Saturday, September 30, 2017 18:53 + to quote book
One hundred living geniuses- a list compiled by the consulting company Creators Synectics and published by the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph on October 28, 2007.
The initial basis of the list was compiled through a survey: by email, 4,000 Britons were asked to name 10 contemporaries they considered geniuses, whose merits turned out to be the most valuable for humanity. Around 600 responses were received, naming around 1,100 people (of which two thirds were from the UK and US).
The firm emailed 4,000 Britons, asking each to name up to 10 living candidates for the title of genius. As a result, 1100 names were obtained. The commission then compiled a list out of 100 people, who were assessed by five parameters - contribution to changing the system of beliefs, social recognition, intellectual power, value of scientific achievements and cultural significance. As a result, Albert Hofmann and Tim Berners-Lee, who shared first place, received 27 points out of a possible 50.
"Saint Hofmann" - painting by Alex Gray
Almost quarter included in the list" 100 living geniuses"made up British. Per share Americans have to 43 places on the list. Which is not surprising, since they were not interviewing Chinese or Russians.
Nevertheless, three Russians also found a place on the list. These are Perelman, Kasparov and Kalashnikov. One even managed to get into the top ten.
100 most brilliant people of our time
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/One hundred_living_geniuses
So here is this List. Top 10 first!
1-2.Tim Berners-Lee, Great Britain. Computer Scientist 
An Oxford graduate and computer scientist, he is the author of the HTTP protocol and the HTML language.
In 1989 Berners-Lee offered a global hypertext project that laid the foundation for the creation of the World Wide Web, the Internet!
3. George Soros, USA. Investor and philanthropist
An outstanding financier and speculator, whose enormous resources allowed him to organize a number of attacks on the national currencies of Great Britain and Asian countries. 
Recently he retired from business and is actively involved in charitable activities through the Open Society organization and charitable foundations in 25 countries.
4.Matt Groening, USA. Satirist and cartoonist
Author and producer, became famous thanks to the satirical animated series “The Simpsons” and “Futurama”. 
The Simpson family and the fictional town of Springfield first appeared on television in 1987. Since then, the popularity of the series has not waned, and in 2007 a full-length version of the cartoon was released on movie screens.
5-6. Nelson Mandela, South Africa. Politician and diplomat 
Human rights fighter, Nobel Peace Prize laureate in 1993, fought for a long time at the head of the African National Congress against apartheid in South Africa, and spent 28 years in prison. From 1994 to 1999 he served as president of the country. Currently actively supports the fight against AIDS.
Frederick Sanger, Great Britain. Chemist
Graduate of Cambridge University, biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate.
He is known for his work on insulin, which made it possible to obtain it synthetically, and for his research in the field of DNA.
Dario Fo, Italy. Writer and playwright 
Theater figure, winner of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Literature. In his work he combined propaganda satire with the traditions of medieval theater. Author of the works "Mystery Bouffe" (1969), "Accidental Death of an Anarchist" (1970), "Knock Knock! Who's There? Police" (1974), "If you can't pay, don't pay" (1981).
Stephen Hawking, Great Britain. Physicist
One of the most famous theoretical physicists of our time, a specialist in cosmology and quantum gravity. 
Being practically paralyzed, Hawking continues to engage in scientific and popularization activities. Author of the bestselling book A Brief History of Time.
Oscar Niemeyer, Brazil. Architect
One of the founders of the modern Brazilian school of architecture, a pioneer of reinforced concrete construction. 
Since 1957, he carried out the construction of the new capital of the country - the city of Brazil, and participated in the design of the UN headquarters in New York.
Philip Glass, USA. Composer 
Minimalist composer, performer. He became known to the general public after creating the soundtrack for Godfrey Reggio's film "Koyaniskazzi". He also wrote music for the films “The Truman Show”, “The Illusionist”, “The Hours”, and music for the opening of the 2004 Olympics in Athens.
Grigory Perelman, Russia. Mathematician 
Scientist from St. Petersburg proved the Poincaré conjecture, formulated back in 1904. Its discovery was recognized as the most significant scientific achievement of 2006. Despite this, the reclusive Russian refused the million-dollar prize and the highest award in the mathematical world - Fields's awards.
…………
And the rest of the geniuses:
12-14. Andrew Wiles (mathematician, UK) - proved Fermat's Last Theorem - 20
12-14. Li Hongzhi (spiritual leader, China) - Created the religious organization “Falun Gong” - a mixture of Buddhism and Taoism with elements of qigong health gymnastics.
12-14. Ali Javan (engineer, Iran) - Engineer, one of the creators of the world's first gas laser using a mixture of helium and neon.
15-17. Brian Eno (composer, UK) -19 Invented ambient - a musical genre with elements of jazz, new age, electronic music, rock, reggae, ethnic music and noise. 19
15-17. Damien Hirst (artist, UK) - One of the most expensive painters of our time. Death is a central theme in his works. The most famous series is Natural History: dead animals in formaldehyde.
15-17. Daniel Tammet (savant and linguist, UK) - Encyclopedist and linguist works with numbers faster than a computer. You can learn any foreign language in a few hours.
18. Nicholson Baker (writer, USA) - A novelist whose writing focuses on the narrator's flow of thought.
19. Daniel Barenboim (musician, Israel) - 17 Pianist and conductor. He has received many awards, including for various recordings.
20-24. Robert Crumb (writer and artist, USA) - 16 Greeting card artist, music connoisseur. He gained worldwide fame for his underground comics.
20-24. Richard Dawkins (biologist and philosopher, UK) - 16 Leading evolutionary biologist. The terms that first appeared in his books became widespread.
20-24. Sergey Brin and Larry Page (founders of Google, USA) - 16
20-24. Rupert Murdoch (publisher and media tycoon, USA) - 16 Founder and head of News Corporation. Under his control are media, film companies and book publishing houses in the USA, Great Britain, Australia and other countries.
20-24. Geoffrey Hill (poet, UK) - 16 Poet, translator. He became famous for his unusual “corporate” style - the language of advertising, mass media and political “rhetoric”.
25. Garry Kasparov (chess player, Russia) - 15
Garry Kimovich Kasparov is considered one of the strongest chess players of all time. 
At 22, he became the youngest world champion in history and defended the title several times. In 2005, the grandmaster announced the end of his sports career and became involved in social and political activities. Currently he heads the United Civil Front organization and criticizes the current Russian government and president.
………………
26-30. Dalai Lama (spiritual leader, Tibet) – 14
A spiritual leader who, according to legend, is the reincarnation of the endless suffering of all Buddhas. Combines the title of king and head of Tibetan Buddhism.
26-30. Steven Spielberg (film director, screenwriter and producer, USA) - 14
Director, producer, screenwriter. At the age of 12, he won an amateur film competition, presenting a 40-minute film about the war, “Escape to Nowhere” (1960).
26-30. Hiroshi Ishiguro (robotician, Japan) – 14
Roboticist. Created a robot guide for the blind. In 2004 presented the most perfect android, similar to a person. Known as one of the creators of the Aktroid, Geminoid, Kodomoroid, Telenoid series of robots. 
One of the versions of these robots completely replicates the appearance of the creator himself and replaces him during lectures.
26-30. Robert Edwards (physiologist, UK) – 14
Robert Edwards (Great Britain). In 1977, he was the first in the world to carry out fertilization of human germ cells outside the body and transfer the resulting embryo to the future mother. Louise Brown was born 9 months later
26-30. Seamus Heaney (poet, Ireland) - 14
Each of the poet's books became a bestseller. In 1995 he received the Nobel Prize in Literature
31. Harold Pinter (writer and playwright, UK) - 13
In his performances, the actors use colloquial vocabulary and play tramps and hard workers.
32-39. Flossie Wong-Staal (biotechnologist, China) - 12
Biologist-virologist. She became the first researcher to decipher the structure of the immune deficiency virus (HIV), which causes AIDS.
32-39. Robert Fischer (chess player, USA) - 12 
Bobby Fischer, at age 14, became the youngest US chess champion in the country's history.
…………..
32-39. Prince (singer, USA) - 12 The Western press called the singer the most unsinkable musician in history. For more than 20 years, his songs have enjoyed constant popularity.
32-39. Henryk Górecki (composer, Poland) - 12 Known for his unique style of music, which critics call vitally explosive.
32-39. Noam Chomsky (philosopher and linguist, USA) - 12 Philologist and linguist. His father was a Jew of Ukrainian descent.
32-39. Sebastian Thrun (robotician, Germany) - 12 Created unmanned vehicles that reached speeds of up to 60 km/h.
32-39. Nima Arkani-Hamed (physicist, Canada) - 12th Physicist. He states that our three-dimensional island-universe floats inside the fourth dimension, commensurate with the macrocosm
32-39. Margaret Turnbull (astrobiologist, USA) - 12
Studies the principles of the birth of stars, galaxies and universes.
40-42. Elaine Pagels (historian, USA) - 11 Historian - author of books exploring alternative scriptures rejected by the church. The most famous is the Gnostic Gospels.
40-42. Enrique Ostrea (doctor, Philippines) - 11 Pediatrician and neonatologist. Known for many studies, in particular how drugs and alcohol affect the baby in the womb.
40-42. Gary Becker (economist, USA) - 11
Economist. Advocates investment in human capital
…………………
43-48. Muhammad Ali (boxer, USA) - 10
One of the most famous boxers in the history of the sport. I came up with the tactical scheme “Float like a butterfly and sting like a bee.” 
