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For most masses , the name Tesla probably calls to mind the galvanising car ship’s company , rather than one of the world ’s most influential scientist . Yet Nikola Tesla , the Serbian - American discoverer , technologist and futurist who was bear 158 years ago tomorrow ( July 10 ) , hand science some of its greatest engineering science , from alternating current to electricity supply system .
ButTeslaisn’t the only scientist who has been overlooked for his achievements . Here are a few other scientist who were soak of their dues in the chronological record of scientific discipline .
Rosalind Franklin is one of many scientists who never received the recognition they deserved in science.
Rosalind Franklin
American biologist James Watson and English biologists Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins are widely recognized for the revolutionary discovery of the double helix structure ofDNA . But British biophysicistRosalind Franklin(1920 - 1958 ) played a critical but unsung role in the find . Using X - ray crystallography techniques , Franklin imaged the twisted molecule that contains life ’s blueprint . She occupy the famous " Photo 51 " that clear showed DNA ’s voluted social organisation . [ 12 awing woman Who altogether Rocked at Science ]
Franklin was working at King ’s College London , in the United Kingdom , at the same time as Wilkins , and the two had a strained relationship . Meanwhile , Watson and Crick were developing a model of DNA , but lacked physical grounds for its structure . Maurice Hugh Frederick Wilkins claim Franklin ’s photo without her permission and testify it to Watson and Crick , who raced to publish their newly reassert ideas .
Franklin died of ovarian cancer in 1958 , possibly due to radioactivity exposure from her X - ray of light crystallography workplace . ANobel Prize , which can only be share among three living scientist , was present to Watson , Crick and Wilkins in 1962 . Watson ’s autobiographic account of the discovery , " The Double Helix , " scarce recognize Franklin ’s employment , even portraying her as a " warring , emotional charwoman . "
Lise Meitner
Lise Meitner ( 1878 - 1968 ) is often cited as one of the most glaring examples of a woman who should have been awarded aNobel Prize . The Austrian physicist helped discover nuclear fission , the splitting of atom in a atomic response , or in radioactive decline , that releases monolithic amounts of energy .
German druggist Otto Hahn do the first experiments on nuclear fission , but could n’t explain his solvent . In 1939 , Meitner , who was match with Hahn , published the first paper to apply the word of honor " fission " in atomic purgative , explicate that the uranium atom splits when bombarded by neutron . And yet , Hahn alone was awarded the 1944 Nobel Prize in chemical science for the work .
Meitner sour down an offer to conjoin the secretive Manhattan Project in 1943 , say she wanted nothing to do with the atomic bomb .
At a 2013 showcelebrating women in scienceat the Grolier Club in New York , curator Ronald Smeltzer told Live Science , " Lise Meitner is the one woman in this show that I will say unequivocally was cheated out of a Nobel Prize . "
The chemical elementMeitnerium , discovered in 1982 , was named after her .
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky
Though unfamiliar to many Americans , Konstantin Tsiolkovsky(1857 - 1935 ) is know as " the Russian forefather of rocketry . " The Soviet rocket scientist of Polish descent , born in 1857 , developed the astronautical possibility that later inspired Soviet engineers in launching a successful space program . More than a hundred year after he developed them , his ideas are still applicable to skyrocket science today .
Tsiolkovsky was inspire by the skill fiction work on of Jules Verne , who wrote about using a giant cannon to set up ballistic capsule to the moon . Tsiolkovsky originally tried to write his own sci - fi stories , but find oneself himself quest after the practical challenge of spaceflight rather .
In 1903 , Tsiolkovsky published some of the first scientifically workable marriage proposal for sending rockets to space , using a liquid atomic number 1 and liquid oxygen propulsion arrangement ( the same mixture that would eventually be used to launch the space shuttles ) . Tsiolkovsky formulate a critical formula for the mathematical relationship between a rocket ’s changing deal as it burn through fuel , the fumes flatulency velocity and the rocket ’s final hurrying . [ crazy wiz : 10 Odd Tales About Famous Scientists ]
Tsiolkovsky is consider one of three " fathers of rocketry , " along withGerman scientist Hermann Oberth and American physicist Robert Goddard , who developed many of the same idea as Tsiolkovskyindependently in the 1920s .
