Scientific Revolution Essay, Research Paper

Scientific Revolution:

George Cuvier

 Born in Montbeliard, Burgundy. He went to Caroline University and studied administrative, juridical, and economic sciences in 1784. Also studied anatomy.

 Finished his studies in 1788 and went to work as a tutor for a French family.

 Moved to Paris in 1795 and was invited by a French naturalist Etienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire to work at the Museum of Natural History. He immediately became professor of zoology and assistant professor of animal anatomy.

 Cuvier advanced quickly because of his brilliance and wonderful personality. He became professor at the College de France in 1800. Served many public positions such as councilor of state in 1814 and head of the Interior Department of the Council of State in 1819.

 Believed that all life could be organized into categories by starting with the simplest organism and ending with humans.

 Began classifying animals by body plan: the Vertebrata, Articulata, Radiata, and Mollusca.

 Came up with the ?Correlation of parts? which states that the structure of each organ of an animal is functionally related to every other organ.

 Also believed that environment determines that anatomical design of an animal.

 Reconstructed ancient forms of life using fossils.

Georges Cuvier?s great work helped to further the Cuverian system of classification, which dominated natural history in France and England until about 1859.

Blaise Pascal:

 Born on June 19, 1623 in Clermont-Ferrand, France.

 French philosopher, mathematician, and physicist.

 Tutored by his father, Pascal proved early on to be a wonderful mathematician.

 Formulated one of the basic theorems of projective geometry known as Pascal?s theorem when he was just 16 years old.

 Invented the first mechanical adding machine in 1642.

 In 1648, he proved that mercury in a barometer rises and falls because of the atmospheric pressure, not by a vacuum as believed before.

 1654- Pascal helped formulate the mathematical theory of probability.

 Pascal?s law or principle states that fluids transmit pressure equally in all directions.

 Wrote many religious works such as 18 Lettres provinciales (Provincial Letters) and Pensees sur la religion et sur quelques autres sujets (Thoughts on the Religion and other Subjects)

 Died on August 19, 1662.

Nicolaus Copernicus

 Born February 19, 1473 in Poland.

 Got a good education thanks to his Uncle.

 Studied liberal arts, medicine, law, and cannon law.

 Observed the occultation (eclipse of the moon) of the star Aldebaran on March 9, 1497.

 In 1500, Copernicus was lecturing on astronomy in Rome. The next year he went to Padua, the university where Galileo taught a century later and studied medicine.

 Returned to Poland and published his first book while writing many others.

 Founded the idea that the earth was not the center of the universe.

 Most major thinkers in England, France, the Netherlands, and Denmark were Copernicans.

 Died in 1543.