2 b known scientist

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Ampère, André Marie (1775-1836):

Ampère, a teacher at Paris, has his permanent place in the history of science because it was his name that was given to the unit by which we measure electrical current. He had, of course, an interest in electricity; in addition, Ampère made similar investigations as did Avogadro into the nature of matter in its gaseous state.

Alfven, Hannes Olof Gosta (1908- ):

What I know of Alfven is that he was born in Sweden in 1908; and, while at the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, in 1970, he won the Nobel Prize in Physics "for fundamental work and discoveries in magneto-hydrodynamics with fruitful applications in different parts of plasma physics." I first bumped into Alfven when I picked up a small paperback book of his, which I very much enjoyed, Atom, Man, and the Universe, The Long Chain of Complications (San Francisco: Freeman, 1969). It was written simply and plainly for a general audience, and enables us "to view ourselves both as a part of the atomic microcosm and as part of the universe that dwarfs us."

Archimedes (287-212 B.C.).

Forever to be known for the Archimedean principle: "a body plunged in a fluid loses as much weight as ..."

Avogadro, Armedeo (1776-1856):

The Italiian scientist after which is named the Avogadro's Law, viz,. "equal volumes of different gases, pressure and temperature being equal, contain the same number of molecules"; or, "equal volumes of gases or vapours contain the same number of molecules."

-B-

Bernouilli, Daniel (1700-82):

Daniel Bernouilli was a member of a Swiss family that had more than its share of mathematicians and scientists. Daniel's father, Jean Bernouilli (1667-1748), was a professor at Groningen (1695) and Basel (1705). Then there was Jean's brother, Jacques Bernouilli (1654-1705), who, in 1698 published his work on differential calculus (he was the one who first used the term integral). Certain of Jean's sons went on to teach at a number of universities located throughout Europe. The son we concern ourselves here with, is, Daniel Bernouilli. Daniel studied medicine and mathematics, but, eventually settled into teaching physics at Basel. He advanced our understanding of the physical world in a number of areas; but, it is in the kinetic theory of gases for which he is most remembered, particularly: the Bernouilli’s principle. It might be simply stated, as follows: "as the velocity of a fluid increases, its pressure decreases." Thus it was Daniel Bernouilli who showed that "the total energy in a steadily flowing fluid system is a constant along the flow path. Because the total energy is constant, an increase in the fluid’s speed must therefore be matched by a decrease in its pressure." The Bernouilli’s principle explains why a fixed wing airplane, once its moving in the air, and, because of the shape of the wing, will (usually) stay in the air. The Bernouilli’s principle might also be demonstrated by looking to a simple instrument to measure wind velocity. The instrument, in its simplest form, is a tube with a ball in it with the tube (the down side end) being closed and the other being open. When the wind blows over the top of the tube, a slight vacuum is created in the tube and the ball is sucked up. The stronger the wind, the greater the suction and the further up the tube the ball will travel.

Bohr, Niels Henrik David (1885-1962):

While at Copenhagen University, Bohr, in 1922, won the Nobel Prize in Physics "for his services in the investigation of the structure of atoms and of the radiation emanating from them."

Born, Max (1882-1970):

While at Edinburgh University, Born, in 1954, won the Nobel Prize in Physics "for his fundamental research in quantum mechanics, especially for his statistical interpretation of the wavefunction."

Boyle, Robert (1627-91):

Robert Boyle was an Anglo-Irish physicist and chemist. Often referred to as the father of modern chemistry. It was Boyle who separated chemistry from alchemy and gave the first precise definitions of a chemical element, a chemical reaction, and chemical analysis. He invented a vacuum pump and used it in the discovery of what has become known as Boyle's law. The principles of Boyle's Law were published in 1662. It goes like this: the volume of a given mass of gas (the temperature being constant) varies inversely as the pressure; or, that the pressure and volume of a gas are inversely proportional. (On the continent it is known as Mariotte's Law; see Edme Mariotte.)

Brahe, Tycho (1546-1601):

Brache was the Danish astronomer who had rejected the Copernican theory in favour of that of Ptolemy; and who, having moved to Germany had Johann Kepler as an assistant.

Bruno, Giordano (1548-1600).

The scientist, which, for his beliefs, the church burnt at the stake.

