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10 Scientific Discoveries That Changed The World

Dna, gravity, and germ theory are a few of the key findings in history that forever shifted the course of human civilization. learn how these scientific discoveries changed the world..

The only constant is change. At least, that’s what the Greek philosopher Heraclitus is credited to have said. And while science and philosophy don’t always go hand in hand, there is some truth to Heraclitus’ notion. Change is inevitable and, in some cases, necessary for our species to evolve . While some change happens automatically, like the tides going in and out, some changes bloomed from scientific discoveries. 

Using fire to cook food and keep warm propelled our ancestors toward the foundations of early settlements and continued the growth of civilization. Using fire to shape metals for weapons and building materials led to more and more discoveries and more and more advancements. While many advances shaped humanity, we’ve focused on ten significant scientific discoveries that changed the world.

The discovery of DNA didn’t so much change the world as it did our understanding of it — more so, our understanding of life. DNA is a term we’ve only started using in the 20th century, though its initial discovery dates back decades into the 19th century.

What Is DNA?

DNA is the molecule that encodes genetic information for all living things. It plays a key role in passing traits from parents to offspring and is the primary component of chromosomes in the cell nuclei of complex organisms.

Who Discovered DNA?

Many people think scientists James Watson and Francis Crick discovered DNA in the 1950s. Nope, not so fast. DNA was actually first discovered in 1869 by Swiss physician Friedrich Miescher . He identified what he referred to as “nuclein” in blood cells. Several other researchers have worked on projects around identifying DNA up until Watson and Crick. 

What Does DNA Stand For?

The term nuclein eventually evolved into what we know as DNA, the shorthand for deoxyribonucleic acid. German biochemist Albrecht Kossel , who would later go on to win the Nobel Prize, is often credited with the name.

Levene’s Polynucleotide Model

Other scientists, such as Phoebus Levene , built on Miescher’s work over the years. Levene didn't know how DNA's nucleotide components were arranged. He proposed the polynucleotide model, correctly suggesting that nucleic acids are chains of nucleotides, each with a base, a sugar, and a phosphate group. 

Watson and Crick's Double-Stranded Helix

Watson and Crick and “their” groundbreaking discovery in the field of genetics accurately identified DNA’s double-stranded helix structure, connected by hydrogen bonds. For their discovery, Watson and Crick won a Nobel Prize in 1962 and worldwide acclaim. 

Though Watson and Crick won a Nobel Prize, years later, we’ve learned that the duo likely took research without permission from chemist Rosalind Franklin . Thanks to her research, the double helix structure was realized, though her Nobel Prize was not. 

In 2014, Watson auctioned off his Nobel Prize medal for over $4 million. The buyer was a Russian billionaire who returned it to Watson a year later. In 2019, Watson was stripped of his honorary titles because of racist comments.

Read More: DNA in Unlikely Places Helps Piece Together Ancient Humans' Family Trees

2. Earth in Motion

While it may be common knowledge that Earth spins on an axis and revolves around the sun, at one point, this idea was extremely outlandish. How could the planet move and we not feel it? Thanks to a few clever scientists, the Earth in Motion theory became more than a wild idea.

What Is Earth in Motion?

Earth in motion refers to the understanding that Earth is not stationary but moves in different ways. Earth rotates on an axis and revolves around a star. 

Earth’s Rotation

Earth rotates on its axis , which is an imaginary line running from the North Pole to the South Pole. This rotation is responsible for the day-night cycle, with one complete rotation taking about 24 hours.

Earth’s Revolution

Earth revolves around the Sun, completing one orbit approximately every 365 days. This revolution, combined with the tilt of the Earth's axis, leads to the changing seasons.

Who Discovered Earth's Motion?

The discovery and acceptance of Earth's motion was a gradual process involving several key figures in the history of science.

Aristarchus Hypothesis of Earth’s Motion

An ancient Greek astronomer, Aristarchus of Samos, was one of the first to suggest that Earth orbits the Sun . This view was not widely accepted in his time as it was believed Earth was the center of the Universe, and stars, planets, and the sun all revolved around our planet.

Copernicus Creates the First Model of Earth’s Motion

Mathematician and astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus is often credited with proposing the first heliocentric model of the universe. In 1543, he published his great work, On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres , which explained his theories. 

Among them was that day and night was created by the Earth spinning on its axis. Copernican heliocentrism replaced the conventionally accepted Ptolemaic theory , which asserted that the Earth was stationary. Copernicus’ work was largely unknown during his lifetime but later gained support.

Galileo Galilei’s Telescopic Observations

Galileo Galilei agreed with Copernicus’ theory and proved it through his telescopic observations. In 1610, he observed phases of Venus and the moons of Jupiter, which were strong evidence against the Earth-centered model of the universe.

Galileo agreed with Copernicus’ theory and proved it by using a telescope to confirm that the different phases Venus went through resulted from orbiting around the sun.

Johannes Kepler’s Planetary Laws

German mathematician Johannes Kepler formulated a series of laws detailing the orbits of planets around the Sun. These laws, which remain relevant today, provided mathematical equations for accurately predicting planetary movements in line with the Copernican theory.

Why Don’t We Feel Earth Spinning? 

According to researchers at the California Institute of Technology (CalTech), Earth spins smoothly and at a consistent speed. If Earth were to change speeds at any time, we’d feel it. 

Read More: Earth's Rotation Has Slowed Down Over Billions of Years

3. Electricity

Did benjamin franklin discover electricity.

It’s a common misconception that Ben Franklin discovered electricity with his famous kite experiment. But his 1752 experiment, which used a key and kite, instead demonstrated that lightning is a form of electricity . Another myth is that Franklin was struck by lightning. He wasn’t, but the storm did charge the kite. 

Who First Observed Electricity?

Back in 600 B.C.E., it was the ancient Greek philosopher Thales of Miletus who first observed static electricity when fur was rubbed against fossilized tree resin, known as amber. 

Who Invented Electricity?

British scientist and doctor William Gilbert coined the word “electric,” derived from the Greek word for amber. Regarded as the “father of electricity,” Gilbert was also the first person to use the terms magnetic pole, electric force, and electric attraction. In 1600, his six-volume book set, De Magnete , was published. Among other ideas, it included the hypothesis that Earth itself is a magnet.

Read More: Ben Franklin: Founding Father, Citizen Scientist

4. Germ Theory of Disease

What is the germ theory of disease.

Germ theory is a scientific principle in medicine that attributes the cause of many diseases to microorganisms, such as bacteria and viruses, that invade and multiply within the human body. This theory was a significant shift from previous beliefs about disease causation.

Who Invented the Germ Theory?

Louis Pasteur discovered germ theory when he demonstrated that living microorganisms caused fermentation , which could make milk and wine turn sour. From there, his experiments revealed that these microbes could be destroyed by heating them — a process we now know as pasteurization. 

This advance was a game changer, saving people from getting sick from the bacteria in unpasteurized foods , such as eggs, milk, and cheeses. Before Pasteur, everyday people and scientists alike believed that disease came from inside the body. 

Pasteur’s work proved that germ theory was true and that disease was the result of microorganisms attacking the body. Because of Pasteur, attitudes changed, and became more accepting of germ theory.

How Did Koch’s Postulates Contribute to Germ Theory?

The German physician and microbiologist Robert Koch played a crucial role in establishing a systematic methodology for proving the causal relationship between microbes and diseases .

He formulated Koch's postulates and applied these principles to identify the bacteria responsible for tuberculosis and cholera, among other diseases.

Together, Pasteur and Koch laid the foundation for bacteriology as a science and dramatically shifted the medical community's understanding of infectious diseases. Their work led to improved hygiene, the development of vaccines, and the advancement of public health measures.

Read More: Why Do Some People Get Sick All the Time, While Others Stay in Freakishly Good Health?

Who Discovered Gravity?

Isaac Newton didn’t really get hit on the head with an apple, as far as we know. But seeing an apple fall from a tree did spark an idea that would lead the mathematician and physicist to discover gravity at the age of just 23. 

He pondered about how the force pulls objects straight to the ground, as opposed to following a curved path, like a fired cannonball. Gravity was the answer — a force that pulls objects toward each other. 

How Does Gravity Work?

The greater the mass an object has, the greater the force or gravitational pull. When objects are farther apart, the weaker the force. Newton’s work and his understanding of gravity are used to explain everything from the trajectory of a baseball to the Earth’s orbit around the sun. But Newton’s discoveries didn’t stop there. 

Newton’s Laws of Motion

In 1687, Newton published his book Principia , which expanded on his laws of universal gravitation and his three laws of motion. His work laid the foundation for modern physics. 

Building on the discovery, advancements in the field of electricity continued. 

In 1800, Italian physicist Alessandro Volta created the first voltaic pile , an early form of an electric battery.

Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity

In 1915, Einstein proposed the theory of general relativity . This theory redefined gravity not as a force but as a curvature of spacetime caused by the presence of mass and energy.

According to Einstein, massive objects cause a distortion in the fabric of space and time, similar to how a heavy ball placed on a trampoline causes it to warp. Other objects move along the curves in spacetime created by this distortion.

Both Newton and Einstein significantly advanced our understanding of gravity. Their theories marked critical milestones in the field of physics and have had far-reaching implications in science and technology.

Read More: 5 Eccentric Facts About Isaac Newton

6. Antibiotics

Much like Germ Theory revolutionized modern medicine, so too did the invention of antibiotics. This discovery would go on to save countless lives.  

When Were Antibiotics Invented?

According to the Microbiology Society , humans have been using some form of antibiotics for millennia. It was only in recent history that humans realized that bacteria caused certain infections and that we could now provide readily available treatment. 

In 1909, German physician Paul Ehrlich noticed that certain chemical dyes did not color certain bacteria cells as it did for others. Because of this, he believed that it would be possible to kill certain bacteria without killing the other cells around it. Ehrlich went on to discover the cure for syphilis, which many in the scientific community refer to as the first antibiotic. However, Ehrlich referred to his discovery as chemotherapy because it used chemicals to treat a disease. Ehrlich is referred to as the “Father of Immunology” for his discoveries. 

Ukrainian-American microbiologist Selman Waksman coined the term “antibiotic” about 30 years later, according to the Microbiology Society.

Who Discovered Penicillin? 

One of the most recognizable antibiotics known today is penicillin. Health professionals prescribe millions of patients with this antibiotic each year. However, one of the most well-known antibiotics was discovered by accident. 

In 1928, after some time away from the lab, Alexander Fleming — a Scottish microbiologist — discovered that a fungus Penicillium notatum had contaminated a culture plate with Staph bacteria. Fleming noticed that the fungus had created bacteria-free areas on the plate. After multiple trials, Fleming was able to successfully prove that P. notatum prevented the growth of Staph. Soon the antibiotic was ready for mass production and helped save many lives during World War Two. 

What Is Penicillin Used For? 

Penicillin is used to treat infections caused by bacteria. The medication works by stopping and preventing the growth of bacteria. 

Read More: Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria: What They Are and How Scientists Are Combating Them

7. The Big Bang Theory

The Big Bang Theory is one of the most widely accepted theories on the beginning of the universe. The theory claims that about 13.7 billion years ago, all matter of the universe was condensed into one small point. After a massive explosion, the contents of the universe burst forth and expanded and continue to expand today. 

Who Came Up With the Big Bang Theory?

This first mention of the Big Bang came from Georges Lemaître, a Belgian cosmologist and Catholic priest. Initially, in 1927, Lemaître published a paper about General Relativity and solutions to the equations around it. Though it mostly went unnoticed. 

Though many scientists didn’t believe that the universe was expanding, a group of cosmologists was beginning to go against the grain. After Edwin Hubble noticed that galaxies further away from our own seemed to be pulling away faster than those closer to us, the idea of the universe expanding seemed to make more sense. Lemaître’s 1927 paper was recognized, and the term Big Bang appeared in Lemaître’s 1931 paper on the subject. 

What Is the Hubble Space Telescope?

Edwin Hubble’s discovery that galaxies are moving away from our own, dubbed Hubble’s Law, is on a long list of his many discoveries. Though this discovery helped add evidence to the Big Bang Theory, this discovery was hindered by the same thing that had been distributing telescopes since their inception: Earth’s atmosphere. According to NASA , Earth’s atmosphere distorts light, limiting how far a telescope can see, even on a clear night. 

Because of this, researchers, specifically Lyman Spitzer , suggested putting a telescope in space, just beyond Earth’s atmosphere and into its orbit. After a few attempts in the 1960s and 70s, NASA, along with contributions from the European Space Agency (ESA), launched a space telescope on April 24, 1990 . The Hubble Space Telescope, named for the pioneering cosmologist, became the strongest telescope known to humankind until the 2021 launch of the James Webb Space Telescope . 

What Is The Cosmic Microwave Background?

The Big Bang emitted large amounts of primeval light , according to the ESA. Over time, this light “cooled” and was no longer visible. However, researchers are able to detect what is known as Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), which is, according to the ESA, the cooled remnant of the first light to travel through the universe. Some researchers even refer to CMB as an echo of the Big Bang. 

