~ Famous Scientists ~

[MysteRy]

Mario Molina



When it comes to discovering the Antarctic ozone hole, Mario Molina was one of the most notable proponents along with F. Sherwood Rowland and Paul J. Crutzen who received the Novel Prize in Chemistry in 1995. He noted how chlorofluorocarbon gases or the ones called CFCs cause threats to the ozone layer and he is also the first ever Mexican-born individual to receive a Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Early Life and Education

On the 19th of March in 1943, Mario Molina was born to parents Leonor Henríquez de Molina and Roberto Molina Pasquel who was a lawyer as well as a diplomat who served in countries such as Ethiopia, Australia, and also the Philippines. Mario had shown interest in science at a very early age and he made his own chemistry lab in their home by turning the bathroom into his laboratory and experiment area. He had been fascinated by his toy microscope and this was where he first viewed amoeba and paramecia. For hours on a daily basis, he would play with his chemistry set in the seldom‑used bathroom in their house. Esther Molina, one of his aunts, helped foster his interest by helping him out with more challenging chemical experiments.

It had been a tradition in their family to study abroad for a time, and for Mario Molina and his awareness for his love for chemistry, he went to study at the Institut auf dem Rosenberg which is in Switzerland when he was only eleven years old after having completed his basic education in Mexico.

During his years in Europe however, he was disappointed that his classmates had little interest in chemistry. Because he had already made up his mind to be a chemist, he took his bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México or the National Autonomous University of Mexico in the year 1965.

When he finished his undergraduate studies at UNAM, Mario Molina went on to pursue his Ph.D. in physical chemistry. He had a challenging time because although his degree had given him training, subjects like quantum mechanics was something completely Greek to him those days. He attended the University of Freiburg in Germany and had a postgraduate degree there in 1967, and he got his doctoral degree from the University of California in 1972 when he decided that he needed to study more and not just the kinetics of polymerizations to broaden his knowledge.

He was part of the research group led by Professor George C. Pimentel who was a pioneer in developing matrix isolation techniques. Their goal had been to study the molecular dynamics with the use of chemical lasers. For his graduate work, he had investigated on internal energy distribution in photochemical and chemical reaction products where he had the chance to work using infrared optics, vacuum lines, and other advanced equipment he had not been able to use before.

Career

After he completed his Ph.D., he had stayed for another year in Berkeley where he continued his research concerning chemical dynamics. He then joined Professor F. Sherwood’s group as one of the postdoctoral fellows and moved to Irvine, California. It was Professor Sherwood who had inspired Molina to find out about the fate of the environment considering the presence of CFCs which have been accumulating in the earth’s atmosphere. With that project, Molina learned about a new field in chemistry which was atmospheric chemistry.

Since Molina and Sherwood had already studied similar compounds before, they were able to come up with the CFC ozone depletion theory together. Initially, the research was not as interesting as it should have been since Molina knew that as the CFCs drift up to higher altitudes, they will be destroyed. What held his interest was what the consequences of these accumulated compounds would be. They realized how the chlorine atoms which are produced as CFCs decompose and damage the ozone layer. Because of their findings, they were alarmed at how CFCs in the atmosphere would continue to deplete the ozone layer.

Their findings concerning their ozone depletion theory were published on June 1974 in Nature, and they had made efforts to inform the scientific community of work as well as policy makers so that laws to protect the earth’s ozone layer through regulation of CFC use.

A year later, Molina was appointed as one of the faculty members of the University of California, Irvine. While he still had collaborations with Sherwood, he also began working on his own research. He setup his own program for the investigation of spectroscopic and chemical properties of different compounds which have an important role in the atmosphere. Some of the compounds he had focused on included hypochlorous acid, chlorine nitrate, and chlorine nitrite among others.

While Molina had enjoyed his years in Irvine, it limited his time for doing experiments and after 7 years with an academic position, he decided to join the Molecular Physics and Chemistry Section which was at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory back in 1982. He was part of a small group but had the time and resources to conduct experiments of his own especially those concerning new atmospheric problems.

Awards and Recognitions

Other than the esteemed Nobel Prize award, he also won the Esselen Award of the Northeast section of the American Chemical Society in 1987, the Newcomb-Cleveland awards from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the United Nations Environmental Programme Global 500 Award in 1989. The Pew Charitable Trusts Scholars Program in Conservation and the Environment gave Molina a $150,000 grant in 1990. In 1998, Molina received the Willard Gibbs Medal given by the Chicago Section of the American Chemical Society as well as the American Chemical Society Prize for Creative Advances in Environment Technology and Science in the same year.

He has several honorary degrees from esteemed bodies of education such as Yale, Duke, and Harvard Universities among others. Molina is also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom on the 8th of August in 2013 from President Barack Obama.

[MysteRy]

Mary Anning



Mary Anning has been called by some as the greatest fossillist of the world. She had made her mark in the field of collecting fossils by making several contributions to unearthing Jurassic fossil beds which were marine in nature in Dorset, specifically in Lyme Regis. She is credited as the discoverer of the first ever specimen of Ichthyosaurus that was acknowledged by no less than the Geological Society in London. A famous fossil hunter, Mary Anning’s discoveries were some of the most important geological pieces of all time.

Early Life and Personal Background

Her birthplace was in Dorset, England, specifically Lyme Regis. Her father named Richard had been a cabinetmaker. He made ends meet by mining the nearby coastal cliff fossil beds and sold what he found to tourists. He got married to Mary Moore also known as “Molly” and they lived in house which was built on the town’s bridge. Richard and Mary together had ten children but only Joseph and Mary were able to reach adulthood. The family had to face a sad event when Richard died in the year 1810, and had left the family in debt and with no provider. Despite this, he had been able to pass on his skills on finding fossils to his family and had been especially useful for Mary Anning.

Mary was named after a sister who had previously died in a fire and there had even been local lores about her earliest years. When she was only 15 months young, there was an event which included a neighbor named Elizabeth Haskings and two other ladies underneath an elm tree. The women had been watching an equestrian demonstration and Elizabeth Haskings held the young Mary Anning. Lighting then struck the tree and had killed everyone underneath it except Mary Anning. Her survival had been miraculous and apart from being part of the local lore, it had even been attributed as the cause of lively personality and intelligence when she grew up.

Her father, when he was still alive, had taken both Mary and Joseph to his fossil-hunting trips from which he found pieces to sell to tourists. Their family had always lived in poverty and there had even been accounts that they lived so close to the sea at one point that their own home got flooded and they had to climb up to the room upstairs just so they would not drown. There are mixed accounts of the life of Mary Anning, but what hold true are those which are attested by the fossil findings which show more than just the history of their previous lives but the hardships of Mary Anning as well.

When her father died, she had continued the fossil-finding trips near the sea. She would walk the area when the tide was low. Even for enthusiasts, collecting fossils was a risky business, but the teen Mary Anning had braved the challenges and risks that had come along with it.

