In the history of chemistry, the chemical revolution, also called the first chemical revolution, was the reformulation of chemistry during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, which culminated in the law of conservation of mass and the oxygen theory of combustion.

During the 19th and 20th century, this transformation was credited to the work of the French chemist Antoine Lavoisier (the "father of modern chemistry"). However, recent work on the history of early modern chemistry considers the chemical revolution to consist of gradual changes in chemical theory and practice that emerged over a period of two centuries. The so-called scientific revolution took place during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries whereas the chemical revolution took place during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. (Full article...)

Poet and artist William Blake criticized Newton and like-minded philosophers such as Locke and Bacon for relying solely on reason.

Blake's 1795 print Newton is a demonstration of his opposition to the "single-vision" of scientific materialism: the great philosopher-scientist is shown utterly isolated in the depths of the ocean, his eyes (only one of which is visible) fixed on the compasses with which he draws on a scroll. His concentration is so fierce that he seems almost to become part of the rocks upon which he sits.

...that the history of biochemistry spans approximately 400 years, but the word "biochemistry" in the modern sense was first proposed only in 1903, by German chemist Carl Neuberg?

...that the Great Comet of 1577 was viewed by people all over Europe, including famous Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe and the six year old Johannes Kepler?

...that the Society for Social Studies of Science (often abbreviated as 4S) is, as its website claims, "the oldest and largest scholarly association devoted to understanding science and technology"?

Muhammad ibn al-Katib Sinan al-Qunawi (died c. 1524), also known as Muhammad ibn Yusuf, was an Ottoman astronomer and muwaqqit (timekeeper) in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century. A pioneer of Ottoman astronomy, especially in the field of astronomical instruments and timekeeping, he served as muwaqqit at various mosques, and eventually at the Sublime Porte under Suleiman the Magnificent (r. 1520–1566). He was influenced by earlier Mamluk astronomers, especially Shams al-Din al-Khalili (1320–1380) and Ibn al-Shatir (c. 1304—1375), as well as by the Central Asian Ali al-Qushji and Al-Biruni.

He wrote two treatises on the construction of the astrolabe quadrant (al-rub' al-muqantarat), including Hadiyat al-Muluk ("A Present for Kings") dedicated to Bayezid II (r. 1481–1512). He published a Turkish edition of Al-Khalili's universal tables, and compiled Mizan al-Kawakib ("Balance of the Stars"), containing tables that allow reading the time at night by observing the stars—"the most original Ottoman contribution to astronomical timekeeping by tables" according to historian of astronomy David A. King. In addition to the then commonly used Arabic, he also wrote in Turkish, in order to make his field more accessible throughout the empire. This tradition would be continued by astronomers such as Mustafa ibn Ali al-Muwaqqit. Taha Yasin Arslan writes that al-Qunawi "single-handedly pioneered" the science of timekeeping in the Ottoman Empire. (Full article...)

February 14:

• 1468 - Birth of Johann Werner, German mathematician (d. 1522)

• 1838 - Birth of Margaret E. Knight, American inventor, famous as female Thomas Edison, (d. 1914)

• 1848 - Birth of Benjamin Baillaud, French astronomer (d. 1934)

• 1869 - Birth of Charles Wilson, Scottish physicist, Nobel Prize Laureate (d. 1959)

• 1876 - Alexander Graham Bell applies for a patent for the telephone, as does Elisha Gray

• 1894 - Death of Eugène Charles Catalan, Belgian mathematician (b. 1814)

• 1898 - Birth of Fritz Zwicky, Swiss-American physicist and astronomer (d. 1974)

• 1918 - The Soviet Union adopts the Gregorian calendar (on 1 February according to the Julian calendar)

• 1904 - Birth of Charles Oatley, Professor of electrical engineering, (scanning electron microscope), (d. 1996)

• 1917 - Birth of Herbert A. Hauptman, American mathematician, Nobel Prize Laureate

• 1943 - Death of David Hilbert, German mathematician (b. 1862)

• 1961 - Discovery of the chemical elements: Element 103, Lawrencium, is first synthesized at the University of California

• 1975 - Death of Julian Huxley, British biologist (b. 1887)

• 1989 - Death of James Bond, American ornithologist (b. 1900)