Rank the top best scientists of all time. Of all time. [so far]

[Darwinian]

In no particular order and only because I like them..

Carl Sagan
Ed Witten
Richard Feynman
Charles Darwin
Martin Rees
Stephen Hawking
Stephen Jay Gould
Patrick Moore

[Anomalocaris]

No QM chuck?

Can't believe I forgot Darwin...

I think even QM is still an act played on Newton's stage.

Sure, if by that you mean they bought in a bulldozer, took out most of the building that the stage was built upon, changed the seating and replaced the curtains while they were at it

Newton's ideas of mechanism would be an example for that analogy.

I think you mistook Newton's stage for Newton's play. Newtonian mechanisms was Newton's play. The concept of unifying mathematical framework, coevolution of math and physics, and the 4 rules of Reasoning in natural philosophy, formed the Newtonian stage on which all subsequent physics played. Better plays than Newton's have been performed on Newtonian stage, to be sure. But they can still only be performed on Newton's stage.

[Shinylight]

1. Dimitry Mendeleev (Chemistry)
2. Charles Darwin (Biology)
3. Antoine Lavoisier (Chemistry)
4. Stephen Hawking (Physics)
5. James Watson and Francis Crick (Biology) [I think they should be grouped together]

I love Chemistry.

[theVOID]

No QM chuck?

Can't believe I forgot Darwin...

I think even QM is still an act played on Newton's stage.

Sure, if by that you mean they bought in a bulldozer, took out most of the building that the stage was built upon, changed the seating and replaced the curtains while they were at it

Newton's ideas of mechanism would be an example for that analogy.

I think you mistook Newton's stage for Newton's play. Newtonian mechanisms was Newton's play. The concept of unifying mathematical framework, coevolution of math and physics, and the 4 rules of Reasoning in natural philosophy, formed the Newtonian stage on which all subsequent physics played. Better plays than Newton's have been performed on Newtonian stage, to be sure. But they can still only be performed on Newton's stage.

My bad, I did have the two confused.

I've not heard the different analogies before, only the one.

[Welsh cake]

In no particular order...

Nikola Tesla
Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev
Louis Pasteur
Antonie van Leeuwenhoek
Leonardo da Vinci
Robert Hooke - his life story is a testament to Isaac Newton's jealously, contempt and what I can only describe as "apparent inhuman vileness".

[theVOID]

Tesla is awesome.

Newton was a Christian Welsh Cake, we expect inhuman vileness from them

[Anomalocaris]

Tesla is awesome.

Newton was a Christian Welsh Cake, we expect inhuman vileness from them

I forgive him:

Nature and nature's laws lay hid in Night.
god said, 'Let Newton be!' and all was light.

[Rhizomorph13]

Tesla was a vampire because of the ancient blood he was injected with.

[orogenicman]

As a geologist, while acknowledging that Hutton is the father of modern geology, I would replace Hutton with Charles Lyell. The reason being that while officially, Hutton is considered to be the father of modern geology because of his proposals on uniformitarianism, and his knowledge of geologic mapping, it was Lyell who popularized Hutton's methods and elaborated on them in a wide range of endeavors including the many geologic surveys he conducted which advanced our understanding of mineral resources and how to find them, his detailed studies of volcanoes which once and for all laid Neptunism to rest, and his remarkable studies in stratigraphy and glaciers. But it was his book "Principles of Geology" that did more to change the science of geology than anything that came before.

[Justtristo]

As a geologist, while acknowledging that Hutton is the father of modern geology, I would replace Hutton with Charles Lyell. The reason being that while officially, Hutton is considered to be the father of modern geology because of his proposals on uniformitarianism, and his knowledge of geologic mapping, it was Lyell who popularized Hutton's methods and elaborated on them in a wide range of endeavors including the many geologic surveys he conducted which advanced our understanding of mineral resources and how to find them, his detailed studies of volcanoes which once and for all laid Neptunism to rest, and his remarkable studies in stratigraphy and glaciers. But it was his book "Principles of Geology" that did more to change the science of geology than anything that came before.

I would also add Alfred Wegener who came up with the idea of Continental drift and plate tectonics.