List of multiple independent discoveries
Encyclopedia
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
, of "multiple independent discovery". Robert K. Merton
Robert K. Merton
Robert King Merton was a distinguished American sociologist. He spent most of his career teaching at Columbia University, where he attained the rank of University Professor...
defined such "multiples" as instances in which similar discoveries
Discovery (observation)
Discovery is the act of detecting something new, or something "old" that had been unknown. With reference to science and academic disciplines, discovery is the observation of new phenomena, new actions, or new events and providing new reasoning to explain the knowledge gathered through such...
are made by scientists working independently of each other. "Sometimes the discoveries are simultaneous or almost so; sometimes a scientist will make a new discovery which, unknown to him, somebody else has made years before."
Commonly cited examples of multiple independent discovery are the 17th-century independent formulation of calculus
Calculus
Calculus is a branch of mathematics focused on limits, functions, derivatives, integrals, and infinite series. This subject constitutes a major part of modern mathematics education. It has two major branches, differential calculus and integral calculus, which are related by the fundamental theorem...
by Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton
Sir Isaac Newton PRS was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian, who has been "considered by many to be the greatest and most influential scientist who ever lived."...
, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and others, described by A. Rupert Hall; the 18th-century discovery of oxygen
Oxygen
Oxygen is the element with atomic number 8 and represented by the symbol O. Its name derives from the Greek roots ὀξύς and -γενής , because at the time of naming, it was mistakenly thought that all acids required oxygen in their composition...
by Carl Wilhelm Scheele
Carl Wilhelm Scheele
Carl Wilhelm Scheele was a German-Swedish pharmaceutical chemist. Isaac Asimov called him "hard-luck Scheele" because he made a number of chemical discoveries before others who are generally given the credit...
, Joseph Priestley
Joseph Priestley
Joseph Priestley, FRS was an 18th-century English theologian, Dissenting clergyman, natural philosopher, chemist, educator, and political theorist who published over 150 works...
, Antoine Lavoisier
Antoine Lavoisier
Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier , the "father of modern chemistry", was a French nobleman prominent in the histories of chemistry and biology...
and others; and the theory of evolution of species
Species
In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...
, independently advanced in the 19th century by Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
and Alfred Russel Wallace
Alfred Russel Wallace
Alfred Russel Wallace, OM, FRS was a British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist and biologist...
.
Multiple independent discovery, however, is not limited to only a few historic instances involving giants of scientific research. Merton believed that it is multiple discoveries, rather than unique ones, that represent the common pattern in science.
Merton contrasted a "multiple" with a "singleton"—a discovery that has been made uniquely by a single scientist or group of scientists working together.
Merton
Robert K. Merton
Robert King Merton was a distinguished American sociologist. He spent most of his career teaching at Columbia University, where he attained the rank of University Professor...
's hypothesis is also discussed extensively in Harriet Zuckerman
Harriet Zuckerman
Harriet Zuckerman is an American sociologist who specializes in the sociology of science. She is Senior Vice President of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and professor emerita of Columbia University.-Life:...
's Scientific Elite.
Pre-13th century
- GreenlandGreenlandGreenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...
was first discovered by early Palaeo-Eskimo cultures. In several immigration waves originating from the islands north of the North American mainland, they started settlement circa 2500 BCE. In the early 10th century CE, i.e. more than three millennia later, Greenland was rediscovered by Norse when Gunnbjörn UlfssonGunnbjörn UlfssonGunnbjørn Ulfsson , name also given as Gunnbjørn Ulf-Krakuson, was the first European to sight North America....
accidentally sighted islands lying close off the coast of Greenland. Based on his report, there was an unsuccessful settlement led by Snaebjörn GaltiSnaebjörn GaltiSnøbjørn Galte Holmsteinsson was the first Norseman to intentionally navigate to Greenland, doing so in 978 CE....
around 978 and a successful settlement led by Erik the RedErik the RedErik Thorvaldsson , known as Erik the Red , is remembered in medieval and Icelandic saga sources as having founded the first Nordic settlement in Greenland. The Icelandic tradition indicates that he was born in the Jæren district of Rogaland, Norway, as the son of Thorvald Asvaldsson, he therefore...
(first visit in 982). The Norse settlement disappeared in the 14th and 15th centuries.
13th century
- 1242 — first description of the function of pulmonary circulationPulmonary circulationPulmonary circulation is the half portion of the cardiovascular system which carries Oxygen-depleted Blood away from the heart, to the Lungs, and returns oxygenated blood back to the heart. Encyclopedic description and discovery of the pulmonary circulation is widely attributed to Doctor Ibn...
, in Egypt, by Ibn al-Nafis. Later independently rediscovered by the Europeans, Michael ServetusMichael ServetusMichael Servetus was a Spanish theologian, physician, cartographer, and humanist. He was the first European to correctly describe the function of pulmonary circulation...
(1553) and William HarveyWilliam HarveyWilliam Harvey was an English physician who was the first person to describe completely and in detail the systemic circulation and properties of blood being pumped to the body by the heart...
(1616).
14th century
- Gresham's (Copernicus') lawGresham's LawGresham's law is an economic principle that states: "When a government compulsorily overvalues one type of money and undervalues another, the undervalued money will leave the country or disappear from circulation into hoards, while the overvalued money will flood into circulation." It is commonly...
: Nicole Oresme (ca. 1370); Nicolaus CopernicusNicolaus CopernicusNicolaus Copernicus was a Renaissance astronomer and the first person to formulate a comprehensive heliocentric cosmology which displaced the Earth from the center of the universe....
(1517); Thomas GreshamThomas GreshamSir Thomas Gresham was an English merchant and financier who worked for King Edward VI of England and for Edward's half-sisters, Queens Mary I and Elizabeth I.-Family and childhood:...
(16th century); Henry Dunning MacleodHenry Dunning Macleod-Life:Henry Dunning Macleod was born in Edinburgh, and educated at Eton, Edinburgh University, and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated in 1843. Macleod traveled in Europe, and in 1849 was called to the English bar. He was employed in Scotland on the work of poor-law reform, and devoted...
(1857).
16th century
- Galileo GalileiGalileo GalileiGalileo Galilei , was an Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher who played a major role in the Scientific Revolution. His achievements include improvements to the telescope and consequent astronomical observations and support for Copernicanism...
and Simon StevinSimon StevinSimon Stevin was a Flemish mathematician and military engineer. He was active in a great many areas of science and engineering, both theoretical and practical...
: heavy and light balls fall together (contra Aristotle). - Galileo Galilei and Simon Stevin: Hydrostatic paradox (Stevin ca. 1585, Galileo ca. 1610).
- Scipione dal Ferro (1520) and Niccolò Tartaglia (1535) independently developed a method for solving cubic equations.
17th century
- SunspotSunspotSunspots are temporary phenomena on the photosphere of the Sun that appear visibly as dark spots compared to surrounding regions. They are caused by intense magnetic activity, which inhibits convection by an effect comparable to the eddy current brake, forming areas of reduced surface temperature....
s — Thomas HarriotThomas HarriotThomas Harriot was an English astronomer, mathematician, ethnographer, and translator. Some sources give his surname as Harriott or Hariot or Heriot. He is sometimes credited with the introduction of the potato to Great Britain and Ireland...
(EnglandEnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, 1610), JohannesJohannes FabriciusJohann Fabricius , eldest son of David Fabricius , was a Frisian/German astronomer and a discoverer of sunspots , independently of Galileo Galilei.-Biography:...
and David FabriciusDavid FabriciusDavid Fabricius , was a German theologian who made two major discoveries in the early days of telescopic astronomy, jointly with his eldest son, Johannes Fabricius ....
(FrisiaFrisiaFrisia is a coastal region along the southeastern corner of the North Sea, i.e. the German Bight. Frisia is the traditional homeland of the Frisians, a Germanic people who speak Frisian, a language group closely related to the English language...
, 1611), Galileo GalileiGalileo GalileiGalileo Galilei , was an Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher who played a major role in the Scientific Revolution. His achievements include improvements to the telescope and consequent astronomical observations and support for Copernicanism...
(ItalyItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, 1612), Christoph ScheinerChristoph ScheinerChristoph Scheiner SJ was a Jesuit priest, physicist and astronomer in Ingolstadt....
(GermanyGermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, 1612). - LogarithmLogarithmThe logarithm of a number is the exponent by which another fixed value, the base, has to be raised to produce that number. For example, the logarithm of 1000 to base 10 is 3, because 1000 is 10 to the power 3: More generally, if x = by, then y is the logarithm of x to base b, and is written...
s — John NapierJohn NapierJohn Napier of Merchiston – also signed as Neper, Nepair – named Marvellous Merchiston, was a Scottish mathematician, physicist, astronomer & astrologer, and also the 8th Laird of Merchistoun. He was the son of Sir Archibald Napier of Merchiston. John Napier is most renowned as the discoverer...
(ScotlandScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, 1614) and Joost BürgiJoost BürgiJost Bürgi, or Joost, or Jobst Bürgi , active primarily at the courts in Kassel and Prague, was a Swiss clockmaker, a maker of astronomical instruments and a mathematician....
(SwitzerlandSwitzerlandSwitzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, 1618) - Analytic geometryAnalytic geometryAnalytic geometry, or analytical geometry has two different meanings in mathematics. The modern and advanced meaning refers to the geometry of analytic varieties...
— René DescartesRené DescartesRené Descartes ; was a French philosopher and writer who spent most of his adult life in the Dutch Republic. He has been dubbed the 'Father of Modern Philosophy', and much subsequent Western philosophy is a response to his writings, which are studied closely to this day...
, Pierre de FermatPierre de FermatPierre de Fermat was a French lawyer at the Parlement of Toulouse, France, and an amateur mathematician who is given credit for early developments that led to infinitesimal calculus, including his adequality...
. - DeterminantDeterminantIn linear algebra, the determinant is a value associated with a square matrix. It can be computed from the entries of the matrix by a specific arithmetic expression, while other ways to determine its value exist as well...
s — Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and Seki Kōwa. - CalculusCalculusCalculus is a branch of mathematics focused on limits, functions, derivatives, integrals, and infinite series. This subject constitutes a major part of modern mathematics education. It has two major branches, differential calculus and integral calculus, which are related by the fundamental theorem...
— Isaac NewtonIsaac NewtonSir Isaac Newton PRS was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian, who has been "considered by many to be the greatest and most influential scientist who ever lived."...
, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and others. - Boyle's lawBoyle's lawBoyle's law is one of many gas laws and a special case of the ideal gas law. Boyle's law describes the inversely proportional relationship between the absolute pressure and volume of a gas, if the temperature is kept constant within a closed system...
(sometimes referred to as the "Boyle-Mariotte law") is one of the gas lawsGas lawsThe early gas laws were developed at the end of the 18th century, when scientists began to realize that relationships between the pressure, volume and temperature of a sample of gas could be obtained which would hold for all gases...
and basis of derivation for the Ideal gas lawIdeal gas lawThe ideal gas law is the equation of state of a hypothetical ideal gas. It is a good approximation to the behavior of many gases under many conditions, although it has several limitations. It was first stated by Émile Clapeyron in 1834 as a combination of Boyle's law and Charles's law...
, which describes the relationship between the product pressurePressurePressure is the force per unit area applied in a direction perpendicular to the surface of an object. Gauge pressure is the pressure relative to the local atmospheric or ambient pressure.- Definition :...
and volumeVolumeVolume is the quantity of three-dimensional space enclosed by some closed boundary, for example, the space that a substance or shape occupies or contains....
within a closed systemClosed system-In physics:In thermodynamics, a closed system can exchange energy , but not matter, with its surroundings.In contrast, an isolated system cannot exchange any of heat, work, or matter with the surroundings, while an open system can exchange all of heat, work and matter.For a simple system, with...
as constant when temperature remains at a fixed measure. The law was named for chemistChemistryChemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
and physicistPhysicistA physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...
Robert BoyleRobert BoyleRobert Boyle FRS was a 17th century natural philosopher, chemist, physicist, and inventor, also noted for his writings in theology. He has been variously described as English, Irish, or Anglo-Irish, his father having come to Ireland from England during the time of the English plantations of...
who published the original law in 1662. The French physicist Edme MariotteEdme MariotteEdme Mariotte was a French physicist and priest.- Biography :Edme Mariotte was the youngest son of Simon Mariotte, administrator at the district Til-Châtel , and Catherine Denisot . His parents lived in Til-Châtel and had 4 other children: Jean, Denise, Claude, and Catharine...
discovered the same law independently of Boyle in 1676. - Newton–Raphson method — Joseph RaphsonJoseph RaphsonJoseph Raphson was an English mathematician known best for the Newton–Raphson method. Little is known about his life, and even his exact years of birth and death are unknown, although the mathematical historian Florian Cajori provided the approximate dates 1648–1715. Raphson attended...
(1690), Isaac NewtonIsaac NewtonSir Isaac Newton PRS was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian, who has been "considered by many to be the greatest and most influential scientist who ever lived."...
(Newton's work was written in 1671, but not published until 1736)
18th century
- OxygenOxygenOxygen is the element with atomic number 8 and represented by the symbol O. Its name derives from the Greek roots ὀξύς and -γενής , because at the time of naming, it was mistakenly thought that all acids required oxygen in their composition...
— Carl Wilhelm ScheeleCarl Wilhelm ScheeleCarl Wilhelm Scheele was a German-Swedish pharmaceutical chemist. Isaac Asimov called him "hard-luck Scheele" because he made a number of chemical discoveries before others who are generally given the credit...
(UppsalaUppsala- Economy :Today Uppsala is well established in medical research and recognized for its leading position in biotechnology.*Abbott Medical Optics *GE Healthcare*Pfizer *Phadia, an offshoot of Pharmacia*Fresenius*Q-Med...
, 1773), Joseph PriestleyJoseph PriestleyJoseph Priestley, FRS was an 18th-century English theologian, Dissenting clergyman, natural philosopher, chemist, educator, and political theorist who published over 150 works...
(WiltshireWiltshireWiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...
, 1774). The term was coined by Antoine LavoisierAntoine LavoisierAntoine-Laurent de Lavoisier , the "father of modern chemistry", was a French nobleman prominent in the histories of chemistry and biology...
(1777). - PlatinumPlatinumPlatinum is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Pt and an atomic number of 78. Its name is derived from the Spanish term platina del Pinto, which is literally translated into "little silver of the Pinto River." It is a dense, malleable, ductile, precious, gray-white transition metal...
— Antonio de UlloaAntonio de UlloaAntonio de Ulloa y de la Torre-Girault was a Spanish general, explorer, author, astronomer, colonial administrator and the first Spanish governor of Louisiana.Rebellion of 1768]]....
and Charles Wood. - Complex planeComplex planeIn mathematics, the complex plane or z-plane is a geometric representation of the complex numbers established by the real axis and the orthogonal imaginary axis...
, a geometric representation of the complex numbers — John Wallis (1685), Caspar WesselCaspar WesselCaspar Wessel was a Norwegian-Danish mathematician and cartographer. In 1799, Wessel was the first person to describe the complex numbers. He was the younger brother of poet and playwright Johan Herman Wessel....
(1797), Jean-Robert ArgandJean-Robert ArgandJean-Robert Argand was a gifted amateur mathematician. In 1806, while managing a bookstore in Paris, he published the idea of geometrical interpretation of complex numbers known as the Argand diagram.-Life:...
(1806).
19th century
- In a treatise written in 1805 and published in 1866, Carl Friedrich GaussCarl Friedrich GaussJohann Carl Friedrich Gauss was a German mathematician and scientist who contributed significantly to many fields, including number theory, statistics, analysis, differential geometry, geodesy, geophysics, electrostatics, astronomy and optics.Sometimes referred to as the Princeps mathematicorum...
describes an efficient algorithm to compute the discrete Fourier transformDiscrete Fourier transformIn mathematics, the discrete Fourier transform is a specific kind of discrete transform, used in Fourier analysis. It transforms one function into another, which is called the frequency domain representation, or simply the DFT, of the original function...
. James W. Cooley and John W. TukeyJohn TukeyJohn Wilder Tukey ForMemRS was an American statistician.- Biography :Tukey was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts in 1915, and obtained a B.A. in 1936 and M.Sc. in 1937, in chemistry, from Brown University, before moving to Princeton University where he received a Ph.D...
reinvented a similar algorithm in 1965. - CadmiumCadmiumCadmium is a chemical element with the symbol Cd and atomic number 48. This soft, bluish-white metal is chemically similar to the two other stable metals in group 12, zinc and mercury. Similar to zinc, it prefers oxidation state +2 in most of its compounds and similar to mercury it shows a low...
— Friedrich StrohmeyerFriedrich StrohmeyerFriedrich Stromeyer was a German chemist.Stromeyer received his degree from the University of Göttingen in 1800...
, K.S.L HermannKarl Samuel Leberecht HermannKarl Samuel Leberecht Hermann was a German chemist who independently discovered cadmium in 1817.Cadmium was discovered in 1817 by a physician, Friedrich Stromeyer . The element was first found in the condensation of vapors that rose out of a furnace in which zinc oxide was being roasted...
