Physicists and astronomers

G

Galileo1564-1642
A professor of Physics and military engineering at the University of Padua. He discovered the moons of Jupiter, sunspots, the phases of Venus and the craters on the Moon. He is also credited as being the first to use a telescope for astronomy. Discovered the constancy of the period of a pendulum.

Galvani, Luigi Alisio 1737-1798
Italian physiologist. Experimented with the electrical impulses in muscles.

Gamov, George 1904-1968

An American Physicist. Realised that the existence of cosmic background radiation provided experimental evidence for the Big bang

Gauss, Karl Friedrich 1777- 1855
German mathematician, physicist and astronomer. Worked on the theory of errors. Calculated the properties of the orbit of Ceres (discovered 1801). Gauss' theorem for magnetic flux. Formula for a thick lens.

Geiger, Hans Wilhelm 1882- 1945
German physicist. Work on atomic theory and cosmic rays. Invented the Geiger tube for detecting radioactivity.

Gell-Mann, Murray 1929-American theoretical physicist. Originator of the quark hypothesis. Nobel prize in 1969 for his work on the classification and interaction of sub-atomic particles.

Gerbert 930-1003
Often suggested as being the first of the western scientists. He became a pope.

Gibbs, James Willard 1839-1903
Developed the idea that the entropy of an isolated system always tends to increase. Helped develop the theoryof thermodynamics.

Gilbert, William 1544-1603
English scientist and physician to Queen Elizabeth I. Published 'De Magnete' in 1600 on the theory of magnetism. Researched electrostatics which he called electric after the word 'elektron' the Greek word for amber. Proposed the idea that the planets were held in their orbits by the force of magnetism!

Glaser, Donald Arthur 1926-
American physicist. Nobel Prize for Physics in 1960 for the invention of the bubble chamber in 1952.

Goddard, Robert H. 1882-1945
In 1926 he launched the first liquid fuelled rocket from his aunt's farm in Massachusetts, U.S.A. It stood just over 3 m tall and he called it Nell. It rose at 30 m/s and reach a height of 14 m before falling back into the cabbage patch.

Goldstein, Eugen 1850-1931
German Physicist. Discovered 'canal rays' (steams of positive ions) in 1886.

Graham, Thomas 1805- 1869
British Physicist. Graham's law of diffusion (1846). Work on osmosis.

Gregory, of Tours 1638-1675A French historian who wrote an astronomical book to determine the position of movable feasts.

Grimaldi, Francesco Maria 1618-1663
Italian Physicist and mathematician. Discovered the diffraction of light in the mid seventeenth century – a hundred and fifty years before Young's work.