Around 1450, Johannes Gutenberg introduced the use of moveable type in printing, allowing books to be produced in large numbers to supply a growing market.
In 1478, the first printed medical work appeared, a version of the 'De Medicina', the medical views of a 1st century Roman physician, Aulus Cornelius Celsus.
Albrecht Dürer wrote his book of the methods for achieving correct perspective in German, but a translation into Latin carried his ideas to the rest of Europe.
In 1543, 'De Humani Corporis Fabricae', the first modern work on anatomy, was published by Vesalius, bringing a modern light to medicine for the first time.
In 1556, Agricola published 'De Re Metallica', which not only described the methods of metallurgy, but also of mining, and so dealt with questions of geology.
In the early 1600s, Galileo Galilei was one of the first to write about science in his local tongue, rather than in the Latin that scholars had used until then.
In the middle of the 1600s, scientists began showing each other what they had discovered (and how), and began to publish notes for absent members.
In time, the published 'proceedings' of the various societies began also to include letters sent by distant members, widening the scientific networks a great deal.
When the various national societies began to exchange copies of their published proceedings, modern science was able to really take off, all over the world.
By the late 1600s, most scientists wrote of their work in their own languages, rather than Latin. Hans Oersted, in 1820, was one of the last who wrote in Latin.
In late 1788, Gilbert White published his Natural History of Selborne, introducing a new style of studying nature, and changing the way people saw nature.
In 1830, Charles Babbage published his Decline of Science in England. This stimulated the formation of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.
In 1845, the magazine Scientific American was established as a way of sharing news about science and technology with the general public. It opened a new era.
In 1869, Norman Lockyer became the first editor of the scientific journal Nature, which has remained one of the great journals of science ever since.
Around 1800, the first subject-related scientific journals began to appear, dealing with limited topic ranges, rather than general magazines of curiosities.
Valid new science will now normally be published in a peer-reviewed specialist journal. Claims which are published in other ways have to be regarded as suspect.
Some valid new science may also be presented at conferences, where other scientists are able to comment on it: much of it will also appear later in a journal.
In the middle of the 20th century, Marshall McLuhan wrote several books to bring us the message that the book was dead. One day, we will see he was right.