Read More: Did the Big Bang Happen More Than Once?

8. Vaccines

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” Benjamin Franklin once said. A statement that, at the time, applied to making towns safer against fires. However, the same statement can  be true for health and wellness. The advent of vaccines has helped prevent several serious diseases and keep people safe. Thanks to vaccines, people rarely get diseases like polio, and smallpox has been eradicated . 

What Is a Vaccine?

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), a vaccine is a method of protection that introduces a small amount of disease to the human body so that the body can form an immune response should that disease try to enter the body again. 

Basically, through a vaccine, the human body is exposed to a small out of a disease so that the immune system can build a defense against it. 

When Was the First Vaccine Created?

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Edward Jenner created the first vaccine in 1796 by using infected material from a cowpox sore — a disease similar to smallpox. He inoculated an 8-year-old boy named James Phipps with the matter and found that the boy, though he didn’t feel well at first, recovered from the illness. 

A few months later, Jenner tested Phipps with material from a smallpox sore and found that Phipps did not get ill at all. From there, the smallpox vaccine prevented countless deaths in the centuries to come. 

When Was the Polio Vaccine Invented?

From 1796 to 1945, doctors and scientists worked hard to create vaccines for other serious illnesses like the Spanish Flu, yellow fever, and influenza. One of these doctors was Jonas Salk. After Salk helped develop an influenza vaccine in 1945, he began working on the Polio vaccine. Between 1952 and 1955, Salk finished the vaccine, and clinical trials began. Salk’s vacation method required a needle and syringe, though, by 1960, Albert Sabin had created a different delivery method for the polio vaccine. Sabin’s version could be administered by drops or on a sugar cube.

Read More: The History of the Polio Vaccine

9. Evolution

What is evolution .

Evolution is a theory that suggests that organisms change and adapt to their environment on a genetic level from one generation to the next. This can take millions of years through methods such as natural selection. An animal’s color or beak may alter over time depending on the changes in their environment, helping them hide from predators or better capture prey. 

Who Is the Father of Evolution? 

After studying animals in the Galapagos , particularly the finches, a naturalist named Charles Darwin determined that the birds — who all resided on different Galapagos islands — were the same or similar species but had distinct characteristics. Darwin noted that the finches from each island had different beaks. These beaks helped the finches forage for their main food source on their specific island. Some had larger beaks for cracking open nuts and seeds, while others had smaller and more narrow beaks for finding insects. 

These observations earned Charles Darwin the title of the Father of Evolution. Though the theory of evolution has changed since Darwin published On the Origin of Species in 1859, he helped lay the framework for modern scientists. 

Is Evolution a Theory or Fact? 

The long-held belief for thousands of years was that the world and all of its organisms were created by one power. But, as science has advanced, there is clear evidence to argue against that. 

The answer to this question is complicated because evolution is both fact and theory. According to the National Center for Science Education , scientific understanding needs both theories and facts. There is proof that organisms have changed or evolved over time, and scientists now have the means to study and identify how those changes happen. 

Read More : 7 Things You May Not Know About Charles Darwin

What Does CRISPR Stand For? 

According to the National Human Genome Research Institute, CRISPR stands for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats. Researchers use this technology to modify the DNA of a living organism. 

Who Discovered CRISPR? 

There are several people involved and decades of research into the discovery of CRISPR . These researchers include Yoshizumi Ishino, Francisco Mojica, and the duo who recently won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for CRISPR, Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier. 

What Is CRISPR?

CRISPR is a technology that can edit genes or even turn a gene “on” or “off.” Researchers have described CRISPR as a molecular scissors that clips apart DNA, then replaces, deletes, or modifies genes. According to a 2018 study, scientists can use this technology to help replace certain genes that may cause diseases such as cancer or heritable diseases like Duchenne muscular dystrophy — a degenerative disorder that can cause premature death.   

How Does CRISPR Work?

In short, scientists use CRISPR technology to find specific pieces of DNA inside of a cell. Scientists then alter that piece of DNA or replace it with a different DNA sequence. CRISPR technology also ensures that the changed gene passes on to the next offspring through gene drive. 

Read More: CRISPR Gene-Editing Technology Enters the Body — and Space

This article was originally published on Oct. 22, 2021 and has since been updated with new information from the Discover staff.

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Biography Online

Top 10 Greatest Scientists

• The story of chemists, physicists, biologists and remarkable scientists who increased our grasp of almost everything around us.

A list of the top 10 scientists of all time with short profiles on their most significant achievements.

Citation: Pettinger, Tejvan . “Ten Greatest Scientists” Oxford, UK – www.biographyonline.net . Published 12th Jan. 2011. Last updated 2 March 2018.

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Inventions that changed the world  – Famous inventions that made a great difference to the progress of the world, including aluminium, the telephone and the printing press.

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Alfred Russel Wallace should be given credit equivalent to Charles Darwin.

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They positively contributed greatly to our world’ Thanks to them.

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Albert Einstein as an Influential Scientist Essay

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Albert Einstein was one of the most influential scientists of all time. Born in Germany in 1879, Einstein was known for his remarkable curiosity and love for exploration from a very young age. This passion for discovery ultimately led him to science and mathematics, which he pursued throughout his academic career. After completing his doctorate at the University of Zurich, Albert Einstein became a professor of physics at the University of Berlin, where he developed his famous theory of relativity (Jerri, 2021). This revolutionary breakthrough in scientific thinking and understanding of the universe has had a lasting impact on modern science and technology, cementing Einstein’s legacy as one of the greatest minds of all time.

Einstein was an incredibly influential scientist, making groundbreaking discoveries throughout his lifetime that revolutionized how we view the world today. His theories on relativity, energy, and the universe’s interconnectedness have had a lasting and profound impact on our understanding of the cosmos. His belief that all matter is composed of power and that the speed of light is constant has been firmly established in modern science. Moreover, his ideas on space and time are relative rather than absolute. They have been integral to how scientists and physicists comprehend the universe today. His theories and discoveries still shape our understanding of the universe and will continue to be used to explain and explore the wonders of the cosmos.

Einstein’s groundbreaking work and remarkable discoveries in science and philosophy have inspired numerous generations of scientists and thinkers to push the boundaries of knowledge and explore new ideas (Jerri, 2021). He was a passionate advocate for peace and firmly believed in the power of education. Constructive dialogue to create a better, more equitable, and just world. His legacy and impact continue to this day. He will always be remembered as one of human history’s most influential and brilliant minds. His work and insight will continue to shape and inspire future generations.

Jerri, M. C. (2021). Albert Einstein: Biography and Quotes .

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20 Physicists Who Revolutionised Our Understanding of The World

You probably know what physics is. It's the study of the physical world, from falling apples to the motion of planets and stars to the behaviour of the tiny subatomic particles that make up the world around us.

Physics is everywhere. It's in the most distant reaches of the cosmos. It's in the supermassive black holes raging in the centre of galaxies and in the tiny fundamental building blocks that make up life on Earth. It's even in the seemingly empty space around us.

And every now and then a physicist comes along who forever changes our perception of the Universe and everything in it.

Here are 20 physicists whose theories, ideas, and discoveries revolutionised the way we see the world.

1 . One of Galileo Galilei's (1564-1642) most well known accomplishments in physics is his work in the field of bodies in motion. In the 1630s, he showed that all freely falling bodies have the same constant acceleration.

2. Building on Galileo's work on objects in motion, Isaac Newton (1643-1727) established the three Laws of Motion as well as the Law of Universal Gravitation in 1687.

One of his most revolutionary ideas was that the motion of objects in the heavens are subject to the same set of physical laws as the motion of objects on Earth.

3. Michael Faraday (1791-1867) is known for his work in magnetism and electricity. In 1831, he discovered electromagnetic induction and in 1839, he proposed that there is an underlying relationship between electricity and magnetism.

4. In 1864, James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879) published his theory of electromagnetism, which showed that electricity, magnetism and light are all manifestations of the same phenomenon: the electromagnetic field.

5. In 1895, Wilhelm Röntgen (1845-1923) became the first physicist to produce and detect electromagnetic radiation in a wavelength range that today we know as X-rays.

6. In 1896, Marie Curie (1867-1934) aided in the discovery of radioactivity (which was found by investigating properties of X-rays) and introduced techniques for isolating isotopes. She and her husband Pierre Curie discovered the radioactive elements radium and polonium.

7. In 1897, J. J. Thomson (1856-1940) discovered the electron. It was the first subatomic particle ever discovered.

8. Max Planck (1858-1947) is credited with the birth of quantum mechanics. In 1900, he proposed the idea of quanta, which are discrete pockets of energy emitted by light. He also set the value for the Planck constant, which is central in quantum mechanics.

9. In 1905, Albert Einstein (1879-1955) published a paper on special relativity , which states that the speed of light is always constant, and at the speed of light, time stands still and mass is infinite.

In 1916, he published his general theory of relativity , a fundamental theory of the nature of space, time, and gravitation which states that gravity is an effect of the curving of space and time.

10. In 1911, Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937) demonstrated that the nuclei of atoms house most of their masses. In 1920, he discovered the proton.

11. Neils Bohr (1885-1962) is known for formulating the theory of atomic structure in 1913. Bohr figured out that an atom has a nucleus at the centre with electrons orbiting around it. He also played a key role in the birth of quantum mechanics.

12. Wolfgang Pauli (1900-1958) is well known for his work on spin theory and quantum theory, as well as his discovery of the 1925 Pauli exclusion principle which is key to understanding properties of stars and nebulas.

In 1931, he predicted the existence of neutrinos , weakly interacting particles that zip through the Universe at nearly the speed of light.

13 . In 1926, Erwin Schrödinger (1887-1961) came up with what is considered the central equation of quantum physics, which describes wave mechanics. In 1935, he came up with 'Schrödinger's Cat', one of the most famous thought experiments in history.

It involves a cat trapped in a box, with a 50/50 chance of being alive or dead. Schrödinger concluded that until you can figure it out for sure, the cat is both alive and dead, existing in what's known as a superposition of states.

14. In 1928, Paul Dirac (1902-1984) predicted the existence of antimatter , which are particles which have an equal but opposite electric charge to their counterparts, like the positron (or antielectron).

15. Werner Heisenberg (1901-1976) is best known for his 1927 uncertainty principle, which places fundamental limitations on the accuracy of experimental measurements in quantum mechanics.

16. Enrico Fermi (1901-1954) is famous for his work on the first nuclear reactor as part of the Manhattan project. He also made major contributions to quantum theory, as well as nuclear and particle physics.

17. J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904-1967) is best known for his work on the Manhattan Project, directing the production of the first atomic bombs.

18. Richard Feynman (1918-1988) is famous for his contributions to the theory of quantum electrodynamics, which blends special relativity and quantum mechanics to search for a better understanding of the Universe.

19. In 1961, Murray Gell-Mann (b. 1929) proposed the eightfold way of classifying subatomic particles, and in 1964, he proposed the quark hypothesis, which states that protons, neutrons, and other hadrons are actually made up of even tinier particles called quarks.

20. Although Vera Rubin (born 1928) is actually an astronomer, her studies of galaxy rotation led her to the first real evidence that 84 percent of the Universe is made up of mysterious, invisible particles of dark matter .

The search for these particles has revolutionised the fields of particle physics and astrophysics.

This article was originally published by Business Insider .

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Famous Scientists

About 2.3 million years ago our ancestors invented their first primitive tool, the split stone, which they used for cutting and scraping.

Modern humans first appeared about 200,000 years ago. About 50,000 years ago they (or should that be we?) began to use language, symbols, and more complex tools.

As inventions and discoveries added to one another, human civilization, technology, and science advanced and evolved.

If you’re looking for scientists in particular fields, you could try our pages here:

Most Famous Scientists and Inventors in History

The beginnings of science and the scientific method largely came from the ancient Greek world, which encompassed the eastern part of the Mediterranean.

The names of the great scientists and philosophers of that time, such as Pythagoras, Archimedes, Aristotle, Eratosthenes and Thales, are still known today, over 2,000 years later.

The Era of Modern Science Begins

Science entered a new era with the Renaissance, which began in 14th century Italy. By the 17th century it had extended and blossomed throughout most of Europe.

The fall of Constantinople in 1453 resulted in a large number of refugees fleeing to Europe, bringing with them Greek and Roman books that had been archived in Constantinople, unused for centuries. This, and the invention of the printing press in about 1450 accelerated the pace of learning in Renaissance Europe.

Unfortunately for science, only a few people thirsted for scientific knowledge and progress, while most intellectuals focused on artistic or liberal arts disciplines.

It was only in the 17th century that a rapid scientific revolution finally took place.

Timeline of a Scientific Revolution

• c1600 – Galileo Galilei discovers the principle of inertia, building the stage for a rational view of motion.