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Cavendish, Henry (1731-1810).

The eccentric scientist, after whom the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge, England, is named.

Charles, Jacques Alexander César (1746-1823):

The French scientist after which is named the Charles's Law which made the connection that a rise in temperature expanded the volume of gas. Charles was to become one of first balloonists.

Clerk-Maxwell, James (1831-79):

Clerk-Maxwell was born in Edinburgh. As a boy of fifteen he devised a method of drawing certain oval curves, a method which was written up by the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He attended Cambridge and graduated there as second wrangler. He went into teaching physics; first at Aberdeen (1856) then at London (1860). In 1871, Clerk-Maxwell came back to his Alma Mater, Cambridge, there to become the first professor of experimental Physics. In 1873, he published his great work, Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism. Clerk-Maxwell's greatest work was his initial contribution to electromagnetic radiation.

Copernicus, Nicolas (1473-1543).

"Of all discoveries and opinions, none may have exerted a greater effect on the human spirit than the doctrine of Copernicus."

Crick, Francis Harry Compton (b.1916):

Crick was born in 1916, at Northampton, England. He studied physics at University College, London, obtaining a science degree in 1937. During the war he worked as a scientist for the British Admiralty. In 1947 Crick left the Admiralty and went off to Cambridge to study biology. In 1954, he obtained a Ph.D.; his thesis was entitled "X-ray diffraction: polypeptides and proteins." A critical influence in Crick's career was his friendship, beginning in 1951, with James Watson; this relationship, in 1953, led to the proposal of the double-helical structure for DNA (Deoxyribo Nucleic Acid). In 1976, Crick joined the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in California, where he became involved in studies on how the brain functions. Crick came to believe that one workings of the brain, as complicated as it surely is, is, however, discoverable. Crick was to conclude that in time a scientific models of consciousness will come about. He writes in his 1994 book The Astonishing Hypothesis: The Scientific Search for the Soul, "Your joys and your sorrows, your memories and your ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will, are in fact no more that the behavior of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules."

Curie, Pierre (1859-1906) & Marie (1867-1934):

The Curies, in 1903, won the Nobel Prize in Physics "in recognition of the extraordinary services they have rendered by their joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel."

-D-

Darwin, Charles (1809-82):

Darwin struck upon the theory of evolution, viz., that all things, reacting to natural laws that we do not fully understand, have slowly evolved over an unimaginable amount of time, into what they are today. This natural law is a process which Darwin called natural selection. Darwin was to hit on a theory, highly supported by real evidence, which meant that we no longer had to subscribe to the notion that every species had been created, by some unknowable means, whole, and then, to have come through the ages unchanged.

Davy, Sir Humphry (1778-1829):

Davy's father was a woodcarver. At a young age, Davy was sent to apprentice with a surgeon in his hometown, Penzance. Such an apprenticeship let Davy to conduct chemical experiments and by nineteen years of age he was carrying out some very serious chemical studies. By age 21 he wrote Researches, Chemical and Philosophical which led to his appointment to the Royal Institution. During the early part of the 19th century, Davy was conducting experiments which led to his conclusions that many common substances were formed by the combination of oxygen and metals. This discovery further led Davy to decompose certain substances, and, in the process was to discover metals not commonly found in their pure state, such metals as: potassium, sodium, barium, strontium, etc. In 1812, Davy was knighted. In 1815, Sir Humphry invented the safety lamp, his most famous invention, which undoubtedly has saved numerous lives of those who worked in the coal mines. During the last of his years, Sir Humphry carried out studies in electromagnetism.

Dulong, Pierre Louis (1785-1838):

The French chemist who, with Petit, became know for the Dulong and Petit's Law (1819), viz., that "all the chemical elements have approximately the same atomic heat"; or, "the same quantity of heat is needed to heat an atom of all simple bodies to the same extent." In 1813, Dulong was to describe the explosive properties of nitrogen trichloride.

Einstein, Albert (1879-1955):

Einstein thought in another dimension, unknown and practicably unknowable to most of us. We may of heard of his Theory of Relativity and his Electromagnetic Theory of Light; but few of us will ever understand them.

