Thread: Favorite Scientist

Who's your favorite scientist?

Personally I don't have one. The scientist need not to be famous, but it would be best if he/she was not yourself.

Tesla. Followed closely by Fermat.

Me, myself and I. Closely followed by Darwin.

Einstein.

Being a paleontologist, I chose someone like Thomas Huxley or Richard Leaky ...good field scientists who didn't pander to the establishment or political correctness.

Outside of my field...Fermi stands tall with great achievements but little ego.

And what's not to like about Darwin!

Originally Posted by raptordigits

And what's not to like about Darwin!

His beard!

My favorite scientist is Stephen Hawkings simply for his undeniable devotion to completely understand the universe and his desire to educate us in regards to the mysteries and beauty of our universe.

mysterious and science are two words that shouldn't be used in the same paragraph.

Lynn Marguilis, Hennig, Darwin

Patrick Moore for his enthusiasm and popularisation of astronomy within the United Kingdom. Although Sir Patrick claims he is a writer and merely an amateur astronomer I would point out that his studies of the limb regions of the moon led to the discovery of one of the far side 'seas' before the first Russian probes photographed it in its entirety.

Earnest Shackleton
Jacques Cousteau

And just so you don't think I only appreciate dead scientist.
James Kasting who I had the pleasure of taking classes from at during my graduate education at Penn State. He's not only a talented scientist, he's a really good instructor who pushed us to teach ourselves--perhaps the most valuable skill to have in life.

For me its always ; 1.Albert Einstein

and then;

2. Richard Feynman
3.Werner Heisenberg
4.Edward Witten (im not sure if he is a Physicist, but i do believe his work has got to alot with physics, and mathematics)

Yup well thats just me

Meitner and Goodall for the girl power inclinations i have...

James Watson, Faraday because i have a thing for underdogs so to speak, Einstein was pretty cool despite the fact he ended up an old stick in the mud...

actually i like to read about a lot of them both their work and their lives outside of their work...

if i were a scientist i would be my favourite scientist
however, since i'm not, i'm not

Carl Sagan for popularising science in the minds of us who lack eduction and a basic level of intelligence, who would normally view science as geeky and dismiss it.

Jim Al-khalili, same as above. Also for his book 'Quantum - A guide for the perplexed' which is the closest I've come to having basic understanding of what the bloody hell goes on at the sub-atomic world.

IMHO Dr Magnus Pyke was the real deal.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnus_Pyke

Originally Posted by Cat1981(England)

Carl Sagan for popularising science in the minds of us who lack eduction and a basic level of intelligence, who would normally view science as geeky and dismiss it.

Jim Al-khalili, same as above. Also for his book 'Quantum - A guide for the perplexed' which is the closest I've come to having basic understanding of what the bloody hell goes on at the sub-atomic world.

I notice that Jim Al-Khalili has written a couple of popular science (physics) books.
Would anyone else care to give an opinion on any of these books as there is a wide choice of writers, on popular science topics, nowadays?
Do you agree with Cat1981(England) when he says such books can provide a "basic understanding of what-------goes on at the sub-atomic" level?
I don't necessarily disagree, with Cat 1981, but any understanding I have of modern science has come from this type of book, and I often wonder if one can ever understand even the basics, of topics such as relativity, quantum physics or sub-atomic physics generally, from such non-technical texts.