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Asked by barefootdoctor1856 to Meeks, Pete, Stephen, Steve, Tom on 15 Jun 2010 in Categories: About. This question was also asked by lucasjacobs, nataliamay, leanneypan.
Question: Who is your favourite scientist?
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Steve Roser answered on 14 Jun 2010:
I think it must be Humphrey Davy. He was a very interesting man, who rose from a very simple background in Cornwall to be the top scientist in the land. He invented terribly practical things, discovered electrolysis as well as having a real interest in communicating science, and having a laugh, with laughing gas. Theres a really good book about him and some other scientists of his time here. Joseph Banks for one is a great character http://www.harpercollins.co.uk/Our_Titles/Pages/Home.aspx?objId=25860
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Stephen Curry answered on 14 Jun 2010:
Greetings barefootdoctor1865!
On of my favourites is Francis Crick who was a co-discoverer of the double-helix structure of DNA. Crick and Watson were theorists who used experimental information from Maurice WIlkins and Rosalind Franklin to work out the DNA structure – it was a great feat of insight.
What impresses me about Crick is that he went on from that achievement to do more brilliant work to crack the genetic code. It was a beautiful experiment of Crick’s that showed the sequence of the 4 bases (A, C, G, T) in DNA is read as a series of 3-letter words.
He was a particularly impressive in my book because he could combine great theoretical and experimental work.
If I’m allowed a second choice it would have to be Einstein – his true genius was to ask simple but fundamental questions about the universe, and to be able to show that the answer demanded the creation of an entirely new type of physics.
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Pete Edwards answered on 14 Jun 2010:
I suppose this would have to be Isaac Newton he pretty much invented the science of physics on his own! He studied many things including forces, light and gravity and when he needed to do the maths to work things out he invented the equations he needed as well – a really smart scientist but,according to the people who knew him, he wasn’t particularly nice…..
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Tom Hartley answered on 14 Jun 2010:
If I had to name one it would be Richard Feynman, who was an American Physicist. Feynman was a genius who helped develop one of the most important theories (Quantum Electrodynamics) but he was also an incredibly gifted communicator who was able to explain his ideas more effectively than anyone else I’ve ever heard. His book QED: the Strange Theory of Light and Matter, is an amazing example of this – he wrote it for a friend who was not a scientist, and if you read it you will find you understand it. He was also an very brilliant teacher (you can find his lectures on the internet) and, on some topics at least, a wise man. It is much harder to make a complicated thing seem simple, than to make a simple thing seem complicated. So Feynman gets my vote.
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Marieke Navin answered on 15 Jun 2010:
What a brilliant question! i’m going to plump for Ada Lovelace – she was the world’s first computer programmer and a true visionary of the potential of computers.
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