The biggest scientific discoveries in every state

From the invention of the steam-powered boat engine in the 18th Century to the sequencing of the human genome at the turn of the 21st, each state can claim its own scientific advancements.

To celebrate those achievements, we've compiled a list of important science discoveries in every state. Scroll through to find out more.

Tanya Lewis and Melissa Stanger contributed reporting.

ALABAMA: The first rocket to send Americans to the moon was built in this state.

ALASKA: Paleontologists spotted a T Rex subspecies.

ARIZONA: Clyde Tombaugh picked Pluto out of the sky.

ARKANSAS: Largest diamond in North America was found in this state.

CALIFORNIA: Edwin Hubble showed that the universe is expanding.

COLORADO: Teenagers discovered a rare mastodon.

CONNECTICUT: Physicists discovered the concept of chemical potential.

DELAWARE: DuPont created new polymers like nylon and Teflon.

FLORIDA: The state was home of the great phosphate boom.

GEORGIA: Surgeons started using ether as an anesthetic.

HAWAII: The Keck Observatory's telescopes have been used for major discoveries about the universe.

IDAHO: Philo T. Farnsworth invented the predecessor to the modern TV.

first all-electric television

ILLINOIS: Research supported Albert Einstein's theory of relativity.

INDIANA: A policeman invented the breathalyzer.

IOWA: An Iowa State professor discovered quasicrystals.

KANSAS: Residents found a gas that doesn't burn.

KENTUCKY: The state was home to the invention of a wireless phone.

Nathan Stubblefield was one of the first people to discover the power of wireless. The inventor, who lived his life in Kentucky, developed a wireless phone at the turn of the 20th century that used magnetic induction.

LOUISIANA: J. Lawrence Smith invented the inverted microscope.

Inverted microscopes let in light from the top, which makes it easier to check out living cells.

MAINE: A satellite transmitted a TV signal from Maine to France.

MARYLAND: The discovery of telomeres changed the way we look at DNA.

MASSACHUSETTS: Alexander Graham Bell made the first phone call.

MICHIGAN: Researchers detected supermassive black holes.

Using the Hubble telescope, University of Michigan researchers discovered massive dark objects — most likely supermassive black holes — in the Andromeda galaxy, which is the nearest galaxy to the Milky Way. The observation has been followed by the detection of more than 40 black holes.

MINNESOTA: Doctors performed the first bone marrow transplant.

MISSISSIPPI: Surgeons completed the world's first human lung transplant.

In 1963, Dr. James D. Hardy performed the world’s first human lung transplant at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. Only one year later, in 1964, Hardy also performed the world’s first heart transplant surgery, using a chimpanzee's heart, which paved the way for human-to-human heart transplantation.

MISSOURI: Researchers discovered the largest prime number.

The largest prime number (numbers that are only divisible by themselves and one) was discovered in Missouri. The number, which was discovered in January 2016, is 22 million digits long, a full 5 million digits more than the last discovered prime number.

MONTANA: Barnum Brown found the first ever T Rex.

NEBRASKA: Paleontologist located prehistoric cats who died in the middle of a fight.

NEVADA: Scientists discovered a complete skeleton of the ancient marine reptile icthyosaur.

NEW HAMPSHIRE: The first mechanical alarm clock was invented.

NEW JERSEY: W. Jason Morgan redefined how we look at plate tectonics.

W. Jason Morgan, a professor of geoscience at Princeton University, redefined the way we look at plate tectonics, or the theory that the Earth's surface is made out of plates that shift around. In 2002, Morgan was awarded The President's National Medal of Science for his work, which "r

NEW MEXICO: The world entered the nuclear age with the detonation of the first atomic bomb.

NEW YORK: Geneticists confirmed the idea that we inherit traits from our chromosomes.

NORTH CAROLINA: The first flight took off, lasting a total of 12 seconds.

The first flight took off from the Outer Banks of North Carolina on December 17, 1903, lasting a whole 12 seconds. Orville and Wilbur Wright had been working on building a flight concept since 1899. By the end of the day, the plane went a total of 852 feet in almost a minute of air time.

