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Democritis
- Democritis was born in 460 BC in Abdera, Thrace.
- Democritis was the first whom discovered the atom and he had created the earliest model of them ever recorded
- His theory was that everything is made of atoms and between these atoms there are empty spaces. He said that atoms are indestructible and are always in motion.
- He also predicted that the atom with reflect whatever it is in; for example, air atoms are light and flow
- He died in 370 BC
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Robert Boyle
- Robert Boyle was born on the 27th of January 1627 in County Waterford in south-east Ireland.
- Boyle’s main impact on the scientific community was his study of gases
- His work was greatly impacted by the church
- Boyle’s major impact into the scientific community was his theory that there are certain atoms in each element and that they are able to arrange themselves to represent various chemical materials
- Boyle died in London on the 31st of December 1691
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Isaac Newton
- Isaac Newton was born on January the 4th 1643 in Lincolnshire, England.
- The church also greatly impacted the studies of Isaac, just like Boyle
- Isaac’s greatest impact into the study of atoms, was his discovery that atoms move, they do not stay still
- Isaac also helped understand the laws of gravity and the relationship between matter and energy
- Isaac Newton died on the 31st of March 1727 in London, England
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John Dalton
- John Dalton was born on the 6th of September 1766 in Eaglesfield, England
- Dalton created his own theory called, ‘Dalton’s Theory’.
- His theory consists of six different sections
- He stated that; matter is composed atoms, atoms are indivisible and indestructible, atoms of a given element are identical, atoms of elements are different to those of other elements. In a chemical reaction, atoms separate, combine and rearrange.
- John Dalton died on the 26th of July, 1844 in Manchester, England
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Antoine Henri Becquerel
- Antoine Henri Becquerel was born in Paris, France on December 15th in 1852
- Antoine Henri Becquerel’s main discovery was learning how to show the rays emitted by uranium.
- Antoine Henri Becquerel died on August the 25th 1908 in Le Croisic, France.
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J.J. Thomson
- Joseph John Thomson (J.J. Thomson for short) was born on December 18th 1856 in Manchester, England
- J.J. Thomson is best known for his creation of the cathode ray.
- The cathode ray is a tube that glows when a high voltage current is sent through it and atoms hit the outside of it
- He discussed the possibility that an atom was like plum pudding; mostly pudding (positive substance), but a little bit of plum (electrons)
- Thomson died on the 30th of August 1940 in Cambridge, England
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Ernest Rutherford
- Ernest Rutherford was born on August 30th 1871 in Spring Grove, New Zealand
- Rutherford is best known for his gold foil experiment. This experiment consists of shooting atoms into a very thin gold foil to see where on the circular wall of foil the atoms hit
- When he saw this he discovered that there was something in the middle of the atom, called the nucleus. This discovery led to the structural design of a nuclear atom
- Rutherford died on October 19th 1937 in Cambridge, England
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Albert Einstein
- Albert Einstein was born Ulm, in Württemberg, Germany, on March 14, 1879
- Albert Einstein had many great discoveries as a scientist such as his theory of relativity. This theory was the main foundation for modern inventions such as the nuclear bomb
- His famous equation of E=mc2 is the equation for energy (‘E’ energy equals ‘m’ mass multiplied by the ‘c’ speed of light squared)
- Albert Einstein died on April 18, 1955 at Princeton, New Jersey, USA
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Robert Andrews Millikan
- Robert Andrews Millikan was born on the 22nd of March in 1868 in Morrison, U.S.A
- Robert Andrews Millikan is best known for his knowledge of the charge carried by an electron
- He discovered this by using the ‘falling-drop method’
- Robert Andrews Millikan died on the 19th of December 1953, in San Marino, California, U.S.A.
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Frederick Soddy
- Frederick Soddy was born on September the 2nd 1877 in Eastbourne, Sussex, England
- Frederick Soddy’s greatest achievement was his advancement in the prediction of isotopes of elements
- Frederick Soddy died on September 22nd 1956 in Brighton, England
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H.G.J. Moseley
- H.G.J. Moseley (Henry Gwyn Jeffreys Moseley) was born on November the 23rd 1887 in Weymouth, Dorset, England
- Henry Moseley is best known for creating the Periodic Table of elements by sorting chemical elements by their atomic numbers
- He also created Moseley’s law which played a major role in the discovery of advancing our understanding of the atom and atomic numbers
- H.G.J. Moseley died on the 10th of August 1915 in Gallipoli, Turkey fighting in the World War 1
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Max Planck
- Max Planck was born on April 23 1858 in Kiel, Germany
- Max Planck had a massive impact on our understanding our atomic and subatomic particles (particles within the atom)
- Max Planck gave a further understanding of the spectrum of radiation emitted by an object when heated, he argued that the walls of a glowing solid could have a series of resonators that moved at different frequencies.
- Max Planck died in Göttingen, Germany, on October 4, 1947.
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Niels Bohr
- Niels Bohr was born on October the 7th 1885 in Copenhagen, Denmark.
- Bohr’s main study was the structure of an atom. He discussed the possibility that electrons didn’t spiral into the nucleus, but do surround the nucleus at different levels, this is called the Bohr model/quantum model
- Bohr had also discovered the more energy an electron gives off, the closer it is to the nucleus and the more it absorbs, the further away it is
- Niels Bohr died on November 18th 1962 in Copenhagen, Denmark
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James Chadwick
- James Chadwick was born on the 20th of October, 1891 in Cheshire, England.
- James Chadwick’s biggest achievement was his discovery of neutrons
- He also discovered that a neutron can enter and split the nucleui of most elements. This discovery then allowed the fission of uranium and began the creation of very strong bombs
- James Chadwick died on the 24th of July 1974 in Cambridge, England.
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Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac
- Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac was born on the 8th of August, 1902 in Bristol, England.
- He began the Dirac equation, which states the behavior of electrons. He predicted that anti matter (opposite to matter) existed.
- Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac died on October 20, 1984, Tallahassee, Florida, U.S.A.
