Major Scientists and Their Scientific Contributions

Vocabulary flashcards reviewing prominent scientists, philosophers, and their foundational discoveries across physics, chemistry, biology, and toxicology.

Isaac Newton

Formulated the three laws of motion and the law of universal gravitation, and made major contributions to the study of light, optics, and color.

Robert Boyle

Formulated Boyle's Law, which explains the inverse relationship between the pressure and volume of a gas at constant temperature.

Boyle's Law

A law formulated by Robert Boyle that explains the inverse relationship between the pressure and volume of a gas at constant temperature.

Marie and Pierre Curie

Conducted pioneering research on radioactivity and discovered the elements polonium and radium.

John Dalton

Developed the modern Atomic Theory explaining that matter is composed of atoms, formulated the Law of Multiple Proportions, and explained chemical reactions as the rearrangement of atoms.

Paracelsus

Promoted the use of chemicals and minerals in medicine, helped develop chemical approaches to treating diseases, and emphasized that the effects of a substance depend on its dose, helping establish an important principle in toxicology.

Dmitri Mendeleev

Developed the Periodic Table of Elements and predicted the properties of undiscovered elements.

Jöns Jacob Berzelius

Developed modern chemical symbols and helped determine the atomic masses of elements.

James Watson and Francis Crick

Proposed the double-helix model of DNA, helping scientists understand its structure.

Humphry Davy

Used electrolysis to isolate elements such as sodium and potassium and demonstrated the chemical nature of chlorine.

Kanada

An ancient Indian philosopher who proposed that matter is composed of tiny particles called anu, or atom.

Anu

The tiny particles proposed by the ancient Indian philosopher Kanada, representing an early concept of the atom.

Albert Einstein

Explained the photoelectric effect and established the mass-energy equivalence equation, $E = mc^2$.

Linus Pauling

Advanced the understanding of chemical bonding, molecular structure, and electronegativity.

James Chadwick

Discovered the neutron in 1932, contributing to the understanding of atomic structure.

J. J. Thomson

Discovered the electron through cathode-ray experiments and proposed the plum pudding model of the atom.

Niels Bohr

Proposed an atomic model in which electrons occupy specific energy levels around the nucleus.