Introduction to the History of Science


Like the other Earth species, man had to tame his environment: to observe it in order to know it better and to extract the resources necessary for its survival. Some 40,000 years ago, he felt the need to write down the results of his observations, as testify these beautiful paintings and rock carvings which decorate the inner walls of the Chauvet and Lascaux caves. The astronomical orientation of the megalithic structures dating from the Neolithic (Nabta, Stonehenge, ...) in turn reflects his discovery of the celestial rhythms: regularly, the sun reappeared at the same point on the horizon. The understanding of these astronomical cycles took several millennia. During these thousands of years many lists of stars, planets, were established ; a few of them were even integrated into the funerary architecture, others recorded on simple clay tablets.


Histoire des Sciences


On the basis of the many observations and classifications made before them by the Egyptians and the Mesopotamians, the Hellenic thinkers tried to give a rational explanation of any natural phenomenon : the progressive structuration of our matter universe, the movement driving each of the stars filling it, ... In this, the Greeks initiated a truly scientific approach which will guide the Arab scholars and which they will later introduce in the West, then frozen by religious obscurantism that some scientists including Galileo will fight. Not without some success, if we are to believe this spirit of openness that took scholars and philosophers from all over Europe during the Enlightenment Century. Science was born, which soon split into many separate disciplines that complement each other.


Histoire des Sciences


The dossiers entitled Ancient and Modern Astronomy, History of the atom, History of radioactivity, Science, Beliefs and Ethics invite you to trace the lively history of the evolution of our understanding of Man and of the surrounding nature, from Greek antiquity to the present. The reading of the biographies of Galileo Galilei, Jean-François Champollion and Pierre and Marie Curie in turn will allow you to better understand the impact which these great minds of science had upon the development of astronomy, Egyptology and nuclear energy. This energy, like fossil fuels, now raises many questions about our Environment. The dossier devoted to the Successive languages of science finally recounts the human adventure, from the appearance of Australopithecus in Africa to the creation of computers by modern man, going through the mastery of the spoken language, the invention of calculus and writing, ... In this, this dossier makes a perfect synthesis of the themes tackled within the other folders. It is also the starting point of the Gallery of Evolution.