She remains the only person to win Nobel prizes in two different sciences. She died in from a type of anemia that very likely stemmed from her exposure to such extreme radiation during her career. Isaac Newton was born on Christmas Day, Never the humble sort, he would have found the date apt: The gift to humanity and science had arrived. A sickly infant, his mere survival was an achievement. Just 23 years later, with his alma mater Cambridge University and much of England closed due to plague, Newton discovered the laws that now bear his name.
He had to invent a new kind of math along the way: calculus. The introverted English scholar held off on publishing those findings for decades, though, and it took the Herculean efforts of friend and comet discoverer Edmund Halley to get Newton to publish.
A bet the former had with other scientists on the nature of planetary orbits. When Halley mentioned the orbital problem to him, Newton shocked his friend by giving the answer immediately, having long ago worked it out. Not only did it describe for the first time how the planets moved through space and how projectiles on Earth traveled through the air; the Principia showed that the same fundamental force, gravity, governs both.
Newton united the heavens and the Earth with his laws. Newton never went halfway on anything. It would take too long to list his other scientific achievements, but the greatest hits might include his groundbreaking work on light and color; his development and refinement of reflecting telescopes which now bear his name ; and other fundamental work in math and heat.
So how did Newton pass his remaining three decades? But Newton, focused as ever, threw himself into it. He also focused his attention on counterfeiters, searching them out as zealously as he sought answers from the heavens. Newton was known by his peers as an unpleasant person. He had few close friends and never married. He famously feuded with German scientist Gottfried Leibnitz, mainly over who invented calculus first, creating a schism in European mathematics that lasted over a century.
How fitting that the unit of force is named after stubborn, persistent, amazing Newton, himself a force of nature. As a young man, his main interests were collecting beetles and studying geology in the countryside, occasionally skipping out on his classes at the University of Edinburgh Medical School to do so. It was a chance invitation in to join a journey around the world that would make Darwin, who had once studied to become a country parson, the father of evolutionary biology. Aboard the HMS Beagle , between bouts of seasickness, Darwin spent his five-year trip studying and documenting geological formations and myriad habitats throughout much of the Southern Hemisphere, as well as the flora and fauna they contained.
He noticed small differences between members of the same species that seemed to depend upon where they lived. The finches of the Galapagos are the best-known example: From island to island, finches of the same species possessed differently shaped beaks, each adapted to the unique sources of food available on each island.
This suggested not only that species could change — already a divisive concept back then — but also that the changes were driven purely by environmental factors, instead of divine intervention. Today, we call this natural selection.
When Darwin returned, he was hesitant to publish his nascent ideas and open them up to criticism, as he felt that his theory of evolution was still insubstantial. Instead, he threw himself into studying the samples from his voyage and writing an account of his travels.
Through his industrious efforts, Darwin built a reputation as a capable scientist, publishing works on geology as well as studies of coral reefs and barnacles still considered definitive today.
Darwin also married his first cousin, Emma Wedgwood, during this time. This was a level of attention uncommon among fathers at that time — to say nothing of eminent scientists. That wasn't all that made Darwin unique. He had an appreciation for taxidermy and unusual food, and suffered from ill health.
Through it all, the theory of evolution was never far from his mind, and the various areas of research he pursued only strengthened his convictions. Darwin slowly amassed overwhelming evidence in favor of evolution in the 20 years after his voyage.
All of his observations and musings eventually coalesced into the tour de force that was On the Origin of Species , published in when Darwin was 50 years old. The page book sold out immediately, and Darwin would go on to produce six editions, each time adding to and refining his arguments.
It was based on two ideas: that species can change gradually over time, and that all species face difficulties brought on by their surroundings. From these basic observations, it stands to reason that those species best adapted to their environments will survive and those that fall short will die out.
Nikola Tesla grips his hat in his hand. He points his cane toward Niagara Falls and beckons bystanders to turn their gaze to the future. This bronze Tesla — a statue on the Canadian side — stands atop an induction motor, the type of engine that drove the first hydroelectric power plant. His designs advanced alternating current at the start of the electric age and allowed utilities to send current over vast distances, powering American homes across the country.
