Scientists through Time
This is a product of the Science
department of Dartford
Technology College
Pythagoras
• Mathematician and Philosopher.
• Born 580BC Died 500BC.
• Discovered how to work out the lengths of
the sides of a right angled triangle.
Hippocrates
• Father of Medicine.
• Born 460BC Died 377BC
• He believed in cleanliness, moderation in
food and drink. Clean air, nature and
medicine from plants. Thought to be the
first to extract willow bark for pain relief.
Leonardo da Vinci
• The artist scientist
• Born AD 1452 Died AD 1519
• A great artist who had expertise in many
other areas including, Anatomy,
Mechanics and many others. He drew
designs for a helicopter, parachute,
hydraulic jacks, pulley systems and
underwater breathing apparatus.
Nicholas Copernicus
• Astronomer supreme.
• Born AD 1473 and Died AD 1543
• It was Copernicus who backed up the
theories of Aristarchus and Nicholas of
Cusa. He used calculations to show all the
planets travel around the sun. His book
the Revelations of heavenly spheres was
put on an index of forbidden books by the
Catholic Church.
Galileo Galilei
• The first telescope study of the skies.
• Born AD 1564 Died AD 1642
• He studied the skies and came to the
conclusion that the Earth travelled around
the sun. This put him in direct conflict with
the Catholic church. He also carried out
important work in the field of dynamics,
which is the study of objects in motion.
William Harvey
• Worked out the bodies circulatory system.
• Born AD 1578 Died AD 1657
• Harvey realised that the veins had valves
and the heart pumped blood to the lungs
for oxygenation. Then the blood returned
to the heart before it was pumped around
the body. The blood then returned to the
heart via the veins.
Rene Descartes
• Cartesian Co-ordinates
• Born AD 1596 Died AD 1650
• Descartes believed that everything can be
described by mathematics. He used maths
and co-ordinates to describe the positions
of an object in space. This was the first
time that Algebra and Geometry were
used together.
Blaise Pascal
• Mathematician, made the first calculator.
• Born AD 1623 Died AD 1662
• Pascal with the help of his father built the
first working calculator it contained cogs
and wheels of different sizes. Seven of
these survive today. He worked on
probability with his friend Fermat.
Francesco Redi
• Bred maggots.
• Born AD 1626 Died AD 1697
• This Italian doctor proved that maggots do
not spontaneously generate. His
predecessors believed certain animals
came directly from the mud or meat they
feed on.
Robert Boyle
• Discovered Boyles law.
• Born AD 1627 Died AD 1691
• Boyle discovered that there is a
relationship between a gases pressure,
volume and temperature. He formulated
this into an equation which is called Boyles
law.
• The volume of a gas is inversely
proportional to its pressure.
Anton van Leeuwenhoek
• Pioneer of the microscope.
• Born AD 1632 Died AD 1723
• In his life time he made over 300
microscope lenses and produced some
with 300 times magnification.
Robert Hooke
• Discovered cells.
• Born AD 1635 Died AD 1703
• Inventor scientist who is also known for his
marine barometer and his work with
springs. Hookes law state that the
extension of the spring is directly
proportional to the force applied within its
elastic limits.
Isaac Newton
• Discovered gravity.
• Born AD 1642 Died AD 1727
• His theory of Universal Gravitation can be
applied to apples on trees and the Sun
and its planets. He also split white light up
into its constituent colours using a simple
prism. He was also a mathematician and
an author of several books.
Edmond Halley
• Calculated the return of a comet.
• Born AD 1656 Died AD 1742
• Halley calculated that the great comet
seen in the Bayeaux tapestry of the
Norman conquest had returned every 76
years and it did in 1682. He became the
astronomer royal and died before his
comet returned.
Benjamin Franklin
• Played a dangerous game with lightning.
• Born AD 1706 Died 1790
• He thought that that lightning was giant
electrical spark. He famously flew a kite in
a storm to prove that lightning was a form
of electricity.
Carolus Linnaeus
• Invented a Latin two word naming system.
• Born AD 1707 Died 1778.
• He produced a naming system called “Systema
Natura” for all living things which group species
into genera. Then the genera into class and the
classes into orders.
