William Harvey

William Harvey was a 17th-century English physician best known for discovering the circulation of blood. He demonstrated that the heart acts as a pump, circulating blood through a network of vessels, challenging the long-held belief that blood was produced in the liver. His work, published in "Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis et Sanguinis" in 1628, laid the foundation for modern physiology and vascular science. Harvey's research changed our understanding of the cardiovascular system, emphasizing the importance of observation and experimentation in science, and he is often regarded as one of the pioneers of modern medicine.