World War II
World War II known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The vast majority of the world's countries—including all the great powers—eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. A state of total war emerged, directly involving more than 100 million people from over 30 countries; the major participants threw their entire economic and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, marked by 50 to 85 million fatalities, most of whom were civilians in the Soviet Union and China, it included massacres, the genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, premeditated death from starvation and disease, the only use of nuclear weapons in war. Japan, which aimed to dominate Asia and the Pacific, was at war with China by 1937, though neither side had declared war on the other. World War II is said to have begun on 1 September 1939, with the invasion of Poland by Germany and subsequent declarations of war on Germany by France and the United Kingdom.
From late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Finland and the Baltic states. Following the onset of campaigns in North Africa and East Africa, the fall of France in mid 1940, the war continued between the European Axis powers and the British Empire. War in the Balkans, the aerial Battle of Britain, the Blitz, the long Battle of the Atlantic followed. On 22 June 1941, the European Axis powers launched an invasion of the Soviet Union, opening the largest land theatre of war in history; this Eastern Front trapped most crucially the German Wehrmacht, into a war of attrition. In December 1941, Japan launched a surprise attack on the United States as well as European colonies in the Pacific. Following an immediate U. S. declaration of war against Japan, supported by one from Great Britain, the European Axis powers declared war on the U.
S. in solidarity with their Japanese ally. Rapid Japanese conquests over much of the Western Pacific ensued, perceived by many in Asia as liberation from Western dominance and resulting in the support of several armies from defeated territories; the Axis advance in the Pacific halted in 1942. Key setbacks in 1943, which included a series of German defeats on the Eastern Front, the Allied invasions of Sicily and Italy, Allied victories in the Pacific, cost the Axis its initiative and forced it into strategic retreat on all fronts. In 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained its territorial losses and turned toward Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in Central China, South China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy and captured key Western Pacific islands; the war in Europe concluded with an invasion of Germany by the Western Allies and the Soviet Union, culminating in the capture of Berlin by Soviet troops, the suicide of Adolf Hitler and the German unconditional surrender on 8 May 1945.
Following the Potsdam Declaration by the Allies on 26 July 1945 and the refusal of Japan to surrender under its terms, the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August respectively. With an invasion of the Japanese archipelago imminent, the possibility of additional atomic bombings, the Soviet entry into the war against Japan and its invasion of Manchuria, Japan announced its intention to surrender on 15 August 1945, cementing total victory in Asia for the Allies. Tribunals were set up by fiat by the Allies and war crimes trials were conducted in the wake of the war both against the Germans and the Japanese. World War II changed the political social structure of the globe; the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The Soviet Union and United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the nearly half-century long Cold War. In the wake of European devastation, the influence of its great powers waned, triggering the decolonisation of Africa and Asia.
Most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic expansion. Political integration in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities and create a common identity; the start of the war in Europe is held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred and the two wars merged in 1941; this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935; the British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the fo
Cambridge
Cambridge is a university city and the county town of Cambridgeshire, England, on the River Cam 50 miles north of London. At the United Kingdom Census 2011, its population was 123,867 including 24,506 students. Cambridge became an important trading centre during the Roman and Viking ages, there is archaeological evidence of settlement in the area as early as the Bronze Age; the first town charters were granted in the 12th century, although modern city status was not conferred until 1951. The world-renowned University of Cambridge was founded in 1209; the buildings of the university include King's College Chapel, Cavendish Laboratory, the Cambridge University Library, one of the largest legal deposit libraries in the world. The city's skyline is dominated by several college buildings, along with the spire of the Our Lady and the English Martyrs Church, the chimney of Addenbrooke's Hospital and St John's College Chapel tower. Anglia Ruskin University, which evolved from the Cambridge School of Art and the Cambridgeshire College of Arts and Technology has its main campus in the city.
Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology Silicon Fen with industries such as software and bioscience and many start-up companies born out of the university. More than 40% of the workforce have a higher education qualification, more than twice the national average; the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, one of the largest biomedical research clusters in the world, is soon to house premises of AstraZeneca, a hotel and the relocated Papworth Hospital. The first game of association football took place at Parker's Piece; the Strawberry Fair music and arts festival and Midsummer Fair are held on Midsummer Common, the annual Cambridge Beer Festival takes place on Jesus Green. The city is adjacent to the A14 roads. Cambridge station is less than an hour from London King's Cross railway station. Settlements have existed around the Cambridge area since prehistoric times; the earliest clear evidence of occupation is the remains of a 3,500-year-old farmstead discovered at the site of Fitzwilliam College.
Archaeological evidence of occupation through the Iron Age is a settlement on Castle Hill from the 1st century BC relating to wider cultural changes occurring in southeastern Britain linked to the arrival of the Belgae. The principal Roman site is a small fort Duroliponte on Castle Hill, just northwest of the city centre around the location of the earlier British village; the fort was bounded on two sides by the lines formed by the present Mount Pleasant, continuing across Huntingdon Road into Clare Street. The eastern side followed Magrath Avenue, with the southern side running near to Chesterton Lane and Kettle's Yard before turning northwest at Honey Hill, it was converted to civilian use around 50 years later. Evidence of more widespread Roman settlement has been discovered including numerous farmsteads and a village in the Cambridge district of Newnham. Following the Roman withdrawal from Britain around 410, the location may have been abandoned by the Britons, although the site is identified as Cair Grauth listed among the 28 cities of Britain by the History of the Britons.
Evidence exists that the invading Anglo-Saxons had begun occupying the area by the end of the century. Their settlement – on and around Castle Hill – became known as Grantebrycge. Anglo-Saxon grave goods have been found in the area. During this period, Cambridge benefited from good trade links across the hard-to-travel fenlands. By the 7th century, the town was less significant and described by Bede as a "little ruined city" containing the burial site of Etheldreda. Cambridge was on the border between the East and Middle Anglian kingdoms and the settlement expanded on both sides of the river; the arrival of the Vikings was recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 875. Viking rule, the Danelaw, had been imposed by 878 Their vigorous trading habits caused the town to grow rapidly. During this period the centre of the town shifted from Castle Hill on the left bank of the river to the area now known as the Quayside on the right bank. After the Viking period, the Saxons enjoyed a return to power, building churches such as St Bene't's Church, merchant houses and a mint, which produced coins with the town's name abbreviated to "Grant".
In 1068, two years after his conquest of England, William of Normandy built a castle on Castle Hill. Like the rest of the newly conquered kingdom, Cambridge fell under the control of the King and his deputies; the first town charter was granted by Henry I between 1120 and 1131. It recognised the borough court; the distinctive Round Church dates from this period. In 1209, Cambridge University was founded by students escaping from hostile townspeople in Oxford; the oldest existing college, was founded in 1284. In 1349 Cambridge was affected by the Black Death. Few records survive; the town north of the river was affected being wiped out. Following further depopulation after a second national epidemic in 1361, a letter from the Bishop of Ely suggested that two parishes in Cambridge be merged as there were not enough people to fill one church. With more than a third of English clergy dying in the Black Death, four new colleges were established at the university over the following years to train new clergymen, namely Gonville Hall, Trinity Hall, Corpus Christi and Clare.
In 1382 a revised town charter effects a "diminution of the liberties that the community had enjoyed", due to Cambridge's pa
J. B. Priestley
John Boynton Priestley, OM, known by his pen name J. B. Priestley, was an English novelist, scriptwriter, social commentator and broadcaster, his Yorkshire background is reflected in much of his fiction, notably in The Good Companions, which first brought him to wide public notice. Many of his plays are structured around a time slip, he went on to develop a new theory of time, with different dimensions that link past and future. In 1940, he broadcast a series of short propaganda radio shows that were credited with strengthening civilian morale during the Battle of Britain, his left-wing beliefs brought him into conflict with the government, influenced the birth of the welfare state. The programme was cancelled by the BBC for being too critical of the government, he is best known for his popular 1945 play An Inspector Calls. Priestley was born at 34 Mannheim Road, which he described as an "extremely respectable" suburb of Bradford, his father was a headmaster. His mother died when he was just two years old and his father remarried four years later.
