List of famous discoveries
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This is a list of famous discoveries.
This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.
Contents |
[edit] Anthropology
[edit] Archeology
- Sutton Hoo
- Troy
- Viking settlement in Vinland
- Cache of royal correspondence at Amarna
- Indus Valley Civilization
- Mycenae
- Hittite civilization
- The Rosetta Stone
- Terracotta army at the tomb of Qin Shi Huang
- Ur
- Minoan civilization
[edit] Astronomy/Cosmology
- The discovery of the curvature of the Earth, its size (circumference) computed by Eratosthenes
- Heliocentrism (Earth and the planets revolves around the Sun) by Nicolaus Copernicus
- Moons of Jupiter by Galileo Galilei
- Sunspots by Johannes and David Fabricius, Christoph Scheiner and Galileo Galilei
- The outer planets, Uranus and Neptune
- Universe beyond our galaxy
- Expansion and age of the universe, based on Hubble's law
- Cosmic microwave background radiation
Biology♥
- Circulation of blood through the body, driven by the pumping of the heart, into the arteries and returning to the heart through the veins, by William Harvey
- Existence of microorganisms by Antony van Leeuwenhoek
- Discovery of the role of oxygen in respiration and photosynthesis by Joseph Priestly, Antoine Lavoisier and Jan Ingenhousz
- Former existence of extinct species
- Mendel's Laws of Genetics
- Discovery of the cellular composition of animals and plants, the Cell Theory by Matthias Jakob Schleiden and Theodor Schwann.
- Discovery of evidence for the evolution of species in the fossil record and DNA sequences.
- Chromosomes in the cell nucleus bear a definite linear arrangement of genes - the Chromosome Theory of Inheritance.
- Discovery of the essential minerals, nutrients and vitamins in foodstuffs.
- Discovery of the mechanism of evolution by natural selection, by Charles Darwin
- The role of microorganisms in causing infectious disease, by Louis Pasteur and Joseph Lister
- The nervous system acts via electrical impulses.
- Discovery of the structure and function of DNA and RNA
- Discovery of the structure and function of enzymes and other proteins.
- Discovery of restriction endonucleases, later used in genetic engineering, by Daniel Nathans and Hamilton Smith
==Chemistry==♥
- Law of Conservation of Mass by Antoine Lavoisier
- The synthesis of urea from inorganic chemicals, by Friedrich Woehler, disproving Vitalism
- Chirality or handedness of asymmetrical molecules, by Louis Pasteur
- Periodicity of the elements by Dmitri Mendeleev
- Practical synthesis of ammonia, by Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch
- X-ray crystallography, allowing for the determination of molecular structures
- Synthesis of Neoprene and Nylon by Wallace Carothers and colleagues
- Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy for the rapid determination of molecular structures in solution.
- Chromatography for the efficient separation and purification of chemicals.
- Dideoxy method of DNA sequencing, by Fred Sanger
[edit] Engineering
- TRIZ - Theory of Inventive Problems Solving
[edit] Geography/Geology
[edit] Physics
- Laws of motion and relativity by Galileo Galilei
- Inverse square law of Gravity, by Isaac Newton
- Kinetic energy is proportional to mass x velocity squared by Émilie du Châtelet, based on experiments by Willem 'sGravesande.
- +/- Electric charges and their conservation, by Benjamin Franklin
- Mechanical energy equivalent of heat, by Count Rumford and others.
- Phenomena of Electromagnetism, discovered by Hans Christian Ørsted and Michael Faraday
- Laws of Electromagnetism, developed by Michael Faraday and James Clerk Maxwell
- Diffraction provides evidence for the wave theory of light
- Electromagnetic waves, predicted by James Clerk Maxwell, discovered by Heinrich Hertz
- Radioactivity by Henri Becquerel and others.
- Electron
- Photon
- Quantum theory to account for the photoelectric effect by Albert Einstein
- The Michelson-Morley experiment demonstrates that light is not carried by Aether
- The demonstration of time dilation as a real physical phenomenon