European Scientists
Eutocius
Culture:Greek or Roman
Area of Study:mathematics
Century:6
Contribution:
writes commectaries on the aorks of Archimedes and Apollonius;
they
remain the best source of certain of their mathematics.
Gerbert
Culture: French
Area of Study: Mathematics
Century:10
Contribution:
This churchman introduces the abacus to Europe, although the new
method
for writing numbers does not catch on; he seems to have been unaware
of 0.
Abbe Suger
Culture: English
Area of Study:technology
Century:12
Contribution:
Starts construction ont he abbey church of St. Denis, the first
Gothic Church with flying buttresses.
Adelard of Bath
Culture: European
Area of Study:Astronomy
Century:12
Contribution:
He translates "Astronomical tables" by Al-Khowarizmi
from the Arabic
in 1126; anout this time he also translate Al-Khowazrimi's "Liber
ysagogarum alchorismi, a work about arithmetic. He also translates
Euclid's Elements (15 Books, of which 13 are now believed to be
geniune)
from the Arabic in 1142.
Culture: Latin
Area of Study:Physical Science
Century:12
Contribution:
Translated Ptolemy's "Optics" from Arabic into Latin
in 1154
Gerard of Cremona
Culture: Italian
Area of Study:Astronomy
Century:12
Contribution:
Translate the Almagest from the Arabic into Latin in 1175;
around this time he also translates from Arabic works by al-Kindi,
Thanbit ibn Qurra, rhazes, al-Farabi, psuedo Aristotle,, Avicenna,
Hippocrates, Aristotle, euclid, Archimedes, Ciocles, and Alexander
of
Aphrodiasias.
Henricus Aristippus
Culture: Latin
Area of Study:Physical Science
Century:12
Contribution:
Translate Aristotle's "meteorologica from Greek into Latin
in 1156
Robert of Chester
Culture: European
Area of Study:Mathematics
Century:12
Contribution:
He translates Al-Khowarizmi's Algebra from Arabic into Latin
Albertus Magnus
Culture: German
Area of Study: Medicine
Century:13
Contribution:
Describes his observations and dissections of a number of animals
and insects.
Arnold of Villanova
Culture: Spanish
Area of Study: Physical Science
Century:13
Contribution:
His contributions to science include the near discovery of carbon
monoxide and the first preparation of pure alcohol.
Giles of Rome
Culture: Roman
Area of Study: Life Science
Century: 13
Contribution:
He wrote "de formatione corporis in etero ( One the formation
of the
bodyin the uterus), which is a treatise n generation in the
Aristotelian tradition; it discusses the contributions of bothg
parents
to procreation.
John of Halifax
Culture: English
Area of Study: Mathematics
Century: 13
Contribution:
The decimal system is introduced England in 1253 By John of Halifax,
better known as Sacorbosco.
Jordanus Nemorarius
Culture: Latin
Area of Study: Mathematics and Physical Science
Century: 13
Contribution:
He uses letter as variables instead of generalizing from specific
numerical cases; his othger works in clude Algoriismus Demonstratus
(Algorithm Demonstrated) and De numeris datis (On given numnbers),
collections of rules for solving problems. Also in his "Mechanica"
contains a law of lever and law of composition of movements; his
Elementa Jordani super demonstrationem ponderis (Elements for
the
demonstration of wieghts) contains early of the principle of virtual
displacements applied to the lever.
Leonardo Fibonacci
Culture: Italian
Area of Study:Mathematics
Century:13
Contribution:
In 1202 "Liber abaci' which he wrote, introduced 0 to Europe
and,
in a problem about the reporduction of rabbits, the sequence of
numbers
known as the Fibonacci sequence:1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,....; each new
number
is found by adding the two preceding numbers in the sequence.
Michael Scot
Culture: English
Area of Study:Astronomy
Century:13
Contribution:
Translates "Liber astronomiae" ( Book of Astronomy)
by Abu Ishaq
al-Bitruji al-Ishbilt (Alpetragius) in 1217, introducing into
Europe
the Aristotelian model of astronomy; about this time he also translates
works by averroes and Aristotle.
Roger Bacon
Culture: English
Area of Study: Technology
Century: 13
Contribution:
Wrote "Opus majus" in 1267 and 1268 but not published
until 1733. In
this book he discusses spectacles for the farsighted; he is also
the
first European to mention gunpowder.
Taddeo Alderotti
Culture: Italian
Area of Study: Life Science
Century:13
Contribution:
He will bridge the gap between Greek and European medicine, urging
other physicians to read Galen, Hippocrates and Avicenna.
Willaim of Saint-Cloud
Culture: English
Area of Study: Astronomy
Century:13
Contribution:
He determines the angle of the ecliptic from the sun's position
at the
solstice; he finds 23 arc degrees and 34 arc minutes for the value
of
this angle, only two arc minutes off from the presently accepted
value.
Jean Buridan
Culture: French
Area of Study: Physical Science
Century: 14
Contribution:
Develpes the idea of impetus, a concept cdlose to the motion of
inertia; he rejects
the idea that God or angels propel the celestial bodies on their
orbits continuously
and he asserts that an initial impetus is sufficient to explain
their motion.
