SCIENTIFIC

DISCOVERIES
 GRAVITY
A popular story says that Newton came up with the theory
of gravity instantly, when an apple fell from a tree and hit
him on the head. Actually, Newton saw an apple falling
from a tree, and it got him to thinking about the mysterious
force that pulls objects to the ground. He compared the
straight path of the apple to the curved path of a fired
cannonball. He wondered what would happen if the
cannonball went faster and faster, and realized it would
eventually “fall” around the curve of the Earth forever, and
never hit the ground. This “forever falling” motion
describes the movement of the Moon around the Earth,
and the Earth around the Sun.
 GRAVITY
Gravity pulls falling objects to the ground, but people
already knew intuitively that something like that was going
on. The really groundbreaking thing about the law of gravity
was that it applied to objects of all sizes, stating that the
more mass an object had, the more it attracted other
objects. At the time of Newton's discovery, people didn't
have much of an idea of how the orbits of moons and
planets worked. The new discovery explained a lot about
that, in particular why orbiting objects don't just fly off into
space.
 TELESCOPE
History of telescope started in 1608 with the group of
Dutch spectacle-makers who all created first working
models of telescope at the same time. However, credit for
the creation of first one was given to Hans Lippershey,
German-born lens grinder and spectacle maker who first
managed to gain a patent on a telescope device. He
managed to do that not on his own, but using almost 2
thousand years of slowly growing experience that was
gathered by Indian, Egyptian, Chinese, Greece, Roman and
Arab scientists.
 TELESCOPE

All those ancient accounts were gathered and examined in

the famous “Book of Optics” by Arab scholar Alhazen (965 –
1040 AD), which became the foundation of knowledge of
optics in Europe. In the beginning, Venice and Florence
started creating their own lenses that were used for
spectacles in 13th century, with Germany and Netherlands
coming to prominence century later.
 TELESCOPE

Telescopes have opened our eyes to the universe. Early

telescopes showed that Earth was not the center of the
universe, as was previously believed. They also showed
mountains and craters on the moon. Later telescopes have
revealed geography and weather on the planets in our solar
system.
 PROCESSED FOOD

Deep in the bellies of the great pyramids, pharaohs and

queens began their voyage into the afterlife. Salt-cured fish
and fowl were among the many provisions entombed with
Egyptian royalty to nourish them on their long journey.
Egyptians have been using salt to extend the lifetime of
food for at least 4,000 years. Indeed, for most of recorded
human history, salt curing has been a preferred way to
preserve food, a necessity for cold winters, distant wars, or
long expeditions to new worlds—from the Americas to the
afterlife.
 PROCESSED FOOD
Food scientists explain how processed foods
contribute many nutrients to our diet, how they
enable today's busy lifestyles and why they are
essential to feeding a growing population.
Nowadays it is difficult to eat a diet based only on
fresh, unprocessed foods. The major portion of our
family’s food needs comes from processed food
products that add variety to our diets and convenience
to our busy lives. Processed foods enable consumers to
shop less frequently and to stock a wide range of foods
on which to base varied and nutritious meals
 MICROSCOPE
Pre-1600: In the 11th century, the Arab Alhazan described the
use and characteristics of glass lenses. Two hundred years later,
the English natural philosopher Roger Bacon was familiar with
lenses. Eyeglasses, however, were not invented until the late
1200s.
1600s: In 1608 the telescope was invented, with Galileo
improving upon it with his own models. Around 1600, the
microscope was invented, possibly by Hans and Zacharias
Jansen. Due to poor lens quality, the early compound
microscopes (ones that used two lenses) could only magnify an
object up to 20 or 30 times its normal size.
 MICROSCOPE
The first big microscopy advances came in 1665, when Robert
Hooke published the Micrographia, a collection of copper-plate
illustrations of objects he had observed with his own
compound microscope. He coined the term ‘cell’ when looking
at a piece of cork under 30x magnification.
In the late 1660s, Antony van Leeuwenhoek began to grind
his own lenses and make simple microscopes. Each
microscope was really a powerful magnifying glass rather
than a compound microscope.
 MICROSCOPE
Leeuwenhoek’s hand-ground lenses could magnify an object up to
200 times! He observed animal and plant tissue, sperm cells and
blood cells, minerals, fossils, and much more. He also discovered
nematodes and rotifers (microscopic animals), and he discovered
bacteria while looking at samples of plaque from his own and
others’ teeth.
1700-1800s: Not much change in the basic microscope design
occurred, but better lenses were crafted (using purer glass and
different shapes) to solve problems like color distortion and poor
image resolution. In the late 1800s, Ernst Abbe discovered that
oil-immersion lenses prevented light distortion at highest
magnification power. These are still used today on 1000x-
objective microscopes.
 MICROSCOPE
1900s till now: In 1931, a pair of German scientists invented the
electron microscope. This kind of microscope directs a beam of
speeded-up electrons at a cell sample; as the electrons are
absorbed or scattered by different parts of the cell, they form an
image that can be captured by an electron-sensitive photo plate.
This model enables scientists to view extremely small parts,
magnified as much as one million times. The only drawback is that
living cells can’t be observed with electron microscopes. However,
compound microscopes are being improved with digital and other
new technology, making microscopy better for everyone from kids
to lab microbiologists.
 MICROSCOPE

The microscope is a device that magnifies objects or

organisms that are too small to see with the naked eye. A
milestone in the science world, the microscope has had
enormous influence on the development of modern
medical, forensics and environmental science. The
invention of the microscope has revolutionized the science
industry while developing other fields.
 GUNS
They've been in existence for more than a thousand years and
have affected warfare -- and society in general -- in ways almost
no other weapon can match. Guns nearly made technical
expertise an afterthought on the battlefield, changed the faces of
armies and prompted an era of combat at reduced cost.
It all started in China, where gunpowder was first created. In the
ninth century, alchemists blended charcoal, saltpeter and sulfur
into a powder called huo yao, which was used to treat skin
infections [source: Kit Meng]. Armies quickly learned the powder
could be used in bombs, mines and other weapons [source:
McLean Brevard].
 GUNS
Gunpowder was transported to Europe in the 13th century, likely
over the Silk Road trade routes through central Asia. Rival nations
refined gunpowder recipes in the ensuing centuries before
arriving at the optimum mixture: approximately 75 percent
saltpeter, 15 percent charcoal and 10 percent sulfur [source:
Nolan].
 GUNS

Historians typically recognize Chinese fire lances, which were

invented in the 10th century, as the first guns. These bamboo
or metal tubes projected flames and shrapnel at their targets.
Cannons appeared in Italy around 1320, where they were
modified as European nations waged many wars. By the 16th
century, European firearms had become far more advanced --
and far more deadly -- than their counterparts in the East
 GUNS

That genius, who realized that gunpowder could be propellant

and injure, is still unknown. ... So, one of the first changes of
the world, caused by guns, was the ability to kill or injure
people within a short period of time.
They've been in existence for more than a thousand years and
have affected warfare -- and society in general -- in ways almost
no other weapon can match. Guns nearly made technical
expertise an afterthought on the battlefield, changed the faces
of armies and prompted an era of combat at reduced cost.