Scientist on Pitara Kids Network

Louis Pasteur: The man who discovered vaccination

Thu, 21 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Louis Pasteur (1822 - 1895):

The next time you chomp on cheese or sip some wine, remember the French scientist Louis Pasteur who discovered that spoiled milk, fermented beer and wine, and many diseases are caused by bacteria. Millions of people are saved from bites from rabid dogs because of the rabies vaccine developed by Louis Pasteur.

Bacteria are tiny, living organisms that are only visible under a microscope. More than 150 years ago, Pasteur discovered that heating milk between 60 to 100 degrees Celsius kills the bacteria. This makes the milk safe to drink. This process was named “pasteurization” in his honor. Pasteur also showed that every food that is fermented, such as wine and beer, has one particular, safe, bacteria that cause the fermentation. He also found out that many diseases happen because of bacteria. This became known as the Germ Theory of Disease, or the theory that the cause of most diseases is invisible-to-the-eye micro-organisms, which are also called pathogens.

Galileo Galilei: The Italian who figured that planets revolve around the sun

Mon, 04 May 2020 18:28:31 +0000

Galileo Galilei (1564 - 1642):

Nearly 400 years ago, an Italian mathematician told the world that the planets revolve around the sun. And he was severely punished for it. But he stood by his words and spent the last days of his life under house arrest. This was Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaulti de Galilei, or Galileo Galilei. Born on the 15th of February, 1564, Galileo was an Italian astronomer, physicist, and engineer.

Galileo has been called the father of observational astronomy, the father of modern physics, the father of modern science, and the father of scientific method. If this sounds too much, it may be worth remembering that this man gave the world the first thermometer as well as the concept of heliocentrism, or the idea that planets revolve around the sun. This made the priests rather unhappy because the Bible says that the Earth is at the center of the universe. He also created the microscope and various military compasses. As an astronomer, Galileo discovered sunspots, four of Jupiter’s largest satellites, and Saturn’s rings. He was also the first to state that mathematics lies at the center of all laws of nature.

Buckminster Fuller: A Scholar, a Scientist and an Inventor

Tue, 16 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Buckminster Fuller (1895 – 1983):

Imagine if you were a scientist, working in the freezing South Pole. You would be staying in a curious, dome-like structure that must be capable of standing up to strong winds and blizzards. It is likely that you would be staying in a Geodesic dome.

The Geodesic dome is one of the many inventions of Richard Buckminster Fuller. It originated from an elegantly simple idea. Fuller understood that the triangle is an extremely stable shape. So he used a network of triangles to form a large dome that can be made large enough to cover huge distances.

Maria Curie: The only scientist to win a Nobel prize twice

Sat, 16 May 2020 18:28:31 +0000

Maria Skłodowska Curie (1867 - 1934):

Marie Curie (born Maria Skłodowska Curie) was the first woman to win a Nobel prize and the only scientist to win a Nobel prize twice. She was also the first scientist to win a Nobel Prize in two different fields of science. She found a treatment for cancer, coined the word “radioactive”, and discovered the elements Radium and Polonium.

Maria Skłodowska Curie was born in Warsaw, Poland on the 7th of November, 1867.
Her parents lost all of their property during the Polish freedom struggle. Curie struggled to put herself through college by teaching and getting a fellowship. She studied physics, chemistry, and mathematics at the University of Paris.

Ada Lovelace, The Mother of Computing

Thu, 28 May 2020 18:28:31 +0000

Ada Lovelace (1815-1852):

When you use your device, remember that Ada Lovelace was the first person to write a computer program. She is widely regarded as the first person to recognize the full potential of computers. She wrote the first algorithm ever.

Ada Lovelace was born on the 10th of December, 1815 to the famous poet Lord Byron and his wife Lady Byron. Her parents named her Augusta Ada Byron. Her parents separated soon after she was born. Ada did not have a relationship with her father at all. Her mother left her in the care of Ada’s maternal grandmother but made sure Ada was privately schooled in mathematics and science by two scholars. Ada was often ill. However, by the age of 12, she had discovered her passion for mathematics and technology. Her project at the time was the miracle of flight. She built wings with different materials and did immense research. Eventually, she used her findings to write a book called Flyology.

Michael Farday: The Self-Educated Inventor

Tue, 23 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Michael Faraday (1791 - 1867)

Is it possible to become one of the most influential scientists in history without a formal education? In the case of Michael Faraday, the answer would be an absolute yes. Our world is full of big and small electric motors. And we owe Faraday for discovering the principles of electromagnetism that led to the first electric motor.

Faraday’s main contributions were within the study of electromagnetism and the relationship between electricity and chemical change. His work helped develop the generators we use today. He also devised the commercial process of separating elements from their ores, such as iron. Faraday named this process electrolysis. Without him, the use of electricity in technology would have been severely delayed.

Jacques-Yves Cousteau

Sun, 25 Mar 2001 02:34:10 +0000

If there is one person who single-handedly fascinated millions of landlocked viewers to venture underwater into the unknown, through television, it is the Frenchman Jacques Cousteau. Jacques-Yves Cousteau was born on June 11, 1910, in the town of St.-Andre-de-Cubzac near Bordeaux, in France, to Daniel and Elizabeth Cousteau.

As a child, Jacques was quite sickly but he nonetheless learned to swim at the age of four. His initial dip led to his everlasting love for the sea.

Srinivasa Aiyangar Ramanujan

Sat, 09 Dec 2000 08:40:40 +0000

Srinivasa Ramanujan was one of India’s mathematical geniuses. He made
wonderful contributions to the field of advanced mathematics.

Even today, his fascinating results and mathematical theories, and a number of unpublished notebooks filled with theorems, continue to baffle and enthrall mathematicians.

Ramanujan was born in his grandmother’s house in Erode, a small village near Chennai in Tamil Nadu. While he was still a baby, his mother took him to Kumbakonam, near Chennai, where his father worked as a clerk in a cloth merchant’s shop.

Albert Einstein

Fri, 02 Nov 2001 01:20:54 +0000

German-American physicist Albert Einstein contributed more than any other scientist to the 20th-century vision of physical reality. In the wake of World War I, Einstein’s theories, especially his theory of relativity, seemed to many people to point to a pure quality of human thought, one far removed from the war and its aftermath. Seldom has a scientist received such public attention for having cultivated the fruit of pure learning.

Born in Ulm in Germany on March 14, 1879, Einstein’s parents were nonobservant Jews who moved from Ulm to Munich when Einstein was an infant. The family moved yet again to Milan in Italy in 1894, when the family business of manufacturing electrical apparatus failed.

Nikola Tesla – Unsung Prophet of Electrical Age

Thu, 11 Apr 2002 16:57:01 +0000

If you ask anyone or check up in the encyclopaedia, who invented the radio or X-rays, chances are you will never come across the name of Nikola Tesla there.

Look up fluorescent bulb, neon lights, car ignition system, electron microscope, microwave oven and many others – you can search page after page but your search will turn up zilch on Tesla in any normal reference book.

In fact very few have heard of Nikola Tesla, a brilliant scientist who lived at the turn of the century. Those who have, considered him an eccentric, or even half-baked. He was never given the credit he deserved due to some unfortunate circumstances.