Science is a universal language of understanding how the world and universe around us works. Going to school
can certainly be a part of it for many, but it does not mean that it has to be. Some of the greatest scientific
minds did not even lay a foot inside a place of higher education, and there is no shame in that. It’s not to
say that you should not get an education, but if you cannot get one or do not have one, it does not mean you
cannot become a success. These are the best self-taught scientists.
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Most scientists who made a name for themselves went to college, but many did not finish it.
Many discoveries are likely to be discovered anyway, education or not, and some of the greatest scientists
barely went to any kind of school at all. School or not, you can learn much of what your passion is on your own.
Those who learn to teach themselves, are called autodidacts. Knowing what to hear is one thing, but learning
how to learn is another. I’m going to be listing the top 10 self-taught scientists.
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The 10 Best Self-Taught Scientists
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1. Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci was an Italian polymath born in Florence, Italy in 1452. Da Vinci was known for not only
being a prolific artist, but excelled in engineering and science as well. He is often mentioned as the
epitome of the Renaissance humanist ideal, and his scientific and mechanical ingenuity have been said to
be centuries ahead of his time.
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Da Vinci obviously went through elementary education, including reading, writing and arithmetic, but he did
not learn Latin, the key language of his time, until much later on his own. He also did not apply himself to
higher mathematics or advanced geometry and arithmetic until he was 30 years old, doing so with a diligent
tenacity. He did, however, learn how to paint and sculpt through multifaceted training he obtained at a younger
age, learning technical-mechanical arts through an apprenticeship.
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2. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek
Antonie van Leeuwenhoek was a Dutch scientist and microscopist born in Delft, Netherlands in 1632. He was the
first person to observe bacteria and protozoa, and his research on lower animals refuted the doctrine of
spontaneous generation and helped lay the foundations for the sciences of bacteriology and protozoology.
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Leeuwenhoek, at an early age, was sent to be an apprentice to a lenin draper, his father and stepfather having
both died. When he was 20 years old, he returned to Delft to establish himself as a draper and haberdasher.
In 1660, Leeuwenhoek obtained a position as chamberlain to the sheriffs of Delft, having gained a secure income.
He later devoted much of his time to his hobby of grinding lenses and using them to study tiny objects.
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The 10 Best Self-Taught Scientists
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3. Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin was an American polymath, known for his work as a printer, publisher, author, inventor,
scientist, and diplomat, born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1706. His contributions as a Founding Father to
numerous studies are endless, but he made many important scientific contributions too. His contributions
include a better understanding of electricity, among many others.
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The formal education of Franklin ended when he was just ten, having only had one year in grammar school
and another year in private study. He learned to read very early, and at the age of 12, became an apprentice
to his brother for printing, and tirelessly reading and learning to write effectively. Franklin would continue
to practice his reading, writing and memory, reading a volume of the spectator and learning to memorize the papers
over and over again. He would later contribute to countless causes, including flying a kite in a thunderstorm.
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4. William Herschel
William Herschel was a British-German astronomer and scientist born in Hannover, Germany in 1738. He is known
as the founder of sidereal astronomy for the systematic observation of the stars and nebulae beyond the
solar system. Herschel was also the one who discovered Uranus, and you should give it a try by looking in a
mirror too. He also hypothesized that nebulae are composed of stars, developing a theory of stellar evolution.
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At an early age, Herschel was going to follow in his father’s footsteps and become an army musician, playing
in the band of the Hanoverian Guards. He later escaped to England, earning a living by copying music, and later
improved by becoming a music teacher, performer and composer. Herschel ended up eventually finding an interest
in music theory, leading him to somehow eventually go from harmonics to optics. He ended up finding techniques
of telescope construction, and this eventually led him to be the vigilant astronomer we now know today.
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The 10 Best Self-Taught Scientists
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5. Michael Faraday
Michael Faraday was an English physicist and chemist born in Surrey, England in 1791. Faraday is famously known
for his considerable contributions to the understanding of electromagnetism. Faraday began his early career as
a chemist, writing a manual of practical chemistry. He discovered new organic compounds, one being benzene, and
he was the first liquefy a permanent gas. The contributions that made him famous were him being the first to
produce an electric current from a magnetic field and inventing the first electric motor and dynamo, among many
others.
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Faraday grew up in difficult conditions, having a hard time even being able to eat on a daily basis. He barely
received an education, learning most of the basic skills of reading and writing in a church Sunday school. He
was later apprenticed after having delivered newspapers for a book deal and bookbinder at the age of 14.
