Van Leeuwenhoek, who discovered bacteria, is one of the most important figures in the history of medicine, laying the groundwork for today’s understanding of infectious disease.
Chien-Shiung Wu’s experiments were instrumental in supporting some of the biggest 20th-century theories in physics.
Bettmann via Getty Images
Antarctic research has historically been a bastion of men from Europe and North America. Only now is the field opening up to women and people of colour. And there’s a way to go yet.
A man of genius – but his ideas were not to the benefit of all humankind.
Mondadori Portfolio/Hulton Fine Art Collection via Getty Images
Smart people can have really bad ideas – like selectively breeding human beings to improve the species. Put into practice, Galton’s concept proved discriminatory, damaging, even deadly.
Science communication succeeds when it takes community knowledge seriously, works with other belief systems, and expects researchers to contribute to society.
Ammonium nitrate in granular form is the basis for many nitrogen fertilisers.
Shutterstock
What do ammonium nitrate and iodine have in common? Both substances are of immense service to humankind, and the history of their discovery is closely linked to that of the production of explosives.
Isaac Newton was a man of many talents, including alchemy.
Wellcome Images
Online sleuthing and deductive reasoning identifies what appears to be the only existent portrait painted of the celebrated scientist during his lifetime.
Early clinical trials into ginseng, rhubarb and rice paved the way for testing coronavirus treatments today.
Woodcut from Camille Flammarion’s 1888 book L'Atmosphère : météorologie populaire. The caption reads: ‘A missionary of the Middle Ages tells that he had found the point where the sky and the Earth touch’ and continues, ‘What is there, then, in this blue sky, which certainly exists, and which veils the stars during the day?’
Wikipedia
Albert Einstein may have been the ultimate example of a visionary genius, but that did not stop him from twice losing his way due to beliefs that were perhaps not so scientific.
Nicolas Dubos, Muséum national d’histoire naturelle (MNHN)
Climate change is affecting our planet’s biodiversity, yet some species can find ways to adapt. Using citizen-science data, a French research team is studying how birds adjust to local heat levels.
John Tyndall used a beam of light to reveal floating motes of organic matter in the air which he believed carried disease.
Shutterstock
How science has been used to predict wind and rain for over 1,000 years.
Camp beds set up for travelers returning to Germany from China, who will be isolated for two weeks to make sure they don’t have coronavirus.
YANN SCHREIBER/AFP via Getty Images