(both in 1817). - Grotthuss–Draper law (aka the Principle of Photochemical Activation) — first proposed in 1817 by Theodor Grotthuss, then independently, in 1842, by John William DraperJohn William DraperJohn William Draper was an American scientist, philosopher, physician, chemist, historian, and photographer. He is credited with producing the first clear photograph of a female face and the first detailed photograph of the Moon...
. The law states that only that light which is absorbed by a system can bring about a photochemical change. - BerylliumBerylliumBeryllium is the chemical element with the symbol Be and atomic number 4. It is a divalent element which occurs naturally only in combination with other elements in minerals. Notable gemstones which contain beryllium include beryl and chrysoberyl...
— Friedrich Wöhler, A.A.B. Bussy (1828). - Electromagnetic inductionElectromagnetic inductionElectromagnetic induction is the production of an electric current across a conductor moving through a magnetic field. It underlies the operation of generators, transformers, induction motors, electric motors, synchronous motors, and solenoids....
was discovered by Michael FaradayMichael FaradayMichael Faraday, FRS was an English chemist and physicist who contributed to the fields of electromagnetism and electrochemistry....
in England in 1831, and independently about the same time by Joseph HenryJoseph HenryJoseph Henry was an American scientist who served as the first Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, as well as a founding member of the National Institute for the Promotion of Science, a precursor of the Smithsonian Institution. During his lifetime, he was highly regarded...
in the U.S. - ChloroformChloroformChloroform is an organic compound with formula CHCl3. It is one of the four chloromethanes. The colorless, sweet-smelling, dense liquid is a trihalomethane, and is considered somewhat hazardous...
— Samuel GuthrieSamuel Guthrie (United States physician)Samuel Guthrie was an American physician from Hounsfield, New York. He invented a form of percussion powder and also the punch lock for igniting it, which made the flintlock musket obsolete...
in the U.S.United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
(July 1831), and a few months later Eugène SoubeiranEugène SoubeiranEugène Soubeiran was a French scientist who served as chief pharmacist at the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital. He was one of three researchers who discovered chloroform independently of one another...
(FranceFranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
) and Justus von LiebigJustus von LiebigJustus von Liebig was a German chemist who made major contributions to agricultural and biological chemistry, and worked on the organization of organic chemistry. As a professor, he devised the modern laboratory-oriented teaching method, and for such innovations, he is regarded as one of the...
(GermanyGermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
), all of them using variations of the haloform reactionHaloform reactionThe haloform reaction is a chemical reaction where a haloform is produced by the exhaustive halogenation of a methyl ketone in the presence of a base. R may be , alkyl or aryl...
. - Non-Euclidian geometry hyperbolic geometryHyperbolic geometryIn mathematics, hyperbolic geometry is a non-Euclidean geometry, meaning that the parallel postulate of Euclidean geometry is replaced...
— Nikolai Ivanovich LobachevskyNikolai Ivanovich LobachevskyNikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky was a Russian mathematician and geometer, renowned primarily for his pioneering works on hyperbolic geometry, otherwise known as Lobachevskian geometry...
(1830), János BolyaiJános BolyaiJános Bolyai was a Hungarian mathematician, known for his work in non-Euclidean geometry.Bolyai was born in the Transylvanian town of Kolozsvár , then part of the Habsburg Empire , the son of Zsuzsanna Benkő and the well-known mathematician Farkas Bolyai.-Life:By the age of 13, he had mastered...
(1832); preceded by GaussGaussGauss may refer to:*Carl Friedrich Gauss, German mathematician and physicist*Gauss , a unit of magnetic flux density or magnetic induction*GAUSS , a software package*Gauss , a crater on the moon...
(unpublished result) ca 1805. - Dandelin–Gräffe method, aka Lobachevsky method — an algorithmAlgorithmIn mathematics and computer science, an algorithm is an effective method expressed as a finite list of well-defined instructions for calculating a function. Algorithms are used for calculation, data processing, and automated reasoning...
for finding multiple roots of a polynomialPolynomialIn mathematics, a polynomial is an expression of finite length constructed from variables and constants, using only the operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and non-negative integer exponents...
, developed independently by Germinal Pierre DandelinGerminal Pierre DandelinGerminal Pierre Dandelin was a mathematician, soldier, and professor of engineering. He was born near Paris to a French father and Belgian mother, studying first at Ghent then returning to Paris to study at the École Polytechnique. He was wounded fighting under Napoleon. He worked for the...
, Karl Heinrich Gräffe and Nikolai Ivanovich LobachevskyNikolai Ivanovich LobachevskyNikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky was a Russian mathematician and geometer, renowned primarily for his pioneering works on hyperbolic geometry, otherwise known as Lobachevskian geometry...
. - Electrical telegraphElectrical telegraphAn electrical telegraph is a telegraph that uses electrical signals, usually conveyed via telecommunication lines or radio. The electromagnetic telegraph is a device for human-to-human transmission of coded text messages....
— Charles WheatstoneCharles WheatstoneSir Charles Wheatstone FRS , was an English scientist and inventor of many scientific breakthroughs of the Victorian era, including the English concertina, the stereoscope , and the Playfair cipher...
(England), 1837, Samuel F.B. Morse (United States), 1837. - First law of thermodynamicsFirst law of thermodynamicsThe first law of thermodynamics is an expression of the principle of conservation of work.The law states that energy can be transformed, i.e. changed from one form to another, but cannot be created nor destroyed...
– In the late 19th century, various scientists independently stated that energy and matter are persistent, although this was later to be disregarded under subatomic conditions. Hess's LawHess's lawHess' law is a relationship in physical chemistry named for Germain Hess, a Swiss-born Russian chemist and physician.The law states that the enthalpy change for a reaction that is carried out in a series of steps is equal to the sum of the enthalpy changes for the individual steps.The law is an...
(Germain Hess), Julius Robert von MayerJulius Robert von MayerJulius Robert von Mayer was a German physician and physicist and one of the founders of thermodynamics...
, and James Joule were some of the first. - In 1846, Urbain Le Verrier and John Couch AdamsJohn Couch AdamsJohn Couch Adams was a British mathematician and astronomer. Adams was born in Laneast, near Launceston, Cornwall, and died in Cambridge. The Cornish name Couch is pronounced "cooch"....
, studying UranusUranusUranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. It has the third-largest planetary radius and fourth-largest planetary mass in the Solar System. It is named after the ancient Greek deity of the sky Uranus , the father of Cronus and grandfather of Zeus...
' orbit, independently proved that another, farther planet must exist. NeptuneNeptuneNeptune is the eighth and farthest planet from the Sun in the Solar System. Named for the Roman god of the sea, it is the fourth-largest planet by diameter and the third largest by mass. Neptune is 17 times the mass of Earth and is slightly more massive than its near-twin Uranus, which is 15 times...
was found at the predicted moment and position. - The Möbius stripMöbius stripThe Möbius strip or Möbius band is a surface with only one side and only one boundary component. The Möbius strip has the mathematical property of being non-orientable. It can be realized as a ruled surface...
was discovered independently by the German astronomer–mathematician August Ferdinand MöbiusAugust Ferdinand MöbiusAugust Ferdinand Möbius was a German mathematician and theoretical astronomer.He is best known for his discovery of the Möbius strip, a non-orientable two-dimensional surface with only one side when embedded in three-dimensional Euclidean space. It was independently discovered by Johann Benedict...
and the German mathematician Johann Benedict ListingJohann Benedict ListingJohann Benedict Listing was a German mathematician.J. B. Listing was born in Frankfurt and died in Göttingen. He first introduced the term "topology", in a famous article published in 1847, although he had used the term in correspondence some years earlier...
in 1858. - Theory of evolution by natural selectionNatural selectionNatural selection is the nonrandom process by which biologic traits become either more or less common in a population as a function of differential reproduction of their bearers. It is a key mechanism of evolution....
— Charles DarwinCharles DarwinCharles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
(discovery about 1840), Alfred Russel WallaceAlfred Russel WallaceAlfred Russel Wallace, OM, FRS was a British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist and biologist...
(discovery about 1857-8) — joint publication, 1859. - 109P/Swift–Tuttle, the cometCometA comet is an icy small Solar System body that, when close enough to the Sun, displays a visible coma and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena are both due to the effects of solar radiation and the solar wind upon the nucleus of the comet...
generating the Perseid meteor shower, was independently discovered by Lewis Swift on July 16, 1862, and by Horace Parnell TuttleHorace Parnell TuttleHorace Parnell Tuttle was an American astronomer, a Civil War veteran and brother of astronomer Charles Wesley Tuttle ....
on July 19, 1862. The comet made a return appearance in 1992, when it was rediscovered by Japanese astronomerAstronomerAn astronomer is a scientist who studies celestial bodies such as planets, stars and galaxies.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using...