Joseph Priestley
• Famous for Oxygen and fizzy drinks.
• Born AD 1733 Died AD 1804.
• He collect the gas given off in fermentation
and found it was Carbon dioxide. He then
used the gas to make soda water. He went
on to discover a gas he called
dephlogisticated air which was latter called
oxygen.
James Watt
• Inventor of an efficient steam engine.
• Born AD 1736 Died AD 1819.
• Watts brilliant improvement of the steam
engine was two chambers. One chamber
always hot for steam the other cool for
condensing. This made a far more efficient
steam engine.
Antoine Lavoisier
• The father of modern chemistry.
• Born AD 1743 Died 1794.
• He did not discover oxygen but he did
name it. He showed how it was involved in
combustion. All of his experiments were
carefully measured and recorded clearly.
He died on the guillotine because they
said there was no need for chemist in the
French revolution.
Jean-Bapiste Lamarck
• The first sensible evolution theory.
• Born AD 1744 Died AD 1829.
• He believed that living things evolve into
different species. He also categorised
animals into vertebrates and invertebrates.
John McAdam
• Scottish road builder.
• Born AD 1756 Died AD 1836.
• He built many roads using large flat stones
at the base and covered with small
squared stones on top weighing about 150
grams.
Robert Brown
• The man who named the nucleus.
• Born AD 1773 Died AD 1858.
• This Scottish naturalist observed plant
cells and he found they all contained a
little nut in Latin Nucleus.
Samuel Morse
• The code man
• Born AD 1791 Died AD 1872.
• He found an electric could cause an
electromagnet to move a piece of soft iron
attached to a pencil. The pencil wrote on a
moving piece of paper. His first message
was “ What God hath wrought”.
Michael Faraday
• He invented the electric motor.
• Born AD 1791 Died AD 1867.
• Fired by Oersted’s experiment he
mounted a copper wheel between the two
poles of a magnet. When the wheel turned
it produced a current (electric generator).
The reverse of this is the electric motor.
Charles Goodyear
• Invented vulcanised rubber.
• Born AD 1800 Died AD 1860.
• He heated rubber with sulphur to form
vulcanised rubber. The discovery is still
used in car tyres today.
Christian Doppler
• The Doppler effect.
• Born AD 1803 Died AD 1853.
• If a train whistled coming towards you then
as it went away the pitch would sound
higher coming towards you. Conversely
the whistle pitch would sound lower
moving away. Doppler found this was true
for light as well as sound, Red shift occurs
when a light source moves away.
Charles Robert Darwin
• The theory of Evolution.
• Born AD 1809 Died AD 1882.
• He travelled all around South America on
the HMS Beagle. He visited the
Galapagos islands and from his studies
formulated the beginnings of his theory of
evolution, which was in direct conflict with
the teachings of the church.
Robert Bunsen
• Built a burner.
• Born AD 1811 Died AD 1899.
• Gas flows up the tube drawing air in. The
gas and air burn together in a narrow
flame giving a steady heat which is ideal
for experiments.
James Joule
• Measured energy.
• Born AD 1818 Died AD 1889.
• He is famous for his work on energy and
its laws. Energy cannot be created or
destroyed only changed from one form to
another. 4.18 joules is equal to one
calorie.
Gregor Mendel
• Founded the science of genetics.
• Born AD 1822 Died AD 1884.
• He found that a red flower crossed with a
yellow flower do not make orange flowers.
One of the flower types will be dominant
and produce that colour flower.
Louis Pasteur
• He used Pasteurisation to kill germs.
• Born AD 1822 Died AD 1895.
• He used heat to kill the germs in the
brewing industry. We still use
pasteurisation in the milk industry today.
Alfred Nobel
• Discovered Dynamite.
• Born AD 1833 Died AD 1896.
• He mixed nitroglycerine with a packing material
to make a safer explosive. Dynamite that could
be handled without the fear of it exploding in
your hand. When he died he left his money to
give five prizes each year (The Nobel Prizes).
Robert Koch
• Bacteria beater.
• Born AD 1843 Died AD 1910.
• Koch studied bacteria and found they
cause many illnesses. He identified the
bacteria that cause Tuberculosis. He went
on to identify the causes of Cholera and
Bubonic plague. Knowing the cause has
helped others to provide a cure.
