"Knowledge is an attitude, a passion. Actually an illicit attitude. For the compulsion to know is just like dipsomania, erotomania, homicidal mania, in producing a character that is out of balance. It is not at all true that the scientist goes after truth. It goes after him. It is something he suffers from." - attributed to Soren Kierkegaard by Francis Wilkins, quoted with reservation in The Eighth Day of Creation, p. 97.
A case can be made for scientific biography as the basic humanistic discipline associated with the sciences. Here are some resources about the lives and accomplishments of some well-known and not-so-well-known scientists:
William Thomson (Lord Kelvin) was one of the greatest of all nineteenth century physicists. He was also one of my distant cousins to whom I am related to through my paternal grandmother, Elise Thomson Stuart, and her mother, Jane Watt Thomson. (I think that James Watt, the Scottish engineer whose improved engine design first made steam power practicable, may also be a relative through Jane Watt Thomson, but I'm not sure about that, - it remains to be determined.) Here's a photograph of William Thomson, Lord Kelvin. Here are some links with information about William Thomson and his accomplishments in science:
Famous Physicists - Lord Kelvin (William Thomson)
William Thomson, Lord Kelvin (1824-1907)
William Thomson, Lord Kelvin
Samuel King Allison was one of the distinguished physicists of the Manhattan Project. He was a member of the faculty of the University of Chicago, and was my Ph.D. thesis advisor. Roger Hildebrand of the University of Chicago has prepared a biography of Allison that appears in the National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoirs, Volume 60, pages 2-17; here is a related page. Here are some pictures:
Samuel K. Allison beside the kevatron at the Research Institutes of the University of Chicago
Samuel K. Allison with Maria Goeppert Mayer and other members of the Research Institutes at a New Year's eve party
Maria Goeppert Mayer was awarded the Nobel Prize for her theory of nuclear shell structure. She was one of my professors in graduate school. There is more about Maria Mayer at the Contributions of 20th Century Women to Physics web site, and also at the Argonne History Maria Mayer web site and also at the Argonne Library Maria Goeppert Mayer web site. Check out her National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir, and the Maria Goeppert Mayer Home Page, which is under development. Take a look at the Maria Goeppert-Mayer website. Check out The Nobel Prize Internet Archive for more links.
Leo Szilard - an outstanding physicist, an original mind, a scientist of conscience. I got slightly acquainted with him during the later years of his life. Find out more about him on the web site Leo Szilard Online.
David Bohm originated the causal interpretation of quantum theory. Here's a photo of David Bohm
. More at the following web sites:
Robert Rosen Robert Rosen and I were friends in graduate school at the University of Chicago; he went on to become a distinguished theoretical biologist. More at the following web sites:
Robert Rosen 1934-1998
Transcript of a videotaped interview of Dr. Robert Rosen
Review of "Essays on Life Itself" by Robert Rosen
An Updated Rosen Bibliography
VCU Complexity Research Group
Dirk Jan Struik was a mathematician and one of my favorite professors when I was an undergraduate at MIT.
Here's a biographical web page on Dirk Struik.
J. B. S. Haldane Here's his biography from the Britannica. There appears to be only one of Haldane's publications on-line, Daedalus or Science and the Future, a brief book written in 1924. There is an on-line review and summary of his later book, The Causes of Evolution, written in 1932.
Carl Sagan Here's a website In Honor of Carl Sagan.
J. D. Bernal John Desmond Bernal was a distinguished physicist and crystallographer; he also conducted research into molecular biology, the origin of life, and the structure and composition of the Earth's crust. He collaborated with several outstanding women scientists, including Dorothy Hodgkin, who worked together to make the first X-ray photograph of a protein (pepsin), and Rosalind Franklin.
Here's a photo of J.D. Bernal with Eugene Garfield
Here's info regarding a biography, J.D. Bernal: A Life in Science and Politics
Here is the text of J.D. Bernal's book, The World, the Flesh, and the Devil, written in 1929.
Prof. Robert M. Young addresses 'The Relevance of Bernal's Questions'
Enrico Fermi When I was a beginning graduate student, I was fortunate to meet Enrico Fermi and to work briefly on a project for him. Here are a few links associated with Enrico Fermi:
You can also access A Picture Gallery of Famous Physicists and a collection of photographs of physicists in the Emilio Segre Visual Archives.
Here is a Web page with URLs: Physics Around the World: Famous Scientists
Also check out the treasure-trove of scientific biography.
And Indexes of Biographies has bios of mathematicians and some physicists and other scientists.
Nobel prizes
Nobel Prizes
Perhaps you might also wish to visit the history of science web page for related information.