• 1600 – William Gilbert finds that Earth has magnetic poles and acts like a huge magnet.

• 1600 – Galileo Galilei discovers that projectiles move with a parabolic trajectory.

• 1608 – Hans Lippershey invents the refracting telescope, which Galileo Galilei soon puts to use.

• 1609 – Galileo Galilei observes Jupiter’s four largest moons, disproving church dogma that all movement in the universe is centered on Earth.

• 1609 – Johannes Kepler publishes his first two laws of planetary motion showing that planets move in elliptical orbits around the sun.

• 1610 – John Napier publishes tables of logarithms, showing how they can be used to accelerate calculations.

The full timeline of the Scientific Revolution

Alphabetical List of Scientists

Louis Agassiz | Maria Gaetana Agnesi | Al-Battani Abu Nasr Al-Farabi | Alhazen | Jim Al-Khalili | Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi | Mihailo Petrovic Alas | Angel Alcala | Salim Ali | Luis Alvarez | Andre Marie Ampère | Anaximander | Carl Anderson | Mary Anning | Virginia Apgar | Archimedes | Agnes Arber | Aristarchus | Aristotle | Svante Arrhenius | Oswald Avery | Amedeo Avogadro | Avicenna

Charles Babbage | Francis Bacon | Alexander Bain | John Logie Baird | Joseph Banks | Ramon Barba | John Bardeen | Charles Barkla | Ibn Battuta | William Bayliss | George Beadle | Arnold Orville Beckman | Henri Becquerel | Emil Adolf Behring | Alexander Graham Bell | Emile Berliner | Claude Bernard | Timothy John Berners-Lee | Daniel Bernoulli | Jacob Berzelius | Henry Bessemer | Hans Bethe | Homi Jehangir Bhabha | Alfred Binet | Clarence Birdseye | Kristian Birkeland | James Black | Elizabeth Blackwell | Alfred Blalock | Katharine Burr Blodgett | Franz Boas | David Bohm | Aage Bohr | Niels Bohr | Ludwig Boltzmann | Max Born | Carl Bosch | Robert Bosch | Jagadish Chandra Bose | Satyendra Nath Bose | Walther Wilhelm Georg Bothe | Robert Boyle | Lawrence Bragg | Tycho Brahe | Brahmagupta | Hennig Brand | Georg Brandt | Wernher Von Braun | J Harlen Bretz | Louis de Broglie | Alexander Brongniart | Robert Brown | Michael E. Brown | Lester R. Brown | Eduard Buchner | Linda Buck | William Buckland | Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon | Robert Bunsen | Luther Burbank | Jocelyn Bell Burnell | Macfarlane Burnet | Thomas Burnet

Benjamin Cabrera | Santiago Ramon y Cajal | Rachel Carson | George Washington Carver | Henry Cavendish | Anders Celsius | James Chadwick | Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar | Erwin Chargaff | Noam Chomsky | Steven Chu | Leland Clark | John Cockcroft | Arthur Compton | Nicolaus Copernicus | Gerty Theresa Cori | Charles-Augustin de Coulomb | Jacques Cousteau | Brian Cox | Francis Crick | James Croll | Nicholas Culpeper | Marie Curie | Pierre Curie | Georges Cuvier | Adalbert Czerny

Gottlieb Daimler | John Dalton | James Dwight Dana | Charles Darwin | Humphry Davy | Peter Debye | Max Delbruck | Jean Andre Deluc | Democritus | René Descartes | Rudolf Christian Karl Diesel | Diophantus | Paul Dirac | Prokop Divis | Theodosius Dobzhansky | Frank Drake | K. Eric Drexler

John Eccles | Arthur Eddington | Thomas Edison | Paul Ehrlich | Albert Einstein | Gertrude Elion | Empedocles | Eratosthenes | Euclid | Eudoxus | Leonhard Euler

Michael Faraday | Pierre de Fermat | Enrico Fermi | Richard Feynman | Fibonacci – Leonardo of Pisa | Emil Fischer | Ronald Fisher | Alexander Fleming | John Ambrose Fleming | Howard Florey | Henry Ford | Lee De Forest | Dian Fossey | Leon Foucault | Benjamin Franklin | Rosalind Franklin | Sigmund Freud | Elizebeth Smith Friedman

Galen | Galileo Galilei | Francis Galton | Luigi Galvani | George Gamow | Martin Gardner | Carl Friedrich Gauss | Murray Gell-Mann | Sophie Germain | Willard Gibbs | William Gilbert | Sheldon Lee Glashow | Robert Goddard | Maria Goeppert-Mayer | Thomas Gold | Jane Goodall | Stephen Jay Gould | Otto von Guericke

Fritz Haber | Ernst Haeckel | Otto Hahn | Albrecht von Haller | Edmund Halley | Alister Hardy | Thomas Harriot | William Harvey | Stephen Hawking | Otto Haxel | Werner Heisenberg | Hermann von Helmholtz | Jan Baptist von Helmont | Joseph Henry | Caroline Herschel | John Herschel | William Herschel | Gustav Ludwig Hertz | Heinrich Hertz | Karl F. Herzfeld | George de Hevesy | Antony Hewish | David Hilbert | Maurice Hilleman | Hipparchus | Hippocrates | Shintaro Hirase | Dorothy Hodgkin | Robert Hooke | Frederick Gowland Hopkins | William Hopkins | Grace Murray Hopper | Frank Hornby | Jack Horner | Bernardo Houssay | Fred Hoyle | Edwin Hubble | Alexander von Humboldt | Zora Neale Hurston | James Hutton | Christiaan Huygens | Hypatia

Ernesto Illy | Jan Ingenhousz | Ernst Ising | Keisuke Ito

Mae Carol Jemison | Edward Jenner | J. Hans D. Jensen | Irene Joliot-Curie | James Prescott Joule | Percy Lavon Julian

Michio Kaku | Heike Kamerlingh Onnes | Pyotr Kapitsa | Friedrich August Kekulé | Frances Kelsey | Pearl Kendrick | Johannes Kepler | Abdul Qadeer Khan | Omar Khayyam | Alfred Kinsey | Gustav Kirchoff | Martin Klaproth | Robert Koch | Emil Kraepelin | Thomas Kuhn | Stephanie Kwolek

Joseph-Louis Lagrange | Jean-Baptiste Lamarck | Hedy Lamarr | Edwin Herbert Land | Karl Landsteiner | Pierre-Simon Laplace | Max von Laue | Antoine Lavoisier | Ernest Lawrence | Henrietta Leavitt | Antonie van Leeuwenhoek | Inge Lehmann | Gottfried Leibniz | Georges Lemaître | Leonardo da Vinci | Niccolo Leoniceno | Aldo Leopold | Rita Levi-Montalcini | Claude Levi-Strauss | Willard Frank Libby | Justus von Liebig | Carolus Linnaeus | Joseph Lister | John Locke | Hendrik Antoon Lorentz | Konrad Lorenz | Ada Lovelace | Percival Lowell | Lucretius | Charles Lyell | Trofim Lysenko

Ernst Mach | Marcello Malpighi | Jane Marcet | Guglielmo Marconi | Lynn Margulis | Barry Marshall | Polly Matzinger | Matthew Maury | James Clerk Maxwell | Ernst Mayr | Barbara McClintock | Lise Meitner | Gregor Mendel | Dmitri Mendeleev | Franz Mesmer | Antonio Meucci | John Michell | Albert Abraham Michelson | Thomas Midgeley Jr. | Milutin Milankovic | Maria Mitchell | Mario Molina | Thomas Hunt Morgan | Samuel Morse | Henry Moseley

Ukichiro Nakaya | John Napier | Giulio Natta | John Needham | John von Neumann | Thomas Newcomen | Isaac Newton | Charles Nicolle | Florence Nightingale | Tim Noakes | Alfred Nobel | Emmy Noether | Christiane Nusslein-Volhard | Bill Nye

Hans Christian Oersted | Georg Ohm | J. Robert Oppenheimer | Wilhelm Ostwald | William Oughtred

Blaise Pascal | Louis Pasteur | Wolfgang Ernst Pauli | Linus Pauling | Randy Pausch | Ivan Pavlov | Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin | Wilder Penfield | Marguerite Perey | William Perkin | John Philoponus | Jean Piaget | Philippe Pinel | Max Planck | Pliny the Elder | Henri Poincaré | Karl Popper | Beatrix Potter | Joseph Priestley | Proclus | Claudius Ptolemy | Pythagoras

Adolphe Quetelet | Harriet Quimby | Thabit ibn Qurra

C. V. Raman | Srinivasa Ramanujan | William Ramsay | John Ray | Prafulla Chandra Ray | Francesco Redi | Sally Ride | Bernhard Riemann | Wilhelm Röntgen | Hermann Rorschach | Ronald Ross | Ibn Rushd | Ernest Rutherford

Carl Sagan | Abdus Salam | Jonas Salk | Frederick Sanger | Alberto Santos-Dumont | Walter Schottky | Erwin Schrödinger | Theodor Schwann | Glenn Seaborg | Hans Selye | Charles Sherrington | Gene Shoemaker | Ernst Werner von Siemens | George Gaylord Simpson | B. F. Skinner | William Smith | Frederick Soddy | Mary Somerville | Arnold Sommerfeld | Hermann Staudinger | Nicolas Steno | Nettie Stevens | William John Swainson | Leo Szilard

Niccolo Tartaglia | Edward Teller | Nikola Tesla | Thales of Miletus | Theon of Alexandria | Benjamin Thompson | J. J. Thomson | William Thomson | Henry David Thoreau | Kip S. Thorne | Clyde Tombaugh | Susumu Tonegawa | Evangelista Torricelli | Charles Townes | Youyou Tu | Alan Turing | Neil deGrasse Tyson

Harold Urey

Craig Venter | Vladimir Vernadsky | Andreas Vesalius | Rudolf Virchow | Artturi Virtanen | Alessandro Volta

Selman Waksman | George Wald | Alfred Russel Wallace | John Wallis | Ernest Walton | James Watson | James Watt | Alfred Wegener | John Archibald Wheeler | Maurice Wilkins | Thomas Willis | E. O. Wilson | Sven Wingqvist | Sergei Winogradsky | Carl Woese | Friedrich Wöhler | Wilbur and Orville Wright | Wilhelm Wundt

Chen-Ning Yang

Ahmed Zewail

Essay on Albert Einstein

500 words essay on albert einstein.

Albert Einstein was a physicist who is responsible for developing the famous general theory of relativity. Furthermore, he is one of the most influential and celebrated scientists of the 20th century. Let’s take a look at the life and achievements of this genius with the essay on Albert Einstein.

                                                                                                                 Essay On Albert Einstein

Early Life of Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein was born in Germany into a Jewish family on 14th March 1879. Furthermore, Einstein had to deal with speech difficulties early on but was a brilliant student at his elementary school. His father, Hermann Einstein founded an electrical equipment manufacturing company with the help of his brother.

At the age of five, Albert’s father showed him a pocket compass . Moreover, this made him realize that the needle was moving due to something in empty space. According to Einstein, this experience left a deep and lasting impression on him.

In 1889, a ten-year-old Albert became introduced to popular science and philosophy texts. This happened due to a family friend named Max Talmud.

Albert Einstein spent time on books like Kant’s ‘Critique of Pure Reason’ and ‘Euclid’s Elements’. From the latter book, Albert developed an understanding of deductive reasoning. Furthermore, by the age of 12, he was able to learn Euclidian geometry from a school booklet.

Einstein’s father’s intention was to see his son pursue electrical engineering. However, a clash took place between Albert and the authorities. This was because Albert had resentment for rote learning as, according to him,  it was against creative thought.

Achievements of Albert Einstein

In 1894, Einstein’s father’s business failed and his family went to Italy. At this time, Einstein was only fifteen. During this time, he wrote ‘The Investigation of the State of Aether in Magnetic Fields’, which was his first scientific work.

In 1901, there was the publishing of a paper by Einstein on the capillary forces of a straw in the prestigious ‘Annalen der Physik’. Furthermore, his graduation took place from ETH with a diploma in teaching.

In the year 1905, while working in the patent office, there took place the publishing of four papers by Einstein in the prestigious journal ‘Annalen der Physik’. Experts recognize all four papers as tremendous achievements of Albert Einstein. Therefore, people call the year 1905 as Einstein’s wonderful year’.

The four papers were special relativity, photoelectric effect, Brownian motion , and equivalence of matter and energy. He also made the discovery of the famous equation, E = mc².

The theory of relativity was completed by Einstein in 1915. The confirmation of his theory was by British astronomer, Sir Arthur Eddington, during the solar eclipse of 1919.

There was the continuation of research works by Einstein and finally, in 1921, his efforts bore fruits. Most noteworthy, the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Albert Einstein for his services to Theoretical Physics.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Conclusion of the Essay on Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein’s contribution to the field of physics is priceless. Furthermore, his ideas and theories are still authoritative for many physicists. Einstein’s lasting legacy in physics will continue to be an inspiration for young science enthusiasts.

