Science and Technology Words from the Ancient Past to the Present, Part 1

A group of stars.

In many cases the stars involved are at incredible distances from one another, but they seem, from earth's perspective, to form groups.

The transmission of a disease by direct or indirect contact.

1. The scientific study of the structure and evolution of the universe as a whole.
2. A field of study that brings together the natural sciences, particularly astronomy and physics, in a joint effort to understand the physical universe as a unified whole.
3. That branch of astronomy concerned with the origin, structure, content, and evolution of the universe.

Creation myths and the Big Bang are theories of cosmology.

The universe.

The number system in use throughout most of the world today, based on 10.

That which occurs when light rays pass close to an object and bend or separate as a result.

Cutting open dead bodies in order to study their internal characteristics.

The study of fluids (liquids or gases) and their properties.

This includes hydrostatics, or the study of fluids at rest, and hydrodynamics or fluid dynamics, the study of fluids in motion.

a medical instrument, shaped like tongs, used to extract a baby during difficult births, as well as for other surgical applications.

The branch of medicine concerned with diseases and physical care of women.

Someone who deals in medicinal herbs.

Herbalists played a major role in medieval medicine and continue to do so in alternative medicine today.

The number system in use throughout most of the world today, which uses ten digits, including zero.

Four fluids (phlegm, blood, yellow bile, and black bile) which, according to Hippocrates and his followers, made up the human body.

Imbalances in these humors were supposedly responsible for all illnesses.

A period of rapid development that started in about 1750 and transformed the economics of the West from a primarily agriculture-based system to manufacturing-based systems.

The tendency of objects in motion to remain in motion, and objects at rest to remain at rest, unless acted upon by some outside force; such as, friction.

Moving objects usually grind to a halt because there is a force, or friction, trying to stop them, but if the force of friction is taken away as in space, then Newton's first law explains the function that keeps the stars, planets, and moons continually moving.