17-02-2003 16:13									#31
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization 2

Batman

	17-02-2003 16:26									#32
	Support Apolyton, buy Call to Power 2

quote: Originally posted by Ted Striker Unfortunatley Darwin's Theory was used and abused as justification for empire and subjugation of the "savages".

So was Christianity, among other things. Don't see how it makes his theories any less important to the world. After all, that wasn't Darwin's intent or true meaning.

I'd say Darwin, Galilei and Newton are tops. I think Darwin's work has had the most practical benefit for mankind. Newton is a close second, but the whole Liebniz thing kinda makes me see him in a somewhat lesser light. Galilei I view as the founding father of science, so he has to be on the list.

Einstein may have been more brilliant than the above, but his theories (as of yet) have not been put to as much practical use. I mean, relativity hasn't had much of a dramatic impact on our daily lives so far.

I'd also give some credit to Freud, though I bet some would not consider him a "scientist."

	17-02-2003 16:30									#33
	Help yourself to an AD-FREE life

quote: I'd also give some credit to Freud, though I bet some would not consider him a "scientist."

"pervert" works

	17-02-2003 16:32									#34
	Support Apolyton, buy Call to Power 2

It's a shame that you limit this to the last 500 years, because the ancients were very important at establishing the "thinking about life and the world" as a proffesion.

I still say Newton and Einstein, in the last 500 years. They've made both vast jumps forward in the theories about the world, and have made an enormous number of "side effect" discoveries, and "secondary" discoveries.

	17-02-2003 16:33									#35
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization III: Complete

I believe Newton also took the credit for some of Robert Hooks work on gravity. He was quite rare in that he was a brilliant scientist and also very good politicaly.

Mosts scientists seem to be a bit confused by the real world

	17-02-2003 16:59									#36
	Support Apolyton, buy Call to Power 2

quote: Mosts scientists seem to be a bit confused by the real world

... like batman?

	17-02-2003 17:03									#37
	Support Apolyton, buy Call to Power 2

Pasteur. He had the most direct effect on our everyday lives. Without him the physicians would still be shaking voodoo dolls and discussing 'bad air' (malaria).

	17-02-2003 17:32									#38
	Got spare money?

DARWIN ... He gave us the key to understand our environment, our past and our future ...

	17-02-2003 17:35									#39
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization III: Complete

Zephraim Cochrane

	17-02-2003 17:37									#40
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations

bob moog and thomas dolby

	17-02-2003 17:47									#41
	Suffering from ads?

Newton.

	17-02-2003 18:06									#42
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

A lot of people chose Newton, I don't understand. His real claim to fame was his work on optics. James Clark Maxwell is at least as important Newton, if not more.

	17-02-2003 18:12									#43
	Inflate your Upload Space

Hard choice - 90 % of all scientists in the history of mankind are still alive.

	17-02-2003 18:44									#44
	Suffering from ads?

My vote goes to Michael Faraday

http://www.iee.org/TheIEE/Research/...es/faraday1.cfm

	17-02-2003 18:48									#45
	Tired of ads?

Paracelsus!

quote: Originally posted by TheStinger Zephraim Cochrane

The last 500 years.. not the upcoming 50

	17-02-2003 18:50									#46
	Support Apolyton, buy Call to Power 2

quote: Originally posted by Urban Ranger A lot of people chose Newton, I don't understand. His real claim to fame was his work on optics. James Clark Maxwell is at least as important Newton, if not more.

You have no idea what you're talking about.

	17-02-2003 19:49									#47
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations: Deluxe Edition

Newton.

And for all those who voted Newton & Einstein, the thread calls for a single scientist. No fair voting for two. Life is full of tough choices, but often you have no choice but to choose. [Now, what shall I have for breakfast? ]

	17-02-2003 19:50									#48
	Full PM-box? Change here!

Newton, Einstein, Feynman, Fermi, Dirac and Maxwell, not necessarily in that order. (And I suspect in 100 years time, people will add Witten to that list.)

If I had to pick one, I would pick Newton I think. His ideas really kicked everything off, and without him, where wuld we be now?

Einstein's Special Relativity wasn't that great really - if he hadn't come up with it someone else would have within 10 years I think. His GR on the other hand was amazing (although I am sure we would have GR by now too). It is pretty impressive that his Nobel prize wasn't for either GR or SR - it was for the photoelectric effect. It was such a shame that he never believed in Quantum Mechanics...

	17-02-2003 19:56									#49
	Got spare money?

Hah. Rogan said exactly what I did about Einstein. Great minds think alike.

	17-02-2003 20:49									#50
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization III: Complete

Tesla Had ADHD, you called him a wacko.
I have I ADHD, so am I a wacko?

I limited this to the last 500 years because the ancient philosophers didn't use the scientific method, so they aren't technically scientists.

	17-02-2003 20:53									#51
	Tired of ads?

me

	17-02-2003 20:55									#52
	Put an end to popups!

quote: Originally posted by Rogan Josh If I had to pick one, I would pick Newton I think. His ideas really kicked everything off, and without him, where wuld we be now?

Not gravity, he merely expanded a bit on what had been developing since Galileo. Not Calculus, as Lebniz would have gotten it anyway. So only optics.

Got something to add there kitten?

	17-02-2003 21:02									#53
	Support Apolyton, pre-order Civilization IV

Yeah, that you're full of shite.

Universal gravitation was a quantum leap ahead of everybody else's thoughts. Kinetics ditto. Half marks for calculus.

If you'd bothered to actually read contemporary thinking on all three of those subjects you'd see the difference.

-KrazyHorse (who has read Principia and wrote a term paper on Newton for a course entitled "The Scientific Revolution)

	17-02-2003 21:03									#54
	Inflate your Upload Space

Tough luck kitty, I had three full terms of History of Science, which covered the Scientic Revolution in there somewhere.

	17-02-2003 21:06									#55
	Support Apolyton or Terrorists Win

And I've had 35 physics and math courses and read the relevant source materials.

Nobody else even comes close in the scientific revolution.

The next to appear who halfway approaches Newton is Maxwell.

	17-02-2003 21:11									#56
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

and my **** is bigger than the both of yours!

	17-02-2003 21:15									#57
	Support Apolyton, buy Call to Power 2

I've had 36 physics and math courses and I wrote the relevant source materials

	17-02-2003 21:15									#58
	Support Apolyton, buy GURPS/ Alpha Centauri

**** you. My **** is the biggest in the world.

Metaphorically, of course.

	17-02-2003 21:18									#59
	Support Apolyton or Terrorists Win

quote: Not gravity, he merely expanded a bit on what had been developing since Galileo. Not Calculus, as Lebniz would have gotten it anyway. So only optics.

Hardly! Galileo and his orbits was nowhere near Newton's level. The big leap is in gravitation was realising that the apple falling and the planet's orbits were due to the same force. It may seem obvious now, but that is with 400 years of hindsight.

And his gravitation wasn't even the best bit - that goes to his three laws, which gave us a kinetic theory which lasted for centuaries.

I would also agree with Frogger that Maxwell was a genius. Do you realise that maxwell's laws are invariant under SR transformations, even although SR was discovered after Maxwell's equations?

	17-02-2003 21:19									#60
	Get a bigger avatar today!

That's because Einstein designed them that way.