Greatest scientist in history

[MCdread]

I don't think it is possible to pick a single one that stands above anyone else. Some on the list can of course contend to be among the best of the best, but I miss Faraday, Gauss, Archimedes, Feynman, etc. on the poll.

 

[MattII]

You also missed out Nickolei (spelling?) Tesla and the thousands of other scientists who don't get mentioned.

 

[WillJ]

Left to a completely free choice, I would be inclined to choose Karl Friedrich Gauss - contributed as much to mathematics as anyone but Euler, as much for physics as Maxwell, also a surveyor, etc etc etc... one of the last men to contribute greatly to a long list of fields.

Never heard of him (or actually I think I have, but his name never stuck), but after Googling him, he seems worthy of being on my list.

Newton. Towering genius. Only Feyman comes close. (Why isnt he on the list? )

Who's Feynman?

Why is Freud on a list of scientists?

Well, even though he was wrong in just about everything he said (if I'm not mistaken), he did pretty much launch a new scientific field.

I think all scientists were great... but I don't see how the sense of having a "greatest".

I mean, science is supposed to be based on experimentation... so does that mean the luckiest scientist is the greatest? Or the best at guessing the outcome?

Luck and guessing ability don't really go with "greatness" in my eyes. Sorry for the downer.

Party pooper.

 

[aaminion00]

Someone should definetly change the name of this thread to "Greatest Western Scientist in History"

 

[Tallanas]

Stephen Hawking. Considering the obstacles he has had to overcome...

 

[WillJ]

Someone should definetly change the name of this thread to "Greatest Western Scientist in History"

Why? You're free to discuss Eastern scientists. So are you going to?

Truth be told, I can't think of any major Eastern scientists, unless you count ancient inventors and such who weren't really scientists (Ts'ai Lun, etc.).

 

[aaminion00]

Why? You're free to discuss Eastern scientists. So are you going to?

Truth be told, I can't think of any major Eastern scientists, unless you count ancient inventors and such who weren't really scientists (Ts'ai Lun, etc.).

Nobody's blaming you, I'm just saying that pretty much your whole list is from Europe and there might be some who consider someone from Asia or the Middle East to be the greatest scientist ever. What about Mohammed al-Khowarizmi? Algebra is named after one of his works, because he made such major contributions to it. He also was key in the development of trigonometry and astronomy, and even explored calculus. I think he at least deserves a mention. There are others too.

 

[lietkynes]

Many ancient and modern are missing: Archimedes, Leonardo Da Vinci...

I voted for Darwin.

 

[Moss]

The two most well known are most likely Einstein and Newton. Between those two I would pick Newton.

 

[zeon252]

It's really in the eye of the beholder. What do you mean by greatest? If it's the greatest for human health thatn that would probobly be Pasteur, astrology, Galileo, History of the earth, Darwin. Most famous(currentl) Einstein. anyway Pasteur got my vote because I'm biased towards France

 

[America444]

Where is Pythagarous (sp?) and his crew, they figured out the the phythagoran (p?) theorem, for calculating triangles. Without the knowledge of how triangles interacts with itself, there'd be no map making, or easy way to calculate distances, which is important for physics.

Actually the theorm was used by ancient egyption surveyors and was known to the babylonians at least 1000 years earlier.

 

[WillJ]

Nobody's blaming you, I'm just saying that pretty much your whole list is from Europe and there might be some who consider someone from Asia or the Middle East to be the greatest scientist ever. What about Mohammed al-Khowarizmi? Algebra is named after one of his works, because he made such major contributions to it. He also was key in the development of trigonometry and astronomy, and even explored calculus. I think he at least deserves a mention. There are others too.

Yep, my list is heavily West-biased (thanks to my Western education, of course), but I'd like to stress that this thread shouldn't be centered around my list.

Oh, and I must admit I've never heard of that guy. He explored calculus before it was invented? Or do you mean he came close to developing it himself, but Newton ended up being the one that "finalized" it?

It's really in the eye of the beholder. What do you mean by greatest? If it's the greatest for human health thatn that would probobly be Pasteur, astrology, Galileo, History of the earth, Darwin. Most famous(currentl) Einstein. anyway Pasteur got my vote because I'm biased towards France

By "greatest" I really mean largest contribution (which is of course still pretty much a matter of opinion).

Actually the theorm was used by ancient egyption surveyors and was known to the babylonians at least 1000 years earlier.

Well, Pythagarous was the first to mathematically prove it. But you're right, it was put into use before him, and thus HalfBadger is mistaken about his importance (if I understand his post correctly).

 

[Abulafia]

Another one although she isn't too well known: Hypatia of Alexandria.

 

[ferenginar]

I'm with Col on this one, though I would also include Hawking.

 

[Plotinus]

Mohammed al-Khowarizmi was a great mathematician, but he really wasn't that much of an innovator. Given the choice between him and Archimedes, I don't think anyone would deny that Archimedes was much greater.

Personally I can't believe that no-one has even mentioned Aristotle. He basically invented biology, making some discoveries that were not reconfirmed until the nineteenth century! He dominated physics for centuries! He founded the science of logic, which remained largely static until Leibniz! Come on!

 

[Ramius75]

Threre should not be a "greatest" scientist as each great scientist stands on the shoulder of the another to reach greater heights.

As i will say /salute to all the scientist out there who contribute his/her life to the knowledge of mankind.

Ramius

 

[Perfection]

Well, in terms of revolutionary thoughts I'd have to give credit to the following

Galileo Galilei: He really began the idea of treating physics in terms of mathematics and using it to apply to small scale phenomena

Isaac Newton: He expounded opon the works before him and really devised the field of physics as we know it. Also his work on caclulus certainly cannot be ignored.

Dimitri Mendeleev: One of the founders of modern chemistry, he made the connection of finding periodic properties of the elements and used it to predict the properties of yet undiscovered elements. His works unlocked a fsacinating property useful not only in chemistry but also provided clues to physcists about the nature of atoms.

Charles Darwin: Before him, evolution was a shaky concept, his ideas of how natural selection could account for all the diversity in the world turned evolution from an almost pshilosophy into well defined testible science.

James Clerk Maxwell: Gave physics a whole new field (pun intended) to play with. He unified electricty to physics and gave so much to the field of elctronics.

Werner Heisenberg & Albert Einstein: Started a revolution in physics that tranformed it from the newtonian to the modern physics we seen today.

Of course, there are so many wonderful scientists that I am not doing justice to, but I feel that these deserve quite a bit of recognition.

 

[Perfection]

I'm with Col on this one, though I would also include Hawking.

I wouldn't include Hawking. There's no question he was an excellent scientist and his work on Hawking radiation was brilliant. However, he was not a revolutionary character like Einstein or Mendeleev were.

One thing I really admire with Hawking was his ability to popularize modern physics. His character gave the media an excellent spokesman that people like. I think that his popularization of modern physcis may have given more of a boost to physics than his theories. He gave the common man a view into modern physics, something that few sceintists are able to do.

 

[Zamphyr]

Chose Galileo.

Others in consideration were : Bacon, Leewenhoek, Newton, Pasteur...probably in that order.

 

[Spadark]

I choose other!
I think the one who invented the wheel was the greatest!