Thomas Brandwardine
Culture: English
Area of Study: Mathematics
Century:14
Contribution:
In his book "Tractatus de proportionibus," he developes
a theory of proportions
that he uses to improve on Aristotle's law of motion, although
Brandwardine's
laws also are not correct.
Luca Pacioli
Culture: Italian
Area of Study: Mathematics
Century: 15
Contribution:
His "Summa de arithmetica geometria proprotioni et proportionalita"
was the most influential mathematics book of the time and the
first printed algebra book; derived largely from Finomacci's "Liber
abaci", published 300 years earlier, its popularity may result
from its introduction of double-entry bookkeeping.
Albrech Durer
Culture: German
Area of Study: Mathematics
Century: 16
Contribution:
Writes a book on geometric constructions, including proofs of
how to
construct complicated curves.
Ambroise Pare
Culture: French
Area of Study: Life Science
Century: 16
Contribution:
Wrote a book on surgery which advocates abandoning the practice
of treating wounds
with boiling oil and using soothing ointments instead.
Andreas Libavius
Culture: Saxon
Area of Study: Physical science
Century: 16
Contribution:
His book "Alchemia" is one fo the first important textbooks
in chemistry, describing
the preparation of hydrochloric acid, tin tetrachloride, and ammnium
sulfate.
Bartolomeo Eustachi
Culture: Italian
Area of Study: Medicine
Century: 16
Contribution:
He describes the adrenal glands, the detailed structure of the
teeth, and the
Eustachian tubes, named after him; this work is not published
until 1714.
Christian Severin
Culture: German
Area of Study: Astronomy
Century: 16
Contribution:
On Oct 4, he becomes Tycho Brache's assistant for eight years
and then professor of
mathematics at Copenhagen, Denmark; his plans for an astronomical
observatory are
completed after his death.
Christoff Rudolff
Culture: German
Area of Study: Mathematics
Century: 16
Contribution:
In his book "Die Cross," he introduces a version of
the modern symbol for the aquare root; it is one of the
earliest books to use decimal fractions.
Copernicus
Culture: Italian
Area of Study: Astronomy
Century: 16
Contribution:
He wrote "De revolutionibus orbium coelestium" (On the
revolutions of celetial bodies),
is a convincing recasting of planetary motions based on the assumption
that Earth and
other planets revolve around the sun.
Franciscus Vieta
Culture: French
Area of Study: Mathematics
Century: 16
Contribution:
He argues for decimal representation of numbers and extends the
trigonometric
tables of Rheticus to each second of a degree.
Gabriel Fallopius
Culture: Italian
Area of Study: Medicine
Century: 16
Contribution:
This anatomist describes the organs of the inner ear and the female
reproductive system,
including the Fallopian tubes which are named after him.
Girolamo Fracastoro
Culture: Italian
Area of Study: Physical science
Century: 16
Contribution:
He explains fossils as the remains of actual organisms; according
to Fracastoro's
calculations, while some fossils could have been buried during
Noah's flood, they are
too many different geologic strata for all of them to have been
caused by a flood
that lasted onbly 150 days.
Girolamo Cardano
Culture: Italian
Area of Study: Mathematics
Century: 16
Contribution:
He was often known as Herome Cardan. "Ars magna," is
the first book of modern
mathematics; it contains not only Cardano's stolen and puchased
solutions to the cubic
and quartic, but also the first acceptance of negative numbers
and passing notice of
complex numbers.
Jean Francios Fernel
Culture: French
Area of Study: Life Science
Century: 16
Contribution:
He is the first to describe appendicitis and peristalsis (the
waves of contraction
in the digestive system that move food through the alimentary
canal).
Peter Apian
Culture: English
Area of Study: Astronomy
Century: 16
Contribution:
He notes that the tails of comets always point away from the sun,
a fact that known to the
Chinese as early as 635, AD and perhaps earlier, but not known
in Europe.
Philippus Aureolus
Culture: Swiss
Area of Study: Life Science
Century:16
Contribution:
Introduces tincture of opium, which he names laudanum, into medicine
about this time.
Philippus Aureolus
Culture: Swiss
Area of Study: Life Science
Century:16
Contribution:
Introduces tincture of opium, which he names laudanum, into medicine
about this time.
Pierre Belon
Culture: French
Area of Study: Life science
Century: 16
Contribution:
He was the first to notice homologies between specific bones in
vertebrates
from fish to mammals.
Prospero Alpini
Culture: Italian
Area of Study: Life Science
Century:16
Contribution:
He becomes the first scientist to learn that plants like animals,
have two sexes (although
this was probably known to the common farmer or gardener for certain
plants centuries ago).
Rafael Bombelli
Culture: Italian
Area of Study: Mathematics
Century: 16
Contribution:
In his book "Algebra," shows the first application of
complex numbers to solve equations,
including equations with real solotions; Bombelli also uses continued
fractions to
approximate roots.