43-48. Osama bin Laden (Islamist, Saudi Arabia) - 10 Leader of the Islamic terrorist organization Al-Qaeda. Terrorist #1 in the world. The reward on his head exceeded $50 million.
43-48. Bill Gates (creator of Microsoft Corporation, USA) - 10 Richest person on Earth. 
43-48. Philip Roth (writer, USA) - 10 Received the most prestigious awards in America, including the Pulitzer. His novel The Plot Against America became a bestseller.
43-48. James West (physicist, USA) - 10 Inventor of the electret condenser microphone, which does not require a voltage source.
43-48. Vo Dinh Tuan (biologist and physician, Vietnam) - 10 Invented several diagnostic devices (in particular, an optical scanner) capable of detecting DNA damage.
…………..
49-57. Brian Wilson (musician, USA) - 9
The genius of rock music. He led the Beach Boys until he became addicted to drugs. But he managed to overcome his addiction.
49-57. Stevie Wonder (singer and composer, USA) - 9 Singer and songwriter, blind from birth. At the age of 10 he signed his first music contract, and at 12 he released his debut album.
49-57. Vinton Cerf (Internet protocol developer, USA) - 9 Computer scientist. One of the “fathers” of the Internet.
49-57. Henry Kissinger (diplomat and politician, USA) - 9 Winner of the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize for his unquestioned authority in the field of international relations. 
49-57. Richard Branson (businessman, UK) - 9 Billionaire, founder of the Virgin corporation. Known for his repeated attempts to break world speed records.
49-57. Pardis Sabeti (geneticist, anthropologist, Iran) - 9 Received a degree in biology with a PhD in anthropology at Oxford. Specializes in genetics.
49-57. John de Mol (media magnate, Netherlands) - 9 Producer, TV magnate. He came up with the idea of creating the most popular reality show “Big Brother”.
……………………
49-57. Meryl Streep (actress, USA) - 9 
Hollywood calls her the best actress of her generation. She was nominated for an Oscar 12 times and received two gold statuettes.
49-57. Margaret Atwood (writer, Canada) - 9 Invented the LongPen electronic device, which allows her to sign copies of her books without leaving home.
58-66. Placido Domingo (opera singer, Spain) - 8 World famous opera tenor. He is fluent in conducting and piano.
58-66. John Lasseter (animator, USA) is the creative leader of Pixar studio. He is called a solitary artist, and his style is compared to the late Walt Disney.
58-66. Shunpei Yamazaki (computer monitor developer, Japan) - 8 Computer scientist and physicist. The most prolific inventor in history- owner of more 1700
patents!
58-66. Jane Goodall (anthropologist, UK) - 8 Ethologist, primatologist and anthropologist. After living with mountain gorillas for several years, she became the founder of an original method for studying the life of chimpanzees.
58-66. Kirti Narayan Chowdhury (historian, India) - 8 Historian, writer and graphic artist. He is the only historian from South Asia to be accepted into the British Academy.
58-66. John Goto (photographer, UK) - 8 Photographer. He was the first to use Photoshop to process his photographs.
………………..
58-66. Paul McCartney (musician, UK) – 8 
Rock musician, singer and composer, one of the founders of The Beatles. Wrote the most commercially successful single Hey Jude and the hit Yesterday.
58-66. Stephen King (writer, USA) - 8 Writer, works in the genres: horror, thriller, fantasy, mysticism. The universally recognized “king of horror.”
58-66. Leonard Cohen (poet and musician, Canada) - 8 Patriarch of folk rock. He published several novels and poetry collections, earning a strong literary name
67-71. Aretha Franklin (singer, USA) - 7 Black singer. She is called the "Queen of Soul". She has released two dozen records and received two Grammy awards.
67-71. David Bowie (musician, UK) - 7 Rock musician, producer, audio engineer, composer, artist, actor. Became famous in the 1970s with the advent of glam rock.
67-71. Emily Oster (economist, USA) - 7 Became the first researcher to compare data on the persecution of witches with weather conditions in the 16th and 17th centuries.
67-71. Stephen Wozniak (computer developer, co-founder of Apple, USA) - 7 
Considered one of the fathers of the personal computer revolution.
67-71. Martin Cooper (engineer, inventor of the cell phone, USA) - 7 
In 1973, the first call was made from the streets of New York.
But mobile phones only became truly widespread in 1990 year.
72-82. George Lucas (director, USA) - 6 He directed the television epic "Star Wars". Fans around the world still live by the principles underlying the fictional Jedi philosophy.
72-82. Nile Rodgers (musician, USA) - 6 Elite studio musician. This black guitarist, composer and producer is considered a master of disco-pop.
72-82. Hans Zimmer (composer, Germany) - 6 Known for his music for many films, for example, Rain Man. He was the first to use a combination of orchestral and electronic music.
72-82. John Williams (composer, USA) - 6 Five-time Oscar winner. He wrote music for the films “Jaws”, Superman”, “Jurassic Park”, “Star Wars”, “Harry Potter” and others.
72-82. Annette Beyer (philosopher, New Zealand) - 6 Made significant contributions to the development of feminist philosophy.
72-82. Dorothy Rowe (psychologist, Australia) - 6 Gives an explanation of depression and shows how to get out of this condition: “Take your life into your own hands!”
……………………..
72-82. Ivan Marchuk (artist, sculptor, Ukraine) - 6 Created a unique style of painting - weaving.
72-82. Robin Escovado (composer, USA) - 6 Supporter of the French school. In recent decades, he wrote music exclusively for the choir chapel.
72-82. Mark Dean (computer developer, USA) - 6 Invented a device that made it possible to control a modem and a printer at the same time.
72-82. Rick Rubin (musician and producer, USA) - 6 Co-owner of Columbia Records. MTV named him the most powerful producer of the last 20 years.
72-82. Stan Lee (writer, publisher, USA) - 6 Publisher and lead writer of Marvel Comics magazine. Laid the beginning of the X-Men comic book series.
83-90. David Warren (engineer, Australia) - 5 Created the world's first emergency operational flight information recorder, the so-called black box for aircraft.
83-90. Jun Fosse (writer, playwright, Norway) - 5 He became famous after writing the play “And We Will Never Separate.”
83-90. Gertrude Schnakenberg (poetess, USA) - 5 Representative of the feminist movement in modern poetry. Writes about universal human values.
83-90. Graham Linehan (writer, playwright, Ireland) - 5 Wrote scripts for many television comedies. Known as the screenwriter of the TV series Father Ted.
83-90. JK Rowling (writer, UK) - 5 Children's writer, author of the Harry Potter novels. They brought her worldwide fame and a fortune of $1 billion.
George Washington Carver Jr. (1865-1943) was a renowned agricultural scientist.
Thanks to his research, they learned to produce about 300 products from peanuts alone. He has found more than 100 industrial applications for various crops such as soybeans. Rubber substitutes, paints and dyes for fabrics, and much more are now obtained from this crop. President Franklin Roosevelt celebrated Carver's work in 1943 and unveiled a monument to the scientist.
Murray Gell-Mann was born on September 15, 1929 in New York City, the youngest son of Austrian emigrants Arthur and Pauline (Reichstein) Gell-Mann. At the age of fifteen, Murray entered Yale University. He graduated in 1948 with a B.S. He spent the following years in graduate school at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Here in 1951 Gell-Mann received his doctorate in physics. After a year at the Princeton Institute for Basic Research in New Jersey, Gell-Mann began working at the University of Chicago with Enrico Fermi, first as a faculty member (1952–1953), then as an assistant professor (1953–1954) and as an associate professor (1954–1954). 1955).
The main area of scientific interests of the young scientist, elementary particle physics, was in its formation stage in the fifties. The main means of experimental research in this department of physics were accelerators that “shot” a beam of particles at a stationary target: when the incident particles collided with the target, new particles were born. With the help of accelerators, experimenters were able to obtain several new types of elementary particles, in addition to the already known protons, neutrons and electrons. Theoretical physicists tried to find some scheme that would allow them to classify all new particles.
English molecular biologist Francis Harry Compton Crick was born on June 8, 1916 in Northampton, the eldest of two sons of Harry Compton Crick, a wealthy shoe manufacturer, and Anna Elizabeth (Wilkins) Crick. Spending his childhood in Northampton, he attended high school. During the economic crisis that followed the First World War, the family's business affairs declined and Francis's parents moved to London. As a student at Mill Hill School, Crick developed a keen interest in physics, chemistry and mathematics. In 1934 he entered University College London to study physics and graduated three years later with a BSc. While completing his education at University College, the young scientist considered the issues of water viscosity at high temperatures; this work was interrupted in 1939 by the outbreak of World War II.
In 1940, Crick married Ruth Doreen Dodd; they had a son. They divorced in 1947, and two years later Crick married Odile Speed. From his second marriage he had two daughters.
During the war years, Crick worked on the creation of mines in the research laboratory of the British Navy Ministry. For two years after the end of the war, he continued to work in this ministry and it was then that he read Erwin Schrödinger’s famous book “What is Life? Physical aspects of the living cell", published in 1944. In the book, Schrödinger asks the question: “How can spatiotemporal events occurring in a living organism be explained from the perspective of physics and chemistry?”
Lev Davidovich Landau was born on January 9 (22), 1908 in the family of David Lvovich and Lyubov Veniaminovna (Garkavi) Landau in Baku. His father was a famous petroleum engineer who worked in the local oil fields, and his mother was a doctor. She was engaged in physiological research. Landau's older sister became a chemical engineer.
