Example 8—— Johannes Kepler

Everyone from the Greeks to Copernicus assumed the orbits of the planet had to be circular. In 1571, German mathematician Johannes Kepler shattered that assumption with his great discovery.

If calculus were developed at that time, the calculation of planets’ orbit would be rather easy. However, astronomers at that time did not have this power mathematical tool. Thus, Kepler had to improvise ways to compute circular orbit of Mars. The work was tedious. Kepler wrote that he was almost driven to madness considering in calculating the matter.

His calculations began to reveal that the accepted notion of planet moving in circles simply did not work, and to get a self-consistent picture, he found that an ellipse was the path rather than a circle. With this finding, Kepler predicted when the planet Mercury would pass across the front of the Sun. At that time nobody else’s theory could do that.

Example 7—— Nicolas Copernicus

Nicolas Copernicus, a doctor and a lawyer by trade, was famous for his hobby-astronomy research. He devoted 40 years’ time and energy into his hobby, which led him to doubt the sacred Greek’s earth-centered universe theory. After long time study, Copernicus found that the sacred earth-centered belief failed when it came to predicting planetary motion.

Gradually, he realized that maybe the earth moved itself. Despite any evidence that the earth was moving, he came up with his new theory of sun-centered universe and wrote it into his own book-the earth moves.

In 1543, Copernicus is said to lie in bed partially paralyzed and hang in death till he witnessed his book was printed. He died that day at the age of 70, but his evolutionary idea never died. With his great visionary blueprint his predecessor astronomers marched ahead to the physics of the cosmos and modern astronomy.

Example 6—— August Kekule

The atoms of particular elements such as Sodium and Chlorine seem to combine with each other according to fixed ratios. It was this combining power of atoms that inspired German chemist August Kekule to develop a system for visualizing the chemical structure of various molecules. Kekule represented the atoms by their symbols, then added marks to indicate how they combined with each other, like links and chains. It was a simple yet elegant formula. By then chemists had devised an approach for clearly illustrating the chemical structures of all the molecules they were studying except that of Benzene.

It seems that Benzene’s chain of carbon and hydrogen atoms required more combing power than the formula would allow. All these organic chemistry professors were puzzled about it, offering different explanations that were all found unsatisfactory. August Kekule was one of those puzzled but hard-working scientists.

One evening he was sitting by the fire, falling to sleep. In his dream that night, a snake catching its own tail appeared, just like a ring, which gave Kekule inspiration on the puzzle.

Actually, the 6 carbon atoms of the Benzene molecules linked in a chain, just like the snake biting its own tail. Each of the hydrogen atoms attached with others in alternating single and double bond. Within a short time, kekule’s insight was confirmed. And its effect was revolutionary. Chemists knew that all organic substances contained one or more carbon atoms in their molecules. With Kekule’s discovery, they now had the underlying formula about how carbon combined with other molecules to form a world of chemical compounds. The modern era of organic chemistry was born

Due to this discovery, thousands of compounds were created and applied in different realms, including automobile industry, daily necessities, and medication.

适用题目：

Do people make the greatest discoveries by exploring what is unfamiliar to them or by paying close attention to what seems familiar?

Are all important discoveries the result of focusing on one subject?

Are people better at making observations, discoveries, and decisions if they remain neutral and impartial?

Example 5—— Thomas Edison

Thomas Edison: inventor, entrepreneur, and the showman. He was taken out of school as a boy, but that would not stop him from becoming synonymous with inventions that define the modern era.

In late 1870s, America still lights the night in the dangers flick candles, gas and kerosene. Edison thought he had a better idea to get a filament to burn slowly in a vacuum—the electric light bulb.

Edison locked himself in his lab, did not sleep for days, trying different materials for the filament. He claimed to have gone through 6000 materials from the plant world alone in his search for the perfect filament, including Platinum, Spruce, Beard, Boxwood….Finally, he found that a piece of carbonized cardboard could burn for 300 hours in vacuum.

That great discovery changed the way people live forever.

In just 2 years, Edison built more than 5,000 power plants generating electricity for cities like New York, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis and New Orleans. Over the next 5 years, he built over 127,000 more. By 1902, 18 million bulbs were in use. The impact is massive. Sports, entertainment, factories, stores…all can now operate at night.

适用题目：

Do people make the greatest discoveries by exploring what is unfamiliar to them or by paying close attention to what seems familiar?

Are people better at making observations, discoveries, and decisions if they remain neutral and impartial?

Example 4—— Bloody Massacre in Boston

When Paul Revere first began selling his color prints of “The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street” in Boston, he was doing what any like-minded patriot with his talents in 1770 would have done. Only, Paul Revere did it faster and more expeditiously than anyone else, including two other artist-engravers who also issued prints of the Massacre that year.

Twenty-one days before — on the night of March 5, 1770 — five men had been shot to death in Boston town by British soldiers. Precipitating the event known as the Boston Massacre was a mob of men and boys taunting a sentry standing guard at the city’s customs house. When other British soldiers came to the sentry’s support, a free-for-all ensued and shots were fired into the crowd.

Four died on the spot and a fifth died after four days. Six others were wounded.

Documentation has come to light over the years revealing details on the other Boston Massacre paintings. Revere copied engraver Henry Pelham’s drawings of the Massacre, produced his own engraving, and three weeks after the occurrence was advertising his prints for sale in Boston’s newspapers. By the time Pelham’s prints hit the street, Revere’s print had flooded the market. A third engraving was executed by Jonathan Mulliken, who also issued prints depicting the event. Except for a number of minor differences, all three prints appear alike.

In his rush to produce his engraving Revere employed the talents of Christian Remick to colorize the print. Remick’s choice of colors is simple yet effective. Notice the use of red for the British uniforms and the blood. The other colors — blue, green, brown and black — all contribute to make this print what is arguably the most famous in America.

Few historians would deny that the Boston Massacre proved to be a milestone in America’s road to independence. By popularizing the tragic event, Paul Revere’s print became “the first powerful influence in forming an outspoken anti-British public opinion,” one which the revolutionary leaders had almost lost hope of achieving.

文字来源：www.earlyamerica.com/review/winter96/massacre.html

适用题目：Is the main value of the arts to teach us about the world around us? 

Example 3—— Issac Newton

Legend has it that Newton was relaxing in an orchard one day when he saw an apple fall from a tree. This simple incident caused him to wonder why the apple had fallen to earth but not into the sky. It was indeed eureka moment of insight for young Newton. He realized that the same gravitational force act on the apple and moon alike.

He felt instinctively that all things, through apples to the moon, shared the same force that was played upon on that apple. It’s something that nobody had really thought about before. Newton named his discovery the laws of universal gravitation. “Universal” means that the relationship applies to all bodies in the cosmos, including apples, moons, and planets.

Actually, the moon tries to travel in straight line in space pass the earth, but the earth gravitational force pulls the moon toward it, which keeps the moon trapped in orbit around the earth. In return, the moon also pulls the earth with its own gravitational force. When the gravitational force of a large body like the moon adds upon the earth, big things can happen, such as the ebb and flow of the earth’s oceans because the water in the ocean that’s near the moon feels a greater pull than water in the other side of the earth.

Newton’s recognition that all objects have their own gravitational force was a landmark discovery in science.

适用题目：

Do people make the greatest discoveries by exploring what is unfamiliar to them or by paying close attention to what seems familiar?