Prophets of Science and Technologies
2010.09.29
Compiled by H Kan Lau
Kernel of Intelligence at Work: The Greatest Minds in
Science and Technologies
16th Century to 21st Century
1.
Nicolaus Copernicus
19 February 1473 – 24 May 1543,
was a
Renaissance
astronomer and the first
person to formulate a comprehensive
heliocentric
cosmology, which displaced
the
Earth
from the center of the
universe.[2]
2.
Galileo Galilei
15
February 1564–
8 January 1642 was an
Italian
physicist,
mathematician,
astronomer and
philosopher who
played a major role in the
Scientific Revolution
3.
Gottfried Wilhelm
Leibniz July
1, 1646 - June 21, 1716 was a
German
mathematician
and
philosopher.
Leibniz occupies a
prominent place in the
history of mathematics
and the
history of philosophy.
Leibniz developed the
infinitesimal calculus i
ndependently of
Isaac Newton, and
Leibniz's mathematical notation
has been widely used ever since it was published. Leibniz also
developed the
binary number system,
which is at the foundation of virtually all
digital computers.
4.
Sir Isaac Newton
FRS,
25 December 1642 – 20 March 1726])[1]
was an
English
physicist,
mathematician,
astronomer,
natural philosopher,
alchemist, and
theologian who is
considered by many scholars and members of the general public to be one
of the most influential people in
human history. His 1687
publication of the
Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica
(usually
called the Principia) is
considered to be among the most influential books in the
history of science, laying
the groundwork for most of
classical mechanics. In this work, Newton
described
universal gravitation and
the three laws of motion
which dominated the scientific
view of the physical
universe for the next three
centuries. Newton showed that the motions of objects on
Earth and of
celestial bodies
are governed by the same set of natural laws by demonstrating the consistency
between
Kepler's laws of planetary motion
and his
theory of gravitation, thus removing the last doubts about
heliocentrism and advancing
the
Scientific Revolution.
5.
Michael
Faraday,
FRS (22 September 1791 – 25
August 1867) was an
English
chemist and
physicist (or
natural philosopher, in
he terminology of the time) who contributed to the fields of
electromagnetism and
electrochemistry.
6.
James Clerk Maxwell
(13 June 1831 – 5 November 1879)
was a
Scottish[1]
theoretical physicist and mathematician.
His most
important achievement was classical
electromagnetic theory,
synthesizing all previously unrelated observations, experiments and
equations of electricity, magnetism and even optics into a consistent theory.[2]
His set of equations—Maxwell's
equations—
demonstrated that electricity, magnetism and even light are all manifestations
of the same phenomenon: the
electromagnetic field.
From that moment on, all other classic laws or equations of these disciplines
became simplified cases of Maxwell's equations.
Maxwell's work in electromagnetism has been called the "second great unification
in physics",[3]
after the first one carried out by
Isaac
Newton.
7.
Albert Einstein
14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955)
:
Einstein felt that
Newtonian mechanics was no
longer enough to reconcile the
laws of
classical mechanics with
the laws of the
electromagnetic field. This
led to the development of his
special theory of relativity.
He
realized, however, that the principle of relativity could also be extended to
gravitational fields, and
with his subsequent theory of
gravitation in 1916, he published a paper on the
general theory of relativity.
He continued to deal with problems of
statistical mechanics
and
quantum theory, which led
to his explanations of
particle theory and the
motion of molecules. He also investigated the thermal
properties of light which laid the foundation of the
photon theory of light. In
1917, Einstein applied the general theory of relativity to
model the structure of the
universe as a whole.[5]
8.
Werner Heisenberg
(5
December 1901 – 1 February 1976)
was a German
theoretical physicist who
made foundational contributions |
to
quantum mechanics and is
best known for asserting the
uncertainty principle of
quantum theory. In
addition, he made important
contributions to
nuclear physics,
quantum field theory, and
particle physics.
Applications of Quantum Measurement and Control
8-1. by Howard M. Wiseman and Gerard J. Milburn
http://www.ebook3000.com/Quantum-Measurement-and-Control_50552.html
8-2. Experiment
Feedback Control of Quantum Systems Using Weak
Measurements, 26 February, 2010:
http://quantum.info/andrew/publications/2010/QuantumControl.pdf
8-3.
Quantum measurement precision approaches Heisenberg limit
http://www.physorg.com/news186395462.html
