Topic: Biography/science and academia (Page 9)

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πŸ”— Bernoulli Family

πŸ”— Biography πŸ”— Mathematics πŸ”— Biography/science and academia πŸ”— History of Science πŸ”— Switzerland πŸ”— Genealogy

The Bernoulli family (German pronunciation: [bΙ›ΚΛˆnʊli]) of Basel was a patrician family, notable for having produced eight mathematically gifted academics who, among them, contributed substantially to the development of mathematics and physics during the early modern period.

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πŸ”— Chester Carlson – Inventor of Xerography

πŸ”— United States πŸ”— Biography πŸ”— Physics πŸ”— Biography/science and academia πŸ”— Physics/Biographies πŸ”— United States/Washington - Seattle πŸ”— Buddhism πŸ”— Invention

Chester Floyd Carlson (February 8, 1906 – September 19, 1968) was an American physicist, inventor, and patent attorney born in Seattle, Washington.

He is best known for inventing electrophotography, the process performed today by millions of photocopiers worldwide. Carlson's process produced a dry copy, as contrasted with the wet copies then produced by the mimeograph process. Carlson's process was renamed xerography, a term that means "dry writing."

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πŸ”— Arne NΓ¦ss: Recommendations for Public Debate

πŸ”— Biography πŸ”— Philosophy πŸ”— Biography/science and academia πŸ”— Philosophy/Philosophers πŸ”— Norway πŸ”— Philosophy/Ethics

Arne Dekke Eide NΓ¦ss ( AR-nΙ™ NESS; Norwegian:Β [ˈnΙ›sː]; 27 January 1912 – 12 January 2009) was a Norwegian philosopher who coined the term "deep ecology" and was an important intellectual and inspirational figure within the environmental movement of the late twentieth century. NΓ¦ss cited Rachel Carson's 1962 book Silent Spring as being a key influence in his vision of deep ecology. NΓ¦ss combined his ecological vision with Gandhian nonviolence and on several occasions participated in direct action.

Næss averred that while western environmental groups of the early post-war period had raised public awareness of the environmental issues of the time, they had largely failed to have insight into and address what he argued were the underlying cultural and philosophical background to these problems. Naess believed that the environmental crisis of the twentieth century had arisen due to certain unspoken philosophical presuppositions and attitudes within modern western developed societies which remained unacknowledged.

He thereby distinguished between what he called deep and shallow ecological thinking. In contrast to the prevailing utilitarian pragmatism of western businesses and governments, he advocated that a true understanding of nature would give rise to a point of view that appreciates the value of biological diversity, understanding that each living thing is dependent on the existence of other creatures in the complex web of interrelationships that is the natural world.

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πŸ”— Tommy Flowers

πŸ”— Biography πŸ”— London πŸ”— Biography/science and academia πŸ”— Engineering

Thomas Harold Flowers MBE (22 December 1905 - 28 October 1998) was an English engineer with the British General Post Office. During World War II, Flowers designed and built Colossus, the world's first programmable electronic computer, to help decipher encrypted German messages.

πŸ”— 50th anniversary of the first human space flight

πŸ”— Biography πŸ”— Aviation πŸ”— Soviet Union πŸ”— Russia πŸ”— Russia/technology and engineering in Russia πŸ”— Spaceflight πŸ”— Military history πŸ”— Military history/Military aviation πŸ”— Biography/science and academia πŸ”— Military history/Military biography πŸ”— Biography/military biography πŸ”— Aviation/aerospace biography πŸ”— Military history/Cold War πŸ”— Biography/sports and games πŸ”— Russia/Russian, Soviet, and CIS military history πŸ”— Military history/Russian, Soviet and CIS military history πŸ”— Russia/history of Russia

Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarinβ€Š (9 March 1934 – 27 March 1968) was a Soviet Air Forces pilot and cosmonaut who became the first human to journey into outer space, achieving a major milestone in the Space Race; his capsule Vostok 1 completed one orbit of Earth on 12 April 1961. Gagarin became an international celebrity and was awarded many medals and titles, including Hero of the Soviet Union, his nation's highest honour.

Born in the village of Klushino near Gzhatsk (a town later renamed after him), in his youth Gagarin was a foundryman at a steel plant in Lyubertsy. He later joined the Soviet Air Forces as a pilot and was stationed at the Luostari Air Base, near the Norwegian border, before his selection for the Soviet space programme with five other cosmonauts. Following his spaceflight, Gagarin became deputy training director of the Cosmonaut Training Centre, which was later named after him. He was also elected as a deputy of the Soviet of the Union in 1962 and then to the Soviet of Nationalities, respectively the lower and upper chambers of the Supreme Soviet.