Tsuruhiko Kiuchi. - HeliumHeliumHelium is the chemical element with atomic number 2 and an atomic weight of 4.002602, which is represented by the symbol He. It is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, inert, monatomic gas that heads the noble gas group in the periodic table...
— Pierre JansenPierre Jules César JanssenPierre Jules César Janssen , usually known in French as Jules Janssen, was a French astronomer who, along with the English scientist Joseph Norman Lockyer, is credited with discovering the gas helium....
, Norman LockyerJoseph Norman LockyerSir Joseph Norman Lockyer, FRS , known simply as Norman Lockyer, was an English scientist and astronomer. Along with the French scientist Pierre Janssen he is credited with discovering the gas helium...
(both in 1868). - In 1869, Dmitri Ivanovich MendeleevDmitri MendeleevDmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev , was a Russian chemist and inventor. He is credited as being the creator of the first version of the periodic table of elements...
published his periodic tablePeriodic tableThe periodic table of the chemical elements is a tabular display of the 118 known chemical elements organized by selected properties of their atomic structures. Elements are presented by increasing atomic number, the number of protons in an atom's atomic nucleus...
of chemical elements, and the following year Julius Lothar MeyerJulius Lothar MeyerJulius Lothar von Meyer was a German chemist. He was contemporary and competitor of Dmitri Mendeleev to draw up the first periodic table of chemical elements...
published his independently constructed version. - In 1876, Oskar HertwigOskar HertwigOscar Hertwig was a German zoologist and professor, who also wrote about the theory of evolution circa 1916, over 55 years after Charles Darwin's book The Origin of Species...
and Hermann FolHermann FolHermann Fol was a Swiss zoologist and the father of modern cytology.After studying medicine and zoology with Ernst Haeckel at the University of Jena where he was a pupil of François Jules Pictet de la Rive and Edouard Claparède , he accompanied Haeckel on a prolonged scientific journey around...
independently described the entry of spermSpermatozoonA spermatozoon is a motile sperm cell, or moving form of the haploid cell that is the male gamete. A spermatozoon joins an ovum to form a zygote...
into the eggOvumAn ovum is a haploid female reproductive cell or gamete. Both animals and embryophytes have ova. The term ovule is used for the young ovum of an animal, as well as the plant structure that carries the female gametophyte and egg cell and develops into a seed after fertilization...
and the subsequent fusion of the egg and sperm nuclei to form a single new nucleus. - In 1876, Elisha GrayElisha GrayElisha Gray was an American electrical engineer who co-founded the Western Electric Manufacturing Company...
and Alexander Graham BellAlexander Graham BellAlexander Graham Bell was an eminent scientist, inventor, engineer and innovator who is credited with inventing the first practical telephone....
filed a patent on discovery of the telephone on the same day. - In 1877 Charles CrosCharles CrosCharles Cros was a French poet and inventor. He was born in Fabrezan, Aude, France, 35 km to the East of Carcassonne....
described the principles of the phonographPhonographThe phonograph record player, or gramophone is a device introduced in 1877 that has had continued common use for reproducing sound recordings, although when first developed, the phonograph was used to both record and reproduce sounds...
that was, independently, constructed the following year by Thomas EdisonThomas EdisonThomas Alva Edison was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. In addition, he created the world’s first industrial...
. - The Hall–Héroult process for inexpensively producing aluminum was independently discovered in 1886 by the American engineer-inventor Charles Martin HallCharles Martin HallCharles Martin Hall was an American inventor, music enthusiast, and chemist. He is best known for his invention in 1886 of an inexpensive method for producing aluminium, which became the first metal to attain widespread use since the prehistoric discovery of iron.-Early years:Charles Martin Hall...
and the French scientist Paul HéroultPaul HéroultThe French scientist Paul Héroult was the inventor of the aluminium electrolysis and of the electric steel furnace. He lived in Thury-Harcourt, Normandy.Christian Bickert said of him...
. - Two proofsMathematical proofIn mathematics, a proof is a convincing demonstration that some mathematical statement is necessarily true. Proofs are obtained from deductive reasoning, rather than from inductive or empirical arguments. That is, a proof must demonstrate that a statement is true in all cases, without a single...
of the prime number theoremPrime number theoremIn number theory, the prime number theorem describes the asymptotic distribution of the prime numbers. The prime number theorem gives a general description of how the primes are distributed amongst the positive integers....
(the asymptotic law of the distribution of prime numbers) were obtained independently by Jacques HadamardJacques HadamardJacques Salomon Hadamard FRS was a French mathematician who made major contributions in number theory, complex function theory, differential geometry and partial differential equations.-Biography:...
and Charles de la Vallée-Poussin and appeared in the same year (1896). - Linguists Filip Fyodorovich Fortunatov and Ferdinand de SaussureFerdinand de SaussureFerdinand de Saussure was a Swiss linguist whose ideas laid a foundation for many significant developments in linguistics in the 20th century. He is widely considered one of the fathers of 20th-century linguistics...
independently formulated the sound law now known as the Saussure–Fortunatov law.
20th century
- In 1902 Walter SuttonWalter SuttonWalter Stanborough Sutton was an American geneticist and physician whose most significant contribution to present-day biology was his theory that the Mendelian laws of inheritance could be applied to chromosomes at the cellular level of living organisms...
and Theodor BoveriTheodor Boveri-External links:* Fritz Baltzer. . excerpt from . University of California Press, Berkeley; pp. 85–97....
independently proposed that the hereditary information is carried in the chromosomeChromosomeA chromosome is an organized structure of DNA and protein found in cells. It is a single piece of coiled DNA containing many genes, regulatory elements and other nucleotide sequences. Chromosomes also contain DNA-bound proteins, which serve to package the DNA and control its functions.Chromosomes...
s. - In the same year (1902) Richard AssmannRichard AssmannRichard Assmann ; was a German meteorologist and physician who was a native of Magdeburg....
and Léon Teisserenc de BortLéon Teisserenc de BortLéon Philippe Teisserenc de Bort was a French meteorologist who became famous for his discovery of the stratosphere...
independently discovered the stratosphereStratosphereThe stratosphere is the second major layer of Earth's atmosphere, just above the troposphere, and below the mesosphere. It is stratified in temperature, with warmer layers higher up and cooler layers farther down. This is in contrast to the troposphere near the Earth's surface, which is cooler...
. - E = mc2, though only Einstein provided the accepted interpretation — Henri PoincaréHenri PoincaréJules Henri Poincaré was a French mathematician, theoretical physicist, engineer, and a philosopher of science...
, 1900; Olinto De PrettoOlinto De PrettoOlinto De Pretto was an Italian industrialist, physicist and geologist from Schio, Vicenza. He is credited with being the first person to derive the precise formula E=mc2 and is also the first to conclude that radioactive decay of uranium and thorium was an example of energy transformation from...
, 1903; Albert EinsteinAlbert EinsteinAlbert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history...
, 1905; Paul LangevinPaul LangevinPaul Langevin was a prominent French physicist who developed Langevin dynamics and the Langevin equation. He was one of the founders of the Comité de vigilance des intellectuels antifascistes, an antifascist organization created in the wake of the 6 February 1934 far right riots...
, 1906. - EpinephrineEpinephrineEpinephrine is a hormone and a neurotransmitter. It increases heart rate, constricts blood vessels, dilates air passages and participates in the fight-or-flight response of the sympathetic nervous system. In chemical terms, adrenaline is one of a group of monoamines called the catecholamines...
— synthesized 1904 independently by Friedrich StolzFriedrich StolzFriedrich Stolz was a German chemist and, in 1904, the first person to artificially synthesize epinephrine .-References:...
and Henry Drysdale DakinHenry Drysdale DakinHenry Drysdale Dakin FRS was an English chemist.He was born in London as the youngest of 8 children to a family of steel merchants from Leeds. As a school boy he did water analysis with the Leeds City Analyst. He studied chemistry at the University of Leeds with Julius B...
. - Lutetium — discovered 1907 independently by French scientist Georges UrbainGeorges UrbainGeorges Urbain - French chemist, professor of Sorbonne. He studied at the elite École supérieure de physique et de chimie industrielles de la ville de Paris . He discovered the element Lutetium in 1907.-References:...
and Austrian mineralogist Baron Carl Auer von WelsbachCarl Auer von WelsbachCarl Auer Freiherr von Welsbach was an Austrian scientist and inventor who had a talent for not only discovering advances, but turning them into commercially successful products...
