Science

Discoveries that change how we understand the world.

People in Science

35 profiles

Scientist

Marie Curie

Discovering polonium and radium.

Physicist

Albert Einstein

Developing the theory of relativity.

Naturalist

Charles Darwin

Explaining evolution through natural selection.

Physicist

Isaac Newton

Formulating the laws of motion and universal gravitation.

Mathematician

Katherine Johnson

Calculating flight paths for early US space missions.

Chemist

Rosalind Franklin

Producing crucial X-ray evidence for DNA’s structure.

Physicist

Pierre Curie

Discovering polonium and radium with Marie Curie.

Physicist

Stephen Hawking

Predicting that black holes emit radiation.

Physicist

Satyendra Nath Bose

The particle statistics behind bosons and Bose–Einstein condensates.

Physicist

C. V. Raman

Discovering how scattered light reveals the molecules it meets.

Scientist

Jagadish Chandra Bose

Pioneering microwave experiments and measuring electrical responses in plants.

Physicist

Homi J. Bhabha

Building the institutions behind India’s nuclear programme.

Agricultural scientist

M. S. Swaminathan

Helping transform India’s food production through the Green Revolution.

Botanist

Janaki Ammal

Using plant chromosomes to improve crops and understand their diversity.

Statistician

C. R. Rao

Establishing fundamental ways to measure and improve statistical estimates.

Mathematician

Srinivasa Ramanujan

Extraordinary discoveries about numbers, infinite series and partitions.

Biophysicist

G. N. Ramachandran

Mapping how protein chains can fold and proposing collagen’s triple helix.

Scientist

Galileo Galilei

Using telescopic observations to challenge the Earth-centred universe.

Astronomer

Nicolaus Copernicus

Placing the moving Earth around the Sun in a new model of the heavens.

Chemist

Linus Pauling

Explaining chemical bonds and winning separate Nobel Prizes for chemistry and peace.

Chemist

Otto Hahn

Finding chemical evidence that uranium nuclei can split.

Primatologist

Jane Goodall

Revealing that wild chimpanzees make and use tools.

Chemist

Percy Julian

Synthesising medicinal compounds and developing industrial chemistry from soybeans.

Chemist

Glenn T. Seaborg

Helping discover transuranium elements and reorganising the periodic table’s actinide series.

Neuroscientist

Santiago Ramón y Cajal

Establishing that the nervous system is built from individual cells.

Physicist

John Bardeen

Co-inventing the transistor and helping explain superconductivity.

Geneticist

Barbara McClintock

Discovering mobile genetic elements, often called jumping genes.

Mathematician

Blaise Pascal

Advancing probability, pressure research and early mechanical calculation.

Biologist

Gregor Mendel

Revealing patterns of inheritance through pea-plant experiments.

Scientist

Irène Joliot-Curie

Discovering artificial radioactivity with Frédéric Joliot-Curie.

Scientist

Michael Faraday

Discovering electromagnetic induction, the basis of electric generators.

Physicist

Enrico Fermi

Leading the first controlled, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction.

Physicist

Niels Bohr

Explaining atomic energy levels and helping establish quantum physics.

Astronomer

Edwin Hubble

Showing that galaxies exist beyond the Milky Way and helping establish the expanding universe.

Microbiologist

Louis Pasteur

Explaining microbial fermentation, developing pasteurisation and advancing vaccination.