Scientists Flashcards
theory of general relativity
Albert Einstein
theory of special relativity
Albert Einstein
discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect
Albert Einstein
work on Brownian motion
Albert Einstein
E = mc2
Albert Einstein
metric tensor and cosmological constant appear in a set of field equations
Albert Einstein
“annus mirabilis”
Albert Einstein
offered the presidency of Israel
Albert Einstein
first observation of gravitational lensing
Albert Einstein
cosmological constant his “biggest blunder”
Albert Einstein
said quantum entanglement was “spooky action at a distance”
Albert Einstein
development a refrigerator with Leo Szilard
Albert Einstein
created the idea of stimulated emission
Albert Einstein
a “pile” named after this dude is often considered to be the first functional battery
Alessandro Volta
namesake of the unit of electrical potential
Alessandro Volta
discovered the antibiotic effects of penicillin
Alexander Fleming
discovered lysozyme
Alexander Fleming
proved that DNA is the carrier of genetic information (with Martha Chase)
Alfred Hershey
6.02 x 10^23
Amedeo Avogadro
the line integral of the magnetic field is proportional to the encircled current
Andre-Marie Ampere
the force per length of two straight wires is equal to 2 k-sub-A times the product of their currents divided by the distance between them
Andre-Marie Ampere
names the SI unit of electrical current
Andre-Marie Ampere
“Eureka!”
Archimedes
developed a water screw and a heat ray (maybe)
Archimedes
invented a grappling hook to pull a ship out of a harbor
Archimedes
modified Bohr’s atomic model to have elliptical orbits
Arnold Sommerfeld
formula calculates the field strength of radiation generated by an antenna
Arnold Sommerfeld
names the near-field diffraction model
Augustin-Jean Fresnel
developed namesake lenses, used in lighthouses, by replacing their curved surface with concentric grooves
Augustin-Jean Fresnel
equations govern the reflection of light when moving to a medium of higher refractive index
Augustin-Jean Fresnel
formulated the structure of benzene after dreaming of a snake biting its own tail
August Kekule
discovered transposons by studying maize (corn)
Barbara McClintock
namesake “wager” in favor of belief in God
Blaise Pascal
mathematically significant “triangle”
Blaise Pascal
structure named for him can perform glycosylation and other modifications to proteins before their secretion
Camillo Golgi
potassium dichromate and silver nitrate are used in a “black reaction” named for him
Camillo Golgi
structure named for him is made of cisternae
Camillo Golgi
had an ongoing feud with his Nobel prize-marte Santiago Ramón y Cajal
Camillo Golgi
names a cell “apparatus”
Camillo Golgi
inventor of the magnetometer
Carl Friedrich Gauss
names closed surfaces through which the flux of a vector field is calculated
Carl Friedrich Gauss
a namesake law states that the divergence of the B-field equals zero, which implies that magnetic monopoles cannot exist
Carl Friedrich Gauss
electric flux through the boundary of a region of space equals the enclosed charge divided by epsilon-naught
Carl Friedrich Gauss
names the normal distribution, also known as the bell curve
Carl Friedrich Gauss
used row reduction to solve a system of linear equations
Carl Friedrich Gauss
invented the kingdom-phylum system of taxonomy (binomial nomenclature)
Carl Linnaeus
wrote Systema Naturae
Carl Linnaeus
Robert Fitzroy recruited this man as a naturalist for a voyage to South America on the HMS Beagle
Charles Darwin
beak shape of the finches
Charles Darwin
Galapagos islands
Charles Darwin
theory of natural selection
Charles Darwin
wrote The Descent of Man
Charles Darwin
wrote On the Origin of Species
Charles Darwin
Thomas Huxley (Aldous Huxley’s dad) was nicknamed this man’s “bulldog”
Charles Darwin
1 over 4 pi times the permittivity of free space is equal to a constant named for this guy
Charles-Augustin de Coulomb
names the unit of charge
Charles-Augustin de Coulomb
his gauge sets the curl of the magnetic vector potential equal to zero
Charles-Augustin de Coulomb
namesake law gives the electrostatic force between two point charges
Charles-Augustin de Coulomb
observed the asymmetric beta-decay of cobalt-60 atoms
Chien-Shiung Wu
proved that the weak force violates the conservation of parity
Chien-Shiung Wu
Dutch scientist who studied Saturn’s rings
Christiaan Huygens
concept of each point on a wavefront being the source of further waves
