essay scientists their inventions

22 Famous Scientists Who Changed How We View the World (and the Universe)

From medicine to physics and astronomy, these scholars have saved lives and improved our understanding across all aspects of the natural world.

stephen hawking smiles at the camera while sitting in his wheelchair in front of a green chalkboard with written equations, he wears a dark suit jacket and blue collared shirt with white pinstripes

From the earliest civilizations to the modern age, humans have endlessly strived to better understand ourselves and the world around us. For some of the world’s greatest scientific minds—like Galileo , Nikola Tesla , Marie Curie , and Albert Einstein —this curiosity led to inventions and discoveries that have shaped all facets of life.

Whether it’s a medicine that has saved countless lives or an equation that helped propel the evolution of energy and technology, these breakthroughs arose from the scientific method of observation and experimentation.

Here are 22 of the most famous scientists from the 15 th century to today and how their crucial contributions in many fields of study still impact us.

Nicolaus Copernicus

Astronomer and mathematician 1473-1543

For centuries, people incorrectly believed the Earth was the center of the universe. Copernicus theorized otherwise, with the belief that the size and speed of a planet’s orbit depended on its distance from the centralized sun.

Rather than a breakthrough, however, Copernicus’ hypotheses were met with controversy as they deviated from the beliefs of the Roman Catholic Church. The church even outright banned his research collection, On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres , in 1616 long after the German scientist’s death.

Learn More About Nicolaus Copernicus

Galileo Galilei

Physicist and astronomer 1564-1642

Galileo changed how we literally see the world by taking early telescopes and improving their design. The Italian scientist made lenses capable of magnifying objects twenty-fold .

When Galileo used his tools to look toward the heavens, he discovered Jupiter’s four largest moons, now named in his honor , and stars far off in the Milky Way not visible to the human eye. His findings built the foundation for modern astronomy.

Learn More About Galileo Galilei

Robert Hooke

Astronomer, physicist, and biologist 1635-1703

Englishman Hooke coined the term “cell,” now known as the basic structural unit of all organisms, in his 1665 book Micrographia after observing the cell walls in slices of cork tissue. But his studies weren’t limited to biology. He is famous for Hooke’s Law, which states that the force required to compress or extend a spring is proportional to the distance of compression or extension. He also helped redesign London buildings destroyed by the city’s “Great Fire” in 1666.

Learn More About Robert Hooke

Sir Isaac Newton

Physicist and mathematician 1643-1727

You probably know about Newton’s three laws of motion, including that objects will remain at rest or in uniform motion unless acted upon. But did you also know his theory of gravity allowed the Englishman to calculate the mass of each planet and Earth’s ocean tides? Although Albert Einstein would later improve on some of his theories, Newton remains one of the most important minds in history.

Fun fact: Newton’s mother tried to pull him out of school at age 12 to become a farmer. Seems like a good thing that plan fell through.

Learn More About Isaac Newton

Charles Darwin

Biologist 1809-1882

Growing up in Great Britain, Darwin was raised in a Christian family and held creationist beliefs. That’s not what you’d expect from the man whose landmark 1859 book On the Origins of Species by Means of Natural Selection provided a detailed description of the theory of evolution. In his writings, he outlined his natural selection concept, in which species that evolve and adapt to their environment thrive while the others perish.

Learn More About Charles Darwin

Ada Lovelace

ava lovelace shown in a portrait wearing a tiara

Mathematician and computer scientist 1815-1852

A computer scientist in the 1800s? Yes—Lovelace’s notes and instructions on mentor Charles Babbage ’s “analytical engine” are considered a breakthrough on the path to modern computers. For example, the London-born Lovelace first theorized a process now called looping, in which computer programs repeat a series of instructions until a desired outcome is reached.

Although her contributions weren’t recognized until the 20 th century, her legacy was forever cemented in 1980 when the U.S. Department of Defense named the new computer language Ada in her honor.

Learn More About Ada Lovelace

Gregor Mendel

Geneticist 1822-1884

Mendel, from Austria, became an Augustinian monk and an educator, instead of taking over his family’s farm as his father wished. His growing skills did pay off, as Mendel used pea plants to study the transmission of hereditary traits. His findings that traits were either dominant or recessive and passed on independently of one another became the foundation for modern genetic studies.

Learn More About Gregor Mendel

Louis Pasteur

Chemist and microbiologist 1822-1895

Pasteur used his observations of microorganisms to suggest hygienic methods we take for granted today, like sterilizing linens, dressings, and surgical instruments. The process of treating food items with heat to kill pathogens—known as pasteurization—also bears his name.

However, the French scientist is arguably most renowned for his efforts in creating vaccines for diseases such as cholera, smallpox, anthrax, and rabies. He worked on the rabies vaccine despite suffering from a severe brain stroke in 1868.

Learn More About Louis Pasteur

Sigmund Freud

Psychologist 1856-1939

Although his research initially focused on neurobiology, Freud—who was born in what is now the Czech Republic but grew up in Austria—became known for his psychoanalytic theory that past traumatic experiences caused neuroses in patients. He also proposed the ideas of the id, ego, and superego as the three foundations of human personality and that dreams were a method of coping with conflicts rooted in the subconscious.

Learn More About Sigmund Freud

Nikola Tesla

Physicist and mathematician 1856-1943

Chances are you’re reading this in a lit room. If so, you have the Croatia-born Tesla to thank. He designed the alternative current, or AC, electric system, which remains the primary method of electricity used throughout the world (rival Thomas Edison created a direct current system).

Additionally, his patented Tesla coil used in radio transmission antennas helped build the foundation for wireless technology. The scientist also helped pioneer remote and radar technology.

Learn More About Nikola Tesla

George Washington Carver

Botanist and agricultural scientist Circa 1864-1943

Washington Carver is best known for his work with the peanut plant. Born into slavery , the Missouri native developed more than 300 uses for it —including shaving cream, shampoo, plastics, and of course, recipes for foods like bread and candies. But he also looked out for farmers by teaching them livestock care and cultivation techniques. Washington Carver built fruitful friendships with major figures like automaker Henry Ford , whom he worked with to create a soybean-based alternative to rubber and an experimental lightweight car body.

Learn More About George Washington Carver

Marie Curie

Physicist and chemist 1867-1934

Curie, originally from modern-day Poland, was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize —in physics—and also became the first person to win two Nobel prizes .

The scientist, with the help of husband Pierre Curie , discovered radioactivity and the elements polonium and radium. She also championed the use of portable X-ray machines on the battlefields of World War I. Curie died from aplastic anemia, likely caused by her exposure to radiation.

Learn More About Marie Curie

Albert Einstein

Physicist 1879-1955

In addition to his frizzy hair and reported distaste for wearing socks, Einstein became famous for his theory of relativity , suggesting that space and time are intertwined . And, of course, the famous equation E=MC², which showed that even the tiniest particles can produce large amounts of energy.

The German scientist was also a champion for civil rights , once calling racism a “disease.” He joined the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in the 1940s.

Learn More About Albert Einstein

niels bohr smiling while wearing a suit for a photograph

Physicist 1885-1962

Bohr studied and played soccer at Denmark’s University of Copenhagen before embarking to England to work with J.J. Thomson , who discovered the electron. Bohr proposed an entirely different model of the atom, in which electrons can jump between energy levels. This helped pave the way for quantum mechanics.

Bohr was also a key contributor to the Manhattan Project, in which the United States developed an atomic bomb during World War II. Bohr worked with project director J. Robert Oppenheimer , the subject of the 2023 biopic Oppenheimer .

Learn More About Niels Bohr

Rachel Carson

Biologist 1907-1964

Carson penned the famous book Silent Spring in 1962. The American scientist’s research on the adverse effects of DDT and other pesticides in nature is credited with beginning the modern environmental movement . Soon after the book’s release, the Environmental Protection Agency was established in 1970, and the use of DDT was banned by 1972. Carson, who died of breast cancer, posthumously received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1980.

Learn More About Rachel Carson

Alan Turing

Computer scientist and mathematician 1912-1954

A skilled cryptanalyst, Turing helped decipher coded messages from the German military during World War II. The British mathematician is also considered the father of computer science and artificial intelligence, with his Turing Test purported to measure a machine’s ability to exhibit behaviors comparable to human beings.

Turing’s life and efforts during the war were the basis for the 2014 movie The Imitation Game , starring Benedict Cumberbatch .