“I was not a child prodigy,” the scientist recalled about his school years. - While studying at school, I never received grades higher than C in my essays. I was interested in mathematics. All theoretical physicists come to science from mathematics, and I was no exception. At the age of twelve he was able to differentiate, at thirteen he was able to integrate.”
Lev Davidovich was modest. He graduated from high school when he was only thirteen years old. His parents considered him too young for a higher education institution and sent him to the Baku Economic College for a year.
In 1922, Landau entered the University of Baku, where he studied physics and chemistry; two years later he transferred to the physics department of Leningrad University. By the time he was 19 years old, Landau had published four scientific papers. One of them was the first to use the density matrix, a now widely used mathematical expression for describing quantum energy states.
Vasily Vasilyevich Leontiev was born on August 5, 1905 in Munich. Leontyev's ancestors were simple peasants, but his great-grandfather left the land and moved to St. Petersburg. Vasily’s grandfather became rich by opening a weaving factory there. One of his sons married an Englishwoman, which is where the British branch of the Leontiev family came from. The father of the future Nobel laureate was already a Russian intellectual, a professor of labor economics at St. Petersburg University. So Vasily followed the beaten path, but he walked incredibly quickly: at the age of fourteen he graduated from high school and in 1921 entered Petrograd University, where he studied philosophy, sociology, and then economics.
Being at the university in the status of a child prodigy, despite all the attempts of the “only true” teaching, Diamatism, he allowed himself to be called a “Menshevik”. In 1925, Leontyev had already completed a four-year university course and received a diploma in economics. Education at that time was carried out neither shaky nor smooth, but the teenager read many books on economics in Russian, English, French and German in the university library.
As one scientist aptly put it, a mathematician is one who knows how to find analogies between statements. The best mathematician is the one who establishes analogies of proofs. The stronger one may notice the analogies of theories. But there are also those who see analogies between analogies. Andrei Nikolaevich Kolmogorov, one of the best, if not the best mathematician of the twentieth century, belongs to these rare representatives of the latter.
Andrei Nikolaevich Kolmogorov was born on April 12 (25), 1903 in Tambov. Andrei's aunts organized a school in their house for children of different ages who lived nearby, teaching them - a dozen children - according to the recipes of the latest pedagogy. A handwritten magazine “Spring Swallows” was published for the children. It published the creative works of students - drawings, poems, stories. Andrei’s “scientific works” also appeared in it - arithmetic problems he invented. Here the boy published his first scientific work in mathematics at the age of five. True, it was just a well-known algebraic pattern, but the boy noticed it himself, without outside help!
At the age of seven, Kolmogorov was sent to a private gymnasium. It was organized by a circle of Moscow progressive intelligentsia and was constantly under threat of closure.
Igor Vasilyevich Kurchatov was born on December 30, 1902 (January 12, 1903) in the family of an assistant forester in Bashkiria. In 1909 the family moved to Simbirsk. In 1912, the Kurchatovs moved to Simferopol. Here the boy enters the first grade of the gymnasium.
Igor is interested in football, French wrestling, wood sawing, and reads a lot. He came across Corbino’s book “Advances of Modern Technology,” which further strengthened his craving for technology. Igor began collecting technical literature. Dreaming of becoming an engineer, he and his classmates study analytical geometry as part of a university course, solving numerous mathematical problems.
But with each year of the First World War, the family’s financial situation became more and more difficult. I had to help my father. Igor worked in the garden and went with his father to the canning factory to cut wood. In the evenings he worked in a mouthpiece workshop.
Soon Igor enters an evening vocational school in Simferopol and receives the qualification of a mechanic. Later this came in handy: he worked as a mechanic at a small Thyssen mechanical plant.
English physicist Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac was born on August 8, 1902 in Bristol, in the family of a native of Sweden, Charles Adrien Ladislaus Dirac, a French teacher at a private school, and an Englishwoman, Florence Hannah (Holten) Dirac.
Paul first studied at a commercial school in Bristol. He then studied electrical engineering at the University of Bristol from 1918 to 1921 and graduated with a BSc. After this, Paul also took a two-year course in applied mathematics at the same university. “During this mathematical education, Fraser influenced me most ... he was an excellent teacher, able to instill in his students a sense of real admiration for the fundamental ideas of mathematics ... - recalled Dirac. - I learned two things from Fraser. First, rigorous mathematics. Until then, I had only used loose mathematics that satisfied the engineers... They didn't care about the exact definition of the limit, how long to sum the series, and other such things. Fraser taught that strict logical ideas are sometimes necessary to handle these objects.” And further: “The second thing I learned from Fraser was projective geometry. It has had a profound influence on me because of its inherent mathematical beauty... Projective geometry always works with flat space... it provides you with methods such as one-to-one correspondence that magically produce results; the theorems of Euclidean geometry, which you have been tormenting for a long time, are deduced in the simplest ways, if you use the reasoning of projective geometry.”
Werner Heisenberg was one of the youngest scientists to receive the Nobel Prize. Determination and a strong spirit of competition inspired him to discover one of the most famous principles of science - the principle of uncertainty.
Werner Karl Heisenberg was born on December 5, 1901 in the German city of Würzburg. Werner's father, August, thanks to his successful scientific work, managed to rise to the level of representatives of the upper class of the German bourgeoisie. In 1910 he became professor of Byzantine philology at the University of Munich. The boy's mother was born Anna Wecklein.
From the very birth of Werner, his family firmly decided that he, too, should achieve a high social position through education. Believing that competition should be conducive to achieving success in science, his father provoked Werner and his older brother Erwin into constant competition. For many years the boys fought often, and one day their rivalry got them so angry that they hit each other with wooden chairs. Having grown up, each of them went their own way: Erwin went to Berlin and became a chemist, they hardly communicated, except for rare meetings with their family.
“The great Italian physicist Enrico Fermi,” wrote Bruno Pontecorvo, “occupies a special place among modern scientists: in our time, when narrow specialization in scientific research has become typical, it is difficult to point out a physicist as universal as Fermi. One can even say that the appearance on the scientific scene of the 20th century of a man who made such a huge contribution to the development of theoretical physics, and experimental physics, and astronomy, and technical physics, is a unique phenomenon rather than rare.”
Enrico Fermi was born on September 29, 1901 in Rome. He was the youngest of three children of railway employee Alberto Fermi and née Ida de Gattis, a teacher. Even as a child, Enrico showed great talent for mathematics and physics. His outstanding knowledge of these sciences, acquired mainly as a result of self-education, allowed him to receive a scholarship in 1918 and enter the École Normale Supérieure at the University of Pisa. Then, under the patronage of Senator Corbino, an associate professor at the Institute of Physics at the University of Rome, Enrico received a temporary position as a teacher of mathematics for chemists at the University of Rome. In 1923, he received a business trip to Germany, to Gottingen, to Max Born. Fermi does not feel very confident, and only the great moral support of Ehrenfest, with whom he was in Leiden from September to December 1924, helped him believe in his calling as a physicist. Upon returning to Italy, Fermi worked at the University of Florence from January 1925 until the fall of 1926. Here he received his first academic degree as a “free associate professor” and, most importantly, created his famous work on quantum statistics. In December 1926, he took up the position of professor in the newly established department of theoretical physics at the University of Rome. Here he organized a team of young physicists: Rasetti, Amaldi, Segre, Pontecorvo and others, who formed the Italian school of modern physics.
Nikolai Nikolaevich Semyonov was born on April 3 (15), 1896 in Saratov, in the family of Nikolai Alexandrovich and Elena Dmitrievna Semyonov. After graduating from a real school in Samara in 1913, he entered the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of St. Petersburg University, where, studying with the famous Russian physicist Abram Ioffe, he proved himself to be an active student.
After graduating from the university in 1917, the year of the Russian Revolution, Nikolai was left to prepare for a professorship. Until the spring of 1918 he worked in Petrograd.
This is how the scientist himself wrote about that time in one of his autobiographies:
“Being passionate about scientific work, I had little interest in politics and had little understanding of events. In the spring of 1918, I went on vacation to my parents in Samara, where I was caught by the Czechoslovak coup. Under the influence of the petty-bourgeois environment that surrounded me and the certain trust that the petty bourgeoisie had at that time in the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries (as is known, who led the Samara Komuch), I voluntarily joined the so-called people’s army of the Samara “constituent group” in mid-July.
A virtual review of the literature on the history of scientific and technical inventions of mankind in the 18th and 19th centuries. on the pages of publications from the fund of rare and valuable books.
For people of our time, it is obvious that science and technology play a very important, decisive role in modern society. However, this was not always the case. The ancient Greeks, for example, looked at the craft of mechanics as an occupation of commoners, not worthy of a true scientist. The world religions that emerged later initially rejected science altogether. One of the fathers of the Christian church, Tertullian, argued that after the Gospel there is no need for any other knowledge. Muslims reasoned in a similar way. When the Arabs captured Alexandria, they burned the famous Library of Alexandria - Caliph Omar declared that since there was a Koran, there was no need for other books. This dogma prevailed until the beginning of the New Age. Dissidents were persecuted by the Inquisition, threatening to be burned at the stake. Inventors of new mechanisms were persecuted. For example, in 1579, a mechanic who created a ribbon loom was executed in Danzig. The reason for the reprisal was the municipality's fear that this invention would cause unemployment among weavers. Understanding of the role of science came only during the Enlightenment, in the 17th century, when the first Academies in Europe were created. The first achievement of the new science was the discovery of the laws of mechanics - including the law of universal gravitation. These discoveries caused delight in society. The Industrial Revolution dramatically changed people's lives; the traditional way of rural life was replaced by a new, industrial society. Amazing discoveries and inventions followed one after another, the world was rapidly changing before the eyes of one generation.