How Fossil Collecting Helped the Family of Mary Anning

Some may see this as a dire job which would help no one prosper. But things changed when the family had established a good reputation as fossil hunters and were even able to make it as a business which supported them. In the year 1817, the family had the chance to meet Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Birch. He was a well-off fossil collector who later on became the supporter of the Anning family. He had sympathized with the situation of the family and in order to help them, he even arranged to put up his own fossil collections for sale and gave the proceeds to the family.

Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Birch had attributed the major fossil discoveries to Mary Anning’s family, and he sold even his finest collections of fossils to those who would buy them to help the family. He believed that Mary’s family should not have to experience such poverty because they had been the ones who found the finer discoveries in the area.

It is true that Mary Anning had been credited with the discovery of the Ichthyosaurus fossils, but it was not she alone who did this. Her brother had found the skull of the beast and she had contributed by finding the rest of it. Because of her and her family’s skills in hunting fossils, European nobles, and collectors of what were then known as “curiosities” sought the fossil finds of the family. Because museums usually credited the individuals who donated the fossils to them, a lot of the discoveries made by Mary Anning were very hard to trace. The most famous ones had been the 1821 discovery of the Ichthyosaurus, and the first ever Plesiosaurus which was unearthed in 1823.

Mary Anning in the Scientific Community

She was born in a time when women weren’t allowed to attend the university, and despite being able to discover several great finds, she had not been properly credited by some of the wealthy fossillists who had used the information they had gotten from her finds and made publications from. Anna Pinney was a young woman who at times accompanied Anning. She had written about this experience of Mary Anning that, the word had used her ill and these men from the scientific community had not given her the credit which was rightfully hers.

Despite that experience however, there had been those who credited her work such as the paleontologist Louis Agassiz who visited her hometown in 1834. He had thanked Mary Anning and a friend of hers named Elizabeth Philpot in his book called “Studies of Fossil Fish.” Roderik Murchinson had been one of those she had fond recollections of, and she had even stayed with his family when she had a chance to visit London in the year 1829.

On the 9th of March in 1847, Mary Anning died from having breast cancer. She was only 47 at the time. Even the famous Charles Dickens wrote about the sufferings and triumphs of Mary. The article he had published in his magazine called “All the Year Round” ended with the lines “The carpenter’s daughter has won a name for herself, and has deserved to win it.”

[MysteRy]

Max Born



Max Born was a German physicist who played a vital role in the evolution of quantum mechanics. His theoratical work in solid-state physics and optics is also considered very influential. Born shared the 1954 Nobel Prize for Physics with Walther Bothe for his statistical interpretation of quantum theory.

Early Life and Education:

Born in 1882 in Breslau, German Empire, Max Born’s father was an anatomist and embryologist. He recieved his early education from the König-Wilhelm-Gymnasium. He attended the University of Breslau, and later Heidelberg University and the University of Zurich, Born earned his doctorate at the University of Göttingen in 1907, under the supervision of famous mathematician Felix Klein.

Contributions and Achievements:

Max Born was a highly successful theoretical physicist who made brilliant contributions in the areas of physics and optics. He was appointed the Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Göttingen in 1921, where he established an authoritative school for atomic and quantum physics.

Born also worked with Werner Heisenberg for a while he discovered the “arrays of numbers” that could be employed to prepare the first in-depth quantum theory. Born was more proficient in mathematics than Heisenberg and he found out that these “arrays” were widely known in mathematics as matrices. Around 1926, Born and his assistant formulated a full explanation of the new theory.

Perhaps Born’s most influential contribution to quantum theory was his concept that the wave-function could only be employed to predict the probabilities of different results being concluded in measurements; more precisely, that the square of the wave-function symbolizes a probability density. The concept was termed as the statistical interpretation of quantum theory.

Later Life and Death:

Max Born was very disappointed not to share the 1932 Nobel Prize for Physics with Heisenberg. Making things worse, he was forced to leave Göttingen as a Jew after the rise of Adolf Hitler. He spent three years in Cambridge, and alter became Professor of Natural Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh, where he stayed until 1953. After his retirement, Born returned to Germany. Finally in 1954, he was awarded Nobel Prize for Physics for the statistical interpretation of quantum theory, sharing with fellow nuclear physicist Walther Bothe.

Born died on January 5, 1970 in Göttingen, Germany. He was 87 years old.

[MysteRy]

Max Delbruck



If there is one field of science that really fascinates people, it has to be the field of biology. There are just so many things to learn and understand about it that it has tons of secrets that are yet to be discovered still. There are many great names in the field of biology and biophysics but one name you should never forget is Max Delbruck. He has made tons of contributions to the field of molecular biology and he really is worth getting to know. In the late 1930s, it was Max Delbruck that helped set up the molecular biology and research program. What he did was he stimulated the physical scientists’ interest directly into biology with an extra focus on basic research just so they can better explain and understand genes. At that time, genes were considered mysterious so anything that gave them greater understanding was welcome.

Max Delbruck, together with Alfred Hershey and Salvador Luna, formed the Phage Group in 1945. The Phage Group was quite successful and managed to make massive discoveries towards explaining some vital aspects of cell physiology. In 1969, the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine was awarded to the three for their work concerning the replication mechanism and genetic makeup of viruses.

Max Delbruck was also the person who predicted the Delbruck Scattering.

Early Life

Max Delbruck hailed from Berlin, German Empire where he was born in 4th September 1906. His father was Hans Delbruck who taught History at the University of Berlin and his mother was none other than the granddaughter of eminent chemist Justus von Leibig. He grew up in Grunewald which was a suburb in Berlin populated by moderately affluent families. He grew up surrounded by members of the professional, academic, and merchant communities many of whom were large families. He grew up during a period of affluence and warm hospitality before the year 1914 but the latter years were marred with death, hunger, and cold. It was then followed by a period of inflation, impoverishment and revolution. His interest in science was evident even during his boyhood when he had in interest in astronomy.

Max Delbruck left Nazi Germany in 1937 and moved on to California then Tennessee. He married May Bruce and had 4 children in 1941 then went on to become a US citizen in 1945. Considering he grew up when Nazism was strong in Germany it seems odd that he would go to the US and even become a citizen there; however, he wasn’t the only one in his family that had strong feelings about what the regime was up to.

Max Delbruck had a brother named Justus, a lawyer, and a sister named Emmi Bonhoeffer and they happened to be very active in resisting the Nazi regime. Emmie Bonhoeffer not only aided refugees but she also made it a point to teach anti-Nazi education.

In fact, his brothers-in-law Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Klaus Bonhoeffer were in on the resistance too. They were tried by the People’s Court for having roles in a 20th July 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler. They were found guilty then executed by the RSHA in 1945.

Education and Early Career

Max Delbruck went to the University of Gottingen where he studied astrophysics first then moved on to theoretical physics. He earned his Ph.D. in 1039 then made the move to England then Denmark, and Switzerland after. It was during this time that he met with two other great names in Biology: Neils Bohr and Wolfgang Pauli. It was meeting these two men that got Delbruck interested in biology.