Priestley was educated at Belle Vue Grammar School, which he left at sixteen to work as a junior clerk at Helm & Co. a wool firm in the Swan Arcade. During his years at Helm & Co. he started writing at night and had articles published in local and London newspapers. He was to draw on memories of Bradford in many of the works he wrote after he had moved south, including Bright Day and When We Are Married; as an old man he deplored the destruction by developers of Victorian buildings in Bradford such as the Swan Arcade, where he had his first job. Priestley served in the British army during the First World War, volunteering to join the 10th Battalion, the Duke of Wellington's Regiment on 7 September 1914, being posted to France as a Lance-Corporal on 26 August 1915, he was badly wounded in June 1916. He spent many months in military hospitals and convalescent establishments, on 26 January 1918 was commissioned as an officer in the Devonshire Regiment, posted back to France late summer 1918; as he describes in his literary reminiscences, Margin Released, he suffered from the effects of poison gas, supervised German prisoners of war, before being demobilised in early 1919.
After his military service, Priestley received a university education at Cambridge. By the age of 30 he had established a reputation as an critic, his novel Benighted was adapted into the James Whale film The Old Dark House. Priestley's first major success came with a novel, The Good Companions, which earned him the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction and made him a national figure, his next novel, Angel Pavement, further established him as a successful novelist. However, some critics were less than complimentary about his work, Priestley threatened legal action against Graham Greene for what he took to be a defamatory portrait of him in the novel Stamboul Train. In 1934 he published the travelogue English Journey, an account of what he saw and heard while travelling through the country in the depths of the Depression. Priestley is today seen as having, as was not uncommon at the time, a prejudice against the Irish, as is shown in his work, English Journey: "A great many speeches have been made and books written on the subject of what England has done to Ireland...
I should be interested to hear a speech and read a book or two on the subject of what Ireland has done to England... if we do have an Irish Republic as our neighbour, it is found possible to return her exiled citizens, what a grand clearance there will be in all the western ports, from the Clyde to Cardiff, what a fine exit of ignorance and dirt and drunkenness and disease." He moved into a new genre and became well known as a dramatist. Dangerous Corner was the first of many plays, his best-known play is An Inspector Calls. His plays are more varied in tone than the novels, several being influenced by J. W. Dunne's theory of time, which plays a part in the plots of Dangerous Corner and Time and the Conways". In 1940, Priestley wrote an essay for Horizon magazine, where he criticised George Bernard Shaw for his support of Stalin: "Shaw presumes that his friend Stalin has everything under control. Well, Stalin may have made special arrangements to see that Shaw comes to no harm, but the rest of us in Western Europe do not feel quite so sure of our fate those of us who do not share Shaw's curious admiration for dictators."During the Second World War, he was a regular broadcaster on the BBC.
The Postscript, broadcast on Sunday night through 1940 and again in 1941, drew peak audiences of 16 million. Graham Greene wrote that Priestley "became in the months after Dunkirk a leader second only in importance to Mr. Churchill, and he gave us what our other leaders have always failed to give us – an ideology." But his talks were cancelled. It was thought. Priestley chaired the 1941 Committee, in 1942 he was a co-founder of the socialist Common Wealth Party; the political content of his broadcasts and his hopes of a new and different Britain after the war influenced the politics of the period and helped the Labour Party gain its landslide vic
School
A school is an educational institution designed to provide learning spaces and learning environments for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, compulsory. In these systems, students progress through a series of schools; the names for these schools vary by country but include primary school for young children and secondary school for teenagers who have completed primary education. An institution where higher education is taught, is called a university college or university, but these higher education institutions are not compulsory. In addition to these core schools, students in a given country may attend schools before and after primary and secondary education. Kindergarten or pre-school provide some schooling to young children. University, vocational school, college or seminary may be available after secondary school. A school may be dedicated to one particular field, such as a school of economics or a school of dance. Alternative schools may provide nontraditional curriculum and methods.
