A famous scientist who is also classified as a physicist. Great Scientists in Physics

One of the most ancient and important scientific disciplines is physics - the science that studies the properties of matter, the basis of all natural science.

It is for this reason that physics is considered a fundamental science. Other natural sciences (biology, chemistry, geology, etc.) describe separate classes of material systems that ultimately obey physical laws.

James Watt (1736 - 1819), Scottish physicist and inventor, was born in England on January 19, 1736. The creator of the first universal steam engine, he did not have special education, at first he was a skilled and talented toolmaker and served at the University of Glasgow.

Watt's road to world fame began with ordinary, routine work. One day he was assigned to repair a model of Newcomen's steam engine. He couldn't cope until he realized that the reason was not the failure of the model, but the principles underlying it. One day, while walking, Watt came up with the idea to separate the condenser for cooling the steam and the working cylinder. Using this principle, Watt creates his model of a steam engine, which is still kept in the London Museum. Due to its efficiency, Steam engine Watt became widespread and was of great importance during the transition to machine production. During the 1800s, much of the energy produced by British industry was provided by Watt's steam engines.

James Watt introduced the first unit of power - horsepower. He also designed instruments that were later common: a mercury vacuum gauge, a mercury open manometer, a water measuring glass for boilers, and a pressure indicator. He also invented copying ink (1780) and established the composition of water (1781).

Alexander Graham Bell (1847–1922) was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. He is the inventor of the telephone. The Bell family from Scotland moved to Canada and later to the USA. Bell was neither a physicist nor an electrical engineer by training. He began as an assistant music and public speaking teacher and later worked with people who were deaf or had speech impediments.

Bell was very eager to help these people. Big love to a girl who lost her hearing after an illness, prompted him to design instruments and devices with the help of which he demonstrated the articulation of speech to the deaf. In Boston he opened educational institution, where he trained teachers for the deaf. In 1893, A. Bell received the title of professor of physiology of speech organs at Boston University. Subsequently, he studies in depth the physics of human speech, acoustics, and soon begins to conduct experiments using an apparatus in which a membrane transmits sound vibrations. He gradually approached the idea of ​​​​creating a telephone that would allow the transmission of various sounds if he could cause vibrations of electric current that corresponded in intensity to the vibrations of air produced by a given sound.

Soon A. Bell changes the direction of his activities and begins work on creating a telegraph that would be able to transmit several texts simultaneously. During this work, an accident helped to discover the phenomenon that led to the invention of the telephone.

One day, Bell's assistant was removing a record from the transmitter. At this time, Bell heard a rattling sound in the receiving device. As it turned out, this plate closed and opened an electrical circuit. Bell took this observation very seriously. A few days later the first telephone was made, which consisted of a small membrane made from drum skin and a signal horn to amplify the sound. It was this device that became the progenitor of all telephones.

Paradoxical as it may sound, but Soviet era can be regarded as a very productive period of time. Even in difficult times post-war period scientific developments in the USSR were financed quite generously, and the profession of a scientist itself was prestigious and well paid.

A favorable financial background, coupled with the presence of truly gifted people, brought remarkable results: during the Soviet period, a whole galaxy of physicists arose, whose names are known not only in the post-Soviet space, but throughout the world.

We present to your attention material about famous physicists of the USSR who made a great contribution to world science.

Sergei Ivanovich Vavilov (1891-1951). Despite his far from proletarian origin, this scientist managed to defeat class filtering and become the founding father of an entire school of physical optics. Vavilov is a co-author of the discovery of the Vavilov-Cherenkov effect, for which he subsequently (after the death of Sergei Ivanovich) received the Nobel Prize.

Vitaly Lazarevich Ginzburg (1916-2009). The scientist received wide recognition for his experiments in the field of nonlinear optics and micro-optics; as well as for research in the field of luminescence polarization. In the emergence of common fluorescent lamps There is considerable merit to Ginzburg: it was he who actively developed applied optics and endowed purely theoretical discoveries with practical value.

Lev Davidovich Landau (1908-1968). The scientist is known not only as one of the founders of the Soviet school of physics, but also as a person with sparkling humor. Lev Davidovich derived and formulated several basic concepts in quantum theory and conducted fundamental research in the field of ultra-low temperatures and superfluidity. Currently, Landau has become a legend in theoretical physics: his contribution is remembered and honored.

Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov (1921-1989). The co-inventor of the hydrogen bomb and a brilliant nuclear physicist sacrificed his health for the cause of peace and general security. The scientist is the author of the invention of the “Sakharov puff paste” scheme. Andrei Dmitrievich is a vivid example of how rebellious scientists were treated in the USSR: long years of dissidence undermined Sakharov’s health and did not allow his talent to reveal its full potential.

Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa (1894-1984). The scientist can quite rightly be called the “calling card” of Soviet science - the surname “Kapitsa” was known to every citizen of the USSR, young and old. Petr Leonidovich made a huge contribution to low temperature physics: as a result of his research, science was enriched with many discoveries. These include the phenomenon of helium superfluidity, the establishment of cryogenic bonds in various substances, and much more.

Igor Vasilievich Kurchatov (1903-1960). Contrary to popular belief, Kurchatov worked not only on nuclear and hydrogen bombs: the main direction scientific research Igor Vasilievich was devoted to the development of atomic splitting for peaceful purposes. The scientist did a lot of work in theory magnetic field: The demagnetization system invented by Kurchatov is still used on many ships. In addition to his scientific flair, the physicist had good organizational skills: many complex projects were implemented under Kurchatov’s leadership.

Alas, modern science has not learned to measure fame or contribution to science in any objective quantities: none of the existing methods makes it possible to compile a 100% reliable popularity rating or estimate the value in numbers scientific discoveries. Take this material as a reminder of the great personalities who once lived with us on the same land and in the same country.

Unfortunately, within the framework of one article we cannot mention all Soviet physicists known not only in narrow scientific circles, but also among the general public. In subsequent materials we will definitely talk about other famous scientists, including those who received the Nobel Prize in Physics.

MARRY GELL-MANN (b. 1929)

Murray Gell-Mann was born on September 15, 1929 in New York City, the youngest son of Austrian emigrants Arthur and Pauline (Reichstein) Gell-Mann. At the age of fifteen, Murray entered Yale University. He graduated in 1948 with a B.S. He spent subsequent years in graduate school at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Here in 1951 Gell-Mann received his doctorate in physics.

LEV DAVIDOVICH LANDAU (1908—1968)

Lev Davidovich Landau was born on January 22, 1908 in the family of David Lyubov Landau in Baku. His father was a famous petroleum engineer! worked in local oil fields, and his mother was a doctor. She was engaged in physiological research. Landau's older sister became a chemical engineer.

IGOR VASILIEVICH KURCHATOV (1903—1960)

Igor Vasilyevich Kurchatov was born on January 12, 1903 in the family of a forester's assistant in Bashkiria. In 1909, the family moved to Simbirsk. In 1912, the Kurchatovs moved to Simferopol. Here the boy enters the first grade of the gymnasium.

