Galileo/Newton/Curie/Eratosthenes/Wegener/Hess/Darwin/Crick/Franklin/Watson

  • 276 BCE

    Eratosthenes

    Eratosthenes was born in the Greek colony of Cyrene.
  • 276 BCE

    Library of Alexandria

    Eratosthenes was appointed to chief librarian of the famous Library of Alexandria.
  • 240 BCE

    Major Discovery

    Eratosthenes discovered the calculation of earth’s circumference.
  • 165 BCE

    Earth's tilt

    Eratosthenes discovered the calculation of the tilt of earth’s axis.
  • 194

    Eratosthenes' End

    Eratosthenes passed away.
  • Feb 15, 1564

    Galileo

    Born in Pisa, Italy
  • 1574

    Moved to Florence

    where he was educated in a monastery
  • 1581

    Studied medicine

    from 1581 to 1585 at the University of Pisa
  • Started teaching

    mathematics at the University of Pisa
  • Galileo started working

    on explaining the cause of the tides.
  • Galileo agreed with Copernicus

    but never made it public, and also invented a mechanical device for mathematical calculations
  • Observed a supernova in the sky

    challenging Aristotle's claim that "no change could ever take place in the heavens"
  • Started tutoring

    Cosimo de Medici, the son of the Grand Duke of Tuscany
  • He had seen

    the four largest moons orbiting around Jupiter, opposing Ptolemaic theory that Earth is the center of all orbiting bodies
  • Galileo published

    "The Starry Messenger" which showed that Venus circled the Sun, not the Earth
  • He published

    his "Letters on Sunspots"
  • Authorities of the Inquisition in Rome

    banned all books that that argued in favor of a "Copernican Sun-centered model for the Solar System"
  • Galileo gained permission

    to publish his theory on the causes of tides
  • The book

    "Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems — Ptolemaic and Copernican" was published which held Galileo's theories
  • In September

    Galileo was charged with “vehement suspicion of heresy” and ordered to come to Rome for a trial
  • Galileo published a book

    outlining all of his ideas in Italian
  • Galileo became blind

  • Galileo died

    at the age of 77, in Florence
  • Issac Newton

    was born in Lincolnshire, England
  • Newton

    was sent to King's School
  • Galileo's book

    was converted into English as " Discourses and Mathematical Demonstrations Relating to Two New Sciences"
  • Attended Cambridge University

  • He proved that

    “white” light was composed of all colors, and started to figure out calculus and universal gravitation
  • Graduate studies at Cambridge

  • Became a

    professor of mathematics at Cambridge
  • Newton published his book

    "Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy"
  • Newton was made a knight by Queen Anne

  • Newton was

    buried in London’s Westminster Abbey after his death
  • Galileo was

    buried in the main body of the Basilica of Santa Croce
  • Charles Darwin

    Charles Darwin was born.
  • Charles Goes Out to Sea

    Charles took part of the Beagle Voyage where he sailed to South America for documentation of the creatures that were found there.
  • New Outlooks

    Darwin spent the next 20 years or so brooding about the theological implications of his discoveries. Darwin spent a lot of his time contemplating on his religious beliefs and if they tied in to his theory, making the process of trying to regulate it a little bit more difficult.
  • Darwin Returns Home

    Darwin returned home and began to issue his theories. He began writing papers about his theories and discoveries.
  • Specie Mutations

    Darwin started creating his first theories on mutations and the evolution of animals within their species.
  • "Descent of Modification"

    Charles began drawing out his beliefs on how the human species had refined.
  • Natural Selection

    Charles began developing a paper for his theory, Natural Selection.
  • Copley Medal

    Darwin was presented the Copley medal which was the highest scientific award of the Royal Society of London.
  • Marie Curie

    was born in Warsaw, Poland, in 1867, as Maria Sklodowska
  • Beginning

    Alfred Wegener was born in Berlin.
  • Evolution of Mold

    As his theories developed, Darwin wrote a paper on the evolution of mold.
  • Growing up

    Maria grew up with her parents being educators and had always been fascinated with science. She was a good student and graduated high school at the age of 15 with top grades.
  • Charles Darwin Passed Away

    Charles Darwin suffered a heart attack and died on April 19, 1882.
  • University of Paris

    Maria soon went to pursue her studies at the Sorbonne and started signing her name as Marie.
  • Physics Degree

    Marie was the first woman to receive a degree in physics from the Sorbonne.
  • Married

    In July of 1895, Marie married Pierre Curie. The rented a small apartment and Marie carried on her studies at Sarbonne.
  • Henry Hess

    Henry Hess was born.
  • First Born Child

    In September of 1897, Marie gave birth to her first daughter, Irène.
  • Polonium

    Marie soon discovered a new element called "polonium". Later the Curies announced another new element called "radium" and described its property of matter with the new term "radioactive".
  • Glowing

    The Curies could finally see their products as they shined with a silvery-blue-green glow.
  • Nobel Prize