Learn More About Alan Turing

Gertrude B. Elion

gertrude elion holding a dropper and adding liquid to a test tube

Biochemist and pharmacologist 1918-1999

Elion, who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1988, developed 45 patents in medicine throughout her remarkable career. Hired by Burroughs-Wellcome (now GlaxoSmithKline) in 1944, the American soon went on to develop a drug, 6-MP, to combat leukemia. In 1977, she and her team created the antiviral drug acyclovir that debunked the idea that any drug capable of killing a virus would be too toxic for humans. It’s used to treat herpes, chickenpox, and shingles.

Learn More About Gertrude B. Elion

Katherine Johnson

Mathematician 1918-2020

Each of NASA’s early milestones—from sending an astronaut, Alan Shepard , to space for the first time in 1961, to Neil Armstrong and the Apollo 11 crew landing on the moon eight years later—were all possible because of Johnson. The West Virginia native helped perform the mathematical calculations necessary to determine their correct flight paths .

In a show of gratitude, NASA named a building at its Langley Research Center in Virginia after Johnson in 2017. Her inspiring true story was told in the 2016 movie Hidden Figures , with Taraji P. Henson playing her on the big screen.

Learn More About Katherine Johnson

Rosalind Franklin

Chemist and biophysicist 1920-1958

Franklin began working at King’s College London in 1951 and used X-ray diffraction techniques to find that human DNA had two forms: a dry “A” form and wet “B” form. However, Franklin’s discovery was overlooked after a colleague leaked her findings to scientists Francis Crick and James Watson . That pair went on to create the double helix model for DNA structure. Franklin died from ovarian cancer at age 37.

Learn More About Rosalind Franklin

Jane Goodall

Primatologist 1934-present

Goodall’s extensive study of chimpanzees has helped us understand how similar humans are to our evolutionary relatives. After arriving in Tanzania in 1960, the British scientist discovered chimps create and use tools, develop complex language and social systems, and aren’t exclusively vegetarian as once believed.

Once she understood chimpanzees, Goodall turned her efforts to preserving their habitats and preventing unethical treatment of the animals in scientific experiments.

Learn More About Jane Goodall

Tyler Piccotti first joined the Biography.com staff as an Associate News Editor in February 2023, and before that worked almost eight years as a newspaper reporter and copy editor. He is a graduate of Syracuse University. When he's not writing and researching his next story, you can find him at the nearest amusement park, catching the latest movie, or cheering on his favorite sports teams.

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Science Struck

Famous Scientists and Their Inventions That Changed the World

Here is information about some of the most important scientists and inventors who, through their inventions, have made the lives of scores of generations a lot easier.

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Mankind would not have progressed to the zenith of advancement it currently enjoys if not for the tireless work of these heroes. Here’s a brief sum-up of the Pantheon of science and technology. Read on to know more about some of the most important scientists and inventors who, through their inventions, have made the lives of scores of generations a lot easier.

The list has been compiled in alphabetical order; in the case of an invention/discovery being made by more than one individual, the name occurring alphabetically earlier has been given priority.

Important Inventors…

Alexander graham bell (march 3, 1847 – august 2, 1922).

Invented the first practical telephone following extensive work on elocution and deafness.

Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (October 24, 1632 – August 26, 1723)

Invented the microscope. Leeuwenhoek is also considered as the first microbiologist in the world and the father of microbiology.

Archimedes (c. 287-212 BC)

Invented the Archimedean Screw, used for drawing water out of flooded ships, or from canals for irrigation. Archimedes also discovered the method for determining the volume of irregular objects.

Benjamin Franklin (January 17, 1706 – April 17, 1790)

Invented the lightning rod and bifocals, among other inventions. He is also famous as one of the Founding Fathers of the United States.

Brahmagupta (c. 597 – 668 AD)

Brahmagupta was the first to use zero as a number, although it had been in use before his time as a symbol, representing the order of magnitude of the number in question (7 – 70 – 700 etc.). Consequently, he devised the rules of arithmetic involving zero. Brahmagupta was also the first to note that the product of two negative numbers is a positive number.

Eli Whitney (December 8, 1765 – January 8, 1825)

Invented the cotton gin, which helped speed up the industrial revolution by a great degree.

Elias Howe (July 9, 1819 – October 3, 1867)

The Sewing machine

Emile Berliner (May 20, 1851 – August 3, 1929)

Phonograph records

Felix Hoffmann (January 21, 1868 – February 8, 1946)

Formulated aspirin and heroin in medically usable forms.

Fritz Pfleumer (March 20, 1881 – August 29, 1945)

Invented the magnetic tape used in audio cassettes.

Galileo Galilei (February 15 1564 – January 8 1642)

'Statue of Galileo Galilei, Prato della Valle, Padua, Italy'

Invented, among other devices, the telescope and the military compass. Galilei made several crucial astronomical observations (such as Jupiter’s four largest moons, which are called the Galilean moons in his honor), and promoted the Copernican view that the earth revolves around the sun — the latter inviting the wrath of the Church.

Garrett Augustus Morgan (March 4, 1877 – July 27, 1963))

Invented the traffic signal and a version of the gas mask (mainly for firefighters).

Hans von Ohain (December 14, 1911 – March 13, 1998)

Heinrich focke (october 8, 1890 – february 25, 1979).

Built the first practicably functional helicopter.

Jagadish Chandra Bose (Basu) (November 30, 1858 – November 23, 1937)

Invented the crescograph, a device to measure growth in plants. Bose invented the crescograph to aid his own research on the effects of external stimuli on the growth of plants. Bose also made pioneering research in the field of radio transmission, and demonstrated the first wireless signaling in the world. Marconi’s future (and patent-yielding) research was aided by Bose, who made his research available to the scientific community instead of rushing off to privatize the invention of the radio.

Johann Philipp Reis (January 7, 1834 – January 14, 1874)

Invented an early version of the telephone that only worked on an ‘on/off’ basis, and thus could only convey a steady note when spoken into. It failed at reproducing articulated speech (which is a constantly changing mixture of different vibrations) and was thus impractical.

John Logie Baird (August 13, 1888 – June 14, 1946)

Invented the first practical Television. Baird’s original design was electromechanical rather than fully electronic. He also invented the color television tube.

Karl Benz (November 25, 1844 – April 4, 1929)

Invented the first self-propelled, gasoline-powered automobile.

Karl Friedrich von Drais (April 29, 1785 – December 29, 1851)

Invented a pedal-less early version of the bicycle, the draisine.

Karlheinz Brandenburg (b. June 20, 1954)

Co-inventor of MP3 Technology

Konrad Zuse (June 22, 1910 – December 18, 1995)

Built the first working, programmable, electromechanical computer.

Laszlo Jozsef Bíro (September 29, 1899 – October 24, 1985)

Invented the ballpoint pen, still commonly called biro after him.

Levi Strauss (February 26, 1829 – September 26, 1902)

Denim trousers (Jeans)

Melitta Bentz (January 31, 1873 – June 29, 1950)

Coffee filter

Nikola Tesla (July 10, 1856 – January 7, 1943)

Built the Tesla induction motor, the Tesla coil and a pioneering mechanism for wireless (radio) communication.

Orville and Wilbur Wright

Invented the airplane, i.e., susccessfully completed the first powered heavier-than-air flight.

Otto Lilienthal (May 23, 1848 – August 10, 1896)

An early pioneer of gliders. Lilienthal designed and built several flying machines, including monoplanes, biplanes and gliders.

Percy Spencer (July 9, 1894 – September 8, 1970)

Microwave oven

Peter Henlein (1479 – 1542)

Considered the inventor of the pocket watch (early history of watches has not been sufficiently determined).

Rudolf Diesel (March 18, 1858 – disappeared September 29, 1913)

Invented the compression combustion engine, which was named the Diesel engine after him.

Rudolf Hell (December 19, 1901 – March 11, 2002)

Formulated pioneering technology for the scanner and the fax machine (hellschreiber).

Thomas Edison (February 11, 1847 – October 18, 1931)

Edison was involved in countless inventions, either directly or through the several engineers he employed. He is known for the invention and commercialization of the electric light and the phonograph.

William Henry Perkin (March 12, 1838 – July 14, 1907)

First to produce a synthetic aniline dye — mauveine, of the color mauve.

… And Discoverers

Albert einstein (march 14, 1879 – april 18, 1955).

Perhaps the most famous scientist in history, Einstein formulated the theory of general relativity, and the famous equation of mass-energy equivalence – E=mc2.

Alexander Fleming (August 6, 1881 – March 11, 1955)

Discovered the fungus responsible for the production of penicillin, Penicillium notatum.

Andreas Vesalius (December 31, 1514 – October 15, 1564)

First to describe the human skeletal system and muscular system accurately and in great detail.