Alfred Russel Wallace
When you think of the possibility of evolution by natural pick , Charles Darwin ’s name comes to listen . But another British biologist work at the same clip as Darwin came up with the hypothesis independently : Alfred Russel Wallace .
Wallace lead a meaning amount of fieldwork in the Amazon River washstand in South America , and the Malay Archipelago between Southeast Asia and Australia . An expert on the geographical distribution of mintage , Wallace was sometimes referred to as the " father of biogeography . "
Wallace transmit Darwin his melodic theme aboutevolutionaround 1857 , which were well-nigh identical to Darwin ’s . It was n’t until after Wallace ( 1823 - 1913 ) release a theme on his theory together with Darwin ’s writings in 1858 that Darwin published his famous treatise"On the Origin of Species"(1959 ) , which became one of the worldly concern ’s most influential scientific Book .
Both Darwin and Wallace drew their inspiration from the ideas of economics expert Thomas Malthus , who wrote that the outgrowth of human populations is limited by shortage and disease . Similarly , Darwin and Wallace realized that creature confront the same force per unit area of competition , with the " set " individuals surviving and reproducing .
honest Mentions :
Jocelyn Bell Burnell ( 1943- ): Northern Irish astrophysicist who discovered pulsar in 1967 as a grad student student , but did not share the Nobel Prize award to her advisor for the uncovering .
Benjamin Banneker ( 1731 - 1806 ): African - American mathematician and uranologist who built the first spectacular clock in America and helped follow the boundaries for Washington , D.C.
Annie Jump Cannon(1863 - 1941 ): American uranologist who , with Edward Pickering , developed the Harvard Classification Scheme for classifying principal base on their temperature .
George Washington Carver(1864 - 1943 ): Agricultural scientist born into thrall who developed 100 of commercial uses for alternative crops to cotton fiber , such as peanut , Glycine max and sweet-smelling white potato .
Émilie du Châtelet ( 1706 - 1749 ): French mathematician , physicist and generator who create an influential version and commentary on British physicist Isaac Newton ’s " Principia Mathematica . "
Philo Farnsworth ( 1906 - 1971 ): American inventor who modernize the first video tv camera tube and the first successful all - electronic television system .
Caroline Herschel ( 1750 - 1848 ): German astronomer who discovered several comets , one of which is constitute after her .
Albert Hofmann(1906 - 2008 ): Swiss scientist who invented and test thepsychedelic drug LSDand the combat-ready compound in psychedelic mushroom-shaped cloud .
Grace Hopper(1906 - 1992 ): American electronic computer scientist and U.S. Navy Rear Admiral who developed the first computer programing compiler and coined the terminus " debug . "
Hedy Lamar ( 1914 - 2000):Austrian actress and inventor who , along with American composer and inventor George Antheil , develop wireless communication technology that aid make modern cellphones potential .
Esther Lederberg ( 1922 - 2006 ): American microbiologist who discovereda virus that infects bacterium , known as the lambdabacteriophage , in 1951 .
Joseph Lister ( 1827 - 1912 ): British surgeon who open up sterile operating theatre , which reduce dangerous post - operative infection .
Ada Lovelace(1815 - 1852 ): English mathematician and writer often credit with being the world ’s first computer computer programmer .
Emmy Noether(1882 - 1935 ): German mathematician who founded the mathematical limb of innovative algebra and was described by many as the most significant cleaning lady in the history of mathematics .
Paul Otlet(1868 - 1944 ): Belgian generator and visionary who do up with the idea of a telephone set - and - tv set organization very similar to the Internet , called a " Radiated Library . "
Vera Rubin ( 1928- ): American astronomer who pioneered work on galaxy rotation rates , which suggested the macrocosm of what became known as dark affair .
Chien - Shiung Wu ( 1912 - 1997 ): Chinese - American physicist who participated in the Manhattan Project and after helped confute the practice of law of parity in quantum mechanic , but was denied the Nobel Prize .
Nettie Stevens(1861 - 1912):American geneticist whose work helped essay that chromosomes , not environmentalor other influences , prescribe an being ’s sex .
Aristarchus of Samos ( c. 310 - 230 B.C. ): Ancient Greek astronomer who come up with the idea of a heliocentric existence nearly 1,800 years before Copernicus .
Johann Georg Tralles(1763 - 1822 ): German mathematician and physicist who invented the alcohol metre , used to evaluate alcohol level in brewed beverage .
