Most influential scientist

William Gilbert I would say.Considered by many including Galileo to be the pioneer,especially regarding Magnetto.

Originally posted by lourdian
William Gilbert I would say.Considered by many including Galileo to be the pioneer,especially regarding Magnetto.

Thanks I didn't know that and that he pointed out that the motion of the skies was due to earth's rotation, 20 years before Galileo.

This is what I saw in Wiki...

"Gilbert's magnetism was the invisible force that many other natural philosophers, such as Kepler, seized upon, incorrectly, as governing the motions that they observed. While not attributing magnetism to attraction among the stars, Gilbert pointed out the motion of the skies was due to earth's rotation, and not the rotation of the spheres, 20 years before Galileo (see external reference below). Gilbert made the first attempt to map the surface markings on the Moon in the 1590s. His chart, made without the use of a telescope, showed outlines of dark and light patches on the moon's face. Contrary to most of his contemporaries, Gilbert believed that the light spots on the Moon were water, and the dark spots land"

Darwin and natural selection .

Originally posted by amolv06
[b]Long version: I got into a friendly argument with a fellow student the other day about who the most influential scientist of all time was. My thought was Isaac Newton. He said Michael Faraday. We debated this for around an hour, went off on many tangents, and learned a few things I think. This process was interesting enough that I would like to co ...[text shortened]... time is, considering only his/her contribution to science, and not necessarily society at large?[/b]

Newton himself said
“If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.”
... and he was NOT a modest man!
Whose shoulders? Probably he was thinking of Galileo & Aristotle & ...
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I think Edison is probably overlooked because he was commercially successful but his influence is substantial.
=
Ultimately society would develop (but more slowly) without any individual but we should be thankful for all the Greats.

Originally posted by wolfgang59
Ultimately society would develop (but more slowly) without any individual but we should be thankful for all the Greats.

We should be thankful for all the smalls: http://www.amazon.com/Peoples-History-Science-Midwives-Mechanicks/dp/1560257482

Not directed at you but at this thread in general: don't you forget all the advances that happened in the muslim world in the 10th, 11th, 12th century that precedes most of what you're lauding here by quite some time (I'd recommend Alhazen as great scientist).

Originally posted by adam warlock
We should be thankful for all the smalls: http://www.amazon.com/Peoples-History-Science-Midwives-Mechanicks/dp/1560257482

Not directed at you but at this thread in general: don't you forget all the advances that happened in the muslim world in the 10th, 11th, 12th century that precedes most of what you're lauding here by quite some time (I'd recommend Alhazen as great scientist).

Yes. The Dark Ages most certainly were not for the Muslim world!

I am surprised that nobody has mentioned Einstein. It wasn't exactly what he intended, but now we have to worry about weapons of mass destruction. What he did made everybody grow up in a hurry. If we don't learn to co-exist and instead insist on hanging on to our natural aggressiveness, we could pretty easily turn the earth's clock back 10 million years to before humans showed up. We could give the cockroaches a chance to succeed where we failed. No other scientist has had that big an influence on humanity.

I'm a big Roentgen fan.

It's interesting that a request for 'one' most influential scientist is on topic, as divergent thinkers like me 😉 identify with teams, and there are many.

For example, if we are aware of the works achieved by Murray Gell-Mann and Richard Feynman together, mainly in the quantum world initially but that developed into so many other areas when computers could eventually cope with their diagrams and later proven theories, we would see a wealth of brain power that changed history. Their work together led to later individual but connected works, which have changed space exploration, computer development, nanotechnology (which they first introduced), and a whole lot more!

Let's not recommend the Oppenheimer team to be added to the list, however. 😉

-m.

Originally posted by wolfgang59
Yes. The Dark Ages most certainly were not for the Muslim world!

In fact, the Dark Ages were at worst twilight for Europe outside of Great Britain. Ever heard of the Carolingian Renaissance? It didn't happen in London, of course, so it didn't happen at all in the minds of most English history publicists... but to the rest of us, it did. The letters you're reading right now are mostly based on work done by the Carolingians. Dark, indeed - so Dark they gave us illumination!

Richard

Originally posted by Shallow Blue
In fact, the Dark Ages were at worst twilight for Europe outside of Great Britain. Ever heard of the Carolingian Renaissance? It didn't happen in London, of course, so it didn't happen at all in the minds of most English history publicists... but to the rest of us, it did. The letters you're reading right now are mostly based on work done by the Carolingians. Dark, indeed - so Dark they gave us illumination!

Richard

I was actually reading an article about the Carolingian Renaissance a few weeks ago - I had never heard the term before though of course Charlemagne is well known.

I was intrigued to discover his monetary reforms in Europe were to become the Lsd of the UK which lasted until .... 1970 ish.

Originally posted by wolfgang59
Newton himself said
“If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.”
... and he was NOT a modest man!
Whose shoulders? Probably he was thinking of Galileo & Aristotle & ...
-
I think Edison is probably overlooked because he was commercially successful but his influence is substantial.
=
Ultimately society would develop (but more slowly) without any individual but we should be thankful for all the Greats.

Edison was on the wrong side of the "War of the Currents".

http://www.pbs.org/tesla/ll/ll_warcur.html

Tesla was probably the greatest inventor in world history and was very benevolent. Edison was just a selfish cad who used others.

Originally posted by Metal Brain
Tesla was probably the greatest inventor in world history and was very benevolent. Edison was just a selfish cad who used others.

Then again, Edison got the job done, while Tesla floated some genius ideas but also some cloud castles. In the practical world of commerce, this gives Edison the edge, whether scientists and geeks like me like it or not.


But in the end, Edison only ever invented two things: the phonograph, and patent fraud.


Richard

Originally posted by Shallow Blue
Then again, Edison got the job done, while Tesla floated some genius ideas but also some cloud castles. In the practical world of commerce, this gives Edison the edge, whether scientists and geeks like me like it or not.


But in the end, Edison only ever invented two things: the phonograph, and patent fraud.


Richard

He didn't invent the light bulb?
Ah, found this:

http://www.coolquiz.com/trivia/explain/docs/edison.asp

One thing though: In defense of DC V AC, AC is certainly easier to transform from one voltage to another, etc., but using AC generates losses in both transforming up to the ultra high voltages needed to limit losses on the overheads, but the lines themselves act more or less as antennae, if the lines are hundreds of miles long, to say nothing of resistive losses.

The newer UHV lines can now use DC which has less loss because DC does not radiate like AC. You still have to deal with resistivity of the transmission lines but DC is more efficient in long haul lines when you pump up the voltage to million volt levels. Now with modern super high powered transistors and SCR's, they can stack them up to take a million volts with high currents and can transform the voltages back down also very efficiently.

So Edison can rest easy, the controversy over AC V DC is not over! If you had a choice of AC V DC in the home, I would take DC any day. There would be less AC hum in the air, the bane of audio and video and my own amateur radio rigs.

Originally posted by sonhouse
He didn't invent the light bulb?

Correct! He didn't invent the light bulb.

Too be pedantic he made it practical, safe and durable.

And he had 1,000+ patents covering electrical devices we think trivial but someone had to invent them.