The Landscape of the Science in the History (5)

Home > LearnHub > The landscape of the science

BY THOMAS ZHANG

APRIL 9, 2024, PRINCETON

Werner von Siemens

1816-1892

Germany

Physics and mechanics

Werner von Siemens discovered early on that rubber is suitable as an insulator. In 1849 Siemens founded a company to manufacture submarine cables. He also improved dynamo using electricity instead of a bar magnet.

Karl WeierstraB

1815-1897

Germany

Mathematics

Karl Weierstrass made important discoveries for the further development of the general function theory, number theory, and power series. His main work dealt with the proper foundation of analysis (for example in the treatment of infinite products). He also coined the term uniform convergence “Weierstrass criterion“.

Julius Robert Mayer

1814-1878

Germany

Physics and Chemistry

Julius Mayer provided essential foundations for the field of thermodynamics. Mayer described the principle of the conservation of energy. This still holds true in chemistry, physics and engineering today. Unfortunately, James Joule took most of the credit for his discoveries.

Robert Wihelm Bunsen

1811-1899

Germany

Chemistry

Robert Bunsen is best known for improving laboratory burners “Bunsen burner“. Together with Gustav Kirchhoff Bunsen developed spectral analysis which aids research and proof of chemical elements.


Charles Darwin

1809-1882

UK

Biology

Charles Darwin is the father of the theory of evolution and one of the most famous scientists of all time. Darwin traveled around the world for four years. He studied fossils and concluded that stronger and fitter life forms always prevail and adapt. He was an atheist with agnostic tendencies.

Hemann Grassmann

 1809-1877

Germany

Mathematics and Physics

Hermann Grassmann was an introverted philologist and autodidact in Mathematics. He conducted research on electrical currents, color theory, acoustics, phonetics and harmony. Grassmann’s mathematical work “The theory of linear extension” contained treatises on quaternions, matrix calculus and vector calculations.

Rowan Hamilton

1805-1865

UK

Mathematics and Physics

Rowan Hamilton was a prodigy who spoke 13 languages. Hamilton was appointed head of an observatory aged just 23. By 27 he was a well-known scientist who created the quaternions (hyper complex numbers a + bi + cj + dk) and vector calculus.

Christian Doppler

1803-1853

Austria

Physics and Mathematics

Christian Doppler calculated changes in the frequency of a moving object “Doppler effect“. When the observer and source are approaching each other the frequency increases, when moving away from each other, it decreases.

Justus von Liebig

1803-1873

Germany

Chemistry

Justus von Liebig was a pioneer of organic chemistry and founder of agriculture chemistry. Liebig founded a chemical laboratory and scientific training center in Giessen, Germany and undertook many organic elemental analyses with his students. Liebig investigated metabolism, and showed agriculture withdraws important nutrients from the soil which can only be replaced by adding fertilizers.

Janos Bolyai

1802-1860

Hungary

Mathematics

János Bolyai led an exciting life alternating between military service, studying mathematics, learning nine languages, playing the violin and numerous duels. Bolyai is most famous for his treatise on geometry, which refuted Euclid’s parallel postulate.

Mary Anning

1799-1847

UK, England

Paleontology

Mary Anning was a fossil collector and palaeontologist who became famous for her Jurassic fossil finds in Dorset, England, which she then sold to collectors to earn a living. Some of her important discoveries were an ichthyosaur skeleton and two complete plesiosaur skeletons. She became an authority in geological circles and was often consulted related issues, but as a woman, she wasn’t permitted to join the Geological Society of London and correspondingly lost out on the credit for some of her contributions. She became more famous in the early 20th century and is the seashell-seller behind the well-known tongue-twister “She sells seashells on the seashore” in 1908.

Nikolai Ivan Lobachevsky

1793-1856

Russia

Mathematics

Nikolai Lobachevsky, a Russian mathematician, developed the first complete system of non-Euclidean geometry. It was based on the hypothesis of the acute angle (hyperbolic geometry). His work on hyperbolic geometry is also known as “Lobachevskian geometry“. His fundamental study on Dirichlet integrals is also known as “Lobachevsky integral formula“.

Michael Faraday

1791-1867

UK

Chemistry and Physics

Michael Faraday was a great experimenter. He discovered electromagnetic induction and rotation. He built the first dynamo, which led to the first electric motor. Faraday discovered diamagnetism is a property of all materials. In 1832 Faraday described the principles of electrolysis and electrostatics and invented the “Faraday cage” to prove his theory. In 1834 Faraday published his laws of electrolysis, based on his electrochemical research.

Gerog Simon Ohm

1789-1854

Germany

Physics

Simon Ohm examined the relationship between current, voltage and resistance. If two of the three variables are known, the third can be determined by Ohm’s formula:

Amperage divided by Voltage = Resistance.

Joseph von Fraunhofer

1787-1826

Germany

Astronomy

Josef von Fraunhofer created the telescope with which Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel (1784-1846) was able to measure the parallax of a fixed star. He improved lenses and prisms, and through experiments with light found hundreds of spectral lines.

Humphrey Davy

1778-1829

UK

Physics and Chemistry

Humphrey Davy was a pioneer of the theory of electricity. Using electric currents he was able to isolate elements such as calcium, barium, strontium, for the first time, developed among other things a safety lamp for miners.

Karl Friedrich Gauss

1777-1855

Germany

Mathematics and astronomy

Gauss was a versatile genius. Aged 15 he had already deduced a connection between prime numbers and logarithms and discovered “the method of least squares“. Gauss influenced the fields of algebra with evidence of the so-called fundamental theorem (an equation of the nth degree has n roots), stochastics, integral calculus (Gaussian set), and magnetism. Ahead of other greatest scientists Gauss was the first to refute the Euclidean parallel postulate. He also found an easy way to represent complex numbers using the coordinate system. This famous mathematician computed planetary orbits and optical laws. Together with Wilhelm Weber (1804-1891) he built the first electromagnetic telegraph system.

Andre M Ampere

1775-1863

France

Mathematics and Physics

André Ampère is regarded as the founder of electrodynamics. He discovered electric currents exert attractive and repulsive forces on each other, which is cause of magnetism. The unit for measuring the strength of an electric current “Amp” is named after him.

Robert Brown

1773-1858

UK

Biology

Robert Brown discovered the cell nucleus in 1831 but didn’t attach any importance to it. This was later also discovered by botanist Mathias Schleiden (1804-1881) and zoologist Theodor Schwann (1810-1882). They discovered that the whole plant consists of cells that form an “independent living community“.

Thomas Young

1773-1829

UK

Physics and medicine

Thomas Young was gifted in languages and all-round genius. At aged two he spoke 10 languages fluently. He went on to research color theory, light waves, the tides, statics and technology. He also deciphered Egyptian hieroglyphics, including the three scripts of the famous “Rosetta Stone“.

Luke Howard

1772-1864

UK

Chemistry and meteorology

Known as the “father of meteorology“, he devised a nomenclature system for clouds in 1802 which – with modifications – is still in use today. He gave names to the three main types of clouds – cumulus, stratus and cirrus and combinations like stratocumulus and cumulonimbus.

 1️    2    3    4    5    6    7    8