History of Science coverage from Scientific American, featuring news and articles about advances in the field.

Early scientific theories—such as those explaining basic phenomena like gravity, burning, and the movement of molecules in water—centered on presumed inherent properties rather than external factors, ...

According to a familiar story, science was born as a pastime of seventeenth-century European gentlemen, who built air pumps, traded telescopes, and measured everything from the size of the earth to ...

Astronomers once believed the Sun revolved around the Earth. In the 19th century, scientists thought the shape of a person’s skull could reveal their mental strengths or weaknesses. And in the 20th ...

An exhibit at Philadelphia's Science History Institute looks at food science through the lens of the school lunch program. (Emma Lee/WHYY) From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, ...

The history of science and technology links many disciplines and cultures: scientific, technological, humanistic and social. Smith’s program in the history of science and technology is designed to ...

THE first volume of Dr. Sarton's “Introduction to the History of Science”, already reviewed in NATURE, was universally and deservedly acclaimed as a major contribution to our knowledge of the growth ...

A NEW token of the growing interest in the history of science. is provided by the appearance of the first number of “a quarterly review of the history of science since the Renaissance”, under the ...