Vostok 1 was Gagarin's only spaceflight but he served as the backup crew to the Soyuz 1 mission, which ended in a fatal crash, killing his friend and fellow cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov. Fearing for his life, Soviet officials permanently banned Gagarin from further spaceflights. After completing training at the Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy on 17 February 1968, he was allowed to fly regular aircraft. Gagarin died five weeks later when the MiG-15 training jet he was piloting with his flight instructor Vladimir Seryogin crashed near the town of Kirzhach.

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πŸ”— Erwin SchrΓΆdinger – Sexual Abuse

πŸ”— Biography πŸ”— Physics πŸ”— Philosophy πŸ”— Biography/science and academia πŸ”— Philosophy/Philosophy of science πŸ”— Philosophy/Contemporary philosophy πŸ”— History of Science πŸ”— Philosophy/Philosophers πŸ”— Physics/Biographies πŸ”— Ireland πŸ”— University of Oxford πŸ”— University of Oxford/University of Oxford (colleges)

Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander SchrΓΆdinger (UK: , US: ; German: [ΛˆΙ›ΙΜ―vΙͺn ΛˆΚƒΚΓΈΛdΙͺŋɐ]; 12 August 1887 – 4 January 1961), sometimes written as Schroedinger or Schrodinger, was a Nobel Prize–winning Austrian and naturalized Irish physicist who developed fundamental results in quantum theory. In particular, he is recognized for postulating the SchrΓΆdinger equation, an equation that provides a way to calculate the wave function of a system and how it changes dynamically in time. He coined the term "quantum entanglement", and was the earliest to discuss it, doing so in 1932.

In addition, he wrote many works on various aspects of physics: statistical mechanics and thermodynamics, physics of dielectrics, colour theory, electrodynamics, general relativity, and cosmology, and he made several attempts to construct a unified field theory. In his book What Is Life? SchrΓΆdinger addressed the problems of genetics, looking at the phenomenon of life from the point of view of physics. He also paid great attention to the philosophical aspects of science, ancient, and oriental philosophical concepts, ethics, and religion. He also wrote on philosophy and theoretical biology. In popular culture, he is best known for his "SchrΓΆdinger's cat" thought experiment.

Spending most of his life as an academic with positions at various universities, SchrΓΆdinger, along with Paul Dirac, won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1933 for his work on quantum mechanics, the same year he left Germany due to his opposition to Nazism. In his personal life, he lived with both his wife and his mistress which may have led to problems causing him to leave his position at Oxford. Subsequently, until 1938, he had a position in Graz, Austria, until the Nazi takeover when he fled, finally finding a long-term arrangement in Dublin where he remained until retirement in 1955. He died in Vienna of tuberculosis when he was 73.

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πŸ”— John von Neumann

πŸ”— Biography πŸ”— Computing πŸ”— Mathematics πŸ”— Military history πŸ”— Military history/North American military history πŸ”— Military history/United States military history πŸ”— Military history/Military science, technology, and theory πŸ”— Physics πŸ”— Economics πŸ”— Philosophy πŸ”— Philosophy/Logic πŸ”— Biography/science and academia πŸ”— Philosophy/Philosophy of science πŸ”— Philosophy/Contemporary philosophy πŸ”— Military history/Military biography πŸ”— Biography/military biography πŸ”— History of Science πŸ”— Computing/Computer science πŸ”— Philosophy/Philosophers πŸ”— Education πŸ”— Hungary πŸ”— Military history/World War II πŸ”— Military history/Cold War πŸ”— Physics/History πŸ”— Physics/Biographies πŸ”— Game theory πŸ”— Eastern Europe

John von Neumann (; Hungarian: Neumann JΓ‘nos Lajos, pronouncedΒ [ˈnΙ’jmΙ’n ˈjaːnoΚƒ ˈlΙ’joΚƒ]; December 28, 1903 – FebruaryΒ 8, 1957) was a Hungarian-American mathematician, physicist, computer scientist, engineer and polymath. Von Neumann was generally regarded as the foremost mathematician of his time and said to be "the last representative of the great mathematicians"; who integrated both pure and applied sciences.