Aryabhata (476 AD – 550 AD)

Approximated the value of pi to 3.1416 — 5 significant figures (4 decimal places), and was possibly the first to note the irrationality of pi. Aryabhata also did commendable work in trigonometry, creating one of the earliest trigonometric tables (later found to be accurate), and astronomy, discovering the daily rotation of the earth.

Carl Linnaeus (May 12, 1707 – January 10, 1778)

Formed the taxonomical system of binomial nomenclature, wherein the name of the genus is followed by the name of the species. For instance, human beings are termed as Homo sapiens, wherein Homo is the genus and sapiens is the species.

Carl Wilhelm Scheele (December 9, 1742 – May 21, 1786)

Discovered oxygen, although Joseph Priestly published his findings first and is thus given credit for the discovery.

Sir Chandrashekhar Venkata Raman (November 7, 1888 – November 21, 1970)

Discovered the change in the wavelength — and thus the color — of light traveling through a transparent medium, a phenomenon later named after him — the Raman effect.

Charles Darwin (February 12, 1809 – April 19, 1882)

Formulated the theory of evolution, explaining the huge diversity in organisms as a result of millions of years of unceasing evolution programmed by natural selection.

Copernicus (February 19, 1473 – May 24, 1543)

The first to accurately describe the solar system as heliocentric (having the sun at the center) rather than geocentric (having the earth at the center)

Dmitri Mendeleev (February 8, 1834 – February 2, 1907)

Created a comprehensive periodic table of elements, incorporating the Newland’s law of octaves and leaving blanks where he theorized the presence of elements that had not yet been discovered. Most of these gaps were later found to be correct.

Edward Jenner (May 17, 1749 – January 26, 1823)

Discovered the process of vaccination by proving that deliberate (or accidental) infection of cowpox provided immunity against smallpox, an untreatable disease in Jenner’s time. Jenner is said to have saved more lives than any other man in history!

Ernest Rutherford (August 30, 1871 – October 19, 1937)

Discovered the phenomenon of radioactive half-life and the change in the atomic number of the element due to radiation, sowing the seeds of the extensive future research into nuclear fission. Due to his highly influential findings, Rutherford is termed the ‘father of nuclear physics’.

Francis Crick – James Watson (Crick: June 8, 1916 – July 28, 2004 / Watson: b. April 6, 1928)

Discovered the double-helical structure of the DNA molecule.

Georg Ohm (March 16, 1789 – July 6, 1854)

Discovered the proportionality between the voltage and the resultant current in a circuit, now known as Ohm’s law: I (current) = V (voltage)/ R (resistance)

Heinrich Hertz (February 22, 1857 – January 1, 1894)

Proved the existence of electromagnetic waves by constructing radio equipment. Although Hertz didn’t realize the full ramifications of his work, the seminal research led to the discoveries made by Jagadish Chandra Bose, Marconi et al.

Henri Becquerel (December 15, 1852 – August 25, 1908)

Discovered radioactivity in uranium salts.

Isaac Newton (December 25, 1642 – March 20, 1727)

One of the most revered scientists in history (and rightly so), Newton discovered and formulated the laws of gravity and the three laws of motion, along with invaluable work in several other fields. He was also closely involved in the development of calculus.

James Chadwick (October 20, 1891 – July 24, 1974)

Discovered the electrically neutral particle in atoms, neutron.

Johann Kepler (December 27, 1571 – November 15, 1630)

Formulated the laws of planetary motion, which are named after him.

Marie Sklodowska-Curie – Pierre Curie

Expounding on the work of Marie’s Doctoral Advisor Henri Becquerel, Marie and Pierre Curie discovered the radioactive elements Radium (Ra) and Polonium (Po). Their work in radioactivity (a term coined by Marie Curie, incidentally) resulted in Marie Curie, Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel receiving the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Max Planck (April 23, 1858 – October 4, 1947)

A theoretical physicist by nature and profession, Planck formulated the quantum theory, considered one of the most important theories of modern physics.

Michael Faraday (September 22, 1791 – August 25, 1867)

Discovered electromagnetic induction, laws of electrolysis and fundamental relations between light and magnetism. Faraday is considered the greatest experimentalist.

Neils Bohr (October 7, 1885 – November 18, 1962)

Formulated the Bohr model of the atom.

Otto Hahn (March 8, 1879 – July 28, 1968)

Discovered nuclear fission. During the related research, Hahn collaborated with Lise Meitner and her nephew Otto Frisch, who confirmed Hahn’s results and coined the term ‘nuclear fission’; Hahn was initially baffled by the results, which did not fit in the prevalent scientific paradigm.

Robert Koch (1843-1910)

Renowned for the isolation of Bacillus anthracis, Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Vibrio cholerae, the bacteria responsible for the diseases anthrax, tuberculosis and cholera, respectively. Although the diseases may not sound sinister in the 21st century, they were among the deadliest in the 19th century. Koch is also known for his eponymous postulates about the determination of the particular microbe responsible for a disease.

Srinivasa Ramanujan (December 22, 1887 – April 26, 1920)

Isolated from the European mathematics community, Srinivasa Ramanujan rediscovered several previously discovered theorems, as well as several new ones. Ramanujan’s groundbreaking and unorthodox derivations are still being heavily researched by mathematicians all over the world.

Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen (March 27, 1845 – February 10, 1923)

Discovered the X-ray, and thus considered the father of diagnostic radiology.

William Harvey (April 1, 1578 – June 3, 1657)

Described the ‘double cycle’ nature of the human circulatory system (organs-veins-heart-lungs-heart-arteries-organs).

It is impossible, having been pampered by most of these invaluable inventions ever since memories started to form, to imagine where mankind would have ended up if not for these Herculeses and Achilleses disguised in lab coats.

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Famous Scientists

12 scientists and their brilliant inventions

A scientist is someone who investigates the secrets of nature.

An inventor is someone who tries to create useful products and devices.

Some people have been incredibly successful in both endeavors. Here are twelve of the best:

Wilhelm Röntgen

Wilhelm Röntgen was a physics professor. He received the very first Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901 for his discovery of X-rays.

Within two weeks of first generating X-rays he had invented X-ray photography. The first ever X-ray photograph was of the bones in his wife’s hand.

When his university, the University of Würzburg, realized how dramatically X-rays would transform the diagnosis of bone injuries and diseases, it awarded Röntgen an honorary degree in medicine.

The discovery of X-rays was perhaps the single most important event in atomic and molecular science, not to say surgery. This video shows how William Röntgen made the discovery and how it was put to use.

The Discovery of X-rays

Archimedes is the best known mathematician and scientist from ancient times. In addition to brilliant discoveries in mathematics and physics, he was also an inventor.

The Archimedes’ Screw

Still in use today, one of Archimedes’ greatest inventions is the Archimedean Screw .

Archimedes probably invented this device when he visited Egypt, where it’s still used for irrigation. The screw is also helpful for lifting finely divided solids such as ash, grain, and sand from a lower level to a higher level.

Stephanie Dalley of the University of Oxford has discovered Assyrian cuneiform writings from about 680 BC titled The Palace without a Rival describing what sounds like a water screw irrigating gardens in the city of Nineveh in Mesopotamia (Iraq). She believes these gardens were actually the famous Hanging Gardens once associated with Babylon.

In Mesopotamian cultures inventors remained anonymous or their inventions were attributed to the king who paid for the work. In Greek culture inventions were attributed to the inventor.

It is possible that Archimedes’ name is linked to the water screw because:

the device was forgotten after Nineveh was conquered by the Babylonians and Archimedes invented it from scratch.
the device could have reached Egypt, which was under Assyrian rule in 680 BC. Archimedes may have seen it operating there four centuries years later, when Egypt was under Greek rule. It is possible he greatly improved the water screw, making it the user-friendly, geared device we know today that can be turned by one person rather than one turned by a gang hauling on chains as it had been in Nineveh.
for no more reason than Archimedes was antiquity’s greatest genius.

Robert Hooke

Plant cells, discovered, named and drawn by Robert Hooke. This illustration was first published in Hooke’s book Micrographia , in 1665.

Robert Hooke discovered plant cells and discovered Hooke’s Law – the law of elasticity. He also:

invented the balance spring, vital for accurate timekeeping in pocket watches
invented a machine that cut teeth for cogs used in watches – these cogs were cut in finer detail than any person could have managed, enabling more delicate watch mechanisms to be developed.

Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin discovered one of the fundamental laws of physics – the Law of Conservation of Electric Charge – and proved that lightning is electricity. He also:

invented bifocal spectacles
invented the Franklin stove
invented the lightning rod

Alessandro Volta

Alessandro Volta was the first person to isolate methane gas. He discovered that methane mixed with air could be exploded using an electric spark: this is the basis of the internal combustion engine. He also found that electric potential in a capacitor is directly proportional to electric charge.

