Your Favorite Scientist

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Declension
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12 May 2012, 7:22 pm

Bun wrote:

And Alan Turing

Wait, do mathematicians count as scientists? If mathematicians count as scientists, then I have to revise my choice to Bertrand Russell.

I don't really admire Russell for his mathematics, though. I admire him for his no-nonsense philosophy, his iconoclasm, and and his habit of being outspoken and on the right side of history on every single social and political issue of his day. A man who challenges the idea that "we must not judge the opinions of historical figures from our modern enlightened perspective". He got it right, so why didn't anyone else?

If I was going to choose a mathematician / scientist only on the basis of their mathematical / scientific work, it would probably be the mathematician Georg Cantor, for clarifying how mathematics can deal with the concept of infinite sets without running into problems.

AstroGeek
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12 May 2012, 9:03 pm

edgewaters wrote:

I didn't know that at all. Has there ever been an apology to his family?

The Prime Minister responded to a petition awhile back (I think it would have been Gordon Brown at the time) and sent out a public apology for the government's behaviour. My linear algebra prof gave us all copies of the apology around the time we'd been studying something that Turing had worked on. I was interested, being gay myself, but I'm not really sure why he bothered.

AnotherKind
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14 May 2012, 2:15 pm

Richard Feynman, Carl Sagan

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ruveyn
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14 May 2012, 2:20 pm

edgewaters wrote:

I didn't know that at all. Has there ever been an apology to his family?

There is a traffic round-about named after him and I think he won some kind of award or peerage.

Too little and way too late. He was ill treated considering the services he rendered to his country. He save Britain's collective arse from the German U-Boats and the resulting blockade.

FalsettoTesla
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14 May 2012, 2:27 pm

Nikola Tesla.

ruveyn
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14 May 2012, 2:35 pm

FalsettoTesla wrote:

Nikola Tesla.

A very singular man. Much is attributed to him that is nonsense. He never invented a "death ray". His theories of using the earth itself as a way of distributing power without wires is not well founded. But he is the true inventor of radio communication, not Marconi and his work on AC power generation and distribution virtually made the world we are used to living in. Tesla, much more and Edison, lit up our nights.

He was a flat out genius and a True Wizard. Wizard's invoke the primordial forces, they do not do cheap "magic" tricks. Tesla and Gandalph. What a pair.

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FalsettoTesla
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14 May 2012, 2:56 pm

ruveyn wrote:

FalsettoTesla wrote:

Nikola Tesla.

He was in love with a pigeon, and had a very nice moustache.

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19 May 2012, 6:44 pm

Einstein, thet revolutionized everything. He changes the meaning of "time", "space", "mass", "energy"... the conception of all material things was revolutionized by him! Also, dreams, oj course, had to be revolutionized too...

Dawkins is my favorite living scientist. He makes an amazing pop science!

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kill231
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20 May 2012, 4:32 am

Joker wrote:

kill231 wrote:

Einstein: Revolutionized science and tried to stop the use of nuclear bombs.

Yes he did Einstein knew the dangers of nuclear bombs and was against them being used people should have been again nuclear bombs but then again if we didn't drop the atomic bomb on japan they would have never stopped fighting.

Not for a good while

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ruveyn
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20 May 2012, 4:56 am

edgewaters wrote:

I didn't know that at all. Has there ever been an apology to his family?

What family? Turing was a homosexual, he never married and never had children. His parents were dead and I believe he was an only child. It was Turing's sexual nature and the homophobia of the British establishment which led to the injustice committed against Turing.

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20 May 2012, 1:09 pm

ruveyn wrote:

edgewaters wrote:

I didn't know that at all. Has there ever been an apology to his family?

His mother was alive at the time, and insisted that his suicide was an accident (that he wasn't careful enough with lab chemicals so the cyanide in his apple was an accident). It's speculated that he set up his suicide in the way he did so that his mother could believe that it was an accident. But it does seem pretty likely that it was suicide, since it was known that one of his favourite stories was Snow White and that he was fascinated by the scene in which the evil queen poisons the apple.

ruveyn
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20 May 2012, 2:27 pm

AstroGeek wrote:

ruveyn wrote:

edgewaters wrote:

I didn't know that at all. Has there ever been an apology to his family?

His mother was alive at the time, and insisted that his suicide was an accident (that he wasn't careful enough with lab chemicals so the cyanide in his apple was an accident).

I stand corrected. I though he was an orphan.

ruveyn

Pinkbubble
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21 May 2012, 8:57 pm

Oh man...Isaac Newton!! ! I've loved him since 8 or 9th grade. Love gravity and his 3 rules of motion. I did a book report on him and read a small biography about him. He was my 8th grade nerd crush! Plus he had nice hair. Looks like Robert Plant lol!!

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21 May 2012, 10:53 pm

Pinkbubble wrote:

Finally, another Newton fan.

Newton was to physics what Darwin was to Biology-other people had hashed out the what, but they got a good approximation of the why.

Rakshasa72
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22 May 2012, 3:28 am

Nikola Tesla

hkakashi
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23 May 2012, 2:20 am

Faraday! Stopped formal schooling at 12. But because he loves science, he found his way to enter the field despite financial setbacks. A great and conscientious experimentalist. He also had some writings about other aspects of life.

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