The Greatest Minds in Science

Discussion in 'Science' started by HereWeGoAgain, Aug 14, 2021.

  1. HereWeGoAgain

    HereWeGoAgain Banned

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    I am always awestruck when I see this photo. I doubt there has ever been a gathering of minds so great as there was at the 1927 Solvay Congress. These are the men and the woman who made modern science and technology possible.

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    Last edited: Aug 14, 2021
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  2. Joe knows

    Joe knows Well-Known Member

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    I think the people that made modern science possible goes back much further than that. The art of observation was a European trademark. Sure there are greats in that picture that helped the world what it is today but you should look deeper. The culture of science is deep and fascinating. You should read “How We Got To Now” by Steven Johnson
     
  3. HereWeGoAgain

    HereWeGoAgain Banned

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    You don't understand the significance of their work. This is likely the most brilliant group of people ever assembled.
     
  4. fmw

    fmw Well-Known Member

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    There certainly is a bunch of brain power in that group. And their predecessors-Newton, Darwin, Galileo et. al. deserve credit for getting them to the level they achieved in modern times.
     
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  5. OldManOnFire

    OldManOnFire Well-Known Member

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    My wife's uncle was a junior scientist on the Manhattan Project. He is 101 years old today and one of the smartest men I know. He can still recount on an hour-by-hour, day-by-day basis of design issues, meetings with many of the men in your picture, along with the critical and controversial nature of what they were doing. Stanford University has done a nearly 200 page oral interview with him to capture his experiences. The scientific minds of those people in your picture would have been staggering!
     
  6. politicalcenter

    politicalcenter Well-Known Member

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    There is a lot of brain power in that group. I would be amiss if I didn't mention Louis Pasteur the father of germ theory. I know you like physics but great minds also dwell elsewhere.
     
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  7. politicalcenter

    politicalcenter Well-Known Member

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    An old man with a young mind?
     
  8. WillReadmore

    WillReadmore Well-Known Member

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    Your "European trademark" idea is an unsupportable exaggeration.
     
  9. Joe knows

    Joe knows Well-Known Member

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    Feel free to prove me wrong.
     
  10. fmw

    fmw Well-Known Member

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    I did mention Darwin who was a biologist or, as he put it, a natural scientist. Pasteur was a major force in the development of medical science. No doubt about that.
     
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  11. WillReadmore

    WillReadmore Well-Known Member

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    Avicenna - father of early modern medicine, author of The Canon of Medicine, taught in Europe up to the 18th century. But, he was active in astronomy, postulated that mountains come from the upheaval of Earth's crust, and was active in other areas of science.

    Alhazen - optics, early (first real?) progress toward scientific method as noted by contemporaries.

    al-Khwarizmi - mathematics, astronomy, geography. His name is the source for "algorithm". Brought the decimal system to the western world. The word "algebra" comes from the title of one of his books. His book on algebra was taught in Europe up to the 16th century. Produced accurate sine and cosine tables and the first table of tangents, trig seriously important to navigation.

    Eratosthenes - Earth's circumference and tilt, distance to the sun and moon. Sieve of Eratosthenes, 365 day year + leap day every 4 years. His written works were all destroyed in the fire of the library of Alexandria. But, contemporaries note his accomplishments.

    Egypt had a decimal system complete with zero by 1700BC. Who did that?

    Jiao Yu (14th century) - Wrote how to make/use fire arrows and rockets, fire lances and firearms, land mines and naval mines, bombards and cannons, two stage rockets, along with different compositions of gunpowder.

    They get credit for dry docks, magnetic compass, true north + declination, etc. But, long enough ago that not so many names are known.
     
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