GNST 301.14
On-Line
Resources
Euclid -- c. 330BCE?
to 260 BCE?
Brief useful references about this
ancient Greek mathematician
can be found in the Oxford University of Science <http://www.xrefer.com/entry.jsp?xrefid=487989&secid=.-&hh=1
> and the Oxford English Reference Dictionary <http://www.xrefer.com/entry/487989>.
Euclid is famous for his great work Elements of Geometry
covering plane geometry,
the theory of numbers, irrationals, and solid geometry. Note that
Euclid's work was
the standard until other kinds of geometry were discovered in the
19th century and
makes up part of the core of basic mathematics still used today.
He also developed the axiomatic method of reasoning.
An excellent biography coupled with a useful overview of the early
history of mathematics
with links to other early Greek mathematicians can be found at St.
Andrew's University,
Scotland, U.K.: <http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Euclid.html
>.
Pythagoras -- c.560 BCE to c.480 BCE
Pythagoras
was interested in mathematical principles, the number concept, the
concept of mathematical
figures and the abstract idea of a proof. He made remarkable
contributions to the
mathematical theory of music and was a said to be a very good musician.
An excellent biography and overview of Pythagoras' contributions and
works -- including
his realization that irrational
numbers exist -- from St. Andrew's University, Scotland, U.K.
<http://www-groups.dcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Pythagoras.html>
Examine this extremely useful biography of Pythagoras from Eric
Weinstein at Wolfram
Research <http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/biography/Pythagoras.html>.
A brief biography of Pythagoras can be found at the Faculty of
Sciences, Central
University of Venezuela.
<http://euler.ciens.ucv.ve/English/mathematics/pitagora.html
>
This site from Bellview Community College has a brief note of history
on Pythagoras
and a proof of the theorem.
<http://scidiv.bcc.ctc.edu/math/Pythagoras.html
>
Click here to go to a
number of theorum
proof sites that can be of interest.
Aristotle -- 384 BCE to 322 BCE, considered the father of life
sciences.
Aristotle believed that the Earth was the centre of the universe,
with the sun and
the planets orbiting around it. The stars, unchanging and eternal,
were solidly attached
to a crystal sphere beyond the planets. Aristotleís n atural
philosophy saw Nature
as orderly, hierarchical, and teleological.
"Aristotle, more than any other thinker, determined the
orientation and the
content of Western intellectual history. He was the author of a
philosophical and
scientific system that through the centuries became the support and
vehicle for both
medieval Christian and Islamic scholastic thought: until the end of
the 17th century,
Western culture was Aristotelian. And, even after the intellectual
revolutions of
centuries to follow, Aristotelian concepts and ideas remained
embedded in Western
thinking." -- Biography in Encyclopaedia Britannica
An excellent biography and overview of Aristotle's contributions and
works can be
found at St. Andrew's University, Scotland, U.K. where the above
quotation originates:
<http://www-groups.dcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Aristotle.html>
Another excellent biography and summary of Aristotle's
accomplishments, including
Life, Writings, Logic, Metaphysics, Philosophy of Nature, The Soul
and Psychology,
Ethics,Politics and Art is provided courtesy The University of
Tennessee at Martin:
<http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/a/aristotl.htm>
A brief biography <http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~rsauzier/Aristotle.html>
from San Francisco State University.
From Guide to Philosophers -- an excellent historical overview
and list of
works
<http://www3.baylor.edu/~Scott_Moore/aristotle.html>
From Epistemelinks.com -- an excellent selection of links
<http://www.epistemelinks.com/Main/Philosophers.aspx?PhilCode=Aris>
See also "The Ancient City of Athens" where Aristotle lived:
<http://www.indiana.edu/~kglowack/athens/>
Eratosthenes -- 276 BCE to 194 BCE
Eratosthenes was an early interdisciplinary intellectual and
served as librarian
at Alexandria. He studied prime numbers, calculated the circumference
of the Earth and the tilt of the Earth's axis ( both with great
accuracy), the
distance to the moon and the sun, , a calendar that included leap
years, the foundations
of a systematic chronography of the worldand a star catalogue
containing 675 stars
-- no insignificant list of achievements. All of this can be found here:
<http://www.chuckiii.com/Reports/Mathematics/Eratosthenes.shtml>
An excellent brief biography and explanation of Eratosthenes'
major works
is located at St. Andrew's University, Scotland, U.K.
<http://www-groups.dcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Eratosthenes.html>
A brief biographical overview and links to some of his discoveries
can be found at
Albertson College <http://www.albertson.edu/math/History/emacy/Classical/biography.htm>.
Archimedes -- 287BCE to 212 BCE
Archimedes is thought of as one of the three greatest
mathematicians of all time,
along with Isaac Newton and Carl Friedrich Gauss. He was famed for
him mechanical
inventions,
especially what became known as his "engines of war", but
pure mathematics
was his passion. He derived formulae for the ratio of the radius of a
circle to its
circumference, as well as for surface and volume. One of his most
famous discoveries
is what was later called the Archimedes principle [1],
[2] (do you ever
understand something
and shout, "Eureka"?).
He also invented compound pulley systems, the planetarium and a
shaft-driven water
pump still used today has been attributed to him (the Archimedes
screw),
An excellent brief biography and explanation of Archimedes' major
works is located
at St. Andrew's University, Scotland, U.K.
<http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Archimedes.html>
Another wonderful site about Archimedes with many links and
references can be found
at Drexel
University.
Ptolemy, Claudius -- approx. 85 CE to approx. 165 CE
Following Aristotle, Ptolemy
created an astronomical system where the sun, planets, and stars
revolved round the
Earth which was the foundation of the medieval world picture. The
Ptolemaic view
was accepted until Copernicus devised the heliocentric system. Ptolemyís
work on astronomy and navigation remained a textbook until superseded
by the discoveries
of the 15th century.
An excellent brief biography and explanation of Ptolemy's
contributions and major
works can be found at St. Andrew's University, Scotland, U.K.
<http://www-groups.dcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Ptolemy.html>
Brief bibliographic overview and summary of contributions, this time
from The University
of Arizona.
