Who's Your Favorite Scientist? [Archive]

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smk

30th January 2011, 04:41

Self explanatory from the title, but I guess you can include mathematicians or engineers too.

Personally, Carl Sagan or V.S. Ramachandran are my all time favorites.

Kuppo Shakur

30th January 2011, 04:43

Scientists suck.
Engineers is where it's at.

Pretty Flaco

30th January 2011, 05:03

Ele'ill

30th January 2011, 05:07

http://gamernode.com/upload/manager/Eddie%20Inzauto/is%20silence%20golden/gordon.jpg

Lobotomy

30th January 2011, 05:17

Richard Feynman probably.

¿Que?

30th January 2011, 05:45

I like Enrico Fermi, not so much because of his scientific achievments, of which I know nothing of, but because of the Fermi Paradox (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox), which I think is brilliant!

Kuppo Shakur

30th January 2011, 23:55

Scientist: Research the same old shit and go "Hermitty Herm, I think this dinosaur ate fish! (Eureka!)"

Engineer: Make cool stuff.

Case closed.

Widerstand

31st January 2011, 00:00

Paul Erdős (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Erd%C5%91s)

Ocean Seal

31st January 2011, 01:48

http://images.huffingtonpost.com/gen/2069/thumbs/s-BILL-NYE-SCIENCE-GUY-large.jpg
He's not only a scientist, he's a science GUY.

And science made his dick that long. Can engineering make your dick that long? No, it can't.

Actually if there's any field that can make your dick longer its engineering.

Scientist: Research the same old shit and go "Hermitty Herm, I think this dinosaur ate fish! (Eureka!)"

Engineer: Make cool stuff.

Case closed.
What scientists are the basis for everything cool that was made. A physicist made the first transistor, it was ugly--but hey it worked.

To answer the question:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/54/Michael_Faraday_001.jpg/200px-Michael_Faraday_001.jpg

Michael Faraday was easily the coolest scientist ever. Not just for his role on electromagnetism or for his work on uniting forces, but because of his whole history. He was a book binder I think, and then he worked for some rich gentleman in a lab who constantly tried to screw him over because he didn't like the thought of a poor man like Faraday outdoing him.

Kuppo Shakur

31st January 2011, 05:09

Yeah, but then an engineer came along and was like, "What the fuck is with this sucky transistor? Here, lemme make it a thousand times better for you, now go run off to your lab and play."

Dean

31st January 2011, 15:39

Einstein. A Socialist and aggressive humanist. See Einstein's exposition of his socialism, wherein he expresses a number of Marxist ideas: http://monthlyreview.org/598einstein.php

NewSocialist

31st January 2011, 15:48

Dr. Bunsen Honeydew

http://www.alltopmovies.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/DrBunsen-Honeydew.jpg

His esteemed colleague, Beaker, is also thought-provoking.

redasheville

31st January 2011, 16:03

Stephen Jay Gould.

Bardo

31st January 2011, 17:12

Tesla was pretty interesting

mikelepore

2nd February 2011, 07:46

Michael Faraday was easily the coolest scientist ever. Not just for his role on electromagnetism or for his work on uniting forces, but because of his whole history. He was a book binder I think, and then he worked for some rich gentleman in a lab who constantly tried to screw him over because he didn't like the thought of a poor man like Faraday outdoing him.

Yes, Faraday was an interesting character. While he was supposed to be working in that book binder shop, when his boss wasn't looking he would sit down and read the books, and that's how he got his science education.

There's also an interesting parallel, after Galileo described his discoveries mainly in words and pictures, in the next generation Newton re-expressed those discoveries in the language of mathematics. After Faraday described his discoveries mainly in words and pictures, Maxwell re-expressed them in mathematics.

Faraday's electric field diagrams are a great idea. At each point, the direction of the curve represents the direction of the force that a charge would experience if it were placed there, and how close together the lines are represents the magnitude of the force. We can see it in the picture, without any mathematical symbols.

One day Faraday was teaching a physics class and doing a demonstration from his desk. He moved a compass in a circular path around a current-carrying wire, and saw the needle always point perpendicular to the wire. He learned it himself, and also demonstrated it to the class, at exactly the same moment. I teach physics at the community college, and in a few weeks from now I'll be at that same lesson, the circular magnetic field that surrounds a wire. When I do that same classroom demo with the compass, it's the same activity that Faraday did in 1821. That's a great feeling.

Revolution starts with U

4th February 2011, 04:45

Einstein, the guy who invented the Polio Vaccine, or the guy who pioneered GE foods
:tt2:

Magón

5th February 2011, 01:34

Richard Feynman probably.

+1 for that. If I read anything of his, that wasn't a simplified version of say his QED stuff, I'd probably have a brain aneurysm trying to figure it all out.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c9/Altqed.jpg

This was an easy read for me, from him. :thumbup1:

Kuppo Shakur

5th February 2011, 02:00

Ok, I concede, Quantum Electrodynamics would never had been discovered by an engineer.:thumbup1:

Koba1917

5th February 2011, 07:16

Easily Carl Sagan. He was a brilliant man who made Science fun and understandable to millions of people.

SubsonicDesign

16th February 2011, 18:49

Scientist: Research the same old shit and go "Hermitty Herm, I think this dinosaur ate fish! (Eureka!)"

Engineer: Make cool stuff.

Case closed.

That's true! If I could pick my favorite engineer it would currently be Sergey Brin or Larry Page (founders of Google) because the algorithms used by Google are truly amazing. I know that nowadays they don't really code and many of the algorithms are bought from Universities etc. but those guys made the first version of the search engine and it was amazing! :)

Salyut

16th February 2011, 21:19

I would smoke mad weed with Sagan and George Washington Carver in the afterlife.

Dóchas

16th February 2011, 21:24

Tesla was pretty interesting

Beat me to it!

Proukunin

16th February 2011, 21:26

Albert Hoffman.

Red Bayonet

17th February 2011, 17:06

Johann Most and Alfred Nobel

∞

23rd February 2011, 23:13

Feynman the coolest and one of the most important scientist IMO.
http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQKAdHKh_-67j1ebKSIYzpybh6MDglw1icq-EHhLiXfxFPynQJ_

∞

23rd February 2011, 23:15

+1 for that. If I read anything of his, that wasn't a simplified version of say his QED stuff, I'd probably have a brain aneurysm trying to figure it all out.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c9/Altqed.jpg

This was an easy read for me, from him. :thumbup1:

I just read that recently :), I can now read Feynman diagrams...neeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat