements: “Give me a place to stand on, and I will move the Earth.”

Archimedes was also known as an outstanding astronomer. He made observations on solstices and calculated the distance to the sun and planets through the use of Pythagorean theory.

Archimedes was involved in constructing and possibly inventing the Archimedes screw, which is able to lift liquid and solids uphill against the force of gravity. It was an important device which could lift water from low-lying lands to higher lands. He invented many military defences, which included a system of mirrors deflecting the sunlight to the Roman ships – either to set them alight or blind the sailors heading to shore.

Another weapon was the Claw of Archimedes – it involved a long metal hook suspended from a crane-like arm. It was used to drop on invading ships to lift them from the water and possibly sink it. He is also credited with inventing a more powerful and accurate catapult.

Archimedes was killed by a Roman soldier in 212 BC. He was buried in Syracuse with a model sculpture of his sphere and cylinder. The tomb of Archimedes was later rediscovered by Cicero in about 75 BC.

Archimedes’ Greatest Achievements:

invented the sciences of mechanics and hydrostatics;

discovered the laws of levers, which allow us to move heavy objects using small forces;

invented one of the most fundamental concepts of physics – the center of gravity;

calculated pi to the most precise value known. His upper limit for pi was the fraction 22⁄7;

discovered and mathematically proved the formulas for the volume and surface area of a sphere;

showed how exponents could be used to write bigger numbers than had ever been thought of before;

proved that to multiply numbers written as exponents, the exponents should be added together;

was the first person to apply lessons from physics to solve problems in pure mathematics;

invented war machines such as a highly accurate catapult.

Vocabulary:

treatise – трактат

calculus – исчисление

infinitesimals – бесконечно малый

unimproved – недоказанный

method of approximation – метод приближения

height – высота

lever – рычаг

mathematical underpinning – математическая основа

solstice – солнцестояние

the Archimedes screw – Архимедов винт

solid – груз

military defence – средство военной обороны

deflect – отражать/отводить

the Claw of Archimedes – коготь Архимеда

suspend – подвешенный

crane-like arm – крыло крана

drop on – топить

invading – вторжение

exponent – показатель степени

Answer the questions:

What was Archimedes’ contribution to the lever’s use?

What was the Archimedes’ screw able to?

What military defences did he invent?

What did the Claw of Archimedes involve?

What are the most important Archimedes’ discoveries in the field of mathematics?

Translate the second part of the text in the written form.

Fill in the gaps with the appropriate words and word combinations:

This type of weapon involved a long metal hook suspended from a crane-like arm. _______ .

One of the most famous Archimedes’ developments included ________ using infinitesimals.

It is known that the volume and surface area of a ________ is 2/3 of a ________ of the same height and ________ .

This equipment helped sailors lift heavy objects. ________ .

Archimedes calculated the distance to the sun and planets using ________ .

This tool was able to lift liquid and solids uphill against the force of gravity. ________ .

A special system of mirrors ________ the sunlight to the invading ships.

Archimedes created the most powerful and accurate _______ .

Pythagorean theory, sphere, diameter, catapult, the Claw of Archimedes, lever, cylinder, deflected, calculus, the Archimedes screw.

Make 10 sentences using the words below. White them in The Past Simple Tense:

утверждение – Ved/V2

отрицание – didnt V1

вопрос – Did подлежащее V1

Pythagorean theory;

theoretical mathematics;

weapon:

force of gravity;

inventor;

military defence;

development;

the Archimedes screw;

treatise;

device.

Blaise Pascal

Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), the French philosopher and scientist, was one of the greatest and most influential mathematicians of all time. He was also an expert in hydrostatics, an inventor, and a religious philosopher.

Born at Clermont-Ferrand on June 19, 1623, Pascal’s father was Étienne Pascal, a local judge and later a tax collector. He was the second child of three children and the only son. The Pascal family settled in Paris in 1631 and later they moved to Rouen in 1640.

At a tender age of 12, Pascal began participating in the meetings of a mathematical academy. He learned different languages from his father, Latin and Greek in particular, but Pascal Sr. didn’t teach him mathematics. This increased the curiosity of young Pascal, who went on to experiment with geometrical figures, even formulating his own names for standard geometrical terms.