The year 1932 saw Delbruck returning to Berlin to work as an assistant to Lise Meitner who was at that time collaborating with Otto Hahn. Their work concerned using neutrons to irradiate uranium. During his stint with Meitner, Delbruck wrote several papers including one on gamma rays written in 1933. It concerned the scattering of gamma rays by vacuum caused by Coulomb field’s polarization. Theoretically speaking, it was tenable though the conclusion was misplaced. It was Hans Bethe who confirmed the phenomenon some 20 years later and gave it the name “Delbruck Scattering.”

He attained a fellowship from the Rockefeller Foundation in 1937. At that time, it was launching the molecular biology research program to find out more about fruit fly genetics and the studies were conducted in the California Institute of Technology. It was during this time that Delbruck had the chance to blend genetics and biochemistry. While he was at Caltech, he also had the chance to research bacteria and the viruses they carried. During the year 1939, he co-authored The Growth of Bacteriophage with E.L. Ellis. It was a paper concerned with reporting how viruses reproduce in one step and not like cellular organisms that did it exponentially.

His role with the Rockefeller Foundation ended in 1939 but the Foundation still matched him with the Vanderbilt University in Tennessee and from 1940 to 47 he had the opportunity to teach physics. His lab was still located in the Department of Biology.

Delbruck met Salvador Luria from Indiana University in 1941 when the later paid a visit to Vanderbilt University and together, they published material on bacterial resistance to virus infection by way of random mutation. Alfred Hershey, who was from Washington University, started visiting in 1943.

His Later Life and Legacy

During his later years Delbruck focused on helping to spur the interest of physical scientists in biology. In fact, Erwin Schrodinger relied on his inferences on the susceptibility of genes to mutation when he wrote his book What is Life? In the year 1977, he retired from his teaching spot in Caltech though he the Professor of Biology Emeritus status.

Max Delbruck left the world at the ripe old age of 74 on 9th March 1981. He died in Pasadena California at Huntington Memorial Hospital. The year Delbruck would have turned 100, on the 26th to 27th of August 2006, his friends and family came together at Cold Spring Harbour Laboratory to remember his life and work.

[MysteRy]

Max Planck



Early Life:

Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck was born in Kiel, Germany, on April 23, 1858, This German Physicist made many contributions to theoretical physics, but his fame rests primarily on his role as originator of the quantum theory. This theory revolutionized our understanding of atomic and subatomic processes, just as Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity revolutionized our understanding of space and time. Together they constitute the fundamental theories of 20th-century. Planck was also awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918.

Planck was born into a large family and was brought up in a tradition which greatly respected scholarship, honesty, fairness, and generosity. The values he was given as a young child quickly became the values that he would cherish throughout his life, showing the utmost respect for the institutions of state and church. Max began his elementary schooling in Kiel. He did well at school but not brilliantly, usually coming somewhere between third and eighth in his class. Music was perhaps his best subject and he was awarded the school prize in catechism and good conduct almost every year. However, towards the end of his school career, his teachers raised his level of interest in physics and mathematics, and he became deeply impressed by the absolute nature of the law of conservation of energy. Planck describes why he chose physics:

“The outside world is something independent from man, something absolute, and the quest for the laws which apply to this absolute appeared to me as the most sublime scientific pursuit in life.”

Contributions and Achievements:

Planck was appointed the professor of theoretical physics at the University of Berlin. While in Berlin Planck did his most luminous work and delivered outstanding lectures. He studied thermodynamics in particular examining the distribution of energy according to wavelength. By combining the formulae of Wien and Rayleigh, Planck announced a new formula now known as Planck’s radiation formula. Within two months Planck made a complete theoretical deduction of his formula giving up classical physics and introducing the quanta of energy. On 14 December 1900 he presented his theoretical explanation involving quanta of energy at a meeting of the Physikalische Gesellschaft in Berlin. He announced his derivation of the relationship which was based on the revolutionary idea that the energy emitted by a resonator could only take on discrete values or quanta. The energy for a resonator of frequency v is hv where h is a universal constant, now called Planck’s constant.

The discovery of Planck’s constant enabled him to define a new universal set of physical units (such as the Planck length and the Planck mass), all based on fundamental physical constants. Planck’s work on the quantum theory, as it came to be known, was published in the Annalen der Physik. His work is summarized in two books Thermodynamik (Thermodynamics) and Theorie der Wärmestrahlung (Theory of heat radiation).

This was not only Planck’s most important work but also marked a turning point in the history of physics. The importance of the discovery, with its far-reaching effect on classical physics, was not appreciated at first. However the evidence for its validity gradually became irresistible as its application accounted for many differences between observed phenomena and classical theory.

Planck was also a philosopher of science. In his Scientific Autobiography and Other Papers, he stated Planck’s Principle, which holds that “A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it”.

Death:

This great man died on October 4, 1947 at the age of 89 in Gottingen, West Germany.

[MysteRy]

Max von Laue



Max von Laue was a German physicist who won the 1914 Nobel Prize in physics for his discovery of X-ray crystallography, which helps in determining the arrangement of atoms in some substances.

Early Life and Education:

Born in Pfaffendorf, Sachsen, Germany in 1879, Max von Laue studied physics at the University of Strasbourg, and later, the Universities of Göttingen and Munich. He received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Berlin in 1903.

Contributions and Achievements:

Max von Laue worked as an assistant to his mentor, Max Planck, at the Institute for Physics in Berlin. He was appointed the deputy director to Albert Einstein at the Institute for Physics in 1917.

Laue’s initial interests were in optics and the wave theory of light. When Wilhelm Röntgen discovered X-rays in 1895, scientists were not sure if they were particles or short electromagnetic waves. Laue predicted in 1912 that X-rays could be diffracted by a crystal acting as a natural diffraction grating. Later experiments with several crystals produced patterns, which were termed as Laue patterns, from which crystal structure could be interpreted.

Einstein praised Laue’s work as one of the most beautiful discoveries in physics. His contributions gave birth to X-ray spectroscopy, the exploration of atomic structures of chemical elements and the determination of X-ray wavelength. X-ray structural analysis played a vital role in modern physics and chemistry, with practical applications in various industries.

Later Life and Death:

In his later years, Max von Laue worked on the forces between atoms and also studied the thermodynamics of superconductivity. He wrote several famous books on the history of physics and Einstein’s theory of relativity. During World War II, Laue was arrested by the Allies forces and, like other German scientists, was sent to England. He came back to Germany in 1946 and took charge of the Max Planck Institute, Göttingen.

He was appointed the director of the Fritz Haber Institute, Berlin in 1951, when he was 71 years old. Laue retired seven years later in 1958.

Max von Laue died on April 24, 1960. He was 80 years old.

