This paper discusses a new set of differential methods for solving the inverse scattering problem associated to the propagation of waves in an inhomogeneous medium. By writing the medium equations in the form of a two-component system describing the interaction of rightward and leftward propagating waves, the causality of the propagation phenomena is exploited in order to identify the medium layer by layer. The recursive procedure that we obtain constitutes a continuous version of an algorithm first derived by Schur in order to test for the boundedness of functions analytic inside the unit circle. It recovers the local reflectivity function of the medium. Using similar ideas, some other differential methods can also be derived to reconstruct alternative parametrizations of the layered medium in terms of the local impedance or of the potential function. The differential inverse scattering methods turn out to be very efficient since, in some sense, they let the medium perform the inversion by itself and thus fully exploit its structure. They provide an alternative to classical methods based on integral equations, which, in order to exploit the structure of the problem, must ultimately resort to differential equations of the same type.