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Introduction
Science
is a process of searching for fundamental and universal
principles that govern causes and effects in the universe.
A scientist may use a hypothesis, repeatable experiments
and observations, and new hypothesis to achieve their
final result.. The prime criterion in determining
the usefulness of a model is the ease with which the
model correctly makes predictions or explains phenomena
in the shared reality.
Below is a listing of several famous scientists who
have made importance contributions to the world from
their respective fields in science .
| 16th
& 17th Century |
| |
| Antony
van Leeuwenhoek
Biology-Cells |
Leeuwenhoek was born in Delft on October 24, 1632.
Leeuwenhoek, the person who discovered and described
microorganisms for the first time, is considered
today as the father of bacteriology and protozoology
too. He was the first to see microscopic foraminifera,
which he described as "little cockles. .
. no bigger than a coarse sand-grain." He
discovered blood cells, and was the first to see
living sperm cells of animals. He discovered microscopic
animals such as nematodes and rotifers. The list
of his discoveries goes on and on. His researches,
which were widely circulated, opened up an entire
world of microscopic life to the awareness of
scientists. |
 |
| Isaac
Newton
Physics |
Newton was born on the 4th Jan 1643 in Woolsthorpe,
Lincolnshire, England.
Issac Newton was an extraordinary figure because
he had so many contributions to different fields
of science; mathematics, optics, light, color,
invention of the laws of motion and gravity, chemistry
and many others. As mathematician, Newton invented
integral calculus, and jointly with Leibnitz,
differential calculus. He also calculated a formula
for finding the velocity of sound in a gas which
was later corrected by Laplace. Newton
made a huge impact on theoretical astronomy.
He defined the laws of motion and universal
gravitation which he used to predict precisely
the motions of stars, and the planets around
the sun. Using his discoveries in optics Newton
constructed the first reflecting telescope.
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| Andreas
Vesalius
Biology |
Andreas Vesalius (1514-64) was a Belgian anatomist
and physician whose dissections of the human body
and descriptions of his findings helped to correct
misconceptions prevailing since ancient times.
During his research Vesalius showed that the anatomical
teachings of Galen, revered in medical schools,
was based upon the dissections of animals even
though they were meant as a guide to the human
body. |
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| Louis
Pasteur
Biology |
Louis
Pasteur (Dec. 27, 1822- Sept. 28, 1895) was
born in Dole, France.
Pasteur's work gave birth to many branches of
science, and he was single-handedly responsible
for some of the most important theoretical concepts
and practical applications of modern science
and medicine such as stereochemistry, microbiology,
bacteriology, virology, immunology, and molecular
biology.
He solved the mysteries of rabies, anthrax,
chicken cholera, and silkworm diseases, and
contributed to the development of the first
vaccines. He debunked the widely accepted myth
of spontaneous generation, thereby setting the
stage for modern biology and biochemistry. He
described the scientific basis for fermentation,
wine-making, and the brewing of beer. The germ
theory was the foundation of numerous applications,
such as the large scale brewing of beer, wine-making,
pasteurization, and antiseptic operations. Another
significant discovery facilitated by the germ
theory was the nature of contagious diseases.
Pasteur's intuited that if germs were the cause
of fermentation, they could just as well be
the cause of contagious diseases.
This proved to be true for many diseases such
as potato blight, silkworm diseases, and anthrax.
After studying the characteristics of germs
and viruses that caused diseases, he and others
found that laboratory manipulations of the infectious
agents can be used to immunize people and animals.
The discovery that the rabies virus had a lag-time
before inducing disease prompted the studies
of post-infection treatment with weakened viruses.
This treatment proved to work and has saved
countless lives.
Pasteur's
work served not only as the springboard for
branches of science but his work has protected
millions of people from diseases through vaccination
and pasteurization.
|
 |
| Michael
Faraday
Physicist |
The
English chemist and physicist Michael Faraday,
(b. Sept. 22, 1791, d. Aug. 25, 1867), is known
for his pioneering experiments in electricity
and magnetism. Many consider him the greatest
experimentalist who ever lived. Several concepts
that he derived directly from experiments, such
as lines of magnetic force, have become common
ideas in modern physics.