[MysteRy]

Michael E. Brown



One of today’s American astronomers, Michael E. Brown who is also referred to as Mike Brown is the California Institute of Technology’s Richard and Barbara Rosenberg Professor of Planetary Astronomy since 2003, and has been a member of their faculty since 1996. His specialty is discovering and studying bodies which are located on the edge of the solar system. Along with his team, he discovered TNOs or trans-Neptunian objects—most notably Eris, the dwarf planet. This dwarf planet is the only identified TNO which is bigger than Pluto, and is the largest object identified in the solar system in the past 150 years.

Mike is known to have referred to himself as the one who “killed Pluto” since he was one of those who supported to Pluto being downgraded as just a dwarf planet after discovering Eris along with other TNOs. Of note, this astronomer is also a published author of the book How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming, which was published in 2010. This book is a memoir of his discoveries which led to the demotion of Pluto’s planetary status mixed in with some family life as well.

Early Life and Educational Background

A native of Huntsville, Alabama, Mike was a 1983 graduate of the Virgil I. Grissom High School. His father had been an engineer who worked on computers which were inside the rocket ships — these computers were the ones in charge of the rocket navigation, and Mike’s father had been one of the brains behind the computers that were in Saturn V and the Lunar Module. It was his exposure to his father’s work that helped foster his interest for space discovery.

In 1987, he earned his A.B. in Physics after completing his education in Princeton University where he was also one of the members of the Princeton Tower Club. He took his graduate courses at the University of California in Berkeley. There he earned his M.A. in Astronomy in 1990. Four years later, he earned his Ph.D.

During his academic years, he had been the recipient of a number of awards. He won the Urey Prize which was given to the best young planetary scientist and this was given by the American Astronomical Society’s Division of Planetary Sciences. He also received the Presidential Early Career Award and a Sloan Fellowship. In 2012, he won the Kavli Prize in Astrophysics and in 2014, he had recently been inducted into the National Academy of Science. The one which started his career though was when he received a certain honorable mention in the science fair he participated back in fifth grade.

Discoveries and Contributions to Astronomy

He is mostly known for his discovery of Eris—the dwarf planet which led to the demotion of Pluto as one of the 9 planets of the solar system. Other than Eris, Mike is also known for discovering other TNOs at the edge of the solar system. Interestingly, the informal names of Eris and its one moon Dysomnia had been Xena and Gabriel—these were the two main characters of the T.V. program Xena: Warrior Princess. Also, he was the one who discovered Makemake, one of the three largest objects in the Kuiper belt alongside Eris and Pluto.

Haumea, a dwarf planet being observed by Mike and his team, caused some controversy in his career. The discovery of this dwarf planet, however, was announced by José Luis Ortiz Moreno. Ortiz’s team from the Sierra Nevada Observatory in Spain had initially been supported by Mike, and he gave them the credit for this discovery.

After further investigation however, it was shown how a website which had archives of information from Brown and his team’s telescopes used for Haumea were accessed three days before Ortiz made the announcement of his discovery. The IP addresses were traced to the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia—and this was where Ortiz worked.

Even more interesting was that the access to the website archive were on dates after Brown published his abstract concerning an upcoming conference where he was about to announce his discovery of Haumea. This, in turn, resulted in an exchange of emails between Mike Brown and José Luis Ortiz Moreno. In the emails, one of the replies from Ortiz even hinted at how Mike was “hiding objects” and that they were only emailing since Mike did not report the object upon discovery.

As a response, Mike said how this statement from Ortiz contradicts the established scientific practice of thoroughly analyzing one’s research until the researcher is satisfied that his findings are accurate before submitting it for peer review and ultimately, making the public announcement about the discovery.

After this incident, José Carlos del Toro, the IAA director had chosen to distance himself from Ortiz and Mike made petitions to the International Astronomical Union to give credit to his team instead of to Ortiz’s where the discovery of Haumea is concerned. According to the IAU, they had not acknowledged a specific discoverer of Haumea yet—however, its discovery date as well as location is known to as March 7, 2003 and that it had been at the Sierra Nevada Observatory where Ortiz worked. Interestingly enough, the IAU accepted the name Haumea which Mike had suggested, instead of Ataecina which was suggested by Ortiz.

Achievements and Personal Life

In 2006, he was included in Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people. A year later, he received California Institute of Technology’s most prestigious teaching honor which is the Feynman Prize. An asteroid discovered on April 28, 1998 was named after him as well – Asteroid 11714 Mikebrown.

Articles about Mike and his works had been featured in the New York Times, the New Yorker, as well as Discovery, and his discoveries made the front page of several international publications. He is also included in the list of Most Powerful Angelinos of Los Angeles Magazine.

On March 1, 2003, he married Dianne Binney who he has a daughter with—Lilah Binney Brown. In 2006, he was one of Wired Online’s Top Ten Sexiest Geeks, something that whenever mentioned, never fails to make Dianne laugh.

[MysteRy]

Michael Faraday



English scientist and physicist, Michael Faraday is known for his brilliant discoveries of electro-magnetic induction, electro-magnetic rotations, the magneto-optical effect, diamagnetism, field theory and much more. Many famous historians regard him as the most influential and exemplary experimentalist in the history of science. The incredible scope and profundity of Faraday’s work spanned a time of 60 years. He is considered as one of the top figures of the 19th century for his remarkable contribution in the field of electricity.

This British scientist was born in Newington Butts, London on 22 September 1791. Faraday was born as the third-child in a poor family, where his father James was a blacksmith. Due to the poor family background young Faraday could not enjoy the niceties of a big school and had to largely educate himself. He developed a great love for reading after he became apprenticed to a local bookbinder and bookseller George Riebau. After studying the work of great scientists and authors he developed an interest in science, particularly in electricity. It was his early reading and experiments with the idea of force, that enabled him to make imperative discoveries in electricity later in life.

Faraday was always extremely curious and inquisitive. After the end of his apprenticeship (at the age of twenty), he began to attend lectures of different famous chemists in the quest to learn more. During this time he also applied for a job to Humphry Davy, his chemistry lecturer who later appointed him as Chemical Assistant at the Royal Institution in 1813. Few years later in 1821, Faraday married Sarah Barnard whom he met at the Sandemanian church.

After Davy retired in 1827, Faraday replaced him as lecturer of chemistry at the Royal Institution and published all his research work related to condensation of gases, optical deceptions and the isolation of benzene from gas oils.

Scientific Contributions:

During the time when he was hired as an assistant to Professor Davy, Faraday discovered two new chlorides of carbon, conducted experiments on the diffusion of gases, investigated the alloys of steel, and produced several new kinds of glass intended for optical purposes.

Faraday is best recognized for his contributions to electricity and magnetism. In 1821 after being inspired by the work of Danish physicist and chemist, Hans Christian, he began experimenting with electromagnetism and by signifying the conversion of electrical energy into motive force, devised the electric motor. For the next few years he continued conducting experiments from his initial electromagnetic discovery. In 1831 Faraday discovered the induction of electric currents and constructed the first electric dynamo. In 1839 he conducted several experiments to determine the fundamental nature of electricity and established that electrostatic force consists of a field of curved lines of force and conceived a specific inductive capacity. This led to the development his theories on light and gravitational systems. His other prominent discoveries include: the process of diamagnetism, the Faraday Effect, Faraday cage and many more.