Pascal wrote an important short work on projective geometry, “Essay on Conics” aged just 16. Pascal’s Theorem states that opposite sides of a hexagon inscribed in a conic, intersect in three collinear points.

Pascal invented a calculator called the Pascaline. This mechanical calculator was able to add and subtract and used a numerical wheel with movable dials.

During the 1640’s Pascal contributed to hydrostatics. This is the branch of fluid mechanics that studies fluids at rest. In the course of his experiments, he invented the syringe and the hydraulic press. Pascal carried out experimentations with air pressure. He confirmed Evangelista Torricelli’s theory concerning the cause of barometrical variations. By 1647 he had proved to his satisfaction that a vacuum existed and wrote “New Experiments Concerning Vacuums”.

His theoretical work on the equilibrium of fluids led to his work “Treatise on the Equilibrium of Liquids” in 1653 in which he explained Pascal’s law of pressure. The Pascal principle states that when there is an increase in pressure at any point in a confined fluid, there is an equal increase at every other point in the container.

Pascal also studied conic sections and produced important theorems in projective geometry. He studied the Pascal Triangle, making many new mathematical observations. This is a triangle where each number is the sum of the two directly above it. The triangle was used to prove Pascal’s Identity. This is a useful theorem of combinatorics dealing with binomial coefficients. His work “Treatise on the Arithmetical Triangle” was published in 1653.

In 1654, Pascal began corresponding with mathematician Pierre de Fermat. He conducted experiments with dice and discovered that there was a fixed likelihood of a particular outcome. This was the beginning of the field of probability. Fermat and Pascal are today recognized as the co-founders of probability theory.

Blaise Pascal died on the 19th of August, 1662. The Pascal (Pa) unit of pressure was named in his honor. The computer language Pascal is named after him in recognition of his early computing machine.

Vocabulary:

hydrostatics – гидростатика

tax collector – сборщик налогов

participate – принимать участие

projective geometry – проективная геометрия

conic – коническое сечение

hexagon – шестиугольник

inscribed – вписанный

intersect – пересекаться

collinear points – коллинеарные точки

Pascaline – счетная машина Паскаля

subtract – вычитать

wheel – колесо

movable dial – подвижная шкала

fluid mechanics – гидромеханика

syringe – шприц

hydraulic press – гидравлический пресс

confirm – подтверждать/доказывать

barometrical variations – барометрические колебания

equilibrium of fluids – равновесие жидкостей

law of pressure – закон распределения давления

confined fluid – замкнутая жидкость

Pascal Triangle – треугольник Паскаля

identity – тождество

combinatorics – комбинаторика

binomial coefficients – биномиальный коэффициент

dice – игральная кость

likelihood – вероятность

outcome – результат/следствие

probability theory – теория вероятности

computing machine – вычислительная машина

Say if the following statements are true or false. Correct the false sentences:

Blaise Pascal produced important theorems in projective geometry and studied conic sections.

Father sent Pascal to the meetings of a mathematical academy.

The unit of pressure was named in Pascal’s honor.

Pascal explained the law of pressure in “Essay of Conics”.

Pascal formulated his own names for standard geometrical terms.

Blaise Pascal invented the hydraulic press and the syringe during his experiments in the sphere of hydrostatics.

Pascal’s triangle is a triangle where each number is the sum of the four directly above it. This triangle was used to prove probability theory.

Pascal confirmed Evangelista Torricelli’s theory carrying out experimentations with air pressure.

Pascal was one of the first scientists created early computing machine.

Pascal’s Theorem states that opposite sides of a hexagon inscribed in a conic, intersect in three geometric lines.

Match the words from these columns to make word combinations and translate them:

projective

probability

hydraulic

fluid

numerical

geometrical

fixed

mathematical

computing

Arithmetical

movable

particular

confined

collinear

barometrical

computer

conic

binomial

theory

figures

outcome

coefficients

observations

triangle

language

fluid

geometry

sections

points

press

machine

variations

likelihood

wheel

mechanics

dials

Match the following terms to the appropriate definition:

hydrostatics;

was the first calculator invented in the world which could add and subtract;

mathematics;

is an area of mathematics primarily concerned with counting;

projective geometry;

is the branch of fluid mechanics that studies fluids at rest;

fluid mechanics;

is a principle that states that a pressure change at any point in a confined fluid is transmitted throughout the fluid such that the same change occurs everywhere;

probability theory;

is the branch of physics concerned with the mechanics of liquids, gases, and plasmas and the forces applied on them;

law of pressure;

is a device using a hydraulic cylinder to generate a compressive force;

Pascaline;

is a branch of mathematics that deals with the relationships between geometric figures and images that result from projecting them onto another surface;

hydraulic press;

is a triangular array of the binomial coefficients that arises in probability theory and combinatorics;

combinatorics;

is the science of structure, order, and relation that has evolved from elemental practices of counting, measuring, and describing the shapes of objects;

Pascal Triangle.

is the branch of mathematics concerned with probability.

