Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

's achievements in science and technology have been significant and

research and development Research and development (R&D or R+D), known in Europe as research and technological development (RTD), is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products, and improving existi ...

efforts form an integral part of the European economy. Europe has been the home of some of the most prominent researchers in various scientific disciplines, notably

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

chemistry Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...

and

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...

. Scientific research in Europe is supported by industry, by the European universities and by several scientific institutions. All the raw output of scientific research from Europe consistently ranks among the world's best.

Historical overview

Mathematics flourished in the Greek world from 600 BC to 300 AD. However, the study of mathematics was de-emphasized when the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterr ...

was in power, and became even less important after the

fall of Rome The fall of the Western Roman Empire (also called the fall of the Roman Empire or the fall of Rome) was the loss of central political control in the Western Roman Empire, a process in which the Empire failed to enforce its rule, and its vas ...

. Medieval Europeans were interested in mathematics for different reasons than modern mathematicians are; namely, they studied mathematics because they thought it was the basis to understand the created order of nature, as explained in ''Timaeus'' by Plato and the ''

Book of Wisdom The Book of Wisdom, or the Wisdom of Solomon, is a Jewish work written in Greek and most likely composed in Alexandria, Egypt. Generally dated to the mid-first century BCE, the central theme of the work is "wisdom" itself, appearing under two ...

''. During the 17th century, Europe (and only Europe) underwent the

Scientific Revolution The Scientific Revolution was a series of events that marked the emergence of modern science during the early modern period, when developments in mathematics, physics, astronomy, biology (including human anatomy) and chemistry transfo ...

as natural philosophers began to obtain exact measurements and base their theories on experiments and observations. During this era, mathematics and astronomy were the branches of science that spearheaded the Scientific Revolution, and princely courts were a source of patronage for the sciences. Natural philosophers of this time tried to grasp the laws of nature as a way to understand God's mind, and though

Jesuits The Society of Jesus ( la, Societas Iesu; abbreviation: SJ), also known as the Jesuits (; la, Iesuitæ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

welcomed the flourishing of science, some

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

authorities instead responded to it by accusing natural philosophers of heresy. Although the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

was only founded in 1993, the tradition of scientific research in Europe is much older and can be traced back to the

scientific revolution The Scientific Revolution was a series of events that marked the emergence of modern science during the early modern period, when developments in mathematics, physics, astronomy, biology (including human anatomy) and chemistry transfo ...

. Europe is home to some of the world's oldest universities, such as the

University of Bologna The University of Bologna ( it, Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna, UNIBO) is a public research university in Bologna, Italy. Founded in 1088 by an organised guild of students (''studiorum''), it is the oldest university in continuo ...

, although the oldest European universities were, at the time of their foundation, more centered on

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

and law than on

science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

. In the time since

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, science and technology has played ever more critical roles in the lives of Europeans.

Institutions

European Union and Euratom

* Directorate-General for Research *

Agencies, independent bodies and joint undertakings of the European Union and the Euratom The agencies of the European Union (formally: ''Agencies, decentralised independent bodies, corporate bodies and joint undertakings of the European Union and the Euratom'') are bodies of the European Union and the Euratom established as juridica ...

European Research Council The European Research Council (ERC) is a public body for funding of scientific and technological research conducted within the European Union (EU). Established by the European Commission in 2007, the ERC is composed of an independent Scientific ...

European Institute of Innovation and Technology The European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) is an independent body of the European Union with juridical personality, established in 2008 intended to strengthen Europe's ability to innovate. The EIT is an integral part of Horizon ...

Joint Research Centre The Joint Research Centre (JRC) is the European Commission's science and knowledge service which employs scientists to carry out research in order to provide independent scientific advice and support to European Union (EU) policy. The JRC is ...

***

Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements The Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements (IRMM), located in Geel, Belgium, is one of the seven institutes of the Joint Research Centre (JRC), a Directorate-General of the European Commission (EC). The IRMM promotes a common and relia ...

(IRMM) ***

Institute for Transuranium Elements The Institute for Transuranium Elements (ITU) is a nuclear research institute in Karlsruhe, Germany. The ITU is one of the seven institutes of the Joint Research Centre, a Directorate-General of the European Commission. The ITU has about 300 staf ...

(ITU) ***

Institute for the Protection and the Security of the Citizen The Institute for the Protection and Security of the Citizen (IPSC), located in Ispra, Italy, is one of the seven institutes of the Joint Research Centre (JRC), a Directorate-General of the European Commission The European Commission (EC) is t ...

