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Period: 1643 BCE to 1727 BCE
Isaac Newton
Besides his work on universal gravitation (gravity), Newton developed the three laws of motion which form the basic principles of modern physics. His discovery of calculus led the way to more powerful methods of solving mathematical problems. -
Period: 1473 BCE to 1543 BCE
Nicolaus Copernicus
Nicolaus Copernicus was an astronomer, mathematician, translator, artist, and physicist among other things. He is best known as the first astronomer to posit the idea of a heliocentric solar system a system in which the planets and planetary objects orbit the sun. -
276 BCE
Eratosthenes
Eratosthenes of Cyrene was a Greek polymath: a mathematician, geographer, poet, astronomer, and music theorist. He was a man of learning, becoming the chief librarian at the Library of Alexandria. -
Period: 276 BCE to 194 BCE
Eratosthenes
Eratosthenes, in full Eratosthenes of Cyrene, (born c. 276 bce, Cyrene, Libya—died c. 194 bce, Alexandria, Egypt), Greek scientific writer, astronomer, and poet, who made the first measurement of the size of Earth for which any details are known. -
100 BCE
Ptolemy
We know very little of Ptolemy's life. He made astronomical observations from Alexandria in Egypt during the years AD 127-41. In fact the first observation which we can date exactly was made by Ptolemy on 26 March 127 while the last was made on 2 February 141. -
Period: 100 BCE to 141 BCE
Ptolemy
We know very little of Ptolemy's life. He made astronomical observations from Alexandria in Egypt during the years AD 127-41. In fact the first observation which we can date exactly was made by Ptolemy on 26 March 127 while the last was made on 2 February 141. Claudius Ptolemy was born in about the year 100 AD, almost certainly in Egypt. He lived in the metropolis of Alexandria on Egypt's Mediterranean coast. -
1473
Nicolaus Copernicus
Nicolaus Copernicus was a Renaissance-era mathematician and astronomer, who formulated a model of the universe that placed the Sun rather than Earth at the center of the universe, in all likelihood independently of Aristarchus of Samos, who had formulated such a model some eighteen centuries earlier. -
Dec 14, 1546
Tycho Brahe
Tycho Brahe was a Danish nobleman, astronomer, and writer known for his accurate and comprehensive astronomical observations. He was born in the, then Danish, peninsula of Scania. Tycho was well known in his lifetime as an astronomer, astrologer, and alchemist. -
Period: Dec 14, 1546 to
Tycho Brahe
Brahe showed irregularities in the Moon's orbit and discovered a new star in the Cassiopeia formation. Brahe invented many instruments such as the Tyconian Quadrant which were widely copied and led to the invention of improved observational equipment. In 1600, Tyco Brahe hired Johannes Kepler as his assistant. -
Jan 22, 1561
Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban, PC QC was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and as Lord Chancellor of England. His works are credited with developing the scientific method and remained influential through the scientific revolution. Bacon has been called the father of empiricism. -
Period: Jan 22, 1561 to
Francis Bacon
Bacon was an English Renaissance statesman and philosopher, best known for his promotion of the scientific method. -
1564
Galileo
Galileo Galilei was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a polymath, from Pisa. Galileo has been called the "father of observational astronomy", the "father of modern physics", the "father of the scientific method", and the "father of modern science". -
Period: 1564 to
Galileo
Of all of his telescope discoveries, he is perhaps most known for his discovery of the four most massive moons of Jupiter, now known as the Galilean moons: Io, Ganymede, Europa and Callisto. When NASA sent a mission to Jupiter in the 1990s, it was called Galileo in honor of the famed astronomer. -
Dec 27, 1571
Johannes Kepler
Johannes Kepler was a German astronomer, mathematician, and astrologer. He is a key figure in the 17th-century scientific revolution, best known for his laws of planetary motion, and his books Astronomia nova, Harmonices Mundi, and Epitome Astronomiae Copernicanae -
Period: Dec 27, 1571 to
Johannes Kepler
Johannes Kepler was a German astronomer, mathematician, and astrologer. He is a key figure in the 17th-century scientific revolution, best known for his laws of planetary motion, and his books Astronomia nova, Harmonices Mundi, and Epitome Astronomiae Copernicanae. -
René Descartes
René Descartes was a French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist. A native of the Kingdom of France, he spent about 20 years of his life in the Dutch Republic after serving for a while in the Dutch States Army of Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange and the Stadtholder of the United Provinces. -
Period: to Feb 11, 1560
René Descartes
Known as Cartesian dualism (or Mind-Body Dualism), his theory on the separation between the mind and the body went on to influence subsequent Western philosophies. In Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes attempted to demonstrate the existence of God and the distinction between the human soul and the body. -
John Locke
John Locke FRS was an English philosopher and physician, widely regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers and commonly known as the "Father of Liberalism". -
Period: to
John Locke
He is often regarded as the founder of a school of thought known as British Empiricism, and he made foundational contributions to modern theories of limited, liberal government. -
Isaac Newton
Sir Isaac Newton PRS was an English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, theologian, and author who is widely recognised as one of the most influential scientists of all time, and a key figure in the scientific revolution. -
Period: to
Dmitri Mendeleev
Mendeleev realized that the physical and chemical properties of elements were related to their atomic mass in a 'periodic' way, and arranged them so that groups of elements with similar properties fell into vertical columns in his table. -
Dmitri Mendeleev
Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev was a Russian chemist and inventor. He is best remembered for formulating the Periodic Law and creating a farsighted version of the periodic table of elements. -
Henrietta Swan Leavitt
Henrietta Swan Leavitt was an American astronomer. A graduate of Radcliffe College, she worked at the Harvard College Observatory as a "computer", tasked with examining photographic plates in order to measure and catalog the brightness of stars. -
Period: to
Henrietta Swan Leavitt
American astronomer known for her discovery of the relationship between period and luminosity in Cepheid variables, pulsating stars that vary regularly in brightness in periods ranging from a few days to several months. -
Alfred Wegener
Alfred Lothar Wegener was a German polar researcher, geophysicist and meteorologist. During his lifetime he was primarily known for his achievements in meteorology and as a pioneer of polar research. -
Period: to
Alfred Wegener
In 1912 Alfred Wegener (1880-1930) noticed the same thing and proposed that the continents were once compressed into a single protocontinent which he called Pangaea (meaning "all lands"), and over time they have drifted apart into their current distribution. -
Edwin Hubble
Edwin Powell Hubble was an American astronomer. He played a crucial role in establishing the fields of extragalactic astronomy and observational cosmology and is regarded as one of the most important astronomers of all time. -
Harry Hammond Hess
Harry Hammond Hess was a geologist and a United States Navy officer in World War II. Considered one of the "founding fathers" of the unifying theory of plate tectonics, Rear Admiral Harry Hammond Hess was born on May 24, 1906, in New York City. -
Period: to
Harry Hammond Hess
Harry Hess was a geologist and Navy submarine commander during World War II. Part of his mission had been to study the deepest parts of the ocean floor. In 1946 he had discovered that hundreds of flat-topped mountains, perhaps sunken islands, shape the Pacific floor. Hess proposed sea-floor spreading.
