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List of multiple discoveries

Historians and sociologists have remarked the occurrence, in science, of "multiple independent discovery". Robert K. Merton defined such "multiples" as instances in which similar discoveries are made by scientists working independently of each other. "Sometimes", writes Merton, "the discoveries are simultaneous or almost so; sometimes a scientist will make a new discovery which, unknown to him, somebody else has made years before."

Commonly cited examples of multiple independent discovery are the 17th-century independent formulation of calculus by Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz; the 18th-century discovery of oxygen by Carl Wilhelm Scheele, Joseph Priestley, Antoine Lavoisier and others; and the theory of the evolution of species, independently advanced in the 19th century by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace.

Multiple independent discovery, however, is not limited to such famous historic instances. Merton believed that it is multiple discoveries, rather than unique ones, that represent the common pattern in science.

Merton contrasted a "multiple" with a "singleton"—a discovery that has been made uniquely by a single scientist or group of scientists working together.

The distinction may blur as science becomes increasingly collaborative.

A distinction is drawn between a discovery and an invention, as discussed for example by Bolesław Prus. However, discoveries and inventions are inextricably related, in that discoveries lead to inventions, and inventions facilitate discoveries; and since the same phenomenon of multiplicity occurs in relation to both discoveries and inventions, this article lists both multiple discoveries and multiple inventions.

3rd century BCE

13th century CE

14th century

16th century

17th century

18th century

19th century

20th century

21st century

Quotations

See also

Notes

References

Sources

  • Isaac Asimov, Asimov's Biographical Encyclopedia of Science and Technology, second revised edition, New York, Doubleday, 1982.
  • Tim Folger, "The Quantum Hack: Quantum computers will render today's cryptographic methods obsolete. What happens then?" Scientific American, vol. 314, no. 2 (February 2016), pp. 48–55.
  • Sarah Lewin Frasier and Jen Christiansen, "Nobel Connections: A deep dive into science's greatest prize", Scientific American, vol. 331, no. 3 (October 2024), pp. 72–73.
  • Owen Gingerich, "Did Copernicus Owe a Debt to Aristarchus?" Journal for the History of Astronomy, vol. 16, no. 1 (February 1985), pp. 37–42. 1985JHA....16...37G Page 37
  • Brian Greene, "Why He [Albert Einstein] Matters: The fruits of one mind shaped civilization more than seems possible", Scientific American, vol. 313, no. 3 (September 2015), pp. 34–37.
  • A. Rupert Hall, Philosophers at War, New York, Cambridge University Press, 1980.
  • Lawrence M. Krauss, "What Einstein Got Wrong: Cosmology (Everyone makes mistakes. But those of the legendary physicist are particularly illuminating)", Scientific American, vol. 313, no. 3 (September 2015), pp. 50–55.
  • David Lamb, Multiple Discovery: The Pattern of Scientific Progress, Amersham, Avebury Press, 1984.
  • Gayoung Lee (Scientific American news intern), "This Strange Mutation Explains the Mystifying Color of Orange Cats: Your orange cat may host a never-before-seen genetic pathway for color pigmentation, according to new studies", 15 May 2025: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/this-strange-mutation-explains-the-mystifying-color-of-orange-cats/
  • David H. Levy, "My Life as a Comet Hunter: The need to pass a French test, of all things, spurred half a century of cosmic sleuthing", Scientific American, vol. 314, no. 2 (February 2016), pp. 70–71.
  • Robert K. Merton, The Sociology of Science: Theoretical and Empirical Investigations, University of Chicago Press, 1973.
  • Robert K. Merton, On Social Structure and Science, edited and with an introduction by Piotr Sztompka, University of Chicago Press, 1996.
  • Jack Murtagh, "This Unexpected Pattern of Numbers Is Everywhere: A curious mathematical phenomenon called Benford's law governs the numbers all around us", Scientific American, vol. 329, no. 5 (December 2023), pp. 82–83.
  • (First edition published 1570, 1587 edition online)
  • Richard Panek, "The Cosmic Surprise: Scientists discovered dark energy 25 years ago. They're still trying to figure out what it is", Scientific American, vol. 329, no.5 (December 2023), pp. 62–71.
  • Robert William Reid, Marie Curie, New York, New American Library, 1974, .
  • Marilynne Robinson, "On Edgar Allan Poe", The New York Review of Books, vol. LXII, no. 2 (5 February 2015), pp. 4, 6.
  • Joshua Rothman, "The Rules of the Game: How does science really work?" (review of Michael Strevens, The Knowledge Machine: How Irrationality Created Modern Science, Liveright), The New Yorker, 5 October 2020, pp. 67–71.
  • .
  • Harriet Zuckerman, Scientific Elite: Nobel Laureates in the United States, New York, Free Press, 1977.

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