PAUL DIRAC (1902—1984)

English physicist Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac was born on August 8, 1902 in Bristol, in the family of a native of Sweden, Charles Adrien Ladislaus Dirac, a French teacher at a private school, and an Englishwoman, Florence Hannah (Holten) Dirac.

WERNER HEISENBERG (1901—1976)

Werner Heisenberg was one of the youngest scientists to receive the Nobel Prize. His determination and strong competitive spirit inspired him to discover one of the most famous principles of science - the principle of uncertainty.

ENRICO FERMI (1901-1954)

“The great Italian physicist Enrico Fermi,” wrote Bruno Pontecorvo, “occupies a special place among modern scientists: in our time, when narrow specialization in scientific research has become typical, it is difficult to point out a physicist as universal as Fermi. One might even say that the appearance on the scientific arena of the 20th century of a man who made such a huge contribution to the development of theoretical physics, and experimental physics, and astronomy, and technical physics, ~ a phenomenon that is more unique than rare.”

NIKOLAI NIKOLAEVICH SEMENOV (1896—1986)

Nikolai Nikolaevich Semenov was born on April 15, 1896 in Saratov, in the family of Nikolai Alexandrovich and Elena Dmitrievna Semenov. After graduating from a real school in Samara in 1913, he entered the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of St. Petersburg University, where, studying with the famous Russian physicist Abram Ioffe, he proved himself to be an active student.

IGOR EVGENIEVICH TAMM (1895—1971)

Igor Evgenievich was born on July 8, 1895 in Vladivostok into the family of Olga (née Davydova) Tamm and Evgeniy Tamm, a civil engineer. Evgeniy Fedorovich worked on the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway. Igor's father was not only a versatile engineer, but also an exceptionally courageous man. During the Jewish pogrom in Elizavetgrad, he alone went into the crowd of Black Hundreds with a cane and dispersed it. Returning from distant lands with three-year-old Igor, the family traveled by sea through Japan to Odessa.

PETER LEONIDOVICH KAPITSA (1894—1984)

Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa was born on July 9, 1894 in Kronstadt in the family of a military engineer, General Leonid Petrovich Kapitsa, builder of the Kronstadt fortifications. He was an educated, intelligent man, a gifted engineer, who played an important role in the development of the Russian armed forces. Mother, Olga Ieronimovna, nee Stebnitskaya, was an educated woman. She studied literature, pedagogy and social activities, leaving a mark in the history of Russian culture.

ERWIN SCHRODINGER (1887—1961)

Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger was born on August 12, 1887 in Vienna. His father, Rudolf Schrödinger, was the owner of an oilcloth factory, was fond of painting and had an interest in botany. The only child in the family, Erwin received his primary education at home. His first teacher was his father, who later Schrödinger spoke of him as “a friend, a teacher and an interlocutor who never tires.” In 1898, Schrödinger entered the Academic Gymnasium, where he was the first student in Greek, Latin, classical literature, mathematics and physics. During his gymnasium years, Schrödinger developed a love for the theater.

NIELS BOR (1885—1962)

Einstein once said: “What is amazingly attractive about Bohr as a scientific thinker is his rare fusion of courage and caution; few people had such an ability to intuitively grasp the essence of hidden things, combining this with keen criticism. He is without a doubt one of the greatest scientific minds of our century."

MAX BORN (1882—1970)

His name is put on a par with such names as Planck and Einstein, Bohr, Heisenberg. Born is rightfully considered one of the founders of quantum mechanics. He owns many fundamental works in the field of the theory of atomic structure, quantum mechanics and the theory of relativity.

ALBERT EINSTEIN (1879-1955)

His name is often heard in the most common vernacular. “There’s no smell of Einstein here”; “Wow Einstein”; “Yes, this is definitely not Einstein!” In his age, when science was more dominant than ever before, he stands apart, like a symbol of intellectual power. Sometimes the thought even appears that humanity is divided into two parts - Albert Einstein and the rest of the world.

ERNEST RUTHERFORD (1871-1937)

Ernest Rutherford was born on August 30, 1871 near the city of Nelson (New Zealand) in the family of an immigrant from Scotland. Ernest was the fourth of twelve children. His mother worked as a rural teacher. The father of the future scientist organized a woodworking enterprise. Under the guidance of his father, the boy received good training for work in the workshop, which later helped him in the design and construction of scientific equipment.

MARIA CURIE-SKLODOWSKA (1867-1934)

Maria Skłodowska was born on November 7, 1867 in Warsaw. She was the youngest of five children in the family of Władysław and Bronislawa Skłodowska. Maria was brought up in a family where science was respected. Her father taught physics at the gymnasium, and her mother, until she fell ill with tuberculosis, was the director of the gymnasium. Maria's mother died when the girl was eleven years old.

PETER NIKOLAEVICH LEBEDEV (1866—1912)
Pyotr Nikolaevich Lebedev was born on March 8, 1866 in Moscow, into a merchant family. His father worked as a trusted clerk and treated his work with real enthusiasm. In his eyes, the trading business was surrounded by an aura of significance and romance. He instilled the same attitude in his only son, and at first successfully In the first letter, an eight-year-old boy writes to his father, “Dear dad, are you healthy and are you trading well?”

MAX PLANK (1858—1947)

German physicist Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck was born on April 23, 1858 in the Prussian city of Kiel, in the family of Johann Julius Wilhelm von Planck, a professor of civil law, and Emma (nee Patzig) Planck. As a child, the boy learned to play the piano and organ, discovering extraordinary musical abilities. In 1867, the family moved to Munich, and there Planck entered the Royal Maximilian Classical Gymnasium, where an excellent mathematics teacher first aroused his interest in the natural and exact sciences.

HEINRICH RUDOLF HERZ (1857—1894)

There are not many discoveries in the history of science that we come into contact with every day. But without what Heinrich Hertz did, modern life it is no longer possible to imagine, since radio and television are a necessary part of our life, and he made a discovery precisely in this area.

JOSEPH THOMSON (1856-1940)

English physicist Joseph Thomson went down in the history of science as the man who discovered the electron. He once said: “Discoveries are due to the sharpness and power of observation, intuition, and unwavering enthusiasm until the final resolution of all the contradictions accompanying pioneer work.”

HENDRIK LORENZ (1853—1928)

Lorentz entered the history of physics as the creator of the electronic theory, in which he synthesized the ideas of field theory and atomism. Hendrik Anton Lorentz was born on July 15, 1853 in the Dutch city of Arnhem. At the age of six he went to school. In 1866, having graduated from school as the best student, Gendrik entered the third grade of the Higher Civil School, roughly equivalent to a gymnasium. His favorite subjects were physics and mathematics, and foreign languages. To study French and German, Lorenz went to churches and listened to sermons in these languages, although he had not believed in God since childhood.