Christiaan Huygens
invented the pendulum clock built on his studies of moment of inertia
Christiaan Huygens
principle states that if a fluid’s velocity along a streamline increases, its pressure decreases
Daniel Bernoulli
explains the Venturi effect in a narrowing pipe
Daniel Bernoulli
greater airflow velocity above an airfoil leads to lower pressure above the airfoil
Daniel Bernoulli
studied the sociobiology of ants
Edward Osborne Wilson
creator of Chicago Pile-1, the first nuclear reactor
Enrico Fermi
names a particle accelerator lab in Batavia, Illinois
Enrico Fermi
namesake particles have half-integer spin
Enrico Fermi
namesake “golden rule”
Enrico Fermi
conducted the gold foil experiment
Ernest Rutherford
coined the terms alpha, beta, and gamma rays to distinguish between radioactivity
Ernest Rutherford
firing a 15-inch shell at a piece of tissue paper and it coming back to hit you
Ernest Rutherford
proved the existence of the nucleus
Ernest Rutherford
studied a gas he called “thoron”
Ernest Rutherford
students were Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden
Ernest Rutherford
namesake number equals velocity divided by the speed of sound
Ernst Mach
wrote Systematics and the Origin of Species
Ernst Mayr
defined a species as members that can interbreed with one another
Ernst Mayr
a thought experiment about a cat
Erwin Schrödinger
“E psi equals H-hat psi”
Erwin Schrödinger
the time derivative of the wavefunction is related to the Hamiltonian
Erwin Schrödinger
wrote What is Life?
Erwin Schrödinger
predicted DNA would be in structures he called aperiodic crystals
Erwin Schrödinger
predicts the reduction of a wavefunction to a single eigenstate
Erwin Schrödinger
namesake “friend” experiment considered an extension of Schrödinger’s cat
Eugene Paul Wigner
double helix model of DNA with James Watson
Francis Crick
coined the term “wobble base pairing” to describe the ability of tRNA to recognize multiple mRNA codons
Francis Crick
first to state the central dogma of molecular biology
Francis Crick
determined the sequence of insulin
Frederick Sanger
developed a method of sequencing DNA using dideoxynucleotides
Frederick Sanger
names a process to produce ammonia along with Carl Bosch
Fritz Haber
developed the idea to use chlorine gas in World War I
Fritz Haber
wife committed suicide because of his involvement in weaponizing chlorine gas
Fritz Haber
names a ‘cycle’ to calculate the lattice energy of an ionic compound based on Hess’s law
Fritz Haber
names the four largest moons of Jupiter
Galileo Galilei
legendarily dropped two balls of different weights off the Leaning Tower of Pisa
Galileo Galilei
put on trial for supporting heliocentrism
Galileo Galilei
names a law describing the drag force on a sphere moving through a viscous fluid
George Gabriel Stokes
fundamental equations of fluid mechanics are named for this guy and Claude-Louis Navier
George Gabriel Stokes
acids are electron pair acceptors; bases are electron pair donors
Gilbert Lewis
visualized electrons as dots in this models for atomic and molecular structure
Gilbert Lewis
first to produce heavy water
Gilbert Lewis
coined the terms “photon” and “fugacity”
Gilbert Lewis
had a huge rivalry with Nernst
Gilbert Lewis
proposed that transuranium elements with magic numbers of protons and neutrons would make up the “island of stability”
Glenn Seaborg
only person to have an element named after him while he was still alive
Glenn Seaborg
“Father of Genetics”
Gregor Mendel
Laws of Independent Assortment, Dominance, and Segregation
Gregor Mendel
Austrian monk who worked on pea plant hybridization
Gregor Mendel
coined the term recessive when describing alleles
Gregor Mendel
the magnitude of the friction is proportional to the magnitude of the normal force
Guillaume Amontons
friction between two bodies does not depend on the area of their contact
Guillaume Amontons
coined the term “black body radiation”
Gustav Kirchhoff
discovered cesium and rubidium with Robert Bunsen
Gustav Kirchhoff
rule which states that the voltage drops around a loop must sum to zero
Gustav Kirchhoff
German physicist who computed the value of the Lamb shift while on a train ride
Hans Bethe
semi-empirical mass formula that uses total nucleons to predict binding energy
Hans Bethe
namesake “counter” is used to detect radiation
Hans Geiger
namesake factor is used in calculations of time dilation and length contraction
Hendrik Lorentz
discovered hydrogen and called it “inflammable air.”
