The early life of Newton

Isaac Newton was born at Woolsthorpe near Grantham in Lincolnshire, England on 4 January 1643.
His father died before he was born and in 1645 his mother married a clergyman from North Welham
in Leicestershire. She went to live with him while Isaac Newton lived with his grandmother. His
mother returned to Woolsthorpe in 1656 when her second husband died and Isaac Newton went to
live with her again.

From the age of 12 to 14 Isaac Newton went to Grantham Grammar School. During this time he
lodged with an apothecary and his family. Then in 1659, Isaac had to leave to help his mother on the
family farm. Isaac was not in the slightest bit interested in running a farm and in 1660 he went to the
grammar school again. In 1661 he went to Trinity College Cambridge. Isaac Newton obtained a BA in
1665. In 1666 Isaac Newton was forced to flee Cambridge because of an outbreak of the plague and
he returned temporarily to Woolsthorpe. He returned to university in 1667.

In 1667 Isaac Newton was elected a fellow of Trinity College. The same year he was elected a
member of the Royal Society. In February 1672 a paper he wrote about light and colours was read to
the society. In 1669 Isaac Newton became Lucasian professor of mathematics. In the meantime, in
1668, he invented a reflecting telescope.

In 1689-1690 Isaac Newton was MP for Cambridge University (in those days Cambridge University
had its own MPs). He became an MP again in 1701-1702 but he did not take an active part in politics.

Principia Mathematica

Isaac Newton published his masterpiece Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica in 1687. It set
out his theory of gravity and his laws of motion.

In 1695 Isaac Newton was made Ward of the mint and in 1699 Master of the mint. He resigned his
fellowship and professorship at Cambridge in 1701.

In 1703 Isaac Newton became president of the Royal Society. He was knighted in 1705. Meanwhile in
1704 Isaac Newton published another great work about light.

Isaac Newton died at the age of 84 on 20 March 1727.

His Early Life

Galileo Galilei was born on 15 February 1564 in Pisa, Italy. (He is one of the few famous people
known by his first name rather than his surname). Galileo was the first of 6 or ,some say, 7 children.
His father was a musician and although the family were fairly well off they were by no means rich.

In 1581 Galileo started studying medicine at Pisa University. However he soon 'fell in love' with
mathematics and he decided to learn to teach mathematics and philosophy. (Much against his
father's wishes!) Galileo left the university in 1585 and began privately teaching mathematics. He
soon gained a reputation as a brilliant mathematician and in 1589 he became a lecturer in
mathematics at Pisa University.

At that time the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle was held in very high esteem and many people
accepted his ideas without question. However Galileo did not. Aristotle said that if two objects, a
heavy one and light one both fall from a height the large one will reach the ground first. According to
legend Galileo tested the theory by dropping two different weights from the leaning Tower of Pisa.
Both hit the ground at the same time.

However many people now believe this famous experiment is a myth. In any case other scholars had
already reached the conclusion that Aristotle was wrong.

However Galileo's criticism of Aristotle irritated the other staff at the university and in 1592 his
contract was not renewed. Instead from 1592 to 1610 Galileo taught at the university of Padua.

Galileo never married but he did have 3 children, 2 girls and a boy.

Then in 1609 Galileo heard of a new invention from Holland. A man named Hans Lippershey (c 1570-
1619) had invented the telescope. Galileo made his own telescope and soon improved it.

Using a telescope Galileo was able to see several things invisible to the naked eye. Firstly he could
see many stars not visible without a telescope. Secondly the ancient Greeks believed that
the Moon was smooth. Looking through a telescope Galileo could see the Moon's surface is actually
rough, with mountains and craters. He also discovered 4 small 'moons' orbiting the planet Jupiter. At
the time these were astonishing discoveries. Until then nobody knew that any of the other planets,
apart from Earth, had 'moons'.

Also in 1610 Galileo discovered that Venus has phases like the Moon.