Realdo Colombo
Culture: Italian
Area of Study: Medicine
Century: 15
Contribution:
Although a suporter of Galen against the new anatomy of Vesalius,
he demonstrates
that Galen was wrong about the way the blood travels from the
heart to the lunds
and back; His "De re anatomica" (Of anatomical matters)
claims that blood circulates
from the right chamber of the heart to the lunds and then to the
left chamber; Galen
thought the blook passed directly between the two chambers.
Thomas Harriot
Culture: English
Area of Study: Physical Science and Mathematician
Century: 16
Contribution:
He is the first European known to note that snowflakes are either
six-poihnted or six
sided, but he does not publish his observation; the hedxagonal
nature of snowflakes
was well-known in China from at least the second Century.
Tycho Brahe
Culture: Danish
Area of Study: Astronomy
Century: 16
Contribution:
He observes a new star, which he calls a nova, but which we now
would call a supernova,
in Cassiopeia; the star also is recorded by Chinese astronomers;
as bright as Venus, it
remains visible for 15 months.
Henry Briggs
Culture: English
Area of Study: Mathematics
Century: 17
Contribution:
His book "Arithmetica logarithmica" (The arithmetic
of logarithms) extends his tables of
common logorithms to numbers from 1 to 20,000 and fro 90,000 to
100,000; it also introduces
Latin forms of the words mantissa and characteristic.
Robert Boyle
Culture: Irish
Area of Study: Chemistry
Century: 17
Contribution:
Announces in New experiences physicomechanical touching the spring
of airt that
removing the air in a vacuum chamber extinguishes a flame and
kills small animals,
indicating that combustion and respiration are similar processes.
He also introduces
the concepts of element, alkali, and acid, and refutes many of
the ideas of Aristotle
and Paracelscus on the chemical composition of matter.
William Gilbert
Culture: English
Area of Study: Physical science
Century: 17
Contribution:
His book " De magnete" (Concerning magnetism) suggests
that Earth is a great spherical
magent and report on various substances that can be used to produce
electricity; it if
the first treatise on physical science based entirely on experimentation.
Albert Girard
Culture: French
Area of Study: Mathematics
Century: 17
Contribution:
Hib book, "L'invention nouvelle en l'algebre"(The new
science of algebra), asserts but
does not prove a version of the fundamental theorem of algebra:
every algebraic equation
has as many solutions as the exponent of the highest term; this
theorem is correctly proved
for the first tiem By Karl Friederich Gauss in 1799.
Christiaan Huygens
Culture: Holland
Area of Study: Astronomy
Century: 17
Contribution:
Discovers that the odd "handles" Galileo has seen on
Saturn are really rings; he also
discovers Saturn's largest satellite, Titan, ande observes dark
patches in the Orion
nebula.
Francesco Maria Grimaldi
Culture: Italian
Area of Study: Physical Science
Century:17
Contribution:
He discovers the interference pattern and diffraction of light
waves, convincing
evidence that light is a wave phenomenon, but little attention
is paidto his work
Thomas Young discovers these phenomena in 1803
Franciscus Sylovius
Culture: German
Area of Study: Life Science
Century: 17
Contribution:
He will be one of the first physicians to abandon the theory that
illness is caused
by an imbalance of the four humors (blood, black bile, yellow
bile and phlegm); instead,
he thinks it is an imbalance between acids and bases.
Jan (Johann) Baptista van Helmont
Culture: Belgian
Area of Study: Physical Science
Century: 17
Contribution:
Coins the term "gas" to describe substances that are
like air; the work gas is
his own peculiar spelling of the Flemish work for chaos.
Johan Bayer
Culture: German
Area of Study: Astronomy
Century: 17
Contribution:
He introduces the method of describing the locations they are
in; this system continues
to be used today; it is the first attempt at a complete celestial
atlas.
Marcello Malpighi
Culture: Italian
Area of Study: Biology
Century: 17
Contribution:
Shows that the lungs consist of many small air pockets and a complex
sustem of blood
vessels; by observing capillaries through a microscope he comnpletes
the work of
Harvey in describing the circulation of the blood.
Marin Mersenne
Culture: French
Area of Study: Mathematics
Century: 17
Contribution:
Calls attention to the cycloid, the curve formed by the motion
of a point on a circle as the
circle is rolled along a line; the cycloid is called "the
Helen of geometers" becuase it
provokes so many quarrels among seventeenth-century mathematicians;
it is also the key to
Huygen's first penduloum clocks.
Otto von Guericke
Culture: German
Area of Study: Physicist
Century: 17
Contribution:
He perfects the the air pump about this time; he uses it to produce
vacuums
with experimets beginning as early as 1645 and public demonstrations
in the
1650's and 1660's; the most famous demonstrations used teams of
horses unable
to break apart spheres held together by a vacuum.
Richard Lower
Culture: English
Area of Study: Life Science
Century: 17
Contribution:
he observes that contact with air turns dark blood from the veins
bright and established
that phlegm does not, as Galen claimed, originate in the brain.
