Scientific progress – or just another day at the office

William Harvey (1578-1657) is considered to be one of the great icons of 17th century thinking. His popularity owed everything to one of the great scientific discoveries of the time: that of the circulation of blood. His sensational discovery was made known to the world in 1628 in De Motu Cordis. Nowadays it is not so easy to reach stardom in cardiovascular medicine. Tiny consecutive steps in research may lead to an unexpected outcome or even a milestone but then success knows many fathers, toppling over each other and quite willing to accept the credits for their alleged contributions. Were the achievements of William Harvey exceptional according to tradition, using a customary method not so much empirical as resolutive-compositive (an expression coined by Galileo himself), or was he floating on previous waves, not really searching for answers but attempting by guesswork and experiment to find a solution to a puzzle already laid in front if him? …