The Greatest minds of Science

[last shadow]

This thread is dedicated to the great minds of science and their contributions to science. Discuss

Who was in your opinion the greatest mind of science?

Id personally vote for Newton, what would Physics be if it werent for his theory of universal gravitation and his laws of motion. He also contributed to Mathematics, he is sometimes credited for the fundamental theorem of calculus(although thats a controversial topic whether it was him or Leibniz)

[Human No More]

I'm not sure if there can ever be one greatest. There are so many I can think of...
Newton, Galileo, Einstein, Darwin, Pasteur, Hawking, James Clerk Maxwell, Feynman, Tesla, Dawkins, probably a load more I missed, all should be considered.

[last shadow]

Yes of course there shouldnt really be anyone who was THE greatest, all of them have contributed and done great things

but Im asking for a subjective answer :P

[NYSEF816]

wow - great thread!!! it is hard to answer as far as objectivity goes - after all, we stand on te shoulders of giants in a very literal sense.

but as far as groundbreaking conclusions and hypothesis goes, and taking into account its future potential, i would have to put Niels Bohr at the front of the pack. i am obviously bias as i study quantum mechanics, but his work was truly groundbreaking and, unlike einstein's relativity (although no fault of its own), we currently have technology to manipulate quantum forces where we currently cannot generate a force great enough to manipulate the fabric of space time.

but einstein is a close second. i do not like newton because he created derikvative and integral calculus :p

[OelNgatiKameie]

Everyone we call a "Genius from History" merely understood fundamentals of the world better than any other, and most continued and built up work done by previous scientists. Hawking is our modern day Da'Vinci, and Einstein before him. These people will all be remembered as the people who layed the foundation for modern science.

As far as the "Greatest Scientist" this is a very controvertial question. As what is and isn't a Scientific endeavour? Is a painter an expressionist, or is he a Scientist able to understand Patterns and shapes to envoke emotions? In the same way is an Astrologist not an Artist if he captures an image of a Quasar or a Galaxy exploding creating a thing of beauty. However a scientist as we think (Lab Coat and "Sciency") is a curious question. Is this resolved by the most important discoverys or the greatest number of discoveries? And who is to decide which is which?
This is nice to think about, but unlikely to have an actual completely unbiased Answer or conclusion

~O.N.K.

Oh - And I agree with the Intergral Calculus stuff. Doing my first year of Further Maths at College now and, while not particulary difficult, it is boooooring :)

[Spock]

I'm not sure if there can ever be one greatest. There are so many I can think of...
Newton, Galileo, Einstein, Darwin, Pasteur, Hawking, James Clerk Maxwell, Feynman, Tesla, Dawkins, probably a load more I missed, all should be considered.

Von Braun, William Pickering, S'ch T'gai Spock, Zefram Cochrane.

P.S: The last two are from Star Trek.

[Prometheus]

Greatest scientist of all...the person who realised that you could use fire. All the others are just copycats :P

Oh...and the person who invented the wheel :) :P

[Lovecraft]

Davinci was one of the greatest minds in history.