These are the scientists who died for science

This article is from Les Indispensables de Sciences et Avenir Issue 211 dated October/December 2022.

– a philosopher and mathematician famous for her knowledge and rhetoric, Hypatia of Alexandria It was dismembered by Christian fanatics in 415.

– the first victim of aerostatic art, Jean Francois Bellatre de Rosier The year 1785 undertakes to cross the English Channel in a hot air balloon. It was attacked by a headwind, and crashed onto the Pas-de-Calais coast.

– the founder of modern chemistry, Antoine Laurent de Lavoisier In 1794 by the Revolutionary Court arguing that “The Republic does not need scholars”.

– the inventor of the token telegraph, a remote communication operation, Claude ChappieIn 1805, he was overburdened with debt and overworked.

– Inventor of the American steam-powered rotary pressing machine William Bullock His leg was caught by a machine, in 1867. He did not survive amputation.

– Nobel Prize twice, Marythe discoverer of polonium and radium, died in 1934, and her bone marrow was affected by radioactivity.

– the first human casualty of space flight, Vladimir Komarov It crashed aboard a Soyuz capsule 1190 km from Moscow, in 1967.

– Member of the State Committee responsible for managing the Chernobyl disaster, Valery Legasov He hanged himself on April 26, 1988, the second anniversary of the nuclear power plant bombing.

Valery Legasov. Credits: SPL / salty sweet

– Travel around the world to photograph volcanic eruptions, Morris and Katia Kraft They are the victims of a fiery cloud expelled by Mount Onsen, Japan, in 1991.

– in 2003, Kirsty Margot Brown, A British oceanographer who studies the erosion of icebergs in Antarctica has been killed by a tiger seal who was dragged 60 meters under the ice.

Morris and Katia Kraff. Credits: IMAGE’EST / GAMMA-RAPHO

To find out more : Pierre Zwiecker, dead for science Erols, 2022