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Democritus ("chosen of the people") was an Ancient Greek philosopher born in Abdera, Thrace, Greece. He was an influential pre-Socratic philosopher who formulated an atomic theory for the cosmos. His exact contributions are difficult to disentangle from his mentor Leucippus, as they are often mentioned together in texts. Their hypothesis on atoms is remarkably similar to modern science's understanding of atomic structure, and avoided many of the errors of their contemporaries. Largely ignored in Athens, Democritus was nevertheless well-known to his fellow northern-born philosopher Aristotle. Plato is said to have disliked him so much that he wished all his books burnt. Many consider Democritus to be the "father of modern science"....
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Xerxes I, King of Persia
Persian king (486 – 465 BC) of the Achaemenian dynasty. The son of Darius I, he had been governor of Babylon before his succession. He ferociously suppressed rebellions in Egypt (484) and Babylonia (482).
To avenge Darius's defeat by the Greeks a... |
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Parmenides of Elea, Greek Philosopher
Parmenides of Elea was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher from Elea in Magna Graecia (Greater Greece, included Southern Italy). He was the founder of the Eleatic school of philosophy. The single known work of Parmenides is a poem, On Nature, which has... |
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Anaxagoras, Cause of Eclipses
Anaxagoras was a Pre-Socratic Greek philosopher. Born in Clazomenae in the Persian Empire (modern-day Urla, Turkey) Anaxagoras was the first to bring philosophy to Athens. According to Diogenes Laertius and Plutarch, in later life he was charged with... |
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Zeno of Elea, All is One
Very little is known of the life of Zeno of Elea. We certainly know that he was a philosopher, and he is said to have been the son of Teleutagoras. The main source of our knowledge of Zeno comes from the dialogue Parmenides written by Plato.
Zeno... |
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Leucippus, 1st Theory of Atomism
Leucippus or Leukippos was the first Greek to develop the theory of atomism — the idea that everything is composed entirely of various imperishable, indivisible elements called atoms — which was elaborated in far greater detail by his pupil and succe... |
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Socrates, I know that I know nothing
Socrates was a classical Greek Athenian philosopher. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, he is an enigmatic figure known chiefly through the accounts of later classical writers, especially the writings of his students Plato and Xen... |
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Hippocrates of Kos, Father of Medicine
Hippocrates of Kos was an ancient Greek physician. He has been called "the father of medicine", and is commonly regarded as one of the most outstanding figures in medicine of all time. He was a physician trained at the Dream temple of Kos, and may ha... |
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Plato, Greek Philosopher
Plato was a philosopher in Classical Greece and the founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. He is widely considered the most pivotal figure in the development of philosophy, especially the West... |
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Aristotle, Greek Philosopher
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and scientist. At eighteen, he joined Plato's Academy in Athens and remained there until the age of thirty-seven (c. 347 BC). His writings cover many subjects – including physics, biology, zoology, metaphysics, logic... |
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Epicurus, Pleasure is the Highest Good
Epicurus was an ancient Greek philosopher as well as the founder of the school of philosophy called Epicureanism. Only a few fragments and letters of Epicurus's 300 written works remain. Much of what is known about Epicurean philosophy derives from l... |
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Lucretius, Roman Poet & Philosopher
Titus Lucretius Carus was a Roman poet and philosopher. His only known work is the epic philosophical poem on Epicureanism De rerum natura, translated into English as On the Nature of Things or "On the Nature of the Universe". According to Lucretius'... |
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John Dalton, First Useful Atomic Theory
John Dalton was an English chemist, meteorologist and physicist. He is best known for his pioneering work in the development of modern atomic theory, and his research into colour blindness.
He developed the first useful atomic theory of matter aro... |
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Berzelius, Father of Swedish Chemistry
Jöns Jacob Berzelius was a Swedish chemist. He worked out the modern technique of chemical formula notation, and is together with John Dalton, Antoine Lavoisier, and Robert Boyle considered a father of modern chemistry. He began his career as a physi... |
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Ludwig Boltzmann, Statistical Mechanics and Thermodynamics
Ludwig Eduard Boltzmann was an Austrian physicist famous for his founding contributions in the fields of statistical mechanics and statistical thermodynamics. He was one of the most important advocates for atomic theory at a time when that scientific... |
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J. J. Thomson, Discovers the Electron, 1897
Sir Joseph John Thomson was a British physicist and Nobel Laureate in Physics, credited with the discovery of the electron, the first subatomic particle to be discovered.
