Name 3 famous living scientists without looking it up

**Aeryana** · 2012-10-10, 09:17 PM

Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Bill Nye (he is a scientist, right? TV didn't lie to me, did it?)
Stephen Hawking
Michio Kaku if Bill Nye gets tossed out

**TradewindNQ** · 2012-10-10, 09:19 PM

Originally Posted by Didactic

Could say the same of the Mythbusters, but both are hugely important because they teach skepticism and the scientific method to the common person.

Yeah I don't really consider them scientists either lol. Entertaining as all hell, and definitely leading figures in the skepticism movement. I guess it just comes down to what I define as a scientist.

**Didactic** · 2012-10-10, 09:21 PM

Originally Posted by TradewindNQ

Yeah I don't really consider them scientists either lol. Entertaining as all hell, and definitely leading figures in the skepticism movement. I guess it just comes down to what I define as a scientist.

Well, what is a scientist? Someone who systematically pursues knowledge using the scientific method. The Mythbusters certainly fit into that definition. Bill Nye, less so.

But, repetition of experiments is what makes them scientific, no?

**TradewindNQ** · 2012-10-10, 09:24 PM

Originally Posted by Didactic

Well, what is a scientist? Someone who systematically pursues knowledge using the scientific method. The Mythbusters certainly fit into that definition. Bill Nye, less so.

But, repetition of experiments is what makes them scientific, no?

I'd say research, being published, but then those guys could fall into that as well. I guess what it just comes down to, is anyone who runs an experiment a scientist? I can't say that there's any real genuine inspiration coming from MythBusters, it's mostly entertainment. Damn good entertainment, but it's hardly frontier research.

**Didactic** · 2012-10-10, 09:26 PM

Originally Posted by TradewindNQ

I'd say research, being published, but then those guys could fall into that as well. I guess what it just comes down to, is anyone who runs an experiment a scientist? I can't say that there's any real genuine inspiration coming from MythBusters, it's mostly entertainment. Damn good entertainment, but it's hardly frontier research.

I would call bringing science and skepticism to the masses genuine inspiration. Not every scientist has to be at the forefront of research.

Take cosmetological scientists that try to make shampoo give hair more lustre as an example.

**Rotted** · 2012-10-10, 09:26 PM

Newton
Darwin, although could debate more biologist,
Einstein

to go with the obvious

**Dezerte** · 2012-10-10, 09:26 PM

Originally Posted by Didactic

Well, what is a scientist? Someone who systematically pursues knowledge using the scientific method. The Mythbusters certainly fit into that definition. Bill Nye, less so.

But, repetition of experiments is what makes them scientific, no?

Wikipedia lists him as a scientist, for what it's worth.

**TradewindNQ** · 2012-10-10, 09:27 PM

Originally Posted by Didactic

I would call bringing science and skepticism to the masses genuine inspiration. Not every scientist has to be at the forefront of research.

Take cosmetological scientists that try to make shampoo give hair more lustre as an example.

Yeah but even that Cosmetologist is improving upon something. Not just recreating what's been done before.

Blowing up a latrine isn't exactly scientific, it's just awesome. Now if they were trying to create a brand new explosive to blow up latrines...then I'd have to rethink that.

**Lord Gaga** · 2012-10-10, 09:28 PM

Lol, everyone knows Hawking.

**smrund** · 2012-10-10, 09:32 PM

Einstein, Oppenheimer, Vaun Braun.

**Laize** · 2012-10-10, 09:32 PM

Originally Posted by Didactic

I dunno, those two guys who debunked the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle seem to have done a Eureka-worthy moment.

I thought they discovered a way to check on Schrodinger's Cat... not debunk Heisenberg.

**TradewindNQ** · 2012-10-10, 09:38 PM

Originally Posted by Laize

I thought they discovered a way to check on Schrodinger's Cat... not debunk Heisenberg.

Schrodinger's Cat is not directly related to the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, it's more to do with the inability to measure a result given a random event as opposed to Heisenberg's relating to the inability to measure both momentum and position simultaneously of a particle. The box is a thought experiment surrounding a total lack of observation leading to both results being simultaneously true, versus Uncertainty Principle being that the moment you take the measurement, you have affected the system and cannot measure the other with any accuracy without the first measurement now being untrue.

Which leads to my favorite physics joke...Why are Physicists bad at sex? Because when they find the position, they can't work out the momentum and when they do find the momentum, they've lost the position.

**Raphtheone** · 2012-10-10, 09:50 PM

I only know two.

Stephen Hawking
Michio Kaku

I had to check the spelling on Kaku, so I knew 1,5 famous living scientists. I know of Hawking since, well, he's pretty much our times Einstein, and I know of Kaku since he really likes that camera, and appears basically everywhere and many science-type series that I follow. He even appears in fictive stuff (like the science behind Mass Effect, and stuff like that).

**Seref** · 2012-10-10, 10:08 PM

Stephen Hawking, the only scientist you need! :P

I wouldn't consider Richard Dawkins a scientist... He's more of a philosopher.

**willtron** · 2012-10-10, 10:10 PM

deGrasse Tyson
Cox
Hawking

**Laize** · 2012-10-10, 10:12 PM

Originally Posted by Seref

Stephen Hawking, the only scientist you need! :P

I wouldn't consider Richard Dawkins a scientist... He's more of a philosopher.

Richard Dawkins is a preeminent evolutionary biologist. He works at the University of Oxford... He's the reason the word "meme" exists. If he's not a scientist then what the hell do you consider a scientist?

**Zhangfei** · 2012-10-10, 10:13 PM

Scientists aren't famous anymore because of the concept of team effort and the fact that cutting edge science doesn't have direct affects on our lives - same could be said for sociologists, psychologists and other soft sciences.

They do very important things but they generally work for larger corporations and are often mixed in with engineers and technicians to make it useful.

It's a shame, we need more famous scientists for actually doing proper science to encourage younger generations, but being a scientist is comparably easy to being a top level athlete so they get paid a lot more.

**Tinykong** · 2012-10-10, 10:15 PM

I don't think you could find anyone who has even a modest interest in science that couldn't name these guys right off the top of their head:

Stephen Hawking
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Bill Nye

**hksin11186** · 2012-10-10, 10:19 PM

Originally Posted by Didactic

They just won a Nobel prize for it. They managed to measure the energy of an electron and determine its location simultaneously.

Sweet gravy train why the hell wasn't this in the news EVERYWHERE?!

Tyson, Hawking, and that British guy who isn't the Doctor.

**TradewindNQ** · 2012-10-10, 10:37 PM

Originally Posted by hksin11186

Sweet gravy train why the hell wasn't this in the news EVERYWHERE?!

Tyson, Hawking, and that British guy who isn't the Doctor.

Well that's not exactly what they did, they won the Nobel for creating means for us to measure quantum states of particles, but these are methods that have been in practice now since the 90s if not earlier (Wineland's methods for example). It's more to do with the ideas of superposition and in-determination as opposed to uncertainty principle. Things like quantum spin etc.

As is my understanding anyway, gonna read more...

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