-
Asked by anon-206071 to adeliegorce, Gabriel, Jose Angel, Kathryn, Russell on 9 Mar 2019.
-
Adelie Gorce answered on 9 Mar 2019:
I think of two scientists:
The first one is Einstein, because he was a true genius, working on many subjects and his theories really changed the way we think about physics. He also lived at a very exciting time for physics, with many major discoveries on all topics (maybe you’ve heard of the Solvay conferences?) and all major physicists knew each other at that time because they were less than 100!
The second one would be Jocelyn Bell Burnell, she is a very famous astrophysicist who discovered the pulsars, a type of star that rotates very quickly on itself. She should have won the Nobel prize but did not, probably because she was a woman. Yet, she’s always been very humble about it and never complained: she was working for science and not to become famous. She’s an example of perseverance and was one of the few female scientists at the time (she’s 75 now), so it’d really much like to hear her talk about this.
-
-
Russell Arnott answered on 12 Mar 2019:
Living scientist – hmmmmm. I’d love to met Don Walsh. Him and Jacques Piccard went down to the bottom of the Marianas Trench back in 1960. More people have been to the Moon than to the bottom of our ocean.
Dead scientist – it’s got to be Nikola Tesla all the way! He invented AC electricity without which we wouldn’t have electricity in our homes. He also invented radio-control, neon lights and a way to send electricity to things without using wires. He was soooooo ahead of his time.
-
Gabriel Gallardo answered on 12 Mar 2019: last edited 13 Mar 2019 9:57 am
I’d love to meet Richard Feynman.
He was a brilliant theoretical physicist. He pioneered a few theories which we use every day in my experiment. For example, we often think about how particles interact with each other using Feynman diagrams:
In this diagram, an electron (e-) and a positron (e+) come together to make a photon (γ), which then becomes a quark (q) and anti-quark (-q), the anti-quark also radiates a gluon (g).
Before he came up with these diagrams, people had to think about these things in terms of long and complicated mathematical equations. If you thought your maths class was hard, wait til you see what physicists had to deal with!
But with these diagrams, you could intuitively understand what was going on, even if you didn’t know exactly what every line and every intersection means mathematically!He was also really great at talking about science. See if you can figure out what he’s talking about here before he actually tells you. See the passion in his eyes, listen to how simple his words are. This is a guy who really understands what he’s talking about, and is good at talking about it.
In fact, he knew what he was talking about *because* he always talked about it. This is now known as the Feynman technique. If you need help studying, give this a try. You can learn to be awesome like him too! -
Kathryn Boast answered on 13 Mar 2019:
Does Leonardo da Vinci count? He’s often thought of as an artist rather than a scientists, but that overlooks a lot of his amazing work. He did some incredible research in anatomy, understanding how the human body is put together. (He did a lot of dissection, which is a bit :/ if you’re squeamish, but super important for appreciating exactly how bodies work.) And he invented loads and loads of things including flying machines, weapons and parachutes!
-
Jose Angel Martinez-Gonzalez answered on 13 Mar 2019:
I see that my colleagues have given you the names of great scientists. I am also going to make my contribution to this list with two other names, maybe not as well known but I think they are important.
Martin Poliakoff: The core themes of his work are supercritical fluids, infrared spectroscopy and lasers. He is working on gaining insights into fundamental chemistry, and on developing environmentally acceptable processes and materials.
But what fascinates me most is his role as Youtuber. I recommend both the YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/periodicvideos
as the web page:
http://www.periodicvideos.com/Rosalid Franklin: Perhaps, until recently, the great forgotten in the discovery of the structure of DNA. She was the one who got the X-ray photo of the structure that was later vital to know it was a double helix.
There is a Instutition called with her name: https://www.rfi.ac.uk/
And also a Mars Rover:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosalind_Franklin_(rover)#/media/File:ExoMars_prototype_rover_6_(cropped).jpg
Comments
Kathryn commented on :
Nice question! Does Leonardo da Vinci count? He’s often thought of as being an artist, but he did some incredible anatomy work, understanding how the human body is put together, and he invented loads and loads of things including flying machines!