In 1962, Thomas Kuhn shook the scientific establishment when he published his momentous book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Prior to Kuhn, the scientific community commonly believed that scientific and technical progress was generally achieved through the steady unceasing march of small progressive developments. In other words, progress generally builds slowly upon continuous and gradual developments; this belief, or perhaps myth, is still widely accepted by much of the general public, as well as a large segment of the scientific community.