List Change - Top Scientists

Top 10 Scientists of All Time (in no particular order)

Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) Developed three laws describing the orbit of planets around the Sun.

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) Mathematician / astronomer / physicist - first to use telescope to gather evidence proving the earth revolves around the sun; falling bodies, magnets, floating objects, the tides, compasses, arc of a cannonball, and rolling objects; invented the mechanical pendulum clock, improved the telescope, and developed the first thermometer.

Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727) - revolutionary advances in mathematics, optics, physics, and astronomy; analyzed motion of bodies under the action of centripetal forces; invented calculus.

Charles Darwin (1809-1882) - book, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. Published in 1859, Darwin concluded: 1. Evolutionary change was gradual and required thousands to millions of years. 2. Primary mechanism for evolution was process called natural selection. 3. Millions of species alive today arose from single original life form through branching process called "specialization."

James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879) - In 1931 Einstein described Maxwell's work as "the most profound and the most fruitful that physics has experienced since the time of Newton." Maxwell calculated the speed of propagation of an electromagnetic field as approximately that of the speed of light. He proposed the phenomenon of light is an electromagnetic phenomenon.

Emil Fisher (1852-1919) No one made greater contributions to chemistry than Fisher; developed new dyes and identified the active ingredients in tea/coffee/cocoa; synthesized glucose, fructose and mannose starting with glycerol; synthesized proteins; identified the peptide bond holding them together in chains

Albert Einstein (1879-1955) - solved three of the outstanding problems of physics: photoelectric effect, Brownian motion, and special theory of relativity; general theory of relativity showed that gravity and acceleration are the same.

Edwin Hubble (1889-1953) - measured the distance to the Andromeda nebula and showed it was about a hundred thousand times as far away as the nearest stars; classifed galaxies according to their content, distance, shape, and brightness patterns.

Paul Dirac (1902-1984) - pioneers of quantum mechanics; developed the first theory of the electron that took into account special relativity; work on anti-particles and wave mechanics

Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) French chemist/biologist 1. Separated mirror image molecules and studied effect of polarized light. 2. Demonstrated handedness of molecules from plant mold using one isomer of racemic acid. 3. Yeast is an organism and does not require oxygen for fermentation. 4. Pasteurization (mild heating) after fermentation kills microorganisms and prevents souring. 5. Identified parasite responsible for killing silkworms and saved French silk industry. 6. Proposed germ theory of disease urging doctors to use clean instruments, wash hands, and disinfect bandages in The Germ Theory and its Application to Medicine and Surgery. 7. Developed treatment to prevent anthrax. Named technique "vaccination"' and applied it to chicken cholera and rabies.