Henry Cavendish
determined the density of the earth using a torsion balance
Henry Cavendish
determine the gravitational constant using a torsion balance
Henry Cavendish
coined the term “survival of the fittest”
Herbert Spencer
wrote Social Statics, and was a leading Social Darwinist
Herbert Spencer
has a free energy that measures the amount of work obtainable from a closed, isothermal, isochoric system
Hermann von Helmholtz
predicted the existence of the meson
Hideki Yukawa
postulated that protons and other nucleons are held together by pions
Hideki Yukawa
discovered potassium, sodium, strontium, calcium, barium, magnesium, iodine
Humphry Davy
studied nitrous oxide and suggested it as an anesthetic
Humphry Davy
names a probe to measure electron density of plasma
Irving Langmuir
names a mechanism by which molecules adsorb onto neighboring sites of a catalyst
Irving Langmuir
expanded on the octet rule with an 18 electron rule for metals
Irving Langmuir
his isotherm assumes that adsorption occurs in a monolayer on the surface of the adsorbent material
Irving Langmuir
created calculus along with Gottfried Leibniz
Isaac Newton
names three laws of motion
Isaac Newton
names an interference pattern (Rings) when light reflects between a flat and spherical surface
Isaac Newton
wrote Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica
Isaac Newton
wrote Optiks
Isaac Newton
used a prism to separate light
Isaac Newton
law of universal gravitation
Isaac Newton
namesake oscillations make NMR spectroscopy and MRIs possible
Isidor Isaac Rabi
namesake set of four equations governing electromagnetism
James Clerk Maxwell
co-names the equilibrium distribution of an ideal gas speed with Ludwig Boltzmann
James Clerk Maxwell
a thought experiment called his “demon”
James Clerk Maxwell
criticized for stealing Rosalind Franklin’s diffraction patterns
James Dewey Watson
discovered the double helix with Francis Crick
James Dewey Watson
first director of the Human Genome Project
James Dewey Watson
namesake of the SI unit of energy
James Prescott Joule
namesake “heating” involves current running through a resistive metal
James Prescott Joule
paddle-wheel experiment used to prove the conservation of energy
James Prescott Joule
developed the unit of horsepower to describe the power of his engines
James Watt
namesake steam engine that helped power the Industrial Revolution
James Watt
names the SI unit of power
James Watt
names some fibers that transfer electrical signals throughout the heart
Jan Evangelista Purkinje
wrote Guns, Germs and Steel
Jared Diamond
proposed the Inheritance of Acquired Characteristics
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
cited the giraffe’s neck as a trait acquired through life that could be passed down
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
formulated three laws of planetary motion
Johannes Kepler
namesake conjecture about the most space-efficient way to pack spheres together
Johannes Kepler
developed that equation to validate the Bohr model of the atom and explain electronic transitions in hydrogen
Johannes Rydberg
names a set of intermolecular forces
Johannes van der Waals
namesake equation corrects the ideal gas law
Johannes van der Waals
only person to win two Nobel Prizes in Physics
John Bardeen
on the team that invented the transistor
John Bardeen
on the team that development of the BCS theory of superconductivity
John Bardeen
founded Celera Genomics
John Craig Venter
names a law of partial pressures
John Dalton
proposed “billiard ball” model of the atom
John Dalton
studied his own colorblindness and is an alternate name for it
John Dalton
proposed an incorrect “law of greatest simplicity”
John Dalton
names a theorem stating no local hidden variable theory can reproduce the predictions of quantum mechanics
John Stewart Bell
developed the first successful polio vaccine
Jonas Edward Salk
credited with the accidental invention of carbonated water
Joseph Priestley
discovered hydrochloric acid (“vapor of spirit of salt”)
Joseph Priestley
discovered “dephlogisticated air” which we now refer to as oxygen
Joseph Priestley
namesake free energy is defined as enthalpy (H) minus temperature x entropy (S)
