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This article presents a list of discoveries and includes famous observations. Discovery observations form acts of detecting and learning something. Discovery observations are acts in which something is found and given a productive insight. The observation assimilates the knowledge of a phenomenon or the recording of data using instruments.

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Anthropology

Century of discovery and item

• 8th century : Struggle for existence
• 10th century : Coptic-Egyptian relationship
• 11th century : Anthropology of religion
• 11th century : Comparative sociology
• 11th century : Indology
• 12th century : Transmutation of species
• 19th century : Historical relatedness of languages
• 19th century : Extinct human ancestry
• 20th century : Culture and tool use among Chimpanzees

Archaeology

Century of discovery and item

• 9th century : Egyptology
• 9th century : Partial decipherment of hieroglyphic writing
• 10th century : Coptic-Egyptian relationship
• 17th century : Ur
• 18th century : The Rosetta Stone
• 19th century : Behistun Inscription
• 19th century : Cache of royal correspondence at Amarna
• 19th century : Minoan civilization
• 19th century : Mycenae
• 19th century : Hittite civilization
• 19th century : Troy
• 20th century : Indus Valley Civilization
• 20th century : Sutton Hoo
• 20th century : Terracotta army at the tomb of Qin Shi Huang
• 20th century : Viking settlement in Vinland

Astronomy/Cosmology

Century of discovery, item and discoverer

• 3rd century B.C. : Heliocentrism (Earth and the planets revolving around the Sun) by Aristarchus of Samos and Indian astronomers
• 3rd century B.C. : The discovery of the curvature of the Earth, its size (circumference) computed by Eratosthenes
• 2nd century B.C. : Discovery of tides being caused by the Moon, by Seleucus of Seleucia
• 8th century : Discovery of the universe expanding and contracting by Ja'far al-Sadiq
• 8th century : Discovery that every object in the universe is always in motion, including objects which appear to be inanimate, by Ja'far al-Sadiq
• 9th century : The discovery of the heavenly bodies and celestial spheres being subject to the same laws of physics as the Earth by Ja'far Muhammad ibn Mūsā ibn Shākir and Ibn al-Haytham (Alhacen)
• 9th century : The existence of gravitation between heavenly bodies and within the celestial spheres by Ja'far Muhammad ibn Mūsā ibn Shākir and Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī
• 10th century : The discovery of Andromeda Galaxy and the Large Magellanic Cloud by Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi in his Book of Fixed Stars
• 11th century : The Milky Way galaxy being a collection of numerous nebulous stars by Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī
• 11th century : The discovery that the solar apogee and the precession are not identical by Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī
• 11th century : Discovery of the elliptic orbits of the planets by Abū Ishāq Ibrāhīm al-Zarqālī (Arzachel)
• 12th century : Self-luminosity of the planets by Nur Ed-Din Al Betrugi (Alpetragius)
• 16th century : Explicit heliocentric model by Nicolaus Copernicus
• 17th century : Moons of Jupiter by Galileo Galilei
• 17th century : Sunspots by Johannes and David Fabricius, Christoph Scheiner and Galileo Galilei
• 18th and 19th century : The outer planets, Uranus and Neptune
• 20th century : Universe beyond our galaxy
• 20th century : Expansion and age of the universe, based on Hubble's law
• 20th century : Cosmic microwave background radiation

Biology

• Discovery of measles and smallpox by al-Razi (Rhazes)
• The contagious nature of infectious diseases, including phthisis and tuberculosis, by Avicenna (Abū Alī ibn Sīnā)
• Discovery of sexually transmitted disease by Avicenna
• The discovery that disease can be distributed through water and soil by Avicenna
• Discovery of mediastinitis and pleurisy by Avicenna
• Discovery of bacteria and viral organisms by Avicenna
• The circulation of blood and pulmonary circulation by Ibn al-Nafis
• Discovery of microorganisms by Ibn Khatima and Ibn al-Khatib
• Discovery of the immune system by Muslim physicians
• Systemic circulation of blood and double circulatory system by William Harvey
• Observation of microorganisms by Antony van Leeuwenhoek
• Discovery of the role of oxygen in respiration and photosynthesis by Joseph Priestly, Antoine Lavoisier and Jan Ingenhousz
• Former existence of extinct species
• Mendel's Laws of Genetics
• Discovery of evidence for the evolution of species in the fossil record and DNA sequences.
• Chromosomes in the cell nucleus bear a definite linear arrangement of genes - the Chromosome Theory of Inheritance.
• Discovery of the essential minerals, nutrients and vitamins in foodstuffs.
• Discovery of the mechanism of evolution by natural selection, by Charles Darwin
• The role of microorganisms in causing infectious disease, by Louis Pasteur and Joseph Lister
• The nervous system acts via electrical impulses.
• Discovery of the structure and function of DNA and RNA
• Discovery of the structure and function of enzymes and other proteins.
• Discovery of restriction endonucleases, later used in genetic engineering, by Daniel Nathans and Hamilton Smith

