1. Which scientist determined that the sun is located at the centre of the universe?
Answer: Nicolaus Copernicus. He developed the heliocentric model of the universe.
2. Which scientist is also known as the “father of the atomic bomb?”
Answer: J. Robert Oppenheimer. He directed the construction of the first atomic bomb.
3. Which three scientists shared the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of radium?
Answer: Marie and Pierre Curie, and Henry Becquerel.
4. Which scientist developed the theory of atomic structure still followed by scientists today?
Answer: John Dalton.
5. Which scientist invented the Celsius temperature scale (i.e., the centigrade scale)?
Answer: Anders Celsius. The freezing point is at 0oC and the boiling point at 100oC.
6. Which famous astronomer discovered Jupiter’s moons 400+ years ago?
Answer: Galileo Galilei. He initially believed that they were stars!
7. Which scientist developed the laws of motion and gravitation?
Answer: Isaac Newton.
8. Which scientist determined that heat is a form of energy?
Answer: James Prescott Joule. He helped discover the law of the conservation of energy.
9. Which scientist developed the law of induction, a concept important to generators and electrical motors?
Answer: Michael Faraday.
10. Who is considered the top theoretical physicist of the 19th century?
Answer: James Clerk Maxwell.
11. Which scientist infamously conducted a kite experiment that proved lightning and static electricity are the same thing?
Answer: Benjamin Franklin.
12. Who invented the first electric battery?
Answer: Alessandro Volta. He was an Italian physicist!
13. Which scientist received ridicule for suggesting to send an unmanned rocket to the moon?
Answer: Robert Goddard. He is now considered a father of modern rocketry.
14. Which astrophysicist discovered pulsars while a graduate student at the University of Cambridge?
Answer: Jocelyn Bell Burnell. Pulsars are neutron stars that rotate rapidly.
15. Which scientist is credited with the discovery of oxygen?
Answer: Joseph Priestly. He discovered oxygen in 1774.
16. Which scientist is credited with the discovery of the electron?
Answer: Joseph John Thomson.
17. Which scientist determined that mass is neither created nor destroyed in a chemical reaction?
Answer: Antoine Lavoisier. This is called the Law of Conservation of Mass.
18. Which English physicist discovered the neutron?
Answer: Sir James Chadwick. He discovered the neutron in 1932.
19. Which chemist is considered the “father of the modern periodic table?”
Answer: Dmitri Mendeleev.
20. Which Scottish scientist and physician discovered penicillin?
Answer: Alexander Fleming.
21. Which scientist discovered cosmic rays in the year 1912?
Answer. Victor Hess.
22. Which scientist wrote the famous works Special Theory of Relativity (1905) and Investigations on Theory of Brownian Movement (1926)?
Answer: Albert Einstein.
23. Which German astronomer developed the three laws of planetary motion?
Answer: Johannes Kepler.
24. Which scientist is considered the creator of the quantum theory?
Answer: Max Planck.
25. Which scientist helped define the relationship between current (I), resistance (R), and voltage (V)?
Answer: Georg Simon Ohm. This is defined by the Ohm’s Law equation (I= V/R).
26. Which physicist received the 1905 Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine for his research on tuberculosis?
Answer: Robert Koch. He also proved the bacterial causes of cholera, tuberculosis, and anthrax.
27. Which scientist published the Germ Theory in 1861, which argued that some germs can cause diseases?
Answer: Louis Pasteur. He published evidence of this later on in 1867, based on an experiment with silkworms.
28. Which scientist proved the existence of alpha and beta radiation in 1899?
Answer: Ernest Rutherford.
29. Which scientist received the 1922 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on atomic structures?
Answer: Niels Bohr.
30. Which scientist is credited with the discovery that gases decrease with increased pressure (and vice versa)?
Answer: Robert Boyle. This is called Boyle’s Law.
31. Which scientist discovered the large gap found in Saturn’s rings?
Answer: Giovanni Domenico Cassini. This is called the Cassini division.
32. Which astronomer discovered infrared radiation and the planet Uranus?
Answer: William Herschel. Humans cannot see infrared radiation but it is detectable as heat.
33. Which scientist, along with Gustav Kirchoff, discovered the elements cesium and rubidium?
Answer: Robert Bunsen.
34. Which scientist discovered ultraviolet radiation (UV) in 1801?
Answer: Johann Ritter.
35. Which scientist is credited with the discovery of X-rays in 1895?
Answer: Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen. He discovered X-rays by accident during an experiment with cathode rays!
36. Which chemist received the 1921 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his work on isotopes?
Answer: Frederick Soddy. He determined that atoms with the same chemical properties can still have different radioactive properties.
37. Which scientist received the 1934 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery of deuterium (aka “heavy hydrogen”)?
Answer: Harold C. Urey. It is double the weight of ordinary hydrogen.
38. Which British scientist first used the word “cells” to describe small units of life?
Answer: Robert Hooke.
39. Which scientist is credited with the discovery of bacteria in 1676?
Answer: Antoni van Leeuwenhoek.
40. Which biologist performed experiments in the late 18th century that proved plants use light to produce oxygen?
Answer: Jan Ingenhousz. This is a key finding that helped with the discovery of photosynthesis.
41. Which immunological scientist is considered the founder of chemotherapy?
Answer: Paul Ehrlich.
42. Which scientist shared the 1953 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of the citric acid cycle?
Answer: Hans Krebs.
43. Which scientist developed the first nuclear reactor in the world?
Answer: Enrico Fermi.
44. Which famous chemist discovered the elements magnesium, boron, calcium, strontium, and magnesium?
Answer: Humphrey Davy.
45. Which astronomer first identified Neptune as the eighth planet in the solar system?
Answer: Johann Gottfried Galle.
46. Which biochemist first developed the concept of vitamins in the year 1912?
Answer: Casimir Funk. He coined the term vitamin, as these substances are “vital” to our health and contain central “amine” groups.
47. Which scientist is credited with the discovery of human blood groups?
Answer: Karl Landsteiner. He was a biologist, immunologist, and physician.
48. Which seismologist discovered the Earth’s inner core?
Answer: Inge Lehmann.
49. Which scientist discovered the composition of water in 1781?
Answer: Henry Cavendish.
50. Which German chemist discovered the element radon in 1900?
Answer: Friedrich Ernst Dorn.
About the Author
Yasmin is a McMaster University graduate and Program Coordinator at SCIFAA. She holds a Bachelor of Applied Science in Sustainable Chemistry and a Minor in Environmental Sciences.
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