Page 221 - DK Children's Encyclopedia

Accidental inventions
Many great scientific discoveries have
been made by accident. For example,
German scientist Wilhelm Conrad
Röntgen accidentally discovered X-rays
in 1885. He was sending electricity
through tubes of gas when he noticed
that he could see what was inside
a nearby box. He then used this
finding to take pictures of the
bones inside his wife.

Early X-ray
X-rays pass
through skin and
The night sky flesh but bounce
back off bones.
One of the earliest sciences
was studying the movements
of the moon, planets, and stars.
This is now called astronomy. Moon
calendars were first made about Scientific drawings
Nebra Sky Disk 10,000 years ago. Around 4,000 Many scientists create beautiful,
years ago, the Nebra Sky Disk precise drawings to record their findings.
was used to track seasons and Mary Anning was a famous British fossil
the sun’s position. hunter who lived in the 1800s. Mary found
Renaissance
artist and scientist her first fossils as a child and made drawings
Leonardo da of them. Her discoveries helped scientists to
understand how life existed in the oceans
Vinci sketched
pictures of humans millions of years ago.
and animals he
had cut up.

The Plesiosaurus’s
paddles have bones
that are also present
in legs and feet.

Plesiosaurus drawn by Mary Anning in 1824

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