Botanists are scientists who study plants. The number of people studying botany at university has fallen by 50% since the late 1980s. Maybe it’s not seen by some as an exciting science to study but there is no doubt that it is important – we are dependent on plants for our very survival! Charles Darwin,…
Smart Scientist: Dimitri Mendeleev
Smart Scientist Dimitri Mendeleev: The formulator of the Periodic Table The elements in the Periodic Table are placed into a pattern of rows (periods) and columns (groups). It was the Russian scientist Dimitri Mendeleev who, in 1869, published the first Periodic Table. But how did he come up with this arrangement? A vital bit of…
Smart Scientist: Inge Lehmann
Meet trailblazer Inge Lehmann who discovered the Earth’s deepest and well-kept secret Inge Lehmann was born in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1888. She went to a very modern school at the time where boys and girls were treated equally and both sexes were encouraged to follow the career they wished. For Inge, this was to become…
Scientist biography: Charles Coulomb – A Bright Spark
Static electricity…the story so far Ancient cultures knew nothing of the concept of electricity but knew of its existence through shocking encounters with electric fish, lightning and the fact that certain objects, such as rods of amber, could be rubbed with cat’s fur to attract light objects like feathers. Thales of Miletus made a series…
Smart scientist: Professor Barry Marshall
Meet Smart scientist Professor Barry Marshall who carried out an experiment on his own body to prove his theory about how stomach ulcers are caused. Barry Marshall was born in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, and gained his medical degree from the University of Western Australia in 1974. He is currently Professor of Clinical Microbiology at the…
Scientist biography: Professor Barry Marshall
Meet Smart Scientist Professor Barry Marshall who carried out an experiment on his own body to prove his theory about how stomach ulcers are caused. Barry Marshall was born in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, and gained his medical degree from the University of Western Australia in 1974. He is currently Professor of Clinical Microbiology at the…
Smart Scientist: Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys and DNA fingerprinting
Meet Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys who discovered DNA fingerprinting, a separating technique which is used by forensic scientists to help them solve crimes. Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys was born in 1950 in Oxford. His love of science started as a child when he enjoyed making small explosions with his chemistry set and dissecting insects to…
SCIENTIST BIOGRAPHY – PROFESSOR HAROLD HARVEY
Smart Scientist Professor Harold Harvey – the story of one man’s persistent efforts to stop us polluting the environment Harold Harvey was born in Winnipeg, Canada. He started his scientific career as a biologist studying freshwater fish but a failed experiment marked the start of an environmental crusade. Harold Harvey In 1966 a young Harold…
Scientist Biography – James Watt
Watt on Earth! – The life of James Watt James Watt is the man whom the S.I. unit of power is named after. This great engineer and inventor, however, was a man who had nothing whatsoever to do with generating electricity. So why was his name chosen as the official unit of power? Well,…