Yakov Vasilyevich Abramov talks about two inventors - Stephenson and Fulton, whose great creations forever changed the way of life of mankind.
Stephenson and Fulton: (inventors of the steam locomotive and steamship): their life and scientific and practical activities: biographical sketches with portraits of Stephenson and Fulton, engraved in Leipzig by Gedan / Y. V. Abramov. - St. Petersburg: Typo-lithography and phototype by V. I. Stein, 1893. - 78 p., 2 sheets. portrait ; 18 cm - (Life of remarkable people: (ZhZL). Biographical library of F. Pavlenkov). (6(09I) A16 34977M-RF)
George Stephenson is undoubtedly one of the heroic men of strong will. In the preface to the book, the author writes about him: “A worker by origin, without receiving any school education, and even being illiterate until adulthood, Stephenson not only managed to overcome all the unfavorable conditions of his life, acquire significant diverse knowledge, achieve a high social position, but and became one of the outstanding geniuses of mankind.” The inventor and mechanical engineer gained worldwide fame thanks to the steam locomotive he designed. Stephenson is also considered one of the "fathers" of railroads. The gauge of the rail track he chose was called Stephenson gauge and is still the standard in many countries around the world. The author notes that there are few other biographies that can arouse the same interest as the biography of George Stephenson.
George (George) Stephenson was born in a small poor coal mining village near the city of Newcastle. Four families were crowded into the house where the Stephensons lived. From the age of 6, George sorted coal at the mine, then helped his father, a fireman. At the age of 17, young George Stephenson, who had thoroughly studied the structure of the steam engine operating in the mine and was able to fix any malfunction, was appointed its driver. George was one of those people who, having set themselves a goal, stubbornly strive to achieve it. At the age of 18, despite the ridicule of his comrades, he learned to read and write. Through persistent self-education, Stephenson acquired the specialty of a steam engine mechanic.
Over the next years he studied steam engines. The first steam locomotive designed by Stephenson was intended to pull coal cars. This locomotive did no more than a kilometer per hour and after a month of operation it shook so much that it stopped working. His second locomotive seemed like a real miracle back then. He could drive a train with a total weight of up to 30 tons. The car was named "Blücher" in honor of the Prussian field marshal, famous for his victory in the battle with Napoleon.
Over the next five years, Stephenson built 16 more cars.
George founded the world's first steam locomotive works in Newcastle, where in September 1825 he built the Active locomotive, later renamed Locomotive. Stephenson himself drove a train loaded with 80 tons of coal and flour, which in some sections accelerated to 39 km/h. In addition to the cargo, the train included an open passenger carriage called “Experiment”. This was the first case in world practice of using a steam-powered railway to transport passengers.
In 1829, competitions of several locomotives took place, which went down in history as the “Reinhill trials”. Stephenson entered his steam locomotive "Rocket" into the competition. He had 4 opponents. Stephenson's locomotive was the only one to successfully complete all tests. Its maximum speed reached 48 km/h. The brilliant victory of the “Rocket” made it perhaps the most famous mechanism in the history of technology.
Gradually, Stephenson practically retired, focusing only on the construction of tunnels for the railway and the development of new coal seams. His son Robert also became a talented engineer and helped his father in everything. Steam locomotives began to be built in other countries based on George Stephenson's designs. He belonged to those lucky inventors who had the opportunity to see their ideas realized during their lifetime.
The second character in the book, whose name is also associated with steam engines, is the no less famous inventor Robert Fulton. Robert was born in Pennsylvania, USA. His parents, bankrupt farmers, were forced to emigrate to America. The family had five children. His father was engaged mainly in hard day labor and died when Robert was only three years old. The family finally found itself in dire straits. Fulton always remembered with reverence his mother, who managed not only to raise her children, but also to give them the opportunity to receive at least an elementary education at a local school and pay for their education. From an early age, Robert showed a penchant for two pursuits: painting and mechanics. While studying mathematics and theoretical mechanics, Robert Fulton became interested in the idea of using steam in shipping. He constantly had to find funds for his inventions and periodically fail. He began experimenting with torpedoes and even presented Napoleon with a practical model of the Nautilus submarine. Fulton submitted plans for the construction of the steamship to the governments of the United States and Great Britain, but, despite all his efforts, could not find funds for their implementation. At that time he was already 31 years old.
At the request of US Ambassador Robert Livingston, Fulton began experimenting with steam engines. In 1803, a steam ship 20 m long and 2.4 m wide was tested on the Seine River. But, despite the successful experience, there was not a single capitalist who would invest money in the implementation and operation of the invention.
Robert goes to America, where he was given a twenty-year privilege to sail on steamships on the Hudson, on the condition that within two years he would build a steamship capable of sailing against the current at a speed of at least 6 knots per hour. Encouraged by his success, Fulton ordered a new, more powerful steam engine and got to work.
In 1807, Fulton's steamboat set sail. The length of the vessel was 45 m, its engine had one cylinder, and oak and pine wood was used as fuel. When tested, it swam a distance of 240 km at an average speed of 4.7 mph, while Monopoly required only 4 mph. After installing cabins on the ship, Robert Fulton began commercial voyages, carrying passengers and light cargo. He patented his steamboat and built several more steam ships in subsequent years. In 1814, construction began on the 44-gun warship Demologos for the US Navy, but this project was completed after his death.
“The Republic of Scientists is not a monastery with one charter: it consists of individuals who have in common only an interest in science and extraordinary talents,” writes the author of the next book, starting a story about the outstanding European scientists of the 18th century - Laplace and Euler.
Laplace and Euler: their lives and scientific activities: biographical sketches: with portraits of Laplace and Euler, engraved in Leipzig by Gedan / E. F. Litvinova. - St. Petersburg: Printing house of the Partnership for Public Benefit", 1892. - 79 pp., 2 sheets of portrait. (51(09I) L64 27165M-RF).
Elizaveta Fedorovna believes that the main feature of the scientific works of Pierre Simon Laplace is their greater accessibility to non-specialists. For example, his essay “The World System” can be read by every educated person, because it is distinguished by its simplicity and clarity. A French mathematician and astronomer, famous for his work in the field of differential equations, one of the creators of probability theory, Laplace was the chairman of the Chamber of Weights and Measures and headed the Bureau of Longitudes. The Paris Academy published his treatises on probability theory in 13 volumes. But the greatest amount of research by Pierre Laplace relates to celestial mechanics, which he studied throughout his life. Laplace worked on the five-volume work “Treatise on Celestial Mechanics” for 26 years. He compiled more accurate tables of the Moon, which was important in determining longitudes at sea and, therefore, played a large role in navigation. The ancients despairingly called the phenomenon of ebb and flow the grave of human curiosity. Laplace was the first to recognize with confidence the connection between these phenomena and the attractive power of the Moon and the Sun. Undoubtedly, Pierre Laplace was a great scientist and a widely educated person: he knew languages, history, chemistry and biology, and loved poetry, music, and painting. He had an excellent memory and until a very old age he recited entire pages from the French poet and playwright Jean Racine by heart. There were many talented young scientists around him, whom he patronized.
During his life, Pierre Laplace was a member of six academies of sciences and royal societies. His name is included in the list of the greatest scientists of France, placed on the first floor of the Eiffel Tower. A crater on the Moon, an asteroid, and numerous concepts and theorems in mathematics are named after Laplace.
The hero of the second essay by E. F. Litvinova is Leonhard Euler, an outstanding German scientist who made a significant contribution to the development of mechanics, physics, astronomy and a number of applied sciences. Euler is recognized as the most productive mathematician in history. He spent almost half his life in Russia, was an academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, knew the Russian language well, and published some of his works (especially textbooks) in Russian.
At this time, the St. Petersburg Academy was one of the main centers of mathematics in the world. Here were the most favorable conditions for the flowering of the genius of Leonhard Euler. One day the Academy needed to do a very difficult job of calculating the trajectory of a comet. According to academics, this required several months of work. L. Euler undertook to complete this in three days and completed the work, but due to overexertion he became seriously ill with inflammation of his right eye, which he subsequently lost. Soon two volumes of his analytical mechanics appeared, then two parts of an introduction to arithmetic in German and a new theory of music. For his essay on the ebb and flow of the seas, Leonhard Euler received the French Academy Prize.
Enviable health and easy character helped Euler “withstand the blows of fate that befell him. Always an even mood, cheerfulness, good-natured mockery and the ability to tell funny stories made conversation with him pleasant and desirable...” Euler was constantly surrounded by numerous grandchildren, often a child sat in his arms, and a cat lay on his neck. He himself taught mathematics to the children. And all this did not stop him from working. During his life, Leonhard Euler wrote about 900 scientific papers.
Thomas Edison said: “Discontent is the first condition of progress.” The degree of “dissatisfaction” of the great scientist is evidenced by his 1093 patents for inventions. To make the world more convenient, he invented the phonograph, built the world's first public power station, improved the telegraph and telephone, and the incandescent lamp.