In 1610 Galileo wrote a book called Sidereus Nuncius or the Sidereal Messenger. Also that year he
was made mathematician and philosopher of the grand duke of Tuscany (at that time Italy was
divided into many small states of which Tuscany was one).

At that time astronomers were debating sunspots. A German named Christoph Scheiner claimed
that they were satellites of the sun. In 1613 Galileo argued that sunspots are actually on the surface
of the sun.
Galileo and the Inquisition

Meanwhile in 1543 a theory by the Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus was published Until his
time people believed that the sun, moon and planets orbit the earth. Copernicus argued that the
earth and the other planets orbit the sun. At first the church did not have a problem with his theory.
However opinion gradually hardened and in 1616 the Copernican theory was declared heretical.

There is a passage in the Old Testament where a prophet named Joshua commanded the sun to
stand still in the sky (Joshua 10:12-13). Some scholars said this meant the sun must move. Of course,
Joshua knew nothing about Astronomy. To him the sun appeared to move across the sky. Naturally
he would command the sun to stand still and to him it would have appeared to stand still. The
church's objection to the Copernican theory was based on a misinterpretation of the Bible.

However Galileo was a resolute supporter of the Copernican theory. In 1632 he published a book
called Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems. As a result he was summoned to Rome to
be examined by the inquisition. He arrived in January 1633. Galileo was threatened with torture
unless he renounced the Copernican theory. Not surprisingly he agreed to do so. Nevertheless he
was put under house arrest for the rest of his life.

In 1634 Galileo published a book about mechanics called Dialogue Concerning Two New Sciences.
Then in 1637 he noticed that the Moon moves slightly from side to side. Unfortunately in 1638 he
went blind. Galileo Galilei died on 8 January 1642 aged 77.
Ancient Greek Science

The Ancient Greeks were the first scientists. Greek philosophers tried to explain what the world is
made of and how it works. Empedocles (c. 494-434 BC) said that the world is made of four elements,
earth, fire, water, and air. Aristotle (384-322 BC) accepted the theory of the four elements. However,
he also believed that the Sun, Moon, and planets are made of a fifth element and are unchanging.
Aristotle also studied zoology and attempted to classify animals.

Aristotle also believed the body was made up of four humors or liquids (corresponding to the four
elements). They were phlegm, blood, yellow bile, and black bile. If a person had too much of one
humor they fell ill. Although some of their ideas were wrong the Greeks did make some scientific
discoveries. A man named Aristarchus believed the Earth revolved around the Sun. Unfortunately,
his theory was not accepted. However, Eratosthenes (c.276-194 BC) calculated the circumference of
the Earth.

Advances in Astronomy

In the 2nd century AD a man called Ptolemy stated that the Earth is the center of the universe. The
sun and the other planets orbit the Earth. In the 16th century a Pole called Nicolaus
Copernicus (1473-1543) realized this is untrue. The Earth and the other planets orbit the Sun.
However, his theory was not published until just before his death.

Another great astronomer of the 16th century was Tycho Brahe (1546-1601). He made accurate
observations of the positions of stars. However, Brahe did not accept the Copernican theory.
Instead, he believed that the Sun revolved around the Earth and the other planets revolved around
the Sun. In 1572 Brahe saw a new star (a nova). The Greek philosopher Aristotle said the heavens
were unchanging. Change and decay, he said, only happened on Earth. Obviously, Aristotle was
wrong.

Tycho Brahe was followed by Johannes Kepler (1571-1630). In the 16th century, people believed that
the planets move in circles. Kepler showed they orbit the Sun in ellipses and they move faster as
they approach the Sun. Kepler published two laws of planetary motion in 1609. He published a third
in 1619. Furthermore in 1604 Kepler published a book on Optics.

One of the most famous early scientists was Galileo. Aristotle said that if two objects, a heavy one
and light one both fall from a height the large one will reach the ground first. According to legend,
Galileo tested the theory by dropping two different weights from the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Both hit
the ground at the same time. However many people now believe this famous experiment is a myth.
it never actually took place. In any case other scholars had already reached the conclusion that
Aristotle was wrong.