Two of his famous books are the ‘Experimental Researches in Electricity’ and the ‘Chemical History of the Candle.’

Later years:

During the later years of his life he made several other achievements: received a Doctor of Civil Law degree in 1832 by the University of Oxford granted Faraday, elected as a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1838 and the French Academy of Sciences in 1844.

For his great contribution to science, the British government granted him a pension and a house in Hampton Court, where he spent the rest of his life after his retirement in 1858.

The great British scientist departed from this world on 25 August 1867.

[MysteRy]

Michio Kaku



Most well known in the world of theoretical physicists, Michio Kaku is the City College of New York’s Henry Semat Professor of Theoretical Physics. He is considered as a futurist, a great communicator, and a modern popularizer of science. He is the author of several physics-related books such as Physics of the Impossible published in 2008, and Physics of the Future published in 2011. Michio Kaku has appeared in several television programs, radio programs, films, and makes his work available through his online blogs.

Education and Early Years

Michio Kaku was born in January 24, 1947 to Japanese parents who have Tibetan ancestry. His grandfather immigrated to the United States to help with the 1906 cleanup operation for the San Francisco Earthquake. He was born in San Jose, California. Around the time of the Vietnam War, he was able to complete the basic training given by the U.S. Army at Fort Benning and he even had his Infantry training in Washington. Before he was even deployed as an infantryman however, the war had already ended.

He has shown a great interest in science ever since he was young. When he studied in Palo Alto’s Cubberley High School, he assembled his own particle accelerator inside the garage of his parents. According to him, his goal was to generate gamma ray beams that would be strong enough to be able to produce antimatter. In Albuquerque, New Mexico, he attended the National Science Fair and it was there where he had the attention of Edward Teller, a physicist who took him as his protégé. He then earned the Hertz Engineering Scholarship.

Michio Kaku was first in his physics class and in 1968, he graduated summa cum laude at Harvard University. In Berkeley, at the University of California, he received his Ph.D. in 1972 after attending the Berkeley Radiation Laboratory. In that same year, he had a lectureship at none other than Princeton University.

Academic Career and Publications

This modern day man of science is knowledgeable in several fields such as hadronic physics, supersymmetry, supergravity, superstring theory, and quantum physics among others. His knowledge on these topics has been subject of more than 70 publications in different journals covering physics-related subjects such as Physics Review.

Michio Kaku is known as a popularizer of science, and he has authored several popular science textbooks. High first book was released in 1994 – Hyperspace, followed by “Beyond Einstein” which he wrote with Jennifer Thompson a year later. In 1998, he published “Visions: How Science Will Revolutionize the 21st Century.” It took a while before he published “Einstein’s Cosmos” and “Parallel Worlds” in 2004. His most recent works are “Physics of the Impossible” published in 2008 and “Physics of the Future” published in 2011.

 All of these publications spark a great interest in the minds of individuals, both scholars and curious minds alike who are interested in the realm of theoretical physics and other related disciplines given the futurist vision that Michio Kaku believes in.

 Michio Kaku’s publications reflect his involvement in the ongoing search of understanding and unifying the forces of nature into just one theory. He continues his works based on Einstein’s earlier findings, and Michio Kaku is known as one of the founders of string field theory. His book Hyperspace was a great best seller and was voted as one of the top science books by both The Washington Post and The New York Times in the same year.

The Popularizer of Science

This is a commonly heard phrase whenever Michio Kaku’s name is mentioned, and not without good reason. Apart from comprehensive publications of both books and journal articles, he has a known presence in many different forms of media.

He has made appearances on several television channels—notable ones such as BBC, Discovery, ABC, CNN, and the Science Channel just to name a few. Apart from his publications in Physics Review, his works and articles are also available to the public through science publications such as Wired, New Scientist, and Discover.

Some of his more recent media exposure includes BBC’s series on Time where he went through an extraordinary exploration in search of time, Vision of the Future of BBC Four series where he explored today’s science as well as that of the future and beyond, and The Universe of the History Channel.

On a weekly basis, Michio Kaku can be heard on radio programs which are broadcasted all over the country. He hosts Science Fantastic and Explorations in Science. Apart from these weekly radio programs, his talks about physics and his studies can be seen in several websites dedicated to his work, and even on YouTube channels. He has also been part of documentaries such as Obsessed and Scientific which discusses the possibility of time travel, UFOs: Seeing is Believing of ABC, and he was one of the scientists who were featured in “Me and Isaac Newton.” For BBC, he has hosted the three-hour documentary called Visions of the Future. There was even a period in his career back in 2009 when he hosted a weekly TV series for 12 episodes at the Science Channel called Sci Fi Science: Physics of the Impossible. One of his more interesting thoughts has been featured on Discovery Channel’s Alien Planet where he discussed the possible future of interstellar exploration.

It is because of his presence through different media and his skill when it comes to communicating the otherwise complex theories into information which is easier to understand that has earned him the name popularizer of science. In his videos, he is able to convey the messages and central thoughts of theories without making it hard for his audience to understand, but enough to get them hooked on the science behind different matters.

Despite his amazing academic endeavors and several appearances, he is a father to two daughters and is married to Shizue Kaku. His favorite songs include the Star Wars Theme as well as Star Trek’s The Next Generation Theme, both in line with his interest in physics and interstellar matters of science.

[MysteRy]

Mihailo Petrovic Alas



Mihailo Petrovic Alas was an inventor and influential Serbian mathematician. His main contributions had been for providing differential equations as well as several works on phenomenology. He had also been a well-respected professor at the Belgrade University and apart from his endeavors in Mathematics, he was also a musician, publicist, businessman, writer, fisherman, and an academic. Aside from his most significant contributions for phenomenology and differential equations, he also helped in the development of the very first prototypes for the analog computer.

Early Life and Academic Background

He was the firstborn of his father Nikodim who was a theology professor and his mother Milica. Mihailo was born on the 6th of May in 1868 in Belgrade. After finishing his studies in the First Belgrade Gymnasium in the year 1885, he enrolled for courses in the Faculty of Philosophy specifically for the natural science-mathematical section. When he finished his mathematical studies in Serbia come 1889, other mathematicians such as Dr. Dimitrije Danić, Dr. Dimitrije Nešić, Bogdan Gavrilović were already making their own names. Because of this he strived to improve his knowledge and in 1889, Mihailo himself decided to pursue further studies abroad where he also prepared for an exam to get accepted to the École Normale Supérieure.

In 1891, he got his degree from the Sorborne University where he finished his courses in mathematical sciences. He was continuously improving his education by preparing his dissertation for his doctoral degree which he got in 1894. His doctorate was about differential equations, and he received the title “Docteur des sciences mathematiques” or doctor of mathematical sciences.

