Name 10 british scientists.
Answers
Dorothy Hodgkin (1910-1994)
As the only British woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, it’s perhaps not surprising to see Dorothy Hodgkin’s name on a list of the greatest British scientists. Though born in Egypt, she was raised and educated in the UK.
Hodgkin’s prolific career was full of incredible scientific discoveries. In 1945, she discovered the atomic structure of penicillin. In 1954, she published work
Alexander Fleming (1881-1955)
Another Nobel Prize winner, this time in 1945, Alexander Fleming — like Dorothy Hodgkin — had an impact that would transcend science. Born in Ayrshire in 1881, Fleming’s great discovery came when he was studying influenza in 1928 — almost a decade after returning from service in the First World War.
He noticed that mould had started to develop on staphylococci culture dishes which had accidentally been left out. This mould had created an immunity circle around itself, resisting bacteria. Fleming named this substance penicillin.
. Isaac Newton (1643-1727)
Sir Isaac Newton is not just one of the great British scientists, but he’s also one of the most prominent scientists ever to have walked this planet. A true polymath, Newton was an expert mathematician, physicist, astronomer and alchemist.
Newton is often remembered most for his eureka moment under a tree, an epiphany that formed the basis of his book Principia. More than just a thesis, Principia highlighted the universal laws of gravity which are still relevant, cited and form the basis of research today.
Ada Lovelace (1815-1852)
Many people cite another British great, Alan Turing, as the creator of the computer. But without the work of Ada Lovelace, it might not have been possible. In the socially conservative Victorian era, Lovelace was years ahead of her time.
Many of us think of computers as a relatively recent invention. The idea that computing goes back to 1840 seems unlikely. But before Apple and Microsoft, before the Harvard Mark I, Ada Lovelace had an incredible understanding of computing. An understanding that was not only unparalleled but went under-appreciated for more than a century — only coming back to the fore in the 1950s.
Rosalind Franklin (1920-1958)
Many consider Rosalind Franklin’s emission from the rollcall of Nobel Prize winners as a blemish on the great prize’s record. Franklin, a British biophysicist and X-ray crystallographer, made hugely important and influential contributions to our understanding of the molecular structures of DNA.
Through her work on the X-ray diffraction images of DNA, we discovered the DNA double helix. The discovery of this structure allowed scientists to understand how genetic information is passed between parents and their offspring.
Maggie Aderin-Pocock
The first scientist on our list is also the youngest (although Brian Cox was born less than a week earlier). Maggie Aderin-Pocock is perhaps best known for hosting the current incarnation
Aderin-Pocock is also the Director of Science Innovation Ltd, an organisation that works to engage school-aged children in the field of space science.
Tim Berners-Lee
If you've heard of Tim Berners-Lee, it's probably because he's the man who invented the World Wide Web in 1989. Without his world-changing work, you might not be reading this article right now!
But TimBL, as he's sometimes known, hasn't been resting on his laurels during the intervening three decades. He has worked with the UK government to help keep online information open and accessible, and he's been a key voice in the ongoing fight to preserve net neutrality.
James Black
James Black won a scholarship to the University of St Andrews at the age of 15, and graduated from the university's prestigious School of Medicine - the oldest in Scotland - in 1946. In another life, he might have gone on to be a doctor, but he decided against this career path because he objected to the insensitive way in which patients were treated at the time.
Brian Cox
Professor Brian Cox is something of a household name these days, but in the grand scheme of things, it really hasn't been that long since the most notable entry on his CV was playing keyboards for D:Ream (on whose biggest hit, 'Things Can Only Get Better', he didn't even feature!).
Lyn Evans
Lyn Evans, nicknamed 'Evans the Atom', was the project leader of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN in Switzerland until 2008. He actually spent his first year at Swansea University studying chemistry, only switching to physics in his second year because - rather amusingly - he found physics easier.
Evans has been honoured with a number of science awards since stepping down as LHC project leader, including the Glazebrook Medal, the 2012 Special Fundamental Physics Prize, and the IEEE Simon Ramo Medal.
