Genealogy

The Nobel Prize recognizes Pd-catalyzed cross-coupling as a central tool of organic synthesis.

Graphene is isolated as a one-atom-thick material.

The Human Genome Project is completed.

Buckminsterfullerene is discovered, giving carbon a new molecular icon.

Apollo 11 lands humans on the Moon.

The DNA double helix links molecular structure with heredity.

Carothers and coworkers make nylon 66, an icon of synthetic polymer chemistry.

Fleming observes penicillin.

Bohr proposes the Bohr model of the atom.

Einstein publishes special relativity.

Thomson identifies the electron.

Mendeleev's periodic table makes chemical periodicity predictive.

Kekulé proposes the cyclic structure of benzene.

Darwin publishes On the Origin of Species.

Perkin discovers mauveine, launching the synthetic dye industry.

The Wöhler synthesis of urea becomes a symbolic beginning for modern organic chemistry.

Faraday isolates benzene from illuminating gas.

Dalton presents atomic theory as a quantitative framework for chemistry.

Jenner introduces the smallpox vaccine.

Lavoisier publishes Traité élémentaire de chimie.

Herschel discovers Uranus, the first planet found with a telescope.

Watt patents improvements to the steam engine.

The Leyden jar makes it possible to store and demonstrate static electricity.

Linnaeus publishes Systema Naturae, making classification a scientific tool.

Newton publishes the Principia.

Leeuwenhoek reports microscopic life invisible to the naked eye.

Boyle's The Sceptical Chymist helps push chemistry beyond older alchemical categories.

Galileo publishes Sidereus Nuncius, revealing a telescopic Moon and Jupiter's satellites.

Kepler publishes the first two laws of planetary motion.

The Gregorian calendar reform corrects the drift of civil time against astronomy.

Tycho's supernova challenges the idea of an unchanging heavens.

Mercator publishes his 1569 world map, designed for navigation.

Agricola's De re metallica turns mining, metallurgy, and furnaces into illustrated technical knowledge.

Copernicus publishes De revolutionibus.

Vasco da Gama reaches India by sea, reshaping trade in spices, dyes, drugs, and materials.

The Columbian exchange begins, moving plants, medicines, foods, pathogens, and materials between continents.

Regiomontanus completes the Epitome of the Almagest, a key pre-Copernican astronomy text.

The Gutenberg Bible shows the disruptive power of movable-type printing in Europe.

Heidelberg University is founded.

Jikji is printed in Korea with movable metal type.

The University of Kraków, later Jagiellonian University, is founded.

Nicole Oresme uses geometric diagrams to represent changing quantities.

Public mechanical clocks begin to make measured time visible in European cities.