(ORDO NEWS) — We all follow the news of science every day, but what is it? In essence, science is an activity in which mankind learns and puts together in a single system various facts about the reality around us. There are many scientific fields that are aimed at studying space, living organisms, their life, and so on. The people who contribute to the development of these areas are called scientists.
These heroes, thanks to whom we have cars, computers and spaceships, can be counted in thousands. But in history there are especially outstanding scientists, without whose discoveries mankind would have been marking time for a long time in one place. Let’s remember a dozen great scientists and their discoveries? You can learn more about them from literature and documentaries – I will also mention the best and most detailed works.
The term “scientist” was first used by the English philosopher William Whewell in The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences. He wrote that humanity needs to find a name for people who are engaged in science. Then the term appeared, which was translated into different languages of the world.
Albert Einstein is a smart funny guy
This name, perhaps, is known to every person since childhood. And the image of a “crazy” scientist with disheveled hair and protruding tongue can hardly be forgotten. The German scientist was born in 1879 and during his 76-year life he wrote more than 300 scientific works, and also became the author of 150 books and articles in the field of philosophy of science and history. As an honorary doctorate from some 20 leading universities in the world, Albert Einstein retained a great sense of humor. How can a bore say the following:
In my youth, I discovered that the big toe sooner or later makes a hole in the sock. So I stopped wearing socks.
Albert Einstein is considered one of the founders of theoretical physics, because he developed such important physical theories as:
- theory of relativity,
- Bose quantum statistics;
- equivalence of mass and energy E = mc²
- theory of gravity.
Dozens of thick books and many long films can be written about Albert Einstein’s contribution to science. This, in principle, humanity is actively engaged in to this day. Interesting facts about Einstein can be found in the article by the author of Hi-News.ru Ilya Khel – did you know that he invented the pump and the blouse? And I think Einstein and Eddington 2008 is one of the most interesting films about the German scientist – I advise you to watch it.
Marie Curie – life for science
This name is also known to almost everyone who attended school. Of course, because Marie Curie is considered one of the greatest female scientists. This is the first woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in physics – this momentous event happened in 1903. Moreover, she is a Nobel laureate twice, because in 1911 she received the same award for achievements in the field of chemistry.
Marie-Curie is known as the person who, for the first time in history, told the world about such a phenomenon as radioactivity. Together with her husband, Pierre Curie, she literally turned the scientific understanding of scientists of the 19th century and discovered two new chemical elements: radium and polonium. By the way, her father was a physics teacher and was friends with the Russian chemist Mendeleev. When she was still a simple employee of the laboratory, the scientist expressed confidence in her great future.
Maria devoted her whole life to the study of radiation, but did not even suspect that by doing so she was destroying her body every day. At the beginning of the 20th century, people did not know about the harmful effects of radioactive substances and even used them in the manufacture of household appliances – the hands of a clock made of radium, for example, glowed beautifully in the dark. It is not surprising that Marie Curie carried radioactive elements from the laboratory home right in her pocket and could study them, roughly speaking, even at the kitchen table.
Active interaction with radioactive substances without protective clothing, in the end, became the cause of the death of the great woman. In 1934, she died of aplastic anemia, and then her daughter Irene Joliot-Curie also died – the cause was anemia caused by exposure to radioactive substances at home. At the moment, Marie Curie’s personal belongings cannot be used without protective suits, and her body was placed in a zinc coffin. And all because all of her body and personal belongings emit radiation.
Marie Curie is on our list of seven scientists who died because of their own inventions. And as a biographical film, you can watch “Dangerous Element” of 2019.
Isaac Newton is the foundation of everything
Isaac Newton was born on Christmas Day 1643 – perhaps in this way nature made a huge gift for humanity. The great English mathematician and founder of classical physics was born very painful and the people around him doubted that he would be able to survive. But the boy was able and lived up to the age of 84, which was enough to study mathematics, physics, mechanics, optics and even astronomy. Perhaps, if Isaac Newton did not exist, we would not have cars, computers and other technology around us today.
