List of famous experiments (original) (raw)

The following is a list of historically important scientific experiments and observations. See also list of famous discoveries and thought experiment.

Astronomy

• Galileo Galilei uses a telescope to observe that the moons of Jupiter appear to circle Jupiter. This evidence supports the heliocentric model, and hurts the geocentric model of the cosmos (1609)
• Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson detect the cosmic microwave background radiation, giving support to the theory of the Big Bang (1964)

Biology

• Anton van Leeuwenhoek discovers microorganisms
• Robert Hooke, using a microscope, observes cells (1665)
• Edward Jenner tests the first vaccine (1796)
• Gregor Mendel's pea plant experiments lead him to surmize many of the fundemental theories of genetics (dominant vs recessive genes, the 1-2-1 ratio, etc) (1856-1863)
• Louis Pasteur uses S-shaped flasks to prevent spores from contaminating broth. Disproves the theory of Spontaneous generation (also known as abiogenesis). (1861) A continuation of the rancid meat experiment done by Francesco Redi
• Frederick Griffith demonstrates (Griffith's experiment) that living cells can be transformed via a transforming principle, later discovered to be DNA (1928)
• Karl von Frisch decodes the "dance" honeybees use to communicate the location of flowers (1940)
• Barbara McClintock breeds corn plants for color, which leads to the discovery of jumping genes (1944)
• Hershey-Chase experiment uses bacteriophage to prove that DNA is the hereditary material (1952)
• Miller-Urey experiment demonstrates that organic compounds can arise spontaneously from inorganic ones (1953)
• Meselson-Stahl experiment proves that DNA replication is semiconservative (1958)

Chemistry

• Joseph John Thomson's Cathode Ray Tube experiments (discovers the electron and its negative charge) (1897)
• Robert Millikan's oil-drop experiment, which suggests that electric charge occurs as '\'quanta'' (whole units), (1909)
• Ernest Rutherford's Gold foil experiment determines the shape of the atom (1911)
• Neil Bartlett mixes xenon and fluorine leading to the first synthesis of a noble gas compound, xenon tetrafluoride (1962)

Physics

• Archimedes, while sitting in a bathtub, noticed that his body pushes the water out. This leads to discovering a practical technique to measure the volume of irregular objects. (c. 250 BC)
• Eratosthenes evaluates the diameter of the Earth by comparing the length of the lengthiest shadow of the day with the distance between that location and a place where the sun shines to the bottom of the well at midday (240 BC)
• Galileo Galilei uses rolling balls to disprove the Aristotelian theory of motion (1589)
• Isaac Newton decomposes sunlight with a prism (Dubious - may not have happened)
• Ole R�mer uses the timing of the eclipses of the moons of Jupiter with respect their distance from earth to estimate the speed of light for the first time. He yields a value of 225,000 km/s (Actual value of 299,792 km/s) (1672)
• Henry Cavendish's Torsion bar experiment (1798)
• Thomas Young's Double-slit experiment (c1805)
• Hans Christian Orsted discovers the connection of electricity and magnetism by experiments involving a compass and electric circuits (1820)
• Christian Doppler arranges to have trumpets played from a passing train. The ground-observed pitch was higher than that played, demonstrating the Doppler Shift (1845)
• L�on Foucault's namesake Foucault pendulum is first exhibited. It demonstrates the Coriolis force and the rotation of the earth (1851)
• Michelson-Morley experiment exposes weaknesses of the prevailing variant of the theory of luminiferous aether. (1887)
• Guglielmo Marconi demonstrates that radio signals can travel between two points separated by an obstacle. Marconi's servant is behind a hill 3 kilometers away and fires his rifle upon receiving the signals (1895).
• Arthur Eddington leads an expedition to the island of Principe to observe a total solar eclipse. This allows for an observation of the bending of starlight under gravity, a prediction of Albert Einstein's Theory of Relativity. It was confirmed (although it was later shown that the margin of error was as great as the observed bending) (1919)
• Enrico Fermi splits the atom (1934)
• John Bardeen and Walter Brittain fabricate the first working transistor (1947)
• Clyde L. Cowan and Frederick Reines confirm the existence of the neutrino in the neutrino experiment (1955)
• Eric A. Cornell and Carl E. Wieman synthesize Bose-Einstein condensate (1995)

Psychology

• Ivan Pavlov's experiments with dogs and classical conditioning (1900s)
• John B. Watson and Rosalie Rayner conduct the Little Albert experiment (1920)
• Solomon Asch shows how group pressure can persuade an individual to conform to an obviously wrong opinion (1951)
• B.F. Skinner's demonstrations of operant conditioning (1930s - 1960s)
• Phillip Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment (1971)
• Allan and Beatrice Gardner' attempts to teach American Sign Language to the chimpanzee Washoe (1970s)
• Stanley Milgram's experiments on human obedience (1974)