ALBERT EINSTEIN (1879 A.D. - 1955 A.D.)
Albert Einstein made one of the greatest contributions to the world of all times. However, it is interesting to note that he was a very poor student at 14, but by 26 he had changed our impression of time and space. In fact, Einstein's teacher even told his father that "It doesn't matter what he does, he will never amount to anything." However, contrary to what the teacher said, Einstein was very successful; and his name has even become synonymous with success and genius.

Einstein was born to parents Hermann and Pauline Einstein on March 14, 1879. He was born into a family of non-practicing Jews with a family business manufacturing electrical parts. When this business failed in 1894, the family moved to Milan, Italy. Einstein stayed behind to finish the school year, but only lasted a term on his own. His next attempt was to try to get out of high school by entering the Swiss Polytechnic, a top university, but he failed the entrance exam in the arts section. So, Einstein was sent to Aarau, Switzerland, to finish high school, and he succeeded in 1896. Einstein then enrolled at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and graduated in 1900 as a secondary school teacher of mathematics and physics.

Love hit in 1898 when Einstein met Hungarian Mileva Maric. They met again in northern Italy in 1901, and Mileva became pregnant. Their daughter, Lieserl, was put up for adoption, became sick, and was never heard of again. In 1903, Einstein and Mileva married. In 1904 their son Hans Albert was born, and in 1910 their son Eduard was born. Working in a Swiss patent office from 1902 to 1909, Einstein wrote many papers on theoretical physics on the side. With one, he got his Ph.D. degree from the University of Zurich, and he eventually became an associate professor of physics at the University of Zurich. In 1914, Einstein went on to become a professor at the Kaiser-Wilhelm Gesellschaft in Berlin, the most prestigious position possible. That same year, Einstein and his wife Mileva divorced. Einstein was seriously ill in 1917, but his cousin Elsa nursed him back to health. The two married in 1919.

In 1905, Einstein began developing his Theory of Relativity, submitting his paper "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies" to the leading German physics journal on June 30. Ten years later, he completed his General Theory of Relativity. Then in 1919, a solar eclipse proved that Einstein's theory was true. Relativity means that light always moves in a straight line through empty space and always at the same speed in a vacuum, no matter where you are. This causes a whole realm of problems for us. First of all, relativity has a huge effect on time. For example, a man riding a moving train that is looking at a light would see it move straight down and straight up. However, someone on the ground would see the light move diagonally since the train is going side ways, and from there it would appear that the light travels farther. So, the same event took more time to the person outside. Relativity also has an effect on space. For example, if someone threw a football on a train, it would go (let's say) 40 feet to them. However, to the person on the track, the retreating train looks smaller and thus the distance the football was thrown is also shorter to them. If any of this made any sense to you, it would now be obvious that time and space are all relative to where you are in them.

Einstein received the Nobel Prize in physics in 1921, but he actually received it for his work on the photoelectric effect that he did in 1905. Then, in 1933, Einstein had to emigrate to the United States because he lived in Nazi Germany and was identified as a Jew. He ended up in Princeton, New Jersey, where Einstein worked at the Institute for Advanced Study. Three years later, Elsa died after a short illness.

When World War II started in 1939, Einstein told President Roosevelt that Germany might have been building an atomic bomb, and thus it was necessary for the United States to start such research. His plea, along with the follow-ups, caused the president to set up the Manhattan Project, which researched and developed the atomic bomb. Einstein continued perfecting his theory and looking for more answers until his death on April 16, 1955, when he died of a heart failure at the age of 76.

WILLAMINA FLEMMING (1857 A.D. - 1911 A.D.)
Williamina Fleming was born in Scotland. She was the first to discover white dwarf stars. In addition, she developed a system of classifying stars according to their spectra. Using this system, which was later named after her, she successfully catalogued more than 10,000 stars.

In 1907, she published a study of 222 stars that she had discovered. A British astronomer noted her achievement when he made the following observation, "many astronomers are deservedly proud to have discovered one...the discovery of two hundred and twenty two...is an achievement bordering on the marvelous."

Fleming published her discovery of white dwarfs, stars that are very hot and dense which appear bluish or white in color. White dwarfs are believed to be stars in their final stage of existence.

EDWIN POWELL HUBBLE (1889 A.D. - 1953 A.D.)
Edwin Powell Hubble was an American astronomer who was a pioneer in the study of extragalactic astronomy. He developed the classification scheme for the structure of galaxies, which is still used today. In 1929 Hubble's study of the distribution of galaxies resulted in the discovery of Hubble's law. He also demonstrated from his observations of the Andromeda nebula and other galaxies that the universe is expanding. Today, his name is carried by the best telescope in the world, a satellite observatory orbiting the earth, known as the Hubble Space Telescope. This telescope is continuing the work begun by Hubble to map the universe by producing remarkable images of distant galaxies.