Josiah Gibbs
namesake free energy determines the spontaneity of reactions
Josiah Gibbs
names a quantity that represents the region where escape velocity equals the speed of light
Karl Schwarzschild
names the radius of the event horizon
Karl Schwarzschild
names the identity “e to the i-pi equals negative 1”
Leonhard Euler
proved there was no possible solution for the seven bridges of Konigsberg problem
Leonhard Euler
founded graph theory
Leonhard Euler
names a method of numerical integration that is the simplest Runge-Kutta method
Leonhard Euler
has a totient function
Leonhard Euler
developed the mathematical theory of superfluidity, in which context he introduced rotons
Lev Landau
advocated for mega doses of Vitamin C
Linus Pauling
the first to explain the concept of orbital hybridization
Linus Pauling
incorrectly thought DNA was a triple helix
Linus Pauling
namesake electronegativity scale ranges from 0.7 to 4.0 (actually 3.8)
Linus Pauling
discovered the cause of sickle cell disease
Linus Pauling
discovered the Auger effect
Lise Meitner
developed nuclear fission with Otto Hahn and Otto Robert Frisch
Lise Meitner
namesake of element 109
Lise Meitner
temperature scale is set to zero at absolute zero
Lord Kelvin
names the SI unit for temperature
Lord Kelvin
namesake form of scattering explains why the daytime sky is blue
Lord Rayleigh
proposed the wave-particle duality of matter
Louis de Broglie
proposed that a particle’s momentum is equal to Planck’s constant divided by a wavelength
Louis de Broglie
developed pilot wave theory
Louis de Broglie
save the life of a nine-year-old boy named Joseph Meister
Louis Pasteur
developed the first-ever rabies vaccine
Louis Pasteur
names a process which removes microorganisms in milk
Louis Pasteur
disproved spontaneous generation with his swan-neck flask experiment
Louis Pasteur
developed the anthrax vaccine
Louis Pasteur
namesake constant is equal to R over Avogadro’s number
Ludwig Boltzmann
ideal gas constant (R) is Avogadro’s number times his namesake constant
Ludwig Boltzmann
multiplying his constant by the natural log of the number of microstates yields the entropy of an ideal gas
Ludwig Boltzmann
H theorem and transport equations
Ludwig Boltzmann
names a blackbody emittance law with Josef Stefan
Ludwig Boltzmann
co-names the equilibrium distribution of an ideal gas speed with James Maxwell
Ludwig Boltzmann
namesake constant is symbolized k sub b
Ludwig Boltzmann
radiant emittance of a blackbody is directly proportional to its temperature raised to the fourth power
Ludwig Boltzmann
won the Nobel in physics with her husband, Pierre, and Henri Becquerel for their work on radioactivity from pitchblend
Marie Curie
from Poland and polonium is named in her honor
Marie Curie
awarded a second Nobel Prize for discovering radium and polonium
Marie Curie
names the temp above which materials lose ferromagnetism
Pierre Curie
died in a carriage accident
Pierre Curie
proved that DNA is the carrier of genetic information (with Alfred Hershey)
Martha Chase
labeled different parts of a virus radioactive phosphorus
Martha Chase
co-names a “cycle” used to calculate the energies needed to synthesize ionic compounds with Fritz Haber
Max Born
first to interpret the wavefunction as a probability amplitude
Max Born
introduced the thermodynamic square
Max Born
names with Oppenheimer the approximation that the spatial coordinates of the nucleus and electrons are uncorrelated
Max Born
constant (6.626x10^-34) is often represented by a lowercase h
Max Planck
said electromagnetic radiation was emitted in discrete “packets” called quanta
Max Planck
solved the problem of the ultraviolet catastrophe in blackbodies
Max Planck
namesake particle is a black hole with a Schwarzchild radius close to its Compton wavelength
Max Planck
namesake unit of time is equal to 5.39 times 10 to the -40 seconds
Max Planck
corrected the Rayleigh-Jeans law
Max Planck
names the SI unit of capacitance
Michael Faraday
demonstrated electromagnetic shielding in his namesake cage
Michael Faraday
first to predict the existence of quarks with George Zweig
Murray Gell-Mann
