Science, Technology and Medicine in History

Units

1. 1

   Ancient and medieval science

   3 lessons

   1. Greek natural philosophy and PtolemyExplain how Greek thinkers from Thales to Ptolemy sought natural causes, how Aristotle's physics and Euclid's geometry set the pattern of argument, and how Ptolemy's epicycles saved the appearances in an Earth-centred cosmos.
   2. Science in the Islamic worldExplain how the Abbasid translation movement and the House of Wisdom in Baghdad preserved and extended Greek and Indian learning, and describe al-Khwarizmi's algebra, Ibn al-Haytham's optics and Ibn Sina's medicine as original contributions.
   3. Chinese science and technologyDescribe the Chinese inventions of paper, printing, gunpowder and the compass and their routes to Europe, and state Needham's question about why modern science arose in Europe and not China, with the main answers and objections.
2. 2

   The Scientific Revolution

   3 lessons

   1. Copernicus, Galileo and the new astronomyCompare the Ptolemaic and Copernican systems, explain how Kepler's laws and Galileo's telescope observations changed the evidence, and describe the conflict that led to Galileo's trial of 1633.
   2. Newton and the mathematical universeExplain Newton's three laws of motion and law of universal gravitation as set out in the Principia of 1687, show how an inverse-square force explains orbits, and describe how the theory's later predictions made a mathematical universe seem real.
   3. Method, instruments and scientific societiesContrast Bacon's induction and Descartes's deduction, show how instruments such as the microscope and the air pump changed evidence, and explain how the Royal Society and the Paris Academy organized scientific work.
3. 3

   The industrial revolution's technologies

   3 lessons

   1. Textiles and the steam engineExplain how a chain of inventions in cotton spinning and weaving created the factory, how Watt's separate condenser made the steam engine efficient, and why Britain led the first industrial revolution, using the growth of cotton output as evidence.
   2. Railways and the telegraphExplain how the Liverpool and Manchester Railway of 1830 began the railway age, compare rail growth in Britain and the United States, and describe how the telegraph and the 1866 transatlantic cable shrank distance for information.
   3. Steel, chemistry and electric powerExplain how the Bessemer process made cheap steel, how organic chemistry produced synthetic dyes and a science-based industry, and how electric power, from Edison's lighting to alternating current, defined the second industrial revolution between 1850 and 1914.
4. 4

   Darwin and the life sciences

   3 lessons

   1. Darwin's voyage and the GalapagosFollow the 1831 to 1836 voyage of HMS Beagle on a route map, explain what Darwin saw in South America and the Galapagos, and show how Lyell's geology shaped the way he read the evidence.
   2. Natural selection and the Origin of SpeciesExplain the logic of natural selection, Wallace's parallel idea and the joint announcement of 1858, the 1859 book, the evidence of the Grants' finches and the reception of evolution, using the tree of life as a picture of descent.
   3. Mendel, genetics and the modern synthesisExplain Mendel's pea crosses and the 3 to 1 ratio, the rediscovery of his work in 1900, the double helix of 1953 and the modern synthesis that joined Mendelian genetics with natural selection.
5. 5

   Epidemics and sanitation

   3 lessons

   1. Plague and the Black DeathTrace the spread of the Black Death from the Black Sea to Europe in 1346 to 1351 along trade routes, estimate its toll, and explain the response of quarantine, from Ragusa in 1377 to the Venetian lazaretto.
   2. Cholera and John Snow's mapExplain the 1854 Broad Street cholera outbreak, how John Snow used a map of deaths and a comparison of water companies to argue that cholera was spread by water, and how this challenged the miasma theory.
   3. Chadwick and the sanitary movementExplain Edwin Chadwick's 1842 report on the sanitary condition of the labouring population, the Public Health Act of 1848, and the sewers and water works that followed, and read the gap in urban life expectancy.
6. 6

   Germ theory, vaccines and global health

   3 lessons

   1. Pasteur, Koch and germ theoryExplain Pasteur's experiments against spontaneous generation, Koch's postulates and the identification of the germs of anthrax, tuberculosis and cholera, on a timeline from 1860 to 1890.
   2. Vaccination and the eradication of smallpoxExplain Jenner's 1796 cowpox vaccine, Pasteur's later vaccines, and the WHO campaign that eradicated smallpox in 1980, with a map of the last cases and a chart of cases by year.
   3. Antibiotics, HIV and global healthTrace penicillin and the antibiotic age of the 1940s, the HIV epidemic from the 1980s and the effect of antiretroviral treatment, and the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, and read life expectancy by region from 1900 to 2020.
7. 7

   Twentieth-century big science

   3 lessons

   1. Relativity, quantum theory and the atomExplain Einstein's 1905 papers, special relativity and E = mc squared, the Bohr model and the beginnings of quantum theory, and the discovery of nuclear fission in 1938, with a diagram of the chain reaction.
   2. The Manhattan ProjectDescribe how the United States built the atomic bomb between 1939 and 1945, the roles of Oppenheimer and Groves and the sites at Los Alamos, Oak Ridge and Hanford, the Trinity test and the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and what the project meant for science and the state.
   3. The space raceTrace the space race from Sputnik in 1957 to Apollo 11 in 1969, using a timeline of US and Soviet firsts, and explain the Cold War logic of funding and the path of an Apollo mission.
8. 8

   The computer and the internet

   3 lessons

   1. From Babbage and Turing to ENIACTrace the computer from Babbage's engines to Turing's 1936 machine concept, wartime codebreaking at Bletchley Park, and ENIAC in 1945, and explain the stored-program architecture proposed in 1945.
   2. The transistor, the chip and Moore's lawExplain the 1947 transistor, the integrated circuit of 1958, the microprocessor and the personal computer, and read Moore's law as a log chart of transistors per chip from 1971 to 2020.
   3. ARPANET, the internet and the webExplain packet switching, the first four ARPANET nodes of 1969, TCP/IP in 1983 and Tim Berners-Lee's World Wide Web of 1991, and read the growth of internet users since 1990.