Ludwig Eduard Boltzmann, a brilliant physicist, was called "The Father of Statistical Mechanics," the science which became the foundation of quantum mechanics. Boltzmann applied the laws of mechanics to describe the random motion of molecules (atoms) and its effects on the physical properties of matter. His statistical analysis included the kinetic-molecular theory of gases and thermodynamics, the nature of heat and its conversion into other forms of energy. He also described mathematically the principle of blackbody, an ideal substance that absorbs all radiant energy that strikes it and reflects none. So radical and complicated were his hypotheses that many other scientists violently disputed them. Suffering serious illness, a depressive disorder, and perhaps feeling hopeless that his scientific endeavors would never be recognized or understood, he committed suicide just before his theories were proven.

Boltzmann, whose father was a tax official, was born on February 20, 1844 in Vienna, Austria. He...