“Eightfold Way” model organized mesons and baryons into octets
Murray Gell-Mann
formulated and often names the planetary model of the atom
Niels Bohr
namesake “magneton” is symbolized mu-sub-B
Niels Bohr
the distance between the nucleus of hydrogen and its electron is hir “radius”
Niels Bohr
charge of the electron times h-bar divided by twice the mass of the electron
Niels Bohr
promoted alternating current and feuded with Thomas Edison
Nikola Tesla
names a coil that produces lightnight
Nikola Tesla
Wardenclyffe Tower
Nikola Tesla
funded by J.P. Morgan
Nikola Tesla
constructed a metal Egg of Columbus
Nikola Tesla
claimed an electric generator he built had caused an earthquake in New York
Nikola Tesla
names the SI unit for magnetic field strength
Nikola Tesla
namesake dimensionless parameter that takes high values for turbulent flow
Osborne Reynolds
postulated that cancer cells use glycolysis as the primary mechanism for metabolism
Otto Heinrich Warburg
namesake equation predicted the existence of antimatter
Paul Dirac
namesake equation describes the wavefunction of spin one-half particles
Paul Dirac
coined the term “ultraviolet catastrophe”
Paul Ehrenfest
names a paradox concerning the rotation of a rigid disc
Paul Ehrenfest
Dendritic cells in the skin are named after this man
Paul Langerhans
hormone-producing cells contained in “islets” named him
Paul Langerhans
namesake dynamics uses stochastic differential equations to describe the motion of particles
Paul Langevin
used quartz piezoelectric transducers to develop a system of ultrasonic submarine detection
Paul Langevin
names the units for measuring dipole moments
Peter Debye
names a theory that predicts the non-ideal behavior of electrolytes in solution with Erich Huckel
Peter Debye
names the “God particle,” a boson discovered in 2012 at the Large Hadron Collider
Peter Higgs
namesake temperature is equal to his namesake velocity times Planck’s constant divided by Boltzmann’s constant
Peter Debye
Andrew Wiles proved this guy’s statement that an + bn = cn is not valid for different values of a, b, and c past n equals 2
Pierre de Fermat
“little theorem” and a “last theorem”
Pierre de Fermat
names a demon that can predict the future of the universe given the position and momentum of all particles
Pierre-Simon Laplace
names a partial differential equation with Young that describes the capillary pressure at an interface
Pierre-Simon Laplace
namesake diagrams used to represent particle interactions
Richard Feynman
showed that cracked O-rings caused the Challenger disaster in the Rogers Commission
Richard Feynman
developed the path integral formulation
Richard Feynman
backwards-facing arrows denote positrons and wavy lines denote photons
Richard Feynman
There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom
Richard Feynman
gave a famous set of lectures at Caltech
Richard Feynman
“Surely, You’re Joking”
Richard Feynman
namesake law relates volume and pressure in an ideal gas
Robert Boyle
The Skeptical Chymist
Robert Boyle
discovered the elements caesium and rubidium with Gustav Kirchoff
Robert Bunsen
namesake law is written as F equals negative k x
Robert Hooke
coined the term “cell” in his book Micrographia
Robert Hooke
had a major rivalry with Isaac Newton
Robert Hooke
identified the causative agent of tuberculosis, cholera, and anthrax
Robert Koch
performed the oil drop experiment with Harvey Fletcher
Robert Millikan
director of the Los Alamos National laboratory
Robert Oppenheimer
“now I am become death, destroyer of worlds”
Robert Oppenheimer
father of the atomic bomb” Robert Oppenheimer
calculated the upper bound on the mass of a neutron star Robert Oppenheimer
Harry Truman to call him a cry-baby”
Robert Oppenheimer
lost his security clearance following a 1954 hearing over his alleged communism
Robert Oppenheimer
accused of being a communist by his colleague Haakon Chevalier
Robert Oppenheimer
used x-ray crystallography to take Photo 51
Rosalind Franklin
studied the structures of coal and graphite
Rosalind Franklin
stated that heat cannot pass from a colder body to a warmer body without some external work
Rudolf Clausius
names a “condensate” phase of matter with Einstein