He developed the Tesla coil — a high-voltage transformer — and techniques to transmit power wirelessly. Cellphone makers and others are just now utilizing the potential of this idea. Tesla is perhaps best known for his eccentric genius.
He once proposed a system of towers that he believed could pull energy from the environment and transmit signals and electricity around the world, wirelessly.
But his theories were unsound, and the project was never completed. San Diego Comic-Con attendees dress in Tesla costumes. The American Physical Society even has a Tesla comic book where, as in real life, he faces off against the dastardly Thomas Edison. While his work was truly genius, much of his wizardly reputation was of his own making.
It was around for decades. But his ceaseless theories, inventions and patents made Tesla a household name, rare for scientists a century ago. And even today, his legacy still turns the lights on. Around Dec. But his conclusions changed history. And his law of inertia allowed for Earth itself to rotate.
The church declared the sun-centered model heretical, and an inquisition in ordered Galileo to stop promoting these views. They placed him under house arrest until his death in , the same year Isaac Newton was born.
To say she was ahead of her time would be an understatement. Their collaboration started in the early s, when Lovelace was just 17 and still known by her maiden name of Byron. She was the only legitimate child of poet Lord Byron. Babbage had drawn up plans for an elaborate machine he called the Difference Engine — essentially, a giant mechanical calculator. In the middle of his work on it, the teenage Lovelace met Babbage at a party. There, he showed off an incomplete prototype of his machine.
Miss Byron, young as she was, understood its working, and saw the great beauty of the invention. It was mathematical obsession at first sight. The Analytical Engine was more than a calculator — its intricate mechanisms and the fact that the user fed it commands via a punch card meant the engine could perform nearly any mathematical task ordered.
He drew plans for submarines and robots. The list of his contributions to the world of engineering is virtually endless. Edison was the archetypal inventor and epitomises the American spirit of inquiry and entrepreneurship. A shrewd businessman with unbridled imagination, he is credited with thousands of inventions, including the phonograph, the electric light bulb, the telephone although Alexander Graham Bell made it to the patent office first on that occasion , the movie camera, the microphone and alkaline batteries.
Did you know that Thomson, one of the companies that later became the Thales Group, was set up to exploit some of Edison's patents?
Archimedes was undoubtedly one of the big names of engineering in the 3 rd century BC. Although few details of his life are known, he is regarded as one of the leading scientists of classical antiquity. We owe it to Archimedes for inventing the pulley, the lever, the catapult and the cog… not to mention the Archimedes screw.
And where would fluid mechanics be today without that original Eureka moment? As a founding father, Benjamin Franklin was one of the people who invented America! His legacy includes the lightning conductor, bifocal lenses, and, according to some, the first experiments in nanoscience. These two tie for 6 th place in our list because they both made discoveries that are still saving millions of lives today. Frenchman Louis Pasteur was the first microbiologist.
He invented the principles of vaccination and pasteurisation, which turned out to be hugely important for human health. Across the English Channel, Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin a few decades later, so he's the one that made antibiotics possible.
British Science Week is taking place, encouraging people of all ages to get involved in science, technology, engineering and maths events and activities. We often look at artificial intelligence from a human perspective, for example robots that begin thinking for themselves and perhaps take over the world , but for me artificial intelligence is one of the greatest scientific breakthroughs of all time because it enables machines to learn and process more information than we ever could as humans.
With all the big data being generated from genomics projects and electronic medical records from across the globe, artificially intelligent computers can learn to spot patterns in all that information, leading to faster discoveries and huge jumps forward in our understanding of diseases and how to treat them. Medical imaging is an essential tool for clinical analysis, allowing doctors to see beyond what is hidden by skin and bone to accurately diagnose and treat diseases.
From X-rays and radiography to MRI scans and ultrasound technology, these scientific innovations have all helped to ensure modern medicine is the least invasive it can be while ensuring the best outcomes for patients. Medical imaging really showcases how science and technology are complementary disciplines, as one advances the other.
Antibiotics revolutionised medicine in the twentieth century, and together with vaccinations, have almost completely eradicated many once-common diseases such as tuberculosis.
0コメント