List of discoveries

This article presents a list of discoveries and includes famous observations. Discovery observations form acts of detecting and learning something. Discovery observations are acts in which something is found and given a productive insight. The observation assimilates the knowledge of a phenomenon or the recording of data using instruments.

Anthropology

Century of discovery and item

19th century : Historical relatedness of languages
19th century : Extinct human ancestry
20th century : Culture and tool use among chimpanzees
20th century : Mitochondrial Eve

Astronomy/Cosmology

Century of discovery, item and discoverer

3rd century B.C. : Heliocentrism (Earth and the planets revolving around the Sun) by Aristarchus of Samos
3rd century B.C. : The discovery of the curvature of the Earth, its size (circumference) computed by Eratosthenes
2nd century B.C. : Discovery of tides being caused by the Moon, by Seleucus of Seleucia
16th century : Explicit heliocentric model by Nicolaus Copernicus
17th century : Moons of Jupiter by Galileo Galilei
17th century : Sunspots by Johannes and David Fabricius, Christoph Scheiner and Galileo Galilei
17th century: Titan is discovered by Christiaan Huygens
17th century : Discovery of four satellites of Saturn, by Giovanni Domenico Cassini
18th and 19th century : The outer planets, Uranus and Neptune discovered.
19th century: Ceres, first asteroid discovered by Giuseppe Piazzi
20th century: Pluto is discovered by Clyde Tombaugh
20th century : Universe beyond our galaxy
20th century : Expansion and age of the universe, based on Hubble's law
20th century : Cosmic microwave background radiation
20th century: Accelerating universe
20th century: confirmed existence of exoplanets

Biology

Systemic circulation of blood and double circulatory system by William Harvey
Observation of microorganisms by Antony van Leeuwenhoek
Discovery of the role of oxygen in respiration and photosynthesis by Joseph Priestley, Antoine Lavoisier and Jan Ingenhousz
Former existence of extinct species
Discovery of evidence for the evolution of species in the fossil record and DNA sequences
Chromosomes in the cell nucleus bear a definite linear arrangement of genes - the Chromosome Theory of Inheritance.
Discovery of the essential minerals, nutrients and vitamins in foodstuffs
Discovery of the link between arteries and veins by Marcello Malpighi
Discovery of the animal reproduction by Lazzaro Spallanzani
Discovery of the animal electricity by Luigi Galvani
The role of microorganisms in causing infectious disease, by Louis Pasteur and Joseph Lister
The nervous system acts via electrical impulses
Discovery of the structure and function of DNA and RNA
Discovery of the structure and function of enzymes and other proteins
Discovery of Nerve growth factor by Rita Levi-Montalcini and Stanley Cohen
Discovery of restriction endonucleases, later used in genetic engineering, by Daniel Nathans and Hamilton Smith
Discovery of the Impermanence of Sexual Phenotypes as to the conclusive statement, by Isidro A. T. Savillo

Chemistry

The methane by Alessandro Volta
The synthesis of urea from inorganic chemicals, by Friedrich Woehler, disproving Vitalism
law of conservation of mass by Antoine Lavoisier
Chirality or handedness of asymmetrical molecules, by Louis Pasteur
Periodicity of the elements by Dmitri Mendeleev
Practical synthesis of ammonia, by Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch
X-ray crystallography, allowing for the determination of molecular structures
Synthesis of Neoprene and Nylon by Wallace Carothers and colleagues
Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy for the rapid determination of molecular structures in solution.
Chromatography for the efficient separation and purification of chemicals.
Dideoxy method of DNA sequencing, by Fred Sanger

Geography/Geology

12th century : Discovery of Lake Victoria by Muhammad al-Idrisi
16th century : Continental drift, put forward by Flemish geographer Abraham Ortelius
20th century : Geologic time scale, proposed by British geologist Arthur Holmes
20th century : Great age of the Earth, finally discovered by C. C. Patterson

Physics

17th century : Principle of relativity by Galileo Galilei
17th century : Newton's laws of motion by Galileo Galilei and Isaac Newton
17th century : Classical mechanics and inverse square law of gravity (Newton's law of universal gravitation) by Isaac Newton
18th century : Kinetic energy is proportional to mass × velocity squared by Émilie du Châtelet, based on experiments by Willem 'sGravesande.
18th century : +/- Electric charges and their conservation, by Benjamin Franklin
18th century : Mechanical energy equivalent of heat, by Count Rumford and others.
19th century : Phenomena of Electromagnetism, discovered by Hans Christian Ørsted and Michael Faraday
19th century : Laws of Electromagnetism, developed by Michael Faraday and James Clerk Maxwell
19th century : Experiments on Diffraction done by Augustin-Jean Fresnel provide evidence for the wave theory of light
19th century : Electromagnetic waves, predicted by James Clerk Maxwell, discovered by Heinrich Hertz
19th century : The Michelson–Morley experiment demonstrates that light is not carried by Aether
19th century : Radioactivity by Henri Becquerel and others.
19th century : Electron, discovered by J. J. Thomson and his team
20th century : Photon, theoretically proven by Albert Einstein
20th century : Quantum theory to account for the photoelectric effect by Enrico Fermi, Max Planck, Niels Bohr, Albert Einstein, and others.
20th century : Transuranium element by Enrico Fermi.
20th century : Technetium, discovered by Emilio G. Segrè
20th century : The theories of special and general relativity by Albert Einstein
20th century : The demonstration of time dilation as a real physical phenomenon by Albert Einstein
20th century : Ultra short radio waves by J. C. Bose