<http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/billa/psc/theman.html>
Galen of Pergamum -- 23 CE to 79 CE
By performing extensive dissections and vivisections on animals,
Galen studied the
muscles, spinal cord, heart, urinary system, and proved that the
arteries are full
of blood. A brief introduction to the knowledge context of Galen and
his contributions
to our understanding of the human circulatory system, thanks to
TimeLineScience,
can be found here:
<http://www.timelinescience.org/resource/students/blood/galen.htm>
Al-Khwarizmi, Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Musa -- 770 to 840 C.E.
Al-Khwarizmi was an Islamic scholar who influenced mathematical
thought more than
any other mediaeval writer. His book on algebra, Al-Maqala fi
Hisab-al Jabr wa-al-
Muqabilah, was translated into Latin in the 12th century, and it
was this translation
which introduced this new science which had been completely unknown
till then to
the West. His astronomical tables were also translated into European
languages and,
later, into Chinese.
A high-quality overview of Al-Khwarizmi's contributions can be found
at St. Andrew's
University, Scotland, U.K.<http://www-groups.dcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Al-Khwarizmi.html>
Another brief but high-quality biography can be found at <http://members.tripod.com/~wzzz/KHAWARIZ.html>.
Al-Kindi, Abu Yusuf Yaqub ibn Ishaq al-Sabbah -- approx.
801 CE to
873 CE
An Islamic scholar, Al-Kindi was influenced most stro ngly by the
writings of Aristotle
but other philosophers such as Plato can also be seen in al-Kindi's
ideas. An informative
biography can be found at <http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/history/Mathematicians/Al-Kindi.html>,
St. Andrew's University, Scotland, U.K.
Bacon, Francis --1561 CE to1626 CE
An excellent overview of Bacon's life and his primary contributions
can be found
in The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, University of Tennessee
at Martin:
<http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/b/bacon.htm>
Another good biographical overview can be found, with the tull text
of The Advancement
of Learning (1605) (books I and II), at:
<http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~rbear/adv1.htm>
Biographical overview, dates of Bacon's major accomplishments from
the Galileo project,
Rice University.
<http://es.rice.edu/ES/humsoc/Galileo/Catalog/Files/bacon.html>
A good biographical overview with emphases on his advancement of the
philosophy of
science from the Radical Academy is located at:
<http://www.radicalacademy.com/philfrancisbacon.htm>
Copernicus, Nicolas -- 1473 CE to 1543 CE
Copernicus provided the first impulse to question Aristotle's world
view when he
showed in 1543 that the movement of the planets were better explained
if the sun
was the center for the Earthís and the planetsí movements.
Copernicus' complete biographical time-line can be found at the
Nicolas Copernicus
Museum in Frombork, Poland:
<http://www.frombork.art.pl/Ang11.htm>
An excellent biography and overview of Copernicus' contributions and
works can be
found at St. Andrew's University, Scotland, U.K.:
<http://www-groups.dcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Copernicus.html>
See also, "The Copernican System," at Rice University.
<http://es.rice.edu/ES/humsoc/Galileo/Things/copernican_system.html>
Brahe, Tycho -- 1546 CE to 1601 CE
Tycho Brahe was the first scientist to show that the sphere of stars
was not at all
unchanging, when he in 1572 observed the strong light from a
supernova, and could
prove that this was far beyond the planets. He went on to
develop a number
of new astronomical instruments, and together with his assistants on
the island of
Hven, he carried out a great number of astronomical observations with
a precision
that had never been achieved before.
Here is the extremely informative and complete official Tycho Brahe
website: <http://www.tychobrahe.com/>.
Another excellent biography and summary of Brahe's contributions and
works can be
found at Rice University.
<http://es.rice.edu/ES/humsoc/Galileo/People/tycho_brahe.html>
Bruno, Giordano -- 1548 CE to 1600 CE
Excellent biography and overview of Bruno's contributions and works.
Remember he
was burned at the stake in Rome in 1600! This is from Rice University:
<http://es.rice.edu/ES/humsoc/Galileo/People/bruno.html>
Kepler, Johannes --1571 CE to 1630 CE
Kepler was a strong supporter of the heliocentric theory of
Copernicus and the discoverer
of the three laws of planetary movement. He worked for Tycho Brahe,
and it was in
part their relationship that allowed him to disvover these three
laws. An excellent
biography can be found at <http://euler.ciens.ucv.ve/english/mathematics/
> (click on "Kepler, Johannes") from the Faculty of
Sciences, Central
University of Venezuela.
Kepler was a man of firsts, some of which are listed here -- to
correctly explain
planetary motion; to explain the principles of how a telescope
works; to investigate
the formation of pictures with a pin hole camera; to explain the
process of vision
by refraction within the eye; to formulate eyeglass designing for
nearsightedness
and farsightedness; to explain the use of both eyes for depth perception.
Another excellent biography and overview of Kepler's contributions
and works is provided
by St. Andrew's University, Scotland, U.K.
<http://www-groups.dcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Kepler.html>
NASA's Kepler Mission page [1] contains
an excellent biography and overview of Kepler's accomplishments:
<http://www.kepler.arc.nasa.gov/johannes.html>.
Find out about the relationship between Kepler and Brahe, and how
"the Mars
problem" led him to discover elliptical planetary orbits here:
<http://www.space.com/searchforlife/kepler_and_mars_010604-1.html>
Rice University provides another excellent biographical source on Kepler:
<http://es.rice.edu/ES/humsoc/Galileo/People/kepler.html>
Galileo Galilei --1564 CE to CE 1642
Galilei
was the
first astronomer to use the telescope, and could with its help show
new relationships
in the universe, such as Jupiter having its own moons and that the
solar activity
was varied. Galilei also formulated the foundation for modern
physics. His inventive
and inquiring scientific mind can be seen in his invention of the air
thermoscope.
Brief biography, good example of conformity enforcement. Good
description of his
life and excellent links to other related web links. St. Andrew's
University, Scotland,
U.K.
<http://www-groups.dcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Galileo.html>
Institute and Museum of the History of Science of Florence, Italy.
Describes his
inventions using graphical content, demonstrates diversity of his
ideas Strong multimedia
emphasis on his mechanical inventions <http://galileo.imss.firenze.it/museo/4/index.html>
The Galileo Project, Rice University <http://es.rice.edu/ES/humsoc/Galileo/>.
