The 100 Most Influential Scientists of All Time PDF
Preview The 100 Most Influential Scientists of All Time
Published in 2010 by Britannica Educational Publishing (a trademark of Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.) in association with Rosen Educational Services, LLC 29 East 21st Street, New York, NY 10010. Copyright © 2010 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, and the Thistle logo are registered trademarks of Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved. Rosen Educational Services materials copyright © 2010 Rosen Educational Services, LLC. All rights reserved. Distributed exclusively by Rosen Educational Services. For a listing of additional Britannica Educational Publishing titles, call toll free (800) 237-9932. First Edition Britannica Educational Publishing Michael I. Levy: Executive Editor Marilyn L. Barton: Senior Coordinator, Production Control Steven Bosco: Director, Editorial Technologies Lisa S. Braucher: Senior Producer and Data Editor Yvette Charboneau: Senior Copy Editor Kathy Nakamura: Manager, Media Acquisition Kara Rogers: Senior Editor, Biomedical Sciences Rosen Educational Services Jeanne Nagle: Senior Editor Nelson Sá: Art Director Introduction by Kristi Lew Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The 100 most influential scientists of all time / edited by Kara Rogers.—1st ed. p. cm.—(The Britannica guide to the world’s most influential people) “In association with Britannica Educational Publishing, Rosen Educational Services.” Includes index. ISBN 978-1-61530-040-2 (eBook) 1. Science—Popular works. 2. Science—History—Popular works. 3. Scientists— Biography—Popular works. I. Rogers, Kara. II. Title: One hundred influential scientists of all time. Q162.A15 2010 509.2'2—dc22 2009026069 On the cover: Discoveries such as Einstein’s theory of relativity—shown in original manuscript form—are hallmarks of the genius exhibited by the world’s most influential scientists. Jon Levy/AFP/Getty Images CONTENTS Introduction 8 Asclepius 17 Hippocrates 18 Aristotle 22 Pliny the Elder 26 Ptolemy 29 Galen of Pergamum 32 Avicenna 36 Roger Bacon 37 Leonardo da Vinci 40 30 Nicolaus Copernicus 46 Paracelsus 50 Andreas Vesalius 54 65 Tycho Brahe 57 Giordano Bruno 59 Galileo 63 Johannes Kepler 69 William Harvey 74 Robert Boyle 79 Antonie van Leeuwenhoek 81 Robert Hooke 84 John Ray 85 Sir Isaac Newton 88 90 Carolus Linnaeus 93 Henry Cavendish 97 Joseph Priestley 101 Luigi Galvani 105 Sir William Herschel 108 Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier 112 Pierre-Simon Laplace 116 Edward Jenner 120 John Dalton 123 Georges Cuvier 126 Alexander von Humboldt 129 186 André-Marie Ampère 134 Amedeo Avogadro 138 Joseph-Louis Gay-Lussac 142 Sir Humphry Davy 145 Jöns Jacob Berzelius 149 John James Audubon 154 Michael Faraday 155 Sir Charles Lyell 162 Louis Agassiz 164 Charles Darwin 167 Sir Francis Galton 175 Gregor Mendel 178 Louis Pasteur 183 Alfred Russel Wallace 189 William Thomson 192 Joseph Lister 195 James Clerk Maxwell 199 Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleyev 202 Ivan Petrovich Pavlov 205 A.A. Michelson 208 Robert Koch 211 Sigmund Freud 215 Max Planck 222 Nettie Maria Stevens 226 William Bateson 227 Pierre Curie 228 Marie Curie 231 Henrietta Swan Leavitt 235 Ernest Rutherford 237 Carl Jung 242 Albert Einstein 244 Alfred Lothar Wegener 252 247 Sir Alexander Fleming 253 Niels Bohr 256 Erwin Schrödinger 260 296 Selman Abraham Waksman 263 Edwin Powell Hubble 264 Linus Pauling 267 Enrico Fermi 271 Margaret Mead 276 Barbara McClintock 278 Leakey Family 280 George Gamow 285 J. Robert Oppenheimer 287 Hans Bethe 291 Maria Goeppert Mayer 294 Rachel Carson 295 Jacques-Yves Cousteau 297 Luis W. Alvarez 300 Alan M. Turing 302 Norman Ernest Borlaug 306 Jonas Edward Salk 308 Sir Fred Hoyle 310 Francis Harry Compton Crick 311 James Dewey Watson 313 307 Richard P. Feynman 315 Rosalind Franklin 318 Edward O. Wilson 320 Jane