The Tuesday List - Top 10 Greatest Scientists Of All Time

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[Scoutmaster]

Top 10 Greatest Scientists

A list of the top 10 scientists of all time.

1. Sir Isaac Newton. (1642-1726)

Newton was a polymath who made investigations into a whole range of subjects including mathematics, optics, physics, and astronomy. In his Principia Mathematica, published in 1687, he laid the foundations for classical mechanics, explaining law of gravity and the Laws of Motion.

2. Louis Pasteur. (1822 – 1895)

Contributed greatly towards the advancement of medical sciences developing cures for rabies, anthrax and other infectious diseases. Also enabled process of pasteurisation to make milk safer to drink. Probably saved more lives than any other person.

3. Galileo. (1564 – 1642)

Creating one of the first modern telescope, Galileo revolutionised our understanding of the world successfully proving the earth revolved around the sun and not the other way around. His work Two New Sciences laid groundwork for science of Kinetics and strength of materials.

4. Marie Curie. (1867 – 1934)

Polish physicist and chemist. Discovered radiation and helped to apply it in the field of X ray. She won Nobel Prize in both Chemistry and Physics.

5. Albert Einstein. (1879 – 1955)

Revolutionised modern physics with his general theory of relativity. Won Nobel Prize in Physics (1921) for his discovery of the Photoelectric effect, which formed basis of Quantum Theory.

6. Charles Darwin. (1809 – 1882)

Developed theory of evolution against a backdrop of disbelief and scepticism. Collected evidence over 20 years, and published conclusions in On the Origin of Species (1859).

7. Otto Hahn. (1879-1968)Chemist who discovered nuclear fission (1939). Pioneering scientist in the field of radio-chemistry. Discovered radio-active elements and nuclear isomerism (1921). Awarded Nobel Prize for Chemistry (1944).

8. Nikola Tesla (1856 –1943)

Work on electro-magnetism and AC current. Credited with many patents from electricity to radio transmission.

9. James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879)

Made great strides in understanding electro-magnetism. His research in electricity and kinetics, laid foundation for quantum physics. Einstein said of Maxwell, “The work of James Clerk Maxwell changed the world forever.”

10. Aristotle. 384BC – 322BC

Great early Greek scientist who made many researches in the natural sciences including botany, zoology, physics, astronomy, chemistry, and meteorology, geometry.

[The_Reader_David]

Newton definitely belongs on the list, and after consideration, I'll grudgingly put him in the top spot. However, I'm given to pointing out to my calculus students that I'm not sure which of the inventors (or discovers, depending on your favored philosophy of mathematics) of the calculus was more brilliant. They both produced the calculus to do physics. Newton then blundered off and did physics, giving us the "clockwork universe" of classical physics. Leibniz started worrying about the relationship between the observer and the system observed -- the very thing that Newton got wrong and which in two different ways undid his classical physics at the turn of the 20th century both as it applied to the very large and very fast (relativity) and the very small (quantum mechanics) -- and instead wrote The Monadology.

But Aristotle? With his physics in which arrows fly straight then suddenly fall straight down when they run out "impetus"? How could he get that wrong??? He was the tutor to Alexander the Great and surely saw arrows flying in their parabolic arcs as the approximately correct physics Newton gave us predicts. He wasn't blind like Homer, how did he get that wrong? He also got quantification over empty families wrong in his formulation of logic

[SES1066]

Sir Isaac Newton, whom I agree is one of the defining greats in science, acknowledged his debt to his (and our) predecessors with the statement; "If I have seen further it is by standing on the sholders [sic] of Giants."

In that light, I'd put in the top category Euclid of Alexandria (c. 300BC), the father of Geometry and a predecessor to another needed for inclusion, Archimedes of Syracuse (280-212BC)! For millennia, children have learned Euclid's Elements and from his books has come REASONED learning, a prerequisite of all science. And if the above 2 ancient Greeks are not enough, let's add Pythagoras of Samos (570-495BC) as a candidate for the title of "Father of Mathematics!

Remember, there is a reason for Western Civilization being called a Greco-Roman-Judaic Civilization. And when you consider that all of these men did their work in an era preceding Indo-Arabic Numbers, it is even more impressive!

[massgopguy]

Howard Johnson was a big fan of Louis Pastuer.

[Hootowl99]

Since this top 10 list is for scientists, it makes sense to me that Archimedes is not on the list. Archimedes was much more an engineer and less a scientist.

[uncommonsense]

"That guy invented nothing!"

And he should be recognized for inventing nothing! What has made a larger impact on science than nothing?

[Hoodat]

Any Top Ten list without Robert Hooke’s name on it is worthless.

[massgopguy]

How about Honorable Mention for Lise Meitner? She only discovered Nuclear Fusion.

[massgopguy]

How about Shottkey? transistors anybody?

[Scoutmaster]

Thanks. That’s insightful and gives me some reading for the day.

[canuck_conservative]

How can you rate one of these scientist as “the best”? It’s like saying, which one song is “the best ever”?

They’re all good, all made critical contributions to the body of human knowledge.

And science doesn’t exist in a vacuum, don’t forget all the practical people that put the science discoveries to work - Tesla, Edison, even the Wright Brothers and Henry Ford.

[reed13k]

Always saw edison and da vinci as engineers and not scientists - I’ll agree on copernicus

[Scoutmaster]

Which one song is 'the best ever'?

Surely you jest. Everyone knows it's Philosophy of the World by the Shaggs.

;)

[Baumer]

Very clever nomination. In many ways his invention overall may be the most impacting invention over the last 100 years. Without it, we wouldn’t be looking at our computers right now.

[SgtHooper]

Engineers are those who make scientist’s “dreams” come into reality. Claude Shannon comes to mind.

[Conan the Librarian]

There are about 100 other scientist that could be in that list that aren’t because they didn’t have as good publicity as these folks.

Plank, Bohr, Dirac Sheldon Cooper...where are they?

[SeaHawkFan]

Aristotle and Darwin really weren’t even scientists.

[Hot Tabasco]

So the guy who invented beer doesn’t even get an honorable mention.......sad.

[BillM]

The guy who let you store the beer (Pasteur) IS on the list.
I nominate Lorenzo Avogadro. He actually discovered the basic nature of matter.

[Billthedrill]

Dmitri Ivanovitch Mendeleev. That periodic table? Consider that there was no such thing as atomic theory when he did it. Mind-boggling.

[Billthedrill]

I should clarify that. There was no such thing as theory of atomic structure when Mendeleev did his work. 1864.