• Question: Who is the greatest scientist that ever lived?

    Asked by ImFromAfrica to Heather, Helen, Hugh, Jane, Julian on 7 Nov 2014. This question was also asked by Talan007, Grace.S.
    • Photo: Julian Onions

      Julian Onions answered on 7 Nov 2014:

      I think that’s up for somewhat of a debate!
      In physics, I think Isaac Newton made a number of staggering breakthroughs, including inventing calculus because he needed it to solve a problem. It appears he wasn’t a particularly nice person though.

      Einstein of course rather revolutionised our understanding of space and time, and did a lot of his best work in just one year, producing 4 ground breaking papers, any of which would probably be worthy of a Nobel prize – but he got just the one!

      There are lots of others out there though, so it depends a bit on your perspective.

    • Photo: Jane MacArthur

      Jane MacArthur answered on 7 Nov 2014:

      Newton and Einstein are the main choices that are hard to argue with.

      Galileo Galilei is a favourite for me, he discovered the Earth goes round the Sun, and his work on motion of bodies probably assisted Newton’s discoveries of classical mechanics. “All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.”

      I’m fascinated by the ancient Greeks, Archimedes and Aristotle (and others like Pythagoras) who deserve an honourable mention, as many of their ideas and theories were way ahead of their time, and lasted nearly 2000 years and underpinned modern maths and science as we know them today.

      Arguably the greatest female scientist, Marie Curie discovered radiation, which led to X-ray techniques that are used across all the sciences today.

    • Photo: Heather Campbell

      Heather Campbell answered on 9 Nov 2014:

      I think that Copernicus is one of the greatest scientists. His theory that the Earth and the other planets orbit around the sun, rather than the Earth being stationary at the centre of the Universe, was revolutionary. To challenge the views of people so radically and against such opposition was really fantastic.

    • Photo: Helen Johnson

      Helen Johnson answered on 9 Nov 2014:

      Agreed. Einstein, Newton, Galileo, Darwin etc. are all very hard to argue with! When I was first getting into Physics I was particularly inspired reading about the work of Max Planck, Paul Dirac, Erwin Schrodinger, Werner Heisenberg … and many more, who figured out quantum mechanics – the rules that govern the very tiniest things in the Universe. That amazed me.
      Another of my ‘science heroes’ is definitely Richard Feynman. Brilliant scientist, and also fantastic bongo drum player apparently!

    • Photo: Hugh Osborn

      Hugh Osborn answered on 11 Nov 2014:

      I agree with everyone else’s choices – Newton, Einstein, Darwin, etc, were all fantastic scientists who changed the world.

      I think there is a lot to be said for collaboration. Science is not just for lone, eccentric geniuses. From measuring the Transit of Venus in 1769 (dozens of astronomers) to projects like CERN (thousands of particle physicists), it is groups of people working together that have made the biggest discoveries.

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