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Asked by anon-270535 on 16 Nov 2020.
Question: Who do you think the greatest scientist and why?
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Samantha Watson answered on 16 Nov 2020:
I don’t think there can be just one greatest scientist. Science covers so many areas, it wouldn’t be fair to pick just one.
In the physics world then Curie, Einstein, Hawking are definitely up there. But I’m sure a biologist would come up with some other amazing people.
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Kirsty Lindsay answered on 16 Nov 2020: last edited 16 Nov 2020 4:42 pm
Joseph Lister, Edward Jenner, Alexander Flamming and Florence Nightingale all made a tremendous impact on health science (developed the aspects technique in surgery, made the first vaccine (kind of), discovered penicillin and developed the ideas around modern nursing and the pie chart), but none of them worked alone or in a vacuum, so although they get the credit there are lots of other people who helped along the way.
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Arthur Dyer answered on 17 Nov 2020:
Science is never about just one person. Every good discovery comes from a team of people or happened because someone else helped.
But my personal favourite scientist is either Rosalind Franklin (the woman who helped discover DNA) or John Snow (the man who helped discover how diseases spread)
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Christopher Marriott answered on 17 Nov 2020:
As everybody that has answered this question so far has said, there’s never one great scientist, and behind every great scientist there’s a lot of people in the background that never get recognized for their hard work. In my field though, I would say people like Edward Jenner, who developed the first modern vaccine, and Alexander Fleming, who accidentally discovered the antibiotic penicillin after leaving a petri dish of bacteria open while he went on holiday, are the most well-known scientists and so would probably be considered the greatest scientists in my field.
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Andrew Stark answered on 17 Nov 2020:
Those who are prepared to try new things and find solutions to problems that most people didn’t even know existed.
The ability to work collaboratively is also key, as most of my chemistry manufacturing problems are solved by cross functional discussions and the power of a group discussion is required.
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Louise Topping answered on 17 Nov 2020:
I agree with everything the others have said. For me the people who stand out (on a personal level) are Marie Curie, Stephen Hawking, David Attenborough and Edward Jenner.
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Joanna Giles answered on 17 Nov 2020:
I agree, that there are so many. But for my favourite, I’m going to say Leonardo Da Vinci. Mostly because people don’t even realise he was a scientist. As well as all his amazing art work, he studied science but had to hide his work from the Church and did a lot of his work in secret! He did some of the first drawings of the anatomy of the human body (the organs!). But also studies zoology, engineering, chemistry and aerodynamics…. to name a few. He was a genius and really ahead of his time!
You can read more about his amazing works here:
https://www.sciencekids.co.nz/sciencefacts/scientists/leonardodavinci.html
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Ben Lewis answered on 17 Nov 2020:
My favourite scientist is called Rosalind Franklin. She did research in the 1940s and 50s and studied the structure of DNA – which is something I am still looking at today! She did the hard work getting the evidence which led to us discovering the double helix structure of DNA, but for a long time didn’t get the credit she deserved. Without her skill and dedication, the problem would never have been solved. Now she gets a bit more recognition for that, but I still think there’s a lot more about her that people don’t know. For instance, she didn’t just work on DNA – during the war she did important research on the fine structure of coal and was considered a leader in that field, and after DNA she also studied the structure of viruses – both the work on DNA and viruses ended up getting Nobel Prizes. She didn’t get any Nobel Prizes, though, because she died when she was just 37 years old. She did an amazing amount in such a short space of time, and she achieved all that she did as a Jewish woman at a time when both of those characteristics would hold you back. She’s a real inspiration and I encourage everyone to read more about her!
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Nooshin Ghavami answered on 18 Nov 2020:
There are so many, but because I work more in the Physics part of Science, I would say Albert Einstein
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John Tregoning answered on 18 Nov 2020:
Maurice Hilleman: He developed vaccines and saved more lives in the 20th century than any other person
See his wikipedia bio here:
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Ann Ager answered on 18 Nov 2020:
The greatest scientist for me is someone who is not well known to everyone but I was lucky enough to work with them when I was starting my career as a scientist and I found them truly inspirational. Even though I was very junior and they were very busy, they found the time to talk to me and to understand what I wanted to study and why I wanted to study it. That person is Professor Judah Folkman at the Children’s Hospital in Boston, USA. Professor Folkman was a surgeon and a scientist. He discovered that cancers need their own blood vessels to get the food, water and oxygen they need to grow. He thought that if you could stop blood vessels from growing then the cancers would die. His life’s work was dedicated to doing this and he attracted many other scientists to work alongside him. Because of his pioneering work, drugs that stop blood vessels from growing have been developed and are being used to treat some cancer patients. To me, this is the legacy of a great scientist.
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Stephanie Longet answered on 21 Nov 2020:
For me, it is Francoise Barre-Sinoussi. It is a virologist. She discovered and characterised HIV in 1983 at Pasteur Institute in Paris. In 2008, she won the Nobel Prize with Luc Montagnier for this discovery. She is very impressive for her commitment in research. She is retired but she is still involved in the fight against HIV and not only in Europe but also Africa. I met her in 2013 and now she is like a mentor for me. She inspires me a lot, encourages me a lot and gives me some advice.
Comments
Iain commented on :
Feynman. Bethe. Dirac. Bardeen.