FAQs For Essay on Albert Einstein

Question 1: What is the legacy of Albert Einstein?

Answer 1: Albert Einstein is one of the world’s greatest physicists and a Nobel Laureate. Furthermore, his greatest achievement is the theory of relativity which made a significant change in our understanding of the universe like. However, this wasn’t his only legacy as Einstein was also a refugee and a humanitarian.

Question 2: What is the equation E = MC 2 ?

Answer 2: Einstein’s E = MC 2 is the world’s most famous equation.  Furthermore, this equation means that energy is equal to mass times the speed of light squared.  Moreover, on the most basic level, this equation tells us that energy and mass happen to be interchangeable and that they are different forms of the same thing.

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Stephen Hawking

Stephen Hawking was a scientist known for his work with black holes and relativity, and the author of popular science books like 'A Brief History of Time.'

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(1942-2018)

Who Was Stephen Hawking?

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Stephen Hawking was a British scientist, professor and author who performed groundbreaking work in physics and cosmology, and whose books helped to make science accessible to everyone.

At age 21, while studying cosmology at the University of Cambridge , he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Part of his life story was depicted in the 2014 film The Theory of Everything .

Hawking was born on January 8, 1942, in Oxford, England. His birthday was also the 300th anniversary of the death of Galileo — long a source of pride for the noted physicist.

The eldest of Frank and Isobel Hawking's four children, Hawking was born into a family of thinkers.

His Scottish mother earned her way into Oxford University in the 1930s — a time when few women were able to go to college. His father, another Oxford graduate, was a respected medical researcher with a specialty in tropical diseases.

Hawking's birth came at an inopportune time for his parents, who didn't have much money. The political climate was also tense, as England was dealing with World War II and the onslaught of German bombs in London, where the couple was living as Frank Hawking undertook research in medicine.

In an effort to seek a safer place, Isobel returned to Oxford to have the couple's first child. The Hawkings would go on to have two other children, Mary and Philippa. And their second son, Edward, was adopted in 1956.

The Hawkings, as one close family friend described them, were an "eccentric" bunch. Dinner was often eaten in silence, each of the Hawkings intently reading a book. The family car was an old London taxi, and their home in St. Albans was a three-story fixer-upper that never quite got fixed. The Hawkings also housed bees in the basement and produced fireworks in the greenhouse.

In 1950, Hawking's father took work to manage the Division of Parasitology at the National Institute of Medical Research, and spent the winter months in Africa doing research. He wanted his eldest child to go into medicine, but at an early age, Hawking showed a passion for science and the sky.

That was evident to his mother, who, along with her children, often stretched out in the backyard on summer evenings to stare up at the stars. "Stephen always had a strong sense of wonder," she remembered. "And I could see that the stars would draw him."

Hawking was also frequently on the go. With his sister Mary, Hawking, who loved to climb, devised different entry routes into the family home. He loved to dance and also took an interest in rowing, becoming a team coxswain in college.

Early in his academic life, Hawking, while recognized as bright, was not an exceptional student. During his first year at St. Albans School , he was third from the bottom of his class.

But Hawking focused on pursuits outside of school; he loved board games, and he and a few close friends created new games of their own. During his teens, Hawking, along with several friends, constructed a computer out of recycled parts for solving rudimentary mathematical equations.

Hawking entered University College at the University of Oxford at the age of 17. Although he expressed a desire to study mathematics, Oxford didn't offer a degree in that specialty, so Hawking gravitated toward physics and, more specifically, cosmology.

By his own account, Hawking didn't put much time into his studies. He would later calculate that he averaged about an hour a day focusing on school. And yet he didn't really have to do much more than that. In 1962, he graduated with honors in natural science and went on to attend Trinity Hall at the University of Cambridge for a Ph.D. in cosmology.

In 1968, Hawking became a member of the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge. The next few years were a fruitful time for Hawking and his research. In 1973, he published his first, highly-technical book, The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time , with G.F.R. Ellis.

In 1979, Hawking found himself back at the University of Cambridge, where he was named to one of teaching's most renowned posts, dating back to 1663: the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics.

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At a New Year's party in 1963, Hawking met a young languages undergraduate named Jane Wilde. They were married in 1965. The couple gave birth to a son, Robert, in 1967, and a daughter, Lucy, in 1970. A third child, Timothy, arrived in 1979.

In 1990, Hawking left his wife Jane for one of his nurses, Elaine Mason. The two were married in 1995. The marriage put a strain on Hawking's relationship with his own children, who claimed Elaine closed off their father from them.

In 2003, nurses looking after Hawking reported their suspicions to police that Elaine was physically abusing her husband. Hawking denied the allegations, and the police investigation was called off. In 2006, Hawking and Elaine filed for divorce.

In the following years, the physicist reportedly grew closer to his family. He reconciled with Jane, who had remarried. And he published five science-themed novels for children with his daughter, Lucy.

Over the years, Hawking wrote or co-wrote a total of 15 books. A few of the most noteworthy include:

'A Brief History of Time'

In 1988 Hawking catapulted to international prominence with the publication of A Brief History of Time . The short, informative book became an account of cosmology for the masses and offered an overview of space and time, the existence of God and the future.

The work was an instant success, spending more than four years atop the London Sunday Times' best-seller list. Since its publication, it has sold millions of copies worldwide and been translated into more than 40 languages.

Random House 'A Brief History of Time' by Stephen Hawking

‘The Universe in a Nutshell’

A Brief History of Time also wasn't as easy to understand as some had hoped. So in 2001, Hawking followed up his book with The Universe in a Nutshell , which offered a more illustrated guide to cosmology's big theories.

Bantam 'The Universe in a Nutshell' by Stephen Hawking

‘A Briefer History of Time’

In 2005, Hawking authored the even more accessible A Briefer History of Time , which further simplified the original work's core concepts and touched upon the newest developments in the field like string theory.

Together these three books, along with Hawking's own research and papers, articulated the physicist's personal search for science's Holy Grail: a single unifying theory that can combine cosmology (the study of the big) with quantum mechanics (the study of the small) to explain how the universe began.

This kind of ambitious thinking allowed Hawking, who claimed he could think in 11 dimensions, to lay out some big possibilities for humankind. He was convinced that time travel is possible, and that humans may indeed colonize other planets in the future.

Bantam 'A Briefer History of Time' by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow

‘The Grand Design’

In September 2010, Hawking spoke against the idea that God could have created the universe in his book The Grand Design . Hawking previously argued that belief in a creator could be compatible with modern scientific theories.

Bantam 'The Grand Design' by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow

In this work, however, he concluded that the Big Bang was the inevitable consequence of the laws of physics and nothing more. "Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing," Hawking said. "Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist."

The Grand Design was Hawking's first major publication in almost a decade. Within his new work, Hawking set out to challenge Isaac Newton 's belief that the universe had to have been designed by God, simply because it could not have been born from chaos. "It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going," Hawking said.

At the age of 21, Hawking was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrig 's disease). In a very simple sense, the nerves that controlled his muscles were shutting down. At the time, doctors gave him two and a half years to live.

Hawking first began to notice problems with his physical health while he was at Oxford — on occasion he would trip and fall, or slur his speech — but he didn't look into the problem until 1963, during his first year at Cambridge. For the most part, Hawking had kept these symptoms to himself.

But when his father took notice of the condition, he took Hawking to see a doctor. For the next two weeks, the 21-year-old college student made his home at a medical clinic, where he underwent a series of tests.

"They took a muscle sample from my arm, stuck electrodes into me, and injected some radio-opaque fluid into my spine, and watched it going up and down with X-rays, as they tilted the bed," he once said. "After all that, they didn't tell me what I had, except that it was not multiple sclerosis, and that I was an atypical case."

Eventually, however, doctors did diagnose Hawking with the early stages of ALS. It was devastating news for him and his family, but a few events prevented him from becoming completely despondent.

The first of these came while Hawking was still in the hospital. There, he shared a room with a boy suffering from leukemia. Relative to what his roommate was going through, Hawking later reflected, his situation seemed more tolerable.

Not long after he was released from the hospital, Hawking had a dream that he was going to be executed. He said this dream made him realize that there were still things to do with his life.

In a sense, Hawking's disease helped turn him into the noted scientist he became. Before the diagnosis, Hawking hadn't always focused on his studies. "Before my condition was diagnosed, I had been very bored with life," he said. "There had not seemed to be anything worth doing."

With the sudden realization that he might not even live long enough to earn his Ph.D., Hawking poured himself into his work and research.

As physical control over his body diminished (he'd be forced to use a wheelchair by 1969), the effects of his disease started to slow down. Over time, however, Hawking's ever-expanding career was accompanied by an ever-worsening physical state.

By the mid-1970s, the Hawking family had taken in one of Hawking's graduate students to help manage his care and work. He could still feed himself and get out of bed, but virtually everything else required assistance.

In addition, his speech had become increasingly slurred, so that only those who knew him well could understand him. In 1985 he lost his voice for good following a tracheotomy. The resulting situation required 24-hour nursing care for the acclaimed physicist.

It also put in peril Hawking's ability to do his work. The predicament caught the attention of a California computer programmer, who had developed a speaking program that could be directed by head or eye movement. The invention allowed Hawking to select words on a computer screen that were then passed through a speech synthesizer.

At the time of its introduction, Hawking, who still had use of his fingers, selected his words with a handheld clicker. Eventually, with virtually all control of his body gone, Hawking directed the program through a cheek muscle attached to a sensor.

Through the program, and the help of assistants, Hawking continued to write at a prolific rate. His work included numerous scientific papers, of course, but also information for the non-scientific community.

Hawking's health remained a constant concern—a worry that was heightened in 2009 when he failed to appear at a conference in Arizona because of a chest infection. In April, Hawking, who had already announced he was retiring after 30 years from the post of Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge, was rushed to the hospital for being what university officials described as "gravely ill," though he later made a full recovery.

In 1974, Hawking's research turned him into a celebrity within the scientific world when he showed that black holes aren't the information vacuums that scientists had thought they were.

In simple terms, Hawking demonstrated that matter, in the form of radiation, can escape the gravitational force of a collapsed star. Another young cosmologist, Roger Penrose, had earlier discovered groundbreaking findings about the fate of stars and the creation of black holes, which tapped into Hawking's own fascination with how the universe began.

The pair then began working together to expand upon Penrose’s earlier work, setting Hawking on a career course marked by awards, notoriety and distinguished titles that reshaped the way the world thinks about black holes and the universe.

When Hawking’s radiation theory was born, the announcement sent shock waves of excitement through the scientific world. Hawking was named a fellow of the Royal Society at the age of 32, and later earned the prestigious Albert Einstein Award, among other honors. He also earned teaching stints at Caltech in Pasadena, California, where he served as visiting professor, and at Gonville and Caius College in Cambridge.

In August 2015, Hawking appeared at a conference in Sweden to discuss new theories about black holes and the vexing "information paradox." Addressing the issue of what becomes of an object that enters a black hole, Hawking proposed that information about the physical state of the object is stored in 2D form within an outer boundary known as the "event horizon." Noting that black holes "are not the eternal prisons they were once thought," he left open the possibility that the information could be released into another universe.

In a March 2018 interview on Neil deGrasse Tyson 's Star Talk , Hawking addressed the topic of "what was around before the Big Bang" by stating there was nothing around. He said by applying a Euclidean approach to quantum gravity, which replaces real time with imaginary time, the history of the universe becomes like a four-dimensional curved surface, with no boundary.

He suggested picturing this reality by thinking of imaginary time and real time as beginning at the Earth's South Pole, a point of space-time where the normal laws of physics hold; as there is nothing "south" of the South Pole, there was also nothing before the Big Bang.

In 2007, at the age of 65, Hawking made an important step toward space travel. While visiting the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, he was given the opportunity to experience an environment without gravity.

Over the course of two hours over the Atlantic, Hawking, a passenger on a modified Boeing 727, was freed from his wheelchair to experience bursts of weightlessness. Pictures of the freely floating physicist splashed across newspapers around the globe.

"The zero-G part was wonderful, and the high-G part was no problem. I could have gone on and on. Space, here I come!" he said.

Hawking was scheduled to fly to the edge of space as one of Sir Richard Branson 's pioneer space tourists. He said in a 2007 statement, "Life on Earth is at the ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster, such as sudden global warming , nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus or other dangers. I think the human race has no future if it doesn't go into space. I therefore want to encourage public interest in space."

If there is such a thing as a rock-star scientist, Hawking embodied it. His forays into popular culture included guest appearances on The Simpsons , Star Trek: The Next Generation , a comedy spoof with comedian Jim Carrey on Late Night with Conan O'Brien , and even a recorded voice-over on the Pink Floyd song "Keep Talking."

