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Braucher: Senior Producer and Data Editor Yvette Charboneau: Senior Copy Editor Kathy Nakamura: Manager, Media Acquisition Kara Rogers: Senior Editor, Biomedical Sciences Rosen Educational Services Jeanne Nagle: Senior Editor Nelson Sá: Art Director Introduction by Kristi Lew Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The 100 most influential scientists of all time / edited by Kara Rogers.—1st ed. p. cm.—(The Britannica guide to the world’s most influential people) “In association with Britannica Educational Publishing, Rosen Educational Services.” Includes index. ISBN 978-1-61530-040-2 (eBook) 1. Science—Popular works. 2. Science—History—Popular works. 3. Scientists— Biography—Popular works. I. Rogers, Kara. II. Title: One hundred influential scientists of all time. Q162.A15 2010 509.2'2—dc22 2009026069 On the cover: Discoveries such as Einstein’s theory of relativity—shown in original manuscript form—are hallmarks of the genius exhibited by the world’s most influential scientists. Jon Levy/AFP/Getty Images CONTENTS Introduction 8 Asclepius 17 Hippocrates 18 Aristotle 22 Pliny the Elder 26 Ptolemy 29 Galen of Pergamum 32 Avicenna 36 Roger Bacon 37 Leonardo da Vinci 40 Nicolaus Copernicus 46 30 Paracelsus 50 Andreas Vesalius 54 Tycho Brahe 57 65 Giordano Bruno 59 Galileo 63 Johannes Kepler 69 William Harvey 74 Robert Boyle 79 Antonie van Leeuwenhoek 81 Robert Hooke 84 John Ray 85 Sir Isaac Newton 88 Carolus Linnaeus 93 90 Henry Cavendish 97 Joseph Priestley 101 Luigi Galvani 105 Sir William Herschel 108 Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier 112 Pierre-Simon Laplace 116 Edward Jenner 120 John Dalton 123 Georges Cuvier 126 Alexander von Humboldt 129 André-Marie Ampère 134 186 Amedeo Avogadro 138 Joseph-Louis Gay-Lussac 142 Sir Humphry Davy 145 Jöns Jacob Berzelius 149 John James Audubon 154 Michael Faraday 155 Sir Charles Lyell 162 Louis Agassiz 164 Charles Darwin 167 Sir Francis Galton 175 Gregor Mendel 178 Louis Pasteur 183 Alfred Russel Wallace 189 William Thomson 192 Joseph Lister 195 James Clerk Maxwell 199 Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleyev 202 Ivan Petrovich Pavlov 205 A.A. Michelson 208 Robert Koch 211 Sigmund Freud 215 Max Planck 222 Nettie Maria Stevens 226 William Bateson 227 Pierre Curie 228 Marie Curie 231 Henrietta Swan Leavitt 235 Ernest Rutherford 237 Carl Jung 242 Albert Einstein 244 Alfred Lothar Wegener 252 Sir Alexander Fleming 253 Niels Bohr 256 247 Erwin Schrödinger 260 Selman Abraham Waksman 263 296 Edwin Powell Hubble 264 Linus Pauling 267 Enrico Fermi 271 Margaret Mead 276 Barbara McClintock 278 Leakey Family 280 George Gamow 285 J. Robert Oppenheimer 287 Hans Bethe 291 Maria Goeppert Mayer 294 Rachel Carson 295 Jacques-Yves Cousteau 297 Luis W. Alvarez 300 Alan M. Turing 302 Norman Ernest Borlaug 306 Jonas Edward Salk 308 Sir Fred Hoyle 310 Francis Harry Compton Crick 311 James Dewey Watson 313 Richard P. Feynman 315 307 Rosalind Franklin 318 Edward O. Wilson 320 Jane Goodall 323 Sir Harold W. Kroto 325 Richard E. Smalley 326 Robert F. Curl, Jr. 327 Stephen Jay Gould 328 Stephen W. Hawking 330 J. Craig Venter 332 Francis Collins 335 Steven Pinker 337 Glossary 339 For Further Reading 341 Index 343 330 INTRODUCTION 7 Introduction 7 In science the credit goes to the man who convinces the world, not to the man to whom the idea first occurs. —Francis Darwin (1848–1925) rom the very first moment humans appeared on the Fplanet, we have attempted to understand and explain the world around us. The most insatiably curious among us often have become scientists. The scientists discussed in this book have shaped humankind’s knowledge and laid the foundation for virtu- ally every scientific discipline, from basic biology to black holes. Some of these individuals were inclined to ponder questions about what was contained within the human body, while others were intrigued by celestial bodies. Their collective vision has been concentrated enough to exam- ine microscopic particles and broad enough to unlock tremendous universal marvels such as gravity, relativity— even the nature of life itself. Acknowledgement of their importance comes from a variety of knowledgeable and well-respected sources; luminaries such as Isaac Asimov and noted biochemist Marcel Florkin have written biogra- phies contained herein. The influence wielded by the profiled men and women within the realm of scientific discovery becomes readily apparent as the reader delves deeper into each individual’s life and contributions to his or her chosen field. Oftentimes, more than one field has been the beneficiary of these bril- liant minds. Many early scientists studied several different