Having acquired the background, as well as some training for more intensive work, he became one of the professors of mathematics at what is now known as the University of Belgrade. Back in those days, he was the greatest mind when it came to differential equations, having lectures on mathematics and equations up to his retirement in 1938. He was only 31 when he became one of the members of the Serbian Royal Academy, and on top of that, he was also an associate member of the Zagreb’s Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts.

Mihailo was able to publish many of his journals, scientific works, and books, as well as writings on his inventions during his lifetime. He even made notes of his sea expeditions. Because of his academic work and outstanding publications, he was recognized by many different academies and societies by being handed acknowledgements and awards. When Jovan Cvijić, president of the Royal Serbian Academy, died in 1927, a lot of the members were suggesting that Mihailo should be president. The higher authorities however did not accept the proposal, the reason being that he was a very close friend of prince Đorđe P. Karađorđević who was the king’s brother who happened to be house arrested in 1925.

A few years later in 1931, members of the academy again proposed for Mihailo to be elected as their president, but this was still dismissed and not accepted by the higher authorities. Bogdan Gavrilović, who was a fellow professor and mathematician, was the one who got nominated as the president instead.

Because of his contributions and help in different academic endeavors, he became one of the honorary doctors of the University of Belgrade in 1939 and that same year he received the first class order of Saint Sava. Given his expertise and know-how in the field of mathematics, he founded the Belgrade School of Mathematics. As the years passed, this very school was responsible for producing a number of good mathematicians who continued his works where he left them. During the Second World War, all of the doctoral dissertations which were held in the University of Belgrade were held under his supervision.

He was a man of many trades, and he didn’t stop at making academic contributions. He was also involved in services for his country. He was one of the participants in the Balkan Wars and during the First World War, he was one of the officers. After that time, he was serving as a reserve officer despite having another profession. Being a brilliant mathematician, he practiced cryptography as well and the cipher systems he developed where those used by the Yugoslav army up until the Second World War.

During the Second World War, he was again called to service, and this time, he was captured by the Germans. Fortunately, he was later on released because of an illness. It was in 1943 when he died at the age of 75 in his own home in Belgrade.

Personal Information

His nickname “Alas” was drawn from his love of fishery which actually means “river fisherman.” He wasn’t just an aficionado but he became an expert in this craft as well. He was a fisherman’s apprentice in 1882, and in 1895 he even took the exam to be a master fisherman. So much was his love for fishery that he even participated in some legislative talks about the fishery convention they were to have with Romania at one time, and he also had a hand in the discussion for fishery protection with Austra-Hungaria representatives about fishery protection for places such as the Drina, Danube, and the Sava rivers.

Apart from his interests in academics and fishery, he was also a musician who played the violin and he even founded the musical society which was called Suz. He also came up with the hidrointegrator and even won in the World Exposition in Paris in 1900 where he got a gold medal. He was also a passionate traveler and his wanderlust took him to both the South and North poles.

He had gained international recognition by being a member of societies in Paris, Prague, France, and Berlin, and as a member of different academies in Bucharest, Warsaw, and Krakow. He was a member of SANU, the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, and the Yugoslav academy where he was able to help hone the young minds of aspiring mathematicians and scholars of his age.

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Mohammad Abdus Salam



Early Life and Contributions:

Mohammad Abdus Salam, was born in January 29, 1926 in Punjab. He was a Pakistani theoretical physicist, astrophysicist. He was also the first Pakistani and Muslim (he belonged to Ahmadiyya Muslim Community) to win the Nobel laureate in Physics for his work in Electro-Weak Theory.

Salam, Sheldon Glashow and Steven Weinberg shared the prize for this discovery. He received the Smith’s Prize from Cambridge University, for the pre-doctoral contribution to Physics and the Hopkins Prize. Later on, he wrote a doctoral thesis on the fundamental work in Quantum electrodynamics. This was published in 1951 and enabled him to earn the Adams Prize. In 1956 he was invited to take a chair at Imperial College, London, where he and Paul Matthews created a lively theoretical physics group. During the early 1960s, however, Salam played a very significant role in establishing the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) – the atomic research agency of Pakistan – and Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) – the space research agency of Pakistan, of which he was the founding director.

He was also the founder of the Third world academy of sciences (TWAS)and the International centre for theoretical physics (ICTP) .

Salam was also responsible for initiating research on water logging and salinity problems in Pakistan. He also played a critical role in agricultural research, PAEC and SUPARCO, the international space agency in Pakistan. Abdus Salam was the pioneered of all the important developments in the theoretical elementary particle physics. He also served on a number of United Nations committees, concerning science and technology in developing countries. Abdus Salam prepared and taught future Pakistani engineers and scientists in the field of mathematics and physics.

His contributions was research on the physics of elementary particles. His most famous contributions included: Two-component neutrino theory and the prediction of the inevitable parity violation in weak interaction, gauge unification of weak and electromagnetic interaction. This unified force is known as the “Electroweak” force, a name given to it by Salam, and which lays the foundation of the Standard Model in particle physics and predicted existence of weak neutral currents and W particles and Z particles before their experimental discovery, symmetry properties of elementary particles; unitary symmetry, renormalization of meson theories, gravity theory and its role in particle physics; two tensor theory of gravity and strong interaction physics, unification of electroweak with strong nuclear forces, grand unification theory; related prediction of proton-decay.

Some other contributions of Salam include Pati-Salam model, a grand unification theory, Super symmetry theory, in particular, formulation of Super space and formalism of super fields in 1974, the theory of super manifolds, as a geometrical framework for understanding super symmetry, in 1974, Super geometry, the geometric basis for super symmetry, in 1974, the application of the Higgs mechanism to the electroweak symmetry breaking and prediction of the magnetic photon in 1966.

Death:

Abdus Salam died on 21st November 1996 at the age of 70 in Oxford, England after a prolonged illness. His body was brought to Pakistan and buried in Bahishti Maqbara in Rabwah. His memory will live on forever in the hearts of Pakistanis’ as he showed the world the true potential of a Pakistani.

[MysteRy]

Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi



Early Life:

Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi was a Persian mathematician, astronomer, astrologer geographer and a scholar in the House of Wisdom in Baghdad. He was born in Persia of that time around 780. Al-Khwarizmi was one of the learned men who worked in the House of Wisdom. Al-Khwarizmi flourished while working as a member of the House of Wisdom in Baghdad under the leadership of Kalif al-Mamun, the son of the Khalif Harun al-Rashid, who was made famous in the Arabian Nights. The House of Wisdom was a scientific research and teaching center.

Contributions and Achievements:

Al-Khwarizmi developed the concept of the algorithm in mathematics (which is a reason for his being called the grandfather of computer science by some people).

Al-Khwarizmi’s algebra is regarded as the foundation and cornerstone of the sciences. To al-Khwarizmi we owe the world “algebra,” from the title of his greatest mathematical work, Hisab al-Jabr wa-al-Muqabala. The book, which was twice translated into Latin, by both Gerard of Cremona and Robert of Chester in the 12th century, works out several hundred simple quadratic equations by analysis as well as by geometrical example. It also has substantial sections on methods of dividing up inheritances and surveying plots of land. It is largely concerned with methods for solving practical computational problems rather than algebra as the term is now understood.