Chemistry

• The discovery that there are more than four chemical elements by Ja'far al-Sadiq
• Discovery of atoms being made up of tiny particle with two opposite poles by Ja'far al-Sadiq
• Discovery of materials which are solid and absorbent being opaque, and materials which are solid and repellent being more or less transparent by Ja'far al-Sadiq
• The discovery that opaque materials absorb heat by Ja'far al-Sadiq
• Discovery of hydrochloric, sulfuric, nitric and acetic acids by Geber (Jabir ibn Hayyan)
• Discovery of soda and potash by Geber
• Distilled water and distilled alcohol by Geber
• The discovery that aqua regia, a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acids, could dissolve metals such as gold by Geber
• Discovery of liquefaction, crystallisation, purification, oxidisation, evaporation, filtration and sublimation by Geber
• The discovery that transmutation of metals are not possible by al-Kindi (Alkindus)
• Discovery of kerosene and distilled petroleum by al-Razi (Rhazes)
• Discovery of conservation of mass by Nasīr al-Dīn al-Tūsī
• Law of conservation of mass by Antoine Lavoisier
• The synthesis of urea from inorganic chemicals, by Friedrich Woehler, disproving Vitalism
• Chirality or handedness of asymmetrical molecules, by Louis Pasteur
• Periodicity of the elements by Dmitri Mendeleev
• Practical synthesis of ammonia, by Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch
• X-ray crystallography, allowing for the determination of molecular structures
• Synthesis of Neoprene and Nylon by Wallace Carothers and colleagues
• Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy for the rapid determination of molecular structures in solution.
• Chromatography for the efficient separation and purification of chemicals.
• Dideoxy method of DNA sequencing, by Fred Sanger

Geography/Geology

• 11th century : Law of superposition, first discovered by Abu Ali Sina Balkhi
• 16th century : Continental drift, put forward by Flemish geographer Abraham Ortelius
• 20th century : Geologic time scale, proposed by British geologist Arthur Holmes
• 20th century : Great age of the Earth, finally discovered by C. C. Patterson

Physics

• 9th century : Celestial mechanics and the discovery of the heavenly bodies and celestial spheres being subject to the same laws of physics as the Earth by Ja'far Muhammad ibn Mūsā ibn Shākir and Ibn al-Haytham (Alhacen)
• 9th century : The existence of gravitation between heavenly bodies and within the celestial spheres by Ja'far Muhammad ibn Mūsā ibn Shākir and Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī
• 9th century : Concept of relativity by al-Kindi (Alkindus)
• 10th century : Law of refraction by Ibn Sahl and Ibn al-Haytham
• 10th century : Discovery of light rays travelling in straight lines and being made up of energy particles; principle of least time; vision being caused by light rays entering the eye; the rectilinear propagation, constituent colors and electromagnetic aspects of light; explanations of shadows, binocular vision, atmospheric refraction and the moon illusion; and the relationship of the density of the atmosphere with altitude, by Ibn al-Haytham
• 10th century : The speed of light being finite by Ibn al-Haytham, Abū Alī ibn Sīnā (Avicenna) and Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī
• 11th century : The speed of light being much faster than the speed of sound by Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī
• 11th century : Law of inertia (Newton's first law of motion) and discovery of momentum (part of Newton's second law of motion) by Ibn al-Haytham and Abū Alī ibn Sīnā
• 11th century : Discovery of the attraction between masses and the magnitude of acceleration due to gravity at a distance by Ibn al-Haytham
• 11th century : The relationship between acceleration and non-uniform motion (part of Newton's second law of motion) by Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī
• 12th century : Variation of gravitation and gravitational potential energy at a distance; differentiation between force, mass and weight; the decrease of air density with altitude; and the greater density of water when nearer to the Earth's centre, by al-Khazini
• 12th century : Discovery of reaction (precursor to Newton's third law of motion) by Ibn Bajjah (Avempace)
• 12th century : Relationship between force and acceleration (precursor to Newton's second law of motion) by Hibat Allah Abu'l-Barakat al-Baghdaadi
• 12th century : Relationship between force, work and kinetic energy by Averroes
• 13th century : Correct explanation of rainbow phenomenon by Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi and Kamāl al-Dīn al-Fārisī
• 17th century : Principle of relativity by Galileo Galilei
• 17th century : Newton's laws of motion by Galileo Galilei and Isaac Newton
• 17th century : Classical mechanics and inverse square law of gravity (Newton's law of universal gravitation) by Isaac Newton
• 18th century : Kinetic energy is proportional to mass × velocity squared by Émilie du Châtelet, based on experiments by Willem 'sGravesande.
• 18th century : +/- Electric charges and their conservation, by Benjamin Franklin
• 18th century : Mechanical energy equivalent of heat, by Count Rumford and others.
• 19th century : Phenomena of Electromagnetism, discovered by Hans Christian Ørsted and Michael Faraday
• 19th century : Laws of Electromagnetism, developed by Michael Faraday and James Clerk Maxwell
• 19th century : Experiments onDiffraction done by Augustin-Jean Fresnel provide evidence for the wave theory of light
• 19th century : Electromagnetic waves, predicted by James Clerk Maxwell, discovered by Heinrich Hertz
• 19th century : The Michelson-Morley experiment demonstrates that light is not carried by Aether
• 19th century : Radioactivity by Henri Becquerel and others.
• 19th century : Electron, discovered by J. J. Thomson and his team
• 20th century : Photon, theoretically proven by Albert Einstein
• 20th century : Quantum theory to account for the photoelectric effect by Max Planck, Niels Bohr, Albert Einstein, and many others.
• 20th century : The demonstration of time dilation as a real physical phenomenon by Albert Einstein
• 20th century : The theories of special and general relativity by Albert Einstein

See also

Science portal

• List of famous experiments
• Obsolete scientific theories
• List of multiple independent discoveries
• History of science