Your Favorite Scientist

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Joker
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24 Apr 2012, 8:51 pm

ruveyn wrote:

Candles15 wrote:

Joker wrote:

Candles15 wrote:

Charles Darwin.
He's one of my heroes for being a such a humane and down to earth character as well as being the core reason we now know about genetics.

Yes Charles Darwin was brilliant if he where alive today he could find out what causes autism.

Yes, he would have!

Probably not. Darwin had no idea how inheritable characteristics went from one generation to the next. He had no notion of genes.

ruveyn

Hmm I didnt know he had no notion of genes interesting.

Mummy_of_Peanut
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25 Apr 2012, 3:29 am

^ Gregor Mendel is the father of genetics, although he knew nothing about DNA. He's a slightly younger contemporoary of Darwin, but it seems their ideas never really crossed paths.

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ruveyn
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25 Apr 2012, 7:07 am

Mummy_of_Peanut wrote:

^ Gregor Mendel is the father of genetics, although he knew nothing about DNA. He's a slightly younger contemporoary of Darwin, but it seems their ideas never really crossed paths.

Gregor Mendel published during Darwin's lifetime. His paper on the statistics of breeding was published in a obscure Czeck journal in the Czeck language which Darwin did not know. If Darwin had any idea of what Mendel was doing it would have speeded up the science of genetics by fifty years. Darwin's thinking interpreted in the light of Mendels work was done in the early 1900s by DeVrees.

ruveyn

book_noodles
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25 Apr 2012, 1:18 pm

Stephen Hawking. Clever bastard. :heart:

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TM
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25 Apr 2012, 1:22 pm

I'm Star Gazin' like Carl Sagan.

AstroGeek
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25 Apr 2012, 9:37 pm

Mummy_of_Peanut wrote:

Bun wrote:

And Alan Turing

He's my favourite.

Oh, I forgot Turing. I don't know a huge ammount about his work, but I like him just because he was a gay scientist. Poor guy...

Mummy_of_Peanut
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26 Apr 2012, 5:39 am

AstroGeek wrote:

Mummy_of_Peanut wrote:

Bun wrote:

And Alan Turing

He's my favourite.

Oh, I forgot Turing. I don't know a huge ammount about his work, but I like him just because he was a gay scientist. Poor guy...

His story is really tragic. It's widely believed that he had Aspergers, which may account for why he disclosed personal info, which then led to him being imprisoned and 'treated' for being gay.

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10 May 2012, 6:29 am

Mummy_of_Peanut wrote:

AstroGeek wrote:

Mummy_of_Peanut wrote:

Bun wrote:

And Alan Turing

He's my favourite.

Oh, I forgot Turing. I don't know a huge ammount about his work, but I like him just because he was a gay scientist. Poor guy...

His story is really tragic. It's widely believed that he had Aspergers, which may account for why he disclosed personal info, which then led to him being imprisoned and 'treated' for being gay.

Alan Turing is my all-time personal hero - If there was one person that I could meet from the past, he would be the one. He seemed to be a very gentle, quirky guy who has the most amazing ability to think outside the box (maybe outside the planet may be more apt) and rationalise and quantify his thoughts. An absolute, utter genius. The way he was treated leading to his death was utterly despicable. He shared his birthday with my Mom.

Laurence Peter is also one of my favourite scientists with his studies of the working environment "The Peter Principle" - particularly his observation:

"In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence ... in time every post tends to be occupied by an employee who is incompetent to carry out its duties ... Work is accomplished by those employees who have not yet reached their level of incompetence"

Which I think is a very accurate and brilliant description of the modern working culture.

ruveyn
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10 May 2012, 2:08 pm

P.A.M.Dirac. An Aspie's Aspie.

ruveyn

zxy3cpn
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10 May 2012, 4:17 pm

Eugene Parker, for his many contributions to space plasma physics since my own research was part of that field. I'd also say some of the people who taught me at university, since they taught quite well .

ruveyn
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10 May 2012, 6:46 pm

Snar wrote:

Turing save Great Britain from the German U-boats. And he was repaid by being convicted of immoral behavior (his homosexuality manifested) imprisoned and chemically castrated. He was in such sad shape after being in jail and treated chemically that he became depressed and killed himself. Proving once again that no good deed will go unpunished.

The man should have received a Victoria Cross for the service he rendered to his country but the Brits at that time were so screwed up on maters sexual that the wronged a hero. The Americans would have done no better by the way.

ruveyn

Evinceo
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10 May 2012, 7:08 pm

No love for Newton in this thread?

DarrylZero
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12 May 2012, 2:56 am

William Bass
Edward O. Heinrich
Svante Arrhenius

edgewaters
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12 May 2012, 3:04 am

Aristotle

edgewaters
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12 May 2012, 3:05 am

ruveyn wrote:

Snar wrote:

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

Snar
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12 May 2012, 7:17 pm

edgewaters wrote:

ruveyn wrote:

Snar wrote:

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

Alan was awarded an OBE - More info is here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Turing

It was an utter and abominable way to treat someone with such genius. It makes me almost embarrassed to be English.

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