    Marie gained her doctorate degree in physics and was the first woman awarded with a PhD in France. Later Marie was also the first woman to receive a Nobel Prize.
  • Eve

    Marie gave birth to the Curies second daughter, Eve.
  • University of Berlin

    He received a PhD in astronomy from the University of Berlin.
  • Widow

    Pierre Curie was hit by a horse-drawn carriage and instantly died and Marie became a widow.
  • New Age of Science

    After Pierre's death, Marie picked up Pierre's work and a new age of science began to emerge. She then expressed her acceptance of Rutherford’s decay theory.
  • Air Balloons

    Alfred and his brother Kurt set a world record for spending the longest time in a balloon - 52 hours. Later in the year Alfred joined an expedition to Greenland to track polar air circulation.
  • Continental Drift

    Alfred found a world map where the east coast of South America fit
    exactly against the west coast of Africa, as if they had been joined.
  • Sweden

    Marie was awarded with a second Nobel Prize for chemistry and became the first person to win two Noble Prizes. She traveled to Sweden with her two daughters to accept her prize.
  • The Thermodynamics of the Atmosphere

    Alfred co-wrote "The Thermodynamics of the Atmosphere"
  • Einstein Visited

    Einstein and his family visited Marie to discuss many scientific ideas.
  • Radium Institute

    Marie organized the Radium Institute, a research center in Paris and later in Warsaw where Marie served as director.
  • Pangaea

    Alfred then published "The Origin of Continents and Oceans" where he claimed that all the continents were once a single mass and he called it "Pangaea".
  • Francis Crick

  • Rosalind Franklin

    Rosalind Franklin was born.
  • University of Graz in Austria

    Alfred became a professor in meteorology and geophysics
    at the University of Graz in Austria.
  • USS Cape Johnson

    The USS Cape Johnson was given to Hess and he used it for scientific investigations.
  • James Watson

    James Watson was born.
  • Another Expedition

    He led another expedition to Greenland where he set up a yearlong "weather-monitoring equipment at three stations on the glacier".
  • The End

    Alfred passed away on his return trip to the west to the coast.
  • The End

    Marie Curie unfortunately died in 1934.
  • PhD

    Rosalind Franklin had received her PhD from Cambridge in physical chemistry.
  • Mid-Atlantic Ridge

    Other researchers found a huge rift that ran along the top of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge which enabled Hess to "understand his ocean floor profiles in the Pacific".
  • DNA

    She started at King’s College where she focused her studies on DNA.
  • Francis Crick & Crystallography

    Francis Crick was working on his PhD in the crystallography of proteins.
  • James Watson & Cambridge

    At the age of 23, Watson was at Cambridge as a post doctorate fellow in biology with limited knowledge of chemistry.
  • Franklin's Diffraction Images

    Using her diffraction images, Franklin rationed that: 1) DNA takes two forms (shorter-dryer and longerwetter), 2) the sugar-phosphate backbones must be on the outside, and 3) the molecule looks the same upside down or right side up.
  • Maurice Wilkins

    Maurice Wilkins, Franklin's college, showed Watson one of the diffraction images Franklin had recorded without telling Franklin
    or asking her permission.
  • DNA=Helix

    Watson knew from seeing Franklin’s photograph that DNA had to be
    a helix with certain dimensions. He then started working on drawings and models trying to prove his theory.
  • The Secret of Life

    Watson and Crick finally figured out that: If two of the bases were bonded in pairs (G with C), they took up the same space as the other pair (A with T). Knowing this proves that the molecules could be arranged in the form of a helix.
  • Tobacco Mosaic Virus & Polio

    Franklin made important discoveries about the tobacco mosaic virus and polio.
  • "A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid”

    Issue of Nature published Watson and Crick's article, “A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid.”
  • Watson & Harvard

    Watson returned to the United States, researching at Harvard.
  • Franklin Passed Away

    Franklin unfortunately died from ovarian cancer at the age of 37 in London so she was not able to share the Nobel Prize.
  • Double Helix Structure

    Scientists generally embraced the double helix as the structure
    of DNA.
  • Nobel Prize

    Wilkins, Watson, and Crick received the Nobel Prize in
    medicine/physiology for their work.
  • "History of Ocean Basins"

    Hess published his theory in "History of Ocean Basins" which then became "seafloor spreading".
  • 200,000 Years

    "Geophysicists realized that Earth’s magnetic field had reversed polarity many times, with each reversal lasting less than
    200,000 years".
  • Hess' Death

    Hess assisted to plan the U.S. space program and then died of a heart attack on August 25, 1969.
  • Human Genome Project

    Watson helped establish the Human Genome Project in the early
    1990s.
  • Crick Passed Away

    Crick continued his research in England until he moved to the
    Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California, where he died.
  • Retirement

    Watson then served as president of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on Long Island, New York, until his retirement in 2007.