In 1992, Oscar-winning filmmaker Errol Morris released a documentary about Hawking's life, aptly titled A Brief History of Time . Other TV and movie appearances included:

'The Big Bang Theory'

In 2012, Hawking showed off his humorous side on American television, making a guest appearance on The Big Bang Theory . Playing himself on this popular comedy about a group of young, geeky scientists, Hawking brings the theoretical physicist Sheldon Cooper ( Jim Parsons ) back to Earth after finding an error in his work. Hawking earned kudos for this light-hearted effort.

'The Theory of Everything'

In November of 2014, a film about the life of Hawking and Jane Wilde was released. The Theory of Everything stars Eddie Redmayne as Hawking and encompasses his early life and school days, his courtship and marriage to Wilde, the progression of his crippling disease and his scientific triumphs.

In May 2016, Hawking hosted and narrated Genius , a six-part television series which enlists volunteers to tackle scientific questions that have been asked throughout history. In a statement regarding his series, Hawking said Genius is “a project that furthers my lifelong aim to bring science to the public. It’s a fun show that tries to find out if ordinary people are smart enough to think like the greatest minds who ever lived. Being an optimist, I think they will.”

In 2011, Hawkings had participated in a trial of a new headband-styled device called the iBrain. The device is designed to "read" the wearer's thoughts by picking up "waves of electrical brain signals," which are then interpreted by a special algorithm, according to an article in The New York Times . This device could be a revolutionary aid to people with ALS.

In 2014, Hawking, among other top scientists, spoke out about the possible dangers of artificial intelligence, or AI, calling for more research to be done on all of possible ramifications of AI. Their comments were inspired by the Johnny Depp film Transcendence , which features a clash between humanity and technology.

"Success in creating AI would be the biggest event in human history," the scientists wrote. "Unfortunately, it might also be the last, unless we learn how to avoid the risks." The group warned of a time when this technology would be "outsmarting financial markets, out-inventing human researchers, out-manipulating human leaders, and developing weapons we cannot even understand."

Hawking reiterated this stance while speaking at a technology conference in Lisbon, Portugal, in November 2017. Noting how AI could potentially make gains in wiping out poverty and disease, but could also lead to such theoretically destructive actions as the development of autonomous weapons, he said, "We cannot know if we will be infinitely helped by AI, or ignored by it and sidelined, or conceivably destroyed by it."

In July 2015, Hawking held a news conference in London to announce the launch of a project called Breakthrough Listen. Funded by Russian entrepreneur Yuri Milner, Breakthrough Listen was created to devote more resources to the discovery of extraterrestrial life.

In October 2017, Cambridge University posted Hawking's 1965 doctoral thesis, "Properties of Expanding Universes," to its website. An overwhelming demand for access promptly crashed the university server, though the document still fielded a staggering 60,000 views before the end of its first day online.

On March 14, 2018, Hawking finally died of ALS, the disease that was supposed to have killed him more than 50 years earlier. A family spokesman confirmed that the iconic scientist died at his home in Cambridge, England.

The news touched many in his field and beyond. Fellow theoretical physicist and author Lawrence Krauss tweeted: "A star just went out in the cosmos. We have lost an amazing human being. Hawking fought and tamed the cosmos bravely for 76 years and taught us all something important about what it truly means to celebrate about being human."

Hawking's children followed with a statement: "We are deeply saddened that our beloved father passed away today. He was a great scientist and an extraordinary man whose work and legacy will live on for many years. His courage and persistence with his brilliance and humor inspired people across the world. He once said, 'It would not be much of a universe if it wasn’t home to the people you love.' We will miss him forever."

Later in the month, it was announced that Hawking's ashes would be interred at Westminster Abbey in London, alongside other scientific luminaries like Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin .

On May 2, 2018, his final paper, titled "A smooth exit from eternal inflation?" was published in the Journal of High Energy Physics . Submitted 10 days before his death, the new report, co-authored by Belgian physicist Thomas Hertog, disputes the idea that the universe will continue to expand.

FULL NAME: Stephen William Hawking BORN: January 8, 1942 BIRTHPLACE: Oxford, United Kingdom DIED: March 14, 2018 ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Capricorn

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• Before my condition was diagnosed, I had been very bored with life. There had not seemed to be anything worth doing.
• I believe that life on Earth is at an ever increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster such as sudden global warming, nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus, or other dangers. I think the human race has no future if it doesn't go into space.
• Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist.
• It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going.
• It is not clear that intelligence has any long-term survival value.
• If, like me, you have looked at the stars, and tried to make sense of what you see, you too have started to wonder what makes the universe exist.
• I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.
• Science is beautiful when it makes simple explanations of phenomena or connections between different observations. Examples include the double helix in biology, and the fundamental equations of physics.
• People who boast about their I.Q. are losers.
• We shouldn't be surprised that conditions in the universe are suitable for life, but this is not evidence that the universe was designed to allow for life. We could call order by the name of God, but it would be an impersonal God. There's not much personal about the laws of physics.

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Among Louis Pasteur’s discoveries were molecular asymmetry, the fact that molecules can have the same chemical composition with different structures; that fermentation is caused by microorganisms; and that virulence can be increased as well as decreased. He also disproved the theory of spontaneous generation and contributed to germ theory and the study of infectious disease.

Louis Pasteur is best known for inventing the process that bears his name, pasteurization . Pasteurization kills microbes and prevents spoilage in beer, milk, and other goods. In his work with silkworms, Pasteur developed practices that are still used today for preventing disease in silkworm eggs. Using his germ theory of disease, he also developed vaccines for chicken cholera, anthrax, and rabies.

What is pasteurization?

Pasteurization is a heat-treatment process that destroys pathogenic microorganisms in certain foods and beverages. It is used for preserving goods such as beer, milk, and cream.

Louis Pasteur grew up in a relatively poor family. He was one of four children, and his father was a tanner. In 1849 he married Marie Laurent, the daughter of the rector of the University of Strasbourg , where Pasteur was a professor of chemistry. They had five children together, only two of whom survived to adulthood.

Louis Pasteur (born December 27, 1822, Dole , France—died September 28, 1895, Saint-Cloud) was a French chemist and microbiologist who was one of the most important founders of medical microbiology . Pasteur’s contributions to science , technology , and medicine are nearly without precedent. He pioneered the study of molecular asymmetry; discovered that microorganisms cause fermentation and disease; originated the process of pasteurization ; saved the beer , wine , and silk industries in France ; and developed vaccines against anthrax and rabies .

Pasteur’s academic positions were numerous, and his scientific accomplishments earned him France’s highest decoration, the Legion of Honour , as well as election to the Académie des Sciences and many other distinctions. Today there are some 30 institutes and an impressive number of hospitals, schools, buildings, and streets that bear his name—a set of honours bestowed on few scientists.

Pasteur’s father, Jean-Joseph Pasteur, was a tanner and a sergeant major decorated with the Legion of Honour during the Napoleonic Wars . This fact probably instilled in the younger Pasteur the strong patriotism that later was a defining element of his character. Louis Pasteur was an average student in his early years, but he was gifted in drawing and painting. His pastels and portraits of his parents and friends, made when he was 15, were later kept in the museum of the Pasteur Institute in Paris . After attending primary school in Arbois, where his family had moved, and secondary school in nearby Besançon, he earned his bachelor of arts degree (1840) and bachelor of science degree (1842) at the Royal College of Besançon.

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• Published: 15 February 2024

Science’s greatest discoverers: a shift towards greater interdisciplinarity, top universities and older age

• Alexander Krauss   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-1783-2765 1 , 2  

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications volume  11 , Article number:  272 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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What are the unique features and characteristics of the scientists who have made the greatest discoveries in science? To address this question, we assess all major scientific discoverers, defined as all nobel-prize and major non-nobel-prize discoverers, and their demographic, institutional and economic traits. What emerges is a general profile of the scientists who have driven over 750 of science’s greatest advances. We find that interdisciplinary scientists who completed two or more degrees in different academic fields by the time of discovery made about half—54%—of all nobel-prize discoveries and 42% of major non-nobel-prize discoveries over the same period; this enables greater interdisciplinary methodological training for making new scientific achievements. Science is also becoming increasingly elitist, with scientists at the top 25 ranked universities accounting for 30% of both all nobel-prize and non-nobel-prize discoveries. Scientists over the age of 50 made only 7% of all nobel-prize discoveries and 15% of non-nobel-prize discoveries and those over the age of 60 made only 1% and 3%, respectively. The gap in years between making nobel-prize discoveries and receiving the award is also increasing over time across scientific fields—illustrating that it is taking longer to recognise and select major breakthroughs. Overall, we find that those who make major discoveries are increasingly interdisciplinary, older and at top universities. We also assess here the role and distribution of factors like geographic location, gender, religious affiliation and country conditions of these leading scientists, and how these factors vary across time and scientific fields. The findings suggest that more discoveries could be made if science agencies and research institutions provide greater incentives for researchers to work against the common trend of narrow specialisation and instead foster interdisciplinary research that combines novel methods across fields.

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Introduction.

Science has fundamentally shaped the course of human history through great advances, but we still do not know well the unique characteristics and traits of the individuals who have made those advances. This question of the particular features of science’s great discoverers has intrigued both scientists and the general public. Classic work on scientific discoveries and the traits of discoverers goes back at least to Bolesław Prus ( 1873 ), Florian Znaniecki ( 1923 ), Galton’s ( 1874 ) English men of science: Their nature and nurture and especially influential has been Zuckerman’s ( 1977 ) Scientific Elite: Nobel Laureates in the United States . Zuckerman, a leading sociologist of science, interviewed Nobel laureates in the US about their backgrounds, family and research. She pioneered the study of the demographic and social characteristics of these prominent scientists, providing insight into the lives of Nobel laureates on attributes like social status, age, gender, religion and ethnicity (Zuckerman 1977 ). The common approach in existing studies has been to study a sample of discoverers in a given time period, scientific field or country like the US or UK (Li et al., 2020 ; Chan and Torgler, 2015 ; Leroy, 2003 ; Schlagberger et al., 2016 ; Sherby, 2002 ; Thompson, 2012 ; Ye et al., 2013 ; Breit and Hirsch, 2004 ; Bjork et al., 2014 ). Yet this does not allow us to make general claims about science’s major discoverers. We thus do not yet have representative data for science’s major discoverers and how they differ across countries and time on the broad range of demographic and institutional characteristics. Systematically understanding the characteristics of science’s major discoverers in a representative way has not yet been possible, without first compiling comprehensive data on all major discoverers and their features and traits (ibid.).

To address the challenge, this study assesses science’s major discoverers by adopting a global scope and evaluating all nobel-prize and major non-nobel-prize discoverers across the history of science. This new data enables compiling a general profile of the scientists who made science’s greatest breakthroughs and outlining how their background features relate to their success. Recently, researchers have studied the features of scientists often individually for a sample of scientists; here we instead assess the broad range of demographic features of all nobel-prize and major non-nobel-prize discoverers: age (Wang and Barabási, 2021 ; Sinatra et al., 2016 ; Jones et al., 2014 ; Zuckerman, 1977 ), education level (Chan and Torgler, 2015 ; Zuckerman, 1977 ), interdisciplinary background (Szell et al., 2018 ), gender (Zeng et al., 2016 ; Lunnemann et al., 2019 ), country of residence (Lepori et al., 2019 ; Danús et al., 2023 ; King, 2004 ; Scellato et al., 2017 ) and religious affiliation (Zuckerman, 1977 ), but also their institutional features including discoverers’ university ranking (Schlagberger et al., 2016 ; Ioannidis et al., 2007 ; Krauss et al., 2023 ) and their broader social and economic features including population size and income per capita of the country in which they lived (King, 2004 ) at the time of discovery (see also Krauss 2024 ). Rather than commonly focusing on one factor, we compile data on this broader set of factors and analyse them all to gain a more general understanding of the overall context in which discoverers work. We uncover common patterns in the background features and traits of these eminent discoverers across scientific fields and history. We find that breakthrough science has transformed over the past few decades, with a shift towards greater interdisciplinary education and methodological training, top universities and older age among science’s prominent discoverers.

While there are advantages to focusing on a narrow research question in scientific studies, there are also instances when focusing on a broader, more comprehensive research question can be more appropriate. To be able to provide a more comprehensive overview of the features of science’s major discoverers in a single study requires assessing the broader range of demographic, institutional and economic features. This enables us to better understand the broader context and identify overarching trends influencing discoverers that a more narrow study cannot. Understanding the features of science’s major discoverers is important because it helps identify patterns and key features we can foster, which is useful information for hiring committees, university departments, funding bodies and academic journals.

By identifying the unique traits and features of discoverers, we provide insights into the evolution of the scientific system over time. We observe the degree to which the system is becoming more closed to particular groups. Researchers outside of North America for example made about 35% of major discoveries since 1950 but used to account for the majority, and younger researchers under 33 made less than 20% of major discoveries since 1950 but used to account for almost 35% beforehand. The scientific system also remains highly closed to female researchers, making less than 6% of major discoveries since 1950 (and 4% beforehand). We also provide insights into how we can support future prominent scientists and an inclusive and innovative scientific community that fosters discovery.

