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460 BCE
Democritus
In Abdera, Greece, Democritus discovered the atom. His reasoning is that if you were to take a stone, and cut in half, and cut each piece in half and continue until you couldn't cut any more. Once he discovered the particle, he named them 'atomos' meaning indivisible in Greek. His ideas were based more on reasoning more than it did on science.
Democritus was also known as the 'Laughing Philosopher' because he had a liking to always being cheerful and happy, even while working. -
Antoine Lavoisier
In 1778, Lavoisier created the Law of Conservation of mass, stating that matter couldn't be created or destroyed. He burned substances, that then combined with air to create new materials, now weighing more then the original substances. He also renamed Priestley's gas oxygen when the original wouldn't stick.
He wasn't a scientist when he first started, but originally a lawyer. -
John Dalton
In Manchester, John Dalton discovered that all elements have different weights.He found this by weighing different elements and then finding the amount of atoms.
He and his brother were both born colorblind, and that was the first of Dalton's studies, which in what he found was missing in his iris to see certain colors. This was originally called Daltonism. -
J.J. Thomson
Also in Manchester, Sir Joseph John Thomson discovered the electron. He showed that cathode rays are negative, using a high-vacuum cathode-ray tube, which were used in the big box TV's.
He earned a knighthood in 1908 by King Edward VII, as well as a Nobel Prize award two years before. -
Max Planck
In Germany, Planck found that energy isn't all the same, even though it looks the same. He had an interest in hot metal, so he studied the color metal changes when it gets hot. It will either change orange or white when heated to the right temperature.
He had a tragic life, his first wife and all of their children (4) died. He later remarried and had another son. -
Marie Curie
In Poland, Marie Curie discovered radioactivity and how to separate it from the parts needed to be used. She found this by studying people that worked in factories and ended up with mutations or cancer. So, she came to the conclusion that it had to be linked to something they were working with.
She had received countless awards and medals for her works. She later died from one of the rarest conditions in the world. -
Robert Millikan
In Illinois, Millikan found the elements electronic charge. He discovered this by dropping charged water droplets in an electronic field.
In 1921, Robert became the chairman of the executive council of Caltech for 24 years (until 1945). -
Ernest Rutherford
Born in Nelson, New Zealand, Rutherford stayed in Europe his entire life. He proposed the 'planetary model' where the electrons orbit the nucleus. Rutherford founded this idea based on the solar system.
Ernest Rutherford had many science 'giants' study under him and many contribute their findings to him. -
Albert Einstein
Born in Munich, Germany, Einstein wasn't seen to be so smart, as he was slow and had trouble speaking. However, Einstein had an interest in atoms. He found that metal releases electrons when light it shined on it. He did this by using Planck theory that was just recently discovered.
The ninety-ninth element in the periodic table was discovered shortly after Einstein's death in 1955, and it was named "einsteinium." -
Niels Bohr (1885-1962)
Bohr created the Bohr's model (revising Rutherford's model) in 1913. This is a planetary model that shows electrons moving around the nucleus in fixed orbit.Bohr was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, attending the University of Copenhagen, he studied physics.He received his doctorate in 1911, and traveled to England to further his studies under J.J. Thomson. In 1912, he married and had six sons. -
Erwin Schrodinger
In Austria, Erwin Schrodinger found that the movement of an electron in an atom is wave, and did this by studying the exact heats of solids that makes them move.
In 1921, Schrodinger was offered the job of replacing Planck. -
James Chadwick
James Chadwick discovered the neutron. He did this by tracking particle radiation but looking for a neutral particle. By keeping it in the back of his mind for several years while working on other projects. Eventually, he figured out that he wanted to find a particle that had the same weight as a proton, but had no charge.
Chadwick was a prisoner of war in WWI for four years, to create weapons for Germany. -
Louis De Broglie
Born August 15, 1892, De Broglie was a prince. He found the wave nature of electrons, building off of Schrodinger, experiments and ideas. He also suggested that all matter has wave properties.
His first degree was in history but he later switched to math and science. -
Werner Heisenberg (1901-1976)
He lived, and went to school, in Munich, Germany. In 1926 Heisenberg joined Bohr in Copenhagen.He found that you could measure the position of an electron, OR it’s momentum. You couldn’t measure both, because it would throw the other off (eventually becoming a fundamental law of nature). He was later made director of the German atom bomb project (during WWII).