There are non-government schools, called private schools. Private schools may be required. Other private schools can be religious, such as Christian schools, hawzas and others. Schools for adults include institutions of corporate training, military education and training and business schools. In home schooling and online schools and learning take place outside a traditional school building. Schools are organized in several different organizational models, including departmental, small learning communities, academies and schools-within-a-school; the word school derives from Greek σχολή meaning "leisure" and "that in which leisure is employed", but "a group to whom lectures were given, school". The concept of grouping students together in a centralized location for learning has existed since Classical antiquity. Formal schools have existed at least since ancient Greece, ancient Rome ancient India, ancient China; the Byzantine Empire had an established schooling system beginning at the primary level.
According to Traditions and Encounters, the founding of the primary education system began in 425 AD and "... military personnel had at least a primary education...". The sometimes efficient and large government of the Empire meant that educated citizens were a must. Although Byzantium lost much of the grandeur of Roman culture and extravagance in the process of surviving, the Empire emphasized efficiency in its war manuals; the Byzantine education system continued until the empire's collapse in 1453 AD. In Western Europe a considerable number of cathedral schools were founded during the Early Middle Ages in order to teach future clergy and administrators, with the oldest still existing, continuously operated, cathedral schools being The King's School, King's School, Rochester, St Peter's School and Thetford Grammar School. Beginning in the 5th century CE monastic schools were established throughout Western Europe, teaching both religious and secular subjects. Islam was another culture. Emphasis was put on knowledge, which required a systematic way of teaching and spreading knowledge, purpose-built structures.
At first, mosques combined both religious performance and learning activities, but by the 9th century, the madrassa was introduced, a school, built independently from the mosque, such as al-Qarawiyyin, founded in 859 CE. They were the first to make the Madrassa system a public domain under the control of the Caliph. Under the Ottomans, the towns of Bursa and Edirne became the main centers of learning; the Ottoman system of Külliye, a building complex containing a mosque, a hospital and public kitchen and dining areas, revolutionized the education system, making learning accessible to a wider public through its free meals, health care and sometimes free accommodation. In Europe, universities emerged during the 12th century. During the Middle Ages and much of the Early Modern period, the main purpose of schools was to teach the Latin language; this led to the term grammar school, which in the United States informally refers to a primary school, but in the United Kingdom means a school that selects entrants based on ability or aptitude.
Following this, the school curriculum has broadened to include literacy in the vernacular language as well as technical, artistic and practical subjects. Obligatory school attendance became common in parts of Europe during the 18th century. In Denmark-Norway, this was introduced as early as in 1739-1741, the primary end being to increase the literacy of the almue, i.e. the "regular people". Many of the earlier public schools in the United States and elsewhere were one-room schools where a single teacher taught seven grades of boys and girls in the same classroom. Beginning in the 1920s, one-room schools were consolidated into multiple classroom facilities with transportation provided by kid hacks and school buses; the use of the term school varies by country, as do the names of the various levels of education within the country
Baron Fairhaven
Baron Fairhaven, of Anglesey Abbey in the County of Cambridge, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1961 for Urban Huttleston Broughton, 1st Baron Fairhaven, with remainder to his younger brother, Henry Rogers Broughton, he had been created Baron Fairhaven, of Lode in the County of Cambridge, in 1929, with remainder to the heirs male of his body. The first Baron Fairhaven was the eldest son of Urban Hanlon Broughton, a civil engineer and Conservative Member of Parliament who died in January 1929 before his intended elevation to the peerage as Baron Fairhaven. At the same time, Lord Fairhaven's mother, Cara Leland Broughton, daughter of the American industrialist Henry Huttleston Rogers, was granted Royal warrant to the style and title as if her husband had been created Baron Fairhaven; as the first Baron Fairhaven had no male heirs, in 1961 he was created Baron Fairhaven, of Anglesey Abbey in the County of Cambridge, with special remainder to his younger brother, Henry.