Thomas Sydenham
Culture: English
Area of Study: Life Science
Century: 17
Contribution:
he is the first to describe measles and to identify scarlet fever;
he advocates
the use of opium to relieve pain, chichona bark (Quinine) to relieve
malaria,
and iron to relieve anemia.
William Harvey
Culture: English
Area of Study: Life Science
Century: 17
Contribution:
Lectures about the circulation of the blood to the Royal College
of Physicianjs, England.
Also his book "Exercitatio anatomica de motu cordis et sanguinis
in animalinus"(Anatomical
treatise on the movement of the heart and blood in animals) describes
his discovery of the
circulation of blood.
New Format:
Albert Einstein (1879-1955) - American physicist born in Germany; explained Brownian movement; published a paper that explained the photoelectric effect (1905) which provided the foundation for quantum theory and resulted in the invention of the photoelectric cell; published his general theory of relativity (1915) which contained a new description of gravity; received the Nobel Prize for physics for his work in quantum physics (1921).
Nobel, Alfred Bernhard
1833-96, Swedish chemist and inventor. He was involved, with his
family, in the development and manufacture of explosives, and
his invention of Dynamite, a mixture of nitroglycerine and inert
filler, greatly improved the safety of explosives. Inclined toward
pacifism and concerned about the potential uses of the explosives
he had invented, he established a fund to provide annual awards,
called Nobel Prizes, in the sciences, literature, and the promotion
of international peace.
Heraclitus (c.540-475 B.C.) - Greek philosopher; first of the Greeks to develop a theory of the human soul; he praised its creative resources and spoke of the importance of self-exploration; he spoke of the logos that is common to all and said that the universe is ruled by logos; he always urged that close attention be given to the polarites and concealed structures emodied in language
Pythagoras (581-497 B.C.) - Greek philosopher and mathematician; held that numbers were basic to matter; the Pythagorean Theorem is named for his geometric formulation; developed atomic theory; students of his philosophy emphasized geometrical form as a basic property of atoms; developed mathematical relationships which led to musical harmony.
Empedocles (c.490-c.430 B.C.) - Some suggest (c.484-c.424) - Greek doctor, poet and philosopher. To account for real change, he assumed that there must be more than one kind of matter, and he postulated four roots as elements; earth, air, fire, and water. Love and hate were considered principles of attraction and repulsion that alternately dominated the universe in a recurring cycle. Empedocles presented a kind of biological theory of natural selection in an imaginative poem, On Nature. He also played an importqant role in the development of the Western or Sicilian school of Greek medicine. He cured a plague at the Sicilian city of Selinus and claimed he was a god. One legend, which forms the basis of Matthew Arnold's poem Empedocles on Etna, held the Empedocles, tired of life and wanting people to believe that the gods had taken him with them, committed suicide by leaping into the crater of Mt. Etna.
Socrates (470-399 B.C.) - Greek philosopher; emphasized the study of human nature in relationship to society; influence the growth of science through standards for clear definitions and classifications, for logic and order, and for prudent skepticism.
Democritus of Abdera (460-370 B.C.) - Greek philosopher; developed atomic theory; elaborated idea that matter consisted of atoms having physical size and shape which constantly moved in a void and interacted in different ways; Greek word atoma means indivisible.
Plato (428-347 B.C.) - Greek philosopher; pupil of Socrates; dealt with the nature of the universe; developed atomic theory of chemical change; ascribed geometric forms composed of bounding planes to the elements of earth, fire, air and water based upon their physical properties; held that elements could convert into one another through rearrangement of bounding planes; used deductive reasoning as a learning method.
Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) - updated engraving; Greek philosopher, educator and scientist; undertook a large-scale classification of plants and animals; introduced a method of scientific thinking that still plays a role today.
Epicurus (341-270 B.C.) - Greek philosopher; founded the system known as Epicureanism. He studied with followers of Plato and Democritus before opening his school in Athens. The school, later called the Garden, accepted women and slaves. This, coupled with Epicurus' teachings concerning pleasure, led to public criticism of the school as a scene of debauchery. In reality, life there was fairly austere. Most of the writings of Epicurus have been lost. Fragments from his most important work, Peri physeos (On Nature), were recovered from the charred papyri of Herculaneum, buried by an eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79.
Phillippus Aureolus Paracelsus (Theophrastus Bombast von Hohemheim) (1493-1541) - Swiss physician; controversial figure in medicine and alchemy; promoted the production of chemical medicines for illnesses of the human body; saw the human body as a chemical system monitored by spiritual alchemists; developed many medical remedies; developed theoretical chemistry through sets of metal experiments which produced salt solutions; added salt to mercury and sulphur as components of metals.
