and scientists had no formal training. They investigated what in-
terested them and gained expertise through their studies. Wil-
liam Herschel worked as a church organist and music teacher,
but in his spare time he built his own telescopes and observed
the night sky. In 1781 he discovered the planet Uranus. His sis-
ter, Caroline Herschel, often observed as well. She discovered at
least eight new comets.
During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in Europe,
scientific training was very exclusive. Women and people of low-
er classes were not admitted into most universities or scientific
societies. Yet that didn’t stop some people from pursuing sci-
ence. Mary Anning grew up in a poor family in England during
this time period. She had a knack for finding fossils and made
a living selling what she uncovered. She also studied fossils and
made important contributions to geology and paleontology. Mi-
chael Faraday also came from a poor family but taught himself
physics and chemistry. In 1813 he managed to get a job as an
assistant at the Royal Institution in London. Over the following
decades, he made major discoveries about electricity and mag-
netism and invented the electric generator. He eventually worked
his way up to become head of the Royal Institution.
Gregor Mendel is famous today as the founder of the field of
genetics, which is the study of how offspring inherit characteris-
tics from parents. He crossbred pea plants to figure out how traits
such as color and shape get passed on to each new generation.
He did this work as a monk at a monastery, since his farming
family didn’t have the money to send him to a university. Mendel
published a paper with the results of his experiments in 1865, but
mainstream science didn’t discover and recognize his work until
1900, fifteen years after his death.
Hedy Lamarr didn’t have any money problems—she was a
Hollywood film star. She had no science training, but in her spare
time, she invented things. During World War II she wanted to as-
sist with the war effort. So she came up with the idea of guiding
torpedoes toward a target with radio waves. To make it difficult
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