The Landscape of the Science in the History (2)

Barbara McClintock was a scientist and cytogeneticist who specialized in the development of maize cytogenetics. Her breakthrough findings determined that genes could move within and between chromosomes, which went against the thinking at the time. In 1983 she was awarded the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, the only woman to receive an unshared Nobel Prize in this category. She was also awarded prestigious fellowships, and elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

Enrico Fermi was a significant 20th century nuclear physicist. He bombarded uranium with neutrons and thus prepared the way for nuclear fission. He built the first nuclear reactor in 1944 and received the Nobel Prize for physics in 1938.

Werner Heisenberg was a German physicist most famous for his 1927 publication of “Heisenberg uncertainty principle“. Heisenberg discovered atoms behave differently when observed. He concluded electrons can only change by so-called “quantum leaps” which led to the term “Quantum theory“.

Linus Pauling conducted research with electrons and biological molecules and their chemical bonds found in nature. He is considered one of the fathers of quantum chemistry and, in 1954, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry, and in 1962, the Nobel Peace Prize. One of the most famous scientists of all time.

Most famous for developing the eponymous Van de Graaf generator between 1931 and 1933. The generator was able to generate millions of volts which were used to accelerate charged particles.

Wolfgang Pauli provided important insights into quantum physics. Specifically his “exclusion principle” which is related to so-called spin. Pauli received the 1945 Nobel Prize in Physics for these principles.

Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin’s 1925 doctoral thesis “Stellar Atmospheres; a Contribution to the Observational Study of High Temperature in the Reversing Layers of Stars” reached the groundbreaking conclusion that the composition of stars was related to the abundance of hydrogen and helium in the Universe. This contradicted the scientific wisdom of the time but was independently confirmed in 1929. Payne-Gaposchkin became an American citizen in 1931. Astronomer Otto Struve described Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin’s work as:The most brilliant PhD thesis ever written in astronomy.

In 1935 Charles Francis Richter created (jointly with B. Gutenberg) the logarithmic units of quake strength known as the “Richter Scale“. The scale is open ended – it has no upper end value for especially strong earthquakes.

Irene Joliot Curie, who was the daughter of the famous Marie Curie and Pierre Curie, won the 1935 Nobel Prize for chemistry together with her husband Frederic for finding artificial radioactivity. As a result, the Curie family holds the record for the most Nobel laureates to date. Joliot-Curie’s 2 children, Hélène and Pierre, are also respected scientists.

Georges Lemaître is considered the father of the Big Bang theory. In his 1931 paper he proposed the shocking idea that the Universe was expanding, which solved related equations of General Relativity. Edwin Hubble validated this with his telescope showing distant galaxies receding. Lemaître concluded if the universe is expanding, then it must have originated at a finite point in time.

Albert Szent-Györgyi researched vitamins and discovered vitamin C. He also worked on oxidation processes in living organisms, carbon metabolism and muscle biology. For his achievements he was awarded the 1937 Nobel Prize for Medicine. One of Hungary’s most famous scientists.

James Chadwick proved the existence of the neutron in 1932, built the first particle accelerator “cyclotron” which led to the development of the first nuclear chain reaction.

In 1925, Edwin Hubble proved that the “Andromeda Nebula M31” lies far beyond our Milky Way and thereby prepared for the discovery (by Georges Lemaître) of the expansion of the universe. One of the most famous scientists of all time.

Schrödinger described wave mechanics as the basis of quantum mechanics (Schrödinger equation). He also founded a theory of color perception. Schrödinger received the 1933 Nobel Prize for Physics.

Niels Bohr discovered that energy does not flow constantly, but in small spurts (quanta). Bohr laid down the foundations of modern atomic physics and received the Nobel Prize in 1922. One of the most famous scientists of all time.

Amalie Noether was notable for her work on abstract algebra and theoretical physics, leading Albert Einstein to describe her as the most important woman in the history of mathematics. Other special fields were theories of rings, fields, and algebras. “Noether’s theorem“, published in 1918, states the connection between symmetry and its corresponding conservation law.

Sir Alexander discovered the first ever antibiotic by accident in 1928. Returning from holiday he discovered a bacteria-destroying fungus “penicillin” in Petri dishes he’d left lying around. This became an effective remedy for many infections. Fleming shared the 1945 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Ernst Boris Chain and Howard Florey.

Albert Einstein’s two theories of relativity revolutionized the understanding of matter, space, time and gravitation. Everything is relative to the respective observation system, including time. Therefore, there is no absolute simultaneity. The only constant is the speed of light. It cannot be exceeded. Einstein concluded: Energy is Mass times the speed of light (C – from the Latin celeritas meaning speed) squared (E = MC2), i.e. matter is condensed energy. Every gram of mass contains huge amounts of energy. An insight that (unfortunately) also led to the construction of the atomic bomb. One of the most famous scientists of all time.

Otto Hahn irradiated uranium with neutrons in 1938 which split uranium and freed barium. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for this first “nuclear fission”. Hahn was a close friend of the physicist Lise Meitner.

Lise Meitner worked in the areas of nuclear physics and radioactivity and was in the group that discovered nuclear fission. Her colleague, Otto Hahn, was awarded the Nobel Prize for their work which has been a controversial decision for the Nobel committee ever since.