Name 3 famous living scientists without looking it up

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

Professor Steven Hawking (theoretical physics, Cambridge)
Professor Brian Cox (particle physics, Manchester)
Richard Dawkins (ret. Professor) (evolutionary biology, Oxford)

[Deleted]

Auberey der grey (However you spell his name)
Steve Hawkings
Richard Dawkins

[Pfeff]

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Brian Cox
For fun...Giorgio A. Tsoukalos - Google him if you don't know, I'm sure you'll recognize his picture









Yes, I know he's not a scientist

[Saintkat]

David Suzuki (geneticist)
David Bundle (carbohydrate chemist)
David Schindler (ecologist)

Weird that the first three I thought of all had the same first name...

[Laize]

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.

The idea behind the cat was that observing a particle collapsed its quantum state and locked it into a behavior set.

Here's some guys who observed a quantum state without collapsing it.

Not sure if these are the same guys Didactic is referring to though.

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

What's with all the dead scientists being mentioned? The topic says "living".

[Saintkat]

Giorgio A. Tsoukalos

don't even have to look him up, and am not sure why I even watch that show lol

[Jackmoves]

What counts? I could name a dozen economists lol

Paul Krugman
Arvid Carlsson
Dan Shechtman

[Howard Moon]

Dr. Emmett Brown
Miles Dyson
Giorgio A. Tsoukalos

[Deleted]

Stephen Hawking
Adam Savage
Phil Harding from the "Time Team"

That was a lot harder than I thought.

[Mortezu]

Nassim Haramein
Pim van Lommel
Stephen Hawkins

[majesta]

Michio Kaku
Alan Guth
Roger Penrose

if the last two do not meet the vague definition of "famous" then add Hawking, Dawkins, Goodall, Watson and if all else fails let me throw Bill Nye in too.

[Tradewind]

The idea behind the cat was that observing a particle collapsed its quantum state and locked it into a behavior set.

Here's some guys who observed a quantum state without collapsing it.

Not sure if these are the same guys Didactic is referring to though.

That's pretty much it exactly. The Cat in the paradox is in a state of superposition, and once observing it you destroy that superposition and are left with just the one. The experiment there and the ones that the other two fellas won the Nobel for creating the methods of suspending a particle (photon) to measure it's quantum states, without destroying the superposition. It's near-to the idea of the uncertainty principle, in that it's dealing with the measurement of quantum states but not specifically smashing the difficulty with measuring the momentum and the position simultaneously between interacting particles.

In fact in that article you can see that their measurements did damage the system in which the particle was present in, by altering its oscillation. But being corrected for it by countering the effect, however that's then altering it again just in another way. That part is Heisenberg at work.

[Lothaeryn]

Niel DeGrasse Tyson

Bill Nye

Michio Kaku

came to me in that order (and no "they are too mainstream/easy to be counted" bs, they are all scientists, regardless of how well reknown they are.)

[Deleted]

Couldn't even name one...

I mean, I know Hawking and I even read one of his books, but I wouldn't ever have thought of him as a scientist (dunno why...), though he's a valid choice.

[Laize]

Niel DeGrasse Tyson

Bill Nye

Michio Kaku

came to me in that order (and no "they are too mainstream/easy to be counted" bs, they are all scientists, regardless of how well reknown they are.)

I'm pretty sure Bill Nye is an engineer rather than a scientist per se.

---------- Post added 2012-10-10 at 10:59 PM ----------

That's pretty much it exactly. The Cat in the paradox is in a state of superposition, and once observing it you destroy that superposition and are left with just the one. The experiment there and the ones that the other two fellas won the Nobel for creating the methods of suspending a particle (photon) to measure it's quantum states, without destroying the superposition. It's near-to the idea of the uncertainty principle, in that it's dealing with the measurement of quantum states but not specifically smashing the difficulty with measuring the momentum and the position simultaneously between interacting particles.

In fact in that article you can see that their measurements did damage the system in which the particle was present in, by altering its oscillation. But being corrected for it by countering the effect, however that's then altering it again just in another way. That part is Heisenberg at work.

Actually they were observing it and when the quantum state began to collapse they "closed the box" and allowed the state to return to normal. They didn't alter it directly at all.

[Themius]

Michio Kaku
Stephen Hawking
Neil deGrasse Tyson

---------- Post added 2012-10-10 at 07:09 PM ----------

Neil Tyson, don't remember the spelling of the middle name
Michiu Kakou, most likely spelled wrong
Bill Nye

The first two I'm a big fan of, Bill I just recently saw some videos where he featured in on Youtube

His name isn't "Michiu" it's Michio and his surname isn't "Kakou" it's Kaku. I've never heard his name said "Ka Ko"

[Tradewind]

Actually they were observing it and when the quantum state began to collapse they "closed the box" and allowed the state to return to normal. They didn't alter it directly at all.

They countered the oscillation with an opposite charge. It's in the "Quantum Pacemaker" section. In effect the particle had changed its properties as a result of the measurement (uncertainty) and then introducing an external opposing charge restoring it.

That being said Schrodinger's Cat and these experiments are more to do with the Observer Effect, not the Uncertainty Principle. Though they are often mixed together but operate different levels of the quantum effect. The Uncertainty Principle for example doesn't require a "human observer", merely the interaction with other particles creates a change. ie. an electron interacting with a photon.

[Mnevis]

James Watson
Craig Ventner
Eric Kandel

"Famous" is a matter of opinion, really. Watson and Crick figured out the shape of DNA (by looking at Rosalind Franklin's work). Ventner was a big part of the Human Genome Project. Kandel's probably the least 'famous' of those, but anyone that's taken a class in neurobiology or memory has probably heard his name a few times.

[Wixwix]

Can't name one because I am not even remotely interested, I couldn't care less.