Excellent biographical overview, historical links, summaries of
Galileo's conflicts
with the church, his contributions and works <http://es.rice.edu/ES/humsoc/Galileo/Resources/galileo_links_tc.html>.
You can trace Galileo's entire life from beginning to end right here,
also from Rice
University:
<http://es.rice.edu/ES/humsoc/Galileo/galileo_timeline.html>.
Very brief biography, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, University
of Tennessee
at Martin.
<http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/g/galileo.htm>
Descartes, René -- 1596 CE to 1650 CE
Descartes was a scientific philosopher who developed the theory of
mechanical philosophy.
This philosophy was highly influential until replaced by Newton's
advances in explicit
scientific methodology. Descartes believed that God created the
universe as a perfect
clockwork mechanism of vorteces that functioned deterministically
without interventio
and that that matter had no inherent qualities, but was simply the
"brute stuff"
which occupied space. Descartes was the first to make a graph
permitting geometric
interpretation of a mathematical function and gave his name to Cartesian
coordinates . He is famed for the mind-body distinction,
scepticism and "I
think, therefore I am."
The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy provides a complete overview
of Descartes'
contributions in science, philosophy and religion <http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/d/descarte.htm>.
From St. Andrew's University, Scotland, U.K., an excellent biography
and overview
of Descarte's contributions and works.
<http://www-groups.dcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Descartes.html>
A succinct and excellent biography with very useful links can be
found at Eric Weisstein's
Science World site at Wolfram Research <http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/biography/Descartes.html>.
Courtesy the On-line Literature Library, here is the full text of
Discourse on
the Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason, and Seeking Truth in the
Sciences:
<http://www.literature.org/authors/descartes-rene/reason-discourse/>.
Boyle, Robert -- 1627 CE to 1691 CE
Boyle is famed for Boyle's Law (pV = constant) <http://www.xrefer.com/entry.jsp?xrefid=486076
>.
An excellent interactive web page illustrating Boyle's Law, from
Davidson College,
N.C.: <http://www.chm.davidson.edu/ChemistryApplets/GasLaws/BoylesLaw.html>.
Excellent biography and overview of Boyle's contributions and works.
St. Andrew's
University, Scotland, U.K.
<http://www-groups.dcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Boyle.html>.
Also see gas laws [1], [2].
Newton, Sir Issac -- 1643 CE to 1727 CE
Sir
Isaac Newton
wrote in a letter to his colleague Robert
Hooke dated 5 February 1676, "[i]f I have seen further it
is by standing
on the shoulders of Giants", meaning that he had been able
to achieve such
a great deal only because of what he had learned from the work of
those who had preceded
him.
It is generally agreed that Newton contributed more to the
development of science
than any other individual in history and was
the greatest single
influence on theoretical physics until Einstein. He generated
an overarching
conceptual framework for understanding the universe which was more
consistent, elegant,
and intuitive than any developed before. His work far surpassed the
achievements
of the great scientific minds of antiquity. Newton developed improved
methods of
astronomical observation [1],
[2]
and
stated explicit principles of scientific methods [1],
[2],
[3] which
applied universally
to all branches of science (see induction,
deduction, inference,
syllogism).
The basic principles of scientific investigation set down by Newton
have persisted
virtually without alteration until today.
Newton created the most important and influential works on physics of
all times,
Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Mathematical
Principles of Natural
Philosophy) (1687), often shortened to Principia
Mathematica or simply
"the Principia."
Newton formulated the classical theories of mechanics (see: Newton's
universal law
of gravitation [1
], [2 ]
and laws
of motion ) and optics and invented calculus
years before Leibniz (but Newton did not publish his own material
until after Leibniz
had published his).
Biography provides an excellent biography <http://search.biography.com/print_record.pl?id=6205
>.
A succinct and excellent biography with very useful links can be
found at Eric Weisstein's
Science World site at Wolfram Research <http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/biography/Newton.html>.
An encyclopaedic reference to Sir Issac Newton can be found at the
Oxford Xrefer
site:
<http://www.xrefer.com/entry/220746>
which includes many useful cross-references.
Another excellent biography and overview of Newton's contributions
and works can
be found at St. Andrew's University, Scotland, U.K.
<http://www-groups.dcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Newton.html>
Also see <http://euler.ciens.ucv.ve/english/mathematics/>,
Faculty of Sciences, Central University of Venezuela -- go to
"Newton, Sir Isaac"
for an excellent biography.
Also see empiricism,
skepticism,
Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm von --1646 CE to1716 CE
Leibniz was self-taught in mathematics, but nonetheless developed
calculus independently
of Newton. His notation was by far superior (including the integral
sign and derivative
notation) and is still in use today.
Leibniz was a universal genius and has been called one of the primary
founders of
modern science. An excellent biography and overiview of Leibniz's
contributions and
works can be found at St. Andrew's University, Scotland, U.K.
<http://www-groups.dcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Leibniz.html>.
An encyclopaediac reference on Leibniz can be found at the Oxford
xrefer site: <http://www.xrefer.com/entry/494769>
which includes many useful cross-references.
Also see <http://euler.ciens.ucv.ve/english/mathematics/>,
Faculty of Sciences, Central University of Venezuela -- go to
"Leibniz, Gottfried
Wilhelm von" for an excellent biography
Fermat, Pierre de -- 1601 CE to 1665 CE
Although he pursued mathematics as an amateur, Fermat's work in number
theory was of such great quality that he is generally regarded as
one of the
greatest mathematicians of all times.
An excellent biography and overview of Fermat's contributions and
works can be found
at St. Andrew's University, Scotland, U.K.
<http://www-groups.dcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Fermat.html>
A highly-detailed description of Fermat's work, including some of his
letters in
French, can be found at University of Dublin, Trinity College, School
of Mathematics:
<http://www.maths.tcd.ie/pub/HistMath/People/Fermat/RouseBall/RB_Fermat.html>.
Also see Fermat's Last Theorum (1),
(2),
solved at
last by Wiles in 1995, some 330 years after Fermat's death.
Lavoisier, Antoine Laurent -- 1743 CE to
1794 CE
Here <http://www.chemheritage.org/EducationalServices/chemach/fore/all.html>
is an excellent introductory biography of Lavoisier from the Chemical
Heritage Association
'Achievers' web site which introduces his principal contributions to
modern chemistry
-- the rebuttal of the phlogiston theory of heat; that matter is
conserved through
any reaction; the understanding of combustion and respiration as
caused by chemical
reactions with a part of air he called "oxygen"; and that
water is made
of oxygen and hydrogen.
