Isaac Newton once wrote, "If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." (That's sometimes been interpreted as a sarcastic remark directed at his rival Robert Hooke, who may have had a pronounced curvature of the spine, although many historians dispute this.) But Newton was expressing the truth that all science proceeds from previous achievements — and even the most famous scientists relied on the diligent and sometimes thankless work of their little-known colleagues. In celebration of these unsung stalwarts of science, here are 32 important scientists you've (probably) never heard of.