Chernov, Dmitrii Konstantinovich

Born: October, 20 in 1839, in St. Petersburg. Died: January, 2 in 1921, in Yalta. 

Profession: Russian scientist, specialist in metallurgy, metal science, and the heat treatment of metals.

The son of a feldsher, Chernov graduated from the St. Petersburg Institute of Practical Technology in 1858. He worked in the mechanical department of the St. Petersburg Mint. From 1859 to 1866 he was an instructor, an assistant librarian and a curator in the museum of the St. Petersburg Institute of Practical Technology.

In 1866 he became an engineer in the forging shop of the Obukhov Steel Mill in St. Petersburg, and from 1880 to 1884 he was engaged in prospecting deposits of rock salt in the Bakhmut region of the Coal Basin; the beds he discovered proved to be of industrial importance.

Beginning in 1886 he simultaneously served as chief inspector of the Ministry of Railroad Transport in 

charge  of overseeing the filling of  orders at metallurgical  works. He became a professor of metallurgy at the 

Mikhail Artillery Academy in 1889.

Chernov D. K. has established the dependence of structure and properties of steel on its hot mechanical and heat treatment. Chernov D. has opened critical temperatures, at which phase transformations occur in steel as a result of heating or cooling in solid state . These critical temperatures, defined by Chernov by colors of steel heating, were named Chernov’s points. Chernov D. K. represented graphically influence of carbon on position of critical points, having created the first sketch of outline of equilibrium diagram «ferrum-carbon».

Results of his research which had begun the modern metallography, Chernov D.K. published in 1868 in «Notes of Russian engineering society», having named it «Critical review of Lavrov’s and Kalakutskiy’s articles about steel and steel instruments and own Chernov’s research in the same subject».

In another scientific paper «Research concerning the structure of cast steel pigs» Chernov stated a theory of steel ingot crystallization. He investigated the process of crystals origin and growth in details. He gave a scheme of structural zones of ingot, developed a theory of consequent crystallization, studied defects of cast steel thoroughly and specified how to avoid them. These research of Chernov in many respects promoted transformation of metallurgy from craft in theoretically proved scientific discipline.

Chernov’s papers in the field of metallurgy intensification, processes and perfection of manufacture technology were of great value for progress of metallurgy of steel. Chernov put forward the idea of mixing metal during crystallization, having offered for this purpose a rotating iron mold.

Vocabulary

metal science – металловедение

the heat treatment of metals – термообработка металлов

the mechanical department – механический отдел

St. Petersburg Mint – Петербургский Монетный Двор

assistant librarian – помощник библиотекаря

forging shop of the Obukhov Steel Mill – кузнечный цех Обуховского металлургического комбината

prospecting deposits – поиск месторождений

rock salt – каменная соль

Bakhmut region – Бахмутский район

coal basin – угольный бассейн

beds – залежи

simultaneously – одновременно

chief inspector – главный инспектор

in charge – ответственный за

overseeing – наблюдение

filling of orders – выполнение заказов

establish – устанавливать

property – свойство

steel – сталь

hot mechanical treatment – горячая механическая обработка

phase transformations – фазовые превращения

solid state – твердое состояние

color of steel heating – степень нагрева стали

Chernov’s points – точки Чернова

influence of carbon – влияние углерода

sketch of outline – эскиз контура

equilibrium diagram – фазовая диаграмма

ferrum-carbon – железо-углерод

cast steel pigs – литая сталь

steel ingot crystallization – кристаллизация стальных слитков

crystal origin – образование кристаллов

ingot – слиток

consequent – последовательный

thoroughly – тщательно

craft – кустарный

intensification – развитие

manufacture technology – технология производства

put forward – выдвинуть идею

rotating iron mold – вращающаяся железная форма

Exercises:

Answer the questions:

When did Chernov become an engineer in the forging shop?

