Rienk Vermij is a Professor at the Department of the History of Science, Medicine, and Technology of the University of Oklahoma. His research topics include early ideas on earthquakes, the reception of Copernicanism, and the Enlightenment. He has published several books and many articles.

Contents Introduction Part I. The Scientific Revolution1. Antiquity and the Middle Ages Greek philosophers and nature Greek mathematics Medicine in antiquity The classical tradition in mediaeval Europe2. The sixteenth century: the Aristotelian worldview in decline New intellectual currents: humanism and hermeticism Natural history and medicine Mathematics and 'natural magic' Astronomy Philosophy of nature3. The seventeenth century: a new worldview Galileo and a new view of the heavens Descartes and mechanistic science The emergence of an experimental tradition Mathematization of science The mathematical science of Isaac Newton A revolution in the prevailing worldview? Part II. Autonomous science: methods, theories and researchers 1700-20004. The eighteenth century: disseminating the idea of science Knowledge and practice: instruments Collecting and classifying: natural history From alchemy to chemistry Newtonian mechanics and its problems5. The nineteenth century (i): science at the service of the rationalization of society A 'scientific' system of measurement The modern hospital Observatories, measuring stations and a global science Science and Western imperialism6. The nineteenth century (ii): professional science Universities and professors Women in science Laboratories Classification and conferences The rise of the experiment: physiology Measuring and experimenting in the study of nature Further mathematization Statistics7. The twentieth century: industrial science The rise of industrial science The science of measurement Research institutes Control and modelling Independence under pressure Part III. The scientific worldview8. The origin of the world The Bible and the new image of the world The development of geology The origin of the universe9. The nature of life and the origin of human beings Early scientific ideas about humankind and its place in the world The idea of evolution Darwin's contribution Descent The mysteries of the mind The mechanism of heredity Heredity and evolution A science of human beings?10. The nature of reality A rational world? The building blocks of real