Oh, and he invented the electric battery!

Louis Pasteur

Louis Pasteur discovered that some molecules have mirror images – these can be described as left-handed and right-handed versions of a chemical compound .

He banished forever the concept of spontaneous generation in biology – the idea that bacterial life could just appear from nowhere in fruit or that maggots could appear spontaneously in meat.

Pasteur invented the process of pasteurization and patented it in 1862.

During pasteurization, farm and brewery products such as milk, wine and beer are heated briefly to a temperature between 60 and 100 °C, killing microorganisms that can cause them to go bad.

Lord Kelvin

Lord Kelvin, whose original name was William Thomson, codified the first two laws of thermodynamics and deduced that the absolute zero of temperature is −273.15 °C. He was honored for this with the naming of the Kelvin temperature scale. On the Kelvin scale, absolute zero is found at 0 kelvin.

In addition to his work as a physics professor, he was also an inventor, devising equipment which he patented that allowed transatlantic telegraph signalling to take place via an undersea cable.

William Crookes

William Crookes was a physical chemist who discovered and named the element thallium.

In 1875 he invented the Crookes tube, an evacuated electrical discharge tube, which he used to generate so-called cathode rays. We now know that cathode rays are streams of electrons. Crookes used magnetic fields to prove that cathode rays consisted of negatively charged particles.

Santiago Ramón y Cajal

Santiago Ramón y Cajal is the father of neuroscience. He won the Nobel Prize for Physiology/Medicine in 1906 for his neuron doctrine .

In a time when people had to pose for several minutes to have a photograph taken, Ramón y Cajal invented a new process that needed a pose of only three seconds.

Unfortunately, he learned later that Thomas Edison got there first!

Pierre Curie

Pierre Curie shared the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics with his wife, Marie Curie, and Henri Becquerel for their discoveries in radioactivity.

Over a decade earlier, in 1880, Pierre Curie and his brother Jacques had discovered piezoelectricity.

Pierre and Jacques then invented the piezoelectric quartz electrometer which detects and measures electric charge.

Interestingly, Pierre and Marie’s Nobel Prize winning work depended on measurements made using the piezoelectric quartz electrometer Pierre and Jacques had invented many years earlier.

Henry Moseley

Henry Moseley’s scientific career was cut short at a tragically young age .

Before he died, he had discovered the true basis of the periodic table and, in 1912, invented the atomic battery. Atomic batteries are now used where long battery life is essential, such as spacecraft and heart pacemakers.

Luis Alvarez

Luis Alvarez is probably most famous for discovering the iridium layer and his theory that dinosaurs were driven to extinction by the aftermath of a large meteorite impact on Earth. He won the 1968 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work in particle physics.

He also invented the Microwave Phased Array Antenna, a type of radar which dramatically enhanced air safety in poor weather conditions by giving ground crew very precise information about aircraft positions, allowing them to land safely.

More from FamousScientists.org:

May 21, 2016 at 9:02 am

These people inspire us that thinking beyond upto a life beyond life can results into great and dynamic works!!!!Winhelm Rontgen and his discovery is undeed inspiring!!!!!!

September 19, 2015 at 6:07 pm

Awesome people. I wish I had a tenth of their talent. I agree about Santiago Cajal. The photo looks quite modern but its from the same era as the Statue of Liberty arriving in New York. Amazing.

September 10, 2015 at 9:16 pm

Santiago Ramón y Cajal looks sooooo cool in his chair. He looks like a guy you could have photographed yesterday, but the photo must be about 130 years old.

August 31, 2015 at 7:26 pm

Wilhelm Röntgen, and his discovery of X-rays, is well worth a mention in your article. Thanks for the post.

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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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20 inventions that changed the world

From the wheel 5,500 years ago to the birth control pill, these 20 inventions had huge ramifications and have helped humans shape the world around us.

A colored glass lightbulb smashed on the floor

2. Printing press

3. penicillin, 5. light bulb, 6. telephone, 7. internal combustion engine, 8. contraceptives, 9. internet, 11. use of fire, 12. concrete, 13. magnifying glass, 14. batteries, 15. marine chronometer, 16. airplane, 17. refrigerator, 18. nuclear energy, 19. vaccines.

Humans are naturally curious and creative, two traits that have led our species to many scientific and technological breakthroughs. Since our earliest ancestors bashed a rock on the ground to make the first sharp-edged tool, humans have continued to innovate. From the debut of the wheel to the launch of Mars rovers, several of these key advancements stand out as especially revolutionary. Some inventions are thanks to one eureka moment, but most of our most pioneering inventions were the work of several innovative thinkers who made incremental improvements over many years. Here, we explore 20 of the most important inventions of all time, along with the science behind the inventions and how they came about.

Illustration showing the evolution of the wheel starting from a stone wheel and ending with a steel belted radial tire. Wheels were invented circa 3,500 B.C., and rapidly spread across the Eastern Hemisphere.

Before the invention of the wheel in 3500 B.C., humans were severely limited in how much stuff we could transport over land, and how far. The wheel itself wasn't the most difficult part of "inventing the wheel." When it came time to connect a non-moving platform to that rolling cylinder, things got tricky, according to David Anthony, an emeritus professor of anthropology at Hartwick College.

"The stroke of brilliance was the wheel-and-axle concept," Anthony previously told Live Science . "But then making it was also difficult." For instance, the holes at the center of the wheels and the ends of the fixed axles had to be nearly perfectly round and smooth, he said. The size of the axle was also a critical factor, as was its snugness inside the hole (not too tight, but not too loose, either).

The hard work paid off, big time. Wheeled carts facilitated agriculture and commerce by enabling the transportation of goods to and from markets, as well as easing the burdens of people travelling great distances. Now, wheels are vital to our way of life, found in everything from clocks to vehicles to turbines.

David Anthony is professor emeritus and curator emeritus of anthropology at Hartwick College in Oneonta, New York. He has done extensive archaeological fieldwork in Ukraine, Russia and Kazakhstan. Anthony is the author of "The Horse, the Wheel, and Language" (Princeton, 2007) and has co-authored studies including the finding that humans first rode horses 5,000 years ago .

black and white image of three people looking at a printed page, with a machine in the background

German inventor Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press sometime between 1440 and 1450. Key to its development was the hand mold, a new molding technique that enabled the rapid creation of large quantities of metal movable type. Though others before him — including inventors in China and Korea — had developed movable type made from metal, Gutenberg was the first to create a mechanized process that transferred the ink (which he made from linseed oil and soot) from the movable type to paper.

With this movable type process, printing presses exponentially increased the speed with which book copies could be made, and thus they led to the rapid and widespread dissemination of knowledge for the first time in history. In her book “ The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe ” (Cambridge University Press, 2012), late historian Elizabeth L. Eisenstein wrote, “printers’ workshops would be found in every important municipal center by 1500.” It has been estimated that up to twenty million volumes had been printed in Western Europe by 1500, although Eisenstein estimates that it was around eight million.

Among other things, the printing press permitted wider access to the Bible, which in turn led to alternative interpretations, including that of Martin Luther, whose "95 Theses" a document printed by the hundred-thousand sparked the Protestant Reformation.

Alexander Fleming pictured in black and white in his laboratory

It's one of the most famous discovery stories in history. In 1928, the Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming noticed a bacteria-filled Petri dish in his laboratory with its lid accidentally ajar. The sample had become contaminated with a mold, and everywhere the mold was, the bacteria was dead. That antibiotic mold turned out to be the fungus Penicillium, and over the next two decades, chemists purified it and developed the drug penicillin , which fights a huge number of bacterial infections in humans without harming the humans themselves.

Penicillin was being mass-produced and advertised by 1944. This poster attached to a curbside mailbox advised World War II servicemen to take the drug to rid themselves of venereal disease.

About 1 in 10 people have an allergic reaction to the antibiotic , according to a study published in 2003 in the journal Clinical Reviews in Allergy and Immunology. Even so, most of those people go on to be able to tolerate the drug, researchers said.

Related: What causes allergies?

A reproduction of the world's first compass, a brown square object with a protrusion in the middle

Ancient mariners used the stars for navigation, but this method didn’t work during the day or on cloudy nights, making it dangerous to travel far from land.

The first compass was invented in China during the Han dynasty between the 2nd Century B.C. and 1st Century A.D.; it was made of lodestone, a naturally-magnetized iron ore, the attractive properties of which they had been studying for centuries. However, it was used for navigation for the first time during the Song Dynasty, between the 11th and 12th centuries,

Soon after, the technology to the West through nautical contact. The compass enabled mariners to navigate safely far from land, opening up the world for exploration and the subsequent development of global trade. An instrument still widely used today, the compass has transformed our knowledge and understanding of the Earth forever.