What idea did Chernov put forward for developing the sphere of metallurgy?

How were critical temperatures named?

What theory did Chernov stated in “Research concerning the structure of cast steel pigs”?

When did he become a professor of metallurgy?

Where did Chernov publish the results of his research which had begun the modern metallurgy?

What are the most important discoveries made by Chernov?

Match the following words:

mechanical

rock

metallurgy of

critical

equilibrium

heat

coal

metal

metallurgical

solid

phase

crystals

manufacture

Chernov’s

ferrum

salt

origin

treatment

department

steel

temperatures

technology

science

points

carbon

basin

diagram

works

transformations

state

Translate the following phrases:

был вовлечен в поиск месторождений каменной соли;

он исследовал процесс образования кристаллов;

он представил графически влияние углерода на положение критических точек;

совершенствование технологии производства;

термообработка металлов;

теоретически доказанная научная дисциплина;

степень нагрева стали;

для этой цели он предложил вращающуюся железную форму.

Mendeleev Dmitri Ivanovich»

A Russian name appeared in 1964 on the honorary board of science at Bridgeport University, USA: Mendeleyev was added to the list of the greatest geniuses — Euclid, Archimedes, Copernicus, Galilei, Newton and Lavoisier. D.I. Mendeleyev, the explorer of nature, is the greatest chemist of the world. The Mendeleyev system has served for almost 150 years as a key to discovering new elements and it has retained its key capacity until now.

D.I. Mendeleyev was the fourteenth and the last child of the Director of the Gymnasium at Tobolsk. After finishing school at the age of 16 he was taken by his mother to St. Petersburg and entered the Pedagogical Institute in 1850, took a degree in chemistry in 1856 and in 1859 he was sent abroad for two years for further training. He returned to St. Petersburg in 1861 as Professor of Chemistry and gave a course of lectures on chemistry at St. Petersburg,s University. His lectures were always listened to with great interest and attention. Even in class of two hundred students everyone was able to follow his discussions from the beginning to the end. Interesting experiments were made in his classes.

In 1868 Mendeleyev began to write a great text book of chemistry, known in its English translation as «Principles of Chemistry» Hard work preceded it. Mendeleyev made thousands of experiments and calculations, wrote a lot of letters, studied many reports. Everything in the world that was known about chemical elements Mendeleyev knew. For months, for years he searched for missing data. All those data were being brought together and grouped in a special way. When compiling this, he tried to find some system of classifying the elements some sixty in all then known whose properties he was describing. This led him to formulate the Periodic Law: «The properties of elements and, consequently, the properties of the simple and complex bodies formed from them are periodic functions of their atomic weights». The Law earned him lasting international fame. He presented it verbally to the Russian Society in October 1868 and published 1869. But Mendeleyev was recognized as the author of the Periodic Law only after gallium, scandium and germanium had been discovered in France, Sweden and Germany and after the properties of number of elements predicted be Mendeleyev had been confirmed.

In this paper he set out clearly his discovery that if the elements are arranged in order of their atomic weights, chemically related elements appear at regular intervals. The greatness of Mendeleyev,s achievement lies in the fact that he had discovered a generalization that not only unified an enormous amount of existing information but pointed the way to further progress.

Today the Periodic Law is studied by millions of school children and by students at higher educational establishments of natural sciences and engineering. It is studied by philosophers, historians, teachers and chemists.

The law serves as a basis for thousands of researches. The Periodic Law crossed national boundaries and has become the property of all nations, just like the works of Newton, Lomonosow, Pavlov, Lobachevsky, Einstein and other. In our country the Russian Chemical Society, a number of higher and secondary schools, some industrial plants have been named after Mendeleyev. The Academy of Sciences and the Mendeleyev Society award the Mendeleyev Prize and the Mendeleyev Gold Medal for outstanding research work in chemistry.

1. Find English equivalents in the text:

Система Менделеева;

новые элементы;

профессор химии;

интересные эксперименты;

начал писать;

тяжелая работа;

химические элементы;

Периодического закон;

свои открытия;

дальнейший прогресс;

служит основой;

выдающиеся исследования.