Galileo

Then in 1609 Galileo heard of a new invention from Holland. A man named Hans Lippershey had
invented the telescope. Galileo made his own telescope and soon improved it. Using a telescope
Galileo was able to see several things invisible to the naked eye. Firstly he could see many stars not
visible without a telescope. Secondly, the ancient Greeks believed that the Moon was smooth.
Looking through a telescope Galileo could see the Moon's surface is actually rough, with mountains
and craters. He also discovered 4 small 'moons' orbiting the planet Jupiter. At the time these were
astonishing discoveries. Until then nobody knew that any of the other planets, apart from Earth, had
'moons'.

In 1610 Galileo wrote a book called Sidereus Nuncius or the Sidereal Messenger. At that time
astronomers were debating sunspots. A German named Christoph Scheiner claimed that they were
satellites of the sun. In 1613 Galileo argued that sunspots are actually on the surface of the sun.

Copernicus also argued that the earth and the other planets orbit the sun. At first, the church did not
have a problem with his theory. However, opinion gradually hardened and in 1616 the Copernican
theory was declared heretical. There is a passage in the Old Testament where a prophet named
Joshua commanded the sun to stand still in the sky (Joshua 10:12-13). Some scholars said this meant
the sun must move. Of course, Joshua knew nothing about Astronomy. To him, the sun appeared to
move across the sky. Naturally, he would command the sun to stand still and to him, it would
have appeared to stand still. The church's objection to the Copernican theory was based on a
misinterpretation of the Bible.

However Galileo was a resolute supporter of the Copernican theory. In 1632 he published a book
called Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems. As a result, he was summoned to Rome to
be examined by the Inquisition. He arrived in January 1633. Galileo was threatened with torture
unless he renounced the Copernican theory. Not surprisingly he agreed to do so. Nevertheless, he
was put under house arrest for the rest of his life. In 1634 Galileo published a book about mechanics
called Dialogue Concerning Two New Sciences. Then in 1637, he noticed that the moon moves
slightly from side to side.

Advances in Medicine

At that time doctors made great progress in understanding how the human body works. In 1628
William Harvey published his discovery of how blood circulates around the body. The Roman writer
Galen said that blood passes from one side of the heart to the other through the septum. However,
by 1555 the great surgeon Vesalius had reached the conclusion that no such holes exist and that
blood can not pass from one side of the heart to the other in that way.

In 1559 a man named Realdo Colombo demonstrated that blood actually travels from one side of
the heart to the other through the lungs. Eventually, William Harvey realized that the heart is a
pump. Each time it contracts it pumps out blood. Harvey then estimated how much blood was being
pumped each time. A Roman writer named Galen believed that the body constantly makes new
blood and uses up the old (rather like an engine using up petrol). However, Harvey realized this is
not true. Instead, the blood circulates around the body. In the 17th century, medicine was helped by
the microscope (invented at the end of the 16th century). In 1658 a man named Jan Swammerdam
first observed red blood corpuscles. In 1661 Marcello Malpighi discovered capillaries. Then in 1665
Robert Hooke was the first person to describe cells in his book Micrographia.

Britain's oldest scientific society began in 1645 a when group of philosophers and mathematicians
began holding meetings to discuss science or natural philosophy as it was called. Charles II was
interested in science and in 1662 he granted them a charter and they became the Royal Society.

Scientists in the 17th Century

Isaac Newton is Britain's greatest scientist. In 1668, he invented a reflecting telescope.

Newton published his masterpiece Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica in 1687. It set out
his theory of gravity and his laws of motion. Newton realized that there is a universal force (gravity)
that attracts all objects in the universe to each other. His theory of gravity explained the movements
of the planets. In 1704 Newton also published a book on light called Optics. Newton showed that
white light is made up of several colors.

Many other scientists worked in the late 17th century. Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695) discovered
Titan, the moon of Saturn. In 1656 he made the first pendulum clock, which made accurate
measurement of time possible. A man named Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723) made his own
microscopes and through them he made many observations.

In 1661 Robert Boyle (1627-1691) published the Skeptical Chemist, which laid the foundations of
modern chemistry. Boyle rejected the Greek thinker Aristotle's idea that the world is made up of
four elements, water, earth, fire and air. Boyle is also famous for Boyle's law (The volume of a gas
kept at constant temperature is inversely proportional to its pressure).

Science in the 18th Century

During the 18th century chemistry made great advances. In 1751 a man named Axel Cronstedt
discovered nickel. In 1766 Henry Cavendish (1731-1810) isolated hydrogen and studied its
properties. (He also calculated the density of the Earth). In 1772 Daniel Rutherford (1749-1819)
discovered Nitrogen. In 1774 Joseph Priestley discovered oxygen. In 1756 Joseph Black (1728-1799)
discovered carbon dioxide.

Perhaps the greatest chemist of the 18th century was Antoine Lavoisier (1743-1794). He discovered
that during combustion oxygen combines with substances. He also discovered the role of oxygen in
respiration and corrosion of metals. Meanwhile during the 18th century people began to realized
that the Earth is very old. A landmark in geology came in 1785 when James Hutton (1726-1797)
published his book Theory of the Earth.

In 1781 the astronomer William Herschel (1738-1822) discovered the planet Uranus. In 1784 John
Goodricke (1764-1786) discovered variable stars. Two great biologists of the 18th century were
Georges Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707-1788) and Karl Linnaeus (1707-1778). Linnaeus invented a
method of classifying living things.

Meanwhile people began to investigate electricity. In 1746 a man Petrus van Musschenbroek (1692-
1761) invented a way of storing electricity called a leyden jar. In 1752 Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
proved that lighting is a form of electricity. In 1800 Alessandro Volta (1745-1827) invented the first
chemical battery.

However during the 18th century medicine made slow progress. Doctors still did not know what
caused disease. Some continued to believe in the four humors (although this theory declined during
the 18th century). Other doctors thought disease was caused by 'miasmas' (odorless gases in the
air).

Science in the 19th Century

During the 19th century science made great progress. In 1808 John Dalton (1766-1844) published his
atomic theory. According to the theory matter is made of tiny, indivisible particles. Dalton also said
that atoms of different elements had different weight. John Dalton also studied colour blindness. In
1827 the German chemist Friedrich Wohler (1800-1882) isolated aluminium. In 1828 he produced
urea, an organic compound from inorganic chemicals. A Russian, Dmitri Mendeleev (1834-1907)
formulated the Periodic Table, which arranged all the known elements according to their atomic
weight.

Meanwhile people continued to master electricity. In 1819 a Dane, Hans Christian Oersted
discovered that electric current in a wire caused a nearby compass needle to move. The
Englishman Michael Faraday (1791-1867) invented the dynamo. In 1847 the German Hermann von
Helmholtz (1821-1894) formulated the law of the Conservation of Energy, which states that energy is
never lost but just changes from one form to another. In 1851 he invented the ophthalmoscope.

Meanwhile geology made huge strides. Charles Lyell (1797-1875) saw that rocks were formed by
processes we see today. In 1830 he published his book Principles of Geology. In 1837 a Swiss, Louis
Agassiz (1807-1873) realized that a vast sheet of ice had once covered northern Europe.
Furthermore, scientists discovered more and more fossils and the word Dinosaur was coined in
1842.

Charles Darwin

In 1831 Darwin sailed on the beagle. In February 1832 the Beagle reached Brazil. Darwin spent three
years in different parts of South America collecting specimens. Then in September 1835, the Beagle
sailed to the Galapagos Islands. Darwin was surprised to learn the local people could tell by looking
at a tortoise which island it came from. Darwin also studied finches. Each island had a different
species of finch. Later Darwin came to the conclusion that all were descended from a single species
of finch. On each island, the finches had diverged and become slightly different.

By 1836 Darwin believed that species of animals could change. In October 1838 Darwin thought of a
way in which one species could change into another. He noticed that individual members of a
species vary. Furthermore, all animals are competing with each other to survive. If the environment
changed in some way, say if a new, faster predator appeared then any herbivores that could run
slightly faster then other members of its species would be more likely to survive and reproduce. Any
herbivores that ran slightly slower than most would be more likely to be eaten. Slowly a new, faster
herbivore would evolve. This was later called the survival of the fittest. Darwin's monumental
work The Origin of Specieswas published in 1859. It proved to be a bestseller. However, Darwin's
book also caused controversy.

In 1866 an Austrian monk named Gregor Mendel discovered the laws of hereditary by breeding
peas. Furthermore, medicine and surgery made great advances in the 19th century. There were
several outbreaks of cholera in Britain. It struck in 1832, 1848, 1854 and 1866. During the 1854
epidemic, John Snow (1813-1858) showed that cholera was transmitted by water. However doctors
were not certain how. Later Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) proved that microscopic organisms caused
disease. In the early 19th century many scientists believed in spontaneous generation i.e. that some
living things spontaneously grew from non-living matter. In a series of experiments between 1857
and 1863 Pasteur proved this was not so. Once doctors what caused disease they made rapid
headway in finding cures or prevention.

In the late 19th century physics made great strides. In 1873 James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879)
showed that light is an electromagnetic wave. He also predicted there were other electromagnetic
waves with longer and shorter wavelengths than light. Then in 1888 Heinrich Hertz (1857-1894)
proved the electromagnetic waves predicted by Maxwell exist. In 1896 Henri Becquerel (1852-1908)
discovered radioactivity. Then in 1898 Marie Curie (1867-1934) and Pierre Curie (1859-1906)
discovered radium.

At the end of the century scientists began to investigate the atom. In 1897 Joseph Thomson
discovered the electron. In astronomy Giuseppe Piazzi discovered the first asteroid, Ceres in 1801. In
1838 Friedrich Bessel (1784-1846) measured the distance to a star (61 Cygni) for the first time. The
planet Neptune was discovered in 1846.

Science in the 20th Century

During the 20th century science continued to go forward at fantastic speed. Scientists came to
understand the atom. In 1910 Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937) discovered the atomic nucleus. He
realized that almost all the mass of an atom is in the nucleus with electrons orbiting it. In 1932 James
Chadwick (1891-1974) discovered the neutron.

Physics was revolutionized by two men, Max Planck (1858-1947) and Albert Einstein (1879-1955). In
1900 Planck proposed quantum theory, which states that energy is exchanged in discrete packets he
called quanta. Einstein published his theory of Special Relativity in 1905 and his General Theory of
Relativity in 1915. In 1927 Werner Heisenberg (1901-1976) published his uncertainty principle, which
states that is impossible to determine the position andspeed of a subatomic particle.

In 1915 Alfred Wegener proposed continental drift. He said that all continents were once joined and
they have drifted apart. In 1926 Arthur Eddington (1882-1944) suggested that stars are powered by
nuclear fusion. Also in the 1920s Edwin Hubble (1889-1953) showed that our galaxy is only one of
many galaxies. He also proved that the universe is expanding. In 1930 Clyde Tombaugh discovered
Pluto. The first radio telescope was built in 1937.

Medicine was making great advances. In 1928 Alexander Fleming (1881-1955) discovered penicillin.

Meanwhile genetics was making great strides. In 1953 Francis Crick and James Watson discovered
the double-helix structure of DNA. At the end of the 20th century genetic engineering became
possible.

In astronomy quasars were discovered in 1963 and pulsars were discovered in 1968. The Hubble
Space Telescope was launched in 1990. At the end of the 20th century the first extrasolar planets
were discovered. At the other end of the scale scientists discovered many new sub-atomic particles.
In 1964 Murray Gell-Mann (1929-) suggested that quarks exist. The most famous physicist of the late
20th century and early 21st century was Stephen Hawking (1942-2018). Hawking is known for his
research into black holes, relativity and cosmology.