(IPSC) ***

Institute for Environment and Sustainability The Institute for Environment and Sustainability (IES) used to be a specialised institute of the Joint Research Centre (JRC) directorate of the European Commission, based in Ispra, Italy. Its mission was to provide scientific and technical support ...

(IES) ***

Institute for Health and Consumer Protection The Institute for Health and Consumer Protection or IHCP, located in Ispra, Italy, is one of the seven institutes of the Joint Research Centre (JRC), a Directorate-General of the European Commission (EC). The Institute for Health and Consumer Prot ...

(IHCP) *** Institute for Energy (IE) ***

Institute for Prospective Technological Studies The Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS), located in Seville, Spain, is one of the seven institutes of the Joint Research Centre (JRC), a Directorate-General of the European Commission (EC). Projects Its first project was EST ...

(IPTS) ** Joint undertakings *** of the European Union **** Bio-based Industries ****

Clean Sky The Clean Sky Joint Undertaking (CSJU) is a public-private partnership between the European Commission and the European aeronautics industry that coordinates and funds research activities to deliver significantly quieter and more environmentally ...

**** Electronic Components and Systems **** Fuel Cells and Hydrogen ****

High-Performance Computing High-performance computing (HPC) uses supercomputers and computer clusters to solve advanced computation problems. Overview HPC integrates systems administration (including network and security knowledge) and parallel programming into a mult ...

****

Innovative Medicines Initiative The Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) is a European initiative to improve the competitive situation of the European Union in the field of pharmaceutical research. The IMI is a joint initiative ( public-private partnership) of the DG Researc ...

**** Single European Sky Air Traffic Management Research **** Shift-2-Rail *** of the Euratom ****

Fusion for Energy Fusion for Energy (F4E) is a joint undertaking of the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) that is responsible for the EU's contribution to the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), the world's largest scientific partne ...

****

Joint European Torus The Joint European Torus, or JET, is an operational Magnetic confinement fusion, magnetically confined Plasma (physics), plasma physics experiment, located at Culham Centre for Fusion Energy in Oxfordshire, United Kingdom, UK. Based on a tokamak ...

European University Institute The European University Institute (EUI) is an international postgraduate and post-doctoral teaching and research institute and an independent body of the European Union with juridical personality, established by the member states to contribu ...

* European Research Infrastructure Consortia

Other intergovernmental European research organisations

European Organization for Nuclear Research The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (; ; ), is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in a northwestern suburb of Gene ...

(CERN) *

European Forest Institute The European Forest Institute (EFI) is an international organization established by the European states. It has 30 Member Countries, and c. 130 member organizations from 40 different countries working in diverse research fields. EFI provides fore ...

European Molecular Biology Laboratory The European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) is an intergovernmental organization dedicated to molecular biology research and is supported by 27 member states, two prospect states, and one associate member state. EMBL was created in 1974 and ...

(EMBL) **

European Bioinformatics Institute The European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) is an Intergovernmental Organization (IGO) which, as part of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) family, focuses on research and services in bioinformatics. It is located on the Well ...

* European Southern Observatory (ESO) *

European Space Agency , owners = , headquarters = Paris, Île-de-France, France , coordinates = , spaceport = Guiana Space Centre , seal = File:ESA emblem seal.png , seal_size = 130px , image = Views in the Main Control Room (1205 ...

(ESA) *

International Centre for Theoretical Physics The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) is an international research institute for physical and mathematical sciences that operates under a tripartite agreement between the Italian Government, United Nations Educatio ...

International Council for the Exploration of the Sea The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES; french: Conseil International de l'Exploration de la Mer, ''CIEM'') is a regional fishery advisory body and the world's oldest intergovernmental science organization. ICES is headqu ...

International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL), in Braga, Portugal, a fully international research organization in Europe in the field of nanoscience and nanotechnology. INL is the result of a joint decision of the Governments of Portugal ...

* International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IIMCB) in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

* ITER *

Joint Institute for Nuclear Research The Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR, russian: Объединённый институт ядерных исследований, ОИЯИ), in Dubna, Moscow Oblast (110 km north of Moscow), Russia, is an international research c ...

Scientific fields

Physics

Chemistry

Mathematics

Mathematics flourished in the Greek world from 600 BC to 300 AD, but mathematical philosophy was de-emphasized over practical methods during the rise of the

. After the fall of Rome, many ancient mathematical works were lost or destroyed, and the role of mathematics was further reduced by Europe's political fragmentation. The idea of

Arabic numerals Arabic numerals are the ten numerical digits: , , , , , , , , and . They are the most commonly used symbols to write Decimal, decimal numbers. They are also used for writing numbers in other systems such as octal, and for writing identifiers ...

came to Europe , but was not immediately popular due to use of the old

Roman numerals Roman numerals are a numeral system that originated in ancient Rome and remained the usual way of writing numbers throughout Europe well into the Late Middle Ages. Numbers are written with combinations of letters from the Latin alphabet, eac ...