. - Hilbert space representation theorem, also known as Riesz representation theoremRiesz representation theoremThere are several well-known theorems in functional analysis known as the Riesz representation theorem. They are named in honour of Frigyes Riesz.- The Hilbert space representation theorem :...
, the mathematical justification of the Bra-ket notationBra-ket notationBra-ket notation is a standard notation for describing quantum states in the theory of quantum mechanics composed of angle brackets and vertical bars. It can also be used to denote abstract vectors and linear functionals in mathematics...
in the theory of quantum mechanicsQuantum mechanicsQuantum mechanics, also known as quantum physics or quantum theory, is a branch of physics providing a mathematical description of much of the dual particle-like and wave-like behavior and interactions of energy and matter. It departs from classical mechanics primarily at the atomic and subatomic...
— 1907 independently proved by Frigyes RieszFrigyes RieszFrigyes Riesz was a mathematician who was born in Győr, Hungary and died in Budapest, Hungary. He was rector and professor at University of Szeged...
and Maurice René FréchetMaurice René FréchetMaurice Fréchet was a French mathematician. He made major contributions to the topology of point sets and introduced the entire concept of metric spaces. He also made several important contributions to the field of statistics and probability, as well as calculus...
. - Stark–Einstein law (aka photochemical equivalence law, or photoequivalence law) — independently formulated between 1908 and 1913 by Johannes StarkJohannes StarkJohannes Stark was a German physicist, and Physics Nobel Prize laureate who was closely involved with the Deutsche Physik movement under the Nazi regime.-Early years:...
and Albert EinsteinAlbert EinsteinAlbert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history...
. It states that every photonPhotonIn physics, a photon is an elementary particle, the quantum of the electromagnetic interaction and the basic unit of light and all other forms of electromagnetic radiation. It is also the force carrier for the electromagnetic force...
that is absorbed will cause a (primary) chemical or physical reaction. - Frequency-hopping spread spectrum in radioRadioRadio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
work was described by Johannes Zenneck (1908), Leonard DanilewiczLeonard DanilewiczLeonard Stanisław Danilewicz was a Polish engineer and, for some ten years before the outbreak of World War II, one of the four directors of the AVA Radio Company in Warsaw, Poland...
(1929), Willem Broertjes (1929), and Hedy LamarrHedy LamarrHedy Lamarr was an Austrian-American actress celebrated for her great beauty who was a major contract star of MGM's "Golden Age".Lamarr also co-invented – with composer George Antheil – an early technique for spread spectrum communications and frequency hopping, necessary to wireless...
and George AntheilGeorge AntheilGeorge Antheil was an American avant-garde composer, pianist, author and inventor. A self-described "Bad Boy of Music", his modernist compositions amazed and appalled listeners in Europe and the US during the 1920s with their cacophonous celebration of mechanical devices.Returning permanently to...
(1942 US patent). - BacteriophageBacteriophageA bacteriophage is any one of a number of viruses that infect bacteria. They do this by injecting genetic material, which they carry enclosed in an outer protein capsid...
s (virusVirusA virus is a small infectious agent that can replicate only inside the living cells of organisms. Viruses infect all types of organisms, from animals and plants to bacteria and archaea...
es that infect bacteriaBacteriaBacteria are a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria have a wide range of shapes, ranging from spheres to rods and spirals...
) — Frederick TwortFrederick TwortFrederick William Twort was an English bacteriologist and was the original discoverer in 1915 of bacteriophages . He studied medicine at St Thomas's Hospital, London, was superintendent of the Brown Institute for Animals , and he was also professor of bacteriology at the University of London...
(1915), Félix d'HérelleFélix d'HerelleFélix d'Herelle was a French-Canadian microbiologist, the co-discoverer of bacteriophages and experimented with the possibility of phage therapy.-Early years:...
(1917). - Rotor cipher machinesRotor machineIn cryptography, a rotor machine is an electro-mechanical device used for encrypting and decrypting secret messages. Rotor machines were the cryptographic state-of-the-art for a prominent period of history; they were in widespread use in the 1920s–1970s...
— Theo A. van Hengel and R.P.C. Spengler (1915); Edward HebernEdward HebernEdward Hugh Hebern was an early inventor of rotor machines, devices for encryption.-Background:Edward Hugh Hebern was born in Streator, Illinois on April 23, 1869. His parents were Charles and Rosanna Hebern. They met in Harris County, Texas while Charles was serving as guard and escort from the...
(1917); Arthur ScherbiusArthur ScherbiusArthur Scherbius was a German electrical engineer who patented an invention for a mechanical cipher machine, later sold as the Enigma machine.Scherbius was born in Frankfurt am Main and his father was a small businessman...
(Enigma machineEnigma machineAn Enigma machine is any of a family of related electro-mechanical rotor cipher machines used for the encryption and decryption of secret messages. Enigma was invented by German engineer Arthur Scherbius at the end of World War I...
, 1918); Hugo KochHugo KochHugo Alexander Koch was a Dutch inventor who conceived of and patented an idea for machine encryption — the rotor machine, although he was not the first to do so...
(1919); Arvid Damm (1919). - Sound film — Joseph Tykociński-Tykociner (1922), Lee De ForestLee De ForestLee De Forest was an American inventor with over 180 patents to his credit. De Forest invented the Audion, a vacuum tube that takes relatively weak electrical signals and amplifies them. De Forest is one of the fathers of the "electronic age", as the Audion helped to usher in the widespread use...
(1923). - Georgios PapanikolaouGeorgios PapanikolaouGeorgios Nicholas Papanikolaou was a Greek pioneer in cytology and early cancer detection, and inventor of the "Pap smear".-Life:...
is credited with discovering as early as 1923 that cervical cancerCervical cancerCervical cancer is malignant neoplasm of the cervix uteri or cervical area. One of the most common symptoms is abnormal vaginal bleeding, but in some cases there may be no obvious symptoms until the cancer is in its advanced stages...
cells can be detected microscopically, though his invention of the Pap test went largely ignored by physicians until 1943. Aurel BabeşAurel BabesAurel Babeş was a Romanian scientist and one of the discoverers of the vaginal smear as screening test for cervical cancer. He was the nephew of Victor Babeş, co-author of the first treaty of bacteriology....
of RomaniaRomaniaRomania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
independently made similar discoveries in 1927. - "Primordial soupAbiogenesisAbiogenesis or biopoesis is the study of how biological life arises from inorganic matter through natural processes, and the method by which life on Earth arose...
" theory of the evolution of life from carbon-based molecules — Alexander Oparin (1924), J.B.S. Haldane. - Indefinability theoremTarski's indefinability theoremTarski's undefinability theorem, stated and proved by Alfred Tarski in 1936, is an important limitative result in mathematical logic, the foundations of mathematics, and in formal semantics...
, an important limitative result in mathematical logicMathematical logicMathematical logic is a subfield of mathematics with close connections to foundations of mathematics, theoretical computer science and philosophical logic. The field includes both the mathematical study of logic and the applications of formal logic to other areas of mathematics...
— Kurt GödelKurt GödelKurt Friedrich Gödel was an Austrian logician, mathematician and philosopher. Later in his life he emigrated to the United States to escape the effects of World War II. One of the most significant logicians of all time, Gödel made an immense impact upon scientific and philosophical thinking in the...
, Alfred TarskiAlfred TarskiAlfred Tarski was a Polish logician and mathematician. Educated at the University of Warsaw and a member of the Lwow-Warsaw School of Logic and the Warsaw School of Mathematics and philosophy, he emigrated to the USA in 1939, and taught and carried out research in mathematics at the University of...
. - Natural deductionNatural deductionIn logic and proof theory, natural deduction is a kind of proof calculus in which logical reasoning is expressed by inference rules closely related to the "natural" way of reasoning...
, an approach to proof theoryProof theoryProof theory is a branch of mathematical logic that represents proofs as formal mathematical objects, facilitating their analysis by mathematical techniques. Proofs are typically presented as inductively-defined data structures such as plain lists, boxed lists, or trees, which are constructed...
in philosophical logicPhilosophical logicPhilosophical logic is a term introduced by Bertrand Russell to represent his idea that the workings of natural language and thought can only be adequately represented by an artificial language; essentially it was his formalization program for the natural language...