Satyendra Nath Bose
wrote A Brief History of Time
Stephen Hawking
a form of thermal radiation emitted from black holes named for him
Stephen Hawking
had ALS and was apparently on Epstein’s island
Stephen Hawking
names a simple theory of acids and bases
Svante Arrhenius
namesake plot graphs the natural log of the rate constant against inverse temperature to find activation energy
Svante Arrhenius
first to predict that rising CO2 levels in the atmosphere were causing global warming
Svante Arrhenius
equation states the rate of effusion of gases is inversely proportional to the square root of their densities
Thomas Graham
used Drosophila melanogaster as a model organism to study genetics
Thomas Hunt Morgan
coined the term “crossing-over” for sex-linked traits
Thomas Hunt Morgan
Fly Room at Columbia
Thomas Hunt Morgan
studied white-eyed mutant flies
Thomas Hunt Morgan
double-slit experiment
Thomas Young
ratio of stress to strain in a material is known as his “modulus”
Thomas Young
proposed the trichromatic theory of color vision with Helmholtz
Thomas Young
wore a prosthetic nose because of a dueling injury
Tycho Brahe
wrote De nova stella
Tycho Brahe
Kepler’s mentor and teacher
Tycho Brahe
equation for calculating reduction potentials of galvanic cells
Walther Nernst
namesake equation states the cell potential equals the standard cell potential minus RT over zF times the natural log of the reaction quotient
Walther Nernst
names the uncertainty principle
Werner Heisenberg
the product of the standard deviations of position and momentum is greater than or equal to h-bar over 2
Werner Heisenberg
developed a namesake process for the production of nitric acid by oxidizing ammonia
Wilhelm Ostwald
coined the term colligative
Wilhelm Ostwald
coined the term ‘mole’
Wilhelm Ostwald
developed quaternions
William Rowan Hamilton
namesake operator is part of the wavefunction
William Rowan Hamilton
namesake of an exclusion principle
Wolfgang Pauli
no two fermions can have all the same quantum numbers
Wolfgang Pauli
names 2 by 2 matrices that can be used to describe the spin of a particle
Wolfgang Pauli
paper “On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem.”
Alan Turing
worked at Bletchley Park during WWII
Alan Turing
helped crack the Enigma code using the bombe
Alan Turing
proposed a namesake test for machine intelligence
Alan Turing
persecuted for his homosexuality and later chemically castrated
Alan Turing
A Mathematical Theory of Communication
Claude Shannon
worked on cryptography at Bell Labs during World War II
Claude Shannon
paper “Sur la combustion en général” refuted the phlogiston theory
Antoine Lavoisier
experiments with mercury(II) oxide helped identify oxygen’s role in combustion
Antoine Lavoisier
worked with Pierre-Simon Laplace to develop a calorimeter that measured heat in respiration
Antoine Lavoisier
work with phosphorus and sulfur confirmed that mass is conserved in chemical reactions
Antoine Lavoisier
Elementary Treatise on Chemistry (1789) is considered the first modern chemistry textbook
Antoine Lavoisier
worked with his wife, Marie-Anne Paulze, who illustrated his experiments
Antoine Lavoisier
executed during the French Revolution in 1794
Antoine Lavoisier
law of conservation of mass
Antoine Lavoisier
called the father of modern chemistry
Antoine Lavoisier
wrote Silent Spring, which led to a U.S. ban on DDT
Rachel Carson
helped refine the corpuscular theory of matter
Robert Boyle
developed the Jacobi matrix, which is used in linear algebra to study eigenvalues
Carl Jacobi
namesake incompleteness theorem says there are statements that cannot be proven true or false
Kurt Gödel
work on the redshift of galaxies helped establish the theory of an expanding universe
Edwin Hubble
observations provided evidence for the Big Bang theory
Edwin Hubble
namesake limit predicts the maximum mass of a stable white dwarf star
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
observations led to the theory of dark matter
Vera Rubin
Belgian priest who proposed the idea of an expanding universe (Big Bang Theory)
Georges Lemaître
The Origin of Continents and Oceans introduced continental drift
Alfred Wegener
