Stephen Hawking is known around the world as an acclaimed physicist, but there are more sides of him. From his work as an author to his beliefs about alien life, what are some of the most surprising things about Stephen Hawking? See more »

He may have been born in Brooklyn, but Carl Sagan was gunning for the stars as soon as he arrived in this world. Get to know the scientist whose infectious delight in the universe still holds us spellbound. See more »

The man immortalized on the left was behind the three laws of motion and the universal law of gravitation. He was also competitive, temperamental and fascinated with alchemy. How well do you know Newton? See more »

He's ventured to the abyss of black holes, wagered on the information paradox and floated around in zero gravity. Meet the man, the legend, the super scientist: Stephen Hawking. See more »

Albert Einstein was a pretty smart guy. When you look up the word "genius" in the dictionary, so the saying goes, it's a pretty safe bet you'll see Einstein's mug. He introduced concepts that we're still figuring out how to explain. See more »

One was a celebrated author, the other a famed physicist. What the two shared was a public exposure of their religious beliefs. Big E had an on-again, off-again relationship with God, while C.S. was an avowed atheist during his early years. See more »

Prokhorov, Alexander Mikhailovich (1916-2002) was a Russian physicist who developed masers, a forerunner of lasers, with Russian physicist Nikolai Gennadievich Basov. See more »

Bragg, William Lawrence (1862-1942), a British physicist, developed methods that made it possible to determine the atomic structure of crystals. See more »

Chu, Steven (1948-), an American physicist, developed a method to slow down atoms and make them easier to study. See more »

Compton, the family name of three United States educators and scientists. The Compton brothers were born in Wooster, Ohio, and attended college there. See more »