👩‍🔬The Protagonists

The Plot of Event Horizon revolves around a group of twenty significant figures from the history of science, considered by many to be some of the brightest and most influential thinkers of the past millennium.

We chose to build our collection and develop our story around such figures because we wish to promote a love of science within our community, and introduce or reacquaint users with some of the greatest pioneers and innovators whose work has continued to influence our understanding of the world to this day.

When selecting individual scientists, our guiding principles were innovation, creativity, recognizability, and overall significance or legacy. With these values in mind, we arrived at a roster comprising a number of physicists, philosophers, mathematicians, astronomers, biologists, chemists, computer scientists and inventors.

The main protagonist, and initiator of the entire narrative, is Stephen Hawking (1942-2018), an English theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author whose work on black holes has been widely accepted as a major breakthrough in theoretical physics.

The remaining nineteen scientists, in alphabetical order according to surname, are:

Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543)

A Renaissance mathematician and astronomer who proposed that the sun was stationary in the center of the universe and the earth revolved around it.

"In order to cure the mind of errors, we must first awaken it to truth."

Marie Curie (1867-1934)

A Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first person to win a Nobel Prize twice, and the only person to win a Nobel Prize in two scientific fields.

"Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less."

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519)

An Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. Widely regarded to have been a genius who epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal.

"Art is never finished, only abandoned."

Charles Darwin (1809-1882)

An English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended from a common ancestor is now generally accepted and considered a fundamental concept in science.

"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change."

Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

A German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory of relativity.

"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one."

Michael Faraday (1791-1867)

An English natural philosopher who greatly contributed to the study of electromagnetism and electrochemistry.

"Science is the story of man's gradual conquest of nature, and the greatest of all scientific achievements is the discovery of the laws governing matter and energy."

Alexander Fleming (1881-1955)

A Scottish physician and microbiologist, best known for discovering the world's first broadly effective antibiotic substance, which he named penicillin.

“The unprepared mind cannot see the outstretched hand of opportunity.”

Rosalind Franklin (1920-1958)

A British chemist and X-ray crystallographer whose work was central to the understanding of the molecular structures of DNA.

"Science and everyday life cannot and should not be separated."

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)

An Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer. Has been called the father of observational astronomy, modern-era classical physics, the scientific method, and modern science.

"I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn't learn something from him."

Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855)

A German mathematician and physicist who made significant contributions to many fields in mathematics and science. Sometimes referred to as the Princeps mathematicorum (Latin for 'the foremost of mathematicians').

"Mathematics is the queen of the sciences and number theory is the queen of mathematics."

Werner Heisenberg (1901-1976)

A German theoretical physicist and one of the main pioneers of the theory of quantum mechanics. He is known for the uncertainty principle, and was awarded the 1932 Nobel Prize in Physics "for the creation of quantum mechanics".

“Not only is the Universe stranger than we think, it is stranger than we can think.”

Johannes Kepler (1571-1630)

A German astronomer, mathematician, astrologer and natural philosopher. A key figure in the 17th-century Scientific Revolution, best known for his laws of planetary motion.

"Astronomy is the foundation of all the natural sciences and the gate that leads to the knowledge of the universe."

Ada Lovelace (1815-1852)

An English mathematician and writer, chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage's proposed mechanical general-purpose computer, the Analytical Engine. Often regarded as the first computer programmer.

“Your best and wisest refuge from all troubles is in your science.”

Dmitri Mendeleev (1834-1907)

A Russian chemist and inventor. He is best known for formulating the Periodic Law and creating a version of the periodic table of elements.

“It is the function of science to discover the existence of a general reign of order in nature and to find the causes governing this order. And this refers in equal measure to the relations of man - social and political - and to the entire universe as a whole.”

Isaac Newton (1643-1727)

An English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author. A key figure in the philosophical revolution known as the Enlightenment. His book Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, first published in 1687, established classical mechanics.

"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants."

Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)

A French mathematician, physicist, inventor, philosopher, and Catholic writer. A pioneer in the natural and applied sciences.

"The heart has its reasons which reason knows not of."

Erwin Schrödinger (1887-1961)

A Nobel Prize-winning Austrian and naturalized Irish physicist who developed a number of fundamental results in quantum theory: the Schrödinger equation provides a way to calculate the wave function of a system and how it changes dynamically in time.

"The scientist only imposes two things, namely truth and sincerity, imposes them upon himself and upon other scientists."

Nikola Tesla (1856-1943)

A Croatian-born Serbian-American inventor, electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, and futurist best known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current (AC) electricity supply system.

"Let the future tell the truth and evaluate each one according to his work and accomplishments. The present is theirs; the future, for which I have really worked, is mine."

Alan Turing (1912-1954)

An English mathematician, computer scientist, logician, cryptanalyst, philosopher, and theoretical biologist. Widely considered to be the father of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence.

"We can only see a short distance ahead, but we can see plenty there that needs to be done."