During the 12th century the growth of biology was sporadic. Nevertheless, it was during that time that botany was developed from the study of plants with healing properties; similarly, from veterinary medicine and the pleasures of the hunt came zoology. Because of the interest in medicinal plants, herbs in…
During the almost 1,000 years that science was dormant in Europe, the Arabs, who by the 9th century had extended their sphere of influence as far as Spain, became the custodians of science and dominated biology, as they did other disciplines.…
With Aristotle and Theophrastus, the great Greek period of scientific investigation came to an end. The most famous of the new centres of learning were the library and museum in Alexandria. From 300 BCE until around the time of Christ, all significant biological advances were made by physicians at…
Of all the works of Aristotle that have survived, none deals with what was later differentiated as botany, although it is believed that he wrote at least two treatises on plants. Fortunately, however, the work of Theophrastus, one of Aristotle’s students, has been preserved to represent plant science…
Around the middle of the 4th century BCE, ancient Greek science reached a climax with Aristotle, who was interested in all branches of knowledge, including biology. Using his observations and theories, Aristotle was the first to attempt a system of animal classification, in which he contrasted…
Papyri and artifacts found in tombs and pyramids indicate that the Egyptians also possessed considerable medical knowledge. Their well-preserved mummies demonstrate that they had a thorough understanding of the preservative properties of herbs required for embalming; plant necklaces and bas-reliefs from various sources also…
Although the Babylonians, Assyrians, Egyptians, Chinese, and Indians amassed much biological information, they lived in a world believed to be dominated by unpredictable demons and spirits. Hence, learned individuals in those early cultures directed their studies toward an understanding of the supernatural,…
There are moments in the history of all sciences when remarkable progress is made in relatively short periods of time. Such leaps in knowledge result in great part from two factors: one is the presence of a creative mind—a mind…
Early biologists viewed their work as a study of the organism. The organism, then considered the fundamental unit of life, is still the prime concern of some modern biologists, and understanding how organisms maintain their internal environment remains an important…
Biologists once depended on the light microscope to study the morphology of cells found in higher plants and animals. The functioning of cells in unicellular and in multicellular organisms was then postulated from observation of the structure; the discovery of the chloroplastids in the cell, for example,…