| Rene Descartes | French philosopher and mathematician who lived from 1596-1650. His discourse on Method states that all assumptions had to be proven on the basis of known facts. He wrote, "I think; therefore, I am." His method of questioning was built upon a strict, orderly logical reasoning. |
| William Harvey | English physician who used lab experiments to study the circulation of blood and its flow through arteries and veins as well as the heart. |
| Nicolaus Copernicus | The Polish scientist who worked in the 1500s. He abandoned the largely accepted geocentric theory that the planets moved around Earth and advocated the heliocentric theory, which stated that the center of the universe was near the Sun. |
| Roger Bacon | Franciscan monk, English philosopher, and scientist in the 1200s who advocated for a system of scientific experimentation in seeking truth rather than accepting without question traditional Church and ancient beliefs. This led to the development of the scientific method. |
| Andreas Vesalius | Flemish scientist who pioneered the study of anatomy and provided detailed overviews of the human body and its systems. |
| Isaac Newton | English scientist and author of works explaining the law of universal gravitation and means of measuring motion. His work inspired the notion of natural and universal laws ordering and arranging life. |
| Galileo Galilei | Italian scientist who invented the telescope. This enabled him to reach new astronomical observations, such as that not every heavenly body (palnet) revolves around Earth. His later work formed the basis for the study of objects in motion, or physics. |
| Tycho Brahe | A Danish astronomer (1546-1601) who is known for producing a vast body of astronomical data from which his successors (Kepler) could work. |
| Johannes Kepler | A German astronomer (1571-1630) discovered that to keep the sun at the center of things, he had to abandon the circular components of Copernicus's model and instead set forth the first astronomical model showing the orbits as elliptical. |
| Ptolemaic Universe | still earth center of universe with 9 revolving spheres around it |
| 4 Bodily Humors | Paracelsus; blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile |
| Paracelsus | rejected work of Aristotle and Galen; said disease was caused by an imbalance of the four bodily humors located in specific organs and that they could be treated by chemical remedies |
| "On the Fabric of the Human Body" | written by Vesalius; explained anatomy of a human |
| inductive method | Francis Bacon's reasoning by experiments, mathematics, and observation |
| deductive method | Descartes' reasoning that is assumed based on a series of occurances and/or patterns |