Edison and Morse: their lives and scientific and practical activities: two biographical sketches / A. V. Kamensky. - St. Petersburg: Printing house Yu. N. Erlikh, 1891. - 80 p., front. (portrait) ; 19 cm - (Life of remarkable people: (ZhZL). Biographical library of F. Pavlenkov). (6(09I) K18 35638M-RF)
Thomas Edison registered his first patent at the age of 22. Later, he was so productive that he created on average one minor invention every 10 days and one major invention every six months. Under what circumstances were these technical achievements of the American engineer made, says the author of his biography A.V. Kamensky.
When Thomas was 7 years old, his father went bankrupt, and the future inventor, not wanting to accept the fall of his family, plunged headlong into his studies. True, I soon had to say goodbye to the school. His mother, a former school teacher, continued his education at home. At the age of 10, Thomas plunged into chemical experiments and created his first laboratory in the basement of his house. Money was needed to conduct experiments, and at the age of 12 Edison began working. He sold newspapers, fruits and candy on trains. In order not to waste time, he moved the chemical laboratory to the baggage car at his disposal, where one day he almost started a fire. At the age of 15, using the money he saved, Thomas purchased a printing press and began publishing his own newspaper right in the baggage car of the train in which he worked, and selling it to passengers.
Edison was attracted by everything innovative, so he soon exchanged the railroad for the telegraph. From the very first days of working as a telegraph operator, he thought about improving the telegraph apparatus. Edison invents an electrical recorder of the number of votes, but there were no buyers for this patent. Then Thomas decided for himself that he would only work on inventions with guaranteed demand. Subsequently, he expanded the capabilities of the telegraph apparatus: now it could transmit not only SOS signals, but also information about stock exchange rates. Edison earned 40 thousand dollars from this invention and soon organized a workshop where he manufactured automatic telegraph devices and other electrical equipment.
In 1877, Thomas Edison invented the phonograph, which he would consider his favorite creation for the rest of his life. The press called the phonograph “the greatest discovery of the century,” and Edison himself proposed many ways to use it: dictating letters and documents without the help of a stenographer, playing music, recording conversations. Edison's new invention, which shocked the world, was a device for displaying sequential photographs - a kinescope. In April 1896, Edison held the first public screening of a film in New York, and in 1913 he demonstrated a film with synchronized sound.
Until the end of his life, Thomas Edison was engaged in improving this world. At the age of 85, dying, he told his wife: “If there is anything after death, it is good. If not, that's fine too. I lived my life and did the best I could...”
The next hero, Samuel Finley Morse, is known throughout the world as the inventor of the electromagnetic writing telegraph - the “Morse apparatus” and the transmission code - “Morse code”.
Samuel (Samuel) Morse was born in Massachusetts into a wealthy American family and graduated from Yale College. He was indifferent to science, although he was attracted by lectures on electricity. Samuel also loved to draw miniature portraits of acquaintances. He was so fascinated by painting that his parents sent him to England to study art at the Royal Academy of Arts. In 1813, Morse presented his painting “The Dying Hercules” to the Royal Academy of Arts in London, for which he received a gold medal.
After returning home, he lived the life of a traveling painter for ten years, painting portraits. It must be said that Samuel was very sociable and charming, he was eagerly received in noble houses. Even US President Lincoln was among his friends. In New York he creates some very interesting portraits and founded the National Academy of Design. During his second trip to Europe, S. Morse met the famous scientist L. Daguerre and became interested in the latest discoveries in the field of electricity. And after at the university he was shown a description of the model of an electromagnetic telegraph proposed by the German physicist W. Weber, he completely devoted himself to invention. The scientist knew that electric current runs almost instantly along the longest wire and that when an obstacle is encountered, a spark appears. Why can’t this spark represent a word, a letter, a number? Why not come up with an alphabet for transmitting words by electricity? This thought haunted Morse. It took years of work and study to get his telegraph working. In 1837, he developed a system of representing letters with dots and dashes, which became known throughout the world as Morse code. However, he did not find support for introducing the idea either at home, or in England, or in France, or in Russia, meeting with refusal everywhere. From a trip to Europe, Samuel returned home with dashed hopes and almost in poverty.
In another attempt to interest the US Congress in the creation of telegraph lines, he brought in a congressman as a partner, and in 1843 Morse received a subsidy of $30,000 for the construction of the first telegraph line from Baltimore to Washington. Having received the necessary funds, Morse immediately began constructing a trial telegraph line, which was completed a little over a year later, although the public was still outraged for a long time that Congress was wasting public money on such an insane enterprise. A few years later, the telegraph spread to America, and then to Europe and was recognized as one of the most amazing discoveries of our century. Newspapers, railroads and banks quickly found use for it. Telegraph lines instantly intertwined the whole world, Morse's fortune and fame increased. A man who often had to go hungry now did not know how to get rid of the lavish dinners and celebrations held in his honor. Representatives of ten European governments at a special congress jointly decided to give Morse 400,000 francs. In 1858, he bought an estate near New York, and spent the rest of his life there with a large family of children and grandchildren. In his old age, Morse became a philanthropist. He patronized schools, universities, churches, missionaries and poor artists.
After his death, Morse's fame as an inventor began to fade, as the telegraph was replaced by telephone, radio and television. But, oddly enough, his reputation as an artist grew. He did not consider himself a portrait painter, but many people know his paintings of Lafayette and other prominent people. His 1837 telegraph is kept in the US National Museum, and his country house is recognized as a historical monument.
Throughout the history of mankind, no less interest than the conquest of the water ocean has been caused by the conquest of the air ocean. The idea of rising into the sky has excited human minds since ancient times. The first mentions of attempts of this kind date back to the 4th-5th centuries BC. The book “Conquest of the Air” is just about this. The authors of the articles included in this collection are German writers, scientists, engineers and aeronauts: G. Dominic, F. M. Feldgauz, O. Neischler, A. Stolberg, O. Steffens, N. Stern.
Conquest of the air: a reference book on aeronautics and flying technology: compiled on the basis of the latest discoveries and inventions: with 162 figs. in the text / trans. with him. M. Kadish; auto preface gr. Zeppelin. - Moscow: publishing house "Titan": Printing house of the trading house M. V. Baldin and Co., . - , 400 s. : ill. (6T5(09I) Z-13 27861 - RF)
It contains materials on the first experiences of flight: from folk tales and legends to the appearance of hot air balloons and controlled balloons, as well as on the use of air vehicles for scientific, sports and cultural purposes.
The first chapters of the book, authored by F. M. Feldgauz, describe many flying attempts of the past - sometimes curious, sometimes funny and curious. In addition to wings, which were attached to the arms or body, there were also various types of flying machines and ships.
A sad page in the history of aeronautics is the expedition led by the Swedish engineer-naturalist Salomon Andre, carried out in 1897 with the goal of reaching the North Pole in a hot air balloon, during which all three of its participants died. This is how Dr. A. Stolberg describes this expedition: Salomon Andre, the first Swedish balloonist, proposed organizing an expedition in a hydrogen-filled balloon from Spitsbergen to Russia or Canada, and its path should, if lucky, go straight through the North Pole. The patriotic masses greeted this idea with enthusiasm. Unfortunately, Andre ignored the potential dangers. There was a lot of evidence that the technology he invented to control the ball using fastening ropes turned out to be ineffective, but he still jeopardized the fate of the expedition. To make matters worse, the Eagle balloon was delivered directly to Svalbard by its manufacturer in Paris and was not pre-inspected. When measurements showed that there were more hydrogen leaks than expected, Andre did not consider this a serious problem. Most contemporary scientists, seeing Andre's optimism, also disdained the forces of nature, which in fact led to the death of Salomon Andre and his two young associates, Nils Strindberg and Ernst Frenkel. After launching from Spitsbergen in July 1897, the balloon very quickly lost hydrogen and crashed in the ice within two days. The researchers were not injured during its fall, but died during the grueling journey south through the drifting polar ice. Lacking sufficiently warm clothing, equipment and training, and overwhelmed by the difficulty of traversing the terrain, they had little chance of a successful outcome. When the Arctic winter closed their further path in October, the group found itself sandwiched on the deserted White Island in the Spitsbergen archipelago and died there. True, in 1909 they did not yet know about this. The author of the essay assumed that the heroes of the expedition died immediately as soon as the balloon finally lost air somewhere over the ocean. He writes: “...probably all three drowned immediately; in any case, this would be a better fate...” For 33 years, the fate of Andre's expedition remained one of the mysteries of the Arctic. The accidental discovery of the expedition's last camp in 1930 created a sensation.
The book describes many more stories about successful and not so successful attempts to conquer airspace. It contains descriptions of various types of aircraft: gliders, airplanes, monoplanes, airships... Many drawings and photographs that depict fantastic and real designs of air vehicles and their creators will help you clearly understand and appreciate the structural features of each.
The history of the invention and use of flying devices in Russia contains many interesting, sometimes funny moments. It is known that rulers at all times loved to patronize the inventors of flying cars. Alexander I also favored aeronautics.
A very interesting and little-known story is told by Alexander Alekseevich Rodnykh, a Russian popularizer and historian of science, a specialist in the history of aeronautics, a science journalist, and a science fiction writer. One of the first propagandists of the ideas of K. Tsiolkovsky, a graduate of the Faculty of Mathematics of St. Petersburg University.
