19th-century developments (1800–1900)

19th-century developments (1800–1900)[edit]

The Michelson–Morley experimentwas used to disprove that light propagated through a luminiferous aether. This 19th-century concept was then superseded by Albert Einstein's special theory of relativity.

By the 19th century, the study of science had come into the purview of professionals and institutions. In so doing, it gradually acquired the more modern name of natural science. The term scientist was coined by William Whewell in an 1834 review of Mary Somerville's On the Connexion of the Sciences.^[74] But the word did not enter general use until nearly the end of the same century.