2. Finish the sentences according to the text:

… has served for almost 150 years as a key to discovering new elements and it has retained its key capacity until now.

His lectures were always listened to with great …

… began to write a great text book of chemistry, known in its English translation as «Principles of Chemistry» Hard work preceded it.

All those data were being brought together …

… earned him lasting international fame.

… were being brought together and grouped in a special way.

… serves as a basis for thousands of researches.

It is studied by philosophers, historians, teachers …

3. Answer the questions:

What did Mendeleev’s father work for?

In which year D. Mendeleev received a degree in chemistry?

What was the name of the first textbook of Mendeleev chemistry textbook?

What law brought him solid international fame?

In which year did he first introduce him to the Russian society?

Is Mendeleev immediately recognized as the author of the Periodic Law?

Some of the Great Names in the History of Metallurgy

At1657379870aa.jpg nosov, Pavel Petrovich (1799-1851) was a Russian metallurgist. He entered the St. Petersburg Mining Corps of Cadets at the age of 11. Graduated with honours in 1817 he was appointed to a minor post at the Zlatoust Crown Works (Златоустовские казенные заводы). Mendeleev was promoted to Supervisor of the Zlatoust Arms Factory in 1819, to its Superintendent in 1824, and its Manager in 1829. From 1847 until his death, he worked as the Chief of the Altai Works.

Anosov was renowned for his writings on the manufacture of iron and his re-discovery of the secret of damascene (дамасская сталь) lost in the Middle Ages. He explained the effect of the chemical composition, structure and treatment of steel on its properties. His findings formed the basis for the science of quality steels. Anosov summed up his studies in his classical treatise, “On Damaskene” (1841), immediately translated into German and French. Anosov was the first to use the microscope in studies into the structure of steel (1831), thus laying the foundation for the microscopic analysis of metals. Anosov was elected a corresponding member of the Kazan University (1844) and an honorary member of the Kharkov University (1846).

 t1657379870ab.jpgBessemer, Sir Henry (1813-1898) was a British civil engineer and inventor, elected to the London Royal Society in 1879. He was patented over a hundred inventions in various fields of technology. Those most important were the needle die for postal  stamps (игольчатый штамп для марок) and the word-casting machine (словолитная машина) in 1838, the sugar cane press (машина для прессования сахарного тростника) in 1849, and the centrifugal pump (центробежный насос) in 1850.

While working on ways and means of improving the quality of a heavy artillery shell in 1854, he felt the need for a better steel-making process. In 1856 he patented a vessel (сосуд) for converting molten pig iron (литое железо) into steel.  The process which took place in a vessel was named after him (Бессемеровский процесс) and revolutionized the iron and steel industry.

1. Make questions for the following sentences:

Pavel Anosov was 18 when he graduated from the Mining Corps of Cadets.

For a long time he was Mining Chief of the Zlatoust Works.

In his works he explained the effect of chemical composition of steel on its properties.

Bessemer patented over a hundred inventions in various fields of technology.  

It was Bessemer who advanced the idea of rolling steel without casting it into ingots.

2. Read the text carefully and agree or disagree with the statements given below.

Anosov was a famous Russian painter.

Pavel Anosov re-discovered the secret of damaskene.

The secret of damaskene was lost in ancient time.  

Henry Bessemer was an eletrician.

Bessemer had relatively few inventions. 

Benjamin Huntsman is a well-known British metallurgist of the 18th century.

He re-discovered the process of making strong steel.

Isaac Newton

Isaac Newton was a physicist and mathematician who developed the principles of modern physics, including the laws of motion and is credited as one of the great minds of the 17th-century Scientific Revolution

Newton was born on January 4, 1643, in Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, England. Newton was the only son of a prosperous local farmer, also named Isaac, who died three months before he was born.

Newton was enrolled at the King’s School in Grantham, a town in Lincolnshire, where he lodged with a local apothecary and was introduced to the fascinating world of chemistry.

When Newton arrived at Cambridge, the Scientific Revolution of the 17th century was already in full force. The heliocentric view of the universe – theorized by astronomers Nicolaus Copernicus and Johannes Kepler, and later refined by Galileo – was well known in most European academic circles.

Isaac Newton’s discoveries gave physics its theoretical foundation, granted powerful tools to mathematics and created a launch pad for future developments in science.