WILHELM ROENTGEN (1845—1923)

In January 1896, a typhoon of newspaper reports about the sensational discovery of Würzburg University professor Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen swept over Europe and America. It seemed that there was no newspaper that would not print a photograph of a hand that, as it turned out later, belonged to Bertha Roentgen, the professor’s wife. And Professor Roentgen, locked in his laboratory, continued to intensively study the properties of the rays he had discovered. The discovery of X-rays gave impetus to new research. Their study led to new discoveries, one of which was the discovery of radioactivity.

LUDWIG BOLZMANN (1844—1906)

Ludwig Boltzmann was without a doubt the greatest scientist and thinker that Austria gave to the world. During his lifetime, Boltzmann, despite his position as an outcast in scientific circles, was recognized as a great scientist; he was invited to give lectures in many countries. And yet, some of his ideas remain a mystery even today. Boltzmann himself wrote about himself: “The idea that fills my mind and activity is the development of theory.” And Max Laue would later clarify this idea as follows: “His ideal was to unite all physical theories in a single picture of the world.”

ALEXANDER GRIGORIEVICH STOLETOV (1839—1896)

Alexander Grigorievich Stoletov was born on August 10, 1839 in the family of a poor Vladimir merchant. His father, Grigory Mikhailovich, owned a small grocery store and a leather workshop. There was a good library in the house, and Sasha, having learned to read at the age of four, began to use it early. At the age of five he was already reading completely freely.

WILLARD GIBBS (1839-1903)

The mystery of Gibbs is not whether he was a misunderstood or unappreciated genius. Gibbs's mystery lies elsewhere: how did it happen that pragmatic America, during the reign of practicality, produced a great theorist? Before him, there was not a single theorist in America. However, there were almost no theorists after that. The vast majority of American scientists are experimentalists.

JAMES MAXWELL (1831-1879)

James Maxwell was born in Edinburgh on June 13, 1831. Soon after the boy was born, his parents took him to their Glenlair estate. From that time on, the “den in a narrow gorge” became firmly established in Maxwell’s life. His parents lived and died here, and he himself lived and was buried here for a long time.

HERMAN HELMHOLTZ (1821-1894)

Hermann Helmholtz is one of the greatest scientists of the 19th century. Physics, physiology, anatomy, psychology, mathematics... In each of these sciences, he made brilliant discoveries that brought him worldwide fame.

EMILY CHRISTIANOVICH LENZ (1804-1865)

Fundamental discoveries in the field of electrodynamics are associated with the name of Lenz. Along with this, the scientist is rightfully considered one of the founders of Russian geography. Emilius Christianovich Lenz was born on February 24, 1804 in Dorpat (now Tartu). In 1820 he graduated from high school and entered the University of Dorpat. Lenz began his independent scientific activity as a physicist on a round-the-world expedition on the sloop "Enterprise" (1823-1826), in which he was included on the recommendation of university professors. Very short term he, together with rector E.I. Parrotom created unique instruments for deep-sea oceanographic observations - a depth gauge winch and a bathometer. During his voyage, Lenz carried out oceanographic, meteorological and geophysical observations in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. In 1827, he processed the received data and analyzed it.

MICHAEL FARADAY (1791-1867)

Only discoveries that would be enough for a good dozen scientists to immortalize their name. Michael Faraday was born on September 22, 1791 in London, in one of its poorest quarters. His father was a blacksmith, and his mother was the daughter of a tenant farmer. The apartment in which the great scientist was born and spent the first years of his life was located in the backyard and was located above the stables.

GEORGE OM (1787—1854)

Professor of physics at the University of Munich E. Lommel spoke well about the significance of Ohm’s research at the opening of a monument to the scientist in 1895: “Ohm’s discovery was a bright torch that illuminated the area of ​​electricity that was shrouded in darkness before him. Om pointed out) the only correct path through the impenetrable forest of incomprehensible facts. Remarkable advances in the development of electrical engineering, which we have observed with amazement in recent decades, could be achieved! only on the basis of Ohm's discovery. Only he is able to dominate the forces of nature and control them, who is able to unravel the laws of nature, Om wrested from nature the secret it had hidden for so long and handed it over to his contemporaries.”

HANS ERSTED (1777-1851)

“The learned Danish physicist, professor,” wrote Ampere, “with his great discovery paved a new path of research for physicists. These studies did not remain fruitless; they have led to the discovery of many facts worthy of the attention of all who are interested in progress.”

AMEDEO AVOGADRO (1776—1856)

Avogadro entered the history of physics as the author of one of the most important laws of molecular physics. Lorenzo Romano Amedeo Carlo Avogadro di Quaregna e di Cerreto was born on August 9, 1776 in Turin, the capital of the Italian province of Piedmont, in the family of a judicial employee, Filippo Avogadro. Amedeo was the third of eight children. Since the 12th century, his ancestors were lawyers in the service of the Catholic Church and, according to the tradition of that time, their professions and positions were inherited. When the time came to choose a profession, Amedeo also took up law. He quickly succeeded in this science and at the age of twenty received the degree of Doctor of Church Law.

ANDRE MARIE AMPERE (1775-1836)

The French scientist Ampere is known in the history of science mainly as the founder of electrodynamics. Meanwhile, he was a universal scientist, with merits in the fields of mathematics, chemistry, biology, and even linguistics and philosophy. He was a brilliant mind, amazing with his encyclopedic knowledge all the people who knew him closely.

CHARLES POULOMB (1736—1806)
To measure the forces acting between electric charges. Coulomb used the torsion balance he invented. The French physicist and engineer Charles Coulomb achieved brilliant scientific results. The laws of external friction, the law of torsion of elastic threads, the basic law of electrostatics, the law of interaction of magnetic poles - all this is included in the golden fund of science. “Coulomb field”, “Coulomb potential”, and finally, the name of the unit of electric charge “coulomb” is firmly established in physical terminology.

ISAAC NEWTON (1642—1726)

Isaac Newton was born on Christmas Day 1642 in the village of Woolsthorpe in Lincolnshire. His father died before the birth of his son. Newton's mother, née Iscoffe, gave birth prematurely shortly after the death of her husband, and the newborn Isaac was amazingly small and frail. They thought that the baby would not survive Newton, however, he lived to a ripe old age and, with the exception of short-term disorders and one serious illness, was always in good health.

CHRISTIAN HUYGENS (1629-1695)

Operating principle of the anchor release mechanism. The running wheel (1) is untwisted by a spring (not shown in the figure). The anchor (2), connected to the pendulum (3), enters with the left pallet (4) between the teeth of the wheel. The pendulum swings in the other direction and the anchor releases the wheel. It only manages to turn one tooth, and the right flight (5) engages. Then everything is repeated in reverse order.

Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)

Blaise Pascal, son of Etienne Pascal and Antoinette née Begon, was born in Clermont on June 19, 1623. The entire Pascal family was distinguished by outstanding abilities. As for Blaise himself, from early childhood he showed signs of extraordinary mental development. In 1631, when little Pascal was eight years old, his father moved with all his children to Paris, selling his position according to the then custom and investing a significant part of his small capital in the Hotel de-Bill.