Secret preparation for the destruction of Napoleon's army in the twelfth year with the help of aeronautics: from the "History of Aeronautics and Flying in Russia": with 19 photographs from ancient drawings / A. Rodnykh. - [St. Petersburg]: [Type. T-va Literacy], . - 61, 124 p. : ill. (9(C)15 R60 36628-RF)
In his book, he talks about a very special event in the history of aeronautics and flying in Russia. It turns out that in the spring of 1812, at the behest of Alexander I, preparations were made in complete secrecy for the destruction of Napoleon’s army with the help of the “flying machine” of the German inventor Leppich. Leppich volunteered to build a controlled machine capable of rising into the air and dropping huge quantities of explosive shells to exterminate Napoleon's army. A. Rodnykh says that Leppich’s air enterprise cost the Russian treasury, not counting the timber for the construction of the premises, heating, dressing of the skins and others, a total of about 185,000 rubles. The appearance of the machine can be judged from the surviving drawing, which indicates that Leppich’s idea of a controlled airship was associated with ideas about fishing, that is, with the help of fins and a tail. Despite repeated design changes, experiments and attempts by the inventor to make the device fly, the enterprise was not successful. The author writes that Leppich’s failure is difficult to determine because, without technical data on the building itself, it is impossible to understand whether the error lies in the idea itself or in its execution. There are different data regarding the end of the unfortunate designer’s stay in Russia: according to some, he was deported abroad in 1814, according to others, he fled on his own. A. Rodnykh describes in detail the history of this entertaining, adventurous, sometimes full of drama enterprise. Considering that the facts and information from the history of Russian aeronautics presented in the book are little known, this work definitely deserves attention.
We have already said that many things that are something ordinary for modern man at one time made a serious revolution in the history of mankind, forcing him to take a huge step towards progress. The work of the English researcher and publicist Frederick Morel Holmes (Holmes) “Great Men and Their Great Works” is a kind of generalization, an artistic and historical study of the most famous inventions and technical achievements of mankind of the 18th and early 19th centuries.
Great people and their great works: stories about the buildings of famous engineers / F. M. Holms; lane from English M. A. Zhebeleva. - 2nd ed. - St. Petersburg: Publishing house O. N. Popova: Typo-lithography by I. Usmanov, 1903. - VIII, 272 p. : ill. (30G G63 488195-RF)
The book tells about such inventions as the steam locomotive and the steamship, whose appearance changed the world economy beyond recognition; a lighthouse that can withstand waves and send signals to ships around the clock; artificial canals that often run above sea level; a lathe, with the invention of which it became possible to produce parts with precisely specified dimensions.
This is how the author of the book describes the construction of Marc Brunel’s tunnel under the Thames: “If at that time you had been on the Rothergate Shoal near the Thames, you would have been very surprised to see that instead of digging a well, they began to erect a tower there... The masons began laying a round tower with walls 3 feet thick and 42 feet high... The soil was dug out and lifted up by a machine... And as the hole got deeper, this pipe of masonry sank into it... 65 feet high. Little by little, it all sank into the ground.”
And when building a bridge across the Menai Strait, new ideas were needed, since the width from one bank to the other is more than 335 meters. The bridge had to be strong enough to carry heavy trains at high speed and high enough above the water so as not to interfere with shipping. The task was very difficult, but the famous engineer Robert Stephenson, the son of George Stephenson, the inventor of the steam locomotive, which was already discussed above, took on its implementation. How exactly, using what technologies, was the first tubular bridge “Britannia” built, and why was the construction of a tower necessary when digging a tunnel? Who is Marc Isambard Brunel? The author of the book gives answers to all these questions.
F. M. Holmes introduces readers to realistic images of great inventors, the difficult fate of them and their creations, many of which still serve humanity. It helps to see the surrounding reality through the prism of objects and technical means used in everyday life, revealing the secret of their birth. A special advantage of the book is a special section devoted to the history of technical innovations in our country.
This concludes our excursion into the history of scientific and technical inventions of mankind on the pages of publications of the 19th and early 20th centuries. We hope that our virtual exhibition will arouse interest among all lovers of popular science literature.
Outstanding scientists are presented here, on the basis of whose discoveries and works the specialties in which students are trained at AVTI were developed.
John von Neumann
A brilliant Hungarian-American mathematician who made significant contributions to quantum physics, quantum logic, functional analysis, set theory, and computer science.
He is best known as the forefather of modern computer architecture. Under his leadership, several principles of computer construction were substantiated: the use of the binary number system to represent data and commands, software control of the computing process, memory homogeneity and its addressability, program control sequence, etc.
Norbert Wiener
American outstanding mathematician and philosopher, founder of cybernetics, the science of control patterns, information transfer in various systems, and the theory of artificial intelligence.
For the first time he substantiated the fundamental importance of information in the management of various systems.
Alan Turing
English mathematician, logician, cryptographer, who had a significant influence on the development of computer science. In 1936, he proposed the abstract computing “Turing Machine,” which made it possible to formalize the concept of an algorithm. It is still used in many theoretical and practical studies.
One of the founders of the theory of artificial intelligence.
Viktor Mikhailovich Glushkov
Outstanding Russian scientist, mathematician. He developed methods for calculating tables of improper integrals, made a significant contribution to domestic cybernetics, to the theory of digital automata, the theory of programming and systems of algorithmic algebras, the theory of computer design, and to the creation of multiprocessor macro-pipeline supercomputers. He developed the first personal computer “Mir-1” for engineering calculations, a system for automated control of technological processes and industrial enterprises.
Dmitry Alexandrovich Pospelov
Russian scientist, mathematician, major specialist in the field of artificial intelligence, control of complex systems, and in the field of parallel computing. He laid the foundations for a new scientific direction - modeling the reasoning of expert specialists making decisions in various subject areas. From 1956 to 1968 he worked at MPEI. Head of the UNESCO International Laboratory for Artificial Intelligence. Winner of the prestigious A. Turing Award.
Isaac Newton
English physicist, mathematician, astronomer. One of the founders of classical physics. The author of the fundamental work “Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy,” in which he outlined the “law of universal gravitation” and the three laws of mechanics. He developed differential and integral calculus, color theory and many other mathematical and physical theories.
Carl Friedrich Gauss
Great German mathematician, astronomer and physicist. The name of Gauss is associated with fundamental research in many areas of mathematics: algebra, differential and non-Euclidean geometry, mathematical analysis, theory of functions of a complex variable, probability theory, as well as in astronomy, geodesy, and mechanics. Gauss was called the king of mathematics. He published fully completed and accurate studies. Many of his unfinished ideas were used in subsequent research by other scientists.
Pafnutiy Lvovich Chebyshev
Internationally recognized Russian mathematician and mechanic. He was the founder of the theory of approximate functions. He made major contributions to number theory, probability theory, and mechanics. With his works he had a great influence on the development of Russian artillery science. He was an honorary member of more than 25 different foreign academies and scientific communities.
Andrey Nikolaevich Kolmogorov
An outstanding Russian mathematician, one of the founders of modern probability theory. He obtained fundamental results in topology, mathematical logic, the theory of turbulence, the theory of complex algorithms and a number of other areas of mathematics and its applications. He was interested in philosophical problems. He formulated the epistemological principle of cognition, which was named after him. He was awarded prizes: Boltzmann Prize, Wolf Prize, Lenin Prize. Awarded the Lobachevsky medal.
Andre Marie Ampere
French physicist and mathematician. Formulated a rule for determining the direction in which an arrow deviates near a conductor carrying current (Ampere’s rule), the law of interaction of electric currents (Ampere’s law), developed a theory of magnetism, according to which all magnetic interactions are based on circular molecular currents (Ampere’s theorem), thus In this way, he first pointed out the connection between electrical and magnetic processes. He discovered the magnetic effect of a coil with current - a solenoid.
James Clark Maxwell
English physicist. Creator of classical electrodynamics, one of the founders of statistical physics. His scientific activities cover problems of electromagnetism, kinetic theory of gases, optics, elasticity theory and much more. Conducted a theoretical study of the rings of Saturn. He was a major popularizer of science.
Nikolay Sergeevich Akulov
Russian physicist. A major specialist in the field of ferromagnetism. Formulated the law of induced anisotropy, which plays an important role in the modern theory of magnetic materials. He proposed (independently from F. Bitter) the method of magnetic metallography. He created equipment for non-destructive methods of testing industrial products - flaw detectors, magnetic anisometer, magnetic micrometer, etc. He has many works on combustion physics, plasticity theory, and biophysics.
Andrey Petrovich Ershov
Russian scientist. He made a great contribution to the development of theoretical and system programming, the founder of the school of computer science in the USSR, one of the pioneers of Russian corpus linguistics. Under his leadership, several programming languages were created and a translation scheme was created to develop fragments of optimized translators. Made significant contributions to the theory of mixed computing.
Sergei Alekseevich Lebedev
Russian scientist, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He was involved in the development of homing torpedoes and stabilization systems for tank guns, for which he was awarded state awards. Considered the founder of computer technology in the USSR. He developed a whole series of computers that were used for calculations during the launches of artificial earth satellites, the first spacecraft with a person on board, and in the country's air defense systems.
The result of his activities was the development of a computer called BESM-6, the best machine in Europe in those years. Awarded the international medal “Pioneer of Computer Engineering”. He was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor. The Prize of the Russian Academy of Sciences named after S.A. was established. Lebedeva.
