Changes - Words and differing meanings

I'm currently reading The Fellowship by John Gribbin (Allen Lane, London, 2005) which is the story of the founding of the Royal Society. (Its a pleasantly short book at around 340 pages and written in such an accessible style.)

In exploring the reasons for the scientific revolution coming about in Britain and why it had the impact it did, he writes:
"These [technological changes such as movable type, gunpowder, the publication of Copernicus's De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium] changed the intellectual envirnoment both by improving communications and providing information about new and exciting places, and by showing that the application of science could have practical benefits"(page xiii)

Following this, Gribbin points out that the definition of science comes from the Latin scientia meaning knowledge and that the word was understood in a far broader context than we do now. Stephenson is aware this change (modern narrowing?) of definition as Isaac plays with Alchemy to achieve scientific ends and the major characters of the Baroque Cycle are what we would now call polymaths. The seek knowledge from whichever field is necessary rather than keeping within hte boundaries of their subjects.

A further term which needs elucidating in its changes is "revolution" whose meaning has changed somewhat from the seventeenth century understanding. That is for a later post.