Top 10 Scientists of the 20th Century?

[Mr.Samsa]

Whoever invented clumping cat litter.

That was Sir Arthur Catlitter, if I recall correctly..

Yeah, that's the guy, noted syncretist, responsible for huge paradigm shit.

To be honest, I'd feline if I didn't say that I thought he was a rather paw scientist.

[Comte de Saint-Germain]

In that case I retract my Freud nomination. I believe that psychology must be there, somehow, represented, but I accept that Freud shouldn't be the representative.

Definitely! That's why I added Skinner, Herrnstein and Baum who are, in my opinion, the greatest psychologists of the 20th century

But on top of them, we could add:

Aaron Beck
Hans Eysenck
Richard Lazarus

I'm sure there are more but I tend to shy away from the cognitive area of psychology. If Lazar drops by here he might be able to add some more there. (And if anyone suggests Pinker, then I'm going to have another little rant like I did with Freud )

ha ha I finally got to him....oh and there is this guy called Pinker, he is really important for waging a war against those idiots scientists who believe in a blank slate.....all three of them.

Anywho no I think Samsa's list is the same as mine.

Freud shouldn't be on. I'm not sure Pinker is actually read by scientists, or that he should. The same goes, by the way, for Chomsky - who really isn't considered accurate in linguistics.

Tversky and Kahneman seem to come to mind when discussing psychology. Ramachandran, although he really works into this century as well. +

[RebeccaSmick]

Albert Einstein - For obvious reasons.
Marie Curie - Physicist and Chemist.
Claude Shannon - Pioneered Information Theory - authored Mathematical Theory of Communication.. OK, an engineer and mathematician but his contributions to science were great!
Alan Turning - Computer Science-and AI.
Max Planck - Quantum theory
Josiah Gibbs - Physicist, Chemist, Mathematician
Richard Dawkins - Biologist
Robert Axelrod - Game Theorist
Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont - Just because I liked their Fashionable Nonsense Book!

[Nautilidae]

Albert Einstein - For obvious reasons.
Marie Curie - Physicist and Chemist.
Claude Shannon - Pioneered Information Theory - authored Mathematical Theory of Communication.. OK, an engineer and mathematician but his contributions to science were great!
Alan Turning - Computer Science-and AI.
Max Planck - Quantum theory
Josiah Gibbs - Physicist, Chemist, Mathematician
Richard Dawkins - Biologist
Robert Axelrod - Game Theorist
Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont - Just because I liked their Fashionable Nonsense Book!

... You listed Dawkins but not Feynman? Shame on you!

[RebeccaSmick]

Albert Einstein - For obvious reasons.
Marie Curie - Physicist and Chemist.
Claude Shannon - Pioneered Information Theory - authored Mathematical Theory of Communication.. OK, an engineer and mathematician but his contributions to science were great!
Alan Turning - Computer Science-and AI.
Max Planck - Quantum theory
Josiah Gibbs - Physicist, Chemist, Mathematician
Richard Dawkins - Biologist
Robert Axelrod - Game Theorist
Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont - Just because I liked their Fashionable Nonsense Book!

... You listed Dawkins but not Feynman? Shame on you!

Well there's only 10 I could pick-I would have added sooooooooooooo many others as well.

[HughMcB]

Einstein, Feynman, Bohr, Watson & Crick...

eh some chicks; Curie, Franklin.

[RebeccaSmick]

Well there's only 10 I could pick-I would have added sooooooooooooo many others as well.

OK, just because I feel I have to add these two--think of them as alternatives to Sokal and Bricmont

Joesph DeLoux - neuroscientist
Stephen Hawking - Obvious reasons

[Berthold]

No one has yet mentioned Niels Bohr?

Astronomy: Hertzsprung, Russell, Hubble

[QuarkyGideon]

I'll justify the ones you'll probably disagree on.

Carl Sagan
Richard Dawkins* - educator & founder evolutionary computer models
Stanley Milgram - (If you look at the stuff he did he was an excellent psychologist)
Francis & Crick - (obviously these are two people)
Albert Einstein
Richard Feynman
Neils Bohr
Stephen Hawking -
Hubble

* Correct me if I'm wrong but after reading The Blind Watchmaker I was wondering if Richard Dawkin possibly was the first one to apply evolutionary aspects to computer models? Now if this is true you might shrug but there are definately a few good scientists developing much more complex models and acquiring models that wouldn't be possible with design.

Now a few I want bring up a few here:

Michio Kaku: he's an excellent educator and he's also one of the co founders of string theory. Whether or not string theory is true is yet to be demonstrated but if this is validated with evidence I reckon he'll be regarded as one of the best minds of the 20th century too. I have no idea about the criticism about string theory though.

Also I think it is incredibly difficult to come up with a top ten. Top 20 would be doable.

[HughMcB]

No one has yet mentioned Niels Bohr?

Astronomy: Hertzsprung, Russell, Hubble

Ahem... http://rationalia.com/forum/viewtopic.p ... 30#p354941

[AndroidAR]

Albert Einstein - for obvious reasons
Richard Feynman - for obvious reasons, and the 1 electron universe hypothesis
Carl Sagan - Popularizer of science, and for having an awesome voice
Stephen Hawking - A Brief History of Time, has my vote for smartest human currently living
Alexander Fleming - discoverer of Penicillin
Nikola Tesla - A/C power, the tesla coil, etc (ok, most of his work was done in the late 1800s, but he made some discoveries in the 1900s)
Francis Crick - Co-discoverer of DNA
Max Planck - For obvious reasons
Edwin Hubble - Discovering the expansion of the universe
Norman Borlaug - Saving well over a billion people from starvation, and starting the Green Revolution, which saved over a billion more. Without his research in genetically engineered/modified crops, easily a third of the 6.5+ billion inhabitants of Terra would starve.

[MissingNo.]

Albert Einstein - for obvious reasons
Richard Feynman - for obvious reasons, and the 1 electron universe hypothesis
Carl Sagan - Popularizer of science, and for having an awesome voice
Stephen Hawking - A Brief History of Time, has my vote for smartest human currently living
Alexander Fleming - discoverer of Penicillin
Nikola Tesla - A/C power, the tesla coil, etc (ok, most of his work was done in the late 1800\\\'s, but he made some discoveries in the 1900\\\'s)
Francis Crick - Co-discoverer of DNA
Max Planck - For obvious reasons
Edwin Hubble - Discovering the expansion of the universe
Norman Borlaug - Saving well over a billion people from starvation, and starting the Green Revolution, which saved over a billion more. Without his research in genetically engineered/modified crops, we wouldn\\\'t be able to feed a third of the 6.5+ billion inhabitants of Terra.

Pretty much this. I can't believe this was the first mention of Norman Borlaug!

[Martok]

Carl Sagan
Richard Dawkins
Jack Horner
Michio Kaku
Georges Lemaître
Albert Einstein
Edwin Hubble
Jane Goodall
Rosalind Franklin
Richard Feynman

[Squeak_the_Mouse]

In no particular order:

Paul Dirac
Erwin Schrödinger
Richard Feymann
Neils Bohr
Linus Pauling
Francis Crick
Alan Turing
Alexander Fleming
Albert Einstein
Nikola Tesla

[secularist]

Einstein,Feynman