Needham separated off modern science from the time of Galileo from what he sees as ancient and medieval science and he took modern science to be "world science" rather than "Western science." For him, the Chinese contribution to present-day biology, chemistry, astronomy and physics cannot easily be ignored. In 1961, at a conference on the history of science at Oxford University, Needham once insisted loudly: ".
他把伽利略以來的現代科學與古代、中古科學分別界定，認為亞洲民族曾經幫助西方把中古科學的形式基礎建立起來；尤其中華民族對今日世界的生物學、化學、天文、物理，都功績卓著，不容抹煞。