Post Classical Science

In the Middle Ages the classical learning continued in three major linguistic cultures and
civilizations: Greek (the Byzantine Empire), Arabic (the Islamic world), and Latin (Western
Europe).
Byzantine Empire
 Because of the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, the intellectual level in the
western part of Europe declined in the 400s. In contrast, the Eastern Roman or Byzantine
Empire resisted the barbarian attacks, and preserved and improved the learning.
 While the Byzantine Empire still held learning centers such as Constantinople,
Alexandria and Antioch, Western Europe's knowledge was concentrated
in monasteries until the development of medieval universities in the 12th centuries. The
curriculum of monastic schools included the study of the few available ancient texts and
of new works on practical subjects like medicine and timekeeping.
 In the sixth century in the Byzantine Empire, Isidore of Miletus compiled Archimedes'
mathematical works in the Archimedes Palimpsest, where all Archimedes' mathematical
contributions were collected and studied.
 John Philoponus, another Byzantine scholar, was the first to question Aristotle's teaching
of physics, introducing the theory of impetus. The theory of impetus was an auxiliary or
secondary theory of Aristotelian dynamics, put forth initially to explain projectile motion
against gravity. It is the intellectual precursor to the concepts of inertia, momentum and
acceleration in classical mechanics. The works of John Philoponus inspired Galileo later.
 The first record of separating conjoined twins took place in the Byzantine Empire in the
900s when the surgeons tried to separate a dead body of a pair of conjoined twins. The
result was partly successful as the other twin managed to live for three days. The next
recorded case of separating conjoined twins was several centuries later, in 1600s
Germany.
 During the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, a number of Greek scholars flee to North Italy
in which they fueled the era later commonly known as "Renaissance” as they brought
with them a great deal of classical learning including an understanding of botany,
medicine, and zoology. Byzantium also gave the West important inputs: John Philoponus'
criticism of Aristotelian physics, and the works of Dioscorides.