News Biography

                         Alexander Bain Alexander Bain was a Scottish educationalist and philosopher. He is known as one of the most innovative and prominent minds in the fields of logic, education reform, psychology, linguistics and moral philosophy. Alexander Bain was the founder of Mind, the very first journal of its kind to focus on psychology as well as analytical philosophy. He was also responsible for the application of the scientific method to the study of psychology. At the University of Aberdeen, Alexander Bain held the inaugural Regius Chair position in Logic, was a professor in English Literature and Moral Philosophy and was twice elected as the Lord Rector. His Early Life Alexander Bain was born to Margaret Paul and George Bain on June 11, 1818 in Aberdeen, Scotland. George, his father, was a veteran soldier and a hand-loom weaver. Alexander left school at 11 and became a weaver himself. Want...

                           Alessandro Volta Alessandro Volta was a physicist, chemist and a pioneer of electrical science. He is most famous for his invention of the electric battery. In brief he: • Invented the first electric battery – which people then called the “voltaic pile” – in 1800. Using his invention, scientists were able to produce steady flows of electric current for the first time, unleashing a wave of new discoveries and technologies. • Was the first person to isolate methane. • Discovered methane mixed with air could be exploded using an electric spark: this is the basis of the internal combustion engine. • Discovered “contact electricity” resulting from contact between different metals. • Recognized two types of electric conduction. • Wrote the first electromotive series. This showed, from highest to lowest, the voltages that different metals can produce in a battery. (We now t...

                                          Aldo Leopold In a world where life perishes and modernization gets in the way of natural habitats of different species, wildlife conservation is a key factor in keeping Nature’s gift of life in balance. Aldo Leopold is considered by some as the father of wildlife conservation. He was one of the leaders of what is now known as the American wilderness movement and throughout his life, he played many roles ranging from wildlife manager, naturalist, hunter, poet, visionary, and philosopher to name a few. He is credited for the development of the first national wilderness area in America in 1924. Early Life and Personal Background A native of Burlington, Iowa, Rand Aldo Leopold was born on January 11, 1887. He was the eldest son of a manufacturer of fine walnut desks, Carl Leopold, and his mother’s name was Clara Starker. He had a c...

              Alberto Santos-Dumont One of the most prominent names when it comes to aviation, Alberto Santos-Dumont was a well-known Brazilian aviator. He captured the attention of Americans and Europeans with his airship flights. Dumont was the first to achieve flight of a powered airplane with his 14-bis biplane in Europe. Early Life Born on the 20th of July in 1873, Alberto Santos-Dumont was the heir of a rich family who produced coffee. His birthplace was in the village of Cabangu in the State of Minas Gerais in Brazil. Today, this farm still exists and is called the Santos-Dumont farm. He was the 6th out of eight children, and while he was still young, he was taught how to drive the locomotive and steam tractors which were used in the family plantation in Sao Paulo. He had always been fascinated by machinery and in his autobiography he wrote how he had dreamt of flying.His father was a French-born engineer and made use of the best...

                       Albert Einstein Albert Einstein rewrote the laws of nature. He completely changed the way we understand the behavior of things as basic as light, gravity, and time. Although scientists today are comfortable with Einstein’s ideas, in his time, they were completely revolutionary. Most people did not even begin to understand them. If you’re new to science, you’ll probably find that some of his ideas take time to get used to! Quick Guide to Albert Einstein’s Scientific Achievements Albert Einstein: • provided powerful evidence that atoms and molecules actually exist, through his analysis of Brownian motion. • explained the photoelectric effect, proposing that light came in bundles. Bundles of light (he called them quanta) with the correct amount of energy can eject electrons from metals. • proved that everyone, whatever speed we move at, measures the speed of light to be 300 million...