This page leads to other excellent biographies, stories and reviews
of Lavoisier's
contributions, including the following:
Lavoisier's Friends: an exceptionally complete and detailed resource:
<http://historyofscience.free.fr/Lavoisier-Friends/index.html>.
Sports Science History Maker: Lavoisier
<http://www.sportsci.org/news/history/lavoisier/lavoisier.html>
Chemical Revolutionary Executed! Phlogiston Debunker Beheaded
<http://www.woodrow.org/teachers/ci/1992/Lavoisier.html>
Remember: "It took them only an instant to cut off that head,
and a hundred
years may not produce another like it." -- Joseph-Louis Lagrange,
commenting on Lavoisier's execution by guillotine.
Watt, James -- 1736 to 1819
Watt was a Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer who is famed
for his improvements
of the Savery and Newcomen
's steam engine. Many people are unaware that Watt did not
invent the steam
engine. A brief biography of Watt from Encarta can be found here
. Watt also devised the unit "horsepower" and the metric
unit of power
is named after him.
A more detailed biography can be found in the Oxford Dictionary of
Scientists
<http://www.xrefer.com/entry.jsp?xrefid=495335&secid=.-&hh=1>.
Also see Industrial Revolution [1],
[2], [3],
[4].
Babbage, Sir Charles -- 1792 CE to 1871 CE
Charles
Babbage
was a polymath and has been called -- most would say quite rightly --
the father
of the modern computer. In many ways he was a man far ahead of his
time. He created
word-puzzle dictionaries, researched differential and integral
calculus, invented
the locomotive cow-catcher and the speedometer, totally despised the
noise of street
musicians, loved railroads and railway technology and did mathematical
work to help set up the British postal system. For 11 years he was
also Lucasian
Professor of Mathematics at
Cambridge University.
Human error and general public ignorance about science strongly
frustrated Babbage.
He is best known for his work in designing and
attempting to
build three mechanical computers to overcome human failings in
calculation. Although
he had minor success with his first simpler efforts, he never lived
to see the more
complex of his "analytical engines" completed. Based on
Babbage's original
designs, in 1991 the Science
Museum in London built a full-sized
version of one
of Babbage's last mechanical computers which has worked ever since.
A brief biography can be found in the Oxford Dictionary of
Scienctists at the Xrefer
site: <http://www.xrefer.com/entry/493956>.
More comprehensive, high-quality bibliographies on Babbage can be
found at the Charles
Babbage Institute <http://www.cbi.umn.edu/exhibits/cb.html>
and the Virginia Polytechnic's site: <http://ei.cs.vt.edu/~history/Babbage.html>.
Also see History of Computing [1],
[2].
Dalton, John -- 1766 CE to 1844 CE
Based on empirical evidence, Dalton developed the atomic theory of
matter which was
the basis of much of the chemistry done in the rest of the 19th and
early 20th century.
From the Chemical Heritage Association 'Achievers' web site, a good
introductory
bibliography including a presentation of Dalton's 'Table of Elements
and their Combinations':
<http://www.chemheritage.org/EducationalServices/chemach/ppt/jd.html>.
From the TimeLine of Science, a simple introductory bibliography:
<http://www.timelinescience.org/resource/students/matter/dalton.htm>.
From WebQuest, a basic introduction to thinking about atomic theory,
including a
bit of history about Democritus (400 BCE) who speculated upon (but
could derive no
empirical evidence for) what he thought to be the indivisible
constituent parts of
matter, which he called "atomos," and the 2000-year hiatus
in this type
of thinking until John Dalton appeared: <http://www.chemheritage.org/EducationalServices/webquest/dalton.htm>.
Darwin, Charles -- 1809 CE to 1892 CE
Sir Charles Darwin is one of the most famous naturalists to have
lived within the
past 150 years, so it is no wonder that many biographies for him can
be found on
the web. Two are listed below.
<http://darwin.baruch.cuny.edu/biography/index.html>
<http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~rsauzier/Darwin.html>
The Natural History Museum,
London, U.K., has
a full centre devoted to Charles Darwin which is worth a visit. It
can be found here:
<http://www.nhm.ac.uk/darwincentre/>.
From the On-Line Literature Library, here are four full-text items,
including Origin
of Species [1],
[2],
The
Voyage of the Beagle and The
Descent of Man (still incomplete on-line). Here is another
on-line version of
The Voyage of
the Beagle
from the Zoologisk institutt in Bergen, Norway [in English].
Here is a fine site entitled "Charles
Darwin and the Galapagos".
To provide a good context for the work of Darwin, the University of
California, Berekely,
has an excellent site on Evolution Theory and Science <http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/evotheory.html>,
including a clickable 300-year
time line of evolutionary thought.
You may wish to examine The
Journal of Syms Covington, assistant to Charles Darwin on the
second voyage of
the HMS Beagle.
Questions
are raised
about Charles Darwin as a scientist and writer. What do you think?
Also see BBC's ApeïMan, adventures in human evolution [1],
[2].
Faraday, Michael -- 1791 CE to 1867 CE
Faraday
was an inveterate
experimenter and collector but was not a mathematician. He discovered
that a magnet
suspended over a wire conducting electricity would revolve, leading
him to envision
magnetic force as circular. He also discovered magnetic optical
rotation, invented
the dynamo for converting electricity to motion, discovered
electromagnetic induction
and developed the laws of electro-chemistry. Most importantly,
Faraday's work led
to others' mathematical theories of electricity and magnetism. In
particular, Maxwell's
theoretical work would not have been possible without Faraday's
experimentation and
discovery of various laws.
An excellent biography of Faraday can be found through the Groups,
Algorithms
and Programming page at St. Andrew's University, Scotland, U.K.
<http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Faraday.html>
Another excellent brief biography can be found at Eric Weisstein's
Science World
site at Wolfram Research <http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/biography/Faraday.html>.