Davy another scientist, who had the greatest
influence on Faraday's thinking, had shown in
1807 that the metals sodium and potassium can
be precipitated from their compounds
by an electric current, a process known as electrolysis.
Faraday's vigorous pursuit of these experiments
led in 1834 to what became known as Faraday's
laws of electrolysis.
Faraday's
discovery (1845) that an intense magnetic field
can rotate the plane of polarized light is known
today as the Faraday effect. The phenomenon
has been used to elucidate molecular structure
and has yielded information about galactic magnetic
fields.
In
the course of his experiments, Faraday discovered
that a suspended magnet would revolve around a
current bearing wire, leading him to propose that
magnetism was a circular force. He also discovered
magnetic optical rotation, invented the dynamo
(a device capable of converting electricity to
motion) in 1821, discovered electromagnetic induction
in 1831, and devised the laws of chemical electrodeposition
of metals from solutions in 1857.
He formulated the second law of electrolysis:
"the amounts of bodies which are equivalent
to each other in their ordinary chemical action
have equal quantities of electricity naturally
associated with them
Once Faraday discovered that electricity could
be made by moving a magnet inside a wire coil,
he was able to build the first electric motor.
He later built the first generator and transformer.
He introduced several words that we still use
today to discuss electricity: ion, electrode,
cathode, and anode. Faraday
is also remembered for his contributions to
the study of chemistry. Most noteworthy was
his discovery of benzene, a common carbon compound.
To
honor his accomplishments, a unit of electricity
was named after him. The "farad" measures
capacitance, an amount of electrical charge |
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| Ben
Franklin
Physicist |
American printer, author, philosopher, diplomat,
scientist and inventor. Ben Franklin undertook
major scientific experiments with electricity,
of which little was known at the time. Franklin
tried to determine that lightning was electricity
using the Leyden jar (the first conductor) to
test his hypothesis. He also made an experiment
using a kite that verified that lightning is in
fact, electricity. He also showed that laboratory-produced
static electricity was akin to a great natural
force like gravity and light. He invented the
lightning rod. He was elected to England's Royal
Society in 1756 and to the French Academy of Sciences
in 1772 and was considered to be one of the leading
scientists of the 18th century. |
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| Robert
Hooke
Biology- Cell |
He
was born on July 18, 1635, at Freshwater, on
the Isle of Wight, the son of a churchman.
Hooke was perhaps the single greatest experimental
scientist of the seventeenth century. His interests
knew no bounds, ranging from physics and astronomy,
to chemistry, biology, and geology, to architecture
and naval technology;. His numerous inventions
includes the iris diaphragm in cameras, the
universal joint used in motor vehicles, the
balance wheel in a watch, the originator of
the word 'cell' in biology, he was Surveyor
of the City of London after the Great Fire of
1666, architect, experimenter, worked in astronomy
- yet is known mostly for Hooke's Law
Hooke's
Law |
| 18th
Century |
 |
| Charles
Robert Darwin Botanist |
|
Charles
Robert Darwin was born at Shrewsbury, England,
on February 12, 1809, came from a family of remarkable
intellectual distinction which is still sustained
in the present generation. His father was a successful
physician with remarkable powers of observation,
and his grandfather was Erasmus Darwin, the well-known
author of “The Botanic Garden.” .
