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The issue is complicated by the starkly different relationship that Men, Eldar, and Ainur have with Arda: It is never the true home of Men, whereas the Elves and the Ainur within Arda are bound to it until the end.

One aspect of this relationship is that the material of Arda responds to the will of the Eldar and the Ainur differently from the way is responds to the will of Men. Essentially, the former can put a bit of themselves into the artifact with which they are working.

One of the principles of science, as we understand it, is that matter simply doesn't do this; matter does what it does no matter what our desire is, and the Men in Tolkien's legendarium are as much bound by this restriction as we are.

Hence the artifacts made by the Elves had very curious and useful properties (the ropes used by the Fellowship practically had minds of their own). One of the Fellowship referred to this as magic when he saw it, to which the Elf who heard this said, in all candor and honesty, that the did not know what was meant by the term.

The upshot of this is that if there were people who studied the properties of matter, on the same understanding as our own scientists have, such people were certainly Men.

Addendum

Another thing that would hinder scientific progress is that the Men who were in extensive contact with Eldar would see them doing many wonderful things that they themselves could not equal. They would understandably conclude that there were important things about nature that they could never grasp, and that would defeat the whole point of science as we know it.

The issue is complicated by the starkly different relationship that Men, Eldar, and Ainur have with Arda: It is never the true home of Men, whereas the Elves and the Ainur within Arda are bound to it until the end.

One aspect of this relationship is that the material of Arda responds to the will of the Eldar and the Ainur differently from the way it responds to the will of Men. Essentially, the former can put a bit of themselves into the artifact with which they are working.

One of the principles of science, as we understand it, is that matter simply doesn't do this; matter does what it does no matter what our desire is, and the Men in Tolkien's legendarium are as much bound by this restriction as we are.

Hence the artifacts made by the Elves had very curious and useful properties (the ropes used by the Fellowship practically had minds of their own). One of the Fellowship referred to this as magic when he saw it, to which the Elf who heard this said, in all candor and honesty, that the did not know what was meant by the term.

The upshot of this is that if there were people who studied the properties of matter, on the same understanding as our own scientists have, such people were certainly Men.

Addendum

Another thing that would hinder scientific progress is that the Men who were in extensive contact with Eldar would see them doing many wonderful things that they themselves could not equal. They would understandably conclude that there were important things about nature that they could never grasp, and that would defeat the whole point of science as we know it.

The issue is complicated by the starkly different relationship that Men, Eldar, and Ainur have with Arda: It is never the true home of Men, whereas the Elves and the Ainur within Arda are bound to it until the end.

One aspect of this relationship is that the material of Arda responds to the will of the Eldar and the Ainur differently from the way is responds to the will of Men. Essentially, the former can put a bit of themselves into the artifact with which they are working.

One of the principles of science, as we understand it, is that matter simply doesn't do this; matter does what it does no matter what our desire is, and the Men in Tolkien's legendarium are as much bound by this restriction as we are.

Hence the artifacts made by the Elves had very curious and useful properties (the ropes used by the Fellowship practically had minds of their own). One of the Fellowship referred to this as magic when he saw it, to which the Elf who heard this said, in all candor and honesty, that the did not know what was meant by the term.

The upshot of this is that if there were people who studied the properties of matter, on the same understanding as our own scientists have, such people were certainly Men.

The issue is complicated by the starkly different relationship that Men, Eldar, and Ainur have with Arda: It is never the true home of Men, whereas the Elves and the Ainur within Arda are bound to it until the end.

One aspect of this relationship is that the material of Arda responds to the will of the Eldar and the Ainur differently from the way is responds to the will of Men. Essentially, the former can put a bit of themselves into the artifact with which they are working.

One of the principles of science, as we understand it, is that matter simply doesn't do this; matter does what it does no matter what our desire is, and the Men in Tolkien's legendarium are as much bound by this restriction as we are.

Hence the artifacts made by the Elves had very curious and useful properties (the ropes used by the Fellowship practically had minds of their own). One of the Fellowship referred to this as magic when he saw it, to which the Elf who heard this said, in all candor and honesty, that the did not know what was meant by the term.

The upshot of this is that if there were people who studied the properties of matter, on the same understanding as our own scientists have, such people were certainly Men.

Addendum

Another thing that would hinder scientific progress is that the Men who were in extensive contact with Eldar would see them doing many wonderful things that they themselves could not equal. They would understandably conclude that there were important things about nature that they could never grasp, and that would defeat the whole point of science as we know it.

The issue is complicated by the starkly different relationship that Men, Eldar, and Ainur with Arda: It is never the true home of Men, whereas the Elves and the Ainur within Arda are bound to it until the end.

One aspect of this relationship is the material of Arda responds to the will of the Eldar and the Ainur than it does to the will of Men. Essentially, the former can put a bit of themselves into the artifact with which they are working.

One of the principles of science, as we understand it, is that matter simply doesn't do this; matter does what it does no matter what our desire is, and the Men in Tolkien's legendarium are as much bound by this restriction as we are.

Hence the artifacts made by the Elves had very curious and useful properties (the ropes used by the Fellowship practically had minds of their own). One of the Fellowship referred to this as magic when he saw it, to which the Elf who hear this said, in all candor and honesty, that the did not know what we meant by the term.

The upshot of this is that if there were people who studies the properties of matter, on the same understanding as our own scientists have, such people were certainly Men.

The issue is complicated by the starkly different relationship that Men, Eldar, and Ainur have with Arda: It is never the true home of Men, whereas the Elves and the Ainur within Arda are bound to it until the end.

One aspect of this relationship is that the material of Arda responds to the will of the Eldar and the Ainur differently from the way is responds to the will of Men. Essentially, the former can put a bit of themselves into the artifact with which they are working.

One of the principles of science, as we understand it, is that matter simply doesn't do this; matter does what it does no matter what our desire is, and the Men in Tolkien's legendarium are as much bound by this restriction as we are.

Hence the artifacts made by the Elves had very curious and useful properties (the ropes used by the Fellowship practically had minds of their own). One of the Fellowship referred to this as magic when he saw it, to which the Elf who heard this said, in all candor and honesty, that the did not know what was meant by the term.

The upshot of this is that if there were people who studied the properties of matter, on the same understanding as our own scientists have, such people were certainly Men.