On his death in 1966, the barony of 1929 became extinct and he was succeeded in the barony of 1961 by his brother, who became the second Baron. As of 2017 the title is held by the latter's only son, the third Baron, who succeeded in 1973; the title is unusual in referring to a town in the United States, Fairhaven in Massachusetts, the birthplace of the first Baron. The family seat is Anglesey Abbey, near Cambridgeshire. Urban Huttleston Broughton, 1st Baron Fairhaven Urban Huttleston Broughton, 1st Baron Fairhaven Henry Rogers Broughton, 2nd Baron Fairhaven Ailwyn Henry George Broughton, 3rd Baron Fairhaven The heir apparent is the present holder's son, the Hon. James Henry Ailwyn Broughton The next in line to the heir apparent is his son, George Ailwyn James Broughton Kidd, Williamson, David. Debrett's Baronetage. New York: St Martin's Press, 1990. Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages
Gardening
Gardening is the practice of growing and cultivating plants as part of horticulture. In gardens, ornamental plants are grown for their flowers, foliage, or overall appearance. Gardening is considered by many people to be a relaxing activity. Gardening ranges in scale from fruit orchards, to long boulevard plantings with one or more different types of shrubs and herbaceous plants, to residential yards including lawns and foundation plantings, to plants in large or small containers grown inside or outside. Gardening may be specialized, with only one type of plant grown, or involve a large number of different plants in mixed plantings, it involves an active participation in the growing of plants, tends to be labor-intensive, which differentiates it from farming or forestry. Forest gardening, a forest-based food production system, is the world's oldest form of gardening. Forest gardens originated in prehistoric times along jungle-clad river banks and in the wet foothills of monsoon regions. In the gradual process of families improving their immediate environment, useful tree and vine species were identified and improved while undesirable species were eliminated.
Foreign species were selected and incorporated into the gardens. After the emergence of the first civilizations, wealthy individuals began to create gardens for aesthetic purposes. Ancient Egyptian tomb paintings from the New Kingdom provide some of the earliest physical evidence of ornamental horticulture and landscape design. A notable example of ancient ornamental gardens were the Hanging Gardens of Babylon—one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World —while ancient Rome had dozens of gardens. Wealthy ancient Egyptians used gardens for providing shade. Egyptians associated trees and gardens with gods, believing that their deities were pleased by gardens. Gardens in ancient Egypt were surrounded by walls with trees planted in rows. Among the most popular species planted were date palms, fir trees, nut trees, willows; these gardens were a sign of higher socioeconomic status. In addition, wealthy ancient Egyptians grew vineyards, as wine was a sign of the higher social classes. Roses, poppies and irises could all be found in the gardens of the Egyptians.
Assyria was renowned for its beautiful gardens. These tended to be wide and large, some of them used for hunting game—rather like a game reserve today—and others as leisure gardens. Cypresses and palms were some of the most planted types of trees. Ancient Roman gardens were laid out with hedges and vines and contained a wide variety of flowers—acanthus, crocus, hyacinth, ivy, lilies, narcissus, poppy and violets—as well as statues and sculptures. Flower beds were popular in the courtyards of rich Romans; the Middle Age represented a period of decline in gardens for aesthetic purposes, with regard to gardening. After the fall of Rome, gardening was done for the purpose of growing medicinal herbs and/or decorating church altars. Monasteries carried on a tradition of garden design and intense horticultural techniques during the medieval period in Europe. Monastic garden types consisted of kitchen gardens, infirmary gardens, cemetery orchards, cloister garths and vineyards. Individual monasteries might have had a "green court", a plot of grass and trees where horses could graze, as well as a cellarer's garden or private gardens for obedientiaries, monks who held specific posts within the monastery.
Islamic gardens were built after the model of Persian gardens and they were enclosed by walls and divided in 4 by watercourses. The center of the garden would have a pool or pavilion. Specific to the Islamic gardens are the mosaics and glazed tiles used to decorate the rills and fountains that were built in these gardens. By the late 13th century, rich Europeans began to grow gardens for leisure and for medicinal herbs and vegetables, they surrounded the gardens by walls to provide seclusion. During the next two centuries, Europeans started planting lawns and raising flowerbeds and trellises of roses. Fruit trees were common in these gardens and in some, there were turf seats. At the same time, the gardens in the monasteries were a place to grow flowers and medicinal herbs but they were a space where the monks could enjoy nature and relax; the gardens in the 16th and 17th century were symmetric and balanced with a more classical appearance. Most of these gardens were built around a central axis and they were divided into different parts by hedges.
