Technology Biography

Did you know that NASA uses mathematics for space travel? Meet Katherine Johnson, one of the first African-American and female mathematicians who worked for NASA. Learn about her life growing up in segregated America and her journey to pursue her education and dreams. Her mathematical calculations helped American astronauts to go to space, land on the moon, and return to earth safely in 1969!

In the late 1700s, young Louis Braille overcame his disability by inventing "night writing," a system of raised dots to help blind people read. This alphabet of raised dots allowed sightless people to live more independent lives.

Garrett Morgan was an inventor concerned for the well-being of other people. His inventions included the safety hood gas mask and signals that set the standard for today's traffic lights. It is easy to see that the lives of many people were made better or saved by Garrett Morgan’s inventions.

Every visitor of Yosemite National Park in California should say "thank you" to one man: John Muir.

Galileo used his telescope to discover new and marvelous mysteries in the night sky!

Srinivasa Ramanujan has been described as a rock-star mathematician. Though he died almost one hundred years ago, his work in mathematics will always be important.

Did you know the Nobel Prize is named after the man who invented dynamite? Learn all about the life of Alfred Nobel, who grew up in a desperately poor family.

Joseph Montgolfier and his brother Étienne developed the first balloon. But its first riders were a sheep, a rooster, and a duck!

Meet Doug Taron, a scientist who studies butterflies and other Insects & Arachnids at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in Chicago.

An old timer regales the audience with the story of the Stanley brothers and their famous Stanley Steamer, a steam-powered automobile.

Isaac Newton did not discover gravity; people had noticed it before! But he did figure out the rules for how it works.

Why would Geoffrey Pyke propose a strange idea like building an aircraft carrier from a mixture of ice and wood pulp?

A biography of the great French chemist and crystallographer, Louis Pasteur, who invented the pasteurization process, identified microbes as a cause of infectious disease, and developed the first vaccine against rabies.

In 1752, the sky in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, darkened. A thunderstorm was coming. Benjamin Franklin was ready to perform an experiment. He wanted to show the electrical nature of lightning. His experiment was a success, but he didn’t discover electricity that day. Myths about Franklin and his experiment have been told for years. Discover what’s real and what’s fiction through infographics, primary sources, and expertly leveled text.

In 1949, Dorothy Vaughan became the first African American woman to lead a team at NASA's Langley Research Center. Her work as a mathematician was an important part of helping the United States explore space. Learn more about Vaughan's life as a famous mathematician!

The compelling, beautiful narrative of Code Name God is one man's rags-to-riches story and, more profoundly, the vision of a world-class physicist seeking to integrate the findings of science, religion, and spiritual quest.

In Defying Limits, Dave Williams shares the events that have defined his life, showing us that whether we’re gravity-defying astronauts or earthbound terrestrials, we can all live infinite, fulfilled lives by relishing the value and importance of each moment. The greatest fear that we all face is not the fear of dying but the fear of never having lived. Each of us is greater than we believe. Together, we can exceed our limits to soar farther and higher than we ever imagined.

The discovery of DNA’s structure is the story of five towering minds in pursuit of the advancement of science, and for almost all of them, the prospect of fame and immortality: Watson, Crick, Rosalind Franklin, Maurice Wilkins, and Linus Pauling. Howard Markel skillfully recreates the intense intellectual journey, and fraught personal relationships, that ultimately led to a spectacular breakthrough. But it is Rosalind Franklin - fiercely determined, relentless, and an outsider at Cambridge and the University of London in the 1950s - who becomes a focal point for Markel.

Explore the life and achievements of Elizabeth Blackwell, America's first woman doctor.

Explore the life and achievements of Rachel Carson, a ground-breaking scientist who worked to protect the Earth.