Search Results: Germ Theory

The germ theory, which emerged in the late 19th century, demonstrated that microscopic germs caused most human infectious diseases. The germs involved included bacteria, viruses, fungi, protozoa, and prions. Louis Pasteur (1822-1895), a French...

The 'horse-rider theory' is a controversial proposal that Japan was conquered around the 4th or 5th century CE by a culture from northern Asia to whom the horse was especially important. Although archaeological evidence and genetics point...

On this clay tablet, the author has listed the titles of cuneiform omen collections drawn from celestial and terrestrial phenomena. Rather unusually, he explains that the validity of an individual omen depends on the particular month and...

This clay tablet narrates a geometric-algebraic theory of angles and triangles, similar to to the theory of Euclid of Alexandria, the father of geometry (lived c. 300 BCE). From Tell Harmal (ancient Shaduppum), Iraq. Old-Babylonian period...

This clay tablet narrates a geometric-algebraic theory of how to make a solution for a mathematical problem. The conclusion applies a theory very similar to the Pythagorean theorem. From Tell Tell al-Dhabba'i, Iraq. Old-Babylonian period...

We all live in states today, and Thomas Hobbes has a good claim to have been the first person to articulate this concept in its modern sense. The intention of Hobbes’s civil science was to lower the temperature of politics, and his concept...

The Indus Valley Civilization was a cultural and political entity which flourished in the northern region of the Indian subcontinent between c. 7000 - c. 600 BCE. Its modern name derives from its location in the valley of the Indus River...

Louis Pasteur's pasteurization experiment illustrates the fact that the spoilage of liquid was caused by particles in the air rather than the liquid itself. These experiments were important pieces of evidence supporting the idea of Germ Theory...

Humanity didn't always know about the invisible viruses, bacteria, and microbes that can cause disease. But that doesn't mean we didn't come up with some truly bizarre ideas. From the four humors and miasma theory to bloodletting and trepanation...

George Berkeley (1685-1753) was an Anglo-Irish bishop and an empiricist and idealist philosopher. He infamously claimed that no matter exists outside of God and that things only exist outside of our minds and perceptions because God perceives...