Maxwell, James Clerk -- 1831 CE to 1879 CE
Maxwell extended and mathematically formulated Michael Faraday's
theories of electricity
and magnetic lines of force. Independent of Ludwig Boltzmann, Maxwell
developed the
Maxwell-Boltzmann
kinetic theory
of gases which demonstrated that only molecular movement was
associated with temperatures
and heat. He also developed the idea of "Maxwell's Demon"
(1
), (2
), (3
), (4
). Maxwell's
work created the foundation for Heinrich Rudolf Hertz's
investigations . Maxwell
also calculated that the propagation speed of an electromagnetic
field is approximately
that of the speed of light and proposed that the phenomenon of light
is therefore
an electromagnetic phenomenon.
An excellent biography can be found at St. Andrew's University,
Scotland, U.K. <http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Maxwell.html>.
Another excellent brief biography can be found at Eric Weisstein's
Science World
site at Wolfram Research <http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/biography/Maxwell.html>.
Röntgen, Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen --1845 CE to 1923 CE
Röntgen was a keen naturalist, dedicated scientist, inventor and
experimenter.
He did extensive work on cathode rays which led him to the discovery
of X-rays. He
won the Nobel prize in physics in 1901 "in recognition of the
extraordinary
services he has rendered by the discovery of the remarkable rays
subsequently named
after him".
<http://www.nobel.se/physics/laureates/1901/rontgen-bio.html>
Thomson, Sir Joseph John --1856 CE to 1940 CE
Based on a scientific career investigating gases and the structure
and characteristics
of atoms, Sir John
Thomson
is famed for his discovery of the electron. He won the Nobel prize in
physics in
1906 "in recognition of the great merits of his theoretical
and experimental
investigations on the conduction of electricity by gases".
Thomson also
developed the earliest form of mass spectroscopy. His son (GP
Thompson) also received
the Nobel Prize for demonstrating that the electron had wave and
particle properties.
Seven of his research students also received Nobel Prizes.
An excellent biography of his life and achievements can be found at
the Nobel e-Museum
at:
<http://www.nobel.se/physics/laureates/1906/thomson-bio.html>
An excellent exhibit on Thomson's
discovery of the electron from the American Institute of Physics can
be found here:
<http://www.aip.org/history/electron/>.
Curie, Marie Sklodowska -- 1867 CE to 1934 CE
Marie
Curie was
the first person ever to receive two Nobel Prizes "in
recognition of her
services to the advancement of chemistry by the discovery of the
elements radium
and polonium, by the isolation of radium and the study of the nature
and compounds
of this remarkable element". The first Nobel prize (1903)
for the discovery
of the phenomenon of radioactivity was in physics, shared with her
husband Pierre
and Henri Becquerel; the second Nobel prize (1911) was in chemistry
for the discovery
of the radioactive elements polonium and radium.
From the Chemical Heritage Association 'Achievers' web site, here is
an excellent
biograhpy with links to very good additional resources:
<http://www.chemheritage.org/EducationalServices/chemach/ans/msc.html>
Also see Curie's excellent Nobel e-Museum biography at:
<http://www.nobel.se/chemistry/laureates/1911/marie-curie-bio.html>
Here is an excellent exhibit on Marie Curie and radioactivity from
the American Institute
of Physics: <http://www.aip.org/history/curie/>.
Einstein, Albert -- 1879 CE to 1955 CE
Although he did much of his most famous theoretical work while merely
a third class
technician at the Bern patent office, there is probably no physicist
whose name has
become so widely known as that of Albert Einstein. It is no wonder
that TIME Magazine
named him "person
of the century " (meaning the 20th Century, of course).
Einstein received the Nobel Prize in Physics 1921 "for his
services to Theoretical
Physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the
photoelectric effect".
Einstein contributed more than any other scientist to the
20th-century understanding
of physical reality, especially in terms of the general and special
theories of relativity
[1], [2],
Brownian
movement and quantum
theory. His law of the photo-electrical effect gave him the Nobel
Prize and is
the basis of quantitative photo-chemistry, but Einstein is much more
well-known for
his relativity theories [3
], [4
]. Stephen Hawking does a first-rate job of
explaining the
relativity achievement and provides an excellent biography of
Einstein here
.
A thorough bibliography of Einstein is provided by St. Andrew's
University, Scotland,
U.K.
<http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Einstein.html
>.
An excellent biography of Albert Einstein can be found at the Nobel
e-Museum at
<http://www.nobel.se/physics/laureates/1921/einstein-bio.html
>.
A biography relating Einstein to the Manhatten
Project can be found through The Nuclear Files <http://www.nuclearfiles.org/rebios/einsteinalbet.html
>.
Another excellent biography at <http://euler.ciens.ucv.ve/english/mathematics/>
(click on "Albert Einstein") is available from the Faculty
of Sciences,
Central University of Venezuela.
A comprehensive compendium of web-based resources about Albert
Einstein can be found
here <http://www.westegg.com/einstein/
>.
The NOVA website supporting the video "Einstein
Revealed" contains excellent links to further resources.
This good overall biography is from -- where else? -- Biography.
Albert Einstein has been quoted
very frequently.
Here is an excellent exhibit on Einstein from the American Institute
of Physics <http://www.aip.org/history/einstein/>
with many detailed links.
Rutherford, Ernest --1871 CE to 1937 CE
Rutherford received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1908) "for
his investigations
into the disintegration of the elements, and the chemistry of
radioactive substances".
Rutherford's investigations into the scattering of alpha rays and the
nature of the
inner structure of the atom which caused such scattering led to the
postulation of
his concept of the "nucleus", his greatest contribution to
physics. Rutherford
was the first person to deliberately transmute one element into another.
An excellent biography of Rutherford can be found at the Nobel e-Museum at
<http://www.nobel.se/chemistry/laureates/1908/rutherford-bio.html
>
Bohr, Niels Henrik David -- 1885 CE to 1962 CE
Niels
Bohr received
the Nobel Prize in Physics (1922) "for his services in the
investigation
of the structure of atoms and of the radiation emanating from
them".
Working from concepts in quantum theory and incorporating
improvements from Heisenberg's
ideas (1925), Bohr created a picture of atomic structure that still
largely describes
the physical and chemical properties of the elements.
