Who Did ScienceAnyway?

Some of the Men andWomen Who Shape Our

Worldview

Arabic Scientists

• When Feudalism reduced thedemand for science in Europe,scholars fled to Arabic-Islamic lands

• Mathematics, Astronomy, Healthand Medicine, Optics, andChemistry flourished there duringEurope’s Dark Ages

Famous Arabic-Islamic

Scientists

• Ibn al-Shatir

• Abu Ibn-Sina (Avicenna)

• Ibn al-Haytham

• Abu Al-Razi

Arabic Astronomy Texts

The Emerald Stone

• Hermes Trismegistus –Legendary Founder of Alchemy

The Emerald TabletThe goal of the Alchemists

Translation by Isaac Newton

• …Separate the Earth from theFire, the subtle from the gross,sweetly with great industry…Bythis means you shall have theglory of the whole world andthereby all obscurity shall flyfrom you.

Tools of the Alchemist

Often Hidden from View

Science Becomes

Respectable

• August the Strong

and other

leaders support

science.

Primarily for their own

gain– to make porcelain

Wilhelm Ostwald

• Born in Riga, Latvia, in 1853

• Chemistry and Physics teacherat University of Leipzig

• Pioneer in Electrochemistry

• Nobel Prize 1909

The House of EnergyThe Home of WilhelmOstwald

Ostwald’s Laboratory

Ostwald’s Color ExperimentsAs Explained by his Grandaughter

William Perkins and the

Chemistry of Dyeing

• William Perkins

• At the age of 18, this Englishyouth invented the dye, Mauve.

• His synthetic dye foreverchanged how we color fabrics

Technical University of DresdenProfessor Hartmann

Early dyes were from

plant pigments

Blaise Pascal

• Invented first digital calculatorat age 19

• Did experiments withatmospheric pressure

• Argued for the existence ofvacuums

• Brilliant mathematician

The First Mechanical Calculator –The Pascaline

Zwinger Museum – Dresden

The Curies

• Marie Curie

Born in Poland

Coined term ’’radioactivity”

Discovered two new elements in

pitchblende ore

Nobel Prize Physics (1903)

Chemistry (1911)

Pierre Curie

Research in magnetic effects

Nobel Prize 1903 Physics

Uranium came from

mines in Jachimov, C.R.

Uranium Ores fromJachimov, Czech Republic

Mining – at the home of

the thaller

Radium Palace in

Jachimov, C.R.

Radium Palace Spa and

Resort - Jachimov

Tycho Brahe

• Tycho Brahe:

Born in Denmark

The improvement of

astronomy depends on

accurate observation

Tycho’s Books --

Strahov Library - Prague

Tycho’s Observatory

Uraniborg at Hven

Tycho’s Math Book

Tycho’s Final RestingPlaceTyn Church, Prague

Johannes Kepler

• Founder of

celestial

mechanics

• Three Laws

of planetary

motion

House of Johannes

Kepler– Prague

Kepler’s House

Kepler’s

House in

Prague

Christian Doppler

• Born in Salzburg

• Astronomy text on

Binary Stars

• Explained Doppler

Effect for waves

• Professor at the

University of Vienna

Albert Einstein

• Born in Germany

• Nobel Prize for

explanation of

photoelectric

effect

• Theory of Relativity

House in Prague whereEinstein played the violin

Gregor Mendel

• Abbot of

Augustinian

Monastery

in Brno, C.R.

• Founder of

Science of

Genetics

Mendel’s Garden

Genetics with Geodes

Experiments Continue

in the Spirit of Mendel

Ludwig Boltzmann

• Born in Vienna

• Taught math and

physics

• Harmonized

Thermodynamics

and mechanics

Erwin Schroedinger

• Born in Vienna

• Nobel Prize in 1933

For explaining wave

Theory of atoms

• Fled from Nazis to

Dublin

More Information aboutthese men and women

will come from yourclassmates during the

third quarter.