Top 10 Greatest Scientists in History

The world as we know it would not be as it is were it not for the great inventions and achievements made by some of the most renown inventors and scientists.

These great scientists went through the most to prove their inventions to the point where most would risk their lives just to prove a scientific theory.

1. Isaac Newton

Newton is widely known for his discovery of the Law of Gravity. He is widely recognized as one of the most influential scientists of all time, and a key figure in the scientific revolution.

He formulated the laws of motion and universal gravitation that formed the dominant scientific viewpoint until it was outdated by the theory of relativity by Einstein.

Newton also built the first practical reflecting telescope and developed a sophisticated theory of color based on the observation that a prism separates white light into the colors of the visible spectrum.

He received awards such as Fellowship of the Royal Society and Knight Bachelor where he was knighted by Queen Anne in 1705 and spent the last three decades of his life in London, serving as warden and master of the Royal Mint.

2. Albert Einstein

Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist popularly known for his theory of general relativity and the concept of mass-energy equivalence expressed by the famous equation E=MC2.

His four Annus Mirabilis (miracle years) papers, which were released in 1905, laid the foundation of modern physics and changed views on space, time, mass, and energy.

He defied odds to become one of the greatest scientists in the world. He was always a little different from other children: his head was slightly larger than normal, and he hardly spoke as a young boy, leading one housekeeper to consider him “retarded”.

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3. Marie Curie

Marie Curie is best known for her development of the theory of radioactivity (a term she coined), techniques for isolating radioactive isotopes, and the discovery of two elements, polonium, and radium.

With her discovery of radium, x-rays are now possible today. Under her direction, the world’s first studies into the treatment of neoplasms were conducted using radioactive isotopes.

She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first person and only woman to win twice, and the only person to win a Nobel Prize in two different sciences.

She died in 1934 from a type of anemia that very likely stemmed from her exposure to such extreme radiation during her career. In fact, her original notes and papers are still so radioactive that they’re kept in lead-lined boxes, and you need protective gear to view them.

4. Nikola Tesla

Nikola Tesla was an engineer popularly known for designing the alternating current (AC) electric system, which is still the main electrical system used across the world today.

He also created the “Tesla coil,” which is still used in radio technology.

Tesla conducted a range of experiments with mechanical generators, electrical discharge tubes, and early X-ray imaging in an attempt to develop inventions he could patent and market. He also built a wireless-controlled boat, one of the first ever exhibited.

5. Ada Lovelace

Ada Lovelace earned her place in history as the first computer programmer, a full century before today’s computers emerged.

She was the first to recognize that the Analytical Engine proposed by Charles Babbage had applications beyond pure calculation, and published the first algorithm intended to be carried out by such a machine.

She died of uterine cancer in 1852 at the age of 36.

6. Charles Darwin

Darwin was an English naturalist, biologist, and geologist. He is widely known for his theory on how man evolved from primates.

His proposition that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestors is now widely accepted and considered a foundational concept in the science of evolution.

Darwin has been described as one of the most influential figures in human history, and he was honored by burial in Westminster Abbey

A statue of Charles Darwin occupies the place of honor at London’s Natural History Museum.

7. Carl Linnaeus

Linnaeus was a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist who formalized binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming organisms, by use of the language Latin.  For this reason, he was known as “father of modern taxonomy”.

He intended the simple Latin two-word construction for each plant as a kind of shorthand, an easy way to remember what it was.

8. Galileo Galilei

Four hundred years ago, Galileo’s telescope changed the world. Galileo used his telescope to advance the theory that the Earth was not the center point of creation, which the Roman Catholic Church considered “false and contrary to scripture.”

Of all of his telescope discoveries, he is perhaps most known for his discovery of the four most massive moons of Jupiter, now known as the Galilean moons: Io, Ganymede, Europa, and Calisto.

When NASA sent a mission to Jupiter in the 1990s, it was called Galileo in honor of the famed astronomer.

9. Pythagoras

Pythagoras, a sixth-century B.C. Greek philosopher, and mathematician is credited with inventing his namesake theorem, the Pythagoras Theorem.

Memories of high school geometry always include the teacher drawing right triangles on a blackboard to explain the Pythagoras theorem where the square of the hypotenuse, or longest side, is equal to the sum of the squares of the other sides. Simply put: a2+ b2 = c2.

Pythagorean ideas on mathematical perfection also impacted ancient Greek art.

10. Rosalind Franklin

British chemist, Rosalind Franklin, is best known for her role in the discovery of the structure of DNA, her pioneering use of X-ray diffraction, her contributions to the understanding of viruses, coal, and graphite.

Although her works on coal and viruses were appreciated in her lifetime, her contributions to the discovery of the structure of DNA were largely recognized afterward. This could have won her a Nobel prize but she was not recognized and in turn, Watson, Crick, and Wilkins received the 1962 Nobel Prize four years after she had died.

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