Al-Khwarizmi confined his discussion to equations of the first and second degrees. He also wrote an important work on astronomy, covering calendars, calculating true positions of the sun, moon and planets, tables of sines and tangents, spherical astronomy, astrological tables, parallax and eclipse calculations, and visibility of the moon. His astronomical work, Zij al-sindhind, is also based on the work of other scientists. As with the Algebra, its chief interest is as the earliest Arab work still in existence in Arabic.

His most recognized work as mentioned above and one that is so named after him is the mathematical concept Algorithm. The modern meaning of the word relates to a specific practice for solving a particular problem. Today, people use algorithms to do addition and long division, principles that are found in Al-Khwarizmi’s text written over 2000 years ago. Al-Khwarizmi was also responsible for introducing the Arabic numbers to the West, setting in motion a process that led to the use of the nine Arabic numerals, together with the zero sign.

Of great importance also was al-Khwarizmi’s contribution to medieval geography. He systematized and corrected Ptolemy’s research in geography, using his own original findings that are entitled as Surat al-Ard (The Shape of the Earth). The text exists in a manuscript; the maps have unfortunately not been preserved, although modern scholars have been able to reconstruct them from al-Khwarizmi’s descriptions. He supervised the work of 70 geographers to create a map of the then “known world”. When his work became known in Europe through Latin translations, his influence made a permanent mark on the development of science in the West.

Al-Khwarizmi made several important improvements to the theory and construction of sundials, which he inherited from his Indian and Hellenistic predecessors. He made tables for these instruments which considerably shortened the time needed to make specific calculations. His sundial was universal and could be observed from anywhere on the Earth. From then on, sundials were frequently placed on mosques to determine the time of prayer. The shadow square, an instrument used to determine the linear height of an object, in conjunction with the alidade for angular observations, was also invented by al-Khwarizmi in ninth-century Baghdad.

While his major contributions were the result of original research, he also did much to synthesize the existing knowledge in these fields from Greek, Indian, and other sources. A number of minor works were written by al-Khwarizmi on topics such as the astrolabe, on which he wrote on the Jewish calendar. He also wrote a political history containing horoscopes of prominent persons.

Death:

Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi died in c. 850 being remembered as one of the most seminal scientific minds of early Islamic culture.

[MysteRy]

Murray Gell-Mann



Murray Gell-Mann is an American physicist who is credited with the introduction of the concept of quarks. He won the 1969 Nobel Prize for physics for his groundbreaking work on the description and classification of subatomic particles. Gell-Mann is widely considered to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of the 20th century.

Early Life and Education:

Borin in 1929 in Manhattan, New York City, Murray Gell-Mann was a very gifted student who entered Yale University when he was only 15. He acquired a B.S. degree in physics in 1948, and earned his Ph.D. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1951. His doctoral thesis on subatomic particles greatly inspired the works of Hungarian American theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate Eugene Wigner.

Contributions and Achievements:

Murray Gell-Mann started working at the Institute for Nuclear Studies, University of Chicago in 1952, where he introduced the concept of “strangeness”, a quantum property and the force that holds the components of the atomic nucleus, in 1953. He became a member of the faculty of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena in 1955, and the Robert Andrews Millikan Professor of Theoretical Physics in 1967.

While working with fellow physicist Yuval Ne’eman, in 1961, Gell-Mann suggested a scheme for the classification of previously discovered strongly interacting particles into a basic and proper arrangement of families. He hypothesized that it should be achievable to elaborate on the specific properties of known particles in terms of even more fundamental particles. He later termed these basic particles of matter as “quarks”, which later led to the 1964 discovery of the omega-minus particle.

Later Life

Murray Gell-Mann served as a director of the MacArthur Foundation for 23 years, from 1979 to 2002. He was also a member of the the President’s Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology from 1994 to 2001.

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Neil deGrasse Tyson



One of today’s popularizers of science, Neil deGrasse Tyson is a science communicator and known American astrophysicist. Currently, he is the Hayden Planetarium’s Frederick P. Rose director at the Rose Center for Earth and Space. He is also one of the research associates of the American Museum of Natural History’s department of astrophysics. Since he is a popularizer of science, he has appeared in television shows such as NOVA ScienceNow which was aired on PBS from 2006-2011. He is involved in fields such as physical cosmology, astrophysics, and science communication.

Early Years and Academic Background

Born in Manhattan as a middle child with two siblings, Neil deGrasse Tyson grew up around the Bronx. His mother was a gerontologist named Sunchita Feliciano Tyson. His father was a sociologist named Cyril deGrasse Tyson.

Growing up, Neil deGrasse Tyson went to the Bronx High School of Science from 1972-1976 where there was an emphasis on astrophysics then. Apart from being the captain of their wrestling team, he was also the editor-in-chief of “Physical Science” which was the school’s paper. His love for astronomy began at a young age of nine after his first visit to the Hayden Planetarium. In his teen years, he had an obsession for astronomy, and made his mark on the community of astronomy lovers when he gave lectures when he was just fifteen.

So much was his passion for astronomy that even Dr. Carl Sagan of the Cornell University personally sought him out to invite him for undergraduate programs. Neil, however, chose to attend Harvard University where he then had his major in physics while residing at the Currier House. It was in 1980 when he received his Bachelor of Arts in Physics, but during the years in between, he was involved in other activities such as rowing, wrestling, and dancing.

He proceeded with his post graduate endeavors at the University of Texas at Austin. In 1983, he earned his Master of Arts in Astronomy. Two years later, he even bagged the gold medal for the dance team of the University of Texas when he entered a national event for International Latin Ballroom. He furthered his education by earning a Master of Philosophy in astrophysics at Columbia University back in 1989. He had his doctorate in Philosophy of astrophysics two years later.

Career in Science

Because of his fascination for astronomy, his research was largely focused on stellar evolution, cosmology, galactic astronomy, as well as stellar formation. His career in science has included being able to hold position in the University of Maryland, the American Museum of Natural History, the Hayden Planetarium, and Princeton University.

He has also been able to publish several books on subjects related to astronomy. He wrote “Universe,” a column for the Natural History magazine, in 1995. He was even able to coin a word in one of the columns he wrote back in 2002. The word was “Manhattanhenge” and it is used for describing the 2 days in a year when the setting sun would align with the street grids of Manhattan which makes the sunset easily viewed on the clear side streets.

A year before he coined that term, former US President George W. Bush had appointed Neil deGrasse Tyson to be a member of the Commission on the Future of the United States Aerospace Industry. Two years later, he served as a part of the President’s Commission on Implementation of United States Space Exploration Policy. This Commission is better known by its more popular nickname which is the “Moon, Mars, and Beyond” commission. After a short while, he was then awarded by NASA their Distinguished Public Service Medal which happens to be the highest honor NASA awards to civilians.

