RE: Rank the top best scientists of all time. Of all time. [so far]
November 22, 2010 at 6:17 pm
(This post was last modified: November 23, 2010 at 12:31 am by Anomalocaris.)
(November 22, 2010 at 6:10 pm)ziggystardust Wrote:(November 10, 2010 at 5:03 am)orogenicman Wrote: 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.
Alfred Wegener got lucky with a wild guess scenario for which he could not provide any plausible mechanism.
The person who formulated a credible concept of plate tectonics with supporting evidence of the mechanism deserving of serious consideration was John Tuzo Wilson. It seems doubtful to me that Wagener's ideas had any critical effect on Wilson. Tuzo wilson amassed all the evidence of mechanism he needed to point him independently to this conclusion before he arrived at the effect.
In any case, Plate tectonics is an outcome of modern geology, not the foundation of modern geology. The foundation of geology ought to work whereever there is geology, like on the moon or mars, or venus. This Hutton and Lyell's concept will do. Plate tectonics is merely what the science Hutton and Lyell had created had allowed us to discover on earth. Plate tectonics will have limited application on the moon, for example.
(November 22, 2010 at 6:16 pm)theVOID Wrote: We all forgot Tycho Brahe
Mere stamp collector.