Georg Bauer - "Agricola" (1494-1555) - German educator, city official, and physician Georgius Agricola (Latinized for of George Bauer) is best known as the author of De re metallica (1556), a treatise on mining and metallurgy. The treatise was translated into English in 1912 by future U.S. president Herbert Hoover and his wife, Lou Henry Hoover. Agricola studied medicine at Leipzig University. He became a devoted follower of Erasmus, who wrote a foreward to Agricola's first book on mining and metallurgy (1930). While town physician of Joachimsthal (now Jachymov, Czech Republic), he became intensely interested in all aspects of the mining and metallurgy industry by which the town thrived and began a 25-year study of the subject, which culminated in hos posthumously published masterpiece. The 12-chapter treatise included 292 woodcult illustrations carfully executed by Blasius Weffring. Agricola also wrote a number of works on medicine, geology, mineralogy, politics, and economics.
William Gilbert (1540-1603) - Some say (1544-1603) - English physician; known for his early studies on electricity and magnetism. His De magnete (1600) propounded the theory that the earth was a giant lodestone with north and south magnetic poles. His theory that the earth exerted a magnetic influence throughout the solar system was a precursor to the modern conception of gravity as an attracting force between masses. Gilbert was among the first to divide substances into electrics (spar, glass, amber) and nonelectrics.
Rene Descartes (1596-1650) - French mathematician and philosopher; developed atomic theory through explanations of properties of matter.
Franz De le Boe (Latin name, Franciscus Sylvius; also, Francois Du Bois) 1614-1672) - German physician, anatomist and chemist; based diagnoses and treatment of patients on blood acids, alkali and salts.
Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) - French mathematician and scientist for whom the SI unit of pressure (Pascal) was named.
Robert Boyle (1627-1691) - English physicist and chemist; experimented in pneumatics; through research, he rejected the accepted definition of matter; proposed Boyle's Law (1662).
Issac Newton (1642-1727) - English mathematician and scientist; developed theory of matter; first to demonstrate the color components of white light with a prism and the reconstruction of these colors into white light with a second prism; researched the optical characteristics of chemical substances; studied gravitation and motion; developed the law of gravitation.
Edmund Halley (1656-1743) - English astronomer; discovered the proper motion of stars and the periodicity of comets. His activities also ranged from the studying of archaeology to serving as deputy comptroller of the mint at Chester. He was a very important part of the English scientific community at the height of its activity. A graduate of Oxford, he became a member of the Royal Society at the age of twenty two. In 1676 to 1678 from the island of Saint Helena, he cataloged the positions of about 350 Southern Hemisphere stars and observed a transit of Mercury. He worked out a theory of cometary orbits and concluded that the comet of 1682, otherwise known as Halley's comet, was periodic and correctly predicted that it would return in 76 years. In 1710, he compared current star positions with those listed in Ptolemy's catalog, he determined that the stars must have a slight motion of their own.
Halley was appointed Savilian professor of geometry at Oxford in 1704, and in 1720 he succeeded John Flamsteed as astronomer royal. At the Greenwich Observatory he used the first transit intrucment and devised a method for determining longitude at sea by means of lunar observations.
Halley played an active role in the events and controversies of his time. He supported Isaac Newton morally and financially, pacified astronomer Johannes Hevelius regarding the disputed accuracy of methods for measuring stellar positions, and infuriated Flamsteed by scheming with Newton to publish Flamsteed's observations before they were complete. Among Halley's hardships were the murdering of his father, a prosperous salter and soapmaker, in 1684, and the death of his mother in 1672.
Karl Wilhelm Scheele (1742-1786) - Scheele was a pharmacist-chemist famous for discovering chlorine. He also prepared oxygen but didn't receive credit because he hadn't published his work in a timely manner. Instead an English scientist named Joseph Priestly is credited with the discovery of oxygen..
Scheele is also famous for finding many different acids, all organic. His discoveries include the following acids: tartaric, gallic, oxalic, citric, malic, lactic, and prussic. He was very tedious in his investigation. He also discovered copper arsenate, hydrogen sulfide gas, hydrofluoric acid, and hydrocyanic.
Antoine Laurent Lavoisier ( 1743-1794) - French chemist; stated the first version of the law of conservation of matter; recognized and named oxygen (1778); disproved phlogiston theory; helped to reform chemical nomenclature. Often referred to as the father of modern chemistry. He was the first to grasp the true explanation of combustion. Lavoisier contended that fire was the result of rapid union of the burned material with oxygen. Nothing, however, he maintained, was lost through this action. His theory directly opposed the phlogistic notion that combustible bodies lost something when burned. Founded on Lavoisier's oxygen theory, a new system of nomenclature was evolved; one which held that oxygen was an essential constituent of all acids. This we know today to be erroneous. His theories were the basis for great advances in chemistry. As a young man of many interests, he studied astronomy, botany, and mathematics, as well as chemistry at the College Mazarin near his Paris home. Of key significance in his later life was his study of law and his admission to the bar. This led to an interest in French politics, whereupon he obtained a position as tax collector at the age of 26. While in government work he helped develop the metric system to secure uniformity of weights and measures throughout France. His governmental interests, however, eventually proved his undoing. As one of 28 French tax collectors Lavoisier was branded a traitor by revolutionists in 1794 and guillotined at the age of 51. Ironically, lavoisier was one of the few liberals in his position and had striven for many years to alleviate the hardships of the peasants.