Here are some of Newton’s discoveries:
- the law of universal gravitation;
- principles of classical mechanics;
- theory of planetary motion;
- the first, second and third laws of Newton.
During his life, the scientist wrote many scientific works, but the most important of them is “Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy”. In Europe, this book was published in 80 copies. These books are extremely valuable historical items – in 2016 it became known that one of them was sold at auction for $ 3.7 million. The original book is under the protection of the staff of the Royal Academy of Sciences – how much it costs, it’s even scary to imagine.
To make it clear to everyone how great a contribution Newton made to science, one thing can be said – if it were not for his works, we would hardly be able to launch rockets into space today. We can say that with his works Newton brought humanity to a new level of knowledge and was able to explain by what principles objects in the Universe move, what light is and many other phenomena of our reality. In addition to his interest in mathematics and other scientific fields, Newton was engaged in other matters – for example, during his student years, he tried to come up with a universal language.
In general, Isaac Newton was very comprehensively developed – this can explain the abundance of his discoveries. This became known only 200 years after his death, but, as it turned out, the scientist was also fond of mysticism. This trait of a great scientist can be found in the documentary “Isaac Newton: The Last Sorcerer” in 2013.
Charles Darwin is a great traveler
If it weren’t for Charles Darwin, today we would not know how man came about. Born in 1882 and living to 73 years of age, the English naturalist is the author of The Origin of Species, which describes the theory of evolution. In general terms, this means that all living organisms have distant and very primitive ancestors, who, in response to changes in the environment, became stronger, more agile and wiser. It sounds quite plausible, but some scientists still doubt the results of Darwin’s work. For example, recently renowned biologist Masatoshi Nei announced that the driving force behind evolution is not natural selection, but mutation.
Like any self-respecting naturalist, Charles Darwin traveled around the world – this happened in 1831, on the ship “Beagle”. During the trip, the scientist took notes and collected a large collection of marine animals. On the basis of the notes made, the book “The Naturalist’s Journey Around the World on the Beagle” was subsequently written. But this book is far from the most famous work of a famous naturalist.
The most important works of Charles Darwin are:
- the book “The Origin of Species”, which was published in 1859;
- Household Alteration of Animals and Plants, published in 1868;
- The Descent of Man and Sexual Selection, 1871;
- “Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals”, published in 1872.
You can learn more about the life and work of the British naturalist by watching two films. The first one was filmed in 2009 and is called Origins. The second documentary film is called “Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life.”
Nikola Tesla – the father of electricity
For many people, the name Nikola Tesla is synonymous with electricity. This genius was born in 1856 and raised in Austria-Hungary, and then worked in France and the United States. Nikola Tesla devoted his entire 86-year life to the creation of devices operating on alternating current energy. Many biographers call him the man who “created the 20th century.” His name is known not only among science lovers, but also in popular culture. It turns out that Nikola Tesla is as famous as Emmett Brown from the films “Back to the Future”.
What Nikola Tesla created is usually described in the pages of fantastic books. His contemporary was the American businessman Thomas Edison, who invented light bulbs. But Nikola Tesla always wanted to come up with something better. In the end, he managed to create neon lamps that could be lit from quite a distance. Isn’t that magic?
Nikola Tesla really looks like the hero of a science fiction novel or movie. He even had two secret laboratories at his disposal, in which he conducted life-threatening experiments with electricity. In 1899, he had a laboratory in the American state of Colorado. During one of the experiments, he created such a voltage in the electrical network that the city of Colorado Springs was left without electricity for some time.
The second laboratory was located on Long Island, which is located in the northeastern United States. But it was impossible to call it invisible, because next to it was a giant tower. With the help of it, the scientist intended to transfer energy across the entire globe. In his opinion, in this case, our planet would have trembled, but the experiment was not carried out.
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