Being a popularizer of science, Neil deGrasse Tyson has also made several appearances on television apart from being a columnist and book author. PBS’s miniseries entitled “Nova” had four parts, all of which Neil hosted back in 2004. Along with Donald Goldsmith, Tyson co-authored another volume for Nova which was called “Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution.” Later on, another collaboration was done and the fruit was called “400 Years of the Telescope.” This was aired on PBS back in April of 2009. He also hosted NOVA ScienceNow, the PBS program until 2011.

Part of his rich career related to anything and everything about astronomy included his being the Planetary Society’s chairman, president, and vice-president. Because of his love of the universe, his usual cheerful self along with his knowledge and vibrant character, Neil deGrasse Tyson became a regular part of “The Universe” which is a popular series from The History Channel.

Tyson has his own views about spirituality, religion, and science which he included in his essays called “The Perimeter of Ignorance” as well as “Holy Wars.” Both of these works appeared in the Natural History Magazine. Apart from having contributions in the field of astronomy, he also has civic awareness and was even an eyewitness to the attacks on the World Trade Center back in September 11, 2001. He had written a letter about what he had seen that day, and the footage he was able to take was even made part of the documentary released in 2008 which was called “102 Minutes That Changed America.”

Not only is he a man of science, Neil deGrasse Tyson even has collaborations with PETA or the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, and he stated that one need not be a rocket scientist to know that showing kindness is a virtue. He even had an interview with PETA where he discussed concepts about the intelligence of both humans and animals. He remains to be an advocate of NASA or the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and hopes for the expansion of their operations.

He has had appearances with Bill Nye in Stargate Atlantis’s “Brain Storm” episode, and even in more popular modern shows such as The Big Bang Theory’s episode called “The Apology Insufficiency.” He has also assisted DC Comics in selecting a star which would best match Superman’s home planet, Krypton. Today, he enjoys being a wine enthusiast along with his scientific endeavors while he lives with his wife and two kids in Lower Manhattan.

[MysteRy]

Niccolo Leoniceno



Niccolo Leoniceno was an Italian humanist and physician, and was also known as Nicolaus Leonicenus of Vicenza, Nicolò da Lonigo da Vincenza, Nicolaus Leoninus, Nicolo Lonigo, Nicolaus Leonicenus Vicentinus, and Nicolo Leoniceno. He was born in the year 1428 in Lonigo, Venento. His father had been a doctor, and this may have opened his young mind to medicine and prompted his interest to be a man of science as well.

Educational Background

Niccolo Leoniceno studied the Greek language under Ognibene da Lonigo back in Vicenza. In 1453, he was able to graduate from the University of Padua. It was at this university where he took his studies in philosophy and medicine under the wing of Pietro Roccabonella Veneziano. After he completed his doctorate, Leoniceno was able to go to the University of Ferrara. There, he was able to teach mathematics, medicine, and philosophy. One of his notable students was Antonio Musa Brassavola, a famous Italian physician.

Because of his knowledge in Greek as well as Arabic and Latin, he was able to help translate ancient Arabic and Greek medical texts into more accessible and readable Latin copies. He translated the works of Hippocrates and Galen and helped bring about the importance of such translations to more people. Leoniceno was also the first known person to have written criticisms for Pliny the Elder’s Natural History.

Debates in Ferrara

Pliny the Elder’s works are considered to be strong reference material in medicine back then, and the fact that Leoniceno had a different view on things was enough to spark curiosity and get him attention. More particularly, he was able to catch the attention of the court humanist Angelo Poliziano. Poliziano was not at all in favor of how Leoniceno classified Pliny the Elder alongside medieval and Arab scholars. Because of this, Poliziano employed the help of Pandolfo Collenuccio who was a lawyer as well as a historian to help defend Pliny the Elder from what Leoniceno wrote about him.

It was in 1492 when Leoniceno published the De Plinii et plurium alorium medicorum in medicina erroribus, an article where he was able to point out the errors of medical proportions made by Pliny along with the medieval Arab practitioners of medicine. After this publication by Leoniceno, it was quickly followed by Collenuccio’s Pliniana defensio adversus Nicolai Leoniceni accusationem which was published just a year later.

From 1492 to 1509, Leoniceno as well as Collenuccio published several pamphlets where they were pointing out and arguing about ancient sources they stood for. One particular concern they had was how accurate Pliny’s translations were from original Greek texts into Latin. After a while, Collenuccio himself agreed that there were such issues that existed.

Leoniceno’s attacks on Pliny the Elder were not solely about translation issues though, and he even mentioned a section of one of Pliny’s works where it was stated how the moon was bigger than the earth. Because of this, Leoniceno thought that if Pliny was erroneous on a fact as fundamental as this, this was reason enough to examine Pliny’s work further to see if there were other factual errors.

Natural History Experience

When it comes to natural history back in those days, knowledge was acquired when people study ancient texts for reference and use the formulas given by earlier scholars. What made a huge difference was he thought of not just using existing ancient texts as they were, but the method with which he confirmed the written text was from his own firsthand accounts. What he did was to have a copy of the text and compared it with his own set of observations. His approach was indeed new back then but it faced several challenges. The very first issue was about the translation of texts.

The main issue was about the translation errors and contradictions which ensued after translating the text. According to Leoniceno’s beliefs, if Pliny had errors, other ancient works done by Dioscorides and Theophrastus may have errors which should be examined as well. He had shown a preference for some Greek compared to Arab authors too, and this drive of his was one of the main distinguishing characteristics which helped reform the medical pedagogy back then.

It was really much harder then, working on such texts because it would have been hard to confirm from long dead authors if the plant being observed in the present day was the same one being described before. Despite this challenge though, Leoniceno still proceeded with his work and focused with being able to identify the existing information written on respected ancient texts instead of just adding to it, which was what most other scholars would have done. He insisted on this idea because he believed in “factual accuracy,” and that it was highly important because the health, as well as the life of men depended on the accuracy of facts written in ancient manuscripts.

Personal Library

Having been a scholar and a man who was really interested in ancient works and translation for the betterment of the modernizing civilizations, Leoniceno had his own collection of works. These were what he used for working on his comparisons and observations. He existed during the time which some call “the age of the manuscript.” Back in those days, the main way to gain knowledge was to read existing texts and add to them rather than verify them, which was why Leoniceno’s approach had been really crucial and major to the contributions made to medical texts back then.

After he died, there was an inventory of about 345 volumes which comprised of 482 individual finished works. A great number of smaller volumes were combined in just one volume which was separately bound. Out of the noted 345 volumes, about 117 had been in Greek. Upon inspection, there were numerous translations and versions of just a single text, and also a lot of commentaries on different volumes. Because of his in-depth work on the texts and different volumes, it was clearly reflected how he had a highly textual approach. This approach to learning and knowledge made him have an extensive library, which was what served as a strong basis for his being a scientific scholar.