— discovered independently by Gerhard GentzenGerhard GentzenGerhard Karl Erich Gentzen was a German mathematician and logician. He had his major contributions in the foundations of mathematics, proof theory, especially on natural deduction and sequent calculus...
and Stanisław Jaśkowski in 1934. - In mathematicsMathematicsMathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
, the Gelfond–Schneider theoremGelfond–Schneider theoremIn mathematics, the Gelfond–Schneider theorem establishes the transcendence of a large class of numbers. It was originally proved independently in 1934 by Aleksandr Gelfond and Theodor Schneider...
is a result which establishes the transcendenceTranscendental numberIn mathematics, a transcendental number is a number that is not algebraic—that is, it is not a root of a non-constant polynomial equation with rational coefficients. The most prominent examples of transcendental numbers are π and e...
of a large class of numbers. It was originally proved in 1934 by Aleksandr Gelfond and again independently proved in 1935 by Theodor SchneiderTheodor SchneiderTheodor Schneider was a German mathematician, best known for providing proof of what is now known as the Gelfond–Schneider theorem in 1935....
. - The Penrose trianglePenrose triangleThe Penrose triangle, also known as the Penrose tribar, is an impossible object. It was first created by the Swedish artist Oscar Reutersvärd in 1934. The mathematician Roger Penrose independently devised and popularised it in the 1950s, describing it as "impossibility in its purest form". It is...
, also known as the "tribar", is an impossible objectImpossible objectAn impossible object is a type of optical illusion consisting of a two-dimensional figure which is instantly and subconsciously interpreted by the visual system as representing a projection of a three-dimensional object although it is not actually possible for such an object to exist An impossible...
. It was first created by the Swedish artist Oscar ReutersvärdOscar ReutersvärdOscar Reutersvärd , "the father of the impossible figure", was an artist who pioneered the art of impossible objects. These are images such as what was later renamed the Penrose triangle that appear to depict solid objects, which, however, are impossible to construct in reality...
in 1934. The mathematicianMathematicianA mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....
Roger PenroseRoger PenroseSir Roger Penrose OM FRS is an English mathematical physicist and Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics at the Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford and Emeritus Fellow of Wadham College...
independently devised and popularised it in the 1950s. - In computer scienceComputer scienceComputer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
, the concept of the "universal computing machine" (now generally called the "Turing MachineTuring machineA Turing machine is a theoretical device that manipulates symbols on a strip of tape according to a table of rules. Despite its simplicity, a Turing machine can be adapted to simulate the logic of any computer algorithm, and is particularly useful in explaining the functions of a CPU inside a...
") was proposed by Alan TuringAlan TuringAlan Mathison Turing, OBE, FRS , was an English mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst, and computer scientist. He was highly influential in the development of computer science, providing a formalisation of the concepts of "algorithm" and "computation" with the Turing machine, which played a...
, but also independently by Emil PostEmil Leon PostEmil Leon Post was a mathematician and logician. He is best known for his work in the field that eventually became known as computability theory.-Early work:...
, both in 1936. Similar approaches, also aiming to cover the concept of universal computing, were introduced by S.C. KleeneStephen Cole KleeneStephen Cole Kleene was an American mathematician who helped lay the foundations for theoretical computer science...
and by Alonzo ChurchAlonzo ChurchAlonzo Church was an American mathematician and logician who made major contributions to mathematical logic and the foundations of theoretical computer science. He is best known for the lambda calculus, Church–Turing thesis, Frege–Church ontology, and the Church–Rosser theorem.-Life:Alonzo Church...
that same year. Also in 1936, Konrad ZuseKonrad ZuseKonrad Zuse was a German civil engineer and computer pioneer. His greatest achievement was the world's first functional program-controlled Turing-complete computer, the Z3, which became operational in May 1941....
tried to build a binary electrically-driven mechanical calculator with limited programability; however, Zuse's machine was never fully functional. The Atanasoff–Berry Computer ("ABC"), designed by John Vincent AtanasoffJohn Vincent AtanasoffJohn Vincent Atanasoff was an American physicist and inventor.The 1973 decision of the patent suit Honeywell v. Sperry Rand named him the inventor of the first automatic electronic digital computer...
and Clifford BerryClifford BerryClifford Edward Berry was an American inventor.Clifford Berry was born in Gladbrook, Iowa to Fred Gordon Berry and Grace Strohm...
, was the first fully electronicElectronicsElectronics is the branch of science, engineering and technology that deals with electrical circuits involving active electrical components such as vacuum tubes, transistors, diodes and integrated circuits, and associated passive interconnection technologies...
digitalDigitalA digital system is a data technology that uses discrete values. By contrast, non-digital systems use a continuous range of values to represent information...
computingComputingComputing is usually defined as the activity of using and improving computer hardware and software. It is the computer-specific part of information technology...
device; while not programmable, it pioneered important elements of modern computing, including binary arithmetic and electronic switchingElectronicsElectronics is the branch of science, engineering and technology that deals with electrical circuits involving active electrical components such as vacuum tubes, transistors, diodes and integrated circuits, and associated passive interconnection technologies...
elements, though its special-purpose nature and lack of a changeable, stored program distinguish it from modern computers. - The jet engineJet engineA jet engine is a reaction engine that discharges a fast moving jet to generate thrust by jet propulsion and in accordance with Newton's laws of motion. This broad definition of jet engines includes turbojets, turbofans, rockets, ramjets, pulse jets...
, independently invented by them, was used in working aircraft by Hans von OhainHans von OhainHans Joachim Pabst von Ohain was a German engineer, one of the inventors of jet propulsion.Frank Whittle, who patented in 1930 in the United Kingdom, and Hans von Ohain, who patented in 1936 in Germany, developed the concept independently during the late 1930s...
(1939), Secondo CampiniSecondo CampiniSecondo Campini was an Italian engineer and one of the pioneers of the jet engine.Campini was born at Bologna, Emilia-Romagna. In 1931 he wrote a proposal for the Italian Air Ministry on the value of jet propulsion and in 1932 demonstrated a jet-powered boat in Venice...
(1940) and Frank WhittleFrank WhittleAir Commodore Sir Frank Whittle, OM, KBE, CB, FRS, Hon FRAeS was a British Royal Air Force engineer officer. He is credited with independently inventing the turbojet engine Air Commodore Sir Frank Whittle, OM, KBE, CB, FRS, Hon FRAeS (1 June 1907 – 9 August 1996) was a British Royal Air...
(1941). - Polio vaccinePolio vaccineTwo polio vaccines are used throughout the world to combat poliomyelitis . The first was developed by Jonas Salk and first tested in 1952. Announced to the world by Salk on April 12, 1955, it consists of an injected dose of inactivated poliovirus. An oral vaccine was developed by Albert Sabin...
(1950–63): Hilary KoprowskiHilary KoprowskiHilary Koprowski is a Polish virologist and immunologist, and inventor of the world's first effective live polio vaccine.-Life:...
, Jonas SalkJonas SalkJonas Edward Salk was an American medical researcher and virologist, best known for his discovery and development of the first safe and effective polio vaccine. He was born in New York City to parents from Ashkenazi Jewish Russian immigrant families...
, Albert SabinAlbert SabinAlbert Bruce Sabin was an American medical researcher best known for having developed an oral polio vaccine.-Life:...
. - Quantum electrodynamicsQuantum electrodynamicsQuantum electrodynamics is the relativistic quantum field theory of electrodynamics. In essence, it describes how light and matter interact and is the first theory where full agreement between quantum mechanics and special relativity is achieved...
and renormalizationRenormalizationIn quantum field theory, the statistical mechanics of fields, and the theory of self-similar geometric structures, renormalization is any of a collection of techniques used to treat infinities arising in calculated quantities....
(1930s–40s): Ernst StueckelbergErnst StueckelbergErnst Carl Gerlach Stueckelberg was a Swiss mathematician and physicist.- Career :In 1927 Stueckelberg got his Ph. D. at the University of Basel under August Hagenbach...
, Julian SchwingerJulian SchwingerJulian Seymour Schwinger was an American theoretical physicist. He is best known for his work on the theory of quantum electrodynamics, in particular for developing a relativistically invariant perturbation theory, and for renormalizing QED to one loop order.Schwinger is recognized as one of the...
, Richard FeynmanRichard FeynmanRichard Phillips Feynman was an American physicist known for his work in the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics and the physics of the superfluidity of supercooled liquid helium, as well as in particle physics...
, and Sin-Itiro TomonagaSin-Itiro Tomonagawas a Japanese physicist, influential in the development of quantum electrodynamics, work for which he was jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965 along with Richard Feynman and Julian Schwinger.-Biography:...
, for which the latter 3 received the 1965 Nobel Prize in PhysicsNobel Prize in PhysicsThe Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded once a year by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895 and awarded since 1901; the others are the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Peace Prize, and...
