Though medical science began with the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates, dissection
and the study of the human body was prohibited for religious reasons until the Renaissance. Only in
1628 did William Harvey theorize that blood circulates in the body; germs weren't discovered until the
nineteenth century. Since then, surgery and drugs have greatly reduced deaths and pain from accident
and disease. Genetic research and biotechnology hold the promise of even greater advances in the
twenty-first century.

The Science and Discovery series recreates one of history's most successful journeysfour thousand years
of scientific efforts to better understand and control the physical world. Science has often challenged and
upset conventional wisdom or accepted practices; this is a story of vested interests and independent thinkers,
experiments and theories, change and progress. Aristotle, Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Newton, Darwin,
Einstein, and many others are featured.

The University of Iowa