BY JOHN HUDSON TINER
Concise information about 100 scientists and their important discoveries, from antiquity to the present.
Four out of five stars
Going through the list of 100 names of scientists “who shaped world history” in the Table of Contents, I found that 34 names were unknown to me. This barely passing grade prompted me to go on to finish reading the book.
Each of the 100 scientists’ life and accomplishments is described on one page, and they are arranged in chronological order, beginning with Pythagoras (580 B.C. – 500 B.C.) and ending with Stephen Hawking (1942-2018). They include physicians, naturalists, mathematicians, physicists, chemists, computer pioneers, and individuals from several other disciplines. I believe that most readers would learn something new. Below are some of the things I learned from the book which I did not know before:
- Hipprocrates, the name of the oath taken by medical students when they become doctors, was regarded as the father of medicine, because he was the first person to separate medicine from superstition.
- Edward Jenner discovered vaccination of cowpox to prevent smallpox, and he was the person who coined the word vaccination.
- The Computer Language Ada was named to honor Ada Byron Lovelace, who was regarded as the first computer programmer. The phrase “debugging” a computer program literally originated from removing a bug from a Mark II computer by Grace Hopper.
- The inventor of the vacuum diode and the inventor of penicillin had the same last name: Fleming. They were both English but not related.
- Antoine Lavoisier was the first who stated the conservation of mass principle. He identified 33 chemical elements and showed that water was a compound of oxygen and hydrogen. During the French Revolution, he was taken to the guillotine and tossed in a common grave. Ironically, within two years, the French were building statues honoring him.
Some observations:
- Of the 100 scientists, 13 were women. No woman appeared before the 19th century.
- There was either a photo or a sketch for most of the scientists, except for 13 of them.
- Perhaps limited by the number 100, T. D. Lee was included, but not his collaborator C. N. Yang. James Watson was included, but not Francis Crick. One wonders how the author decided which one to choose. One also cannot help wondering how Yang and Crick would feel.
In conclusion, the book is a source of valuable and concise information about 100 scientists and their important discoveries, from antiquity to the present.
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