ARCHIMEDES (287 - 212 BC)

Archimedes was born in 287 BC in the Greek city of Syracuse, where he lived almost his entire life. His father was Phidias, the court astronomer of the ruler of the city of Hiero. Archimedes, like many other ancient Greek scientists, studied in Alexandria, where the rulers of Egypt, the Ptolemies, gathered the best Greek scientists and thinkers, and also founded the famous, largest library in the world.

We present to your attention a list of scientists whose worldview was religious. To make the list more “reliable,” we tried our best to avoid including in it people whose worldview there is conflicting information, reports Pravoslavie.fm.

Physics

Galileo Galilei Galileo Galilei (1564 - 1642)

Worldview. Catholic. He asserted that “Holy Scripture cannot in any case affirm a lie or be mistaken; his sayings are absolute and undeniably true.”

Contribution to science. Refuted Aristotelian physics. He was the first to use a telescope to observe celestial bodies. He laid the foundations of classical mechanics, basing it on the experimental method, for which he is often called the “father of modern physics.”

Edme Mariotte Edme Mariotte (1620 - 1684)

Worldview. Roman Catholic priest, abbot of the monastery of Saint-Martinsubon.

Contribution to science. One of the founders of the French Academy of Sciences. In 1660 he discovered the so-called. "blind spot" in the human eye. 17 years later, Boyle discovered the law of the relationship between the volume and elasticity of a gas. He developed the theory of impact in mechanics, and also created a ballistic pendulum. Contributed to the development of aerodynamic theory with considerations about the relationship between speed and drag.

Blaise Pascal Blaise Pascal (1623 - 1662)

Worldview. Catholic Jansenist. A religious philosopher, Pascal defended the Christian faith, argued with Descartes, argued with the atheists of his time, condemned the casuistry of the Jesuits, who justified the vices of high society (in “Letters to a Provincial”), and the author of numerous reflections on philosophical and religious topics. He wrote the work “Thoughts on Religion and Other Subjects,” a collection of ideas in defense of Christianity against criticism from atheists, which includes the famous “Pascal’s Wager.”

Contribution to science. He created a calculating machine-arphmometer. He experimentally refuted the prevailing axiom at that time, taken from Aristotle, that nature is “afraid of the void,” and at the same time formulated the basic law of hydrostatics. In correspondence with Fermat, he laid the foundations of probability theory. He is also at the origins of projective geometry and mathematical analysis.

Sir Isaac Newton Sir Isaac Newton (1642 - 1727)

Worldview. An Anglican, his views are close to the Arian heresy. Newton studied the Bible, and the volume of his texts on the study of Scripture exceeds the volume of scientific texts he wrote. Through his work, Principia Mathematica hoped to encourage thinking people to believe in God.

Pierre Louis de Maupertuis Pierre-Louis Moreau de Maupertuis (1698 - 1759)

Worldview. Catholic, philosopher. Voltaire wrote many satires against him, for example, “Doctor Acacius, Papal Physician.” Before his death, the scientist admitted that Christianity “leads man to the greatest good through the greatest possible means.”

Contribution to science. He introduced the concept of the principle of least action into mechanics, and immediately pointed out its universal nature. He was a pioneer in genetics, in particular, some find that his views contributed to the development of the theory of evolution and natural selection.

Luigi Galvani Luigi Galvani (1737 - 1798)

Worldview. Catholic. He studied theology, wanted to connect his life with the Church, but chose the path of science. His biographer, Professor Venturoli, speaks about Galvani’s deep religiosity. In 1801, another of his biographers, Alibert, writes about the scientist: “it can be added that in his public demonstrations, he never completed his lectures without calling on his listeners to renew their faith, always drawing their attention to the idea of ​​​​an eternal Providence that develops, preserves and makes life flow among many other kinds of things.”

Contribution to science. He was one of the first to study electrophysiology and “animal electricity”. The phenomenon “galvanism” was named after him.

Alessandro Volta Alessandro Volta (1745 - 1827)

Worldview. Catholic. Tenets, public life and the rites of the Roman Church formed a large part of the life (culture) of Volta. His best friends were the clergy. Volta remained close to his brothers, the canon and archdeacon, and was a churched man (practicing, in Catholic terminology). Examples of his religiosity include his flirtation with Jansenism in the 1790s and his 1815 confession of faith, written to defend religion against scientism. In 1794, Volta wrote several letters: to his brothers and to a professor of theology at the University of Pavia, in these letters he asked them for advice about his possible marriage.

Contribution to science. Physicist, invented the chemical battery in 1800. Discovered methane. Found ways to measure charge (Q) and potential (V). Created the world's first chemical current source.

André-Marie Ampère (1775 - 1836)

Worldview. Catholic. The scientist is credited with the following statement: “Study, explore earthly things - this is the duty of a man of science. Explore nature with one hand, and with the other, like a father’s robe, hold on to the hem of God’s robe.” At the age of 18, the scientist believed that there were three culminating moments in his life: “First Communion, reading Antoine Thomas’s eulogy to Descartes, and the storming of the Bastille.” When his wife died, Ampere wrote out two verses from the Psalms and the prayer “O Lord, Merciful God, unite me in Heaven with those whom you allowed me to love on Earth,” at that time he was overwhelmed by strong doubts, and in his free time the scientist read The Bible and the Fathers of the Church.

Contribution to science. Physicist and mathematician. In electrodynamics: he established a rule for determining the direction of action of a magnetic field on a magnetic needle (“Ampere’s rule”), discovered the influence of the Earth’s magnetic field on moving conductors with current, discovered the interaction between electric currents, and formulated the law of this phenomenon (“Ampere’s law”). Contributed to the development of the theory of magnetism: he discovered the magnetic effect of the solenoid. Ampere was also an inventor - it was he who invented the commutator and the electromagnetic telegraph. Ampere also contributed to chemistry through his joint work with Avogadro

Hans Christian Ørsted Hans Christian Ørsted (1777 - 1851)

Worldview. Lutheran (presumably). In his 1814 speech entitled “The Development of Science, Understood as the Task of Religion” (the scientist included this speech in his book The Soul in Nature), in it he writes that this speech includes many ideas that are more developed in other parts of the book, but here they are presented as a whole), Oersted states the following: “we will try to establish our conviction of the existing harmony between science and religion, by showing how a man of science should look at his studies, if he understands them correctly, viz. as the task of religion." What follows is a long discussion that can be found in the book.

Contribution to science. Physicist and chemist. Discovered that electric current creates a magnetic field. The first modern thinker to describe and name a thought experiment in detail. Oersted's work was an important step towards a unified concept of energy.

Michael Faraday Michael Faraday (1791 - 1867)

Worldview. Protestant, Church of Scotland. After his marriage, he served as a deacon and churchwarden in one of the meetinghouses of his youth, and researchers note that “a strong sense of harmony between God and nature permeated his entire life and work.”