Data and methods

This study compiles data on all major scientific discoveries. These are defined as all 533 nobel-prize-winning discoveries in science (from the first year of the prize in 1901 to 2022) and all other major discoveries that were made prior to or did not receive a Nobel prize; these are derived from all science textbooks (a total of seven) that provide a list of the greatest 100 scientists and their discoveries and that span across scientific fields and history (with textbooks specific to a field or time period not included) (Tiner, 2022 ; Salter, 2021 ; Gribbin, 2008 ; Rogers, 2009 ; Simmons, 2000 ; Balchin 2014 ; Haven, 2007 ). After excluding duplicate cases within the seven textbooks, 228 other major discoveries remained. A total of 761 major discoveries made by 982 discoverers have thus been included in the study. Results for the major non-nobel-prize discoveries provide an independent control and robustness check for validating results of the nobel-prize discoveries, and we also compare results across fields and over time. These discoveries make up the foundation of the sciences—ranging from microbiology and astrophysics to cognitive science and computer science. Moreover, the science textbooks were published in recent history and thus consider influential discoveries retrospectively using current scientific standards while Nobel Prizes awarded for instance a century ago reflect influential discoveries at the given time but are nearly all also considered influential today. The major non-nobel-prize discoveries include the eminent discoverers of science that did not earn a Nobel prize but helped lay the foundation of science: from Galileo, Newton, Hooke, Boyle and Maxwell to Pasteur, Darwin, Mendeleev and (Rosalind) Franklin.

Describing the traits of the discoverers and their broader environment requires linking discoveries to those traits and conditions. To do so, the main sources for compiling the data on discoverers’ age, education level, gender, country of birth and residence are Encyclopaedia Britannica ( 2023 ) and official Nobel Prize ( 2023 ) documentation. After exhausting these sources, the remaining data are derived from five other encyclopaedias of science (Daintith, 2009 ; Bunch and Hellemans, 2004 ; Oakes, 2007 ; Simonis, 1999 ; Lerner and Lerner, 2004 ) and the seven indicated science textbooks. Data on discoverers’ university ranking are derived from QS World University Rankings ( 2021 ), data on the population size and income per capita of the country in which they lived are derived from the Maddison Project Database ( 2018 ) and most data on their religious affiliation are derived from Sherby ( 2002 ), and otherwise from other scientific publications and contacting living Nobelists via email (see the Supplementary Appendix for more details). All data for relevant variables have been confirmed with encyclopaedic sources. Data on the year of discovery, the university affiliation of the discoverer at the time of the discovery and the methods and instruments used in making the discovery are derived from the discovery-making publication. In total, with over two dozen variables for each of the 761 discoveries, a total of over 20,000 data points have been collected. A fifteen-month period of data collection was required to gather the data for all variables. All data in the study reflect the year the discovery was published—unless explicitly stated that data reflect the year the Nobel prize was awarded. Here the features of discoverers in the year they made the discovery are thus collected and analysed which enables us to describe factors that can influence discoveries—rather than just collecting data for nobel-prize-winning discoverers at the time they receive the award. For the average Nobel laureate receives the prize 21 years after making the discovery and many of their features that influenced their discoveries have changed. Greater detail on the data collected for a given variable is provided when introduced in each section of the results. We apply descriptive statistics to assess the evolution over time and across scientific fields of this range of demographic, institutional and economic features of science’s greatest discoverers.

Results and discussion

Nearly all discoverers have a phd and most have an interdisciplinary education that enables greater training in different methods to make breakthroughs.

In assessing the demographic, institutional and economic traits of science’s major discoverers, we first explore the role of education as an initial step in scientists’ training. We find that 88% of all major discoveries since 1600 (when doctoral awards began to spread) have been made by researchers with a PhD at the time of discovery and the share increases to 96% for all nobel-prize discoveries (awarded since 1901). Most researchers making discoveries are thus highly trained. As science has expanded, the level of complexity we study increases along with the level of sophistication in the methods and instruments we use to be able to study that complexity. Today, to make new discoveries we thus generally require training in advanced methods and instruments—such as electron microscopes and sophisticated statistical methods—and acquiring extensive bodies of knowledge.

In general, two central ways we gain knowledge in science are by assessing how a phenomenon changes over time (historical analysis) and by assessing groups of a population comparatively to identify differences between them (comparative analysis). Studies that just collect data for one group of a population at one point in time provide only a part of the evidence which commonly varies over time and groups. Both analyses together broaden our general understanding—as highlighted in Fig. 1 .

Data reflect all 761 major discoveries (including all nobel-prize discoveries) ( a , c ), and all 533 nobel-prize discoveries ( b , d ). All professors have a PhD. Discoverer has interdisciplinary degrees is defined as having two or more degrees in different disciplinary fields. Universities were founded since the late 14th century and have provided formal education and degrees since then (Hellyer, 2003). Analysis expanding the data in Figure d to include, in addition, the other major discoveries that did not earn a Nobel prize but were made within the same time period (633 discoveries in total) provides a robustness check, illustrating that for example the share of discoverers with two or more degrees are 38%, 58%, 51%, 56% and 65% across these five fields, respectively.

Over the history of science, dozens of great discoverers completed at most only secondary schooling, including Faraday, Tesla and Dalton. Yet by acquiring knowledge on their own and with the aid of newly developed instruments like the galvanometer, electric generator and eudiometer, respectively, including mathematics, these scientists were able to make major discoveries. While university education facilitates knowledge and training in methods, it has thus not always been a necessary condition for making discoveries in the past.

Across Europe, universities spread especially since the 14th and 15th century, when most discoverers still had no formal education (Fig. 1a ). Since the 18th century, more and more discoverers are likely to have a PhD and to be a professor. Ten nobel-prize discoveries (accounting for 2% of such discoveries) have however been made by researchers with only a Bachelors degree at the time of discovery. These include for example the discoveries by Leo Esaki, Ivar Giaever and Brian Josephson who received the Nobel Prize in physics in 1973 for their work on tunnelling semiconductors, superconductors and supercurrent. Yet we find that all discoveries since 2000 have been made by professors (with a PhD) (Fig. 1a ). Medicine is one of the most professionalised and applied fields, with all nobel-prize discoverers completing an MD or PhD but only about 60% being a professor. In contrast, over 75% of nobel-prize discoveries in chemistry, astronomy, and economics and social sciences are made by professors (Fig. 1b )—though they are commonly younger and more recent professors (as illustrated later).

What role does an interdisciplinarily education and training play among science’s great discoverers? While it is the norm today for scientists to specialise and work in one field, we find that most nobel-prize discoveries, a total of 54%, have been made by scientists who completed two or more degrees in different academic fields by the time of the discovery—with the share at 42% for major non-nobel-prize discoveries over the same period (as an independent control). In medicine and biology, discoverers are most likely to have received degrees in two or more fields, at 69%. In comparison, in physics the share is 39%, meaning that physicists are much more likely to specialise (Fig. 1d ). These large differences between fields can be explained by the historical structure of the scientific system, with physics traditionally organised as a standalone discipline with well-defined subfields while medicine and biology often require greater interdisciplinary training partly due to the interdisciplinary nature of the life sciences and the complexity of living systems. Interdisciplinary education is on the rise, with over 70% of all discoveries since 2000 made by scientists who completed two different degrees. As a comparison, about 25% of US doctorate recipients earned a master’s degree in a field different from their doctorate, according to a US census of scientists in 2021 (NSF, 2021 ). Simply put, Nobel laureates are trained more broadly than their peers.

An interdisciplinary education equips researchers with skills in methods and instruments from different fields. Interdisciplinary training puts a wider range of methods in our hands and also enables us to merge methods and develop new integrated methods. Applying a method from one field to another field or combining methods and knowledge from different fields in innovative ways has been central to producing many novel ideas and discoveries. It allows us to bridge the gap between disciplines, integrate perspectives and adopt a completely new approach to address complex questions and generate novel ideas. The physicist Max Delbrück for example turned to biology in the 1930s but used novel methods from physics—the newly developed electron microscope and statistical methods. Using these unconventional methods he was able to address unanswered questions in genetics and show that bacteria develop via mutations. This research helped open the field of molecular genetics. Konrad Bloch completed degrees in chemical engineering and biochemistry that enabled him to apply new isotopic labelling methods to discover the mechanism and regulation of cholesterol. Frederick Sanger studied natural science, biochemistry and medicine, and combined his methodological training to create techniques for sequencing DNA using new gel electrophoresis methods (Sanger et al., 1977 ). Donna Strickland studied engineering physics and optics and Gérard Mourou studied physics and then worked together applying new laser tools to develop the breakthrough method of ultrashort high-intensity laser pulses. Hermann von Helmholtz received a PhD in medicine and also studied physics and mathematics, allowing him to apply novel mathematical principles and physical analysis which other physiologists did not. This enabled him to make the foundational discovery of the principle of the conservation of energy that helped transform a part of physiology and physics (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2023a ). Svante Pääbo studied humanities and later medicine, and then did his postdoctoral studies in molecular biology and later became the director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2023b ). His interdisciplinary background and interests enabled applying new and improved DNA sequencing methods to discover the Neanderthal genome (Richard et al., 2010 ). Rosalind Franklin studied physical chemistry and then turned to biological questions to be able to provide the first images of the double-helix structure of DNA using x-ray diffraction methods developed in physics.

In general, there is a trade-off at play. As bodies of knowledge continue to expand over time (Jones, 2009 ) and the range of methods we use to develop that knowledge, the result has been narrower specialisation among researchers across science. Yet our ability to make novel connections and major discoveries is often directly related to our ability to apply methods and approaches from across scientific domains. While the universal scholar is an ideal of the past, we find that the small share of researchers who make major discoveries and push the research frontier are more likely to have defied the present trend towards specialisation. Science’s large body of specialised researchers is more likely to incrementally dent the research frontier little by little. Smaller contributions may seem less spectacular than large interdisciplinary breakthroughs that provide new lenses to the world, but they also contribute to the overall progress of science.

Moreover, we also observe interdisciplinary reasoning in the use of analogies in scientific discoveries, in which a concept from one scientific field is connected to a concept from a distant field. Analogies used by discoverers thus involve at times cross-disciplinary conceptual mapping (see analogy section in the Supplementary Appendix and Supplementary Appendix Table 2 ).

The golden age range of high productivity and impact: half of all discoveries are made by scientists aged 35–45 years

Thomas Kuhn argued that ‘Almost always the men who achieve these fundamental inventions of a new paradigm [or major breakthrough] have been either very young or very new to the field whose paradigm they change. … for obviously these are the men who, being little committed by prior practice to the traditional rules of normal science, are particularly likely to see that those rules no longer define a playable game and to conceive another set that can replace them’ (Kuhn, 1962/ 2012 ). Kuhn developed this hypothesis of the young or new scientist entering a given field in an innovative way based on his study of a small sample of theoretical discoverers largely in physics in the early 1900s such as Einstein. We test the hypothesis here using data on all major discoveries. Einstein was indeed only 26 when he published his nobel-prize-winning paper on the law of the photoelectric effect in 1905. As Einstein also claimed, ‘A person who has not made his great contribution to science before the age of 30 will never do so’ (cf. Rabesandratana, 2014 ). Yet the conditions in physics at Einstein’s time do not reflect science today. We find that the golden age range of high productivity and impact in science is between 35 and 45 years of age. Exactly 50% of all Nobel laureates in science fall into this age range when making their prize-winning discovery, with an average age of 39 years at the time of discovery (median 38). Only 7% of all nobel-prize discoveries and 15% of major non-nobel-prize discoveries over the same period (as an independent control) were made after the age of 50 and only 1% and 3% after the age of 60, respectively. Today, we can thus say that a person who has not made their great contribution to science before the age of 60 is very unlikely to do so (whether a nobel-prize or major non-nobel-prize discovery). At least for nobel-prize discoveries, this can be explained by average life expectancy at present and the average 21-year gap between making the discovery and receiving the prize. Yet on average, Nobel laureates in science are 60 years old when they receive the prize for the discovery (median also 60). These findings are also compatible with the view that younger, untenured researchers may be more motivated to try to make a new discovery than older, tenured researchers with secure positions.

Analysing scientists’ age at the time of discovery should be done by examining different time periods separately. This is because scientists in the past did not yet have today’s advanced methods and instruments and commonly did not have to build on as much existing knowledge—and they also did not live as long. We find that before 1900, 30% of discoveries were made before age 32, and the share reduced to 23% between 1901 and 2000, but since 2000 it dropped to less than 6%. The average age at the time of discovery rose from 38 for those made between 1901 and 1950, to 40 between 1951 and 2000, and 50 between 2001 and 2022.