Euclid:

Euclid was a Greek mathematician; he taught in Alexandria, circa 300 BC. There is evidence that he wrote a number of works, but they have been lost to us. His work, Elements, however, was found, the Arabian mathematicians having carefully preserved it for the rest of us, as western man struggled through his dark ages; it was translated from Arabic into Latin, in 1482. The Elements is yet used today in schools, widely so, as a fundamental text book in geometry.

(Click on letter to go to index.)
-F-

Faraday, Michael (1791-1867):

Coming from a poor family, Faraday was apprenticed at the age of fourteen to a bookbinder: "he was allowed to spend as much time reading books as he did binding them." One of the books he found himself regularly binding was the Encyclopedia Britannica. After six years of book binding, to his very good fortune, Faraday, at the age of 21, was introduced to Sir Humphrey Davy; he went and joined Davy at the Royal Institution as Davy's personal assistant. (A story describing the relationship of Davy and Faraday would prove to be a mighty interesting one.) At any rate, Faraday led a very illustrious career as a scientist. (In those days they called themselves natural philosophers; and indeed, Faraday was a philosopher: his researches are pointed to as illustrative of the power of the inductive philosophy.) Though there developed quite a dispute over the point, Faraday is generally credited with the discovery of electromagnetic induction (1821), and described certain elements and chemical compounds such as chlorine and benzene.

Fermi, Fermi (1901-54):

While at Rome University, in 1938, Fermi won the Nobel Prize in Physics "for his demonstrations of the existence of new radioactive elements produced by neutron irradiation, and for his related discovery of nuclear reactions brought about by slow neutrons."

-G-

Galen (c130-201):

Galen was a Greek physician. He was a careful dissector of animals. He was a voluminous writer and gathered up all the medical knowledge of his times. It is to Galen that we give credit of being, a physician who was to first give a diagnosis by the taking of a person's pulse.

Galileo (1564-1642).

Galileo -- astronomer, mathematician and physicist -- dwelt, not on the useless question, why do things happen? but, how do things happen?

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von (1749-1832).

Though a philosopher, Goethe was a scientist carrying out work in biology and in optics. Goethe looked at things in a different manner, different than those thinkers up to his time; "he always attempted to see the individual phenomenon as part of an organic, developing whole ..."

Gould, Stephen Jay:

Of course, one should read Prof. Gould's works, as follows: Ever Since Darwin (1973), The Panda's Thumb (1980), Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes (1983), The Flamingo's Smile (1985), Wonderful Life, and An Urchin in the Storm (1987). Gould's publisher is Norton of New York. As will come as no surprise, Gould's discipline is biology.

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Halley, Edmund (1656-1742).

English mathematician and astronomer.

Harvey, William (1578-1657):

The major difference between Harvey and his predecessors, was -- methodology. Harvey determined to start out, so to speak, with a blank fact book and distinguished it from his theory book. Nothing would go down in his fact book unless tested and would readily remove it if it did not bear out on a re-test.

Hawking, Stephen W.:

Of course, one should read Prof. Hawking's work, A Brief History of Time (Bantam).

Haeckel, Ernest (1834-1919):

Haeckel is known as "Germany's Darwin." He studied medicine but ended up as a zoologist at the University of Jena, where he spent his life's career. "Unlike the always cautious Darwin, who did not speculate on the origin of life or the nature of reality, Haeckel never hesitated boldly to consider the philosophical implications and theological consequences of taking the fact of organic evolution seriously." Like Thomas Huxley "Haeckel saw only quantitative, not qualitative, differences between the living great apes and the rational human animal." Haeckel made a major literary contribution, when, in 1899, he brought out his book, The Riddle of the Universe; "In a scathing attack on religious dogma, Haeckel examines, from a monistic standpoint, the place of mankind within the dynamic, eternal, and infinite universe." My copy is a recent print which was translated by Joseph McCabe with intro by H. James Birx (Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus, 1992).

Haldane, J. B. S. (1892-1964):

A British biologist, in 1927, Haldane collaborated with J. S. Huxley in the work Animal Biology. Haldane was asked once whether, considering his life long study of this earth's life forms, if he was able to conclude what the nature of the Creator might be; it is reported (Stephen Jay Gould) that he replied, "An inordinate fondness for beetles."