NORTH DAKOTA: Paleontologists located the 'Chicken from Hell.'

TheAnzu wylieli, nicknamed the 'Chicken from Hell,' was one of the largest feathered dinosaurs found in North America. They were found in both North and South Dakota, and they likely would have lived in the swampy coast of an inland sea, based on the rocks found nearby the fossils.

OHIO: The state was the birthplace of synthetic rubber.

Akron, Ohio is known as the rubber capital of the world because synthetic rubber was invented here. Charles Goodyear then used that synthetic rubber to make car tires starting in the 1940s. The invention shifted pressure off from the natural rubber industry, which at that point in time was facing shortages.

OKLAHOMA: A pilot invented a pressure suit that expanded the limits of air flight.

OREGON: Cave explorers found an entirely new family of spiders.

Cave explorers stumbled upon a new family of spiders in the Pacific Northwest. The Trogloraptor marchingtoni comes equipped with hooks that could be used to catch insects out of the air.

PENNSYLVANIA: Jonas Salk developed a vaccine for Polio

Salk invented the polio vaccine while working at the University of Pittsburgh. The vaccine is now used worldwide, and the World Health Organization thinks the disease can be eradicated by April 2017. The number of cases is down from 22,000 cases in 1952 in the US alone to just 96 cases worldwide in 2015.

Interestingly, Salk never patented the vaccine in the hopes that it could gain widespread use.

RHODE ISLAND: Scientists spotted impact glass on Mars that could contain signs of life.

Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island is home to many discoveries, but by far one of the coolest in recent history was the discovery of glass in impact craters on the surface of Mars in 2015. Scientists think the glass was formed through the immense heat of something slamming into the red planet. But, more interestingly, the researchers discovered that signs of life could be preserved in that glass.

SOUTH CAROLINA: Scientists discovered the 'ghost particle.'

Neutrinos, one of the most common particles in the universe that are almost impossible to detect, were first picked up at Savannah River Plant

SOUTH DAKOTA: The state was a prehistoric playground for fearsome dinosaurs.

South Dakota is a state filled with major prehistoric findings. It is home to the most-complete T. Rex skeleton ever uncovered, and more recently in 2015, scientists found a new raptor that they named after the state: Dakotaraptor steini. The raptor, which would have roamed South Dakota about 66 million years ago, is one of the largest that's ever been found.

TENNESSEE: An element found in 1945 completed the periodic table of the time.

TEXAS: The state was the place where NASA led the mission to put a human on the moon.

NASA's Johnson Center has seen its fair share of achievements as the mission control center and a lead on a number of space programs, including the Gemini and Apollo missions. It's where Neil Armstrong radioed back, "

UTAH: Scientists came across a dinosaur with a long nose.

Utah is home to major pre-historic findings. One of those led to the discovery of an unusually big-nosed, horned dinosaur called Nasutoceratops titusi. The plant-eater was a relative of the triceratops, and likely roamed around the area that's now southern Utah about 66 million years ago.

VERMONT: Photos captured snowflakes on a microscopic level.

In the early 1900s, Wilson "Snowflake" Bently became one of the first photographers to catch images of snowflakes before they melted away. Using microscopes and a type of macrophotography camera, he was able to capture some sharply focused images of flakes that were so good, nobody bothered to take any other close-ups of snowflakes for another 100 years.

VIRGINIA: Scientists discovered an unexpected connection to the brain that will rewrite textbooks.

University of Virginia researcher

WASHINGTON: The Heimlich Maneuver saved a person choking for the first time.

WEST VIRGINIA: The first steamboat made a trip down the Potomac River.

WISCONSIN: Advancements in stem cells posed ethical questions.

WYOMING: Como Bluff was home to a number of major dinosaurs and discoveries.

Wyoming's Como Bluff has been the site of many dinosaur discoveries, including plant-eaters like Allosaurus, Stegosaurus, Camarasaurus, Diplodocus, and Apatosaurus. The fossils were at one point so plentiful that they were used as a roadside attraction to build a "Fossil Cabin," dubbed the "World's Oldest Building" thanks to its pre-historic exterior of more than 5,000 bones.

The biggest scientific discoveries in every state

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