Contribution to science. Contributed to electromagnetism and electrochemistry. Considered the best experimenter and one of the most influential scientists in the history of science. Discovered benzene. He noticed a phenomenon he called diamagnetism. Discovered the principle of electromagnetic induction. His invention of electromagnetic rotators served as the basis for the electric motor. Thanks also to his efforts, electricity began to be used in technology.

James Prescott Joule James Prescott Joule (1818 - 1889)

Worldview. Anglican (presumably). Joule wrote: “A phenomenon of nature, be it mechanical, chemical, life, almost completely transforms into itself over a long period of time. Thus, order is maintained and nothing is out of order, nothing is lost forever, but the whole mechanism, such as it is, works smoothly and harmoniously, all controlled by God's will. He was one of the scientists who signed the "Declaration of Students of Natural and Physical Sciences", written in response to the wave of Darwinism that came to England.

Contribution to science. Formulated the first law of thermodynamics, discovered Joule's Law of heat power when an electric current flows. He was the first to calculate the speed of gas molecules. Calculated the mechanical equivalent of heat.

Sir George Gabriel Stokes Sir George Gabriel Stokes (1819 - 1903)

Worldview. Anglican (presumably). In 1886, he became president of the Victoria Institute, whose goal was to respond to the evolutionary movement of the 60s; in 1891, Stokes gave a lecture at this institute; he was also president of the British and Foreign Bible Society, and was actively involved in missionary issues. Stokes said: “I know of no sound conclusions of science that would contradict the Christian religion.”

Contribution to science. Physicist and mathematician, author of the Stokes theorem, made significant contributions to the development of hydrodynamics, optics and mathematical physics.

William Thomson, Lord Kelvin William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin (1824 - 1907)

Worldview. Presbyterian. Throughout his life he was a devout person, attending church every day. As can be seen from the scientist's speech at the Christian Evidence Society (an organization created to combat atheism in Victorian society), Thompson believed that his faith helped him understand reality, informed him. In the broad sense of the word, the scientist was a creationist, but he was by no means a “flood geologist”; he could be said to support the view known as theistic evolution. He often openly disagreed with Charles Darwin's followers and entered into disputes with them.

Contribution to science. Mathematical physicist and engineer. Formulated the first and second laws of thermodynamics and helped unify the emerging disciplines in physics. He guessed that there was a lower temperature limit, absolute zero. He is also known as an inventor, author of about 70 patents.

James Clerk Maxwell James Clerk Maxwell (1831 - 1879)

Worldview. Christian of evangelical faith. At the end of his life he became a churchwarden in the Church of Scotland. As a child, he attended services in both the Church of Scotland (his father's denomination) and the Episcopal Church (his mother's denomination); in April 1853, the scientist converted to the evangelical faith, which is why he began to adhere to anti-positivist views.

Contribution to science. Physicist whose main achievement was the formulation of the classical theory of electromagnetism. Thus, he united previously disparate observations, experiments and equations in electricity, magnetism and optics into a single theory. Maxwell's equations show that electricity, magnetism and light are one and the same phenomenon. These achievements of his were called “the second greatest unification in physics” (after the work of Isaac Newton). The scientist also helped develop the Boltzmann-Maxwell distribution, which is a statistical means of describing certain aspects in the kinetic theory of gases. Maxwell is also known as the man who created the first durable color photograph in 1861.

Sir John Ambrose Fleming Sir John Ambrose Fleming (1849 - 1945)

Worldview. Congregationalist. Fleming was a creationist and rejected Darwin's ideas as atheistic (from Fleming's book Evolution or Creation?). In 1932, he helped found the Evolution Protest Movement. Fleming once preached "what is in the fields" at St. Martin's Church in London, and his sermon was dedicated to the evidence of the Resurrection. The scientist bequeathed most of his inheritance to Christian charitable organizations that helped the poor.

Contribution to science. Physicist and engineer. Considered the father of modern electrical engineering. Formulated two rules known to physics: left and right hands. Invented the so-called Fleming valve

Sir Joseph John Thomson Sir Joseph John Thomson (1856 - 1940)

Worldview. Anglican. Raymond Seager in his book J. J. Thomson, Anglican states the following: “As a professor, Thompson attended the Sunday evening service of the university chapel, and as head of the university, the morning service. Moreover, he took an interest in the Trinity Mission in Camberwell. Respectful of his personal religious life, Thompson consistently prayed every day and read the Bible before bed. He really was a believing Christian!”

Contribution to science. Physicist, discovered the electron and isotope. Laureate Nobel Prize in physics in 1906 for “the discovery of the electron and achievements in the field of theoretical and experimental research conductivity of electricity in gases". The scientist also invented the mass spectrometer, discovered the natural radioactivity of potassium, and showed that hydrogen has only one electron per atom, while previous theories allowed hydrogen to have many electrons.

Max Planck Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck (1858 - 1947)

Worldview. Catholic (converted six months before his death), previously a deeply religious deist. In his work “Religion and Natural Science,” the scientist wrote (the quote is given with context, from the beginning of the paragraph: “With such a coincidence, one should, however, pay attention to one fundamental difference. God is given to a religious person directly and primarily. From Him, His omnipotent will comes all life and all phenomena, both bodily and spiritual world. Although He is unknowable by reason, He nevertheless directly manifests Himself through religious symbols, putting His holy message into the souls of those who, by faith, trust Him. In contrast, for the natural scientist, only the content of his perceptions and the measurements derived from them are primary. From here, through inductive ascent, he tries to get as close as possible to God and His world order as the highest, eternally unattainable goal. Consequently, both religion and natural science need faith in God, while for religion God stands at the beginning of all thinking, and for natural science at the end.”

Contribution to science. The founder of quantum physics, which is why he won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918. Formulated Planck's postulate (dark body radiation), an expression for the spectral power density of black body radiation.

Pierre Maurice Marie Duhem (1861 - 1916)

Worldview. Catholic. He often argued with Marcel over religious issues. D. OConnor and E. Robinson in their biography of Duhem argue that his religious views played a large role in determining his scientific views. The scientist also studied the philosophy of science, in his main work he showed that since 1200 science had not been ignored, and that the Roman Catholic Church had encouraged the development of Western science.

Contribution to science. Known for his work on thermodynamics (Gibbs-Duhem relation, Duhem-Margules equation), he also contributed to hydrodynamics and the theory of elasticity.

Sir William Bragg Sir William Lawrence Bragg (1890 - 1971)

Worldview. Anglican (possibly Anglo-Catholic). Bragg’s daughter wrote about the scientist’s faith: “For W. Bragg, religious faith was the willingness to bet everything on the hypothesis that Jesus Christ was right, and to test this by the experiment of performing a lifelong work of mercy. Reading the Bible was mandatory. Bragg often said that "if I have any style of writing at all, it is due to the fact that I was brought up on the Authorized Version [of the Bible]." He knew the Bible and could usually rattle off “chapter or verse.” Young Professor W. Bragg became churchwarden at St. John's in Adelaide. He also received permission to preach."