Through this apprenticeship, Faraday would read some of the books brought in for rebinding, one of them being
on electricity. He would then DIY build his own electrostatic generators, doing simple experiments like
building a voltaic pile.
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6. Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin was an English naturalist born in Shropshire, England in 1809. Darwin is famous for his
scientific theory of evolution by natural selection, becoming the foundation of modern evolutionary studies.
His influence spread across the entire world with this theory in fields such as science, literater and even
politics. Much of what influenced Darwin, formulating much of this theory on his voyage on the HMS Beagle,
eventually writing his magnum opus and life’s work “On The Origin of Species”.
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Much of what Darwin learned came from his father, who was a often overbearing in term of his medical observations, teaching him much about human psychology. He was also not very inclined towards rote learning, often dabbling in chemistry and being condemned by his headmaster. Darwin did receive an education, but one he had little fondness for, although it did have a minor influence on his understanding. He was sent, at 16, to study medicine at
Edinburgh University. He learned a lot, but he lacked a higher education, and he also learned little on medicine,
before being sent to another college, learning much of his actual studies on his own.
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The 10 Best Self-Taught Scientists
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7. Gregor Mendel
Gregor Mendel was a Czech botanist born in Silesia, Austrian Empire in 1822. Mendel was known for being the
first person to lay the mathematical foundation for the science of genetics, known as Mendelism. Mendel is also
known for being an Augustinian prelate and teacher, growing up and being sent to school at 11 and completing
his grammar school at the age of 11. He later studied philosophy at the Philosophical Institute at the University
of Olmutz, excelling in physics and mathematics and completing his studies 3 years later.
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Gregor later became a priest, involved himself in a community of intellectuals before failing an exam and was
sent to the University of Vienna to benefit from a scientific program. He enveloped himself in the world of
physics and math, working under Christian Doppler and others, and later studying anatomy, the physiology of plants,
and the use of the microscope. Much of his ideas came from his studies as a priest.
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8. Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau was an American naturalist, essayist, and practical philosopher born in Concord,
Massachusetts in 1817. Most often, Thoreau is best known for having lived the doctrines of Transcendentalism,
recorded in his masterwork “Walden”, and being a vocal advocate for civil liberties as displayed in
“Civil Disobedience”.
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As a young lad, he impressed his teachers, and so he was permitted to go to college. He graduated from the
academy, and he then went to Harvard University in 1833. He grew indifferent to the rank system at the University
and preferred to use the school library for his studies. He would end up not performing the best in his class,
graduating and securing a teaching job at his old grammar school in Concord. Later he joined his father’s family business of pencil-making. Later he would spend most of his time observing nature and writing about what he observed during his experimental time of basic living at Walden Pond, later spending time collecting botanical specimens.
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The 10 Best Self-Taught Scientists
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9. James Prescott Joule
James Prescott Joule was an English physicist and mathematician born in Salford, England in 1818. Joule is
famously known for studying the nature of heat and establishing it’s relationship to mechanical work. He is
also known for laying the foundation for the theory of conservation of energy, later influencing the First Law
of Thermodynamics and formulating the Joule’s law related to the transfer of energy.
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Joule was mostly schooled at home because of his delicate health, studying arithmetic and geometry under
John Dalton at the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society. Later on, he was even trained by famous
scientist and lecturer John Davies. Joule also began working in his fathers brewery at the age of 15, coinciding
aside his studies. Joules enjoyed dabbling in experimentation with electricity, managing the brewery later on
and doing experiments in laboratories in his house and in the brewery, even causing a girl to go unconscious
by giving her electric shocks.
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10. Thomas Henry Huxley
Thomas Henry Huxley was an English biologist and educator born in Middlesex, England in 1825. He was a strong
proponent of agnosticism and greatly supported Charles Darwin’s evolutionary naturalism, helping with
organizational efforts, public lectures, and helping the name of science in modern society. He ended up learning
much from a voyage he took repaying his debts after his formative years.
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Huxley only received two years of formal education at his father’s Ealing School, being disenfranchised with
the evangelical nature of the school, especially later on. He later became interested by science and religion,
studying Unitarian works on his own. Huxley was later apprenticed by his sister’s husband, a medical materialist,
and was later traumatized by the lives of his patients. He later even earned the botany prize at the backstreet
anatomy school Sydenham College. On a free scholarship to Charing Cross Hospital, London, he won medals in chemistry and physiology.
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The 10 Best Self-Taught Scientists
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Honorable Mentions: Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla, Charles Goodyear, Caroline Herschel, James Croll, Humphrey Davey, and numerous more.
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