Mod 1 Notes Flashcards
(41 cards)
What’s the point of the history of science?
It helps you understand how science should and shouldn’t be practiced.
When are the oldest science records we have today from?
Around 3,000 BC.
Where did medical care start?
Ancient Egypt.
What method did the Egyptian doctors begin with?
Trial and error.
Who was Imhotep?
He was a physician around 2650 BC.
What was special about Imhotep?
He was well known for his dependability and people came from hundreds of miles away hoping he had a cure for them.
What did Egyptian doctors use moldy bread for?
Treating open wounds.
Why did the moldy bread method work?
Some bread molds make penicillin.
What did Egyptian doctors use poppy seeds for?
Pain relief.
What is in poppy seeds that helps with pain relief so well that it’s still used today?
Morphine and codeine.
When did the Egyptians create papyrus?
As far back as 5,000 years ago.
How did the Egyptians make papyrus?
They took the bendy stems of the plant, cut them in thin strips, laid the them crossing over each other, and wet them.
When the papyrus dried, what happened?
It made a sort of paper scroll, which they called papyrus after the plant.
What was made in Mesopotamia at the same time as papyrus was in Egypt?
The potter’s wheel, and with it, pottery.
What was in existence the same time as the potter’s wheel and papyrus?
The horse-drawn chariot.
What did the Chinese make around 1,000 BC?
The compass.
Why do most historians not think of Egyptians as scientists?
Because they didn’t formulate general laws.
Who was Thales?
He was an ancient Greek astronomer around the 640s-540s BC.
What was special about Thales?
He correctly predicted a solar eclipse, or as he called it, a “short-term disappearance of the sun.”
Who was Anaximenes?
He was an ancient “chemist” around 546 BC.
What was special about Anaximenes?
He was probably an associate of Anaximander. He believed air was the most basic material and that everything was made of air.
Who was Anaximander?
He was a “biologist” around 500 BC.
What was special about Anaximander?
He was likely one of Thales’s students. He came up with the theory of evolution from fish (before Charles Darwin.)
Who was Leucippus?
He was a Greek scientist who proposed that all matter is composed of little units called atoms around the early 400s BC.
