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Pointed a telescope upward and broke the authority of the ancients.

Probability theory, hydrostatics, and a mechanical calculator at nineteen.

Wave theory of light, the pendulum clock, Saturn's rings.

Showed that one law governs the apple and the Moon alike.

Translated Newton into French and established kinetic energy as mv².

Proposed an atomic force theory two centuries early.

Built the first battery; the volt is his.

The Prince of Mathematicians; number theory, geodesy, magnetism.

A bookbinder's apprentice who gave humanity electricity on demand.

Four equations that unified electricity, magnetism and light — hence radio and Wi-Fi.

Alternating current, induction motors and radio principles.

Quantised energy and started quantum theory.

The only person to win Nobel Prizes in two different sciences.

Made radio a transatlantic reality.

Explained nuclear fission; passed over by the Nobel committee. Element 109 is meitnerium.

Rewrote space, time, gravity and light in a single year of work.

Noether's theorem links symmetry to conservation laws — the backbone of modern physics.

Quantum atom and the Copenhagen interpretation.

Wave mechanics and What Is Life?, which inspired the DNA hunters.

The uncertainty principle.

Predicted the boson that gives particles mass, found 48 years later.

Hawking radiation and A Brief History of Time.