Albert Einstein and the Theory of Relativity
ISBN 1-58415-137-4 • 9781584151371
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He was famous. When he was alive he was as well known as a
movie star, as respected as any star athlete. He was probably
the most famous scientist of the 20th century, perhaps the
most famous scientist who ever lived. Today, even adults with
limited scientific backgrounds usually know his name and,
even more unusual for a scientist, know what he looked like.
He was as famous for his wild gray hair and deep, thoughtful
eyes as he was for his simple equation E = mc2. Before his
fame he would know poverty, prejudice, and divorce. When he
first wrote the theories that changed the way the universe
was viewed, he was not a professor at a prestigious university
or a respected scientist. He was a lowly patent clerk unable
to land a better job. This is his story. |
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Alexander Fleming and the Story of Penicillin
ISBN 1-58415-106-4 • 9781584151067
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Never one to worry about neatness, Scottish-born scientist
Alexander Fleming often grew cultures in unwashed petri dishes.
In the hot summer of 1928, Fleming left for a two-week vacation.
In his haste, he forgot to clean up an old culture plate that
he had smeared with staphylococcus bacteria. Soon after he
left, a spore containing a rare strain of a fungus mold called
penicillium drifted into his lab from another lab in the same
building and settled onto the messy culture plate. Things
heated up and the bacteria on the plate sprouted like a weed.
Except in one spot where the penicillium spore had settled
and grown. Fleming believed he had discovered something very
important. Not everyone else agreed. In fact, it would take
until World War II, when he was well into middle age, before
anyone appreciated his discovery. |
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Charles Richter and the Story of the Richter Scale
ISBN 1-58415-175-7 • 9781584151753
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If you live in an area that commonly experiences earthquakes,
you have probably heard of the Richter scale. The news media
love to report the size and magnitude of an earthquake and
compare it to past earthquakes. Charles Richter started working
at the seismological lab in Pasadena, California in 1927.
Caltech University awarded him a doctorate of theoretical
physics in 1928. Richter was professor of seismology at the
seismological Laboratory at Caltech from 1936 until 1970.
He loved to educate people about earthquakes; he published Elementary
Seismology (1958) which is an exhaustive study of the
field. He also gave explanations of the scale that bears his
name and of earthquakes to the news media. These facts are
well known. But not everyone knows about the emotional instability
in the Richter family, a fact that concerned Charles throughout
most of his life. This is the story of a complex man, an outwardly
successful scientist at Caltech, who yearned to be a poet. |
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Edwin Hubble and the Theory of the Expanding Universe
ISBN 1-58415-174-9 • 9781584151746
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The life and accomplishments of astronomer Edwin Hubble, whose
discoveries about the nature and size of the universe solved
four central problems in cosmology, one of which formed the
basis of the "Big Bang Theory." |
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Frederick Banting and the Discovery of Insulin
ISBN 1-58415-094-7 • 9781584150947
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One of Canada's most renowned scientists, Frederick Banting
is credited with the discovery of insulin. Early in his life,
Banting saw suffering and wanted to know why doctors couldn't
cure sick people despite all their training. Banting knew
he wanted to become a doctor, only he wanted to be a different
kind of doctor. He didn't just want to help people feel better
while they slowly got sicker. He wanted to cure them. Before
he succeeded, he would know poverty, hunger, and would lose
the woman he loved. |
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Gerhard Domagk and the Discovery of Sulfa
ISBN 1-58415-115-3 • 9781584151159
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There are many scientists and researchers who have become
world famous for their inventions and discoveries. However,
the work of some scientific and medical pioneers offered only
brief benefits before being overshadowed by better, or more
long-lasting discoveries. This is the story of one of those
early pioneers. He discovered Prontosil's antibacterial properties
and used sulfa to save the lives of England's Prime Minister and
the son of a U.S. President. He even used the drug to save
the life of his own daughter. During the peak use of sulfa,
the drug saved the lives of both soldiers and civilians. Despite
his accomplishments, the man's contribution to modern medicine
has been largely forgotten. His name is Gerhard Domagk and
this is his story. |
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Jonas Salk and the Polio Vaccine
ISBN 1-58415-093-9 • 9781584150930
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One of the best known microbiologists, Salk is celebrated
mainly for his discovery of the polio vaccine. In the early
twentieth century, polio became a menacing disease. It struck
hundreds of thousands of children and young adults. The virus
didn't just spread disease. It also spread fear. Since polio
struck mainly in the summer, warm weather and vacations were
looked upon with dread. Families no longer went to the beach.
