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600 BCE
"The Father of Science"
Thales, a greek philosopher, has been called the “father of science” for his ideas about the natural world. He proposed that natural events such as lightning and earthquakes have natural causes. Up until then, people understood such events to be the acts of gods or other supernatural forces. -
300 BCE
Empiricism
Aristotle, a greek philosopher, thought that truth about the natural world could come only from observations of nature and inductive reasoning. He argued that knowledge of nature must be based on evidence and logic. This idea is called empiricism, and it is the basis of science today. -
700
"The Father of Chemistry"
Geber, a Persian scientist, introduced the scientific method and experimentation in chemistry. His ideas and methods were later adopted by European chemists. Today, Geber is known as the “father of chemistry.” -
1500
Sun at the Center
Copernicus made the first convincing arguments that the sun—not Earth—is the center of what we now call the solar system. -
Earth’s Place in the Cosmos
Galileo greatly improved the telescope, which had just been invented, and made many important discoveries in the field of astronomy. -
Period: to
Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion
Kepler's laws describes the motions of the planets in the solar system. He announce his first two laws in the year 1609 and a third law nearly a decade later, in 1618. -
Newton’s Three Laws of Motion
Newton presented his three laws of motion. Newton's first law states that every object in motion or rest will stay in motion, or rest unless an outside force acts on it. The second law explains how the velocity of an object changes when it is subjected to an external force. The third law states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. -
Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation
Newton according to his laws of motion, anything that begins moving from a standing start is undergoing acceleration and, where there is acceleration, there must be a force. -
Marie Curie
Marie Curie was the first woman to win a Nobel prize—and she won two of them! She won the 1903 Nobel prize for physics for her discovery of radiation. -
Marie Curie
Marie Curie was the first woman to win a Nobel prize—and she won two of them! She won the 1911 Nobel prize for chemistry for her discovery of the elements radium and polonium. -
Albert Enstein
Einstein published his general theory of relativity. This theory relates matter and energy. It also explains gravity as a property of space and time. Einstein’s theory has been supported by all evidence and observations to date. -
C. V. Raman
C. V. Raman was an Indian scientist who won the 1930 Nobel prize for physics. He made important discoveries about how light travels through transparent materials. He was made a knight of the British Empire for his work. -
Maria Goeppert-Mayer
Maria Goeppert-Mayer, a German-born American scientist who won the 1963 Nobel prize for physics. She helped to develop a new model of the nucleus of the atom. She was the second woman to win a Nobel prize for physics. -
Mario Molina
Mario Molina, aMexican-born scientist who won the 1995 Nobel prize for chemistry. He helped to discover how the ozone layer in the atmosphere is being destroyed by pollution. He has received more than 18 honorary degrees for his contributions and even has an asteroid named after him. -
Ada E. Yonath
Ada E. Yonath was a co-winner of the 2009 Nobel prize in chemistry. She made important discoveries about ribosomes, the structures in living cells where proteins are made. -
Particle Accelerator
The Large Hadron Collider is probably the world’s most famous science experiment. The 27km-long ring-shaped particle accelerator beneath the edge of the Alps proved the existence of the Higgs boson particle. -
Reversing Paralysis
Using a wireless brain-body electronic interfaces to bypass damage to the nervous system.