Advances in medicine, astronomy, and philosophy were made during the 16th and 17th centuries. Some of the advances in philosophy were due to Descartes and Locke. In medicine the advances were due to Galen, and in astronomy it was Newton, Copernicus, Kepler and Galileo. Most of the advances were accomplished because of the major improvements in technology and the method of investigation. During the 16th and 17th centuries made great advances thanks, largely, to improvements in technology and the new method of thinking. .
Astronomy made many advances throughout the Renaissance and into the 16th and 17th centuries. During the Renaissance or the Middle Ages philosophers would use The Ptolemaic System, the system is geocentric because it places Earth at the center of the universe. In 1543, Nicholas Copernicus that heliocentric, or sun-centered universe was a more accurate explanation than the geocentric universe. Galileo and his observations destroyed another aspect of the Ptolemaic system, heavenly bodies were seen as pure orbs of light, but they were composed of a material substance, just like Earth. The Copernican idea threatened the Church's conception of the universe and contradicted the bible, making most astronomers accept the heliocentric conception of the universe. .
There were many advances in technology for science during the 16th and 17th centuries. In Medicine one of the new technologies were vaccines, less people were dieing from diseases such as smallpox. And in astronomy, one of the "new and improved" technologies was the telescope. Philosophers were now able to actually study the night's sky. The telescope allowed Galileo to discover that there are mountains on the .
Moon, that there are four moons revolving around Jupiter and the sun had sunspots. The telescope also allowed Maria Winklemann to discover a comet, which her husband, Prussia's foremost astronomer, failed to see.