Herschel, Sir William (1738-1822):

Born in Hanover, Herschel started out as an oboist in the Hanoverian Guards band; and, as such, made a visit to England. Of course, a fellow Hanoverian, George II (1683-1760) was on the throne of England and Hanoverians were generally welcomed in England. Taking a position as an organist and music teacher at Bath -- the center in England of all that was socially correct -- Herschel was to make England his home. He developed an interest in astronomy. He made, 1773-74, a reflecting telescope; and, then, proceeded to discover the planet Uranus. In 1782, Herschel was appointed as George III's private astronomer. Herschel "greatly added to our knowledge of the solar system, of the milky way, and of the nebulae' he discovered, besides Uranus and two of its satellites, two satellites of Saturn, the rotation of Saturn's ring, the period of rotation of Saturn, and the motions of the binary stars; and made a famous catalogue of double stars, etc." (Chambers.)

Herschel, Sir John Frederick William (1792-1871):

This Herschel was to extend the astronomical work of his father. He was educated at Eaton and St. John's, Cambridge. He was to discover numerous nebulae and was one of the first to use photography in his research.

Hertz, Gustav Ludwig: (1887-1975):

While at Halle University, in 1925, Hertz won the Nobel Prize in Physics "for his discovery of the laws governing the impact of an electron upon an atom."

Hipparchus (160-125 B.C.):

A Greek astronomer who carried out his observations at Rhodes. "He discovered the precession of the equinoxes and the eccentricity of the sun's path, determined the length of the solar year, estimated the distances of the sun and moon from the earth, drew up a catalogue of 1080 stars, fixed the geographical position of places by latitude and longitude, and invented trigonometry." (Chambers.)

Hippocrates (c460-377B.C.):

Hippocrates, a Greek, is the most celebrated physician of antiquity. He believed that "the four fluids or humours of the body (blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile) are the primary seats of disease." But, it is the ethics of Hippocrates to which, for many years, the medical doctor subscribed by the taking of the Hippocrates Oath.

Hooke, Robert (1635-1703):

Coming from the Isle of Wight, Hooke went to Oxford (Christ Church). He was to be a student of Robert Boyle's. In 1662, he became curator of experiments to the Royal Society and, in 1677, its secretary. In 1665 he published Micrographia a book on botany, chemistry, etc. Hooke anticipated the steam engine by describing that bodies of material can be extended or compressed, depending on their elasticity: Hooke's Law. It seems he realized that man might be able to see beyond the edges if only he had better tools; he therefore set out to invent them. To Hooke is contributed, in a material way, the invention of the quadrant, Gregorian telescope and microscope. It therefore should not come as a surprise that many discoveries are contributed to Robert Hooke.

Huxley, Sir Julian (1887-1975):

Humanist, atheist and science popularizer, Julian Huxley, a Professor of Zoology, was the brother of Aldous Huxley and grandson of Thomas H. Huxley. Among his works by and about him: Essays of a Biologist (1923) (Pelican, 1939) Ants (1930) (New York, Cape & Ballou, 1932), Evolution: The Modern Synthesis (London: Allen & Unwin, 1942), New Bottles for New Wine (London: Chatto & Windus, 1957), Evolution in Action (Signet, 1964), Evolutionary Humanism (Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus, 1992), Memories I (1970) & Memories II (1973) (New York: Harper & Row).

Huxley, Thomas H. (1825-1895):

English biologist and teacher, Huxley was a defender of Darwin ("Darwin's Bulldog"). "There are those who hold the name of Professor Huxley as synonymous with irreverence and atheism. Plato's [work] was so held, and Galileo's and Descartes', and Newton's, and Faraday's. There can be no greater mistake. No man has greater reverence for the Bible than Huxley. No one had more acquaintance with the text of scripture. He believes there is definite government of the universe; that pleasures and pains are distributed in accordance with law; and that the certain proportion of evil woven up in the life even of worms will help the man who thinks to bear his own share with courage." (Tyndall's Fragments, advertisement.)

Huygens, Christiaan (1629-93):

The Dutch physicist who was to make, in 1657, on the suggestion of Galileo, the pendulum clock. In 1655, he discovered the ring and fourth satellite of Saturn. Huygens had a particular interest in the nature of light and was to propound a theory that it was undulating, thus striking upon, "wave theory."