Mikhail Alexandrovich Kartsev
Outstanding Russian designer of domestic computing systems, author of the world's first multi-format vector computer structure. For the first time in the world, he proposed and implemented the concept of a completely parallel Computing system with parallelization at all four levels: programs, commands, data and words. A project was developed for the first vector-conveyor computer in the USSR. MPEI graduate.
Yakov Zalmanovich Tsypkin
Outstanding Soviet scientist, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, laureate of the Lenin Prize, A.A. Andronov Prize, Cauzza Prize, awarded the Hartley Medal. He made a significant contribution to the development of the theory of systems with delay, generalizing the Nyquist criterion to cases of delay, to the study of pulsed (discrete) control systems, developing an adequate mathematical apparatus for such systems, called Z-transforms. Founder of the theory of linear discrete systems. He did a lot in the field of relay systems, proposed a unified approach to the study of adaptive systems based on recurrent stochastic algorithms and the apparatus of stochastic approximation. He has achieved significant success in solving the problem of management under conditions of uncertainty and in other areas of management.
Vladimir Sergeevich Semenikhin
Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Hero of Socialist Labor, laureate of Lenin and two State Prizes, awarded many orders and medals of the USSR. MPEI graduate.
A prominent scientist in the field of automation and telemechanics. Creator of powerful automated and special-purpose information systems for the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs, control systems for the country's armed forces. The founder and main ideologist of a powerful domestic world-class school in all aspects of complex automation of the process of managing heterogeneous structures.
Claude Elwood Shannon
American scientist, mathematician, engineer. Founder of information theory, information transmission, channel capacity theorem. He made a great contribution to the theory of probabilistic circuits, to the theory of automata and control systems. He did a lot in the field of cryptography, defining the fundamental concepts of cryptography and coding theory.
His works are a synthesis of mathematical ideas with a specific analysis of the problems of their technical implementation.
Sergey Lvovich Sobolev
Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, one of the outstanding Russian mathematicians of the twentieth century. He made fundamental contributions to modern science, and in his fundamental research laid the foundation for scientific directions in modern mathematics.
Together with academician V.I. Smirnov, he opened a new area in mathematical physics (the Smirnov-Sobolev method) - functionally invariant solutions that allow solving problems related to wave processes in seismology.
He developed the areas of functional analysis and computational mathematics. He developed the theory of spaces of functions with generalized derivatives, which entered science as Sobolev spaces, which played an exceptional role in the formation of modern mathematical views. He made significant contributions to the development of many areas of mathematics.
George Boole
English scientist. Founder of mathematical logic. Found a deep analogy between the symbolic method of algebra and the symbolic method of representing logical forms and syllogisms.
Based on this analogy, he laid the foundations of the algebra of logic, which was later called Boolean algebra. Widely used when using solving logical problems on a computer. Boole outlined the main results of his works in the works: “Mathematical Analysis of Logic”, “Logical Calculus” and “Study of the Laws of Thought”.
Vladimir Aleksandrovich Kotelnikov
Academician, Vice-President of the Russian Academy of Sciences, outstanding Russian scientist, MPEI graduate. Developer of the famous sampling theorem (Kotelnikov’s theorem), which was fundamental in the theory of digital systems and the theory of computer science. Created a classic presentation of the theory of noise immunity of communications. The ideologist of the creation of a planetary radar and radar research of planets, which made it possible to clarify the scale of the Solar system by more than 100 times. He deserves great credit for the development of radio systems, radio physics, and quantum physics.
He created the famous OKB MPEI, which played a key role in the creation of space technology in the USSR, was its director for many years, and was the head of the MPEI department for many years. Hero of socialist labor, member of academies in many countries of the world, winner of numerous awards, including the E. Rhine Prize, A. Bell Gold Medal.
Alexey Andreevich Lyapunov
Corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, one of the first domestic scientists who appreciated the importance of cybernetics, made a great contribution to its formation and development. General and mathematical foundations of cybernetics, computers, programming and theory of algorithms, machine translation and mathematical linguistics, cybernetic issues of biology, philosophical and methodological aspects of the development of science - this is an incomplete list of the main areas of science that have received intensive development on the initiative and with his participation.
His main works relate to set theory, theoretical issues of programming, and mathematical linguistics.
Awarded prestigious medals “Computer Society” and “Computer Pioneer”, government awards of the USSR.
Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky
Outstanding Russian mathematician, creator of non-Euclidean geometry (Lobachevsky geometry). Rector of Kazan University (1827 – 1846).
Lobachevsky's discovery (1826), which did not receive recognition from his contemporaries, revolutionized the idea of the nature of space, which was based on the teachings of Euclid for more than 2 thousand years, and had a huge impact on the development of mathematical thinking. His works on algebra, mathematical analysis, probability theory, mechanics, physics and astronomy are very important.
Leonard Euler
Swiss by birth, he is an outstanding mathematician, physicist, mechanic and astronomer. Since 1726, academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. From 1741 he also worked at the Berlin Academy of Sciences. Author of more than 800 scientific papers on mathematical analysis, differential geometry, number theory, approximate calculations, celestial mechanics, mathematical physics, optics, ballistics, shipbuilding, music theory and other areas of science that have had a significant impact on the development of science.
David Gilbert
German scientist, founder of modern mathematics, predecessor of Einstein. Hilbert's work is characterized by his conviction in the unity of mathematical science, in the unity of mathematics and natural science. Hilbert's works had a great influence on the development of many branches of mathematics in which he worked (the theory of invariants, the theory of algebraic numbers, foundations of mathematics, mathematical logic, calculus of variations, differential and integral equations, number theory, mathematical physics). Since 1922, honorary member of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
In 1900, at the International Mathematical Congress in Paris, he formulated 23 problems that became the program for the development of mathematics in the 20th century. To date, only some of Hilbert's problems have been solved.
Vladimir Semenovich Pugachev
Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences, outstanding Russian scientist and teacher. One of the founders of the statistical theory of control systems, the author of a number of fundamental scientific works on flight dynamics, ballistics, the theory of ordinary and stochastic differential equations, stochastic control, computer science, statistics of random processes and many other areas of modern applied mathematics. He was the author of the scientific project “New architectures and algorithms for information processing” within the framework of the program “Computing systems of new generations.”
Vladimir Viktorovich Solodovnikov
Honored Worker of Science and Technology of the Russian Federation, Honorary Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, outstanding cyberneticist, one of the founders of automation in the USSR. He was the first to pose the problem of the quality of an automatic control system, developed the initial principles of an original frequency method for solving this problem, and subsequently developed and extended it to a wide class of typical impacts on systems with distributed and variable parameters. Developed the theory of analytical self-adjusting systems. He had a great influence on the development of management theory in our country. He published over 300 scientific papers, many of which were translated in many countries around the world.
Lev Semenovich Pontryagin
Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Hero of Socialist Labor, winner of many awards, outstanding mathematician.
In topology, he discovered the general law of duality and, in connection with this, constructed a theory of characters of continuous groups, and obtained a number of results in the theory of homotopies (continuous family of mappings) (Pontryagin classes). In the theory of oscillations, the main results of his research relate to the asymptotic behavior of relaxation oscillations. He is the creator of the mathematical theory of optimal processes, which is based on Pontryagin’s maximum principle. Obtained fundamental results on differential games. He had a great influence on the development of the calculus of variations in the world. Honorary member of many academies and societies around the world.
Alexander Aronovich Feldbaum
Outstanding scientist - theorist and engineer, Doctor of Technical Sciences, graduate of Moscow Power Engineering Institute, laureate of state prizes.
For the first time he formulated the optimal control problem as a variational problem and gave its solution for a whole class of practical cases. The result of this work was the discovery of the famous maximum principle in the theory of optimal control. He laid the theoretical foundations and formulated the ideas of the theory of dual control. His numerous monographs on control theory and computer technology have been published in many languages.
Aksel Ivanovich Berg
Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Hero of Socialist Labor, admiral-engineer, one of the largest scientists and radio specialists. He had many government awards. Initiator of the creation of SKB MPEI at the Department of Automation and Telemechanics of AVTF.
He created methods for calculating receiving, amplifying and transmitting devices, the theory of tube generators, and the theory of deviation of ship radio direction finders. On his initiative, the Institute of Radio Engineering and numerous laboratories of this profile were created in the USSR. He made a great contribution to the development of radar and navigation.
Pythagoras (c. 580-500 BC)
Every schoolchild knows: “In a right triangle, the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the legs.” But few people know that Pythagoras was also a philosopher, religious thinker and political figure; it was he who introduced the term “philosophy” into our language, which means “philosophy.” He founded a school whose students were called Pythagoreans, and he was the first to use the word “cosmos.”
Democritus (460-c. 370 BC)
Democritus, like other philosophers of the Ancient world, was always interested in the question of what is the fundamental principle of the Universe. Some sages believed that it was water, others – fire, others – air, and still others – everything combined. Democritus was not convinced by their arguments. Reflecting on the fundamental principle of the world, he came to the conclusion that it was the smallest indivisible particles, which he called atoms. There are a great many of them. The whole world consists of them. They connect and separate. He made this discovery through logical reasoning. And more than two thousand years later, scientists of our time, using physical instruments, proved that he was right.
Euclid (c. 365-300 BC)
Plato's student Euclid wrote the treatise "Elements" in 13 books. In them, the scientist outlined the foundations of geometry, which means in Greek “the science of measuring the Earth,” which for many centuries was called Euclidean geometry. The ancient Greek king Ptolemy I Soter, who ruled in Egyptian Alexandria, demanded that Euclid, who explained the laws of geometry to him, do this shorter and faster. He replied: “Oh, great king, in geometry there are no royal roads...”
