Biographies

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Biographies of Scientists and Inventors

Alexander Graham Bell - Invented the telephone.
Rachel Carson - Founder of environmental science.
George Washington Carver - Botanist who was called the "farmers best friend."
Francis Crick and James Watson - Discovered the structure of the DNA molecule.
Marie Curie - Physicist who discovered radioactivity.
Leonardo da Vinci - Inventor and artist from the Renaissance.
Thomas Edison - Invented the light bulb, phonograph, and the motion picture.
Albert Einstein - Came up with the Theory of Relativity and the equation E=mc².
Henry Ford - Invented the Model T Ford, the first mass produced car.
Ben Franklin - Inventor and Founding Father of the United States.
Robert Fulton - Built the first commercially successful steamboat.
Galileo - First used the telescope to view the planets and stars.
Jane Goodall - Studied chimpanzees in the wild for many years.
Johannes Gutenberg - Invented the printing press.
Stephen Hawking - Discovered Hawking Radiation and wrote A Brief History in Time.
Antoine Lavoisier - Father of modern chemistry.
James Naismith - Invented the sport of basketball.
Isaac Newton - Discovered the theory of gravity and the three laws of motion.
Louis Pasteur - Discovered pasteurization, vaccines, and founded the science of germ theory.
Eli Whitney- Invented the cotton gin.
The Wright Brothers - Invented the first airplane.

Types of Scientists

Scientists study the world around us using the scientific method. They perform experiments to find out how nature works. While we often talk about a person being a "scientist", there are actually many different types of scientists. This is because most scientists study and become experts in a specific field of science.

There are literally hundreds of scientific fields of study. We will just list a few of the types of scientists here:

Astronomer - Studies the planets, stars, and galaxies.
Botanist - Studies plant life.
Chemist - Studies chemistry and the behavior, properties, and composition of matter.
Cytologist - Studies cells.
Ecologist - Studies the relationship between living organisms and the environment.
Entomologist - Studies insects.
Geneticist - Studies genes, DNA, and the hereditary characteristics of living organisms.
Geologist - Studies the properties of matter that makes up Earth as well as the forces that shaped it.
Marine biologist - Studies the living organisms that live in the ocean and other bodies of water.
Microbiologist - Studies microscopic life forms such as bacteria and protists.
Meteorologist - Studies the Earth's atmosphere including the weather.
Nuclear physicist - Studies the interactions and make up of the atom.
Ornithologist - Studies birds.
Paleontologist - Studies prehistoric life and fossils including dinosaurs.
Pathologist - Studies diseases caused by pathogens such as bacteria and viruses.
Seismologist - Studies earthquakes and the movements of the Earth's crust.
Zoologist - Studies animals.

What is the difference between a scientist and an inventor?

In general terms a scientist is a person who studies nature and makes theories and discoveries as to how nature works using the scientific method. An inventor takes the laws and theories of science and puts them to practical use by humans. Many people are both scientists and inventors. For example, Isaac Newton was a scientist when he wrote about the theory of gravity, but he was also an inventor when he made the first working reflecting telescope.

Braille, Louis	Henry, Patrick	Newton, Sir Isaac	Blackwell Elizabeth
	Henson, Jim	Obama, Barack	Carson, Rachel	Queen Elizabeth I
Chavez, Cesar	Henson, Matthew	Pascal, Blaise	Clark, Eugenie	Queen Elizabeth II
Chief Joseph	Hershey, Milton	Pasteur, Louis	Cleary, Beverly	Queen Victoria
Clark, William	Hubble, Edwin		Cleopatra	Ride, Sally
		Prefontaine, Steve	Curie, Marie	Roosevelt, Eleanor
Columbus, Christopher				Ross, Betsy
Cousteau, Jacques	Jefferson, Thomas	Revere, Paul	Earhart, Amelia	Rowling, J.K.
Crockett, David	Jobs, Steve	Roosevelt, Franklin D.	Earle, Sylvia	Sacajawea
Dahl, Roald		Roosevelt, Theodore "Teddy"	Frank, Anne	Sullivan, Anne
Darwin, Charles	Kennedy, John F.			Thatcher, Margaret
Disney, Walt	King, Jr. Martin Luther	Salk, Jonas Dr	Goodall, Jane	Truth, Soujourner
Douglass, Frederick	Khan, Genghis	Seuss, Dr. (Theodor Geisel)	Jemison, Mae	Tubman, Harriet
Drew, Dr. Charles	Lennon, John	Shackleton, Ernest	Keller, Helen	Washington, Martha
Edison, Thomas	Lewis, Meriwether	Shakespeare, William		Wilder, Laura Ingalls
Einstein, Albert	Lincoln, Abraham	Snow, Dr. John	Madison, Dolley
Ferris, George	Lindbergh, Charles	Tuscagee Airmen	Mary Queen of Scots
Fibonacci, Leonardo Pisano	Lucas, George	Twain, Mark	Mother Teresa
Ford, Henry		Washington, George
Franklin, Benjamin	Magellan, Ferdinand	Watt, James
Galilei, Galileo	Marion, Francis	Washington Carver, George
Glenn, John	Morse, Samuel	Wright, Orville & Wilbur