So you wanted some names after all? Well, here are a few, with their best-known accomplishments, in chronological order.
| 1543 | Nicolaus Copernicus (Germany) proposes heliocentric theory of universe (just before his death, so avoiding the church’s (f)ire) |
| c. 1570-1600 | Tycho Brahe (Denmark) makes astronomical measurements which will be used by his assistant, Johannes Kepler. |
| 1605 |
Johannes Kepler (Germany) shows that planets move around the Sun in elliptical orbits |
| 1609 | Galileo Galilei (Italy) observes moons of Jupiter, studied laws of motion |
| 1665 | Robert Hooke (England) coins the term “cell” |
| c. 1670 | Antonie Philips van Leeuwenhoek (Netherlands) first observes microorganisms with his handcrafted microscope |
| 1687 | Isaac Newton (England) publishes Principia Mathematica, containing his laws of motion and the law of universal gravitation |
| 1785 | James Hutton (Scotland) proposes geological cycles |
| 1791 | Luigi Galvani (Italy) discovers bioelectricity |
| 1824 | Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot (France) founds the science of thermodynamics with his studies on heat engines |
| 1839 | Theodor Schwann (Germany) states the cell theory, that all living things are composed of cells. |
| 1859 | Charles Darwin (England) publishes “On the origin of species”, proposing evolution by natural selection |
| 1861 | James Clark Maxwell (Scotland) publishes the equations of electromagnetism; later, shows that electric and magnetic fields travel through space as electromagnetic waves |
| 1865 | Gregor Mendel (Moravia) presents first paper on rules of heredity. |
| c. 1890 | Santiago Ramón y Cajal (Spain) discovers definitive evidence for neuron theory, that the brain Is made up of discrete neurons, and explains their form and function. |
| c. 1890 | Ludwig Boltzmann (Austria) shows statistical significance of entropy |
| 1896 | Henri Becquerel (France) discovers radioactivity |
| 1905 | Albert Einstein (Germany) publishes papers on photoelectric effect (which would give rise to quantum mechanics) and special relativity; in 1915, theory of gravity (general relativity) |
| 1912 | Alfred Wegener (Germany) publishes theory of continental drift; it would be accepted only in the 1960s as the theory of plate tectonics |
| 1924 | Wolfgang Ernst Pauli (Austria) publishes the exclusion principle, stating that no two electrons can occupy the same quantum state; would become the basis of solid-state physics and transistors |
| 1926 | Erwin Schrödinger (Austria) publishes the wave equation, the central equation of quantum mechanics |
| 1927 | Werner Heisenberg (Germany) publishes the uncertainty principle of quantum mechanics |
| 1953 | Francis Crick (Great Britain) and James Watson (USA) use Rosalind Franklin’s x-ray diffraction photos to understand the structure of DNA |
| 1964 | Arnold Penzias and Robert Wilson discover cosmic background radiation |
| 1979 | Alan Guth (USA) develops idea of cosmic inflation |
Since those times, science has become bigger and more expensive, so single names do not stand out so much any more. For instance, the discovery of the Higgs boson at CERN in 2012 involved thousands of people, far too many to include in this table – or on the list of Nobel Prize winners (which is limited to three living people)!