Mothers kept their children indoors on warm, sunny days. Jonas
Salk changed all that. He would solve the riddle to one of
the most tragic mysteries in the last one hundred years. He
would confront doctors and scientists who doubted his methods,
questioned his ability and ridiculed his results. |
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Joseph E. Murray and the Story of the First Human Kidney Transplant
ISBN 1-58415-136-6 • 9781584151364
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Joseph Murray knew he wanted to be a surgeon from the time
he was a small boy. A Harvard-educated doctor, he spent much
of his life's work attempting to overcome the body's natural
reaction to reject foreign tissues. His work eventually led
to the first successful human kidney transplant in 1954, for
which he won a Nobel Prize in 1990. His first kidney transplants
were on dogs and other animals. His early transplants on humans
were between identical twins, whose rate of rejection was
far less than that of transplants between a non-related host
and donor. Through the years, new anti-rejection drugs were
developed that enabled Murray to successfully transplant kidneys
between non-related people. |
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Linus Pauling and the Chemical Bond
ISBN 1-58415-123-4 • 9781584151234
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Two-time Nobel prize-winning scientist who described the nature
of chemical bonds and made other important discoveries in
the fields of quantum mechanics and immunology. |
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Lise Meitner and the Atomic Age
ISBN 1-58415-206-0 • 9781584152064
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Twentieth-century Austrian scientist who, despite facing discrimination
as a Jew and a female, made discoveries in nuclear physics
that played a part in the development of atomic energy. |
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Oswald Avery and the Story of DNA
ISBN 1-58415-110-2 • 9781584151104
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There have been many talented scientists who have contributed
to our knowledge of DNA. Many of us recognize the names Francis
Crick and James Watson or Alfred Hershey. But few of us recognize
the small man born in Canada named Oswald Avery. He spent
most of his life doing laboratory research and his most famous
discovery wasn't fully recognized or appreciated while he
was alive. While Avery didn't actually discover DNA fingerprinting,
his research provided a vital steppingstone along the process.
And his story illustrates one of the most important facts
about scientific discoveries: they don't just come out of
the blue, but depend on the work of many men and women who
precede the actual discoverer. |
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Otto Hahn and the Story of Nuclear Fission
ISBN 1-58415-204-4 • 9781584152040
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The story of the German scientist who won the Nobel Prize
in chemistry in 1944 for his work with nuclear fission. |
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Robert Weinberg and the Search for the Cause of Cancer
ISBN 1-58415-095-5 • 9781584150954
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AR Quiz 62414
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One of the foremost cancer researchers today, Robert Weinberg
has spent most of his adult life searching for the genetic
causes of cancer. Heading up the laboratory at the renowned
Center for Cancer Research at MIT he discovered the first
human oncogene. He is a world-famous cancer expert whose name
has appeared as the author of major advances in the struggle
to understand and cure cancer. He was a founding member of
the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at MIT and
currently serves as the Daniel K. Ludwig professor for cancer
research at MIT as well. In 1997, he won the prestigious National
Medal of Science. |
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Selman Waksman and the Discovery of Streptomycin
ISBN 1-58415-138-2 • 9781584151388
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Selman Waksman enrolled at Rutgers College (now Rutgers University)
to study agriculture, though he was torn between that and
studying medicine. Later in life, he set his team of graduate
students and assistants on a search for an antibiotic to treat
tuberculosis. Waksman and his team worked day and night testing
actinomycetes microbes for antibiotic potential. Hundreds
of tests failed. In 1943, however, success was theirs. Albert
Schatz, a student of Waksman's isolated streptomycin. Amid
controversy, in 1952, Waksman was awarded the Nobel Prize
in Medicine for his part in discovering the first effective
treatment of tuberculosis. |
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Wilhelm Roentgen and the Discovery of X Rays
ISBN 1-58415-114-5
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Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen stumbled on x rays quite by accident
working late one November night in 1895 in his laboratory
in Wurzburg, Germany. Then 50 years old, he was a physical
scientist who was experimenting with electricity. He worked
nonstop for several weeks, isolating himself and sometimes
sleeping on a cot in his lab. He had his wife place her hand
on a photographic plate for 15 minutes while x rays passed
through it. The resulting picture became famous. X rays have
found countless uses over the years including being used to
authenticate paintings, stamps, and coins, and in quality
control labs to check the manufacture of countless products. |
