Great Scientists

Galilieo Galilei was a groundbreaking Italianastronomer, physicist, mathematician, philosopher and inventor. He opened the eyes of the world to a new way of thinking about how the solar system works. For many years, scientists had believed that the solar system revolved around the Earth, and that the Earth was the centre of the Universe. Galileo was the first scientist to prove that this wasn't correct. He stated that in fact, the solar system revolved around the Sun. He also invented an improved telescope so that he could gaze far into space. He was the first to see Jupiter's moons, and the first to realise that our Moon was covered with craters. Besides inventing the improved telescopes, he also invented the compass and a thermometer. Galileo has played a major role in the scientific revolution of the 17th century.

Tycho Brahe was a famous Danish astronomer who played a vital role in the development of various astronomical instruments. He devised his own instrument, even before the invention of the telescope, to observe the heavens. These instruments allowed Brahe to determine the movements of heavenly objects more precisely. Brahe made significant contributions in the study of the Moon and the planet Mars, which would later prove extremely useful to other astronomers. Instruments built by Brahe proved to be very helpful in accurate determinations of latitude and longitude. Brahe built his first observatory at Herrevad Abbey in 1572, and another one named 'Uraniborg' in 1576. He also built a third one called 'Stjerneborg' in 1581.

Robert Boyle was a famous Anglo lrish scientist who transformed chemistry in the 17th century. Till then, chemistry was confined to alchemy and mysticism. Alchemy was the study of how to change basic substances such as metals into other more valuable substances. Boyle made chemistry a science based on measurement. He defined elements, compounds and mixtures and he coined the new term 'chemical analysis,' a field in which he made several contributions. Robert Boyle is most famous for Boyle's Law. It was the first of the gas laws linking the pressure of a gas to its volume. He established that electrical forces are transmitted through a vacuum, but sound is not. Boyle also stated that the movement of particles is responsible for heat. He was the first person to write specific experimental guidance for other scientists, telling them the importance of achieving reliable results. He was indeed a 'mighty chemist'. Robert Boyle is regarded as the first modern chemist, and

Johannes Kepler was a leading astronomer of the Scientific Revolution. The Scientific Revolution is the term used to describe the emergence of modern science that took place throughout the 16th and 17th centuries. Before the Scientific Revolution, astronomy was closely tied to astrology, which is the belief that the movement of the stars and planets can be interpreted to predict the future. As the Scientific Revolution progressed, astrology increasingly came to be replaced by astronomy as a modern, legitimate science. Johannes Kepler is best known for his discovery that the orbits in which the Earth and the other planets of the solar system travel around the Sun are elliptical, or oval, in shape. He was also the first to explain correctly how human beings see, and demonstrated what happens to light when it enters a telescope.  In ddition, he designed an instrument that serves as the basis of the modern refractive telescope. Since he was such a prominent figure in the field of astronomy

James Clerk Maxwell, a Scottish physicist and mathematician, was a remarkable scientist. He brought together a large number of equations, experiments, and observations related to electricity and magnetism. and showed them to be different manifestations of the same phenomenon. Maxwell produced a set of equations that explain the properties of magnetic and electric fields, and help show that light is an electromagnetic wave. He also described the nature of Saturn's rings as numerous small particles, rather than a solid or fluid ring. Maxwell's contributions in the fields of kinetic theory and thermodynamics are many. He is even believed to have created the first true colour photograph. His contributions played an important role in the advances made in 20th century physics. 

Sir Issac Newton, an Englishman who lived in the 17th century, is a scientific legend. He came up with numerous theories and contributed ideas to many different fields including physics, mathematics, and philosophy. In 1687, Newton published his book Philosophise Naturalist Principia Mathematica. In it, he describes universal gravitation, and the three laws of motion. It is widely regarded to be one of the most important books in the history of science. It is well known that his work on formulating a theory of gravitation was inspired by watching an apple fall from a tree! During his lifetime, Newton developed a new type of mathematics, called calculus, and made breakthroughs in the area of optics such as the reflecting telescope. He also discovered that white light is made up of a wide range of different colours. Newton was a deep thinker with an insatiable curiosity to know everything about everything he saw. His contributions are so numerous, that he changed forever the way in which

In the 18th century, the Swedish naturalist and physician Carl Linnaeus introduced the scientific system of classifying plants and animals that is used all over the world to this day. Under this system, each living thing is assigned a name consisting of two Latin words. The first word is the name of the genus, and the second, the species. The classification of living things is called taxonomy. In 1737, Linnaeus published the first edition of his book titled Systema Naturae or System of Nature. Over the years, Linnaeus continued to develop his ideas and add new species so that the book grew in a period of about 30 years from 12 outsize pages in its first edition, to 2400 pages in its twelfth edition. This was the first serious attempt ever made to document all of our planet's species. It was a huge effort and it won Linnaeus acclaim as the 'Father of Taxonomy .