Contribution to science. Physicist, Nobel Prize laureate in 1915 for "services to the study of crystals using x-rays." Bragg also created the first instrument for recording diffraction patterns. Together with his son, he developed the basics of a method for determining the structure of crystals from the diffraction pattern of X-rays.

Arthur Holly Compton Arthur Holly Compton (1892 - 1962)

Worldview. Presbyterian. Raymond Seeger, in his article “Compton, Christian Humanist,” published in The Journal of the American Scientific Affiliation, writes the following: “As Arthur Compton grew older, so did his horizons, but it was always a clear Christian view of the world. . Throughout his life, the scientist was active in church affairs, from teaching Sunday school and serving as a church warden to positions on the Presbyterian Board of Education. Compton believed that humanity's fundamental problem, the inspiring meaning of life, lay outside science. According to a 1936 Times magazine report, the scientist was briefly a deacon in the Baptist Church.

Contribution to science. The physicist was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1927 for his discovery of the Compton effect. Invented a method for demonstrating the rotation of the Earth.

Georges Lemaître Monseigneur Georges Henri Joseph Édouard Lemaître (1894 - 1966)

Worldview. Catholic priest (since 1923). Lemaitre believed that faith could be an advantage for a scientist: “As science passes through the mere stage of description, it becomes true science. She also becomes more religious. Mathematicians, astronomers and physicists, for example, are very religious people, with few exceptions. The deeper they penetrate into the mystery of the Universe, the deeper becomes their conviction that the force behind the stars, electrons and atoms is law and goodness.”

Contribution to science. A cosmologist, the author of the theory of the expanding Universe, Lemaitre was the first to formulate the relationship between the distance and speed of galaxies and proposed in 1927 the first estimate of the coefficient of this relationship, now known as the Hubble constant. Lemaître's theory of the evolution of the world from the "primordial atom" was ironically called the "Big Bang" by Fred Hoyle in 1949. This name, "Big Bang", has historically been fixed in cosmology.

Werner Karl Heisenberg Werner Karl Heisenberg (1901 - 1976)

Worldview. A Lutheran, although towards the end of his life he was considered a mystic, since his views on religion were not orthodox. The author of the saying: “The first sip from the glass of natural science is taken by an atheist, but God awaits at the bottom of the glass.”

Contribution to science. Winner of the 1932 Nobel Prize for the creation of quantum mechanics. In 1927, the scientist published his uncertainty principle, which brought him worldwide fame.

Sir Neville Mott Sir Nevill Francis Mott (1905 - 1996)

Worldview. Christian. Here is the scientist’s statement: “I believe in a God who can answer prayers, in whom we can trust, and without whom life on Earth would be meaningless (a fairy tale told by a madman). I believe that God has revealed Himself to us in many ways, through many men and women, and for us in the West the clearest revelation is through Jesus Christ and those who followed him.”

Contribution to science. In 1977 he received the Nobel Prize in Physics for his “fundamental theoretical studies of the electronic structure of magnetic and disordered systems.”

Nikolai Nikolaevich Bogolyubov (1909 - 1992)

Worldview. Orthodox. A. Bogolyubov writes about him: “The entire body of his knowledge was a single whole, and the basis of his philosophy was his deep religiosity (he said that non-religious physicists can be counted on one hand). He was the son Orthodox Church and whenever time and health allowed him, he went to vespers and mass in the nearest church.”

Contribution to science. He proved the theorem “about the sharpness of the wedge” and created, together with N. Krylov, the theory of nonlinear oscillations. Created a consistent theory of superconductivity. In the theory of superfluidity he derived kinetic equations. He proposed a new synthesis of Bohr's theory of quasiperiodic functions.

Arthur Leonard Schawlow Arthur Leonard Schawlow (1921 - 1999)

Worldview. Methodist. Henry Margeno cites the following statement of the scientist: “And I see the need for God both in the Universe and in my life.” When the scientist was asked if he was a religious person, he replied: “Yes, I was raised a Protestant and I was in several denominations. I go to church, a very good Methodist church.” The scientist also stated that he is an orthodox Protestant.

Contribution to science. Physicist, received the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physics for his “contributions to the development of laser spectroscopy.” In addition to optics, Shavlov also explored such areas of physics as superconductivity and nuclear magnetic resonance.

Abdus Salam Mohammad Abdus Salam (محمد عبد السلام‎) (1926 - 1996)

Worldview. A Muslim from the Ahmadi community. In his Nobel speech, the scientist quotes the Koran. When the Pakistani government passed a constitutional amendment declaring members of the Ahmadiyya community non-Muslims, the scientist left the country in protest.

Contribution to science. In 1979 he received the Nobel Prize in Physics for his theory of unification of weak and electromagnetic interactions. One of his main achievements there were also: Pati-Salam model, magnetic photon, vector mesons, work on supersymmetry.

Charles Hard Townes Charles Hard Townes (b. 1915)

Worldview. Protestant (United Church of Christ). In a 2005 interview with The Guardian, the scientist said he was "raised Christian, and while my ideas have changed, I've always felt like a religious person." In the same interview, Townes stated: "What is the science? Science is an attempt to understand how the Universe works, including the human race. What is religion? It is an attempt to understand the purpose and meaning of the Universe, including the human race. If there is this purpose and meaning, then it must be interconnected with the structure of the Universe and how it works (...) Therefore, faith must teach us something about science and vice versa.”

Contribution to science. One of the creators of quantum electronics, he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1964 for “fundamental work in the field of quantum electronics, which led to the creation of emitters and amplifiers based on the laser-maser principle.” In 1969, together with other scientists, he discovered the so-called. “maser effect” (radiation of cosmic water molecules at a wavelength of 1.35 cm), together with a colleague, he was the first to calculate the mass of the black hole in the center of our galaxy. The scientist also made contributions to nonlinear optics: he discovered Mandelstam-Brillouin stimulated scattering, introduced the concept of the critical power of a light beam and the phenomenon of self-focusing, and experimentally observed the effect of autocollimation of light.

Freeman John Dyson Freeman John Dyson (b. 1923)

Worldview. A non-denominational Christian, although Dyson's views can be described as agnostic (in one of his books he wrote that he does not consider himself a practicing Christian, but only a practicing one, and stated that he does not see the point in a theology that claims to know the answers to fundamental questions) . The scientist vigorously disagrees with reductionism, so, in his Tempelton lecture, Dyson said: “Science and religion are two windows through which people look, trying to understand the Universe, to understand why they are here. These two windows open different kind, but they are aimed at the same Universe. Neither of them is complete, they are both one-sided. Both exclude significant parts of the real world."

Contribution to science. Theoretical physicist and mathematician, known for his work in quantum electrodynamics, astronomy and nuclear engineering.

