• Question: Who is the most influential scientist ever?

    Asked by 235yttc25 to Anna, Hayley, Iain, Rebecca on 15 Jun 2015.
    • Photo: anon

      anon answered on 15 Jun 2015:

      Wow, good question! I think it depends of the discipline and on how you look at it. Here is a list of the “Top 10 most influential scientists”: http://listverse.com/2009/02/24/top-10-most-influential-scientists/

      For me personally, in linguistics Noam Chomsky (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noam_Chomsky) has been really influential. Although I do not necessarily agree with his theories, I think his impact on linguistics is massive. I also think that Ferdinand de Saussure (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_de_Saussure), a swiss linguist, has been extremely influential, as he is one of the founding fathers of modern linguistics.

    • Photo: Iain Bethune

      Iain Bethune answered on 15 Jun 2015:

      I like Sascha’s list, but I’d also throw in a vote for Aristotle, who is widely regarded as one of the first to use what we would regard as the basis of scientific reasoning – deduction and induction using logic to reason about the world around us. If it hadn’t been for him we might be nowhere near where we are today.

      James Clerk Maxwell, who came up with the theory of Electomagnetism should also be in that top 10. Without him there would be no phones, radio, electronics…

      Even Newton who is #1 on Sascha’s list said “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants”, recognising all the other great scientists who came before him.

    • Photo: Rebecca Jones

      Rebecca Jones answered on 16 Jun 2015:

      Just a shout out for the underdog but for me it has to be Alfred Russell Wallace who also came up with the theory of evolution by natural selection which Darwin devised. However, beacuse he was from a poorer background and didn’t have the ‘proper’ scientific training he is often overlooked.

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