Who is the greatest scientist in the last 500 years?

[aaglo]

I vote for Galileo Galilei.

[Zero]

Originally posted by monkspider
How about Tesla? He's highly underrated as well.

causes he's a psycho

[KrazyHorse]

As for Einstein, if he was "just" special relativity, brownian motion, photoeffect (what won him his Nobel), some stat mech stuff anda few other things then he wouldn't rank with Newton.

But GR blows my mind. He was the first of a new breed of physicists who realised that they needed more math than calculus to do physics.

Apparently in his day physicists didn't even do linear algebra. He had to sit down and learn tensors, then realise that they were actually applicable.

IMO, in addition to completely altering our perception of gravitation and space/time this also made the formalisation of the quantum revolution a lot easier...

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by Calc II


I didn't pay attention to history class and physics class when they were talking about scientists but wasnt that kepler?

No, wha Kepler did was to deduce the fact that planets moved in ellipses. He had no idea why.

[Propaganda]

Originally posted by Propaganda
Sir John Harrington.

Come on, this man is the father of the flush toilet.

[KrazyHorse]

Kepler did a lot of grunt work on actual calculations. He deserves an A for hard work and a B for inspiration.

It took him 10 years (!) to work through the calculations he needed to prove the validity of his laws. But those calculations were just classical geometry and trig...

[Jon Shafer]

Definitely Einstein and Newton in tier 1. I'll leave beyond that for the philosophes.

[Asher]

(teehehe)

Gordon Moore is absolutely #1!

[Ramo]

Kepler did a lot of grunt work on actual calculations. He deserves an A for hard work and a B for inspiration.
It took him 10 years (!) to work through the calculations he needed to prove the validity of his laws. But those calculations were just classical geometry and trig...

Yep, and without Kepler's work, Newton wouldn't have gone too far. He had an interesting life too. His mother was once accused of witchcraft, and he had to learn law to defend her. Besides maybe Feynman or Einstein, he's the physicist I'd have most liked to meet. Newton, of course, was a total bastard.

[Zero]

meeting Einstein would be a blast. Some stories I hear of him.... He is defintely quirky

[aaglo]

Can't I see correctly, or hasn't anyone yet mentioned stephen hawkins?

[JohnT]

"Of course. I can't remember who originally wrote that right now..."

Alexander Pope.

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by Ramo


Yep, and without Kepler's work, Newton wouldn't have gone too far. He had an interesting life too. His mother was once accused of witchcraft, and he had to learn law to defend her. Besides maybe Feynman or Einstein, he's the physicist I'd have most liked to meet. Newton, of course, was a total bastard.

Sure...but Kepler didn't have it in him to do what Newton did. Otherwise he'd have done it.

And even without universal gravitation, Newton presents a pretty impressive CV. I would definitely have liked to meet the old codger, though. And told him that 400 years later his attempts at character assassination hadn't worked and Leibniz was still getting half credit.

[DuncanK]

Ronald Reagan. USA all the way! YEAH!

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Frogger
In terms of genius and advancement of pure scientific understanding, there's nobody else in the last 500 years that even comes close.

Disagree.

"Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution," contended Theodosius Dobzhansky.

I rekcon it is Darwin, for an entirely new way of thinking.