Heinrich Rudolf Hertz (1857-1894) was born in Hamburg, Germany. His father was a prominent lawyer and legislator. In his youth Heinrich enjoyed building instruments in the family workshop.Hertz began his college studies at the University of Munich. After a short time he transferred to the University of Berlin, where he received his Doctor of Philosophy […]
Humphry Davy was born on December 17, 1778 in Penzance, Cornwall, England. He received his education in Penzance and in Truro. His father died in 1794, and Davy, in an effort to help support his family, became an apprentice to a surgeon.Davy’s most important investigations were devoted to electrochemistry. Following Galvani’s experiments and the discovery
Hugo Marie de Vries born on 16 February 1848 a Dutch biologist, was one of three men who in 1900 rediscovered Gregor Mendel’s work on genetics. De Vries was educated at the Universities of Leiden, Heidelberg and Wruzburg. He became a professor of botany at the University of Amsterdam in 1878.De Vries conducted a series
Guglielmo Marconi was born at Bologna, Italy, on April 25, 1874. He was educated privately at Bologna, Florence and Leghorn. Even as a boy he took a keen interest in physical and electrical science and studied the works of Maxwell, Hertz, Righi, Lodge and others. In 1895 he began laboratory experiments at his father’s country
Mendel was born on July 20, 1822 to a German-speaking family of Heinzendorf, Moravia, Austrian Empire (now in Czech Republic). During his childhood Mendel worked as a gardener, and as a young man attended the Philosophical Institute in Olomouc. In 1843 he entered the Augustinian Abbey of St. Thomas in Brno. Born Johann Mendel, he
Galileo Galilei was born on February 15, 1564 in Pisa, Italy. Galileo pioneered ‘experimental scientific method’ and was the first to use a refracting telescope to make important astronomical discoveries.In 1609 Galileo learned of the invention of the telescope in Holland. From the barest description he constructed a vastly superior model. Galileo made a series
Euclid is one of the most influential and best read mathematician of all time. His prize work, Elements, was the textbook of elementary geometry and logic up to the early twentieth century. For his work in the field, he is known as the father of geometry and is considered one of the great Greek mathematicians.Very
Ernest Rutherford was born on August 30, 1871, in Nelson, New Zealand, the fourth child and second son in a family of seven sons and five daughters.Ernest received his early education in Government schools and at the age of 16 entered Nelson Collegiate School. In 1889 he was awarded a University scholarship and he proceeded
This Italian mathematician and physicist, born at Faenza on 15 October, 1608.Torricelli was educated at the Jesuit college of Faenza, where he showed such great aptitude for the sciences that his uncle sent him to Rome in 1626 for the purpose of study. There he fell in with Castelli, the favourite pupil of Galileo, who
Enrico Fermi was born in Rome on 29th September, 1901, the son of Alberto Fermi. He attended a local grammar school, and his early aptitude for mathematics and physics was recognized and encouraged by his father’s colleagues. In 1918, he won a fellowship of the ScuolaNormale Superiore of Pisa. He spent four years at the
Edward Jenner was born in 1749 and died in 1823. Edward Jenner’s great gift to the world was his vaccination for smallpox. This disease was greatly feared at the time as it killed one in three of those who caught it and badly disfigured those who were lucky enough to survive catching it.Edward Jenner was
The youngest, of at least, fourteen children, Dimitri Ivanovitch Mendeleev was born at Tobolsk, Siberia, on 7 February, 1834. His father, Ivan, was the director of the local gymnasium, and his mother, Marya, came from a family that had introduced glass and paper making to Siberia. Ivan diedwhen Dimitri was quite young and Marya had
Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman was born on November 7, 1888. His father was a lecturer in mathematics and physics so that from the very childhood he was immersed in an academic atmosphere. He entered Presidency College, Madras, in 1902, and in 1904 passed his B.A. examination, winning the first place and the gold medal inphysics; in
Christian Huygens was born at the Hague on April 14, 1629, and died there on July 8, 1695.In 1654, his attention was directed to the improvement of the telescope. Together with his brother, Christian Huygens devised a new and better way of grinding and polishing lenses. As a result of theseimprovements, Huygens was able during
Sir Benjamin Thompson alias Count Rumford was born on March 26, 1753.Perhaps it was John Fowle, the Harvard educated village teacher who first noticed signs of talent in young Thompson—his skill with mechanical devices, his almost faultless command of language and grammar before his thirteenth year. These skills laterwon him the right, along with friend