The 30 most famous scientists in history
A review of the most famous scientists in the history of mankind.
Science has been what has allowed the world to be the way it is today, and it would never have happened the way it has without the emergence of great minds.
From mathematics, biology, medicine and even physics theory, great scientists have emerged that have helped advance the human species. Below we will take a look at some of history's famous scientists and scientists who have helped advance the human species. we will see some famous scientists in history.
The 30 most famous scientists in history
Fortunately, there are thousands of scientists, all of them collaborating in the advancement and progress of the human species, however, not all have contributed in the same way. That is why we will now take a look at the 30 most outstanding scientists in history, a little of their lives and their main scientific milestones.
1. Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)
He is considered the greatest scientist of the last century. There is not a person on earth who cannot identify this German Jewish physicist in photographs. He won the Nobel Prize for physics in 1921. His theory of relativity is probably the greatest scientific breakthrough of modern times, being known by all his equation: E= mc^2.
Although his work is considered the foundation for the creation of the atomic bomb, this scientist always advocated peace.
Isaac Newton (1643 - 1727)
Isaac Newton was just about everything you could be in his time. Physicist, alchemist, astronomer, mathematician and inventor..
The story that he developed his law of gravity after an apple fell on his head while he was taking a nap under a tree is well known, although it is no more than a myth.
Stephen Hawking (1942- 2018)
Stephen Hawking is perhaps the most famous scientist after Einstein. He was a theoretical physicist known for his theories about the universe and general relativity..
Also known for suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and probably being the person who has survived the longest with the disease, his genius helped to make this disease visible.
He received up to twelve honorary doctorates and several awards, and is known outside the world of physics for having been very popular on television, making cameos in series such as The Big Bang Theory or even offering his particular humor while being interviewed.
4. Marie Curie (1867 - 1934)
Marie Curie, of Polish origin but living in France, is probably the best-known woman scientist.
She was the first woman to be a professor at the University of Paris. In addition, she is known for being the only person to have won not one but two Nobel Prizes, one in physics and the other in chemistry.
Pioneer, along with her husband Pierre, in the study of radioactivity, discovering radium and poloniumwhat made her famous was also the way in which her exposure to radiation was wearing down her health.
5. Galileo Galilei (1564 - 1642)
Galileo Galilei is the symbol of the scientific revolution that took place between the 16th and 16th centuries.that took place between the 16th and 17th centuries.
As a great figure of his time, he touched all the fields of knowledge he had at hand, such as astronomy, arts and physics.. He is considered by many the father of science as we know it today.
6. Charles Darwin (1809 - 1882)
Charles Darwin, who was originally going to be an Anglican clergyman, theorized about Biological evolution, which was a real controversy in deeply Christian Victorian England. To this day, his findings on evolution and natural selection lay the foundations of modern biology.
His voyage aboard the Beagle visiting the Galapagos Islands and studying the morphological and behavioral differences of the finches of that archipelago is one of the best known studies in history, along with his work The Origin of Species (1859).
7. Nicholas Copernicus (1473 - 1543)
Nicolaus Copernicus is considered the most important astronomer in history, in addition to laying the foundations for the scientific revolution along with Galileo Galilei.
This Polish scientist developed the heliocentric theory.The Sun was not the star that revolved around the Earth, but rather the Earth revolved around this star.
8. Louis Pasteur (1822 - 1895)
Louis Pasteur reformulated the ideas that were held about infectious diseases, founding the modern microbiology.He was the founder of modern microbiology.
His most outstanding achievement is to have discovered the vaccine against rabies, in addition to creating the technique for food sterilization, which was later called pasteurization in his honor.
9. Alexander Fleming (1881 - 1955)
Alexander Fleming is responsible for the availability today of effective drugs against diseases that until a century ago were a death sentence.
His most important discovery, almost by serendipity, was that of the penicillin fungus, a substance which is an antibiotic.penicillin, a substance which is antibiotic. This substance is still used today, and has been responsible for saving millions of lives around the globe.
10. Gregor Mendel (1822 - 1884)
Gregor Mendel was a Czech monk who, thanks to his work with pea plants, laid the foundations for the field of genetics, laid the foundations for the field of genetics..
He discovered how traits were inherited, according to dominance and recessivity relationships, and formulated a series of laws that today are called Mendel's laws.
11. Thomas Alva Edison (1847 - 1931)
The figure of Thomas Alva Edison, although well known, is also controversial. He has been the author of innumerable inventions, although it must be said that there are not few of them.Although it must be said that there are not few who consider that he really took many 'borrowed' ideas when creating new devices.
What can be recognized about this character is that, in addition to being a great inventor, he knew how to take advantage of his creations and became an important businessman.
12. Archimedes of Syracuse (287 B.C. - 212 B.C.)
Archimedes of Syracuse is known for his advances in physics and mathematics, and is also seen as the most important scientist of the Classical Era. His principles of the lever and Archimedes' principle are widely known.
13. Leonardo da Vinci (1452 - 1519)
Leonardo da Vinci, in addition to being a great artist, was an impressive inventor.. He devoted himself to botany, astronomy, engineering and biology, in addition to making important studies and detailed drawings of human anatomy.
Sometimes he obtained corpses from the morgues in a somewhat murky way in order to dissect them at home.
Among his drawings the most remarkable are those that refer to a prototype of a flying machine, which has allowed the development of the modern helicopter.
