Who Is The Greatest Scientist (Genius) ?

[adrianben]

Your starter for ten is - Newton, Darwin or Einstein OR one of your own choice !

[jim360]

Difference is that Copernicus took a while to be listened to. Also saying something, and demonstrating it to be true, are different.

I'm always looking to learn more about History of Science so at one level I dislike this "greatest ever" lark. It's far too simplistic. Newton's achievements are almost certainly built on the work of Descartes, for example, and Galileo. In turn people like the Bernoulli family, Euler, Laplace, Lagrange, Gauss and Legendre, etc., took Newton's groundwork and turned it into a seriously powerful tool for solving so many problems. Then Riemann, Lortentz and Poincaré invented the Maths that Einstein used to construct his Theory of Relativity, etc.

Even so, Newton still stands out for me.

[Zacs-Master]

I didn't know timescales were a factor.

[adrianben]

cheers Jim et al ! The main thing is - don't take life too seriously and love your own scientist !

[LazyGun]

I think it dificult to assign rankings to these thinkers, because in many instances the work they are best known for is often built upon the work of those that came before.

[Zacs-Master]

Crick and Watson.

[DTCwordfan]

Mark Rae because he thought/thinks he is the greatest scientist/engineer/gadget man on the face of the earth. That takes talent.

[Zacs-Master]

We don't have the advantage of perspective with C&W. genetics is in its infancy, historically. That's why the Q is a bit misleading.

[tiggerblue10]

Alexander Fleming.

[adrianben]

Hi DTC ! is Markrae retired ?