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Our tale starts with Galileo Galilei. Galileo was 

born February 15, 1564 in Pisa, Italy. Galileo 

pioneered the "experimental scientific method" and 

was the first to use a refracting telescope to make 

important astronomical discoveries. Galileo made a 

series of discoveries using his new telescope, including 

the moons of the planet Jupiter and the phases of the 

planet Venus.

As a professor of astronomy at University of Pisa, Galileo 

was required to teach the accepted theory of his time that the 

sun and all the planets revolved around the Earth. 

Later at a different University, he was exposed to a new 

theory, proposed by Nicolaus Copernicus, that the Earth and 

all the other planets revolved around the sun. Galileo's 

observations with his new telescope convinced him of the 

truth of Copernicus's sun-centered or heliocentric theory.

Galileo's support for the heliocentric theory got him 

into trouble with the Roman Catholic Church. In 1633 

they convicted him of heresy and forced him to recant 

his support of Copernicus. They sentenced him to life 

imprisonment, but because of his advanced age allowed 

him serve his term under house arrest.

Galileo became blind at the age of 72. His blindness 

has often been attributed to damage done to his eyes 

by telescopic observations he made of the Sun in 1613. 

The truth is he was blinded by a combination of cataracts 

and glaucoma. Galileo died in 1642.

Cambridge

In 1642, the year Galileo died, Isaac Newton was 

born in Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, England on 

Christmas Day. His uncle, a clergyman who had 

been an undergraduate at Cambridge, persuaded his 

mother that it would be better for Isaac to go to 

university, so in 1661 he went up to Trinity College, 

Cambridge.   Unfortunately, at that time the plague was 

spreading across Europe, and reached Cambridge in the 

summer of 1665.   The university closed, and Newton 

returned home. He spent the next two years concentrating 

on problems in mathematics and physics.   He wrote later 

that during this time he first understood the theory of 

gravitation.   On returning to Cambridge in 1667, he began to 

work on alchemy. 

Newton’s first major public scientific achievement 

was the invention, design and construction of a 

reflecting telescope.   He ground the mirror, built the 

tube, and even made his own tools for the job.   This 

was a real advance in telescope technology, and 

ensured his election to membership in the Royal Society.  

Later in the 1670’s, Newton became very interested in 

theology.   He studied Hebrew scholarship and ancient and 

modern theologians and became convinced that Christianity 

had departed from the original teachings of Christ.   He felt 

unable to accept the current beliefs of the Church of England.  

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Lucky for Newton the Church of England was 

more flexible than Galileo had found the Catholic 

Church in these matters. King Charles II issued a 

royal decree excusing Newton from the necessity of 

taking holy orders. Newton became a public figure.  

He left Cambridge for London, where he was 

appointed Master of the Mint, a role he pursued 

energetically, as always, including prosecuting 

counterfeiters.   He was knighted by Queen Anne.   He 

argued with Hooke about who deserved credit for 

discovering the connection between elliptical orbits and 

the inverse square law until Hooke died in 1703.   Newton 

died in 1727, and was buried with much pomp and 

circumstance in Westminster Abbey—despite his well-known 

reservations about the Anglican faith.  

Charles Robert Darwin was born on February 12, 

1809 in Shrewsbury, England. Darwin was the British 

naturalist who became famous for his theories of 

evolution and natural selection. Darwin believed all the 

life on earth evolved over millions of years from a few 

common ancestors. In South America Darwin found 

fossils of extinct animals that were similar to modern 

species. On the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific Ocean he 

noticed many variations among plants and animals of the 

same general type as those in South America. Darwin 

studied plants and animals everywhere he went, collecting 

specimens for further study.

Upon his return to London in 1836, Darwin conducted 

thorough research of his notes and specimens. Out of 

this study grew several related theories, evolution did 

occur and evolutionary change was gradual, requiring 

thousands to millions of years.Upon his return to London in 

1836, Darwin conducted thorough research of his notes and 

specimens. Out of this study grew several related theories, 

evolution did occur and evolutionary change was gradual, 

requiring thousands of years.

Darwin's theory of evolutionary selection holds that 

variation within species occurs randomly and that the 

survival or extinction of each organism is determined by that 

organism's ability to adapt to its environment. 

He set these theories forth in his book called, On the 

Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. After 

publication of Origin of Species, Darwin continued to 

write on botany, geology, and zoology until his death in 

1882. He is buried in Westminster Abbey. Darwin's work 

had a tremendous impact on religious thought. Many 

people strongly opposed the idea of evolution because it 

conflicted with their religious convictions. Darwin avoided 

talking about the theological and sociological aspects of his 

work, but other writers used his theories to support their own 

theories about society.   Darwin died on April 19, 1882.

Theory 

of 

Evolution

Marie Curie, was born in Warsaw on November 7, 

1867, the daughter of a secondary-school 

teacher. She received a general education in local 

schools and some scientific training from her 

father. In 1891, she went to Paris to continue her 

studies at the Sorbonne where she obtained 

Licentiateships in Physics and the Mathematical 

Sciences. She met Pierre Curie, Professor in the 

School of Physics, in 1894 and in the following year 

they were married. She succeeded her husband as 

Head of the Physics Laboratory at the Sorbonne, gained 

her Doctor of Science degree in 1903, and following the 

tragic death of Pierre Curie in 1906, she took his place as 

Professor of General Physics in the Faculty of Sciences, the 

first time a woman had held this position. She was also 

appointed Director of the Curie Laboratory in the Radium 

Institute of the University of Paris, founded in 1914. 

Together with her husband, she performed under 

difficult conditions, laboratory arrangements were 

poor and both had to undertake much teaching to 

earn a livelihood. The discovery of radioactivity by 

Henri Becquerel in 1896 inspired the Curies in their 

brilliant researches and analyses which led to the 

isolation of polonium, named after the country of Marie's 

birth, and radium. Curie developed methods for the 

separation of radium from radioactive residues in sufficient 

quantities to allow for its characterization and the careful 

study of its properties, therapeutic properties in particular. 

Curie died in Savoy, France on July 4, 1934.

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