Great Minds in Science by Hermen Liang

Nicolas Copernicus 1473-1543

6hlia535 — 2025-05-20 17:48:52 UTC

Copernicus was a priest and mathematician who opposes the medieval belief of the Greek astronomer Ptolemy that the Earth is the center of the universe and everything revolved around it. Instead, Copernicus believed that the sun was the center and Earth revolved around the sun instead. This idea was called the heliocentric theory, completed in 1530.

Andreas Vesalius 1514-1564

6hlia535 — 2025-05-20 17:54:05 UTC

Andreas Vesalius was a Belgian physician and anatomist. In the book he published called the "Seven Books on the Structure of the Human Body", he describes the human anatomy more accurate than a classical Greek scientist called Galen, whose published work has been reference throughout the medieval age. But his work also brought him to be sentenced to death for immorality but doesn't get executed.

Francis Bacon 1561-1626

6hlia535 — 2025-05-20 18:16:28 UTC

Francis Bacon, English philoso-pher. His Novum Organum (1620) stresses the importance of proper scientific method:theories must be supported by proof acquired by experimentation and observation.

Galileo Galilei 1564-1642

6hlia535 — 2025-05-22 01:09:49 UTC

Galileo Galilei, Italian

mathematician and scientist. The first to use telescopes for astronomy. He describes the surface of the Moon and the rotation of the moons of Jupiter. Also establishes basic laws of motion from experimentation. He is arrested by the Inquisition and forced to recant the endorsement of the heliocentric theory made in his Dialogo dei due massimi sistemi del mondo (Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, 1632)

William Harvey 1578-1657

6hlia535 — 2025-05-22 01:12:22 UTC

William Harvey, English physician and anatomist. He discovers the circulation of the blood and describes the purpose of arteries, veins, and the heart in De motu cordis et sanguinis in animalibus (On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in

Animals, 1628)

Johannes Kepler 1571-1630

6hlia535 — 2025-05-22 01:15:05 UTC

Johannes Kepler, German mathematician and astronomer. Accepts the heliocentric theory after examining data gathered by the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe (1546-1601). His Astronomia nova (New Astronomy, 1609) and De Harmonice mundi(Harmonies of the World, 1619) explain that the orbits of the planets are elliptical and not circular as Copernicus has suggested.

René Descartes 1596-1650

6hlia535 — 2025-05-22 01:18:20 UTC

René Descartes, French philosopher and mathematician. Develops analytic geometry and other mathematical techniques useful in theoretical science. He believes that mathematical proof is the model for rational scientific inquiry. His best known philosophical work, Meditationes de prima philosophia (Meditations on First Philosophy, 1641), emphasizes the importance of accepting only indubitable evidence.

Christiaan Huygens 1629-1693

6hlia535 — 2025-05-22 01:23:22 UTC

Christiaan Huygens, Dutch physicist and astronomer. He proposes the wave theory of light, discovers the rings of Saturn, and builds the first reliable pendulum clock (originally an idea of Galileo's)

Robert Boyle 1627-1691

6hlia535 — 2025-05-22 01:25:41 UTC

Irish physicist and

chemist. He investigates the propeties of air and develops a theory describing the

relationship between the pressure and

volume of gasses (known as Boyle's Law).In The Sceptical Chemist (1661) he questions the accepted belief that the world is made up of just four elements (Earth, Air, Fire, Water)and argues that they can be broken down into more fundamental, chemical elements.

Anton Van Leeuwenuoek 1632-1723

6hlia535 — 2025-05-22 01:27:11 UTC

Anton van Leeuwenhoek, Dutch biologist. He designs a powerful microscope and uses it to describe bacteria, protozoa,

spermatozoa, and blood corpuscles.

Issac Newton 1642-1727

6hlia535 — 2025-05-22 01:30:00 UTC

Issac Newton, English physicist

and mathematician. One of the greatest

theoretical scientists in history. He discovers the law of gravitation after studying Kepler's laws of planetary motion, and formulates three laws of motion which form the basis of physics until the 20th century (called Newtonian mechanics). Also invents the reflecting telescope (uses a curved mirror to focus light), and develops the mathematical system known as calculus. Best known work is Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica (The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, 1687)

Antoine Lavoisier 1743-1794

6hlia535 — 2025-05-22 01:32:13 UTC

Antoine Lavoisier, French-

chemist. In Traité élémentaire de chimie (Elementary Treatise on Chemistry, 1789) he describes the constituent gasses of air (calling the two most significant, oxygen and nitrogen), and shows that combustion can only take place in the presence of oxygen. Develops the modern system for naming chemical compounds and proposes that mat-ter is never destroyed in chemical reactions (Law of Conservation of Matter)