Category Scientist & Invensions

The English scientist Henry Cavendish was an experimental chemist and physicist par excellence. Cavendish was the first to recognize hydrogen gas as a distinct substance. He called it inflammable air.

         Cavendish showed that hydrogen is much less dense than air. In 1785, he published a paper showing the earth’s atmosphere consists of four parts nitrogen to one part oxygen.

         In addition, to his achievements in chemistry, Cavendish is also known for the Cavendish experiment. He was the first to measure the force of gravity between masses in a laboratory, and to produce an accurate value for earth’s density.

       Henry Cavendish also experimented with electricity, but much of his work on the subject was only published after his death. He was renowned for the great accuracy and precision of his scientific research.

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 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 period of about 30years from 12 outsize pages in its first edition, to 2400 pages in its 12th 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’.

Edmond Halley was an English scientist who became very interested in a comet that he saw in 1682. After being told that a similar comet had appeared in 1531 and 1607, he suspected that it was the same comet that he had seen.

        By using the laws of gravity discovered by his friend Sir Isaac Newton, Halley realized that he could predict when it would return. Halley worked out that he comet would appear in our skies every 75 to 76 years.

        He was correct in his prediction, but sadly when the comet did reappear, he was no more, and he could not witness the confirmation he had waited for so eagerly. In his honour, the comet was named after him.

     Though he is remembered foremost as an astronomer, Halley also made significant discoveries in the fields of geography, mathematics, meteorology, and physics. Halley was very close to Newton.

Sir Isaac Newton, an Englishman who lived in the 17th century, is 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 philosophiae Natural is 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 colors.

       Newton was a deep thinker with an insatiable curiosity to know everything about everything he saw. His contributions are so numerous, that e changed forever the way in which we look at the world.

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 Herrevead Abbey in 1572, and another one named ‘Uraniborg’ in 1576. He also built a third one called ‘Stjerneborg’ IN 1581

Andreas Vesalius was the founder of modern anatomy. This 16th century physician and surgeon completely revolutionized the science of biology and medicine.

     By careful and painstaking dissections of cadavers, he learned a great deal about the structure of the human body and laid the foundation for modern physiology.

    In 1543, he published a remarkable book ‘De humani corporis fabrics’. It was a fully illustrated anatomy of the human body, based on the observations Vesalius had made during his dissections. The book destroyed the misconceptions in anatomy that had persisted for over a thousand years.

    Vesalius’ anatomical studies corrected many religious beliefs and the finding of a previous physician Galen, who had dissected apes because religion forbade him to dissect real human cadavers.

     Vesalius was the first surgeon to actually cut open a cadaver or dead body of a human being, and his exceptionally detailed muscle drawings changed medical history for all time.