An excellent biography of Bohr can be found at the Nobel e-Museum at
<http://www.nobel.se/physics/laureates/1922/bohr-bio.html
>
Hubble, Edwin Powell --1889 CE to 1953 CE
Based on empirical telescopic evidence, Hubble
observed many
galaxies beyond our own receding at great speed in all directions and
demonsrating
galactic red shifts, thus confirming the idea of an expanding
universe. He discovered
a linear relationship between the velocity of receding galaxies and
their distance
from the Earth, developing Hubble's
Law (also see: Hubble Parameter)
and calculated
the approximate size and age of the observable universe. Every
current cosmological
model now incorporates the concept of expansion of the universe.
Through xrefer, an excellent biography and summary of Hubble's
achievements
<http://www.xrefer.com/entry/494608
> is provided by the Dictionary of Scientists, Oxford University Press.
If you are intrigued with the idea of an expanding universe, you
might wish to check
this
article from Scientific American, and this
column on 'the big crunch' from the Stanford University Report.
Heisenberg, Werner -- 1901 CE to 1976 CE
One of the founders of the quantum theory, he is best known for his
uncertainty
principle , or indeterminacy principle, which states that it is
impossible to
determine with arbitrarily high accuracy both the position and
momentum (essentially
the velocity) of a subatomic particle such as the electron. For this
work he won
the 1932 Nobel Prize in Physics "for the creation of quantum
mechanics, the
application of which has, inter alia, led to the discovery of the
allotropic forms
of hydrogen".
<http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Heisenberg.html>
An excellent exhibit on the uncertainty principle can be found here
<http://www.aip.org/history/heisenberg/> at the American Institute for Physics.
Schrödinger,
Erwin --1887
CE to 1961 CE
Schrödinger is known for his mathematical development of wave
mechanics (1926),
a form of quantum mechanics (see quantum
theory ), and his formulation of the wave equation that bears his
name. The Schrödinger
equation is the most widely used mathematical tool of the modern
quantum theory.
For this work he shared the 1933 Nobel Prize in Physics with P.
A. M. Dirac "for the discovery of new productive forms of
atomic theory".
A full biography of Schrödinger can be found at the Nobel e-Musem at
<http://www.nobel.se/physics/laureates/1933/schrodinger-bio.html>.
Another excellent Schrödinger biography can be found in the
Oxford Dictionary
of Scientists through xrefer at <http://www.xrefer.com/entry.jsp?xrefid=495147&secid=.->
where useful cross-references are also located.
A brief biography from San Francisco Statue University also provides
background:
<http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~rsauzier/Schrodinger.html>.
G ödel, Kurt -- 1906 CE to 1978 CE
Gödel was a brilliant mathematician / logician who is most
famous for showing
[1],
[2]
that in any axiomatic
mathematical system there are propositions that cannot be proved or
disproved within
the axioms of that system. This demonstrated for the first time that
mathematics
is not a complete and self-consistent system as had been believed.
This also proved
that a computer can never be programmed to answer all mathematical
questions.
What is thought of as Gödel's first incompleteness theorem
(1930) states that
all consistent axiomatic formulations of number theory include
undecidable propositions
(Hofstadter
, 1989).
Gödel's second incompleteness theorem states that if number
theory is consistent,
then a proof of this fact does not exist using the methods of first-order
predicate calculus . Stated more colloquially, any formal system
that is interesting
enough to formulate its own consistency can prove its own
consistency iff it
is inconsistent (iff = if and only if [i.e., necessary and
sufficient]; "just
if" or "exactly when" are sometimes used instead) .
An excellent and thorough biography can be found at St. Andrew's
University in Scotland
<http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Godel.html>.
A particularly fine and highly-recommended web resource appropriately
entitled "Godel
on the Net" can be found here.
Two other brief biographies with useful sidebar links can be found
through Xrefer
in Who's Who in the Twentieth Century <http://www.xrefer.com/entry/170965>
and A Dictionary of Scientists <http://www.xrefer.com/entry/494464>,
both from Oxford University Press.
Also see Incompleteness Theorem [1],
[2];
Turing
Machine [3], [4]; Alan Turing
[5],
[6].
Fermi, Enrico -- 1901 CE to 1954 CE
Fermi won the 1938 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his
demonstrations of the
existence of new radioactive elements produced by neutron
irradiation, and for his
related discovery of nuclear reactions brought about by slow
neutrons".
In 1926, Fermi discovered the statistical laws, now called
Fermi-Dirac statistics,
that govern the particles subject to Pauli's exclusion principle.
Studying the atomic
nucleus itself, in 1934, Fermi evolved the beta decay theory. Based
on the work of
Pauli and Curie, he demonstrated that nuclear transformation occurs
in almost every
element subjected to neutron bombardment.
Following the discovery of fission by Hahn and Strassman
(1939), Fermi recognized that a chain reaction of secondary neutrons
was possible.
He then directed a classic series of experiments which ultimately led
to the construction
of an atomic pile which produced the first controlled nuclear chain
reaction.
An excellent biography of Fermi with very useful links can be found
at Eric Weisstein's
Science World site at Wolfram Research <http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/biography/Fermi.html>.
A brief but useful biography of Fermi is provided by
Biography: <http://search.biography.com/print_record.pl?id=14698>.
The Nobel e-Museum provides another excellent biography of Fermi at
<http://www.nobel.se/physics/laureates/1938/fermi-bio.html>.
Oppenheimer, J. Robert -- 1904 CE to 1967 CE
Robert Oppenheimer was an outstanding physicist and excellent
teacher. He successfully
managed the Manhatten
Project, comprised of the most brilliant minds in physics, which
resulted in
the development of the first American atomic weapons at the close of
WW II. After
the war Oppenheimer fell afoul of the U.S. anticommunist platform
because he opposed
development of the hydrogen bomb and was permanently removed from
nuclear projects.
Biography's Oppenheimer biography: <http://search.biography.com/print_record.pl?id=18160>.
Through Xrefer, an excellent biography on Oppenheimer can be found in
the Dictionary
of Scientists <http://www.xrefer.com/entry/494980>,
and additional detail can be found in Who's Who in the Twentieth
Century <http://www.xrefer.com/entry/171529>,
both from Oxford University Press.
Teller, Edward -- 1908 CE to ...
Often called the father of the hydrogen bomb, Teller was part of the
Manhatten Project
but is most famous for having worked very closely with Stanislaw
Ulam to develop and create a successful working hydrogen weapon.
