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April 15, 1452: Leonardo da Vinci is born
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (1452-1519)
Scientific field: Biology, Mathematics
Known for: Anatomical studies, Science of painting
Leonardo da Vinci was an Italian painter, draftsman, sculptor, architect, and engineer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal. His notebooks reveal a spirit of scientific inquiry and a mechanical inventiveness that [...]
April 14, 1629: Christiaan Huygens is born
Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695)
Scientific field: Astronomy, Mathematics, Physics
Known for: Pendulum clock, Huygens–Fresnel principle
Christiaan Huyghens was a Dutch mathematician, astronomer, and physicist, who founded the wave theory of light, discovered the true shape of the rings of Saturn, and made original contributions to the science of dynamics - the study of the action of forces on bodies.
From [...]
March 31, 1596: René Descartes is born
René Descartes (1596-1650)
Scientific field: Mathematics
Known for: Cartesian coordinate system
René Descartes was a French mathematician, scientist, and philosopher, one of the first to abandon scholastic Aristotelianism. Because he formulated the first modern version of mind-body dualism, from which stems the mind-body problem, and because he promoted the development of a new science grounded in observation and [...]
March 23, 1749: Pierre-Simon Laplace is born
Pierre-Simon, marquis de Laplace (1749-1827)
Scientific field: Astronomy, Mathematics, Physics
Known for: Work in Celestial Mechanics, Laplace’s equation, Laplace Operator/Laplacian, Laplace transform
French mathematician, astronomer, and physicist, Laplace is best known for his investigations into the stability of the solar system.
Laplace successfully accounted for all the observed deviations of the planets from their theoretical orbits by applying Sir [...]
March 21, 1768: Joseph Fourier is born
Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Fourier (1768-1830)
Scientific field: Mathematics, Physics
Known for: Fourier series, Fourier transform
French mathematician, known also as an Egyptologist and administrator, Joseph Fourier exerted strong influence on mathematical physics through his “Théorie analytique de la chaleur” (1822; “The Analytical Theory Of Heat”). He showed how the conduction of heat in solid bodies may be analyzed in terms [...]