An original Edison light bulb from 1879 from Thomas Edison's shop in Menlo Park, New Jersey.

The invention of the light bulb transformed our world by removing our dependence on natural light, allowing us to be productive at any time, day or night. Several inventors were instrumental in developing this revolutionary technology throughout the 1800s; Thomas Edison is credited as the primary inventor because he created a completely functional lighting system, including a generator and wiring as well as a carbon-filament bulb like the one above, in 1879.

As well as initiating the introduction of electricity in homes throughout the Western world, this invention also had a rather unexpected consequence of changing people's sleep patterns . Instead of going to bed at nightfall (having nothing else to do) and sleeping in segments throughout the night separated by periods of wakefulness, we now stay up except for the 7 to 8 hours allotted for sleep, and, ideally, we sleep all in one go.

Alexander Graham Bell's Telephone patent drawing, from 1876. Bell's telephone was the first apparatus to transmit human speech via machine.

Several inventors did pioneering work on electronic voice transmission — many of whom later filed intellectual property lawsuits when telephone use exploded — but it was Scottish inventor Alexander Graham Bell who was the first to be awarded a patent for the electric telephone on March 7, 1876 (his patent drawing is pictured above). Three days later, Bell made the first telephone call to his assistant, Thomas Watson, saying "Mr Watson, come here — I want to see you," according to author A. Edward Evenson in his book, “ The Telephone Patent Conspiracy of 1876: The Elisha Gray-Alexander Bell Controversy and Its Many Players ” (McFarland, 2015).

Bell’s inspiration for the telephone was influenced by his family. His father taught speech elocution and specialized in teaching the deaf speak, his mother, an accomplished musician, lost her hearing in later life and his wife Mabel, who he married in 1877, had been deaf since the age of five, according to Evenson. The invention quickly took off and revolutionized global business and communication. When Bell died on Aug. 2, 1922, all telephone service in the United States and Canada was stopped for one minute to honor him.

In these engines, the combustion of fuel releases a high-temperature gas, which, as it expands, applies a force to a piston, moving it. Thus, combustion engines convert chemical energy into mechanical work. Decades of engineering by many scientists went into designing the internal combustion engine, which took its (essentially) modern form in the latter half of the 19th century. The engine ushered in the Industrial Age, as well as enabling the invention of a huge variety of machines, including modern cars and aircraft.

Pictured are the operating steps of a four-stroke internal combustion engine. The strokes are as follows: 1) Intake stroke — air and vaporised fuel are drawn in. 2) Compression stroke - fuel vapor and air are compressed and ignited. 3) Power stroke — fuel combusts and the piston is pushed downwards, powering the machine. 4) Exhaust stroke — exhaust is driven out.

Combined monophasic early contraception pill, 1960.

Not only have birth control pills, condoms and other forms of contraception sparked a sexual revolution in the developed world by allowing men and women to have sex for leisure rather than procreation, they have also drastically reduced the average number of offspring per woman in countries where they are used. With fewer mouths to feed, modern families have achieved higher standards of living and can provide better for each child. Meanwhile, on the global scale, contraceptives are helping the human population gradually level off; our number will probably stabilize by the end of the century. Certain contraceptives, such as condoms, also curb the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.

Natural and herbal contraception has been used for millennia. Condoms or ‘sheaths’ have existed in one form or another since ancient times, according to scholar Jessica Borge in her book “ Protective Practices: A History of the London Rubber Company and the Condom Business ” (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2020), with the rubber condom developed in the 19th century. Meanwhile, the FDA approved the first oral contraceptive pill in the United States in 1960 and by 1965, more than 6.5 million American women were on the pill, according to author Jonathan Eig in his book, “The Birth of the Pill: How Four Pioneers Reinvented Sex and Launched a Revolution” (W. W. Norton & Company, 2015).

Scientists are continuing to make advancements in birth control, with some labs even pursuing a male form of "the pill." A permanent birth-control implant called Essure was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2002, though in 2016, the FDA warned the implant would need stronger warnings to tell users about serious risks of using Essure.

Related: 7 surprising facts about the pill

Partial map of the Internet based on January 15, 2005 data

The internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that is used by billions of people worldwide. In the 1960s, a team of computer scientists working for the U.S. Defense Department's ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency) built a communications network to connect the computers in the agency, called ARPANET, the predecessor of the internet. It used a method of data transmission called "packet switching", developed by computer scientist and team member Lawrence Roberts, based on prior work of other computer scientists.

This technology was progressed in the 1970s by scientists Robert Kahn and Vinton Cerf, who developed the crucial communication protocols for the internet, the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and the Internet Protocol (IP), according to computer scientist Harry R. Lewis in his book “ Ideas That Created the Future: Classic Papers of Computer Science ” (MIT Press, 2021). For this, Kahn and Cerf are often credited as inventors of the internet”.

In 1989, the internet evolved further thanks to the invention of the World Wide Web by computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee while working at CERN (The European Organization for Nuclear Research). According to CERN , "the basic idea of the WWW was to merge the evolving technologies of computers, data networks and hypertext into a powerful and easy to use global information system." The development of the WWW opened up the world of the internet to everybody and connected the world in a way that it had never been before.

Related: Inventor of World Wide Web snags computer science's top prize

Three old handmade nails found in Siberia, Russia.

This key invention dates back more than 2,000 years to the Ancient Roman period and became possible only after humans developed the ability to cast and shape metal. Previously, wood structures had to be built by interlocking adjacent boards geometrically a much more arduous construction process.

Until the 1790s and early 1800s, hand-wrought nails were the norm, with a blacksmith heating a square iron rod and then hammering it on four sides to create a point, according to the University of Vermont . Nail-making machines came online between the 1790s and the early 1800s. Technology for crafting nails continued to advance; After Henry Bessemer developed a process to mass-produce steel from iron, the iron nails of yesteryear slowly waned and by 1886, 10 percent of U.S. nails were created from soft steel wire, according to the University of Vermont. By 1913, 90 percent of nails produced in the U.S. were steel wire.

Meanwhile, the invention of the screw - a stronger but harder-to-insert fastener - is usually ascribed to the Greek scholar Archimedes in the third century B.C., but was probably invented by the Pythagorean philosopher Archytas of Tarentum, according to David Blockley in his book “ Engineering: A Very Short Introduction ” (Oxford University Press, 2012).

The use of fire is one of humankind's most powerful early inventions and radically changed the way our ancient ancestors lived. Offering warmth and the ability to cook foods such as meat, the campfire was also a social gathering place. Fire also provided some protection against predators.

The exact date fire was discovered has long remained a mystery, with some studies suggesting it was first used by hominins in Kenya 1 million years ago to cook meat. Other evidence suggests that Neanderthals in Europe and Asia harnessed fire , while Homo sapiens evolving in Africa mastered the skill of creating fire. More recently, archaeologists in Israel found evidence of hominin fire use dating to 1.5 million to 2 million years ago.

A panorama photograph of the interior of the Colosseum

Ancient Romans are credited as one of the first societies to use concrete in architecture, with Roman bathhouses and iconic sites such as the Colosseumand Pantheon dome constructed using concrete mixed with volcanic ash, lime, and seawater. Incredibly, many of these ancient buildings are not only standing, but remain in good condition some 2,000 years later — a testament to the longevity of Roman concrete . However, the ancient Egyptians used a crude form of concrete in their buildings much earlier in 3000 B.C., employing forms of concrete mixed with ash and salt water to create mortar. One study concluded that parts of the Great Pyramids of Giza might have been built using concrete . Concrete is strong in compression but breaks easily in tension, so the invention of reinforced steel-concrete toward the end of the 19th century in France, which lends concrete some of steel's tensile strength, enabled concrete to be used more widely in construction.

Old magnifying glass on old handwriting.

Franciscan friar and Oxford University scholar Roger Bacon first developed the magnifying glass in 1268. Sometimes dubbed "Britain's first scientist,"' Bacon's magnifying glass built on research by Muslim scholars .

However, the use of optical tools dates back much further. Evidence suggests that as early as 700 B.C., people in ancient Egypt noticed that they could look through crystals to improve vision.

The voltaic pile was the first electrical battery invented by Italian chemist Alessandro Volta in 1799. It's essentially a pile of alternating copper and zinc discs that are separated by cardboard or felt spacers soaked in salt water.

