People were always curious about world that lied around them. I can say that curiosity is one of the doors to the world. Man had to overcome fear in front of unknown, brake his habits, change the way of life just to know a little bit about the world. As long as men hunted for knowledge in a random sort of way and believed each other‘s assertions without testing them, knowledge made negligible progress. But once they became to make sure that their facts were right by doing experiments for themselves, science began to grow. Now we can hardly know when and where the first science appeared and who was the first scientist. Civilization passed a great way from domestication of cattle and crops to lasers and spacecrafts during its development. At the end of previous century there was an opinion that scientists had already developed everything that was only possible, that Mankind had achieved a peak of its development. 20^th century replaced 19^th and brought a real scientific revolution but it doesn’t seem that there is nothing to research in future. The world around is no less mysterious than centuries before.

Rate of progress wasn’t equal in different epochs and regions. For example progress in Europe during Medieval Ages in comparison with Ancient world was almost equal to zero and many remarkable documents and ideas of previous epochs were lost and forgotten. Church reigned across the Europe. Centre of sciences moved to the countries of East. Asians managed to preserve culture of Ancient Greeks and Romans, so it became available to Europeans when the age Renaissance and Enlightenment came. During the second half of the second millenium Europe dominated over the world. Some of the key factors, which granted Europeans world superiority, were gunpowder and navigation. But we shouldn’t forget that Chinese created both gunpowder and compass. Another curious example: when Europeans came ashore of Terra Nova – newly discovered America, - they have found highly developed civilizations of Aztecs, Incas and Mayas. These folks were in some ways more developed then nations of Old World but they didn’t know such thing as wheel. Europeans also brought horseback riding to America.

Now Mankind possesses a great knowledge and power. People learned to use atomic energy, reached other planets, their telescopes can penetrate Universe at immense distances. They lifted huge aircrafts in the air, reached the depth over 11 km below the sea level, invented radio and television so every man can link up with whole planet. Bridges over 1000 meters long and tunnels appeared, computers reached productivity of millions times faster than that of human mind. But at the same time actions of people cause destruction to our planet. Vast forests in different regions are cut and burned in fire, air pollution, water pollution and many other problems became the result of human activity. But the heaviest crime against Mankind and planet I consider to be the bombardment of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with nuclear bombs and nuclear tests in the atmosphere held by several countries including USSR. Many people have understood that such interaction leads to extinction of life from the surface of the Earth. Alfred Nobel and Andrey Dmitrievitch Sakharov were among them.

Andrey Dm. Sakharov was one of the «secret» authorities in thermonuclear physics and working in this field of science, he came to the conclusion that any atomic and nuclear weapon should be banned. The biography of A. Sakharov falls on the times of the thaw. He wrote many articles, which were published abroad. He protested against the invasion of Afghanistan, against every violation of human’s right. The protesting cost him freedom. Only when it was decided to end his invasion, his freedom was returned to him. Abroad Sakharov was recognized as a great humanist (and activist) and received the Peace Nobel Prize. But at home he was persecuted and exiled to the city of Gorky. Only in 1985 Sakharov was allowed to come back to Moscow and was given back all his titles, but soon he died. We remember him as an outstanding philosopher. He realized even in 1968 that our society should develop in a new direction. He foresaw the changes that are taking peace now.

Alfred Nobel, the great Swedish inventor and industrialist, was a man of many contracts. He was a scientist with a love of literature, an industrialist who managed to remain an idealist. He made a fortune but lived a simple life, and although cheerful in company he was often sad in private. A lover of mankind, he never had a wife and family to love; a patriotic son of his native land, he died alone on foreign soil. He invented new explosive, dynamite, to improve the peacetime industries of mining and road building but saw it used as a weapon of war to kill and injure his fellow men. During his useful life he often felt he was useless. ‘’Alfred Nobel, - once he wrote to himself, - ought to have been put to death by a kind doctor as soon as, with a cry, he entered life’’. World-famous for his works, he has never personally been known, for throughout his life he avoided publicity. ‘’I do not see, - he once said, - that I have deserved any fame and I have no taste for it’’. But since his death, his name has brought fame and glory to others.

He was born in Stockholm (SWE) on October 21, 1833 but moved to Russia with his parents in 1842, where his father made a strong position for himself in the engineering industry. Most of the family returned to Sweden in 1859, where Alfred rejoined them in 1863,beginning his own study of explosives in his fathers lab. He had never been to school or university but had studied privately and by time he was twenty was a skillful chemist and excellent linguist, speaking Swedish, Russian, German, French and English. Alfred Nobel was imaginative and inventive. He was quick to see industrial openings for his scientific inventions and built up over 80 companies in 20 different countries. Indeed his greatness lay in his outstanding ability to combine the qualities of an original scientist with those of a forward–looking industrialist.

But Nobel’s main concern was never with making money or even making scientific discoveries. Seldom happy, he was always searching for a meaning to life and from his youth he had taken serious interest in literature and philosophy. Perhaps, because of the fact that he couldn’t find an ordinary human love and he was never married – he came to care deeply about whole of mankind. He was always generous to poor, ‘’I’d rather take care of stomachs of living than the glory of the dead in form of stone memorials’’, - once he said. His greatest wish, however, was to see an end to wars and thus peace between nations so he spent much time and money working for this cause until his death in Italy in 1896. His famous will, in which he left money to provide prizes for outstanding work in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology, Medicine, Literature and Peace, is a memorial to his interests and ideals.

Unfortunately, it isn’t quite possible to mention all outstanding people of the Mankind, but time will put everything in its place and give everybody his due. And one thing is obvious: great times are created by great men. Their names are sure to become history whatever it may be.