• Question: What was the fist use of science by humans

    Asked by 998xygg26 to Gavin, Mark on 17 Nov 2016.
    • Photo: Mark Kennedy

      Mark Kennedy answered on 17 Nov 2016:

      Interesting question! The first recordings of humans trying to do astronomy are from 3500 BC when the Mesopotamian people were still around. We don’t know of many people who were doing science before that.

    • Photo: Gavin Coleman

      Gavin Coleman answered on 18 Nov 2016:

      The first records of science being done in a modern sense, as in dedicated scientific research, rely on us having written records. So as Mark said, something like 3500 BC is probably a likely indicator.

      However for humans to become sophisticated enough to be able to look at stars instead of immediate survival needs, we had to develop agricultural technology, fire, some simple machinery, weapons etc. For these things to exist, humans would have had to apply the scientific method. For example, simply finding a new crop to farm isn’t enough, they would have had to try and replant it, see what helps it grow, and then reproduce it to feed a village. This is a scientific experiment, and to this day we still study crops and animal husbandry as part of agricultural science.

      In a way, the use of science may be what really makes us human, or at least I like to think so.

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