(October 5, 2012 at 8:28 pm)Polaris Wrote: The top five scientists I would not be able to name because history does not prop them up.
Might be interesting to discuss, particularly if you can make a good case for your choices.
Since the thread is already necro'd, I'll post my top 7 (off the top of my head, in no particular order):
Pasteur - for his contributions to human knowledge that made a huge impact on our quality (not to mention quantity) of life.
Galileo - for his role in the Scientific Revolution
Einstein - for his theory of General Relativity, which sparked a revolution in modern physics.
Darwin - for his dedication to field work which culminated in his theory of Natural Selection
Aristotle - for his long-lived influence
Turing - for pioneering work in computer science
Newton - for "Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica", one of the most influential texts in the history of science, if not the most influential.
Honorable mentions:
Curie
Tesla
Bohr
Planck
da Vinci
Faraday
Hawking
Kepler
Maxwell
Copernicus
Honorable mention goes out to Sagan for his public outreach.
Damn, there are just too many to list.
