This timeline of the history of
scientific method shows an overview of
the cultural inventions that have
contributed to the development of the
scientific method. For a detailed
account, see History of the scientific
method.
BC 
c. 2000 BC — First text indeces.
c. 1600 BC — The Edwin Smith Papyrus, an
Egyptian surgical textbook, which
applies: examination, diagnosis,
treatment and prognosis, to injuries,
paralleling rudimentary empirical
methodology.
624 - 548 Thales raised the study of
nature from the realm of the mythical to
the level of empirical study.
610 - 547 Anaximander extends the idea
of "law" to the physical world and uses
maps and models.
c. 400 BC — In China, Mozi and the
School of Names advocate using one's
senses to observe the world, and develop
the "three-prong method" for testing the
truth or falsehood of statements.
c. 400 BC — Democritus advocates
inductive reasoning through a process of
examining the causes of sensory
perceptions and drawing conclusions
about the outside world.
c. 400 BC — Plato first provides a
detailed definitions for idea, matter,
form and appearance as abstract
concepts.
c. 320 BC — First comprehensive
documents categorising and subdividing
knowledge, dividing knowledge into
different areas by Aristotle,(physics,
poetry, zoology, logic, rhetoric,
politics, and biology). Aristotle's
Posterior Analytics defends the ideal of
science as necessary demonstration from
axioms known with certainty. Aristotle
believes that the world is real and that
we can learn the truth by experience.
Latin:experimentum
c. 341-270 Epicurus scientific method
with multiple variables.
c. 300 BC — Euclid's Elements expound
geometry as a system of theorems
following logically from axioms known
with certainty.
c. 200 BC — First Cataloged library
1st through 12th centuries 
c 90-c168 Claudius Ptolemy
354-430 Saint Augustine reconciles
Aristotle's logic and natural philosophy
with Christian faith
1021 — Alhazen introduces the
experimental method and combines
observations, experiments and rational
arguments in his Book of Optics.
c. 1025 — Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī, develops
experimental methods for mineralogy and
mechanics, and conducts elaborate
experiments related to astronomical
phenomena.
1027 — In The Book of Healing, Avicenna
criticizes the Aristotelian method of
induction, arguing that "it does not
lead to the absolute, universal, and
certain premises that it purports to
provide", and in its place, develops
examination and experimentation as a
means for scientific inquiry.
13th through 17th centuries 
1220–1235 — Robert Grosseteste, an
English scholastic philosopher,
theologian and the bishop of Lincoln,
published his Aristotelian commentaries,
which laid out the framework for the
proper methods of science.
1265 — Roger Bacon, an English monk,
inspired by the writings of Grosseteste,
described a scientific method, which he
based on a repeating cycle of
observation, hypothesis,
experimentation, and the need for
independent verification. He recorded
the manner in which he conducted his
experiments in precise detail so that
others could reproduce and independently
test his results.
1327 — Ockham's razor clearly formulated
which states that among competing
hypotheses, the one with the fewest
assumptions should be selected.
1403 — Yongle Encyclopedia, the first
collaborative encyclopedia
1581 — Francisco Sanches uses classical
skeptical arguments to show that
science, in the Aristotelian sense of
giving necessary reasons or causes for
the behavior of nature, cannot be
attained.
1581 — Tycho Brahe builds large scale
research facility, Stjerneborg dedicated
to obtaining high precision measurements
of the planets.
1595 — Microscope invented in the
Netherlands
1600 — First dedicated laboratory
1608 — Telescope invented in the
Netherlands
1620 — Novum Organum published,
1637 — First Scientific method
1638 — Galileo's Two New Sciences
published, containing two thought
experiments, namely Galileo's Leaning
Tower of Pisa experiment and Galileo's
ship, which are intended to disprove
existing physical theories by showing
that they have contradictory
consequences.
1650 — Society of experts
1650 — Experimental evidence established
as the arbiter of truth
1665 — Repeatability established
1665 — Scholarly journals established
1675 — Peer review begun
1687 — Hypothesis/prediction
18th and 19th centuries 
1739 — David Hume's Treatise of Human
Nature argues that the problem of
induction is unsolvable.
1753 — First description of a controlled
experiment using identical populations
with only one variable: James Lind's
research into Scurvy among sailors.
1763 — Reverend Thomas Bayes published
An Essay towards solving a Problem in
the Doctrine of Chances laying the basis
for Bayesian inference, a method of
inference used to update the probability
estimate for a hypothesis as additional
evidence is acquired.
1812 — The formulation by Hans Christian
Ørsted of the Latin-German mixed term
Gedankenexperiment. Although the method
had been in use by philosophers since
antiquity.
1815 — An optimal design for polynomial
regression is published by Joseph Diaz
Gergonne.
1877–1878 — Charles Sanders Peirce
publishes "Illustrations of the Logic of
Science", popularizing his trichotomy of
Abduction, Deduction and Induction.
Peirce explains randomization as a basis
for statistical inference.
1885 — C. S. Peirce with Joseph Jastrow
first describes blinded, randomized
experiments, which become established in
psychology.
1897 — Thomas Chrowder Chamberlin
proposes the use of multiple hypotheses
to assist in the design of experiments.
20th and 21st centuries 
1926 — Randomized design popularized and
analyzed by Ronald Fisher
1934 — Falsifiability as a criterion for
evaluating new hypotheses is popularized
by Karl Popper's The Logic of Scientific
Discovery
1937 — Controlled placebo trial
1946 — First computer simulation
1950 — Double blind experiment
1962 — Meta study of scientific method
1964 — Strong inference proposed by John
R. Platt
2009 — Adam - First working prototype of
a "robot scientist" able to perform
independent experiments to test
hypotheses and interpret findings
without human guidance.
See also 
Artistic research and social science
References 