In 1897, Thomson showed that cathode rays were composed of previously unknow... |
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Max Planck, Inventor of Quantum Theory
Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck was a German physicist who is considered to be the inventor of quantum theory. In 1899, he discovered a new fundamental constant, which is named Planck's constant, and is, for example, used to calculate the energy of a ph... |
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Rutherford, Father of Nuclear Physics
Ernest Rutherford was a New Zealand-born British physicist who came to be known as the father of nuclear physics. Encyclopædia Britannica considers him to be the greatest experimentalist since Michael Faraday (1791–1867).
In early work, Rutherford... |
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Albert Einstein, Relativity Theory - 1905
Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist. Einstein developed the theory of relativity, one of the two pillars of modern physics (alongside quantum mechanics). Einstein's work is also known for its influence on the philosophy of science... |
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Niels Bohr, Quantum Theory of Matter
Niels Henrik David Bohr was a Danish physicist who made fundamental contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum mechanics, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922. He was also part of the team of physicists working on... |
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James Chadwick, Discovery Neutron
Sir James Chadwick was an English Nobel laureate in physics awarded for his discovery of the neutron.
In 1932, Chadwick discovered a previously unknown particle in the atomic nucleus. This particle became known as the neutron because of its lack... |
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Harry Truman, 33rd US President, 1945-1952
Harry Truman was president of America (1945-1952) after the death of F.D. Roosevelt in April 1945. Harry Truman gave the order for the atomic bombs to be dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and he represented the United States at Potsdam, the last of t... |
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Werner Heisenberg, Uncertainty Principle
Werner Karl Heisenberg was a German theoretical physicist and one of the key creators of quantum mechanics. He published his work in 1925 in a breakthrough paper. In the subsequent series of papers with Max Born and Pascual Jordan, during the same ye... |
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Hirohito, 124th Emperor of Japan
Hirohito, the Showa Emperor, reigned over Japan from 1926 to 1989. He was known in the West by his given name Hirohito (he had no surname). He was the 124th Emperor of Japan. His reign was the longest of all Japanese emperors, and oversaw the greates... |
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Enrico Fermi, 1st Nuclear Reactor
Enrico Fermi was an Italian-born, naturalized American physicist particularly known for his work on the development of the first nuclear reactor, Chicago Pile-1, and for his contributions to the development of quantum theory, nuclear and particle phy... |
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Oppenheimer, Father of the Atomic Bomb
Julius Robert Oppenheimer was an American theoretical physicist and professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley. He is among the persons who are often called the "father of the atomic bomb" for their role in the Manhattan Project,... |
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Ettore Majorana, Majorana Equation
Ettore Majorana (missing, presumed dead on 27 March 1938) was an Italian theoretical physicist who began work on neutrino masses. He disappeared suddenly in mysterious circumstances. The Majorana equation and Majorana fermions are named after him. Ma... |
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Richard Feynman, Physicist
Richard Phillips Feynman was an American physicist known for the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics and the physics of the superfluidity of supercooled liquid helium, as well as work in particle phys... |
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World War 2, WW2
World War II was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The vast majority of the world's countries - including all the great powers - eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. A state of total war emerged, direc... |
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Kim Jong-il, Leader of North Korea
Kim Jong-il is the leader of Democratic People's Republic of Korea, a position he has held since 1994. Officially he is the Chairman of the National Defense Commission of North Korea, Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army, and General Secreta... |
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Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, WW2
The United States detonated two nuclear weapons over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945, respectively, with the consent of the United Kingdom, as required by the Quebec Agreement. The two bombings killed between 129... |
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Chernobyl, Nuclear Power Accident
The disaster that occured at a nuclear power plant in Chernobyl in the former USSR (now Ukraine) plant on April 25th 1986 is an example of the devastation that can occur when a nuclear reaction goes wrong. The Chernobyl nuclear power plant located 80... |
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