John Tyndall (1820-1893) - Irish physicist; studied the diffusion of light by large molecules and dust, known as the Tyndall effect.
Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz (1821-1894) - German physicist, anatomist and physiologist; developed principle of conservation of energy; studied nerve cells and fibers and determined the speed of nerve impulses; investigated sight and hearing.
Rudolph Julius Emmanuel Clausius (1822-1888) - German mathematical physicist; restated the second law of thermodynamics; coined the term "entropy".
Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) - French chemist and microbiologist; developed the process of pasteurization.
Charles William Siemens (1823-1883) - English industrialist; born in Germany; improved the regenerative furnace used in the process of making steel.
William Crookes (1832-1919) - English chemist and physicist; His investigations of the photographic process in the 1850s motivated his work in the new science of spectroscopy. Using its techniques, Crooks discovered (1861) the element thallium, which won him election to the Royal Society. His efforts in determining the weight of thalium in an evacuated chamber led to his research in vacuum physics.
Crooks invented the radiometer in 1875 and, beginning in 1878, investigated electrical discharges through highly evaculated "Crookes tubes." These studies laid the foundation for J. J. Thomson's research in the late 1890's concerning discharge-tube phenomena. At the age of 68, Crookes began investigating the phenomenon of radioactivity, which had been discovered in 1896, and invented a device that detected alpha particles emitted from radioactive material. Crookes maintained an interest in agriculture and warned in 1898 that the world's population would face starvation unless new fertilizer sources were discovered. He was also interested in psychic phenomena. He was knighted in 1897.
Pierre Curie (1859-1906) - French physicist; researched radioactivity, he and wife, Marie, discovered radium and polonium (1898); they shared the Nobel Prize for physics (1903) with Antoine-Henri Becquerel.
Svante August Arrhenius (1859-1927) - Swedish physicist and chemist; originated the modern theory of ionization of electrolytes; received the Nobel Prize for chemistry (1903).
Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937) (Baron Rutherford of Nelson) (Lord Ruthorford) - British physicist from New Zealand; discovered several radioactive isotopes with colleagues (1899-1905); classified forms of radiation as alpha, beta, and gamma; received Nobel Prize for chemistry (1908); worked on submarine detection during WWII; developed atomic theory (1911); researched transmutational effects of alpha particles on gases (ca. 1919) and other elements.
Chaim Weizmann (1874-1952) - Jewish Russian-born chemist who worked in Great Britain.
Francis William Aston (1877-1945) - English physicist and chemist - discovered in 1919 that stable elements of low atomic weight are mixtures of isotopes. Using a mass spectrograph, which he developed while working with Sir Joseph John Thomson in Cambridge, and for which he received the 1922 Nobel Prize for chemistry. Aston also found that the masses of most atoms could be expressed as whole numbers when compared with oxygen (mass 16). With a more accurate spectrograph, however, Aston detected in 1927 a slight deviation from this whole-number rule. By graphing an index of the deviation (called the packing fraction) against the closest whole-number mass of an element, Aston derived important information concerning its structure and stability. (September 1, 1877 - November 20, 1945)
Frederick Soddy (1877-1956) - British physicist received (1921) the Nobel Prize for chemistry for the conception of isotopes and the displacement law of radioactive change. With Ernest Rutherford he developed the disintegration theory of radioactivity, which explained radioactivity as the decay of atoms to form other elements. Soddy proposed the isotope concept--that atoms could hve the same chemical identity but different atomic weights. His displacement law of radioactive change suggests that an element emitting an alpha particle becomes a new element with a lower atomic number, whereas emission of a beta particle raises the element's atomic number. (September 2, 1877 - September 22, 1956)
Lise Meitner (1878-1968) - Austrian physicist; to gether with her nephew Otto R. Frisch, published a theoretical interpretation of nuclear fission in 1939; collaborated with Otto Hahn of Germany to discover protactinium (1917) the element from which actinium is formed; became head (1917-1938) of the physics department of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry in Berlin; also collaborated with Hahn and Fritz Strassmann to accomplish the fission of uranium (1938); Fleeing Nazi persecution, she resumed her work at Sweden's Nobel Institute; her theoretical work helped clarify the relationships between beta and gamma rays and stimulated Hahn and Fritz Strassmann in their discovery of the fission of heavy nuclei..
Johannes Nicolaus Bronsted (1879-1947) - Danish chemist, best known for his theory of acids and bases (1923), according to which an acid is a proton donor and a base is a proton acceptor. While professor (1908-1947) of physical and inorganic chemistry at the University of Copenhagen, he produced outstanding papers in thermodynamics (heat and its relationship to other forms of energy) and kinetics (the effect of forces upon the motion of material bodies.
