Johannes Gutenberg

Johannes Gutenberg was a craftsman from Mainz, Germany. Between 1430 and 1444 he was in Strasbourg, probably working as a goldsmith, and here he may have begun printing. In 1438 he entered a contract with three others to develop a refined printing technique and became the inventor of moveable-type mechanical printing in Europe. He printed the 42-line Gutenberg Bible (c.1455) but in the end he lost a suit from one of his creditors, who confiscated the type for the Bible. The suit left Gutenberg financially ruined. Aided by Konrad Humery, he was able to set up another press, but little is known of his work thereafter. The impact of printing was enormous - it led to an almost instant mass production of books and truly initiated the information age. The Reformation, the Renaissance, and the scientific period of the 17th century can hardly be contemplated without printed books.

Leonardo Da Vinci

Da Vinci was born in Vinci, Italy. About 1470 he entered the studio of Andrea del Verrocchio, and in 1482 settled in Milan, where he painted his 'Last Supper'. In 1500 he entered the service of Cesare Borgia in Florence as architect and engineer, and with Michelangelo decorated the Sala del Consiglio in the Palazzo della Signoria with historical compositions. Soon after he completed his most celebrated painting, 'Mona Lisa'. His studies of anatomy and mechanical devices show that he had a knowledge far beyond his own time. His notebooks contain original remarks on most of the sciences, including biology, physiology, hydrodynamics, and aeronautics.

Albert Einstein

Einstein was one of the most creative scientists in human history. He initiated a revolution in scientific thought with his theory of relativity. Its basis was the identification of gravity with inertia. His work provided the theoretical expectation that vast amounts of energy could be released from the nucleus. Einstein transformed mankind's understanding of nature on every scale, from the smallest to that of the cosmos as a whole. His crowning glory, perhaps the most beautifiul theory in all of science, was the general theory of relativity, published in 1916. Now, nearly a century after he began to make his mark, we are still exploring Einstein's universe. Furthermore, his work provided the theoretical underpinnings for such advances as television, lasers and semiconductors. And the scientific achievements - nuclear power, space travel, electronics - all bear his fingerprints.

Marie Curie

Polish physicist famous for her investigation of radioactivity, a term she introduced first. Together with her husband Pierre she discovered that uranium ore contained more radioactivity than could be accounted for by the uranium itself. From tons of uranium ore she isolated small amounts of two highly radioactive new chemical elements, and named them radium and polonium. She won the Nobel prize twice, first - jointly with her husband and Henry Becquerel - for the discovery of radium and polonium, and later - by herself - for the isolation of pure radium.