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Famous people all over the world

Category Archive: Science

Benjamin Franklin – politician and scientist

Benjamin Franklin – politician and scientist

Benjamin Franklin – politician and scientist


Benjamin Franklin was a world-famous celebrity – famous for his written words and for his amazing achievements. That fame continues to the present day as Franklin is one of the most recognised names from his time. He was a leader of America’s Revolutionary generation.
Franklin was born on January 17, 1706 in Boston. He was the eighth of 10 children.
At the age of 12, he took a printing apprenticeship with his older brother James who was the publisher of the New England Courrant.
At the age of 16, Franklin became a vegetarian to save money and a year later he left Boston for Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he quickly found work in the printing business.
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Wright brothers – Wilbur and Orville

Wilbur and Orville Wright in 1905, when they were 34 and 38 years old

Wilbur and Orville Wright in 1905, when they were 34 and 38 years old

Wright brothers were American aviation pioneers. They designed, built, and flew the first airplane, in 1903.
Wilbur was born on April 16, 1867, in Millville, and Orville was born on Aug. 19, 1871, at Dayton. Wilbur and Orville were the sons of Milton Wright, a Christian minister.
The boys helped their father, who edited an evangelical journal called the Religious Telescope. Later, they began a paper of their own, West Side News.
In 1892 they opened the Wright Cycle Shop in Dayton.
The brothers were interested in the art of flying. In 1896 they became interested in gliders. They designed and tested their own models and gliders, built their own engine.
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Stephen Hawking – English physicist

Stephen Hawking – English physicist

Stephen Hawking – English physicist


Stephen Hawking is a well-known physicist, Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University. He is an author of best-selling book A Brief History of Time. He is best known for his contributions to black hole theory and scientific cosmology. He has been called the most insightful theoretical physicist since Albert Einstein.
Stephen William Hawking was born on January 8, 1942, in Oxford. His father was a medical doctor who specialized in tropical diseases. When the boy was 8 years old, the Hawkings moved to the small town of St. Albans. His mother liked to travel while her husband was in Africa, and the family visited many exotic places.
Since early childhood Hawking was interested in cosmology. He always liked controlling things, and he built a great number of models during his childhood.
At the age of 10 Stephen entered secondary school. He developed passions for mathematics and classical music.
Hawking and his friends built a basic computer called LUCE, which they programmed to solve addition problems. In their teens, the group experimented with the metaphysical.
At the age of 17 Hawking applied to University College at Oxford. The second year, he joined the rowing team and became popular.
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Niels Bohr – Danish physicist

Niels Bohr - Danish physicist

Niels Bohr – Danish physicist

Niels Bohr was a Danish physicist, who received the Nobel Prize in physics in 1922 for the quantum mechanical model of the atom.
Niels Henrik David Bohr was born on October 7, 1885 in Copenhagen, Denmark. He was the second of three children of Christian and Ellen Adler Bohr. His father was a professor of physiology at the University of Copenhagen. His mother came from a wealthy Jewish family involved in banking, government, and public service.
At an early age Bohr became interested in science. His younger brother Harald later became a mathematician. Both brothers were also excellent soccer players. In 1903, Niels entered the University of Copenhagen.
In 1907, he was awarded a gold medal by the Royal Danish Academy of Science. In 1911, Bohr earned his doctorate.
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Pierre de Fermat – French mathematician

Pierre de Fermat - French mathematician

Pierre de Fermat – French mathematician


Pierre de Fermat was a French mathematician, one of the founders of analytic geometry, mathematical analysis, probability theory and number theory. He was a lawyer and worked as advisor at the Parliament of Toulouse. He is most famous for formulation of Fermat’s Last Theorem.
Pierre de Fermat was born on August 17, 1601 in Beaumont-de-Lomagne, France. His father, Dominique Fermat, was a wealthy merchant, the second city counselor. Pierre had a brother and two sisters.
Fermat studied law in Toulouse and then in Bordeaux and Orleans. After graduation in 1631 he became a royal adviser at the Parliament in Toulouse. In the same year he married a distant relative of his mother, Louise de Long. They had five children – three sons and two daughters.
In 1652 Fermat had to deny reports about his death during the plague; he really was infected but survived.
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Alfred Nobel – inventor of dynamite

Alfred Nobel – inventor of dynamite

Alfred Nobel – inventor of dynamite

Alfred Nobel was a scientist and inventor. He created the Nobel Prize and wanted people to remember him as a man of peace. However, in his lifetime he was most famous for building weapons.
Nobel was born on October 21, 1833 in Stockholm, Sweden. His full name was Alfred Bernhard Nobel.
After Alfred was born, his father, an inventor went to Russia to work. He worked with the government and made machinery and explosives. Since his childhood Alfred was interested in science.
At the age of 17 Nobel traveled to the United States and several European countries to study. Then he returned to Russia to work with his father and his brothers. They worked on explosive weapons for the Russian military. Alfred and his father experimented with nitroglycerin.
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Galileo Galilei – Italian astronomer

Galileo Galilei - Italian astronomer

Galileo Galilei – Italian astronomer

Galileo Galilei was an Italian physicist, engineer, astronomer, philosopher and mathematician. He had a significant impact on the science of his time. It was he who first used the telescope to observe celestial bodies. Galileo made a series of outstanding astronomical discoveries. During his lifetime he was known as an active supporter of the heliocentric system of the world, that’s why he had a serious conflict with the Catholic Church.
Galileo was born on February 15, 1564 in Pisa. He was the son of composer and music theorist Vincenzo Galilei. Galileo studied at a monastery near Florence. In 1581 he entered the University of Pisa where he studied medicine. Due to lack of funds he was unable to complete a degree at the university. During his years there, Galileo wrote several volumes of notes on scientific subjects.
Galileo gained a scientific reputation throughout Italy with the hydrostatic balance.
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