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Dorothy Hodgkin (1910-1994)
As the only British woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, it’s perhaps not surprising to see Dorothy Hodgkin’s name on a list of the greatest British scientists. Though born in Egypt, she was raised and educated in the UK.
Hodgkin’s prolific career was full of incredible scientific discoveries. In 1945, she discovered the atomic structure of penicillin. In 1954, she published work
Alexander Fleming (1881-1955)
Another Nobel Prize winner, this time in 1945, Alexander Fleming — like Dorothy Hodgkin — had an impact that would transcend science. Born in Ayrshire in 1881, Fleming’s great discovery came when he was studying influenza in 1928 — almost a decade after returning from service in the First World War.
He noticed that mould had started to develop on staphylococci culture dishes which had accidentally been left out. This mould had created an immunity circle around itself, resisting bacteria. Fleming named this substance penicillin.
. Isaac Newton (1643-1727)
Sir Isaac Newton is not just one of the great British scientists, but he’s also one of the most prominent scientists ever to have walked this planet. A true polymath, Newton was an expert mathematician, physicist, astronomer and alchemist.
Newton is often remembered most for his eureka moment under a tree, an epiphany that formed the basis of his book Principia. More than just a thesis, Principia highlighted the universal laws of gravity which are still relevant, cited and form the basis of research today.
Ada Lovelace (1815-1852)
Many people cite another British great, Alan Turing, as the creator of the computer. But without the work of Ada Lovelace, it might not have been possible. In the socially conservative Victorian era, Lovelace was years ahead of her time.
Many of us think of computers as a relatively recent invention. The idea that computing goes back to 1840 seems unlikely. But before Apple and Microsoft, before the Harvard Mark I, Ada Lovelace had an incredible understanding of computing. An understanding that was not only unparalleled but went under-appreciated for more than a century — only coming back to the fore in the 1950s.
Rosalind Franklin (1920-1958)
Many consider Rosalind Franklin’s emission from the rollcall of Nobel Prize winners as a blemish on the great prize’s record. Franklin, a British biophysicist and X-ray crystallographer, made hugely important and influential contributions to our understanding of the molecular structures of DNA.
Through her work on the X-ray diffraction images of DNA, we discovered the DNA double helix. The discovery of this structure allowed scientists to understand how genetic information is passed between parents and their offspring.
Maggie Aderin-Pocock
The first scientist on our list is also the youngest (although Brian Cox was born less than a week earlier). Maggie Aderin-Pocock is perhaps best known for hosting the current incarnation
Aderin-Pocock is also the Director of Science Innovation Ltd, an organisation that works to engage school-aged children in the field of space science.
Tim Berners-Lee
If you've heard of Tim Berners-Lee, it's probably because he's the man who invented the World Wide Web in 1989. Without his world-changing work, you might not be reading this article right now!
But TimBL, as he's sometimes known, hasn't been resting on his laurels during the intervening three decades. He has worked with the UK government to help keep online information open and accessible, and he's been a key voice in the ongoing fight to preserve net neutrality.
James Black
James Black won a scholarship to the University of St Andrews at the age of 15, and graduated from the university's prestigious School of Medicine - the oldest in Scotland - in 1946. In another life, he might have gone on to be a doctor, but he decided against this career path because he objected to the insensitive way in which patients were treated at the time.
Brian Cox
Professor Brian Cox is something of a household name these days, but in the grand scheme of things, it really hasn't been that long since the most notable entry on his CV was playing keyboards for D:Ream (on whose biggest hit, 'Things Can Only Get Better', he didn't even feature!).
Lyn Evans
Lyn Evans, nicknamed 'Evans the Atom', was the project leader of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN in Switzerland until 2008. He actually spent his first year at Swansea University studying chemistry, only switching to physics in his second year because - rather amusingly - he found physics easier.
Evans has been honoured with a number of science awards since stepping down as LHC project leader, including the Glazebrook Medal, the 2012 Special Fundamental Physics Prize, and the IEEE Simon Ramo Medal.