Like Michelangelo, Galileo is another Renaissance great known just by his first name--a name that is synonymous with scientific achievement. Born in Pisa, Italy, in the sixteenth century, Galileo contributed to the era's great rebirth of knowledge. He invented a telescope to observe the heavens. From there, not even the sky was the limit! He turned long-held notions about the universe topsy tur…
What was Isaac Newton like? Secretive, vindictive, withdrawn, obsessive, and, oh, yes, brilliant. His imagination was so large that, just "by thinking on it," he invented calculus and figured out the scientific explanation of gravity.Yet Newton was so small-minded that he set out to destroy other scientists who dared question his findings. Here is a compelling portrait of Newton, contradictions…
What do you think of when you hear the name Albert Einstein? Perhaps you picture an old man with rumpled clothing, a halo of wild white hair, and an impish grin. You might know that he developed two of the most important and complex theories in science, the theories of relativity. You probably think of the word genius. Albert Einstein may have been a genius--but he was also much more than that.…
Albert Einstein was one of the most brilliant scientists who ever lived. The theories that he formulated about time, light and gravity have changed how we look at the world, and resulted in many new inventions. But did you know that he was so absent-minded that he once forgot where he lived? Or that, even though he was an advocate of world peace, his work led to the creation of the atom bomb? …
Even when he was a kid, Albert Einstein did things his own way. He thought in pictures instead of words, and his special way of thinking helped him understand big ideas like the structure of music and why a compass always points north. Those ideas made him want to keep figuring out the secrets of the universe. Other people thought he was just a dreamer, but because of his curiosity, Einstein gr…