My Science School

Samuel Hahnemann, a German physician, founded homeopathy.

        Hahnemann believed that the medicine he had been taught to practice some-times did the patient more harm than good.

       He carried out experiments on the curative power of bark, which was the source of quinine. He was the first person to observe that a remedy that produces symptoms in a healthy person will cure those same symptoms when manifested by a person in a disease state.

     This principle that ‘likes are cured by likes’ is the very foundation of homeopathy. Hahnemann is called the ‘father of experimental pharmacology’ because he was the first physician to prepare medicines in a specialized way, by first trying them on healthy human beings, to determine how the medicines acted to cure diseases.

Pierre-Simon Laplace was a French physicist and astronomer of the 19th century. He had a phenomenal natural mathematical faculty, and predicted many things, using only maths.

           These predictions were later confirmed with powerful telescopes. He wrote a book explaining his theory of the origin of the solar system.

           Laplace presented a steady stream of remarkable mathematical papers that spread his fame. Pierre-Simon Laplace is highly regarded for his influential, five-volume treatise which developed a strong mathematical understanding of the motion of the heavenly bodies. This work interpreted the geometric study of classical mechanics, starting up a wider range of problems.

          Laplace’s work, and the results he produced, made him one of the most important and influential scientists that the world has seen. The Laplacian differential operator that is named after him is widely used in mathematics.

           Laplace won many awards for his studies, and he was made a marquis, but he remained modest, saying, “What we know is little. What we know not is immense.”

         His work regarding the theory of probability and statistics is considered pioneering.

Jean Babtiste Lamarck was one of the pioneers in the field of biology.

   In fact, the very name ‘biology’ was coined by this French naturalist. He is best remembered for his theory, the characteristics an organism develops during its lifetime in response to its environment are inherited by, or passed on to, its offspring.

       Lamarck was the first to use the term invertebrate to describe animals without backbones. He began collecting fossils and studying all sorts of simple species.

        As a result of these studies, he was able to revise the classification of lower animals that had been unfinished by the Swedish biologist Linnaeus.

        Lamarck’s study of invertebrates also led to the publication of his major work ‘The Natural History of Invertebrate Animals’ in 1815-22.

William Herschel was a German-born British scientist who became one of the most important astronomers of the 18th century. He built his own telescopes.

           From the garden of his house, William Herschel noted ‘every star in the heavens’ through a telescope that he had constructed himself.

         He also manufactured over 400 telescopes that were in great demand worldwide. His study of the heavens led him to the discovery of a planet that would eventually be called Uranus. William Herschel would also discover Titania and Oberon, which were the moons of Uranus as well as Enceladus and Mimas, the moons of Saturn.

          Herschel maintained that the solar system is moving through space, and found out the direction of that movement. He also suggested that the Milky Way was in the shape of a disc. Herschel is considered to be the founder of modern stellar astronomy.

       William Herschel, a great scientist was a gifted musician too. He played the oboe, violin, harpsichord and organ.

Johann Gauss was a German mathematician who had a remarkable influence in many fields.

        These included the number theory, statistics, analysis, differential geometry, electrostatics, astronomy and optics.

       Gauss systematized the study of number theory and was fundamental in consolidating it as an important discipline. Gauss also discovered Ceres, the largest of the asteroids orbiting the sun. His theory of Celestial movement remains a cornerstone of astronomical computation to this day. Among many other achievements, Gauss is responsible for a procedure used currently In all sciences to minimize the impact of measurement error.

       He kept a diary of his discoveries, listing 146 discoveries, which was lost for over 40 years after his death. Gauss is deservedly ranked as one of his history’s most influential mathematicians.

Justus Liebig is considered to be the founder of organic chemistry. Liebig was one of the first chemists to organize a modern laboratory that became the model for teaching practical chemistry. Liebig developed an instrument for determining the carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen content of organic materials. In 1832, he and Friedrich Wohler published their study of the oil of bitter almonds which proved that a single compound can behave like an element in a chemical reaction. This became the foundation of the theory of compound radicals.

        Liebig advanced the idea that chemistry could revolutionize farming and greatly increases yields in a book that he wrote. In this book, he discussed plant nutrition, and chemical transformations in plants and animals.

       Liebig is best remembered for a process for reducing silver salts to metallic silver that became the basis for modern mirror making.

Antoine Lavoisier revolutionized chemistry. It was he who coined the name oxygen for the element released by mercury oxide.

            He found that oxygen made up 20 per cent of air, and was vital for combustion and respiration. He also concluded that when phosphorus or sulfur is burned in air, the products are formed by the reaction of these elements with oxygen.

                  The elements carbon and hydrogen were also named by him. Another milestone was when Lavoisier correctly identified sulfur as an element. A year later, he found that when mercury oxide is heated, its weight decreases. The oxygen it releases has exactly the same weight as the weight lost by the mercury oxide. After carrying out further experiments, Lavoisier announced a new fundamental law of nature- the law of conversation of mass. This law states that the total mass of a chemical reaction’s products is identical to the total mass of the starting materials.

Edward Jenner, a doctor in England, lived during the 18th century. At that time, smallpox was a dreaded disease that killed thousands of people every year. Smallpox is n infectious disease which causes pus-filled blisters to spread over the body, and often resulted in death.

     Jenner noticed that milk-maids were immune to smallpox. He thought that this was because they were often infected by cowpox, a disease similar to smallpox, but less severe.

     Jenner believed that the pus form blisters caused by cow-pox protected the milkmaids from smallpox. He tested the theory by inoculating a boy called James Phipps, his gardener’s son, with pus from cow-pox blisters. James experienced a fever, but he did not get small pox.

     Jenner repeated the experiment on more than 20 people, proving that those he had inoculated with cowpox were immune to smallpox.

      Edward Jenner thus became the pioneer of the world’s first vaccine- the smallpox vaccine. His work on smallpox made him internationally famous.

     Today, smallpox has been completely eradicated from the world, thanks to the smallpox vaccine, and Edward Jenner.

Most parts of India, except Rajasthan, receive an average annual rainfall of about 110 cm which generates about 2.75 million cubic km of water per year.

Nuclear fusion is the process whereby two atomic nuclei are fused with the release of a large amount of energy. Very high temperatures and pressures are thought to be required in order for the process to happen. The process might one day be harnessed to form the basis of commercial energy. Method of achieving controlled fusion is the subject of research around the world.

Nuclear power is obtained from the energy stored in the nuclei of atoms. Nuclear power is produced by splitting the atoms of some element like uranium. The uranium nuclei are split by the bombardment of neutrons. This is called nuclear fission. Energy produced by nuclear fission has been harnessed since 1950s. When a nucleus splits it gives large amount of energy. This energy is used to heat up water and convert it into steam. The steam runs a turbine which in turn produces electricity. Nuclear power is generated with the help of nuclear reactors. However, the use of nuclear energy has given rise to concern over safety.

 

The world’s largest solar plant is located in the MOJAVE desert neat Dagget, California. It currently producing 675 MW of electricity, enough energy for one million people. 

Solar energy absorbed by the earth is equivalent to 3000 times the heat in all the coal and petroleum produced in the world in a year. 

Mechanical or electrical power is generated by a wind mill using wine energy. Wind mills are of two types: horizontal axis type and vertical axis type. In both the types, blades are rotated by the kinetic energy of wind. Netherland is called “The Land of Windmills”.

Gasoline, kerosene, diesel, lubricants, greases, wax, asphalt, etc. are the different petroleum derivatives. These are obtained by the fractional distillation of crude oil.