The first battery dates back to 1800, when Italian physicist Alessandro Volta wrapped stacked discs of copper and zinc in a cloth, submerged it in salty water and discovered that it conducted energy. In 1802, Scottish professor William Cruickshank invented a variation of Volta's design known as the trough battery , which consisted of 50 discs of copper and zinc in a wooden box filled with a salt solution to conduct energy. However, it was French physicist Gaston Planté who invented the first practically used battery, in 1859. Modern variations on Planté's rechargeable lead-acid battery are still used in cars today.

John Harrison's first marine timekeeper, 1735. It took self-taught English clockmaker John Harrison (1693-1776) five years to build Harrison Number One or H1, which kept time so precisely that navigators were able to establish their longitude at sea.

The 15th century marked the beginning of the great voyages of discovery by adventurers and sea merchants and the development of a global ocean trade network . Trading vessels carried highly prized silk, spices, salt, wine and tea across often-treacherous seas for months on end. After the loss of four ships at sea in the Scilly naval disaster of 1707 , seafarers realized they needed an accurate way to determine longitude when out of sight of land.

In 1714, the British parliament offered a prize of 20,000 pounds to anyone who could solve the problem. Carpenter John Harrison won the bounty in 1735 with his marine chronometer. What is perhaps even more remarkable is that Harrison was a self-taught clockmaker. His ingenious timekeeping device was powered by the rocking motion of the ship rather than by gravity and could be used by sailors to accurately calculate longitude at sea.

The first powered, controlled, sustained airplane flight in history. Orville Wright, age 32, is at the controls of the machine, lying prone on the lower wing with hips in the cradle which operated the wing-warping mechanism. His brother, Wilbur Wright, age 36, ran alongside to help balance the machine, having just released his hold on the forward upright of the right wing. The starting rail, the wing-rest, a coil box, and other items needed for flight preparation are visible behind the machine.

The ability for humans to fly has captured the imagination of inventors for centuries, with the first human-operated flight taking place in 1783 when Joseph-Michael and Jacques-Ètienne Montgolfier took to the skies in a hot air balloon. In 1853 British engineer George Cayley designed the first glider to successfully take flight, but it wasn’t until 1903 that Orville and Wilbur Wright's plane became the first airplane to have a successful voyage. It not only took off from Kitty Hawk, North Carolina using its own power; it flew and landed without destruction, unlike many earlier aircraft inventions. The Wright brothers were inspired by watching' birds in flight. The glider took a page from birds' wings but had a 32-foot (10 meters) wingspan.

Refrigerators are a relatively modern invention, but ancient people found other ways to preserve food.

Refrigeration in some form has been around for thousands of years. Depending on the climate, ice or cold water was used to keep food cold in ancient times. But artificial refrigeration didn't come until 1748, when the physician William Cullen first demonstrated evaporative cooling. Further breakthroughs came in 1834, when a vapor-compression system was developed by American engineer Jacob Perkins . In 1876, German engineer Carl von Linde came up with a process of liquifying the gas, ushering in the era of commercial refrigeration. In 1913, American engineer Fred Wolf invented the first domestic refrigerator , and as demand for fresh produce grew, so did the number of households with refrigerators.

Smoking cooling towers of a nuclear power plant in Rhone, France.

Nuclear energy was first discovered in the 1930s by Italian physicist Enrico Fermi , who found that bombarding atoms with neutrons could split them, generating huge amounts of energy. He went on to develop the first nuclear chain reaction at the University of Chicago. This successful experiment led to the development of several nuclear plants in the 1950s, with Idaho launching the first nuclear plant in 1951 with electricity produced from atomic energy at its Experimental Breeder Reactor I site. Obninsk in the former Soviet Union became the first grid-connected nuclear power plant in the world in 1954, while Shippingport nuclear plant, Pennsylvania became the first commercial nuclear plant in 1957.

Nuclear power remains widely used around the world today, generating approximately 10% of global energy .

One problem is that existing nuclear power plants use fission to split atoms, and this produces radioactive substances that take ages to decay. And the risks of nuclear disasters, such as those at Chernobyl and the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plant, highlight the challenges of fission-based nuclear power.

So scientists are working to create usable nuclear fusion reactors, which could theoretically generate clean, limitless energy. In 2022, scientists reported a minor breakthrough: a fusion reactor that generated more energy than was put into it. However, we're still a long way from a usable fusion reactor , experts say.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that approximately 2 million to 3 million lives are saved annually thanks to vaccinations against contagious diseases such as diphtheria, tetanus and measles.

The earliest rudimentary vaccination is thought to date back to the 10th century in China, when people inoculated small scratches in the skin with small doses of smallpox to provide protection against the disease. But in 1796, English physician Edward Jenner discovered that milkmaids rarely caught or died of smallpox because they were previously infected by the cowpox virus , also called Vaccinia. So he used cowpox to develop a smallpox vaccine. He inoculated an 8-year-old boy with cowpox and then with smallpox, and the boy never caught the deadly scourge. Jenner's experiment led to the creation of a smallpox vaccine and his work is regarded as the start of immunology. In 1980, smallpox was declared officially eradicated by WHO. But scientists continue to develop new life-saving vaccines — most notably, the coronavirus vaccines that played a large role in combatting the pandemic .

Vintage engraving of a scene from the Boer War, wounded from the front, locating a Mauser bullet be X-Ray in a London Hospital. The Graphic, 1900

Like many famous inventions, the X-ray was discovered by accident. In 1895, German engineer and physicist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen was undertaking a two-month study into the potential of radiation. In an experiment testing whether cathode rays could pass through glass, he noticed that the radiation was able to pass through screens of considerable thickness, leaving a shadow of solid objects. He soon discovered that X-rays could pass through human tissues to show a clear picture of the skeleton and organs. A year later, a group of physicians took the earliest X-rays on patients . These observations led to the development of radiology as we know it today and has since helped medical professionals diagnose broken bones, tumors, organ failures and more.

Editor's Note: This story was updated to correct the location of Edison's lab. It was Menlo Park, New Jersey, not Menlo Park, California.

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Natalie Wolchover was a staff writer for Live Science from 2010 to 2012 and is currently a senior physics writer and editor for Quanta Magazine. She holds a bachelor's degree in physics from Tufts University and has studied physics at the University of California, Berkeley. Along with the staff of Quanta, Wolchover won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for explanatory writing for her work on the building of the James Webb Space Telescope. Her work has also appeared in the The Best American Science and Nature Writing and The Best Writing on Mathematics, Nature, The New Yorker and Popular Science. She was the 2016 winner of the Evert Clark/Seth Payne Award, an annual prize for young science journalists, as well as the winner of the 2017 Science Communication Award for the American Institute of Physics.

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History's 15 Most Famous Inventors

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There have been many important inventors throughout history, but only a handful are usually recognized simply by their last name. This shortlist includes some of the esteemed inventors responsible for major innovations such as the printing press, light bulb, television, and, yes, even the iPhone.

The following is a gallery of the most popular inventors, as determined by reader usage and research demand, as well as their inventions. Read on to learn more about these well-known, influential inventors—from Thomas Edison to Steve Jobs and more.

Thomas Edison 1847-1931

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The first great invention developed by Thomas Edison was the tin foil phonograph. A prolific producer, Edison is also known for his work with light bulbs, electricity, film, and audio devices.

Alexander Graham Bell 1847-1922

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In 1876 at the age of 29, Alexander Graham Bell invented his telephone. Among one of his first innovations after the telephone was the "photophone," a device that enabled sound to be transmitted on a beam of light.

George Washington Carver 1864-1943

George Washington Carver was an agricultural chemist who invented 300 uses for peanuts and hundreds of more uses for soybeans, pecans, and sweet potatoes. His contributions changed the history of agriculture in the South.

Eli Whitney 1765-1825

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Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin in 1794. The cotton gin is a machine that separates seeds, hulls, and other unwanted materials from cotton after it has been picked.

Johannes Gutenberg 1394-1468

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Johannes Gutenberg was a German goldsmith and inventor best known for the Gutenberg press, an innovative printing machine that used movable type.

John Logie Baird 1888-1946

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John Logie Baird is remembered as the inventor of mechanical television (an earlier version of television). Baird also patented inventions related to radar and fiber optics.

Benjamin Franklin 1706-1790

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Benjamin Franklin was known for being an iconic statesman and a Founding Father. But among his many other accomplishments was the invention of the lightning rod, the iron furnace stove or Franklin Stove , bifocal glasses, and the odometer.

Henry Ford 1863-1947

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Henry Ford did not invent the automobile as many people mistakenly assume. However, he improved the assembly line for automobile manufacturing, received a patent for a transmission mechanism, and popularized the gas-powered car with the Model T.

James Naismith 1861-1939

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James Naismith was a Canadian physical education instructor who invented basketball in 1891.