Goodall 323 Sir Harold W. Kroto 325 Richard E. Smalley 326 Robert F. Curl, Jr. 327 Stephen Jay Gould 328 Stephen W. Hawking 330 J. Craig Venter 332 Francis Collins 335 Steven Pinker 337 Glossary 339 330 For Further Reading 341 Index 343 I NTRODUCTION 7 Introduction 7 In science the credit goes to the man who convinces the world, not to the man to whom the idea first occurs. —Francis Darwin (1848–1925) From the very first moment humans appeared on the planet, we have attempted to understand and explain the world around us. The most insatiably curious among us often have become scientists. The scientists discussed in this book have shaped humankind’s knowledge and laid the foundation for virtu- ally every scientific discipline, from basic biology to black holes. Some of these individuals were inclined to ponder questions about what was contained within the human body, while others were intrigued by celestial bodies. Their collective vision has been concentrated enough to exam- ine microscopic particles and broad enough to unlock tremendous universal marvels such as gravity, relativity— even the nature of life itself. Acknowledgement of their importance comes from a variety of knowledgeable and well-respected sources; luminaries such as Isaac Asimov and noted biochemist Marcel Florkin have written biogra- phies contained herein. The influence wielded by the profiled men and women within the realm of scientific discovery becomes readily apparent as the reader delves deeper into each individual’s life and contributions to his or her chosen field. Oftentimes, more than one field has been the beneficiary of these bril- liant minds. Many early scientists studied several different branches of science during their lifetimes. Indeed, as the founder of formal logic and the study of chemistry, biol- ogy, physics, zoology, botany, psychology, history, and literary theory in the Middle Ages, Aristotle is considered one of the greatest thinkers in history. Breakthroughs in the medical sciences have been numerous and extremely valuable. Study in this discipline 9 7 The 100 Most Influential Scientists of All Time 7 begins with a contemporary of Aristotle’s named Hippocrates, who is commonly regarded as the “father of medicine.” Perhaps Hippocrates’ most enduring legacy to the field is the Hippocratic Oath, the ethical code that doctors still abide by today. By taking the Hippocratic Oath, doctors pledge to Asclepius, the Greco-Roman god of medicine, that to the best of their knowledge and abili- ties, they will prescribe the best course of medical care for their patients. They also promise to, above all, cause no harm to any patient. The Greeks were not the only ones studying medi- cine. The Muslim scholar Avicenna also advanced the discipline by writing one of the most influential medical texts in history, The Canon of Medicine. Avicenna also pro- duced an encyclopedic volume describing Aristotle’s philosophic and scientific thoughts about logic, biology, psychology, geometry, astronomy, music, and metaphys- ics. This hefty tome was called the (“Book of Kitāb al-shifā Healing”). About 450 years later, a German-Swiss physi- cian named Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus Von Hohenheim, or Paracelsus, once again advanced medical science by integrating medicine with chemistry and linking specific diseases to medications that could treat them. The Renaissance period brought to light the scientific genius of painter and sculptor Leonardo da Vinci. His drawings of presciently detailed flying machines preceded the advent of human flight by more than 300 years. What’s more, da Vinci’s drawings of the human anatomy struc- ture not only illuminated many of the body’s features and functions, they also laid the foundation for modern scien- tific illustration. Anatomical drawings were also the purview of Flemish physician Andreas Vesalius. Unlike da Vinci’s illustrations, 10
The list of books you might like