Alexander Graham Bell
• Invented the Telephone.
• Born AD 1847 Died AD 1922.
• He was working with the deaf turning
sound in electrical signals. Then he
converted the electrical signals back into
sound. He realised that he could do this
down long wires he had invented the
telephone.
Thomas Edison
• The greatest inventor ever.
• Born AD 1847 Died AD 1931.
• He invented 1,093 items in his lifetime. He
invented; Electrical vote recorder, light bulb,
efficient electric generator, phonograph,
commercial power distribution system. He said
“Inventing was 1% inspiration and 99%
perspiration”.
Sigmund Freud
• Founded Psychoanalysis.
• Born AD 1856 Died AD 1939.
• Freud is best known for his theories of the
unconscious mind and the defence
mechanism of repression. He was also
renowned for his work on sexual desire
being the primary motivational energy of
human life.
Henry Ford
• Made the Model T car.
• Born AD 1863 Died AD 1947.
• His model T was a cheap everyday car for
the people. It was made by an assembly
line not individual craftsmen. He famously
said “you can have any colour provided its
black”.
Marie Curie
• Discovered Polonium and Radium.
• Born AD 1867 Died AD 1934.
• She extracted a mining ore called
Pitchblende for uranium. The amount of
radiation she found was much more than
expected. However from 8 tons of
pitchblende she only recovered 1ngram of
Radium but it is 2 million times more
radioactive. The polonium she discovered
was named after her native Poland.
Wilbur & Orville Wright
• They built the first aeroplane.
• Born AD1867 & 71 Died 1912 & 48.
• They designed a light but powerful engine
fitted to a glider frame. Only 5 other
people saw their first powered flight near
Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. They flew 36.6
metres in 12 seconds.
Carl Jung
• Unique Psychologist.
• Born AD 1875 Died AD 1961.
• He spent much of his life studying Eastern
and Western Philosophy, alchemy,
Astrology and Sociology. His most notable
ideas include; archetypes, collective
unconscious, synchronicity. He put an
emphasis on balance and harmony.
Albert Einstein
• The Theory of Relativity.
• Born AD 1879 Died AD 1955.
• He wrote light can travel through a totally
empty space. If one object appears to be
moving and another still which is moving?
With nothing to compare it to it is all
relative. In relativity theory even mass is a
form of energy, the only fixed parameter is
the speed of light. E= MC2.
Alexander Fleming
• Discovered Penicillin.
• Born AD 1881 Died AD 1955.
• One day he noticed that a dish of bacteria
had been left uncovered for days. It had
started to go mouldy but around each
mould was a ring of dead bacteria. The
mould was Penicillin Notatum. Penicillin
was to become the worlds first antibiotic.
Linus Pauling
• Nature of the chemical bond.
• Born AD 1901 Died AD 1994.
• One of the first chemists to work in the
field of quantum chemistry, molecular
biology and orthomolecular medicine. The
only man to be awarded two Nobel prizes
without having to share with another
recipient.
Jonas Salk
• Polio Vaccine.
• Born AD 1914 Died 1995.
• American biologist and physician best
known for the research and development
of a killed –virus polio vaccine named the
“Salk Vaccine”.
James Watson
• Deduced double helix structure of DNA.
• Born AD 1928• Zoologist who worked with Francis Crick
on DNA. Also researched into RNA and
protein synthesis.
Carl Sagan
• Exobiology pioneer.
• Born AD 1934 Died AD 1996.
• He promoted SETI (search for extra
terrestrial life). He was involved in
astronomy, astrochemistry and
astrophysics. His famous television
program The cosmos, a personal voyage
popularised astronomy worldwide.
Jane Goodall
• Ethologist and Primatologist.
• Born AD 1934• Studied Chimpanzees in the Gombe
Stream Game Reserve, Tanzania, Africa.
Discovered tool making and gang warfare
and many other aspects of chimp
behaviour.
Stephen Hawking
• Black holes and Hawking radiation.
• Born AD 1942.
• He is best known for his contributions to
the field of cosmology and quantum
gravity. He has produced theories on
singularities and made predictions about
black holes and the radiation they might
emit.