Anthony Hewish Antony Hewish (b. 1924)

Worldview. Christian. From a letter to T. Dmitrov: “I believe in God. The idea that the Universe and our existence are just an accident on a cosmic scale and that life arose as a result of random events seems senseless to me. physical processes, simply because favorable conditions have developed for this. As a Christian, I begin to understand the meaning of life thanks to faith in the Creator, Whose nature was partially revealed in Man, born 2000 years ago.”

Contribution to science. In 1974 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his “determining role in the discovery of pulsars.”

Arno Allan Penzias Arno Allan Penzias (born 1933)

Worldview. Jew, in Jerry Bergman's book the following quote is given by the scientist: “The best data we have is what I would be able to predict if I had only the Pentateuch of Moses, the book of Psalms and the entire Bible in front of me.” In his speeches, the scientist often said that he saw meaning in the Universe, and pointed out the reluctance of the scientific community to accept the Big Bang Theory, since it points to the creation of the world.

Contribution to science. Physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1976 for the discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation. Using a maser, I solved the problem of increasing the accuracy of antenna tuning.

Joseph Taylor, Jr. Joseph Hooton Taylor, Jr. (born 1941)

Worldview. Quaker. The scientist’s worldview is known from the book by István Hargitay, when asked “Could you tell us about your attitude towards religion?” The scientist responded as follows: “My family and I are active members of the religious community of Friends, that is, the Quaker community. Religion is an important part of our lives (especially for my wife and I; for our children to a lesser extent). My wife and I often spend time with other believers in our community; it helps us become more aware of our attitude towards life, reminds us of why we are on Earth and what we can do for others. Quakers are a group of Christians who believe in the possibility of direct communication between man and the Spirit, whom we call God. Reflection and self-contemplation helps to communicate with this Spirit and learn a lot about yourself and how to live on Earth. Quakers believe that wars cannot resolve differences and that lasting results are achieved through peaceful resolution of problems. We have always refused and refuse to participate in war, but we are ready to serve our country in other ways. We believe that there is something Divine in every person, therefore human life is sacred. You need to look for the depth of spiritual presence in people, even in those with whom you disagree.”

Contribution to science. Physicist, awarded the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physics for “the discovery of a new type of pulsar, which provided new opportunities in the study of gravity.”

William Daniel Phillips William Daniel Phillips (b. 1948)

Worldview. Methodist. One of the founders of the International Society for Science and Religion. Known for his frequent participation in the dialogue between "faith and science". In his autobiography on the Nobel Prize website, Phillips writes: “In 1979, after Jane (the scientist’s wife) and I moved to Gasersburg, we joined the United Methodist Church (...) Our children were our inexhaustible a source of blessing, adventure and challenge. At the time, Jane and I were trying to find new jobs, and having children required a delicate balance between work, home, and church life. But somehow, our faith and our youthful energy carried us through these times.”

Contribution to science. Physicist, winner of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics for “the development of methods for cooling and trapping atoms with a laser beam.”

Mathematics

René Descartes (1596 - 1650)

Worldview. Catholic. One of the reasons for writing his “Meditations” was the defense of the Christian faith; in particular, in one of the chapters, Descartes formulated a new ontological proof of the existence of God; he also wrote: “In a sense, we can say that without knowing God, one cannot have reliable knowledge of nothing."

Contribution to science. Mathematician, created the Cartesian coordinate system and laid the foundations of analytical geometry. The first mathematically derived the law of refraction of light at the boundary of two different media.

Pierre de Fermat Pierre de Fermat (1601 - 1665)

Worldview. Catholic.

Contribution to science. Mathematician, creator of number theory, author of Fermat's Last Theorem. The scientist formulated common law differentiation of fractional powers. He founded analytical geometry (along with Descartes) and applied it to space. He stood at the origins of probability theory.

Christian Huygens Christiaan Huygens (1629 - 1695)

Worldview. Protestant of the Reformed Church. When the French monarchy stopped tolerating Protestantism in 1881 (revocation of the Edict of Nantes), Huygens left the country, although they wanted to make an exception for him, which testifies to his religious beliefs.

Contribution to science. The first president of the Farntsuz Academy of Sciences, he served for 15 years. Discovered the theory of evolutes and involutes. He invented a pendulum clock and published a classic work on mechanics, “Pendulum Clock.” He derived the laws of uniformly accelerated freely falling bodies and formulated thirteen theorems on centrifugal force. Together with Fermat and Pascal, he laid the foundations of probability theory. He discovered Saturn's moon Titan and described the rings of Saturn, discovered an ice cap on South Pole Mars. He invented a special eyepiece, consisting of two flat-convex lenses, named after him. The first called for choosing a universal natural measure of length. Simultaneously with Wallis and Rehn, he solved the problem of the collision of elastic bodies.

Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz (1646 - 1716)

Worldview. The Christian is presumably a Protestant. He spoke out against theological orthodoxy, and against materialism and atheism. Created your own philosophical doctrine so-called Leibniz's monadology, which was close to deism and pantheism.

Contribution to science. Predetermined mathematical analysis and combinatorics. Laid the foundations of mathematical logic and combinatorics. He took a very important step towards the creation of a computer; he was the first to describe the binary number system. He was the only person who worked freely with both continuous and discrete ones. For the first time he formulated the law of conservation of energy. Created a mechanical calculator (together with H. Huygens).

Leonhard Euler Leonhard Euler (1707 - 1783)

Worldview. Christian. He believed in the inspiration of Scripture, argued with Denny Diderot about the existence of God, and wrote an apologetic treatise “Defense of Divine Revelation from the Objections of Freethinkers.”

Contribution to science. It is often said that from the point of view of mathematics, the 18th century is the century of Euler. Many call him the greatest mathematician of all time. Euler was the first to link analysis, algebra, trigonometry, number theory and other branches of mathematics into a single system; listing all his discoveries by name is impossible due to the format of this section.

Carl Friedrich Gauss Johann Carl Friedrich Gauß (1777 - 1855)

Worldview. Lutheran. Although Gauss did not believe in a personal God and was considered a deist, it can be argued that he had a religious worldview, for example, he believed in the immortality of the soul and life after death. According to Dunnington, Gauss believed in an immortal, righteous, omniscient and omnipotent God. With all his love for mathematics, Karl Friedrich never absolutized it, he said: “There are problems to the solution of which I would attribute infinitely greater importance compared to mathematical problems, for example, problems related to ethics, or our relationship to God, or concerning our destiny and our future; but their solution lies entirely beyond our limits and absolutely beyond the scope of science.”

