RE: Rank the top best scientists of all time. Of all time. [so far]
November 10, 2010 at 5:03 am
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.
'The difference between a Miracle and a Fact is exactly the difference between a mermaid and seal. It could not be expressed better.'
-- Samuel "Mark Twain" Clemens
"I think that in the discussion of natural problems we ought to begin not with the scriptures, but with experiments, demonstrations, and observations".
- Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
"In short, Meyer has shown that his first disastrous book was not a fluke: he is capable of going into any field in which he has no training or research experience and botching it just as badly as he did molecular biology. As I've written before, if you are a complete amateur and don't understand a subject, don't demonstrate the Dunning-Kruger effect by writing a book about it and proving your ignorance to everyone else! "
- Dr. Donald Prothero
-- Samuel "Mark Twain" Clemens
"I think that in the discussion of natural problems we ought to begin not with the scriptures, but with experiments, demonstrations, and observations".
- Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
"In short, Meyer has shown that his first disastrous book was not a fluke: he is capable of going into any field in which he has no training or research experience and botching it just as badly as he did molecular biology. As I've written before, if you are a complete amateur and don't understand a subject, don't demonstrate the Dunning-Kruger effect by writing a book about it and proving your ignorance to everyone else! "
- Dr. Donald Prothero