Leonhard Euler 1707-1783 Swiss mathematician & physicist; made contributions in geometry, calculus, number theory; developed problem-solving methods in astronomy, applications of mathematics in technology
Charles-Augustin de Watt 1736-1806 French physicist; developed Coulomb's law relating electrical charge and attraction or repulsion; coulomb, unit of electrical charge, named for him
James Watt 1736-1819 Scottish inventor; invented modern condensing steam engine and double-acting engine; which did much to propel the Industrial Revolution
Conte Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta 1745-1827 Italian physicist; invented the electrophorus and the voltaic pile; the volt, electrical unit, is named for him
Georg Simon Ohm 1789-1854; Ohm became professor of mathematics at the Jesuit College of Cologne in 1817; He gave, between 1825 and 1827, a mathematical description of conduction in circuits modelled on Fourier's study of heat conduction; What is now known as Ohm's law appears in "Die galvanische Kette, mathematisch bearbeitet" (1827). His work strongly influenced theory but it was received with so little enthusiasm that Ohm's feeling were hurt and he resigned his position at Cologne; He accepted a position at Nuremberg in 1833 and his work was eventually recognised by the Royal Society with its award of the Copley Medal in 1841. He became a foreign member of the Royal Society in 1842
James Prescott Joule 1818-1889 English physicist; formulated Joule's law describing the rate at which heat is produced by an electric current; the joule, unit of work or energy, is named for him
Jean-Baptiste Denis
Culture: French
Area of Study: Biology
Century: 17
Contribution:
He transfered about 350 ml (12 oz) of lan's blood inot a sick
boy, who recovers;
later experiments are not so successful, and when two of his patients
die after
recieving blood from sheep, Dennis is tried for muder; he is acquitted,
but such
transfusions are baned din France.
Georg Mohr
Culture: Denmark
Area of Study: Mathematics
Century: 17
Contribution:
His Euclides danicus contains his proof that all geometric figures
constructible
by straightedge and compass are also contructible with compass
alone (this is
known as Mascheroni's theorem, although Mascheroni was not to
publish until 1797).
Jean Richer
Culture: French
Area of Study: physics
Century: 17
Contribution:
ON an expedition to Cayenne he finds that a pendulum of the same
length has a longer
period on the equator than in france; in 1687 Newton shows that
this is because of
a bulge at the equator and a flattening at the poles that is predicted
by his theory
of gravity.
Anton van Leeuwenhoek
Culture: unknown
Area of Study: biology
Century: 17
Contribution:
He confirms the discovery of sperm by lous dominicus hamm; unlike
Hamm, who thinks
sperm are evidence of disease, Leeuwenhoek concludes that sperm
are the sourcde of
reproduction, the larvas of humans (since Leeuwenhoek did not
know of the mammalian
egg, he did not propose fertilization).
Edmund Halley
Culture: English
Area of Study: Astronomy
Century: 17
Contribution:
His book "Catalogus stellarum," which gives the locations
and escriptions of 31 southern
stars, the first time that stars observable from south of the
equator have been cataloged.
Johann (Jean) Bernoulli
Culture: European
Area of Study: Mathematics
Century: 17
Contribution:
He proposes the problem of the brachistochrone-finding the path
of quickest descent,
solved by Newton, l'Hospital, Leibniz, and Johann Bernoulli (
incorrectly at first);
the solution is a curve called the cycloid.
Denis Papin
Culture: unknown
Area of Study: Technology
Century: 17
Contribution:
He builds a steam engine in which the piston is moved by the pressure
of steam
rather than amospheric pressure.
Albrecht von Haller
Culture: unknown
Area of Study: Biology
Century:18
Contribution:
He is the first to show that nerves stimulate muscles to contract
and that all nerves
lead to the spinal cord and brain.
Antoine Lavoisier
Culture: French
Area of Study: Chemistry
Century: 18
Contribution:
He begins his experiments on combustion, proving that diamonds
can be burned, and
that when sulfer or phosphorus burns, its gain in wieght is due
to its combination
with atmospheric air.
David McBride
Culture: unknown
Area of Study: Chemistry
Century: 18
Contribution:
He publishes his "Experimental" essays which he relates
his discovery that can Helmont's
gas sylvestre is identical to "fixed air" (now known
as carbon dioxide).
George Berkeley
Culture: unknown
Area of Study: Physics
Century: 18
Contribution:
He wrote "The analyst ; or, a discourse addressed to an infidel
mathematician," a work
addressed to edmund halley, attacks Newton's Caculus, calling
infinitesimals :neither
finite quatntities small, nor yet mothing. May we not call them
the shosts of departed
quantities?"
Hermann Boerhaave
Culture: Holland
Area of Study: Medicine
Century: 18
Contribution:
In his book "Institutiones medicae" explains his theory
of inflammation; the book combines
mechanical views of physiology with the idea that physiological
processes are chemical
fermentations.
Jacob Leupold
Culture: German
Area of Study: technology
Century: 18
Contribution:
He publishes his book "Theatrum machinarum generale"
(General theory of machines; nine
volumes 1723-1739), the first systematic treatment of mechanical
engineering; the work
includes the design of a noncondensing, highpressure steam engine
comparable to those
build at the beginning of the nineteenth century.
Jedediah Strutt
Culture: English
Area of Study: Technology
Century: 18
Contribution:
He invents the ribbing machine for the manufacture of stockings.