This British naturalist, who revolutionized the
science of biology by his demonstration of evolution
by natural selection. Darwin's "ON THE ORIGIN
OF SPECIES BY MEANS OF NATURAL SELECTION, OR THE
PRESERVATION OF FAVORED RACES IN THE STRUGGLE
OF LIFE," was published on November 24, 1859,
and sold out immediately. |
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| Carolus
Linnaeus
Biology -Genetics |
|
Linnaeus
was the greatest botanist of the eighteenth century
Swedish botanist who introduced a system of classification
of plants based on their sexual organs.. In his
Systema Naturae (1735), he established the classification
of living things into genus and species, and combining
related genera into classes, and related classes
into orders. This system was more precise and
useful than any previous one. |
| |
| Johann
Gregor Mendel Biology -Genetics |
Gregor
Johann Mendel was born in Hyncice, Moravia on
22 July1822 in what is now the Czech Republic.
Mendel began his experiments after his return
from Vienna somewhere between 1856 and 1863
Mendel cultivated and tested some 28,000 pea
plants. Using thirty-four different kinds of
peas of the genus Pisum which had been tested
for their genetic purity, he tried to determine
whether it was possible to obtain new variants
by crossbreeding. Peas were carefully chosen
as pollination could be easily controlled and
normally pea plants are self-fertilizing. His
research involved careful planning, necessitated
the use of thousands of experimental plants,
and, by his own account, extended over eight
years. Prior to Mendel, heredity was regarded
as a "blending" process and the offspring
were essentially a "dilution"of the
different parental characteristics. Mendel demonstrated
that the appearance of different characters
in heredity followed specific laws which could
be determined by counting the diverse kinds
of offspring produced from particular sets of
crosses. He established two principles of heredity
that are now known as the law of segregation
and the law of independent assortment, thereby
proving the existence of paired elementary units
of heredity (factors) and establishing the statistical
laws governing them. He became the first to
understand the importance of statistical investigation
and to apply a knowledge of mathematics to a
biological problem.
His
experiments brought forth two generalizations
which later became known as Mendel's Laws of
Heredity. Mendels established 2 Laws which are
fundamental in Genetics today:
Mendel's Law of Segregation
Mendel's Law of Independent Assortment |
 |
| Max
Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck
Physics |
Max
Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck was born in Kiel, Germany,
on April 23, 1858.
Planck's earliest work was on the subject of
thermodynamics
He
studied thermodynamics in particular examining
the distribution of energy according to wavelength.
By combining the formulas of Wien and Rayleigh,
Planck announced in 1900 a formula now known
as Planck's radiation formula
Planck's work on the quantum theory, as it came
to be known, was published in the Annalen der
Physik.
Planck
received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1918.
|
| 19th
Century |
 |
| Sir
Alexander Fleming
Medicine |
Sir Alexander Fleming was born at Lochfield near
Darvel in Ayrshire, Scotland on August 6th, 1881.
In 1928, while working on influenza virus, he
observed that mould had developed accidentally
on a staphylococcus culture plate and that the
mould had created a bacteria-free circle around
itself. He was inspired to further experiment
and he found that a mould culture prevented growth
of staphylococci, even when diluted 800 times.
He named the active substance penicillin.
Flemming
recieved a Nobel Laureate in Medicine for the
discovery of penicillin and its curative effect
in various infectious diseases. |
 |
| Dr.
Robert K. Jarvik
Medicine |
Dr. Robert K. Jarvik developed the Jarvik-7 heart
during the late 1970s, working in collaboration
with many other researchers. Dr. Jack Copeland
used the Jarvik-7 in his surgery on Michael Drummond
in 1985. It was the first authorized use of an
artificial heart as a bridge to organ transplantation.
A bridge is only used temporarily, or until the
doctors can locate a real heart for transplantation
with which the patient will live the rest of his
or her life with. The was a medical breakthrough
since it was the first permanent heart and it
helped cardiac patients live longer while waiting
for donor hearts. |
 |
| Watson
and Crick
Biology -Genetics |
Francis Crick and James Watson had figured out
the structure of deoxyribonucleic acid, DNA.
And that structure--a "double helix"
that can "unzip" to make copies of
itself--confirmed suspicions that DNA carries
life's hereditary information.
Watson
and Crick showed that each strand of the DNA
molecule was a template for the other. During
cell division the two strands separate and on
each strand a new "other half" is
built, just like the one before. This way DNA
can reproduce itself without changing its structure
-- except for occasional errors, or mutations.
The
structure so perfectly fit the experimental
data that it was almost immediately accepted.
In 1962, Watson and Crick, won the Nobel Prize
for physiology/medicine. |
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