branches of science during their lifetimes. Indeed, as the founder of formal logic and the study of chemistry, biol- ogy, physics, zoology, botany, psychology, history, and literary theory in the Middle Ages, Aristotle is considered one of the greatest thinkers in history. Breakthroughs in the medical sciences have been numerous and extremely valuable. Study in this discipline 9 7 The 100 Most Influential Scientists of All Time 7 begins with a contemporary of Aristotle’s named Hippocrates, who is commonly regarded as the “father of medicine.” Perhaps Hippocrates’ most enduring legacy to the field is the Hippocratic Oath, the ethical code that doctors still abide by today. By taking the Hippocratic Oath, doctors pledge to Asclepius, the Greco-Roman god of medicine, that to the best of their knowledge and abili- ties, they will prescribe the best course of medical care for their patients. They also promise to, above all, cause no harm to any patient. The Greeks were not the only ones studying medi- cine. The Muslim scholar Avicenna also advanced the discipline by writing one of the most influential medical texts in history, The Canon of Medicine. Avicenna also pro- duced an encyclopedic volume describing Aristotle’s philosophic and scientific thoughts about logic, biology, psychology, geometry, astronomy, music, and metaphys- ics. This hefty tome was called the Kitāb al-shifā (“Book of Healing”). About 450 years later, a German-Swiss physi- cian named Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus Von Hohenheim, or Paracelsus, once again advanced medical science by integrating medicine with chemistry and linking specific diseases to medications that could treat them. The Renaissance period brought to light the scientific genius of painter and sculptor Leonardo da Vinci. His drawings of presciently detailed flying machines preceded the advent of human flight by more than 300 years. What’s more, da Vinci’s drawings of the human anatomy struc- ture not only illuminated many of the body’s features and functions, they also laid the foundation for modern scien- tific illustration. Anatomical drawings were also the purview of Flemish physician Andreas Vesalius. Unlike da Vinci’s illustrations, 10 7 Introduction 7 which were mainly for his own artistic education, Vesalius incorporated his sketches and the explanations of them into the first anatomy textbook. His observations of human anatomy also helped to advance physiology, the study of the way the body functions. Other physicians took their investigation of anatomy off the page and onto the operating table. Ancient Greek physician Galen of Pergamum greatly influenced the study of medicine by performing countless autopsies on mon- keys, pigs, sheep, and goats. His observations allowed him to ascertain the functions of the nervous system and note the difference between arteries and veins. Galen was also able to dispel the notion that arteries carry air, an idea that had persisted for 400 years. Centuries later, in the 1600s, Englishman William Harvey built on Galen’s theories and observations, and helped lay the foundation for modern physiology with his numerous animal dissections. As a result of his work, Harvey was the first person to describe the function of the circulatory system, providing evidence that veins and arteries had separate and distinct functions. Before his realization that the heart acts as a pump that keeps blood flowing throughout the body, people thought that con- strictions of the blood vessels caused the blood to move. Other groundbreaking scientists have relied on obser- vations outside the body. A gifted Dutch scientist and lens grinder named Antonie van Leeuwenhoek refined the main tool of his trade, the microscope, which allowed him to become the first person to observe tiny microbes. Leeuwenhoek’s observations helped build the framework for bacteriology and protozoology. As several of the stories in this book confirm, science is a competitive yet oddly cooperative field, with research- ers frequently either refuting or capitalizing on one 11 7 The 100 Most Influential Scientists of All Time 7 another’s findings. Some ideas survive the test of time and remain intact while others are discarded or changed to fit more recent data. As an example of the former, Sir Isaac Newton developed three laws of motion that are still the basic tenets of mechanics to this day. Newton also proved instrumental to the advancement of science when he invented calculus, a branch of mathematics used by physi- cists and many others. Then there are the numerous advances made in the name of science that began with the development of vac- cines. Smallpox was a leading cause of death in 18th-century England.