Johann Gottlob Lehmann
Culture: German
Area of Study: Earth science
Century:18
Contribution:
His study of rocks of the Harz Mountains and the Erzgebirge is
a pioneering work
local geology; soon other goelofists begin to study specific sites.
John Dollond
Culture: English
Area of Study: Astronomy
Century: 18
Contribution:
Invents the heliometer, a telescope that produces two images that
can be
manipulated to determine angular distances accurately, for finding
the
diamerter of the sun (Its intended use) or the distances between
stars.
Joseph-Louis Lagrange
Culture: French
Area of Study: Astronomy
Century: 18
Contribution:
His book, "Libration de la luna" (Libration of the moon),
explains the
librations of the moon; that ism the periodic oscillation of the
moon from
side to side that permits us to see somewhat more than half the
lunar
surface; it wins a prize from the Academie des Sciences.
Louis Bourget
Culture: unknown
Area of Study: Biology
Century: 18
Contribution:
His "Letters philosophiques sure la formation des sels et
de
cristaux et sure la generation et la mecanique organique"
(Philosophical letters
on the formation of salts and crystals and on generation and organic
mechanisms),
makes the distinction between organic and inorganic growth.
Louis-Jean Marie Daubenton
Culture: French
Area of Study: Biology
Century: 18
Contribution:
He is active in many fields, but is best known as the author of
"Advice to shphers and
owners of flocks on the care and management of sheep."
Pierre de Maupertius
Culture: French
Area of Study: Earth Science
Century: 18
Contribution:
He leads a French expedition to Lapland, accompanied by Aledis-Claude
Clairaut and
Anders Celsius, sponsered by the Academie Francaise to measure
the length of a degree;
he proves that Earth is flattened at the poles, which shows that
Newton's theory of gravity
is correct and Descartes' theory is false.
Pierre Fauchard
Culture: French
Area of Study: Medicine
Century: 18
Contribution:
His book "Le chirurgien dentiste, ou traite des dents"
(The surgeon dentist, or treatise
of the teeth), puts dental treatment on a more scienctific plane
and describes how to fill
a tooth infected with dental caries using tin, lead, or gold.
Roger Cotes
Culture: English
Area of Study: Mathematics
Century: 18
Contribution:
He gives on of the first forms of a theorem usually attributed
to Euler: the natural
logarithm of the sum of the cosine of an angel and i times the
sine is equal to i
times the angle; it is more familiar in the ecponential form:
e^(ix)=cos x + i sin x
Steven Hales
Culture: unknown
Area of Study:Chemistry
Century: 18
Contribution:
He lays the foundations of plant physiology with Vegetable staticks
or Statistical essays
on nutirtion of plants and plant physiology, discussing the ascent
of liquids in plants
and describing gases emanating from heated bodies as "air"
Andre-Marie Ampere
Culture: unknown
Area of Study: Physics
Century: 19
Contribution:
Developed a theory relating electricity to magnetism; he proposes
that magnetism is
caused by the movement of very small elctircal charges in bodies;
although something
like this is now thought to be true, his contemporaries were not
impressed.
Heinrich Caro
Culture: German
Area of Study: Chemistry
Century: 19
Contribution:
After learning synthesis of dyes from William Perkin in England,
Caro retuyrns to
German to lead the developement of the German Dye induestry.
Oliver Wendell Holmes
Culture: English
Area of Study: Medicine
Century: 19
Contribution:
Adivises doctors to prevent spreading puerperal, or childbed,
fever (a common
disease of mothers after childbirth at the time) by washing their
hands and
wearing clean clothes.
Hermann Ludwig von Helmholtz
Culture: German
Area of Study: Biology
Century: 19
Contribution:
His "Lehre con dem Tonempfindungen" (Theory of the perception
of sound), advances his
theory that pitch is detected by a series of resonators of different
sizes in the cochlea
and that overtones and beats based on different wavelengths determine
the quality of
percieved sound.
Ilya Illich Mechnikov
Culture: Russian
Area of Study: Bacteriologist
Century: 19
Contribution:
He discovers phagocytes in the body, mobile white blood cells
that attack and
devour incading organisms.
Alexander Friedmann
Culture: Russian (USSA)
Area of Study: Astronomy
Century: 20
Contribution:
On the basis of ALbert Einsteins general theory of relativity,
predicts that the universe
must be expandin, improving on a similar prediction in 1919 by
Willem de Sitter and paving
the way for a further revision in 1930 by Arthur Stanley Eddington.
Karl Manne Georg Siegbahn
Culture: Swedish
Area of Study: Physics
Century: 20
Contribution:
His previuos work with X rays included developing methods to create
X rays of varying
wavelengths, becomes the first to refract X rays with a prism.
Cecil Frank Powell
Culture: English
Area of Study: Physics
Century: 20
Contribution:
He and co-workers discover the pion, which is the particle predicted
in 1935 by Hideki
Yukawa; for about 10 years, it was believed that the moun was
the Yukawa maeson, although
theoreticians in 1942 and 1946 independently conclude that there
must be two maesons.