Scientist

Contribution(s)

Impact

Alessandro Volta

Italian physicist, first

demonstrated the electric
pile

laid foundations for the

battery

Anders Celsius

Invented measurement of
temperature - Celsius.

Most widely used

measurement of
temperature in the world

Andreas Vesalius

1543 On the Fabric of the

Human Body

Challenged Galen theory

about where blood flows.

Antoine Lavoisier

Law of Conservation of
Matter - matter cannot be
created nor destroyed.

Anton Leeuwenhoek

Published drawing after

using a very premature
microscope to see blood
corpuscles, sperm, and
bacteria

No one back then took

bacteria as as serious cause
of disease, but he laid the
fundamentals for bacterial
disease research.

Blaise Pascal

Pascal was French

mathematician and inventor.
He proved Euclids 32nd
proposition. And invented
the first calculator.

Laid the foundation for

much more complicated
computing and calculators
and technology.

Carolus Linnaeus

System Nature- developed

methods to classify and
name plants and animals.

Christiaan Huygens

Calculated the force

neccessary to keep a planet
in orbit. Christiaan
Huygens's explanation of
the propagation of light by
suggesting that it "flowed"
like a fluid

Cartesian approach to
physical science

Evangelista Torricelli

Invented the barometer, to

measure air pressure, in 1643.
A unit of pressure, called a Torr,
is named after him.

This was a large step in the

understanding of the properties
of air, and the basic structure of
the barometer remains the
same today.

Francis Bacon

Bacon contributed to
scientific developments in

Bacon argued that this

process of controlled

Father of modern Chemistry

modern taxonomic system

the seventeenth century by

advocating an inductive
method for scientific
experimentation. The
inductive method begins
with direct observation of
phenomena. This produces
data that is systematically
recorded and organized. The
data leads to a tentative
hypothesis that is re-tested
in additional experiments.

experimentation (which in
the science world is
fundamental today) would
lead to the formulation of
universal principles and
scientific laws.

Gabriel Fahrenheit

Developed measurement of
temperature with freezing at
32 degrees.

Fahrenheit temperature
measurement

Galileo

an Italian scientist who

used controlled experiments
to formulate laws of motion
and inertia that were
expressed in mathematical
formulas. With the
telescope, he found proof of
the Copernican theory of
heliocentric motion.

Galileo was one of the first

people to use the telescope
for astronomical
observation. His discoveries
provided irrefutable support
for the heliocentric view that
the earth was a planet
circling around the sun.

Gottfried Leibniz

A northern german
philosopher and
mathematician who argued
that the universe was set in
motion and god didn't need
to intervene.

With Newton, helped invent

calculus.

Isaac Newton

Newton publishing the

Principia in 1687. This
momentous work combined
Keplers law of planetary
motion, Galileos laws of
inertia and falling bodies,
and Newtons own
conception of gravitation
into a single mathematical
law of universal gravitation.

Newtons concise
mathematical formula
described all forms of
celestial and terrestrial
motion. Newton
demonstrated that the
universe is governed by
universal laws that can be
expressed in mathematical
formulas. Newtons
mechanistic concept of the
universe dominated Western
thought until the discoveries
of Albert Einstein in the early

twentieth century.
Johannes Kepler

When Tycho Brahe died in

1601, his assistant Johannes
Kepler continued his work.
After carefully studying
Brahes data, Kepler
formulated three theories:
The planets revolve around
the sun in elliptical orbits,
Planets move more rapidly
as their orbits approach the
sun, and finally the time a
planet takes to orbit the sun
varies proportionately with
its distance from the sun.

Keplers three theories

ended up becoming the
three very important laws of
planetary motion we know
today.

Nicolaus Copernicus

a Polish clergyman and

astronomer. In his landmark
book, On the Revolution of
the Heavenly Bodies,
Copernicus presented his
readers with a heliocentric
view in which the earth
revolved around the sun,
which was the center of the
universe.

Copernicus directly
challenged the geocentric
view of the universe
providing the world with a
much more accurate
depiction.

Rene Descartes

Descartes contributed to
the scientific developments
in the seventeenth century
by advocating a deductive
method for the search for
truth. Descartes began by
doubting all notions based
on authority or custom.
Instead, he started with a
self-evident axiom known to
be true. He then used logical
reasoning to deduce various
influences.

Advocated a deductive
method for the search for
truth. Contributed along with
Bacon in the development of
the scientific method.

Robert Boyle

Boyle developed a law on

the pressure of gases.

Boyle proved that only a part

of the air is used in respiration
and combustion, and is thus
credited with the discovery of
oxygen. Boyle's further work
touched on the beginnings of
the study of matter on the

atomic scale.

Tycho Brahe

In the late 1500s, a Danish

astronomer, Tycho, carefully
recorded the movements of
each known planet.

Provided Kepler with the

tools he needed to formulate
three very important laws of
planetary motion.

William Harvey

Harvey demonstrated that

the heart was a pump and
that blood circulated
throughout the body.

The first to demonstrate that

the circulation of blood through
the human body is continuous,
rather than consisting of
different types circulating
through the veins and arteries,
as had been previously
assumed by the ancient Greek
physician, Galen.

Sources
Brautigam, Jeffrey. AP European History, 2012-2013. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2011. Print.
Link, Jere, and Miles E. Campbell. AP European History. Piscataway, NJ: Research &
Education Association, 2009. Print.
Palmer, R. R., Joel Colton, and Lloyd S. Kramer. A History of the Modern World. Boston [etc.:
McGraw-Hill, 2007. Print.