Way OT: Greatest Scientific Minds in History?

[thetrusteeco]

Hey everyone,

Yesterday someone in my office brought up the inventions of Achimedes, which spiraled into a "Greatest Scientific Minds" debate.  Our top 10 ended up with (chronologically): Imhotep, Pythagorus, Herodotos, Aristotle, Achimedes, ibn-Hayyān, da-Vinci, Newton, Tsiolkovsky, and Einstein.

Given the difference of nationalities and education here at HBF, I thought I'd see what you guys think.  Opinions?

[tallship]

I would add Copernicus, Marie Curie, and Napolean Bonaparte (The father of modern medicine and statistics) to that list, for starters

I think I would remove Herodotus from that list though, since even as important as his contributions to the scientific principles of observation are in the science of history, I would tend to separate the role of historians from the role of other scientists.

And in our industry I wouldn't exclude Dijkstra (The Sleeping Barber Problem, etc.) or Atanasoff (The ABC) either

Finally, and although not actually scientists, as a sailor I like to give special recognition to John Harrison, Who was robbed by Isaac Newton and others of his place in the Royal Society, and let us not forget the world's greatest athlete of all time, Earnest Shackleton ("Superhuman effort isn't worth a damn unless it achieves results." ).

Kindest regards,

[Lawrence]

Stephen Hawking in my opinion should be somewhere in that list as he definitely has impacted all us on these forums.

[thetrusteeco]

Thanks for the names TallShip and Lawrence.

Copernicus, Curie, Atanasoff, (and Berry), were all considered; just didn't make our top 10.  Bonaparte and Dijkstra didn't even came up.  I'll have to research Bonaparte more, I only vaguely remember his scientific contribution.

Hawking wasn't consider because we were only considering the dead, but, yeah, definitely should be on the list if includes the living.

[tallship]

Bonaparte's contributions to the scientific community, aside from the archeological, are purely administrative in nature.

Due to battlefield innovations developments by Dominique Larrey (Inventor of the ambulance) and others beginning with the French revolution, Bonaparte stripped physicians of their status and license to practice medicine, although he did offer most the option of obtaining once again the title of physician by studying under those who had been elevated to that status - the former (blue collar, if you will) Surgeons, in new medical schools he commissioned for the purpose of applying science to the practice of medicine (as opposed to the old, tried and true practices of bedside manner and the administration of snake oils).

He demanded an *accurate* census, because he wanted to know not just how many were his subjects, but especially, exactly what he could expect in taxes. This gave rise to the creation of the mathematical science of statistics, especially for him and his census; and by virtue of that, the insurance industry, now that almost anything, including life expectancy, could be quantified.

And perhaps I was rash to dismiss Herodotus. I admire him as a historian although my daughter, The Jennifer, still has not gained an appreciation for me assigning, The Histories, as a required reading a few years ago