Making discoveries at a very young age has thus become rare because acquiring the needed methodological training and comprehensive knowledge to be able to discover something new takes longer. For our methods have become much more complex and our bodies of knowledge more vast. There is thus more training and research to get through before reaching the research frontier, which continuously gets redrawn with newly developed methods and knowledge. This helps explain in part why low-hanging-fruit discoveries have largely been picked. Younger researchers, particularly those who have just completed their university education and are just entering a field, can have more recent and up-to-date training in the latest methods and technologies. They can also have a fresh perspective on existing problems, without accepting established assumptions, and be more open to exploring new approaches and techniques (though they may not have as deep an understanding of their field).

We find that nobel-prize-winning economists are the youngest group when making their discovery at an average age of 36 (see Fig. 2b ). It is the youngest field (with less knowledge) and has the largest share of theoretical breakthroughs which can require less work to build on. But economists wait the longest to be awarded the Nobel prize, an average of 31 years. The age distribution of discoverers is illustrated in Fig. 2a .

Data reflect all 761 major discoveries (including all nobel-prize discoveries) ( a ), all 533 nobel-prize discoveries ( a , b ) and all 727 major discoveries since 1575 including all nobel-prize discoveries ( c ). In c , the size of the hexagons corresponds to the share of discoverers of that age in that year.

In the past, some researchers made a major breakthrough very early in their careers. Chandrasekhar described the physical processes of the evolution of stars at age 21—which makes him the youngest scientist who made a nobel-prize-winning discovery. He was closely followed by Josephson who discovered tunnelling supercurrents at 22. Nash created the concept of Nash equilibrium at 22. Arrhenius developed the electrolytic theory of dissociation at 24. Heisenberg, Dirac and Bohr made their major contributions to quantum mechanics at 24, 26 and 28, respectively. All received a Nobel prize for these breakthroughs. A few centuries ago, some researchers also had no formal education when making the discovery such as Joule who discovered Joule’s law at age 23, Pascal who developed Pascal’s law at 24 and Germain who discovered Germain’s theorem at 25. Today, it is extremely difficult to make a major discovery at such a young age. The increasing age of researchers at the time of discovery is illustrated in the heatmap in Fig. 2c .

Moreover, the gap in years between the nobel-prize discovery and award is also increasing over time across all fields—see Supplementary Appendix Figs. 1 and 2 . This could be explained by the fact that the bigger the discovery the quicker it becomes awarded, and the vast importance of many major discoveries in the early 20th century was quickly realised and awarded. We find that discoveries awarded with a Nobel prize within five years of being made include for example DNA sequencing, the neutron, superconductivity, quarks and X-ray diffraction.

Only about a third of discoverers since 1950 worked at top 25 universities which can help provide greater access to resources and sophisticated instruments for making discoveries

After exploring the role of university education among researchers and their age, we next analyse whether researchers at top universities are more likely to make breakthroughs. We find that 30% of all nobel-prize discoverers are at a top 25 ranked university in the world. The share is also 30% among major non-nobel-prize discoverers over the same period (as an independent control), illustrating robust results between the two groups. Globally however, less than 1% of all researchers worldwide—an estimated 0.6%—are based at one of the top 25 universities (Supplementary Appendix for calculations of global estimate). Expanding the scope to the top 50 universities we observe that 38% of all nobel-prize discoverers and 34% of major non-nobel-prize discoverers were at such a university when making their discovery. Some of the world’s largest and most sophisticated particle accelerators, radio telescopes, electron microscopes, laser interferometers and advanced x-ray methods used for making discoveries are concentrated at the best universities in the world. Though many of our most common scientific methods and instruments used to make major discoveries are inexpensive, such as statistical and mathematical methods, light microscopes, electrophoresis, assay techniques, chromatography methods and centrifuges. Being at a top university can nonetheless provide researchers with a comparative advantage in accessing sophisticated laboratory facilities. It can also provide greater access to resources, funding and networks of leading researchers, as well as higher salaries (which are among the highest worldwide at these institutions).

We observe that most discoverers in astronomy, and economics and social sciences were at a top 50 university. In these fields, there was moreover about a 15% increase in moving to a top 50 university after making the discovery, with about three-fourths of discoverers at such universities when receiving the Nobel prize (Fig. 3b ). With only one-quarter of discoverers thus not at a top 50 university at that time, we can observe the high premium that academic institutions place on attracting world-leading researchers. Yet it is important to note that those who select to go to top universities are also often the most dedicated and ambitious. More generally in terms of mobility, most nobel-prize discoveries (55%) were made by scientists at a different academic institution in the year of discovery than in the year they received the prize.

Data reflect all 761 major discoveries (including all nobel-prize discoveries) ( a ), and all 533 nobel-prize discoveries ( b ). Data represent the discoverers’ university affiliation at the time of discovery, using the university ranking in 2021 as a common reference point for all discoverers. Most top universities have remained among the top universities over time (for years with available data), though data on ranking are not available for earlier centuries. The data for earlier centuries should be interpreted with caution: while the majority of discoverers lived at the time the top 50 universities today existed, some top 50 universities today did not exist for some discoverers in the 1500s to 1800s ( a ). Using data from QS World University Rankings 2021 , university ranking is measured by output metrics like citations and academic reputation. Analysis expanding the data in b to include, in addition, the other major discoveries that did not earn a Nobel prize but were made within the same time period (633 discoveries in total) illustrates nearly identical results and serves as a robustness check, with for example the share of discoverers at a top 25 university at the time of discovery at 22%, 28%, 29%, 42% and 48% across these five fields, respectively.

Scientists at five elite universities at the time of discovery—Cambridge, Harvard, Berkeley, Chicago and Columbia (in that order)—account for 16% of all nobel-prize discoveries (84 discoveries in total). Scientists at just ten universities account for 25% of all nobel-prize discoveries.

The very low share of female discoverers and the role of collaborations in discoveries

We next assess gender disparities and find that breakthrough science remains heavily biased towards males. We find that women account for only 5% of all scientists who made a major discovery and only 3% of all Nobel laureates. The rewarding of scientific breakthroughs remains rigidly male-dominated across all fields: in physics, only 2% of nobel-prize discoveries have been made by women, while the share is 6% in astronomy and 7% in medicine (Supplementary Appendix Fig. 3 ). Women who have made groundbreaking contributions to various fields include Marie Curie’s discovery of radium and polonium, Ada Lovelace’s work on early computer programming, and Donna Strickland’s research on developing high-intensity, ultrashort laser pulses that are used in surgeries.

A number of major discoveries have been in large part made by women who did not receive credit or a Nobel prize for their work. One classic example is Rosalind Franklin who applied the method of x-ray diffraction to be able to make one of the greatest discoveries of the 20th century, identifying DNA’s double-helix structure. Crick, Watson and Wilkins received the Nobel Prize for the work that builds on her research directly after she passed away. A central explanation for the very low levels of female Nobel laureates is that women have been systematically discriminated in accessing education and science throughout history. Women have been underrepresented in many fields and faced barriers to accessing opportunities for research, especially in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. The unfavourable norms about the role of women in science have begun to improve since the second half of the 20th century and especially in the 21st century (Zeng et al., 2016 ). Consequently, we find a positive trend, with more than half of all female Nobelists ever awarded the prize receiving it since 2000.

Next, what role do collaborations play in science? Science is a collective effort. No nobel-prize-winning discovery in science has actually been made or could have been made by a single scientist in isolation without building on the methods and work of others. But surprisingly most nobel-prize discoveries feature a single scientist. How is that possible? There is a discrepancy between how science is conducted and how it is awarded and taught in education systems. Textbooks on the greatest scientists and discoveries are also generally structured in such a way to highlight the most influential scientist, or the last scientist, in the process of making a discovery, who generally receives all the credit (Tiner, 2022 ; Salter, 2021 ; Gribbin, 2008 ; Rogers, 2009 ; Simmons, 2000 ; Balchin, 2014 ; Haven, 2007 ). Sometimes recognition is expanded to encompass a few scientists.

The average number of researchers awarded a Nobel prize for making a given discovery is 1.4 individuals (which does not reflect the number who shared the prize at times for different discoveries) (Supplementary Appendix Fig. 3 ). A major discovery is however often achieved by a community of researchers, working in cooperation and competition. Researchers within a community require building on existing tools and research that account for important contributions towards the discovery. Returning to the example of DNA’s double-helix structure, the theory was not just developed by Watson and Crick. But it was enabled by the pivotal x-ray work produced by Franklin as outlined above and her student Gosling, without which producing the image of the double helix would not have been possible that required applying x-ray diffraction methods developed by von Laue (who used x-radiation identified by Röntgen), and was built on initial work by Miescher and supported by parallel work on DNA structure by Wilkins and his group of colleagues, among many others (Watson, 1969 ). The Nobel prize in chemistry in 1962 was awarded to Perutz and Kendrew for discovering the structures of globular proteins, but in Perutz’s nobel-prize speech he gives credit to 21 researchers for their essential methodological, experimental and theoretical contributions needed to be able to make the discovery in the first place (Nobel Prize, 1962 ). In general, some scientists create the needed methods and instruments to be able to carry out the research, others may then make the observational and experimental findings, and others may finally develop a theoretical explanation for those findings. Taken together, a discovery is commonly made possible by the less known but equally important researchers who develop the needed tools and the smaller advancements that are cumulatively built on towards the larger discovery—or last breakthrough in a set of interconnected breakthroughs.

Discovering the Higgs boson and the multiple mechanisms driving evolution for instance have required the collective effort of hundreds of researchers working together. In general, larger teams are becoming more common in science, and generally improve the quality and impact of research (Xu et al., 2022 ; Wuchty et al., 2007 ; Wu et al., 2019 ; Danús et al., 2023 ). For larger teams are better able to apply different methodologies and combine them, integrate more expertise and develop new combinations of ideas—with multiplier effects among interdisciplinary collaborations. Larger teams enable pooling resources for more advanced and cutting-edge instruments, and generally have greater access to different technologies and laboratory equipment. They also provide a built-in peer review process as team members can review and critique each other’s work. Overall, focusing on a few scientific superstars neglects the important scientists who lay the foundation before them and make the last step towards discovery possible.

The traditional structure of the Nobel prize that only allows up to a maximum of three winners per field each year and often allocates credit for a discovery, for simplicity, to an individual researcher does not reflect actual scientific practice. It instead institutes a winner-takes-all mentality and endorses a ‘lone genius’ stereotype in science. It is simpler for science textbooks, teaching science, awarding prizes and the media to associate a discovery with a single name rather than with the community of scholars who developed the discovery. And this is part of the reason why they do so. But simplicity comes at a cost: it distorts the image of science, how the scientific and discovery process works and how to leverage new major advances. We need to thus reform the structure of the Nobel prize to reward not just individuals but also research teams, as well as the triangle of researchers who make the methodological, experimental and theoretical discoveries.

Country-level, historical and cultural factors: the scientific system is becoming more closed to researchers outside North America who no longer account for most discoverers

We next analyse differences across countries that help shape access to resources and attitudes to science, and are linked to the location and concentration of top universities in the world (Schlagberger et al., 2016 ). We find that over 90% of discoveries up to 1900 were made by scientists living in Europe at the time of their discovery, but the share dropped to 41% over the period 1900 and 1999, reaching about one-third between 2000 and 2022. East Asia is on the rise, accounting for about 6% of discoverers since 2000. In physics and chemistry, most nobel-prize discoverers (1901–2022) lived in Europe when making their discovery. Economics is the field with the highest concentration in North America (Fig. 4b ). Historically, German scientists led the world in nobel-prize discoveries, measured in both absolute and relative terms, compared to scientists from any other country. They accounted for about one-quarter of all nobel-prize discoveries up to 1930 at 24%, with British scientists falling in second place who accounted for 16% of discoveries. Fascism in Germany and World War II however led to a shift. World-leading scientists, top journals and institutions moved from Germany to the US and UK. The shift reflects the unintentional effect of fascism on the rise of anglophone science. Tracing all nobel-prize discoverers over their lives—from their country of birth to the country at the time of their discovery and then country at the time of receiving the Nobel prize—illustrates this geographic mobility to the US (Supplementary Appendix Table 1 ).

Data reflect all 761 major discoveries (including all nobel-prize discoveries) ( a , e ), and all 533 nobel-prize discoveries ( b , c , d , f ).

Country residence plays a similar role as university affiliation but at a more aggregate level. The country in which researchers reside can affect their access to different scientific instruments, funding availability, infrastructure and government support. Countries with stronger economies and public support often have more specialised laboratories and more advanced technological and computing facilities that can be needed for making some discoveries. Researchers in poor economies can have a disadvantage in fields that require certain cutting-edge technologies.

Research institutions in countries with greater facilities, prestige, salary and technologies thus attract the best researchers and foster discoveries. We find that between 2000 and 2022, 61% of all discoveries were made by scientists living in North America but over half of all discoveries over this period were made by scientists born outside North America, most of whom coming from continental Europe. This highlights the extent of academic migration.