Archimedes (287-212 BC)
Archimedes remained in history as one of the most famous Greek mechanics, inventors and mathematicians, who amazed his contemporaries with his amazing machines. Watching the work of builders who used thick sticks to move stone blocks, Archimedes realized that the longer the lever, the greater the force of its impact. He told the Syracusan king Hieron: “Give me a fulcrum, and I will move the Earth.” Hieron didn't believe it. And then Archimedes, with the help of a complex system of mechanisms, with the effort of one hand, pulled the ship ashore, which was usually pulled out of the water by hundreds of people.
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)
The great Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci proved himself to be a universal creator. He was a sculptor, architect, inventor. A brilliant master, he made a huge contribution to art, culture and science. In Italy they called him a sorcerer, a wizard, a man who can do anything. Infinitely talented, he created various mechanisms, designed unprecedented aircraft such as a modern helicopter, and invented a tank.
Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543)
Nicolaus Copernicus became famous in the scientific world for his astronomical discoveries. His heliocentric system replaced the previous, Greek, geocentric one. He is the first to scientifically prove that the Sun does not revolve around the Earth, but vice versa. The Earth and other planets revolve around the Sun. Nicolaus Copernicus was a versatile scientist. Widely educated, he treated people, was knowledgeable in economics, and made various instruments and machines himself. Nicolaus Copernicus wrote in Latin and German throughout his life. Not a single document written by him in Polish has been found.
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
The young Florentine Galileo Galilei, who studied at the University of Pisa, attracted the attention of professors not only with clever reasoning, but also with original inventions. But the gifted student was expelled from the 3rd year because his father did not have money for his studies. But Galileo was lucky - the young man found a patron, the rich Marquis Guidobaldo del Moite, who was fond of science. He supported 22-year-old Galileo. Thanks to the Marquis, the world received a man who showed his genius in mathematics, physics, and astronomy. Even during his lifetime, Galileo was compared to Archimedes. He was the first to declare that the Universe is infinite.
René Descartes (1596-1650)
Like many great thinkers of antiquity, Descartes was universal. He laid the foundations of analytical geometry, created many algebraic notations, discovered the law of conservation of motion, and explained the root causes of the motion of celestial bodies. Descartes studied at the best French Jesuit college in La Flèche. And there, at the beginning of the 17th century, strict orders reigned. The disciples got up early and ran to prayer. Only one, the best pupil was allowed to stay in bed due to poor health - this was Rene Descartes. So he developed the habit of reasoning and finding solutions to mathematical problems. Later, according to legend, it was in these morning hours that he had a thought that spread throughout the whole world: “I think, therefore I exist.”
Isaac Newton (1643-1727)
Isaac Newton - a brilliant English scientist, experimenter, researcher, also a mathematician, astronomer, inventor, made a lot of discoveries that determined the physical picture of the world around him. According to legend, Isaac Newton discovered the law of universal gravitation in his garden. He watched a falling apple and realized that the Earth attracts all objects to itself, and the heavier the object, the more strongly it is attracted to the Earth. Reflecting on this, he deduced the law of universal gravitation: All bodies attract each other with a force proportional to both masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.
James Watt (1736-1819)
James Watt is considered one of the creators of the technological revolution that transformed the world. They tried to tame the energy of steam back in ancient times. The Greek scientist Heroes, who lived in Alexandria in the 1st century, built the first steam turbine, which rotated by burning wood in a heater. In Russia in the 18th century, mechanic Ivan Polzunov also tried to tame the energy of steam, but his machine was not widely used. And only the English, or rather the Scottish self-taught mechanic James Watt, was able to construct such a machine, which was used first in mines, then in factories, and then on locomotives and ships.
Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (1743-1794)
Antoine Laurent Lavoisier was a multi-talented man who was successful in financial transactions, but was especially interested in chemistry. He made many discoveries, became the founder of modern chemistry, and would have accomplished a lot if not for the radicalism of the Great French Revolution. In his youth, Antoine Lavoisier participated in a competition at the Academy of Sciences for the best method of street lighting. To increase the sensitivity of his eyes, he upholstered his room with black material. Antoine described his acquired new perception of light in the work he submitted to the Academy, and received a gold medal for it. For scientific research in the field of mineralogy, at the age of 25 he was elected a member of the Academy.
Justus Liebig (1803-1873)
Justus Liebig is credited with creating food concentrates. He developed a technology for the production of meat extract, which today is called a “broth cube”. The German Chemical Society erected a monument to him in Munich. The outstanding German professor of organic chemistry, Justus Liebig, spent his entire life researching methods of plant nutrition and solving issues of rational use of fertilizers. He did a lot to increase agricultural productivity. Russia, for the assistance it provided in the rise of agriculture, awarded the scientist two Orders of St. Anne, England made him an honorary citizen, and in Germany he received the title of baron.
Louis Pasteur (1822-1895)
Louis Pasteur is a rare example of a scientist who had neither medical nor chemical education. He made his way into science on his own, without any protégés, based on personal interest. But scientists showed interest in him, noticing considerable abilities in the young man. And Louis Pasteur became an outstanding French microbiologist and chemist, a member of the French Academy, and created the pasteurization process. An institute was created especially for him in Paris, which was later named after him. Russian microbiologist, Nobel Prize laureate in the field of physiology and medicine, Ilya Mechnikov, worked at this institute for 18 years.
Alfred Bernhard Nobel (1833-1896)
Alfred Bernhard Nobel, a Swedish chemical engineer, invented dynamite, who patented it in 1867 and proposed it for use in tunneling. This invention made Nobel famous throughout the world and brought him enormous income. The word dynamite in Greek means "strength". This explosive, which consists of nitroglycerin, potassium or sodium nitrate and wood flour, depending on the volume, can destroy a car, a house, or destroy a rock. In 1895, Nobel made a will, according to which most of his capital was allocated to prizes for outstanding achievements in chemistry, physics, medicine, literature and peace.
Robert Heinrich Hermann Koch (1843-1910)
Close communication with nature determined his future choice of profession - Robert Koch became a microbiologist. And it started in childhood. Robert Koch's maternal grandfather was a great lover of nature, often taking his beloved 7-year-old grandson with him into the forest, telling him about the life of trees and herbs, and talking about the benefits and harms of insects. Microbiologist Koch fought against the most terrible diseases of mankind - anthrax, cholera and tuberculosis. And he came out victorious. For his achievements in the fight against tuberculosis, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1905.
Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen (1845-1923)
In 1895, a German scientific journal published a photograph of the hand of Wilhelm Roentgen’s wife, taken using X-rays (x-rays, later called X-rays after their discoverer), which aroused great interest in the scientific world. Before Roentgen, no physicist had done anything like this. This photograph indicated that penetration into the depths of the human body had taken place without physically opening it. It was a breakthrough in medicine, in the recognition of diseases. For the discovery of these rays, William Roentgen was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901.
Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931)
During his life, Edison improved the telegraph, telephone, created a microphone, invented the phonograph and, most importantly, illuminated America with his incandescent light bulb, and behind it the whole world. There has never been a more inventive man in American history than Thomas Edison. In total, he is the author of over 1,000 patented inventions in the United States and about 3,000 in other countries. But before achieving such an outstanding result, he, according to his own frank statements, made many tens of thousands of unsuccessful experiments and experiences.
Marie Skłodowska Curie (1867-1934)
Marie Skłodowska Curie graduated from the Sorbonne, the largest institution of higher education in France, and became the first female teacher in its history. Together with her husband Pierre Curie, she first discovered radium, a decay product of uranium-238, and then polonium. The study and use of the radioactive properties of radium played a huge role in the study of the structure of the atomic nucleus and the phenomenon of radioactivity. Among world-class scientists, Maria Sklodowska-Curie occupies a special place; she twice won the Nobel Prize: in 1903 in physics, in 1911 in chemistry. Such an outstanding result is a rare occurrence even among men.
Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
Albert Einstein is one of the founders of theoretical physics, Nobel Prize laureate, and public figure. But he made a strange impression on his contemporaries: he dressed casually, loved sweaters, did not comb his hair, could stick his tongue out at a photographer, and generally did God knows what. But behind this frivolous appearance hid a paradoxical scientist - a thinker, the author of over 600 works on various topics. His theory of relativity revolutionized science. It turned out that the world around us is not so simple. Space-time is curved, and as a result, gravity and the passage of time change, and the sun's rays deviate from the straight direction.
Alexander Fleming (1881-1955)
Alexander Fleming, a native of Scotland, an English bacteriologist, spent his whole life searching for medications that could help a person cope with infectious diseases. He was able to discover a substance in penicillium mold that kills bacteria. And the first antibiotic appeared - penicillin, which revolutionized medicine. Fleming was the first to discover that human mucous membranes contain a special liquid that not only prevents the penetration of microbes, but also kills them. He isolated this substance and called it lysozyme.
Robert Oppenheimer (1904-1967)
Robert Oppenheimer, an American physicist and creator of the atomic bomb, was very worried when he learned about the terrible casualties and destruction caused by the American atomic bomb dropped over Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. He was a conscientious person and subsequently called on scientists all over the world not to create weapons of enormous destructive power. He entered the history of science as the “father of the atomic bomb” and as the discoverer of black holes in the Universe.
photo from the Internet