World History

Scientific experimental method

The scientific method is a body of techniques for investigating phenomena (any observable occurrence), acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge.

Giordano Bruno

Giordano Bruno, born Filippo Bruno, was an Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, mathematician, poet, and astrologer. He is celebrated for his cosmological theories, which went even further than the then-novel Copernican model, proposing that the stars were just distant suns surrounded by their own exoplanets, and moreover the possibility that these planets could even foster life of their own. He also insisted that the Universe is in fact infinite, thus having no celestial body at its "center".

Beginning in 1593, Bruno was tried for heresy by the Roman Inquisition on charges including denial of several core Catholic doctrines (including the Trinity, the divinity of Christ, the virginity of Mary, and Transubstantiation). Bruno's pantheism was also a matter of grave concern. The Inquisition found him guilty, and in 1600 he was burned at the stake in Rome's Campo de' Fiori. Bruno's case is still considered a landmark in the history of free thought and the future of the emerging sciences.

In addition to his cosmological writings, Bruno also wrote extensively on the art of memory, a loosely organized group of mnemonic techniques and principles. Historian Frances Yates argues that Bruno was deeply influenced by Arab astrology, Neoplatonism, Renaissance Hermeticism, and the Egyptian god Thoth.Other studies of Bruno have focused on his qualitative approach to mathematics and his application of the spatial paradigms of geometry to language.

Juan Kepler (Johannes Kepler)

Johannes Kepler was a famous German mathematician and astronomer who discovered the ovoid movements of the planets around the sun. The first astronomer to state the fundamental laws of planetary motion, Kepler was also known for his works in geometry, optics and philosophy. His significant achievements have been the discovery of the Kepler’s Star, the ‘Astronomia Nova’ and also the 'Kepler Conjecture'. For being one of the prominent figures in astronomy, a lot of astral elements were named after him such as ‘Kepler’s crater on Mars’, ‘The Kepler Moon crater’ etc. Apart from astronomy, Kepler concentrated on mathematics and the evolution of geometry. He came up with ‘Kepler Triangle’ and the ‘Kepler Problem’, both of which, published in three parts, studied various aspects of geometric progression, characterized by the ‘Pythagorean Theorem’ and the ‘Golden Ratio’. As a part time amusement, he even studied astrology and published a few works on the subject such as ‘De Fundamentis Astrologiae’ and ‘Dissertatio cum Nuncio Siderio’. He worked for Tycho Brahe, a Danish nobleman and even served as an advisor to Emperor Rudolph II during his lifetime. Scroll down to learn more about this interesting personality.

Nicolaus Copernicus

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