. - The maserMaserA maser is a device that produces coherent electromagnetic waves through amplification by stimulated emission. Historically, “maser” derives from the original, upper-case acronym MASER, which stands for "Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation"...
, a pre-cursor to the laserLaserA laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of photons. The term "laser" originated as an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation...
, was described by Russian scientists in 1952, and built independently by scientists at Columbia university in 1953. The laserLaserA laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of photons. The term "laser" originated as an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation...
itself was developed independently by Gordon GouldGordon GouldGordon Gould was an American physicist who is widely, but not universally, credited with the invention of the laser. Gould is best known for his thirty-year fight with the United States Patent and Trademark Office to obtain patents for the laser and related technologies...
at Columbia university and by researchers at Bell labs, and by the Russian scientist Aleksandr Prokhorov. - Kolmogorov complexityKolmogorov complexityIn algorithmic information theory , the Kolmogorov complexity of an object, such as a piece of text, is a measure of the computational resources needed to specify the object...
, also known as "Kolmogorov–Chaitin complexity," descriptive complexity, etc., of an object such as a piece of text is a measure of the computational resources needed to specify the object. The concept was independently introduced by Ray SolomonoffRay SolomonoffRay Solomonoff was the inventor of algorithmic probability, and founder of algorithmic information theory, He was an originator of the branch of artificial intelligence based on machine learning, prediction and probability...
, Andrey KolmogorovAndrey KolmogorovAndrey Nikolaevich Kolmogorov was a Soviet mathematician, preeminent in the 20th century, who advanced various scientific fields, among them probability theory, topology, intuitionistic logic, turbulence, classical mechanics and computational complexity.-Early life:Kolmogorov was born at Tambov...
and Gregory ChaitinGregory ChaitinGregory John Chaitin is an Argentine-American mathematician and computer scientist.-Mathematics and computer science:Beginning in 2009 Chaitin has worked on metabiology, a field parallel to biology dealing with the random evolution of artificial software instead of natural software .Beginning in...
in the 1960s. - The concept of packet switchingPacket switchingPacket switching is a digital networking communications method that groups all transmitted data – regardless of content, type, or structure – into suitably sized blocks, called packets. Packet switching features delivery of variable-bit-rate data streams over a shared network...
, a communications method in which discrete blocks of data (packets) are routedRoutingRouting is the process of selecting paths in a network along which to send network traffic. Routing is performed for many kinds of networks, including the telephone network , electronic data networks , and transportation networks...
between nodesNode (networking)In communication networks, a node is a connection point, either a redistribution point or a communication endpoint . The definition of a node depends on the network and protocol layer referred to...
over data links, was first explored by Paul BaranPaul BaranPaul Baran was a Polish American engineer who was a pioneer in the development of computer networks.He invented packet switching techniques, and went on to start several companies and develop other technologies that are an essential part of the Internet and other modern digital...
in the early 1960s, and then independently a few years later by Donald DaviesDonald DaviesDonald Watts Davies, CBE FRS was a Welsh computer scientist who was one of the inventors of packet switching computer networking, and originator of the term.-Career history:...
. - The Cocke–Younger–Kasami algorithmCYK algorithmThe Cocke–Younger–Kasami algorithm is a parsing algorithm for context-free grammars. It employs bottom-up parsing and dynamic programming....
was independently discovered three times: by T. Kasami (1965), by Daniel H. Younger (1967), and by John CockeJohn CockeJohn Cocke was an American computer scientist recognized for his large contribution to computer architecture and optimizing compiler design. He is considered by many to be "the father of RISC architecture."...
and Jacob T. Schwartz (1970). - In 1970, Howard Temin and David BaltimoreDavid BaltimoreDavid Baltimore is an American biologist, university administrator, and Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine. He served as president of the California Institute of Technology from 1997 to 2006, and is currently the Robert A. Millikan Professor of Biology at Caltech...
independently discovered reverse transcriptaseReverse transcriptaseIn the fields of molecular biology and biochemistry, a reverse transcriptase, also known as RNA-dependent DNA polymerase, is a DNA polymerase enzyme that transcribes single-stranded RNA into single-stranded DNA. It also helps in the formation of a double helix DNA once the RNA has been reverse...
enzymes. - The Knuth–Morris–PrattKnuth–Morris–Pratt algorithmThe Knuth–Morris–Pratt string searching algorithm searches for occurrences of a "word" W within a main "text string" S by employing the observation that when a mismatch occurs, the word itself embodies sufficient information to determine where the next match could begin, thus bypassing...
string searching algorithmString searching algorithmString searching algorithms, sometimes called string matching algorithms, are an important class of string algorithms that try to find a place where one or several strings are found within a larger string or text....
was developed by Donald KnuthDonald KnuthDonald Ervin Knuth is a computer scientist and Professor Emeritus at Stanford University.He is the author of the seminal multi-volume work The Art of Computer Programming. Knuth has been called the "father" of the analysis of algorithms...
and Vaughan Pratt and independently by J. H. Morris. - The Cook–Levin theorem (also known as "Cook's theorem"), a result in computational complexity theoryComputational complexity theoryComputational complexity theory is a branch of the theory of computation in theoretical computer science and mathematics that focuses on classifying computational problems according to their inherent difficulty, and relating those classes to each other...
, was proven independently by Stephen CookStephen CookStephen Arthur Cook is a renowned American-Canadian computer scientist and mathematician who has made major contributions to the fields of complexity theory and proof complexity...
(1971 in the U.S.) and by Leonid LevinLeonid Levin-External links:* at Boston University....
(1973 in the USSRSoviet UnionThe Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
). Levin was not aware of Cook's achievement because of communication difficulties between East and West during the Cold WarCold WarThe Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
. The other way round, Levin's work was not widely known in the West until around 1978. - The Bohlen–Pierce scale, a harmonic, non-octave musical scale, was independently discovered by Heinz Bohlen (1972), Kees van Prooijen (1978) and John R. Pierce (1984).
- RSA, an algorithm suitable for signingDigital signatureA digital signature or digital signature scheme is a mathematical scheme for demonstrating the authenticity of a digital message or document. A valid digital signature gives a recipient reason to believe that the message was created by a known sender, and that it was not altered in transit...
and encryptionEncryptionIn cryptography, encryption is the process of transforming information using an algorithm to make it unreadable to anyone except those possessing special knowledge, usually referred to as a key. The result of the process is encrypted information...
in public-key cryptographyPublic-key cryptographyPublic-key cryptography refers to a cryptographic system requiring two separate keys, one to lock or encrypt the plaintext, and one to unlock or decrypt the cyphertext. Neither key will do both functions. One of these keys is published or public and the other is kept private...
, was publicly described in 1977 by Ron RivestRon RivestRonald Linn Rivest is a cryptographer. He is the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Professor of Computer Science at MIT's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and a member of MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory...
, Adi ShamirAdi ShamirAdi Shamir is an Israeli cryptographer. He is a co-inventor of the RSA algorithm , a co-inventor of the Feige–Fiat–Shamir identification scheme , one of the inventors of differential cryptanalysis and has made numerous contributions to the fields of cryptography and computer...
and Leonard AdlemanLeonard AdlemanLeonard Max Adleman is an American theoretical computer scientist and professor of computer science and molecular biology at the University of Southern California. He is known for being a co-inventor of the RSA cryptosystem in 1977, and of DNA computing...
. An equivalent system had been described in 1973 in an internal document by Clifford CocksClifford CocksClifford Christopher Cocks, CB, is a British mathematician and cryptographer at GCHQ.He invented the widely-used encryption algorithm now commonly known as RSA, about three years before it was independently developed by Rivest, Shamir, and Adleman at MIT...
, a British mathematician working for the UKUnited KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
intelligence agency GCHQGovernment Communications HeadquartersThe Government Communications Headquarters is a British intelligence agency responsible for providing signals intelligence and information assurance to the UK government and armed forces...
, but his work was not revealed until 1997 due to its top-secret classification. - Asymptotic freedomAsymptotic freedomIn physics, asymptotic freedom is a property of some gauge theories that causes interactions between particles to become arbitrarily weak at energy scales that become arbitrarily large, or, equivalently, at length scales that become arbitrarily small .Asymptotic freedom is a feature of quantum...
, which states that the strong nuclear interactionStrong interactionIn particle physics, the strong interaction is one of the four fundamental interactions of nature, the others being electromagnetism, the weak interaction and gravitation. As with the other fundamental interactions, it is a non-contact force...
between quarks decreases with decreasing distance, was discovered in 1973 by David GrossDavid GrossDavid Jonathan Gross is an American particle physicist and string theorist. Along with Frank Wilczek and David Politzer, he was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics for their discovery of asymptotic freedom. He is currently the director and holder of the Frederick W...
and Frank WilczekFrank WilczekFrank Anthony Wilczek is a theoretical physicist from the United States and a Nobel laureate. He is currently the Herman Feshbach Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ....
