From the Greek philosophers to string theorists, this is the chronology of discoveries in physics and cosmology. According to Legend, Archimedes discovered the principle of buoyancy while taking a bath. He jumped out and ran through the streets shouting "Eureka!" The scientific revolution took off 1800 years later after Gutenberg introduced the printing press in Europe and Coperincus broke the old cosmology and put humans in their place away from the centre of the universe. Since then, thousands of scientists have experienced that Eureka moment when they realised that they have seen a fundamental truth not known before.
These pages contain, in chronological order, a selective list of those discoveries from natural philosophy. These are the findings which have helped us understand the laws of physics, the universe and our place in it. The time-line is not yet complete and many more scientists will have the priviledge of contributing to its future. Today the internet is taking over from print as the primary means of communicating scientific discoveries and anyone who wants to can participate.
This page was last updated 1 April 1997.
