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59. Normal distribution curve 1801 (Gaussian statistics)

60. Jacquard loom 1801 (programmed cards later used in computers)

61. Food preservation 1809 (Appert)

62. Principles of geology 1830-1833 (Lyell)

63. Electric generator/motor 1831 (Faraday’s Law)

64. Computer 1833 (Babbage—analytical engine)

65. Telegraph 1837 (Morse/Wheatstone/Cooke)

66. Surgical anesthesia 1846 (Morton—ether)

67. Electromagnetic field equations 1855 (Maxwell)

68. The Origin of Species 1859 (Darwin)

69. Germ theory 1861 (Pasteur)

70. Antiseptic surgery 1865 (Lister—carbolic acid)

71. Laws of heredity 1865 (Mendel)

72. Periodic table of elements 1869 (Mendeleyev)

73. Internal combustion engine/auto 1876 (Otto)

74. Telephone 1876 (Bell)

75. Invention factory 1876 (Edison)

76. Incandescent light globe 1879 (Edison)

77. Radioactivity 1896 (Becquerel)

78. Radio 1896 (Marconi)

79. Quantum theory proposed 1900 (Planck’s theory of the atom)

80. Powered flight 1903 (Wright brothers)

81. Special/general theory of relativity 1905/1915 (Einstein)

82. Vacuum tube 1907 (De Forest)

83. Assembly-line mass production 1913 (Ford)

84. Origin of continents and oceans 1915 (Wegener’s continental drift)

85. Iconoscope 1924 (Zworykin—television)

86. Bosch process 1925 (Carl Bosch)

87. Liquid rocket fuel 1926 (Goddard)

88. Uncertainty principle 1927 (Heisenberg)

89. Penicillin 1928 (Fleming/Florey/Chain)

90. Cyclotron 1931 (Lawrence—particle accelerator)

91. Nylon patented 1937 (Carothers/DuPont Co.—plastics, synthetics, etc.)

92. Jet engine 1937 (Whittle)

93. Electrophotography 1938 (Carlson/Xerox—photocopy)

94. Nuclear detonation 1945 (Los Alamos)

95. Transistor 1947 (Shockley/Brattain/Bardeen)

96. Laser 1951 (Townes)

97. Genetic code 1953 (Crick/Watson/Wilkins)

98. The Pill 1960(Pincus)

99. Manned moon landing 1969 (Apollo 11)

100. Genetic engineering/cloning 1973 (Köhler/Milstein)

The Top Twelve

1. Founding of natural Greek philosophy/Aristotelian logic c. 600–300 B.C.E.

2. Printing press/movable type 1454 (Gutenberg)

3. On the Revolution of the Celestial Spheres 1543 (Copernicus)

4. Development of scientific method 1629 (Francis Bacon’s Novum Organum initiates development—Galileo, Descartes, Newton)

5. Mathematical principles of natural philosophy 1687 (Newton’s Principia)

6. Steam engine 1775 (Watt)

7. Electric generator 1831 (Faraday)

8. Computer 1833 (Babbage’s analytical engine)

9. The Origin of Species 1859 (Darwin—theory of evolution by natural selection)

10. Germ theory 1861 (Pasteur)

11. Manned/powered flight 1903 (Wright brothers)

12. Special/general theory of relativity 1905/1915 (Einstein)

The Single Most Important Contribution in History

1. The Origin of Species 1859 (Darwin—theory of evolution by natural selection)

PART IV SCIENCE AND THE CULT OF VISIONARIES

13

The Hero on the Edge of Forever

Gene Roddenberry, Star Trek,

and the Heroic in History

HISTORIANS AND BIOGRAPHERS have explained the origin of the heroic in two dramatically different ways. At one end of the spectrum heroes are “great men”—seminal thinkers, brilliant inventors, creative authors. At the other end, heroes are historical artifacts of their culture—ordinary people thrust into positions of power and fame that might just as well have gone to others. The first archetype is represented by Thomas Carlyle in his Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History: “Universal History, the history of what man has accomplished in this world, is at bottom the history of the great men who have worked here. Worship of a hero is transcendent admiration of a great man.” The second archetype is seen in such Marxist writers as Friedrich Engels: “That a certain particular man, and no other, emerges at a definite time in a given country is naturally a pure chance, but even if we eliminate him there is always a need for a substitute, and