Herman Hollerith 1860-1929

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Herman Hollerith invented a punch-card tabulation machine system for statistical computation. Herman Hollerith's great breakthrough was his use of electricity to read, count, and sort punched cards whose holes represented data gathered by census-takers. His machines were used for the 1890 census and accomplished in one year what would have taken nearly 10 years of hand-tabulating.

Nikola Tesla 1856–1943

Due to overwhelming public demand, we had to add Nikola Tesla to this list. Tesla was a genius and much of his work was stolen by other inventors. Tesla invented fluorescent lighting, the Tesla induction motor, and the Tesla coil. He developed the alternating current (AC) electrical supply system that included a motor and transformer, as well as three-phase electricity.

Steve Jobs 1955–2011

Matthew Yohe / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 3.0

Steve Jobs was best remembered as the charismatic co-founder of Apple Inc. Working with co-founder Steve Wozniak, Jobs introduced the Apple II, a popular mass-market personal computer that helped usher in a new era of personal computing. After being forced out of the company that he founded, Jobs returned in 1997 and assembled a team of designers, programmers, and engineers responsible for the groundbreaking iPhone, iPad, and many other innovations.

Tim Berners-Lee 1955–Present

Knight Foundation / Flickr / CC BY 2.0

Tim Berners-Lee is an English engineer and computer scientist who is often credited with inventing the World Wide Web , a network that most people use to access the Internet. He first described a proposal for such a system in 1989, but it wasn't until August 1991 that the first website was published online. The World Wide Web that Berners-Lee developed was comprised of the first web browser, server, and hypertext.

James Dyson 1947–Present

CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT / Contributor / Getty Images

Sir James Dyson is a British inventor and industrial designer who revolutionized vacuum cleaning with the invention of the Dual Cyclone, the first bagless vacuum cleaner. He later founded the Dyson company to develop improved and technologically advanced household appliances. So far, his company has debuted a bladeless fan, a hairdryer, a robotic vacuum cleaner, and many other products. He also established the James Dyson Foundation to support young people to pursue careers in technology. The James Dyson Award is given to students who come up with promising new designs.

Hedy Lamarr 1914–2000

AustinMini 1275 / Flickr / Public Domain

Hedy Lamarr is often recognized as an early Hollywood starlet, with film credits such as "Algiers" and "Boom Town." As an inventor, Lamarr made significant contributions to wireless communication technologies. During World War II, she invented a radio guidance system for torpedoes. The frequency-hopping technology has been used to develop Wi-Fi and Bluetooth .

Famous Inventors as Visionaries

It's no coincidence that some of the most famous inventors come from all walks of life. Henry Ford was a savvy business entrepreneur. James Naismith, the inventor of basketball, was a physical education teacher. However, they were all largely viewed as visionaries, delivering what they felt would make the world a better place. Steve Jobs , for example, was widely recognized as incredibly detail-oriented—according to some sources, he was obsessive; however, his attention to detail is still seen today in the sleek, user-friendly, and future-facing designs of Apple products.

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Benjamin Almeda
Biography of Elijah McCoy, American Inventor
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What Was Menlo Park?
Biography of Sarah Boone

November 1, 2013

What Are the 10 Greatest Inventions of Our Time?

Before you consider, here are a few opinions from Scientific American readers in 1913 on what makes a great invention

By Daniel C. Schlenoff

A competition sponsored in 1913 by Scientific American asked for essays on the 10 greatest inventions. The rules: “our time” meant the previous quarter century, 1888 to 1913; the invention had to be patentable and was considered to date from its “commercial introduction.”

Perception is at the heart of this question. Inventions are most salient when we can see the historical changes they cause. In 2013 we might not appreciate the work of Nikola Tesla or Thomas Edison on a daily basis, as we are accustomed to electricity in all its forms, but we are very impressed by the societal changes caused by the Internet and the World Wide Web (both of which run on alternating-current electricity, by the way). A century from now they might be curious as to what all the fuss was about. The answers from 1913 thus provide a snapshot of the perceptions of the time.

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The airplane: The Wright Flyer for military purposes, being demonstrated at Fort Myer, Va., in 1908. Image: Scientific American - November 1, 1913

Following are excerpts from the first- and second-prize essays, along with a statistical tally of all the entries that were sent in.

The first-prize essay was written by William I. Wyman, who worked in the U.S. Patent Office in Washington, D.C., and was thus well informed on the progress of inventions. His list was:

1. The electric furnace (1889) It was “the only means for commercially producing Carborundum (the hardest of all manufactured substances).” The electric furnace also converted aluminum “from a merely precious to very useful metal” (by reducing it’s price 98 percent), and was “radically transforming the steel industry.”

2. The steam turbine, invented by Charles Parsons in 1884 and commercially introduced over the next 10 years. A huge improvement in powering ships, the more far-reaching use of this invention was to drive generators that produced electricity.

3. The gasoline-powered automobile. Many inventors worked toward the goal of a “self-propelled” vehicle in the 19th century. Wyman gave the honor specifically to Gottleib Daimler for his 1889 engine, arguing: “a century's insistent but unsuccessful endeavor to provide a practical self-propelled car proves that the success of any type that once answered requirements would be immediate. Such success did come with the advent of the Daimler motor, and not before.”

4. The moving picture. Entertainment always will be important to people. “The moving picture has transformed the amusements of the multitude.” The technical pioneer he cited was Thomas Edison.

5. The airplane. For “the Realization of an age-long dream” he gave the laurels of success to the Wright brothers, but apart from its military use reserved judgment on the utility of the invention: “It presents the least commercial utility of all the inventions considered.”

6. Wireless Telegraphy. Systems for transmitting information between people have been around for centuries, perhaps millennia. Telegraph signals got a speed boost in the U.S. from Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail. Wireless telegraphy as invented by Guglielmo Marconi, later evolving into radio, set information free from wires.

7. The cyanide process. Sounds toxic, yes? It appears on this list for only one reason: It is used to extract gold from ore. “Gold is the life blood of trade,” and in 1913 it was considered to be the foundation for international commerce and national currencies.

8. The Nikola Tesla induction motor. “This epoch-making invention is mainly responsible for the present large and increasing use of electricity in the industries.” Before people had electricity in their homes, the alternating current–producing motor constructed by Tesla supplied 90 percent of the electricity used by manufacturing.

9. The Linotype machine. The Linotype machine enabled publishers—largely newspapers—to compose text and print it much faster and cheaper. It was an advance as large as the invention of the printing press itself was over the painstaking handwritten scrolls before it. Pretty soon we won’t be using paper for writing and reading, so the history of printing will be forgotten anyway.

10. The electric welding process of Elihu Thomson. In the era of mass production, the electric welding process enabled faster production and construction of better, more intricate machines for that manufacturing process.

The electric welder invented by Elihu Thomson enabled the cheaper production of intricate welded machinery. Image: Scientific American - November 1, 1913

The turbine invented by Charles Parsons powered ships. Assembled in numbers, they provided an efficient means of driving electrical generators and producing that most useful commodity. Image: Scientific American - November 1, 1913

The second-prize essay, by George M. Dowe, also of Washington, D.C., who may have been a patent attorney, was more philosophical. He divided his inventions into those aiding three broad sectors: production, transportation and communication.

1. Electrical fixation of atmospheric nitrogen. As natural fertilizer sources were depleted during the 19th century, artificial fertilizers enabled the further expansion of agriculture.

2. Preservation of sugar-producing plants. George W. McMullen of Chicago is credited with the discovery of a method for drying sugar cane and sugar beets for transport. Sugar production became more efficient and its supply increased by leaps and bounds, like a kid on a “sugar buzz.” Maybe this is one invention we could have done without. But I digress.

3. High-speed steel alloys. By adding tungsten to steel, “tools so made were able to cut at such a speed that they became almost red hot without losing either their temper or their cutting edge” The increase in the efficiency of cutting machines was “nothing short of revolutionary.”

4. Tungsten-filament lamp. Another success of chemistry. After tungsten replaced carbon in its filament, the lightbulb was considered “perfected.” As of 2013 they are being phased out worldwide in favor of compact fluorescent bulbs, which are four times as efficient.

5. The airplane. Not yet in wide use as transportation in 1913, but “To [Samuel] Langley and to the Wright brothers must be awarded the chief honors in the attainment of mechanical flight.” In 2013 the annoying aspects of commercial airline flying make transportation by horse and buggy seem a viable alternative.

6. The steam turbine. As with Mr. Wyman, the turbine deserved credit not only “in the utilization of steam as a prime mover” but in its use in the “generation of electricity.”