He made major contributions to a number of fields, including mathematics (foundations of mathematics, functional analysis, ergodic theory, representation theory, operator algebras, geometry, topology, and numerical analysis), physics (quantum mechanics, hydrodynamics, and quantum statistical mechanics), economics (game theory), computing (Von Neumann architecture, linear programming, self-replicating machines, stochastic computing), and statistics.

He was a pioneer of the application of operator theory to quantum mechanics in the development of functional analysis, and a key figure in the development of game theory and the concepts of cellular automata, the universal constructor and the digital computer.

He published over 150 papers in his life: about 60 in pure mathematics, 60 in applied mathematics, 20 in physics, and the remainder on special mathematical subjects or non-mathematical ones. His last work, an unfinished manuscript written while he was in hospital, was later published in book form as The Computer and the Brain.

His analysis of the structure of self-replication preceded the discovery of the structure of DNA. In a short list of facts about his life he submitted to the National Academy of Sciences, he stated, "The part of my work I consider most essential is that on quantum mechanics, which developed in GΓΆttingen in 1926, and subsequently in Berlin in 1927–1929. Also, my work on various forms of operator theory, Berlin 1930 and Princeton 1935–1939; on the ergodic theorem, Princeton, 1931–1932."

During World War II, von Neumann worked on the Manhattan Project with theoretical physicist Edward Teller, mathematician StanisΕ‚aw Ulam and others, problem solving key steps in the nuclear physics involved in thermonuclear reactions and the hydrogen bomb. He developed the mathematical models behind the explosive lenses used in the implosion-type nuclear weapon, and coined the term "kiloton" (of TNT), as a measure of the explosive force generated.

After the war, he served on the General Advisory Committee of the United States Atomic Energy Commission, and consulted for a number of organizations, including the United States Air Force, the Army's Ballistic Research Laboratory, the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project, and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. As a Hungarian Γ©migrΓ©, concerned that the Soviets would achieve nuclear superiority, he designed and promoted the policy of mutually assured destruction to limit the arms race.

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πŸ”— Robert Burnham Jr

πŸ”— United States πŸ”— Biography πŸ”— Biography/science and academia πŸ”— Astronomy πŸ”— United States/Arizona πŸ”— Astronomy/Solar System

Robert Burnham Jr. (June 16, 1931 – March 20, 1993) was an American astronomer, best known for writing the classic three-volume Burnham's Celestial Handbook. He is the discoverer of numerous asteroids including the Mars crossing asteroid 3397Β Leyla, as well as six comets.

Burnham's late years were tragic; he died destitute and alone. However, he is remembered by a generation of deep sky observers for his unique contribution to astronomy, the Celestial Handbook. The main-belt asteroid 3467Β Bernheim was named in his honor.

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πŸ”— Ettore Majorana

πŸ”— Biography πŸ”— Physics πŸ”— Biography/science and academia πŸ”— Physics/Biographies πŸ”— Sicily

Ettore Majorana (, Italian: [ΛˆΙ›ttore majoˈraːna]; born on 5 August 1906 – likely dying in or after 1959) was an Italian theoretical physicist who worked on neutrino masses. On 25Β March 1938, he disappeared under mysterious circumstances after purchasing a ticket to travel by ship from Naples to Palermo.

The Majorana equation and Majorana fermions are named after him. In 2006, the Majorana Prize was established in his memory.

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πŸ”— Charles Babbage

πŸ”— Biography πŸ”— Computing πŸ”— London πŸ”— Philosophy πŸ”— Philosophy/Logic πŸ”— Business πŸ”— England πŸ”— Biography/science and academia πŸ”— Philosophy/Philosophers πŸ”— Philately πŸ”— Biography/Core biographies

Charles Babbage (; 26 December 1791 – 18 October 1871) was an English polymath. A mathematician, philosopher, inventor and mechanical engineer, Babbage originated the concept of a digital programmable computer.

Considered by some to be a father of the computer, Babbage is credited with inventing the first mechanical computer that eventually led to more complex electronic designs, though all the essential ideas of modern computers are to be found in Babbage's Analytical Engine. His varied work in other fields has led him to be described as "pre-eminent" among the many polymaths of his century.

Parts of Babbage's incomplete mechanisms are on display in the Science Museum in London. In 1991, a functioning difference engine was constructed from Babbage's original plans. Built to tolerances achievable in the 19th century, the success of the finished engine indicated that Babbage's machine would have worked.

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