Hippocrates, Galen and Avicenna

Hippocrates (b.460BC) started the foundation of Greek medicine, and Galen (b.129AD) formalized the science of medicine. Most of Galen's works were translated into Arabic in the ninth century in Baghdad. Avicenna(Ibn-Sina, b.980 AD) practised medicine in Persia and wrote the 'Cannon of Medicine" in Arabic, the lingua franca of the Abbasid empire.

The School of Athens.....

Claudius Ptolemy(b.85AD in Alexandria) shown in The Scool of Athens. Ptolemy's book "Almagest" was the source book of astronomy until the Copernican Revolution in the fifteenth century. Almagest was the Arabic translation of the original "Mathematike Syntaxis" of Ptolemy, meaning the Great Book.

The School of Athens......

Pythagoras(b.569BC in Samos of Ionia) is seen in the foreground and to the left in The Scool of Athens. Ionia(next to Turkey) produced the early thinkers(before Aristotle and Plato)in the development of natural science.

The School of Athens........

In the foreground and to the right in the School of Athens, Euclid(b. 325 BC in Alexandria) is measuring on a board. Euclid's "Elements" is the foundation of geometry, logic and deductive reasoning.

The School of Athens

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The School of Athens
Raphael,1509, Fresco
Stanza della Segnatura, Palazzi Pontifici, Vatican


The main figures in The School of Athens are Plato and Aristotle engaged in a dialogue in the center of the fresco. Plato is holding a copy of Timaeus, and Aristotle a copy of Ethics. Plato is pointing to the heavens in the search of the ideal, and Aristotle is pointing to the Earth looking for answers in nature.

Development of science

My photo essays in the past included our planet and the progress of writing and communications. I have always been interested in the visual arts and photography, and I think that communicating with the image helps to understand the subject matter better.
In the next section I will try to describe the history and the development of science from its early days in Athens to the present time. This may be of interest, since some people still have difficulty reconciling science with scripture.