Giants of Science
Science progresses by building on the work of those who came before. Here are a few of the most influential figures and their primary contributions.
Isaac Newton (1643-1727):
Formulated the three laws of motion, which form the basis of classical mechanics.
Developed the Law of Universal Gravitation, explaining that the same force that makes an apple fall also holds the moon in orbit.
Independently invented calculus.
Made significant discoveries in optics, showing that white light is composed of a spectrum of colors.
Albert Einstein (1879-1955):
Developed the Theory of Special Relativity (1905), which redefined space and time and introduced E=mc².
Developed the Theory of General Relativity (1915), a new theory of gravity where mass and energy curve spacetime.
Explained the photoelectric effect, providing evidence for the quantum nature of light (photons), for which he won the Nobel Prize.
Charles Darwin (1809-1882):
Proposed the Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection in his book On the Origin of Species.
His theory explained the vast diversity of life and its adaptation to different environments as the result of a process where individuals with advantageous heritable traits are more likely to survive and reproduce.
Marie Curie (1867-1934):
A pioneer in the field of radioactivity (a term she coined).
Discovered two new elements: polonium and radium.
The first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the only person to win the Nobel Prize in two different scientific fields (Physics and Chemistry), and the first female professor at the University of Paris.
Louis Pasteur (1822-1895):
Developed the process of pasteurization, heating liquids to kill bacteria and prevent spoilage.
Made groundbreaking discoveries in vaccination, creating the first vaccines for rabies and anthrax.
His work definitively disproved the theory of spontaneous generation and established the germ theory of disease.