14. Nikola Tesla (1856 - 1943)
Nikola Tesla's main scientific breakthrough was in the study of electromagnetism.which years later would allow a better study and application of the concepts of alternating current and polyphase system.
He patented about three hundred new ideas, among which was the radio.
15. Santiago Ramón y Cajal (1852 - 1934)
Santiago Ramón y Cajal is one of the few Spanish scientists who have achieved worldwide recognition, winning the Nobel Prize in medicine in 1906, together with Camillo Golgi.
He specialized in the study of the tissues of the human body and diseases of the organism.His studies on the neuron and his formulation of the doctrine of this cell in terms of its functioning and reproduction are well known.
16. Aristotle (384 B.C.-322 B.C.)
Aristotle, although still in a primitive form, is considered to be the first person to make use of something resembling the scientific method..
His work is widely known for having classified hundreds of species of animals and plants according to their anatomy and similar characteristics.
17. Erwin Schrödinger (1887 - 1961)
Erwin Schrödinger is known for his contributions and development of quantum physics, quantum mechanics, and quantum mechanics. quantum physics, quantum mechanics and thermodynamics.. He received the Nobel Prize in physics in 1933.
Schrödinger's paradox is a mental exercise conceived by this great scientist himself, which allows us to understand his interpretations of quantum physics.
18. Severo Ochoa (1905 - 1993)
He is another of the few great Spanish scientists known worldwide, Severo Ochoa was a specialist in biochemistry and molecular biology..
Like Ramón y Cajal, he received the Nobel Prize in physiology and medicine in 1959 for his study on RNA synthesis.
19. Alfred Nobel (1833 - 1896)
Alfred Nobel is known not only for the prize in his honor, awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, but also for having invented dynamite. for having invented dynamite..
His invention was not accidental. He was interested in the manufacture and experimentation of substances for war purposes.
20. Pythagoras (579 B.C. - 475 B.C.)
Pythagoras is well known for his contributions to mathematics.Pythagoras' theorem is a must in the educational curriculum of any country.
But he was not only dedicated to numbers and geometry. He also studied music, ethics and astronomy.
John Dalton (1766 - 1844)
John Dalton was a chemist and mathematician and, coincidentally, the discoverer of color blindness.Dalton was a chemist and mathematician and, coincidentally, the discoverer of color blindness, a visual disorder that he himself suffered from.
The discovery of this problem was accidental, when he saw how people were surprised by colors that he saw as gray, or when they were confused in the laboratory when they thought that a chemical was another when they saw it in the same color.
But his great contribution is the study of the atom, formulating a model to explain what is considered the fundamental particle of our universe.
22. René Descartes (1596 - 1650)
René Descartes is studied in the institutes for his facet as a philosopher, but he also contributed to the fields of the sciences. but he also contributed to the fields of mathematics and physics..
This great French thinker is one of the forerunners of modern philosophy, as well as having contributed to shaping science as we understand it today.
23. Jane Goodall (1934-present)
Jane Goodall is one of the most influential women of the 20th and 21st century, in addition to being a UN Messenger of Peace.
She is considered the greatest expert on chimpanzees, dedicating her life to the study of social interactions among these apes. Her work has not only been descriptive. She has contributed to the preservation of many species threatened by hunting and climate change. by hunting and climate change.
Isaac Asimov (1920 - 1992)
Isaac Asimov is known for his laws on robotics, although he was a professor of biochemistry.although he was a professor of biochemistry. He is best known for being the author of countless works of science fiction in which the laws that should govern future robots with artificial intelligence are exposed.
25. Alexander Graham Bell (1847 - 1922)
Alexander Graham Bell is known for having contributed to the development of telecommunications..
This scientist is like Edison, since he is shrouded in an aura of controversy due to the fact that there are certain inventions that he patented but it is not entirely known if he was the one who really tried them, an example being the telephone.
26. Hypatia of Alexandria (350/370-415)
Hypatia of Alexandria was a philosopher and neoplatonic teacher, of Greek origin and resident in Alexandria.of Greek origin and resident in Egypt. She excelled in mathematics and astronomy.
At a time when the Roman Empire was collapsing and giving way to Christianity, she educated both aristocratic followers of the old faith and those who had accepted the word of Christ.
Her life is portrayed quite faithfully in Alejandro Amenábar's 2009 film 'Agora'.
27. Rosalind Franklin (1920-1958)
Rosalind Franklin is the woman who, basically, discovered the structure of life: DNA.. This is probably the greatest discovery in biology in history.
His contributions on the structure of RNA, viruses, graphite and carbon are also famous.
28. Charles Linnaeus (1707-1778)
Charles Linnaeus was a Swedish botanist, physician and zoologist, known for being the creator of the modern creator of the current modern taxonomic systemwhich uses two words to identify each species.
During his lifetime, the importance of his findings was so great in his native Sweden that thousands of people have since named their children Linnaeus, Linné and Linnea in his honor.
29. Dimitri Mendeleyev (1834-1907)
Dmitri Mendeleyev is the most important Russian chemist. His popularity lies in the fact that he succeeded in organizing the chemical elements in a table according to their atomic weight and other properties.
30. Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (1849-1936)
Ivan Petrovich Pavlov is widely known in psychology due to his studies on classical conditioning in animals.The experiment with dogs and bells as a stimulus associated with the arrival of food is especially famous.
Bibliographical references:
- Hawking, S. (2009), Galileo and the Birth of Modern Science. American Heritage's Invention & Technology, 24(1). 36.
(Updated at Apr 13 / 2024)