an English writer and philosopher. He wrote nearly 50 books, both novels and non-fiction works, as well as wide-ranging essays, narratives, and poems.

an English poet and intellectual. He wrote at a time of religious flux and political upheaval, and is best known for his epic poem Paradise Lost (1667).

an Anglo-American novelist, playwright, screenwriter, autobiographer, and diarist.

an Italian mathematician and astronomer, later naturalized French. He made significant contributions to the fields of analysis, number theory, and both classical and celestial mechanics.

a French astronomer and surveyor who, with Charles Messier, was a major contributor to the early study of deep-sky objects and comets.

a German biochemist and pioneer in the study of genetics