. The system of Arabic numerals was popularized by Italian mathematician Leonardo de Pisa (more famously known as Fibonacci), and had finally become popular among merchants in Italy, France, Germany, and Britain for accounting by 1400, and in use by most textbooks by the mid-15th century. During the first half of the 16th century,

Scipione del Ferro Scipione del Ferro (6 February 1465 – 5 November 1526) was an Italian mathematician who first discovered a method to solve the depressed cubic equation. Life Scipione del Ferro was born in Bologna, in northern Italy, to Floriano and Filip ...

and

Niccolò Fontana Tartaglia Niccolò Fontana Tartaglia (; 1499/1500 – 13 December 1557) was an Italian mathematician, engineer (designing fortifications), a surveyor (of topography, seeking the best means of defense or offense) and a bookkeeper from the then Republi ...

discovered how to solve

cubic equation In algebra, a cubic equation in one variable is an equation of the form :ax^3+bx^2+cx+d=0 in which is nonzero. The solutions of this equation are called roots of the cubic function defined by the left-hand side of the equation. If all of th ...

s. In 1545,

Gerolamo Cardano Gerolamo Cardano (; also Girolamo or Geronimo; french: link=no, Jérôme Cardan; la, Hieronymus Cardanus; 24 September 1501– 21 September 1576) was an Italian polymath, whose interests and proficiencies ranged through those of mathematician, ...

published them in his book ''Ars Magna'', along with a method to solve

quartic equation In mathematics, a quartic equation is one which can be expressed as a ''quartic function'' equaling zero. The general form of a quartic equation is :ax^4+bx^3+cx^2+dx+e=0 \, where ''a'' ≠ 0. The quartic is the highest order polynomi ...

s discovered by

Lodovico Ferrari Lodovico de Ferrari (2 February 1522 – 5 October 1565) was an Italian mathematician. Biography Born in Bologna, Lodovico's grandfather, Bartolomeo Ferrari, was forced out of Milan to Bologna. Lodovico settled in Bologna, and he began his ...

. Our current notations for

addition Addition (usually signified by the Plus and minus signs#Plus sign, plus symbol ) is one of the four basic Operation (mathematics), operations of arithmetic, the other three being subtraction, multiplication and Division (mathematics), division. ...

subtraction Subtraction is an arithmetic operation that represents the operation of removing objects from a collection. Subtraction is signified by the minus sign, . For example, in the adjacent picture, there are peaches—meaning 5 peaches with 2 taken ...

multiplication Multiplication (often denoted by the cross symbol , by the mid-line dot operator , by juxtaposition, or, on computers, by an asterisk ) is one of the four elementary mathematical operations of arithmetic, with the other ones being additi ...

, and

division Division or divider may refer to: Mathematics *Division (mathematics), the inverse of multiplication *Division algorithm, a method for computing the result of mathematical division Military *Division (military), a formation typically consisting ...

, and

equation In mathematics, an equation is a formula that expresses the equality of two expressions, by connecting them with the equals sign . The word ''equation'' and its cognates in other languages may have subtly different meanings; for example, in ...

s were also invented in Europe. The + and – signs were first used in warehouses, then appeared in print in 1526 in a German math book. The symbols for multiplication and division came later. The equal sign was first used in England in 1557. Mathematicians represented unknown quantities in equations with letters by 1600. The first systematic treatment of

decimal notation The decimal numeral system (also called the base-ten positional numeral system and denary or decanary) is the standard system for denoting integer and non-integer numbers. It is the extension to non-integer numbers of the Hindu–Arabic numer ...

, ''

De Thiende ''De Thiende'', published in 1585 in the Dutch language by Simon Stevin, is remembered for extending positional notation to the use of decimals to represent fractions. A French version, ''La Disme'', was issued the same year by Stevin. Stevin i ...

'' (a book by

Simon Stevin Simon Stevin (; 1548–1620), sometimes called Stevinus, was a Flemish mathematician, scientist and music theorist. He made various contributions in many areas of science and engineering, both theoretical and practical. He also translated vario ...

), was published in 1585. Though mathematics had a secondary role in the mid-16th century, it became considered the most powerful tool of scientific research by the 18th century, as a general mathematization of civil life took place.

Biological and earth sciences

Psychology

References

External links

Key figures of science, technology and innovation

Science, technology and innovation in Europearchive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Science And Technology in Europe