Contribution to science. The scientist is often called the King of Mathematics (lat. Princeps mathematicorum), this reflects his invaluable and vast contribution to the “queen of sciences”. Thus, in algebra, Gauss came up with a rigorous proof of the fundamental theorem of algebra, discovered the ring of complex integers, and created the classical theory of comparisons. In geometry, the scientist contributed to differential geometry, for the first time dealt with the internal geometry of surfaces: he discovered the characteristic of a surface (named in his honor), proved the fundamental theorem of surfaces, Gauss also created separate science- higher geodesy. Dunnington claimed that Gauss was the first to study non-Euclidean geometry, but was afraid to publish his results, considering them meaningless. In mathematical analysis, Gauss created the theory of potential and studied elliptic functions. The scientist was also interested in astronomy, where he studied the orbits of small planets and found a way to determine orbital elements from three complete observations. Many of his students later became great mathematicians. The scientist also studied physics, where he developed the theory of capillarity and the theory of lens systems, and also laid the foundations for the theory of electromagnetism, and designed (together with Weber) the first primitive electric telegraph.

Bernard Bolzano Bernard Placidus Johann Nepomuk Bolzano (1781 - 1848)

Worldview. Catholic priest. In addition to his scientific research, Bolzano also dealt with theological and philosophical issues.

Contribution to science. Bolzano's work contributed to the formation of strict definitions of analysis using "epsilon" and "delta". In many areas of mathematics, the scientist was a pioneer, ahead of his time: even before Cantor, Bolzano studied infinite sets; using geometric considerations, the scientist obtained examples of continuous, but nowhere differentiable functions. The scientist put forward the idea of ​​the arithmetic theory of the real number, in 1817 he proved the Bolzano-Weierstrass theorem (independent of the latter, who discovered it half a century later), the Bolzano-Cauchy theorem.

Augustin Louis Cauchy Augustin Louis Cauchy (1789 - 1857)

Worldview. Catholic. He was close to the Jesuit Order, was a member of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, Augustin often had difficulties with colleagues because of his views.

Contribution to science. Developed the basis of mathematical analysis, for the first time strictly defined the limit, continuity, derivative, integral, convergence of a series in mathematical analysis, introduced the concept of convergence of a series, created the theory of integral residues, laid the foundations mathematical theory elasticity, made significant contributions to other fields of science.

Charles Babbage Charles Babbage (1791 - 1871)

Worldview. Anglican (presumably). Convincedly defended the authenticity of biblical miracles in an era when people were increasingly moving away from the Christian worldview.

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One of the fundamental sciences of our planet is physics and its laws. Every day we take advantage of the benefits of scientific physicists who have been working for many years to make people's lives more comfortable and better. The existence of all humanity is built on the laws of physics, although we don’t think about it. Thanks to whom the lights are on in our homes, we can fly airplanes across the sky and sail across endless seas and oceans. We will talk about scientists who dedicated themselves to science. Who are the most famous physicists, whose work changed our lives forever. There are a huge number of great physicists in the history of mankind. We will tell you about seven of them.

Albert Einstein (Switzerland) (1879-1955)

Albert Einstein, one of the greatest physicists of mankind, was born on March 14, 1879 in the German city of Ulm. The great theoretical physicist can be called a man of peace; he had to live in difficult times for all mankind during two world wars and often moved from one country to another.

Einstein wrote more than 350 papers on physics. He is the creator of the special (1905) and general theories of relativity (1916), the principle of equivalence of mass and energy (1905). He developed many scientific theories: quantum photoelectric effect and quantum heat capacity. Together with Planck, he developed the foundations of quantum theory, which represents the basis of modern physics. Einstein has received a large number of awards for his works in the field of science. The crowning achievement of all awards is the Nobel Prize in Physics, received by Albert in 1921.

Nikola Tesla (Serbia) (1856-1943)

The famous physicist-inventor was born in the small village of Smilyan on July 10, 1856. Tesla's work was far ahead of the time in which the scientist lived. Nikola is called the father of modern electricity. He made many discoveries and inventions, receiving more than 300 patents for his creations in all the countries where he worked. Nikola Tesla was not only a theoretical physicist, but also a brilliant engineer who created and tested his inventions.

Tesla discovered alternating current, wireless transmission of energy, electricity, his work led to the discovery of X-rays, and created a machine that caused vibrations in the surface of the earth. Nikola predicted the advent of an era of robots capable of doing any job. Due to his extravagant behavior, he did not gain recognition during his lifetime, but it is difficult to imagine without his work daily life modern man.

Isaac Newton (England) (1643-1727)

One of the fathers of classical physics was born on January 4, 1643 in the town of Woolsthorpe in Great Britain. He was first a member and later the head of the Royal Society of Great Britain. Isaac formed and proved the main laws of mechanics. He substantiated the movement of the planets of the solar system around the Sun, as well as the onset of ebbs and flows. Newton created the foundation for modern physical optics. From the huge list of works of the great scientist, physicist, mathematician and astronomer, two works stand out: one of which was written in 1687 and “Optics”, published in 1704. The pinnacle of his work is the law of universal gravitation, known even to a ten-year-old child.

Stephen Hawking (England)

The most famous physicist of our time appeared on our planet on January 8, 1942 in Oxford. Stephen Hawking received his education at Oxford and Cambridge, where he later taught, and also worked at the Canadian Institute of Theoretical Physics. The main works of his life are related to quantum gravity and cosmology.

Hawking explored the theory of the origin of the world due to the Big Bang. He developed a theory of the disappearance of black holes due to the phenomenon called Hawking radiation in his honor. Considered the founder of quantum cosmology. A member of the oldest scientific society that Newton belonged to, the Royal Society of London for many years, having joined it in 1974, he is considered one of the youngest members accepted into the society. He does his best to introduce his contemporaries to science through his books and participating in television programs.

Marie Curie-Skłodowska (Poland, France) (1867-1934)

The most famous female physicist was born on November 7, 1867 in Poland. She graduated from the prestigious Sorbonne University, where she studied physics and chemistry, and subsequently became the first female teacher in the history of her Alma mater. Together with her husband Pierre and the famous physicist Antoine Henri Becquerel, they studied the interaction of uranium salts and sunlight, as a result of experiments, they received new radiation, which was called radioactivity. For this discovery, she and her colleagues received the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics. Maria was a member of many scientific societies throughout to the globe. She forever went down in history as the first person to receive the Nobel Prize in two categories: chemistry in 1911 and physics.

Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen (Germany) (1845-1923)

Roentgen first saw our world in the city of Lennep, Germany on March 27, 1845. He taught at the University of Würzburg, where on November 8, 1985 he made a discovery that changed the life of all mankind forever. He managed to discover X-rays, which were later named X-rays in honor of the scientist. His discovery became the impetus for the emergence of a number of new trends in science. Wilhelm Conrad went down in history as the first winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics.

Andrey Dmitrievich Sakharov (USSR, Russia)

On May 21, 1921, the future creator of the hydrogen bomb was born. Sakharov wrote many scientific papers on the topic of elementary particles and cosmology, magnetic hydrodynamics and astrophysics. But his main achievement is the creation of the hydrogen bomb. Sakharov was a brilliant physicist in the history of not only the vast country of the USSR, but also the world.