20 Scientists and one sentence for why you should remember them.
Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955)
- Came up with the equation E = mc^2, which basically says that energy and mass are the same physical entity, just in different forms.
1/20
Carl Linnaeus (1707 - 1778)
- Devised a system of naming plants and animals, which we still use today called: binomial nomenclature.
2/20
Pythagoras (c. 570 BC - c. 495 BC)
- He discovered the relationship between the three sides of a right-angled triangle (Pythagorean theorem: a^2 + b^2 = c^2)
3/20
Ada Lovelace (1815 - 1852)
- She wrote the first algorithm for a machine and many consider her to be the first computer programmer.
4/20
Charles Darwin (1809 - 1882)
- Darwin came up with the idea of natural selection, which means the better an organism is at adapting to its environment, the more likely it will pass on its genes and this causes species to then change/diverge over time (evolution).
5/20
Stephen Hawking (1942 - 2018)
- He is most famous for his discovery that black holes emit radiation, which allowed for the detailed study of black holes.
6/20
Archimedes (287 BC - c. 212 BC)
- He developed the Archimedes Principle, which states that a mass at rest in a fluid is acted upon by a force pushing upward called the buoyant force (understood buoyancy basically).
7/20
Galileo Galilei (1564 - 1642)
- Through the telescope he built, he was able to gather the evidence that paved the way for Copernicus's idea that Earth revolved around the Sun to be accepted.
8/20
Nicolaus Copernicus (1473 - 1543)
- He was the first person to propose that the sun was stationary in the center of the solar system and Earth revolved around it (later confirmed by Galileo).
9/20
Marie Curie (1867 -1934)
- She is known primarily for her work on radioactivity, discovering both polonium and radium.
10/20
Louis Pasteur (1822 - 1895)
- He is most famous for his work on the development of vaccinations to guard against disease.
11/20
James D. Watson (1928 - present)
- He played a crucial role in the discovery of the molecular structure of DNA, which is the basis of heredity.
12/20
Alessandro Volta (1745 - 1827)
- He was the first person to develop an electric battery.
13/20
Michael Faraday (1791 - 1867)
- His most famous contribution was his development of the first-ever electric motor.
14/20
Max Planck (1858 - 1947)
- His most highly regarded work was his development of the quantum theory, which revolutionized our understanding of atomic and subatomic processes.
15/20
Robert Boyle (1627 - 1691)
- He discovered a fundamental law of chemistry - Boyle's Law, which describes how the pressure of a gas tends to increase as the volume of the container decreases.
16/20
Gregor Mendel (1822 - 1884)
- He was the original genetics guy, laying the foundation for the field which people like James D. Watson and Francis Crick solidified later on.
17/20
Robert Hooke (1635 - 1703)
- He is credited with discovering the existence of cells.
18/20
Jane Goodall (1934 - present)
- She is recognized for her study of chimpanzees, specifically how chimps use and create tools - something that people thought only humans were capable of doing.
19/20
Isaac Newton (1643 - 1727)
*I'm going to break my rule
- He invented (discovered?) calculus
- Discovered that white light is made of all the colors
- Came up with the 3 Laws of Motion
- Built the first reflecting telescope
- Devised the theory of universal gravity
- Etc
20/20
Obviously, a lot of these people were known for more than just one thing, but the goal of this thread was to introduce these figures to you.
If you found this thread valuable, just wait till we do a deep dive into each figure!
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