Sci·ence n. The systematic study or knowledge of the physical or material world . One might think that with all of the great scientific discoveries that happened in the 17th century, that they happened over night and that the discoveries seemed to have happened in a relatively short period in time. The discoveries were constructed from and expanded upon, the knowledge gained from earlier philosophers. They were then developed over time. Isaac Newton surely did not awake one morning and discover the laws of gravity, nor did his peers fully ....