The term science comes from the Latin word scientia, meaning “knowledge”. It can be defined as a systematic attempt to discover, by means of observation and reasoning, particular facts about the world, and to establish laws connecting facts with one another and, in some cases, to make it possible to predict future occurrences. There are other ways to define science, but all definitions refer in one way or another to this attempt to discover specific facts and the ability to figure out patterns in which these facts are connected.

If we lived on a planet where nothing ever changed, there would be little to do. There would be nothing to figure out. There would be no impetus for science. And if we lived in an unpredictable world, where things changed in random or very complex ways, we would not be able to figure things out. But we live in an in-between universe, where things change, but according to patterns, rules, or as we call them, laws of nature. If I throw a stick up in the air, it always falls down. If the sun sets in the west, it always rises again the next morning in the east. And so it becomes possible to figure things out. We can do science, and with it we can improve our lives. (Carl Sagan, 59)

Early Scientific Developments

The regular occurrence of natural events encouraged the development of some scientific disciplines. After a period of observation and careful recordkeeping, even some of the events perceived as random and unpredictable might begin to display a regular pattern which initially was not immediately obvious. Eclipses are a good example

In North America, the Cherokee said that eclipses were caused when the moon (male) visits his wife, the sun, and the Ojibway believed the sun would be totally extinguished during an eclipse, so they used to shoot flaming arrows to keep it alight. Stephen Hawking mentions that according to the Vikings, the sun and the moon are being chased by two wolves, Skoll and Hati. When either wolf successfully catches their prey, an eclipse occurs. The Nordics made as much noise as they could to scare off the wolves, so they could rescue the victims:

Skoll a wolf is called who pursues the shining god

to the protecting woods;

and another is Hati, he is Hrodvitnir’s son,

who chases the bright bride of heaven.

(The Poetic Edda. Grimnir’s Sayings, 39)

Hawking goes on saying that people eventually realized that the sun and the moon would emerge from the eclipse regardless of whether they made noise to rescue the victims. In societies where they had record keeping on celestial events, they must have noticed after some time that eclipses do not happen at random, but rather in regular patterns that repeat themselves.

Some events in nature clearly occur according to rules, but there are others that do not display a clear pattern of occurrence, and they do not even seem to happen as a result of a specific cause. Earthquakes, storms, and pestilence all appear to occur randomly, and natural explanations do not seem to be relevant. Therefore, supernatural explanations arose to account for such events, most of them merged with myth and legends.

Supernatural explanations gave rise to magic, an attempt to control nature by means of rite and spell. Magic is based on people’s confidence that nature can be directly controlled. Magic thought is convinced that by performing certain spells, a specific event will take place. James Frazer has suggested that there is a link between magic and science, since both believe in the cause-and-effect principle. In magic, the causes are somehow unclear and they tend to be based upon spontaneous thoughts, while in science, through careful observation and reasoning, the causes are better isolated and understood. Science is founded on the idea that experience, effort, and reason are valid, while magic is founded on intuition and hope. In ancient times, it was common for science to be merged with magic, religion, mysticism, and philosophy, since the limits of the scientific discipline were not fully understood.

Babylonian Science

Like in Egypt, priests encouraged much of the development of Babylonian science. Babylonians used a numeral system with 60 as its base, which allowed them to divide circles into 360 degrees. The use of 60 as a base of a mathematical system is not a minor issue: 60 is a number that has many divisors (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20, 30, 60), which simplifies the representation of fractions: 1/2 (30/60), 1/3 (20/60), 1/4 (15/60), 1/5 (12/60), 1/6 (10/60), and so forth. As early as 1800 BCE, Babylonian mathematicians understood the properties of elementary sequences, such as arithmetic and geometrical progressions, and a number of geometrical relationships. They estimated the value of pi as 3 1/8, which is about a 0.6 percent error. It is highly likely that they also were familiar with what we today call the Pythagorean Theorem which states that the square of the longest side of a right triangle equals the sum of the squares of the other two sides. However, we have no evidence that the Babylonians proved it formally, since their mathematics rested on empirical knowledge rather than formal proof.

It was in astronomy where Babylonians showed a remarkable talent, and magic, mysticism, astrology, and divination were its main drivers. They believed that the movement of the heavenly bodies forecasted some terrestrial event. Since the reign of Nabonassar (747 BCE), the Babylonians kept complete lists of eclipses and by 700 BCE, it was already known that solar eclipses could only be possible during new moons and lunar eclipses only during full moons. It is possible that by this time Babylonians also knew the rule that lunar eclipses take place every six months, or occasionally every five months. By the time Nebuchadnezzar ruled Babylon, the priests had also calculated the courses of the planets and plotted the orbits of the sun and the moon.