, and by David Politzer, and was published in the same edition of the journal Physical Review LettersPhysical Review LettersPhysical Review Letters , established in 1958, is a peer reviewed, scientific journal that is published 52 times per year by the American Physical Society...
. For their work the three received the Nobel Prize in PhysicsNobel Prize in PhysicsThe Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded once a year by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895 and awarded since 1901; the others are the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Peace Prize, and...
in 2004. - The J/ψ meson was independently discovered by a group at the Stanford Linear Accelerator CenterStanford Linear Accelerator CenterThe SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, originally named Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, is a United States Department of Energy National Laboratory operated by Stanford University under the programmatic direction of the U.S...
, headed by Burton RichterBurton RichterBurton Richter is a Nobel Prize-winning American physicist. He led the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center team which co-discovered the J/ψ meson in 1974, alongside the Brookhaven National Laboratory team led by Samuel Ting. This discovery was part of the so-called November Revolution of particle...
, and by a group at Brookhaven National LaboratoryBrookhaven National LaboratoryBrookhaven National Laboratory , is a United States national laboratory located in Upton, New York on Long Island, and was formally established in 1947 at the site of Camp Upton, a former U.S. Army base...
, headed by Samuel Ting of MIT. Both announced their discoveries on November 11, 1974. For their shared discovery, Richter and Ting shared the 1976 Nobel Prize in PhysicsNobel Prize in PhysicsThe Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded once a year by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895 and awarded since 1901; the others are the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Peace Prize, and...
. - Endorphins were discovered independently in Scotland and America in 1975.
- The use of elliptic curveElliptic curveIn mathematics, an elliptic curve is a smooth, projective algebraic curve of genus one, on which there is a specified point O. An elliptic curve is in fact an abelian variety — that is, it has a multiplication defined algebraically with respect to which it is a group — and O serves as the identity...
s in cryptographyCryptographyCryptography is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of third parties...
(Elliptic curve cryptographyElliptic curve cryptographyElliptic curve cryptography is an approach to public-key cryptography based on the algebraic structure of elliptic curves over finite fields. The use of elliptic curves in cryptography was suggested independently by Neal Koblitz and Victor S...
) was suggested independently by Neal KoblitzNeal KoblitzNeal I. Koblitz is a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Washington in the Department of Mathematics. He is also an adjunct professor with the Centre for Applied Cryptographic Research at the University of Waterloo. He is the creator of hyperelliptic curve cryptography and the...
and Victor S. MillerVictor S. MillerVictor Saul Miller is an American mathematician at the Center for Communications Research of the Institute for Defense Analyses in Princeton, New Jersey, US. He received his A.B. in mathematics from Columbia University in 1968, and his Ph.D. in mathematics from Harvard University in 1975...
in 1985. - The Immerman–Szelepcsényi theorem, another fundamental result in computational complexity theory, was proven independently by Neil ImmermanNeil ImmermanNeil Immerman is an American theoretical computer scientist, a professor of computer science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst...
and Róbert SzelepcsényiRóbert SzelepcsényiRóbert Szelepcsényi was a Slovak student of Hungarian descent and a member of the Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Informatics of Comenius University in Bratislava....
in 1987. - In 1993, groups led by Donald S. Bethune at IBM and Sumio IijimaSumio IijimaSumio Iijima is a Japanese physicist, often cited as the discoverer of carbon nanotubes. Although carbon nanotubes had been observed prior to his "discovery", Iijima's 1991 paper generated unprecedented interest in the carbon nanostructures and has since fueled intense research in the area of...
at NEC independently discovered single-wall carbon nanotubes and methods to produce them using transition-metal catalysts. - Conductive polymers: Between 1963 and 1977, doped and oxidized highly-conductive polyacetylene derivatives were independently discovered, "lost", and then rediscovered at least four times. The last rediscovery won the 2000 Nobel prize in Chemistry, for the "discovery and development of conductive polymers". This was without reference to the previous discoveries. Citations in article "Conductive polymers."
21st century
- In 2001 four different authors published different implementations of a distributed hash tableDistributed hash tableA distributed hash table is a class of a decentralized distributed system that provides a lookup service similar to a hash table; pairs are stored in a DHT, and any participating node can efficiently retrieve the value associated with a given key...
. - The 2008 Nobel Prize in Physics was divided, one half awarded to Yoichiro NambuYoichiro Nambuis a Japanese-born American physicist, currently a professor at the University of Chicago. Known for his contributions to the field of theoretical physics, he was awarded a one-half share of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2008 for the discovery of the mechanism of spontaneous broken symmetry in...
"for the discovery of the mechanism of spontaneous broken symmetrySpontaneous symmetry breakingSpontaneous symmetry breaking is the process by which a system described in a theoretically symmetrical way ends up in an apparently asymmetric state....
in subatomic physics", the other half jointly to Makoto KobayashiMakoto KobayashiMakoto Kobayashi is a Japanese manga artist that is best known for his unusual drawing style. One of his most well known manga is What's Michael?, a manga about a curious orange cat and his many adventures that is often compared with Garfield. His earliest work is Grapple Three Brothers, which...
and Toshihide MaskawaToshihide Maskawais a Japanese theoretical physicist known for his work on CP-violation who was awarded one quarter of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physics "for the discovery of the origin of the broken symmetry which predicts the existence of at least three families of quarks in nature."-Biography:A native of Aichi...
"for the discovery of the origin of the broken symmetry which predicts the existence of at least three families of quarks in nature". - The 2006 Shaw Prize in AstronomyShaw PrizeThe Shaw Prize is an annual award first presented by the Shaw Prize Foundation in 2004. Established in 2002 in Hong Kong, it honours living "individuals, regardless of race, nationality and religious belief, who have achieved significant breakthrough in academic and scientific research or...
and the 2011 Nobel Prize in PhysicsNobel Prize in PhysicsThe Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded once a year by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895 and awarded since 1901; the others are the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Peace Prize, and...
were both awarded to Saul PerlmutterSaul PerlmutterSaul Perlmutter is an American astrophysicist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and a professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of...
, Adam G. Riess and Brian P. SchmidtBrian P. SchmidtBrian P. Schmidt is a Distinguished Professor, Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow and astrophysicist at the Australian National University Mount Stromlo Observatory and Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics and is widely known for his research in using supernovae as Cosmological...
for the 1998 discovery of the accelerating expansion of the universeAccelerating universeThe accelerating universe is the observation that the universe appears to be expanding at an increasing rate, which in formal terms means that the cosmic scale factor a has a positive second derivative, implying that the velocity at which a given galaxy is receding from us should be continually...
through observations of distant supernovae.
Quotations
See also
- Convergent and divergent productionConvergent and divergent productionConvergent and divergent production are the two types of human response to a set problem that were identified by J.P. Guilford .Guilford observed that most individuals display a preference for either convergent or divergent thinking. Others observe that most people prefer a convergent closure...
- Historic recurrenceHistoric recurrenceHistoric recurrence is the repetition of similar events in history. In the extreme, the concept hypothetically assumes the form of the Doctrine of Eternal Recurrence, which has been written about in various forms since antiquity and was described in the 19th century by Heinrich Heine and Friedrich...
- History of scienceHistory of scienceThe history of science is the study of the historical development of human understandings of the natural world and the domains of the social sciences....
- History of technologyHistory of technologyThe history of technology is the history of the invention of tools and techniques, and is similar in many ways to the history of humanity. Background knowledge has enabled people to create new things, and conversely, many scientific endeavors have become possible through technologies which assist...
- List of discoveries
- Multiple discoveryMultiple discoveryThe concept of multiple discovery is the hypothesis that most scientific discoveries and inventions are made independently and more or less simultaneously by multiple scientists and inventors...
- SynchronicitySynchronicitySynchronicity is the experience of two or more events that are apparently causally unrelated or unlikely to occur together by chance and that are observed to occur together in a meaningful manner...
External links
- Annals of Innovation: In the Air:Who says big ideas are rare?, Malcolm Gladwell, The New YorkerThe New YorkerThe New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
, May 12, 2008 - The Technium: Simultaneous Invention, Kevin Kelly, May 9, 2008
- Apperceptual: The Heroic Theory of Scientific Development, Peter Turney, January 15, 2007
- A Survey of Russian Approaches to Perebor (Brute-Force Searches) Algorithms, by B.A. Trakhtenbrot, in the Annals of the History of Computing, 6(4):384-400, 1984.