Sir Isaac Newton who was born 25th December 1642 and died on 20th March 1727 was an English physicist and an astronomer who has been considered by many people that he is the greatest and most influential scientist who has ever lived. In 1679, Newton returned to his work on mechanics, i.e., gravitation and its effect on the orbits of planets.
Christopher Columbus was born in 1451. He was born at Genoa which is in Italy. Columbus was at the age of thirteen when he first set sail to sea. He travelled to many lands. He tried for many years to persuade kings and queens to give him money for food and ships so he could find a new route to China.
Columbus persuaded King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain to give him money. In return he promised to give them spices, new lands, money and people to become Christian. After the king and queen agreed Columbus had three ships. The Niña, the Pinta and the Santa Maria. On 12th October 1492 the Pinta first spotted what Columbus called San Salvador. It is now known as the Bahamas.
Copernicus was born on 19th February 1473 in the city of Torun and died on 24th May 1543. He was a Renaissance astronomer and the first person to formulate that the sun was in the middle of the solar system and the other planets were orbiting it. He created a concept of a universe in which the distances of the planets from the sun bore a direct relationship to the size of their orbits. At the time Copernicus's heliocentric idea was very controversial; nevertheless, it was the start of a change in the way the world was viewed, and Copernicus came to be seen as the initiator of the Scientific Revolution.The Printing press is a machine. It is used to make many copies of identical pages. The printing press today is used to print Books and Newspapers. Today everything is done automatically. When the printing press was invented by by Johannes Gutenberg, he had to put letters together. Each letter was in a block of metal, which was fixed in a frame. He could then move paper and ink move paper and ink over it, much like a stamp. The letters would leave some ink on the paper.
Vesalius was born to Andries van Wesele and Isabel Crabbe on 31st December 1514, in Brussels, which was then part of the Habsburg Netherlands. He was a Flemish anatomist and physician. He died on 15th October 1564. He is an astronomer and a physician. He is mostly known for “the structure of the human body”. In 1528 Vesalius entered the University of Leuven (Pedagogium Castrense) taking arts, but when his father was appointed as the Valet de Chambre in 1532, he decided to pursue a career in medicine at the University of Paris, where he moved in 1533. Here he studied the theories of Galen under the auspices of Jacques Dubois (Jacobus Sylvius) and Jean Fernel. In 1543, Vesalius asked Johannes Oporinus to help publish the seven-volume De humani corporis fabrica (On the fabric of the human body). Vesalius believed the skeletal system to be the framework of the human body. It was in this opening chapter, or book, of De fabrica that Vesalius made several of his strongest claims against Galen's theories and writings which he had put in his anatomy books.
Galileo Galilei, who was born on the 15th February 1564 – 8th January 1642, was an Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher who played a major role in the Scientific Revolution. He began to study medicine at the University of Pisa but changed to philosophy and mathematics. In 1589, he became professor of mathematics at Pisa. In 1592, he moved to become mathematics professor at the University of Padua, a position he held until 1610. His achievements include improvements to the telescope and consequent astronomical observations and support for Copernicanism. Galileo has been called the "father of modern observational astronomy", the "father of modern physics", the "father of science", and "the Father of Modern Science". In 1609, Galileo heard about the invention of the telescope in Holland. Without having seen an example, he constructed a superior version and made many astronomical discoveries. These included mountains and valleys on the surface of the moon, sunspots and the four largest moons of the planet Jupiter and the phases of the planet Venus. His work on astronomy made him famous and he was appointed court mathematician in Florence.
Johannes Gutenberg was born c 1398 and died on 3rd February 1468. He was a german blacksmith and an inventor. His invention of mechanical movable type printing started the Printing Revolution and is widely regarded as the most important event of the modern period. It played a key role in the development of the Renaissance, Reformation, the Age of Enlightenment and the Scientific Revolution.
BBC website (http:www.bbchistoryfamouspeople.co.uk/columbus)-used 22/02/12
mrdowling website (http:www.mrdowling.com)-used 22/02/12
Wikipedia website (http:whttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_newton)-used 23/02/12
Wikipedia website (http:whttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Gutenberg)-used 23/02/12
Wikipedia website (http:whttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_printing_press)-used 24/02/12
Plato Stanford website (http://plato.stanford.edu/)-used 24/02/12. You will have to type in Copernicus in the Search the SEP box.
Wikipedia website (http:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_da_vinci/_michelangelo)-used 25/02/12