Among all nobel-prize discoveries, North American research institutions received a larger influx of researchers who first made their prize-winning discoveries in Europe, Latin America and East Asia, and later moved to North America where they resided when receiving the Nobel prize. European research institutions in turn received researchers from North America and the Middle East and Northern Africa after making their prize-winning discoveries (Fig. 4d ) (Scellato et al., 2017 ).

In terms of religion, we observe that religion and science are inversely correlated: religion has declined as science has expanded. Religious beliefs in different countries can influence individual beliefs (attitudes towards scientific inquiry), governmental support (limited research on stem cells, gene editing and evolution) and cultural norms (emphasis on certain types of education) (Zuckerman, 1977 ).

For major events in the world we could not observe and explain, such as the origin of life and the universe, leading scholars around the 17th century often relied on supernatural explanations, such as Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo and Newton who self-identified as Christians. We find that the share of discoverers who are religious dropped from 100% in the 1600s to 72% in the second half of the 20th century, and then to 59% for the period 2000 to 2022 (Fig. 4e ). The distribution of the religious affiliations of researchers is consistent across fields, with the exception of astronomy. Discoverers in astronomy are about twice as likely to be atheists or agnostic and may be explained by being faced with the minute role of our species in the universe (Fig. 4f ). Darwin’s On the Origin of Species in 1859 and Hubble’s discovery of the expanding universe in 1926 have been two important contributions to understanding human life, the universe and our minute place in it. Such discoveries, by providing explanations supported by empirical evidence, may help explain part of the decline in the use of religious explanations of such phenomena, together with factors such as citizens depending less on religious institutions than on governments and welfare states.

The role of economic and demographic factors

Finally, what role do broader economic and demographic factors play? While we must directly apply methods and instruments to make new discoveries, greater income per capita (and thus resources) and greater population size (and thus more researchers) can foster the basic conditions of science. For wealthier and larger societies can facilitate more sophisticated instruments and laboratory equipment. Though, expensive instruments are often not needed and a number of our most commonly used methods and instruments of science are low-cost, as outlined earlier. Among all nobel-prize discoveries since 1975, we observe that the discoverers residing in countries in the bottom two quintiles (the poorest 40%) do not systematically have less access and use of common instruments and methods of science (including computers, centrifuges, electrophoresis and electron microscopes) compared to those in richer quintiles (Fig. 5a ). Discoveries made using some of these more sophisticated scientific instruments are thus not just concentrated in the richest countries. Using methods like statistics and electrophoresis does not vary much across income quintiles as they are relatively cheap and easily accessible. Once a minimal threshold of income is met, scientists in contexts with less resources do not appear to face substantially greater constraints in making scientific breakthroughs (Fig. 5b ).

Data reflect all 125 major discoveries including all nobel-prize discoveries since 1975 ( a , b , c ). In a , all methods and instruments were first developed by 1950 and in wide use by 1975, and income quintiles (using per capita 2011 US$ as the benchmark) are generated using only the set of countries in which nobel-prize discoverers resided from 1975 to 2022. Data on income are adjusted for inflation. Data on income and population size are also analysed here from 1975 to 2022 to control for larger variations over time.

We have aimed to uncover the particular features and characteristics of the scientists who have made the greatest breakthroughs in science, enabling us to provide a general profile of science’s great discoverers and better understand their broader context. We found that breakthrough science has transformed vastly over the last decades, shifting towards greater interdisciplinary education and methodological training, top universities and older age among science’s major discoverers. We found that about half of all nobel-prize discoveries have been made by scientists with at least two degrees in different fields. This enables greater interdisciplinary methodological training and novel methodological connections and perspectives across fields that can spark new scientific advances. Science is also becoming increasingly elitist, with scientists at the top 25 universities making up almost one-third of both all nobel-prize and non-nobel-prize discoveries. Only few nobel-prize discoveries and non-nobel-prize discoveries were made after the age of 50 (7% and 15%) and very few after the age of 60 (1% and 3%, respectively). Science institutions need to consider whether some types of grants aimed at innovation should be targeted especially to those between 35 and 45 years of age (as they account for 50% of all nobel-prize discoverers). Overall, factors such as levels of education, interdisciplinary education and institutional environment can support researchers in accessing the latest methods, facilities and resources to make discoveries.

Although breakthrough research is often interdisciplinary, the structure of universities, academic journals and scientific awards like the Nobel Prize embodies the traditional disciplinary borders between fields (Szell et al., 2018 ). To foster discoveries, we need to rethink disciplinary divisions and how interdisciplinary research can be fostered and awarded, including the Nobel Prize. We need to reward the best research, independent of disciplines. Overall, a constraint here is the lack of data to also assess the possible role of psychological traits of the discoverers like levels of motivation and drive. These cannot be easily collected and tested as most discoverers have passed away.

We observed the evolution of the scientific system over time and the degree to which the system is increasingly closed to particular groups. Researchers outside of North America for example account for about 35% of major discoveries since 1950 but used to account for the majority, and younger researchers under 33 account for less than 20% of major discoveries since 1950 but used to account for almost 35% beforehand. The scientific system also remains highly closed to female researchers who account for less than 6% of major discoveries since 1950 (and 4% beforehand). Providing incentives for researchers in such groups will be important to foster a more inclusive and more global scientific system. We need to reform the structure of the Nobel prize to reward also research teams (not just up to three individuals per field each year) as it distorts the image of how the discovery process works and how to trigger new major advances. Other features of science’s major discoveries are outlined in a series of forthcoming papers, including the particular drivers of new discoveries and fields. Ultimately, to support future prominent scientists, the findings here also suggest that more discoveries could be made if science agencies and research institutions provide greater incentives for researchers to work against the common trend of narrow specialisation and instead foster interdisciplinary research that combines novel methods across fields.

Data availability

Data used for the analysis are available online from these sources outlined in the Methods section.

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Acknowledgements

I am thankful for comments from Corinna Peters, Nikolas Schöll, Milan Quentel, Uwe Peters, Julia Hoefer Marti, Alina Velias and Alfonso García Lapeña, and would also like to thank Nebojsa Rodic, Laney Brager and Lorena Ortega. I received funding from the Ministry of Science and Innovation of the Government of Spain (grant RYC2020-029424-I). For a broader discussion of what drives scientific discoveries, see also my forthcoming book: The Motor of Scientific Discovery .

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Krauss, A. Science’s greatest discoverers: a shift towards greater interdisciplinarity, top universities and older age. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 11 , 272 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-02781-4

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List of Famous Scientists in History

Scientists are individuals who use their curiosity and knowledge of the natural world to make discoveries and advancements in a wide range of fields, including physics, chemistry, biology, and many others. From Galileo Galilei and Isaac Newton, who laid the foundation of modern physics and mechanics, to Charles Darwin, who proposed the theory of evolution, to Marie Curie, who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity, scientists have made significant contributions to our understanding of the world around us.

These individuals have devoted their lives to studying the natural world, asking questions, and developing theories and experimental methods to answer them. Their discoveries and innovations have led to new technologies, medical treatments, and a greater understanding of the universe. In this essay, we will delve into the lives and work of some of the most famous scientists who have made groundbreaking contributions to their fields.

Famous Scientists in History and their inventions

Below is the list of Popular Scientists in world and their inventions:

1. Galileo Galilei 

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) was an Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher who played a significant role in the Scientific Revolution. He is considered the “father of observational astronomy” and the “father of modern physics.” Galileo is known for his improvements to the telescope, which he used to observe and make important discoveries about the moons of Jupiter, the phases of Venus, and the dark spots on the Sun. He also developed the concept of the scientific method and made critical discoveries in the fields of kinematics and the strength of materials. The Catholic Church persecuted him for his support of heliocentrism, the idea that the Earth and other planets revolve around the Sun.

2. Isaac Newton 

Isaac Newton (1642-1727) was an English physicist and mathematician widely recognized as one of the most influential scientists of all time. He laid the foundations of classical mechanics, developed calculus, and formulated the laws of motion and universal gravitation, which formed the basis for the modern study of physics. Newton’s laws of motion, including the famous equation “F = ma,” describe the relationship between force, mass, and acceleration and remain fundamental principles in physics to this day. His work laid the foundation for many branches of science, including astronomy and optics.

3. Albert Einstein 

Albert Einstein (1879-1955) was a German-born physicist widely considered one of the most important and influential scientists of the 20th century. He is best known for his theory of general relativity, which he proposed in 1915. This theory revolutionized how scientists understand gravity, which remains a cornerstone of modern physics. He also contributed significantly to developing quantum mechanics, statistical mechanics, and cosmology. Einstein’s work on the photoelectric effect, which explained the behaviour of electrons when they absorb light, was a key piece of evidence in the development of quantum mechanics. He received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921.

4. Charles Darwin 

Charles Darwin (1809-1882) was an English naturalist who is most famous for his evolution theory and book On the Origin of Species. He proposed the idea that all living species on Earth have evolved over time through a process of natural selection, in which the strongest and most adaptable organisms survive and pass on their traits to their offspring. Darwin’s theory of evolution is widely accepted by scientists today and forms the basis for the modern understanding of biology. His work was instrumental in developing the modern evolutionary synthesis, which combines Darwin’s theory of evolution with the principles of genetics.

5. Marie Curie 

Marie Curie (1867-1934) was a Polish-born physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research in radioactivity, the discovery of radium and polonium and was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first person and only woman to win the award twice, and the only person to win the award in two different sciences. She conducted pioneering research on radioactivity and was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize. She was the first woman to become a professor at the University of Paris and the first woman to be awarded a Nobel Prize in Physics. She later received a second Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

6. Stephen Hawking 

Stephen Hawking (1942-2018) was an English theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author. He made groundbreaking contributions to our understanding of the universe through his work on black holes and the origins of the universe. Between 1979 to 2009, he served as the University of Cambridge’s Lucasian Professor of Mathematics. His book A Brief History of Time became an international bestseller and sold over 10 million copies in 20 years. He was diagnosed with motor neuron disease at the age of 21 and used a wheelchair for most of his life.

7. Rosalind Franklin

Rosalind Franklin (1920-1958) was an English chemist and X-ray crystallographer who made crucial contributions to the discovery of the structure of DNA. Using X-ray diffraction techniques, she produced high-quality images of DNA fibres that revealed the helical nature of the molecule. Her data was crucial to the discovery of the double-helix structure of DNA by James Watson and Francis Crick, although her contributions were not acknowledged then. Franklin’s work has become one of the cornerstones of modern molecular biology and genetics, and her contributions have only been fully acknowledged after her death.

8. Niels Bohr 

Niels Bohr (1885-1962) was a Danish physicist who contributed significantly to understanding atomic structure and quantum mechanics. He proposed the concept of the atomic nucleus and developed the Bohr model of the atom, which helped explain the nature of light and the behaviour of electrons. He was also a leading figure in the development of the first successful theory of quantum mechanics, the Copenhagen interpretation. He received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922 for his work on the structure of atoms.

9. James Clerk Maxwell 

James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879) was a Scottish physicist and mathematician who made significant contributions to the fields of electromagnetism and thermodynamics. He developed a set of equations, now known as Maxwell’s equations, which describe the behaviour of electric and magnetic fields and are considered one of the cornerstones of modern physics. He also proposed the concept of the electromagnetic field, which unifies the behaviour of electric and magnetic fields and forms the basis of our understanding of electromagnetic waves. His contributions have significantly impacted physics, engineering, and technology.

10. Johannes Kepler  

Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) was a German mathematician and astronomer who made significant contributions to the field of astronomy, particularly the understanding of the motions of the planets. He discovered that the planets move in elliptical orbits, not circular ones, and developed the laws of planetary motion, which form the basis of our understanding of the Solar System. He also made significant contributions to the field of mathematics, particularly in the area of optics. His laws of planetary motion enabled astronomers to predict the position of planets accurately and improved the field of Astronomy to a great extent

11. Guglielmo Marconi 

Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937) was an Italian inventor and electrical engineer who made pioneering contributions to the development of wireless communication. He developed and patented the first practical system of wireless telegraphy and demonstrated the first transatlantic wireless communication. He is credited as the inventor of the radio, which forms the basis of modern wireless communication. He received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1909 for his contributions to developing wireless telegraphy.

12. Max Planck 

Max Planck (1858-1947) was a German physicist who contributed significantly to understanding the nature of energy and the structure of matter. He proposed the concept of quanta, which revolutionized the field of physics by introducing the idea that energy is not continuous but comes in discrete packets. His work laid the foundation for the development of quantum mechanics and led to the discovery of new phenomena, such as the photoelectric effect and the wave-particle duality. He received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918 for his theoretical discoveries that led to the creation of quantum mechanics, one of the pillars of physics.

Note: 

These are some renowned scientists from different fields, but the list continues. The contributions of these scientists to their respective fields were not only revolutionary but also laid the foundation for future research, discoveries, and advancements in technology that continues to shape the world we live in today. It’s worth noting that this list is not exhaustive, and many more scientists have made significant contributions to the field of science that could have been included as well.

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