Teller also
played the most significant role in the removal of Robert Oppenheimer
from his career
as a nuclear scientist after the Manhatten Project.
Through Xrefer, a brief but very clear biographical sketch can be
found in A Dictionary
of Scientists <http://www.xrefer.com/entry.jsp?xrefid=495247&secid=.-&hh=1>,
Oxford University Press.
Brief but useful and interesting biographies of Teller are provided
by Biography:
<http://search.biography.com/print_record.pl?id=20023>
and Eric Weisstein's Science World site at Wolfram Research <http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/biography/Teller.html>.
Here is a revealing and highly-informative interview
with Teller; his home page can be found here.
Gamow, George -- 1904 CE to 1968 CE
Gamow was a Russian-American physicist who worked out the theory of
alpha
decay and showed that, as a star
burns hydrogen,
the star heats up. Based on work with
Ralph Alpher and
Hans Bethe, he supported the "big
bang" theory of Lemaître.
Alpher. Ralph Asher -- 1921 to ...
Alpher's major work was in cosmology. Working with Hans Bethe and
George Gamow he
generated the so-called "alpha-beta-gamma"
[Alpher-Bethe-Gamow] theory
of how elements were created, , which Gamow incorporated into the
big-bang theory.
Alpher predicted microwave
background radiation would be a "signature" of the big
bang. This radiation
was first detected in 1965.
Watson, James (1928 CE to ...) and Crick, Francis (1916
CE to ...)
Based on work done by Maurice Wilkins <http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/biography/Wilkins.html>
who had worked on the atomic bomb, Francis Crick <http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/biography/Crick.html>
and James Watson <http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/biography/WatsonJames.html>
worked together at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge to develop
the breakthrough
double-helix model of DNA.
The three shared the The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in
1962 "for
their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids
and its significance
for information transfer in living material".
Here are further biographies for Crick,
Watson
and Wilkins
through the Nobel e-Museum.
Gell-Man, Murray -- 1929 CE to ...
Dr. Gell-Man received the Nobel Prize (1969) in physics "for
his contributions
and discoveries concerning the classification of elementary particles
and their interactions".
Professor Gell-Mann's "eightfold way" theory brought order
to the chaos
created by the discovery of some 100 particles in the atom's nucleus.
He then found
that all of those particles, including the neutron and proton, are
composed of fundamental
building blocks that he named "quarks." The quarks are
permanently confined
by forces coming from the exchange of "gluons." He and
others later constructed
the quantum field theory of quarks and gluons, called "quantum
chromodynamics,"
[1
], [2
] which seems to account for all the nuclear paticles and their
strong interactions.
Gell-Man's biography can be found at <http://www.santafe.edu/sfi/People/mgm/mgmbio.html>
which comes from his home page at the Santa fe Institute
<http://www.santafe.edu>.
A brief biography with other useful links can be found at the Nobel
e-Museum at
<http://www.nobel.se/physics/laureates/1969/gell-mann-bio.html>.
Hawking, Stephen William -- 1942 CE to ...
Stephen Hawking holds the Lucasian
Chair of Mathematics at Cambridge University in the U.K. Click here
to learn who in the history of mathematics has held this very
important and prestigious
research position (you will note that Sir
Isaac Newton and Charles
Babbage have been there!).
A great source of information about Hawking can be found through St.
Andrew's University,
Scotland, U.K.<http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Hawking.html>.
Stephen Hawking is certainly not ignorant of the importance of the
web -- here is
his home
page. See especially,
"lectures"
and "physics colloquiums" the latter of which you can
access from the bottom
of the "lectures" page (BTW, if you don't already have them
mounted on
your computer, you will need PDF
viewer and perhaps Ghostview).
The following is another good-quality biography and brief description
of Hawking's
major contributions / works which contains a reflection back to
Galileo and Newton.
<http://www-groups.dcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Hawking.html>
For background information, see also The University of Cambridge Cavendish
Laboratory.
Dawkins, Richard --1941CE to ...
Dawkins is a particularly thoughtful sociobiologist
. He has argued in The Selfish Gene (1976; 1989) that
apparently altruistic
acts of living organisms are actually selfish because their outcomes
have an evolutionary
advantage. In The Blind Watchmaker (1986) Dawkins argued that
what appears
as "divine design" in nature is the result of natural
selection, where
ongoing small mutations maintain the momentum of evolution. In
Climbing Mount
Improbable (1996) he showed how disparate examples of biological
diversity such
as a spider's web and the vertebrate eye can have evolved through
natural selection.
A brief introduction to Dawkins can be found through Xrefer
in Who's Who in the Twentieth Century <http://www.xrefer.com/entry/170735
>, while an excellent introductory biography can be found in
The Dictionary
of Scientists <http://www.xrefer.com/entry/494248
>, both from Oxford University Press.
You may also wish to examine the work of Stuart
Kauffman [1
], [2 ],
[3
], late of the Santa fe
Institute and now Chief
Scientist of BiosGroup .
GNST 301.14
Resources
& General
Interest
Eric Weinstein's World of Science <http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/>
from Wolfram Research is an excellent starting point for
investigating Scientific
Biographies, Physics,
Astronomy,
Chemistry
and Mathematics.
Johnson, George (2002) "Here They Are, Science's 10 Most
Beautiful Experiments,"
New York Times, September 24, 2002 can be found at <http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/24/science/24BEAU.html?pagewanted=print&position
=top>
Internet History of Science Sourcebook, Fordham University
Excellent beginning source of time-line and developments. Famous
scientists'
biographies available. Good detail, good-quality links to other sources.
<http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/science/sciencesbook.html#Scientific%20Revolution>
Chronology from 30,000BC to 500BC. St. Andrew's University, Scotland, U.K.
<http://www-groups.dcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/~history/Chronology/30000BC_500BC.html#530BC>
Also see Full Mathematical Chronology, St. Andrew's University,
Scotland, U.K. --
includes links to all major mathematicians
<http://www-groups.dcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/~history/Chronology/full.html>
Full index of Mathematical History Topics, St. Andrew's University,
Scotland, U.K.
<http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Indexes/Hist_Topics_alph.html>
First-rate history of science site at Washington State University,
Pullman. Great
for library research.
