Appendix 1: Discoveries
by Scientific Field
These tables list the 100 greatest science discoveries divided into their appropriate
fields of science so that readers can easily identify the individual discoveries that relate to
the same area. Within each field inventions are listed chronologically.
Physical Sciences
Discovery
Astronomy
Discovering Scientist
Year
Page
Sun-centered universe
Planets’ true orbits
Other planets have moons
Distance to the sun
Galaxies
Copernicus, Nicholaus
Kepler, Johannes
Galilei, Galileo
Cassini, Giovanni
Herschel, William
Wright, Thomas
Schwarzschild, Karl
Wheeler, John
Hubble, Edwin
Gamow, George
Sandage, Allan
Bell, Jocelyn
Hewish, Antony
Rubin, Vera
Mayor, Michel
Queloz, Didier
Perlmutter, Saul
1520
1609
1610
1672
1750
1750
1916
1971
1926
1948
1963
1967
1967
1970
1995
1995
1998
5
11
13
27
36
36
140
141
150
185
205
205
205
211
215
215
218
Boyle, Robert
Priestley, Joseph
Davy, Humphrey
Avogadro, Amedeo
Bunsen, Robert
Kirchhoff, Robert
1662
1774
1806
1811
1859
1859
19
43
61
63
81
81
Black hole
Expanding universe
The Big Bang
Quasar
Pulsar
Dark matter
Planets around other stars
Universe is accelerating
Chemistry
Boyle’s Law
Oxygen
Electrochemical bonding
Molecules
Atomic light signatures
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