Sir Isaac Newton contributed to many branches of human thought, among which physics and mathematics were the fields in which he contributed substantially.

Newton made discoveries in optics, motion and mathematics. Newton theorized that white light was a composite of all colors of the spectrum, and that light was composed of particles. 

Newton’s first major public scientific achievement was designing and constructing a reflecting telescope in 1668. As a professor at Cambridge, Newton was required to deliver an annual course of lectures and chose optics as his initial topic. He used his telescope to study optics and help prove his theory of light and color. 

In 1687, following 18 months of intense and effectively nonstop work, Newton published Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy), most often known as Principia. Principia is said to be the single most influential book on physics and possibly all of science. Its publication immediately raised Newton to international prominence.

Principia offers an exact quantitative description of bodies in motion, with three basic but important laws of motion: 

First Law – a stationary body will stay stationary unless an external force is applied to it.

Second Law – force is equal to mass times acceleration, and a change in motion (i.e., change in speed) is proportional to the force applied.

Third Law – for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. 

Newton’s three basic laws of motion outlined in Principia helped him arrive at his theory of gravity. Newton’s law of universal gravitation states that two objects attract each other with a force of gravitational attraction that’s proportional to their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between their centers.

These laws helped explain not only elliptical planetary orbits but nearly every other motion in the universe: how the planets are kept in orbit by the pull of the sun’s gravity; how the moon revolves around Earth and the moons of Jupiter revolve around it; and how comets revolve in elliptical orbits around the sun. 

They also allowed him to calculate the mass of each planet, calculate the flattening of the Earth at the poles and the bulge at the equator, and how the gravitational pull of the sun and moon create the Earth’s tides. In Newton’s account, gravity kept the universe balanced, made it work, and brought heaven and Earth together in one great equation.

Exercises:

Match the words:

laws

bodies

planetary

universal

external

stationary

colors of the

developments in

launch

gravitational

bulge at the

Earth’s

theory of

scientific

change in

spectrum

equator

motion

body

pull

motion

science

revolution

orbits

force

gravity

pad

gravitation

tides

motion

Answer the questions:

What are the laws of motion?

In what spheres did Newton make discoveries?

What did Newton’s discoveries give physics?

What did Newton’s laws explain?

What does Newton’s law of universal gravitation state?

What is the value (значение) of gravity?

Тranslate the following phrases:

первое общественное научное достижение;

два объекта притягивают друг друга;

количественное описание тел в движении;

Ньютон предположил, что белый свет был композицией всех цветов спектра;

рассчитать массу каждой планеты;

объединил небо и Землю в одно уравнение;

Луна вращается вокруг Земли;

Ньютон сделал открытия в оптике и математике.

Vocabulary:

laws of motion – законы механики

to be credited – считаться

mind – ум

prosperous – благополучный

enroll – быть зачисленным

lodged with – быть под присмотром

apothecary – аптекарь

to be introduced – войти/вступить

heliocentric view of the universe – гелиоцентрический взгляд на вселенную

theorized by – быть разработанным

refine – уточнять

academic circles – академические круги

theoretical foundation – теоретический фундамент

grant – предоставить

tool – инструмент

launch pad – стартовая площадка

developments in science – научные открытия

contribute – вносить вклад

branch – отрасль

field – область

substantially – существенно

motion – движение

composite of colors of the spectrum – композиция всех цветов спектра

particle – частица

achievement – достижение

reflecting telescope – отражающий телескоп

require – подразумевать

deliver – впроводить

Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy – Математические принципы естественной философии

influential – влиятельный

raise – поднимать

international prominence – всенародное признание

quantitative description – количественное описание

body in motion – тело в движении

stationary body – тело в покое

external force – внешняя сила

apply to – прилагать

acceleration – ускорение

change in motion – изменение движения

opposite reaction – сила противодействия

outline – быть изложенным

theory of gravity – теория гравитации

the law of universal gravitation – закон всеобщей гравитации

attract – притягивать

gravitational attraction – гравитационное притяжение

inversely proportional distance – обратно пропорциональный

elliptical planetary orbits – эллиптические планетарные орбиты

by the pull – под действием

revolve – вращаться

flattening of the Earth – плоскость Земли

bulge at the equator – выпуклость у экватора

gravitational pull – гравитационная тяга

tides – приливы

account – мнение

heaven – небо

equation – уравнение

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