• Question: Who do you think was the most influential scientist and why?

    Asked by kjoneill to Adam, Chris, Eleanor, Jessamyn, Sinead on 11 Nov 2013.
    • Photo: Adam Murphy

      Adam Murphy answered on 11 Nov 2013:

      I think it would be Isaac Newton.

      He figured out so much stuff: he worked out how light splits into a rainbow, until then people thought the other colours were made of different amounts of white light and dark, which we know now is wrong.

      He invented a whole new type of maths called Calculus, which lets you do all kinds of new things.

      He came up with his three laws of motion and a Universal Theory of Gravitation, which lets you predict everything from bullets firing to rockets taking off to planets moving.

      He was also mad as a balloon!

    • Photo: Christian Wirtz

      Christian Wirtz answered on 11 Nov 2013:

      I think every era has a scientist that one could consider the “most influential” so the decision is a really difficult one. Even defining what “influential” means is difficult as they all had different impacts on the world which can be difficult to compare.

      From a scientific point I think I agree with Adam on Isaac Newton but if you take “influential” also as politically influential I thing Alfred Nobel wins for me. He had over 350 patents, the most famous being dynamite, and was super rich. The Nobel Prizes that are awarded every year (each worth over a million euro) are financed by the interest of the money he left. Being so rich meant he had huge political influence though he didn’t use it too much.
      However, with the Nobel Prizes he left behind a legacy of making sure every year the entire world is made aware of not only great scientists, but also of people and institutions that strive for peace, something nobody else has achieved. That makes him the most influential in my eyes.

    • Photo: Eleanor Holmes

      Eleanor Holmes answered on 11 Nov 2013:

      Tough one, so many great innovators to choose from.

      I’m going to have to go with Galileo Galilei (The Father Of Modern Science). His observations of the solar system and the movement of the planets were of huge importance for astrophysics and for our understanding of motion here on Earth.

      He was also a man of logic and principle. When his findings disagreed with the major theories of the day (i.e. that the Earth was the centre of the solar system) and also with the church, he stuck to his guns though it meant he was banned from teaching and had to spend the rest of his life under house arrest. His work is still relevant today and is attitude is one that has been espoused by many a modern scientist. It’s about the facts, man!

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