the numerous errors in the previously held system of human anatomy created by Galen. 1687 – The transition in mechanics from Aristotelian mechanics to classical mechanics. 1783 – The acceptance of Lavoisier's theory of chemical reactions and combustion in place of phlogiston theory, known as the chemical revolution. The transition in optics from geometrical optics to physical optics with Augustin-Jean Fresnel's wave theory. 1826 – The discovery of hyperbolic geometry. 1830 to 1833 – Geologist Charles Lyell published Principles of Geology, which not only put forth the concept of uniformitarianism, which was in direct contrast to the popular geological theory, at the time, catastrophism, but also utilized geological proof to determine that the age of the Earth was older than 6,000 years, which was previously held to be true. 1859 – The revolution in evolution from goal-directed change to Charles Darwin's natural selection. 1880 – The germ theory of disease began overtaking Galen's miasma theory. 1905 – The development of quantum mechanics, which replaced classical mechanics at microscopic scales. 1887 to 1905 – The transition from the luminiferous aether present in space to electromagnetic radiation in spacetime. 1919 – The transition between the worldview of Newtonian gravity and general relativity. 1920 – The emergence of the modern view of the Milky Way as just one of countless galaxies within an immeasurably vast universe following the results of the Smithsonian's Great Debate between astronomers Harlow Shapley and Heber Curtis. 1952 – Chemists Stanley Miller and Harold Urey perform an experiment which simulated the conditions on the early Earth that favored chemical reactions that synthesized more complex organic compounds from simpler inorganic precursors, kickstarting decades of research into the chemical origins of life. 1964 – The discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation leads to the big bang theory being accepted over the steady state theory in cosmology. 1965 – The acceptance of plate tectonics as the explanation for large-scale geologic changes. 1969 – Astronomer Victor Safronov, in his book Evolution of the protoplanetary cloud and formation of the Earth and the planets, developed the early version of the current accepted theory of planetary formation. 1974 – The November Revolution, with the discovery of the J/psi meson, and the acceptance of the existence of quarks and the Standard Model of particle physics. 1960 to 1985 – The acceptance of the ubiquity of nonlinear dynamical systems as promoted by chaos theory, instead of a