<http://www.wsulibs.wsu.edu/hist-of-science/>
Here are MacTutor's 100 most popular bibliographies -- extremely
useful! From St.
Andrew's University, Scotland, U.K. <http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Miscellaneous/Popular.html>
The Museum of the History of Science, Oxford University <http://www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/>
has on-line exhibits, an image library and many useful links. Parts
of this site
remain under construction, but the
overall quality is still very good
The University of Delaware Library <http://www2.lib.udel.edu/subj/hsci/internet.htm>
provides a History of Science and Technology and A Guide to Internet
Resources. This
site is very comprehensive and somewhat useuful.
The Alan Turing homepage -- humanistic, good leads to other sources
in this field
of computing
<http://www.turing.org.uk/turing/>;
also see [1], [2],
[3], and Kurt G
ödel [4],
[5].
EpistemeLinks.com <http://www.epistemelinks.com/>
includes thousands of sorted links to philosophy resources on the
internet and has
several additional features. See especially: GEMSArchive.
The History of the Royal Society of London. St. Andrew's University,
Scotland, U.K.
Exceptionally useful. <http://www-groups.dcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/~history/Societies/RShistory.html>
The Copernicus Frombork Musuem in Poland, "Nicolai Copernici
Musaeum Fromborcense".
Beyond the focus on Copernicus, the Museum is worth exploring.
<http://www.frombork.art.pl/>
The Inquisition. Excellent summary of this period in religious and
scientific history.
Rice University.
<http://es.rice.edu/ES/humsoc/Galileo/Things/inquisition.html>
Important Astronomers, their Instruments and Discoveries, from ~1500
BC to the early
1800s. University of Arizona <http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/billa/psc/hist1.html>.
Note this is the first of three sequential web pages.
Ten Definitions of Innovation, prepared by Debra M. Amidon,
ENTOVATION® International,
listed in Collaborative Innovation and the Knowledge Economy
(1998). <http://www.entovation.com/innovation/10definitions.htm>
ScienceTimeLine.Org -- from 1000AD to 2000AD. Interesting details on
milestones over
a period of 1000 years; a reasonably good overview of highlights
throughout this
period.
Each part of the timeline covers a different period. Between 1000 and
1600 these
periods span 100 years. The years 1600 to 1900 are broken into
periods of 50 years,
while the 20th century is covered in four blocks of 25 years each.
At the top of the page for each time period is some text which has
the heading "Setting
the scene" and which has a yellow background. This part of the
page provides
some general information about the ideas and event of the time.
Underneath the scene-setting text is a section with the heading
"The science",
which has a green background. This part of the page provides details
of important
scientific ideas, people, events and inventions of the period.
<http://www.timelinescience.org/index.php>
Go to the Faculty of Sciences, Central University of Venezuela <http://euler.ciens.ucv.ve/english/mathematics/>
for a good selection of high-quality biographies of humankind's most
famous mathematicians.
Here's a good website for physicists'
biographies at the University of Cambridge in the UK, and another
website entitled
"Science
Through the Centuries" with a clickable timeline for the
major physicists
who have done their life's work at Cambridge.
If you would like to find further information about nuclear weapons
and many related
issues, plus biographies of all the scientists involved in the
Manhatten project,
visit The Nuclear Files <http://www.nuclearfiles.org/>.
Bienvenidos a Galapagos! <http://www.terindell.com/asylum/jason/index.html>
courtesy Melissa Binde (binde@cs.swarthmore.edu).
The Glass Bead Game (Das Glasperlenspiel)
<http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~rsauzier/Biography.html#Biology>,
a wonderful assortment of biographies in science.
Here is the official biography of Stuart
Kauffman posted at the Santa fe
Institute.
Here's what he is up to now --
the application
of compexity theory to business and finance.
We seek empirical evidence for cosmological events that are of
interest -- and here's
a great example that tends to confirm the theory of our
ever-expanding universe:
the most distant receding supernova ever seen <http://www.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Research-Review/Magazine/2001/Fall/departments/frontline/supernova.html>
The Department of Chemistry
and Biochemistry
at the University of Guelph provides a very useful and very basic
three-part overview
of the Development of Mechanics. We start with the
classic tour, from Descartes, through Newton, Leibniz and
Faraday, to "the
peak of classical physics". We then proceed to the tour of experimental
observations that advanced the formation of quantum theory. The
third part of
the overview, "Quantum
Theory Comes of Age," takes us from Neils Bohr through
Werner Heisenberg
to Paul Dirac. Lacking any great detail, this overview remains
useful. The mathematical
basics for quantum theory at this site is very clearly presented.
From the Chemical Heritage Association, the Chemical Achievers web
site has exceptional
value and deserves exploration.
<http://www.chemheritage.org/EducationalServices/chemach/home.html>
If you have introductory-level science questions, ScienceNet from the
U.K. can be
very helpful.
<http://www.sciencenet.org.uk/qpages/search.html>
If you have an interest in the future of science, technology and
public policy, here's
a useful page from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD).
<http://www.oecd.org/EN/document/0,,EN-document-18-nodirectorate-no-13-35022-18,00.html>
The home page of the American Institute
for Physics
provides many useful background links.
Cosmic questions and controversy? Here is the Counterbalance
Meta Library, a shared collection of topics, definitions, audio
and video clips
which cover the constructive interaction of science, ethics,
philosophy and religion.
The National Library of Medicine Audiovisual Program Development
Branch has an interesting
site introducing AV techniques to examine such things as the
Visible Human
and Frankenstein: Penetrating the Secrets of Nature <http://lhncbc.nlm.nih.gov/apdb/video/vidprod/vidprod.html>.
A useful page on some basic laws of chemistry <http://www.chm.davidson.edu/ChemistryApplets/GasLaws/>
from Davidson College, N.C.
The
impact of science on society: three famous folks' bios, speeches,
questions and
answers.
Looking for information about famous inventors and inventions? This
excellent site provides great links, biographies and information
for the invention-hungry!!
GNST 301.14
Tools
Xrefer, the web's reference engine.
Adobe Acrobat Viewer download
page.
Ghostscript, Ghostview and GSview download
page.
Shockwave info page and links
to downloads.
N a v i g a t i
o n
back to the GNST
301.14 home page
back to the U of Calgary home page