7. Internal combustion engine. As a means of transportation, Dowe gives the greatest credit to “Daimler, Ford and Duryea.” Gottleib Daimler is a well-known pioneer in motor vehicles. Henry Ford began production of the Model T in 1908 and it was quite popular by 1913. Charles Duryea made one of the earliest commercially successful petrol-driven vehicles, starting in 1896.

8. The pneumatic tire. Cars for personal transportation were an improvement on railways. “What the track has done for the locomotive, the pneumatic tire has done for the vehicle not confined to tracks.” Credit is given to John Dunlop and William C. Bartlet, who each had a milestone on the road (pun intended) to successful automobile and bicycle tires.

9. Wireless communication. Marconi was given the credit for making wireless “commercially practical.” Dowe also makes a comment that could apply equally to the rise of the World Wide Web, stating that wireless was “devised to meet the needs of commerce primarily, but incidentally they have contributed to social intercourse.”

10. Composing machines. The giant rotary press was quite capable of churning out masses of printed material. The bottleneck in the chain of production was composing the printing plates. The Linotype and the Monotype dispensed with that bottleneck.

The essays sent in were compiled to come up with a master list of inventions that were considered to be the top 10. Wireless telegraphy was on almost everyone’s list. The “aeroplane” came in second, although it was considered important because of its potential, not because there were so many airplanes in the sky. Here are the rest of the results:

Wireless telegraphy	97 percent
Aeroplane	75
X-Ray machine	74
Automobile	66
Motion pictures	63
Reinforced concrete	37
Phonograph	37
Incandescent electric lamp	35
Steam turbine	34
Electric car	34
Calculating machine	33
Internal combustion engine	33
Radium	27
Submarine boats	24
Picture telegraphy	24
Electric furnace	21
Diesel engine	18
Color photography	17
Dictograph	16
Composing machine	15
Transmitting and transforming AC current	15
Pneumatic tire (car and bicycle)	15
Dirigible (airships)	13
Photoengraving	13
Tungsten lightbulb	11
Electric welding	10
High-speed steel	10
Kodak portable camera	10
Fixation of nitrogen	9
Welsbach gas burner	9
Producer gas [a type of fuel]	8
Monorail	8
Flexible photo films	7
Liquid air	7

There were also mentions for Luther Burbank's agricultural work (23); Louis Pasteur and vaccination work (20); acetylene gas from carbide (17); mercury-vapor lamp (7); preservation of sugar-producing plants (7); combined motion picture and talking machine (10); Edison's storage battery (6); automatic player piano (4); Pulmotor (a respirator machine) (4); telephone (4).

The motion picture: The hard-working Thomas Edison helped make this entertainment form technically viable. Image: Scientific American - November 1, 1913

The full contents of all the prize-winning essays is available with a subscription to the Scientific American archives .

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What did Albert Einstein do?

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Table Of Contents

Albert Einstein was a famous physicist. His research spanned from quantum mechanics to theories about gravity and motion. After publishing some groundbreaking papers, Einstein toured the world and gave speeches about his discoveries. In 1921 he won the Nobel Prize for Physics for his discovery of the photoelectric effect .

Albert Einstein is best known for his equation E = mc 2 , which states that energy and mass (matter) are the same thing, just in different forms. He is also known for his discovery of the photoelectric effect , for which he won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921. Einstein developed a theory of special and general relativity, which helped to complicate and expand upon theories that had been put forth by Isaac Newton over 200 years prior.

Albert Einstein had a massive influence on contemporary physics. His theory of relativity shifted contemporary understanding of space completely. Along with his equation E = mc 2 , it also foreshadowed the creation of the atomic bomb . Einstein’s understanding of light as something which can function both as a wave and as a stream of particles became the basis for what is known today as quantum mechanics .

Albert Einstein was raised in a secular Jewish family and had one sister, Maja, who was two years younger than him. In 1903 Einstein married Milena Maric, a Serbian physics student whom he had met at school in Zürich. They had three children: a daughter, named Lieserl, and two sons, named Hans and Eduard. After a period of unrest, Einstein and Maric divorced in 1919. Einstein, during his marriage, had begun an affair with his cousin Elsa Löwenthal. They were married in 1919, the same year he divorced Maric.

How did Albert Einstein die?

After suffering an abdominal aortic aneurysm rupture several days before, Albert Einstein died on April 18, 1955, at age 76.

In December 1926 Albert Einstein wrote to Max Born that “[t]he theory produces a good deal but hardly brings us closer to the secret of the Old One. I am at all events convinced that He does not play dice.” Einstein was reacting to Born’s probabilistic interpretation of quantum mechanics and expressing a deterministic view of the world. Learn more.

News •

Albert Einstein (born March 14, 1879, Ulm , Württemberg, Germany—died April 18, 1955, Princeton , New Jersey , U.S.) was a German-born physicist who developed the special and general theories of relativity and won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921 for his explanation of the photoelectric effect . Einstein is generally considered the most influential physicist of the 20th century.

(Read Einstein’s 1926 Britannica essay on space-time.)

Einstein’s parents were secular , middle-class Jews. His father, Hermann Einstein, was originally a featherbed salesman and later ran an electrochemical factory with moderate success. His mother, the former Pauline Koch, ran the family household. He had one sister, Maria (who went by the name Maja), born two years after Albert.

Einstein would write that two “wonders” deeply affected his early years. The first was his encounter with a compass at age five. He was mystified that invisible forces could deflect the needle. This would lead to a lifelong fascination with invisible forces. The second wonder came at age 12 when he discovered a book of geometry , which he devoured , calling it his “sacred little geometry book.”

Einstein became deeply religious at age 12, even composing several songs in praise of God and chanting religious songs on the way to school. This began to change, however, after he read science books that contradicted his religious beliefs. This challenge to established authority left a deep and lasting impression. At the Luitpold Gymnasium , Einstein often felt out of place and victimized by a Prussian-style educational system that seemed to stifle originality and creativity. One teacher even told him that he would never amount to anything.

Thumbnail for the quiz, "Who Did That? A Historical Bio Quiz." Head with question mark made with string and pins.

Yet another important influence on Einstein was a young medical student, Max Talmud (later Max Talmey), who often had dinner at the Einstein home. Talmud became an informal tutor, introducing Einstein to higher mathematics and philosophy . A pivotal turning point occurred when Einstein was 16 years old. Talmud had earlier introduced him to a children’s science series by Aaron Bernstein, Naturwissenschaftliche Volksbucher (1867–68; Popular Books on Physical Science ), in which the author imagined riding alongside electricity that was traveling inside a telegraph wire. Einstein then asked himself the question that would dominate his thinking for the next 10 years: What would a light beam look like if you could run alongside it? If light were a wave , then the light beam should appear stationary, like a frozen wave. Even as a child, though, he knew that stationary light waves had never been seen, so there was a paradox . Einstein also wrote his first “scientific paper” at that time (“The Investigation of the State of Aether in Magnetic Fields”).

Einstein’s education was disrupted by his father’s repeated failures at business. In 1894, after his company failed to get an important contract to electrify the city of Munich , Hermann Einstein moved to Milan to work with a relative. Einstein was left at a boardinghouse in Munich and expected to finish his education. Alone, miserable, and repelled by the looming prospect of military duty when he turned 16, Einstein ran away six months later and landed on the doorstep of his surprised parents. His parents realized the enormous problems that he faced as a school dropout and draft dodger with no employable skills. His prospects did not look promising.

Fortunately, Einstein could apply directly to the Eidgenössische Polytechnische Schule (“Swiss Federal Polytechnic School”; in 1911, following expansion in 1909 to full university status, it was renamed the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule, or “Swiss Federal Institute of Technology”) in Zürich without the equivalent of a high school diploma if he passed its stiff entrance examinations. His marks showed that he excelled in mathematics and physics , but he failed at French , chemistry , and biology . Because of his exceptional math scores, he was allowed into the polytechnic on the condition that he first finish his formal schooling. He went to a special high school run by Jost Winteler in Aarau , Switzerland , and graduated in 1896. He also renounced his German citizenship at that time. (He was stateless until 1901, when he was granted Swiss citizenship.) He became lifelong friends with the Winteler family, with whom he had been boarding. (Winteler’s daughter, Marie, was Einstein’s first love; Einstein’s sister, Maja, would eventually marry Winteler’s son Paul; and his close friend Michele Besso would marry their eldest daughter, Anna.)

Einstein would recall that his years in Zürich were some of the happiest years of his life. He met many students who would become loyal friends, such as Marcel Grossmann, a mathematician, and Besso, with whom he enjoyed lengthy conversations about space and time. He also met his future wife, Mileva Maric, a fellow physics student from Serbia.

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