A friend of Galileo’s, Johann Schreck, assisted him during Galileo’s early telescopic observations. Schreck was inducted into the Academy of the Lynx, an early scientific society, only a week after Galileo. A few years later, Schreck joined the Jesuits, Catholic missionaries, and went to China where he trained the astronomer Adam Schall. Schall initiated a joint publishing effort between Jesuit and Chinese astronomers which continued for the rest of the century, constituting a high point of international relations between Europe and China.  

Francis Bacon’s account of printing, gunpowder and the magnet, came to signify a new era of modern scientific discovery. The breadth of Asian science is evident in the irony that each of these supposed modern European discoveries came to Europe from Asia, unbeknownst to Bacon. Asia boasts a rich history of science and technology, even before the Scientific Revolution of early modern Europe.