Gardens had flowerbeds laid out in squares and separated by gravel paths. Gardens in Renaissance were adorned with sculptures and fountains. In the 17th century, knot gardens became popular along with the hedge mazes. By this time, Europeans started planting new flowers such as tulips and sunflowers. Cottage gardens, which emerged in Elizabethan times, appear to have originated as a local source for herbs and fruits. One theory is that they arose out of the Black Death of the 1340s, when the death of so many laborers made land available for small cottages with personal gardens. According to the late 19th-century legend of origin, these gardens were created by the workers that lived in the cottages of the villages, to provide them with food and herbs, with flowers planted among them for decoration. Farm workers were provided with cottages that had architectural quality set in a small garden—about 1 acre —where the
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. The earliest roots of science can be traced to Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia in around 3500 to 3000 BCE, their contributions to mathematics and medicine entered and shaped Greek natural philosophy of classical antiquity, whereby formal attempts were made to explain events of the physical world based on natural causes. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, knowledge of Greek conceptions of the world deteriorated in Western Europe during the early centuries of the Middle Ages but was preserved in the Muslim world during the Islamic Golden Age; the recovery and assimilation of Greek works and Islamic inquiries into Western Europe from the 10th to 13th century revived natural philosophy, transformed by the Scientific Revolution that began in the 16th century as new ideas and discoveries departed from previous Greek conceptions and traditions. The scientific method soon played a greater role in knowledge creation and it was not until the 19th century that many of the institutional and professional features of science began to take shape.
Modern science is divided into three major branches that consist of the natural sciences, which study nature in the broadest sense. There is disagreement, however, on whether the formal sciences constitute a science as they do not rely on empirical evidence. Disciplines that use existing scientific knowledge for practical purposes, such as engineering and medicine, are described as applied sciences. Science is based on research, conducted in academic and research institutions as well as in government agencies and companies; the practical impact of scientific research has led to the emergence of science policies that seek to influence the scientific enterprise by prioritizing the development of commercial products, health care, environmental protection. Science in a broad sense existed in many historical civilizations. Modern science is distinct in its approach and successful in its results, so it now defines what science is in the strictest sense of the term. Science in its original sense was a word for a type of knowledge, rather than a specialized word for the pursuit of such knowledge.
In particular, it was the type of knowledge which people can communicate to share. For example, knowledge about the working of natural things was gathered long before recorded history and led to the development of complex abstract thought; this is shown by the construction of complex calendars, techniques for making poisonous plants edible, public works at national scale, such as those which harnessed the floodplain of the Yangtse with reservoirs and dikes, buildings such as the Pyramids. However, no consistent conscious distinction was made between knowledge of such things, which are true in every community, other types of communal knowledge, such as mythologies and legal systems. Metallurgy was known in prehistory, the Vinča culture was the earliest known producer of bronze-like alloys, it is thought that early experimentation with heating and mixing of substances over time developed into alchemy. Neither the words nor the concepts "science" and "nature" were part of the conceptual landscape in the ancient near east.
The ancient Mesopotamians used knowledge about the properties of various natural chemicals for manufacturing pottery, glass, metals, lime plaster, waterproofing. The Mesopotamians had intense interest in medicine and the earliest medical prescriptions appear in Sumerian during the Third Dynasty of Ur. Nonetheless, the Mesopotamians seem to have had little interest in gathering information about the natural world for the mere sake of gathering information and only studied scientific subjects which had obvious practical applications or immediate relevance to their religious system. In the classical world, there is no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, well-educated upper-class, universally male individuals performed various investigations into nature whenever they could afford the time. Before the invention or discovery of the concept of "nature" by the Pre-Socratic philosophers, the same words tend to be used to describe the natural "way" in which a plant grows, the "way" in which, for example, one tribe worships a particular god.
For this reason, it is claimed these men were the first philosophers in the strict sense, the first people to distinguish "nature" and "convention." Natural philosophy, the precursor of natural science, was thereby distinguished as the knowledge of nature and things which are true for every community, the name of the specialized pursuit of such knowledge was philosophy – the realm of the first philosopher-physicists. They were speculators or theorists interested in astronomy. In contrast, trying to use knowledge of nature to imitate nature was seen by classical scientists as a more appropriate interest for lower class artisans; the early Greek philosophers of the Milesian school, founded by Thales of Miletus and continued by his successors A
