Who is your favourite scientist of all time?
- Thread starter Naffa
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Any reason he was spineless or is it just the fact he was a Nazi, and obviously they are "all" spineless...
Soldato
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Yes, read further into the thread.
Associate
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That's a good one. How about Alexander Fleming?
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I think my favourite thing about Faraday is how he demonstrates how far a curious mind can take you (in modern terms its said he would have been awarded at least 6 Nobel prizes) in science, as oppose to absolute genius like Einstein for example. That’s not to say he was not intelligent, but I have read that he was not the best mathematician and more of an experimentalist.
Yes I did, and read the wiki article...
Still don't understand why you call him spineless however, especially considering he was arrested by the Gestapo at one point...
You seem to have avery black and white view of right and wrong. Should he have just protested against slave treatment and been shot instead?
Soldato
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Sorry but Fleming discovered anti-biotics mould by complete accident however he's notable because of his observations but then did nothing with it except send it to others to examine - imho we have antibiotics and penecillin as medicine specifically because of others:
The discovery of penicillin is attributed to Scottish scientist and Nobel laureate Alexander Fleming in 1928.[15] He showed that, if Penicillium notatum were grown in the appropriate substrate, it would exude a substance with antibiotic properties, which he dubbed penicillin. This serendipitous observation began the modern era of antibiotic discovery.
The development of penicillin for use as a medicine is attributed to the Australian Nobel laureate Howard Walter Florey together with the German Nobel laureate Ernst Chain and the English biochemist Norman Heatley.
it's also worth noting that certain mould were known to have medicinal properties for centuries
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Heston Blumenthal. He does science with food innit?
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Michio Kaku
Finally someone else with taste.
Good shout in Heston although I think you said it sarcastically.
Although saying that he wasn't the original.
Soldato
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People who went on the tours of the facilities with him later said that he showed no emotion, no acknowledgement of what was going on around him. A good Scientist works through a desire for the betterment of all humanity.
Lol......You do talk some nonsense.
Scientists are as normal as anyone else, with the same motivations and desires and some are good people, some are bad, some are good in bad situations....
Don't confuse professionalism with being a sociopath, if he didn't know what was going on around him he wouldn't have been one of, if not the greatest Rocket Scientist of his and any other generation.
That is what makes him a great scientist...his work in his field...not his personal life.
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Fair point but it was how he was treated by the Americans as a 'hero' when he should have been arrested as a war criminal.
Yes it would have been a great loss but just because somebody who is good at something doesn't mean they shouldn't face justice.
Albert Speer got away with it also.
this, when talking about good scientists. It is their work. It has sod all to do with their believes, actions, politics or what their science is used for.
People hate to separate and distinguish between the two, it happens in so many situations. They are scared that acknolodging one aspect of a person, somehow justifys the rest.
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I would give that title to Korolyev, i have to say...
If he didn't know? Perhaps, but i don't see the point in musing about such things, since he definitely did. I think there's more to Science than pure achievement. Motivations do play a part. Which is why the movie 'stock character' of the Mad Scientist exists.
Sure, evil people can do good work. But can they ever be considered to be among the best of the best? I don't think so.
of course they can, if a mass murdered managed to unify Physics. They would instantly become one if not they best physicts who has ever lived. The rest of their life and doings means nothing.
Great scientist, evil horrible man. Still doesn't detract from the scientific findings and knowldge. Those don't suddenly become wrong or meaningless.
Doesn't matter what you think.....it matters what his peers think and they thought he was the one of the greatest rocket scientists of his generation, as did the NASA administration that employed him and the US Govt who awarded him the National Medal of Science, as well as 12 honourary doctorates, the Werner von Siemens Ring, Smithsonian Langley Medal, Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, NASA Distinguished Service Medal among others...
Yeah, Werner Von Braun was and is considered one of, if not the best Scientist in his specific field. That is undisputed.
They are great scientists because of their work, it is not necessary to also be a great person.
There are hundreds of brilliant scientists who were utter **** at being human beings, that doesn't mean they were utter **** at being scientists, in most cases the total opposite was true.
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