20 Most Influential Scientists Alive Today...

...how many do you know.

SOURCE

Scientists are perhaps the most influential people in the world today. They are responsible not only for the great practical advances in medicine and technology, but they also give us a deep understanding of what the world is and how it works. Their role in shaping the worldview of our culture is unrivaled.

Below is SuperScholar’s list of the twenty living scientists that we regard as having most profoundly influenced our world.

Some list... pfft!

1. Timothy John “Tim” Berners-Lee, who invented the World Wide Web by being the first to successfully implement the transfer protocols on which the Web depends.

Didn't Al Gore invent the internet?

2. Noam Chomsky, who, though a linguist and philosopher, has fundamentally reshaped the field of psychology, not least by dethroning behaviorism through his ideas about the innateness of language.

Noam's great... Scientist though? We are letting social sciences back out to play? Damn...

3. Richard Dawkins, whose use of evolutionary biology has shaped the way we understand ourselves at the most fundamental levels.

Praise the Lord we have this one.

10. Gordon Moore, who as founder of Intel merged business and science in bringing about the information technology revolution (“Moore’s Law” is named after him).

Isn't his work obsolete by now?

14. Charles Townes, who invented the laser, which is now ubiquitous in technology and ordinary life.

Sadly, never mastered putting Laser Beams on the heads of sharks.



www.superscholar.org...

S&F btw.

i know 9 of those 20 listed.

Mostly because of my Biology background!

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Carl Sagan - TOP! if he was alive :/

They're all white...

Not only are they white, they're all super-white..

Originally posted by TheLaughingGod
They're all white...

Not only are they white, they're all super-white..

edit on 21-11-2012 by TheLaughingGod because: They're super-white..

Do you have a substitution of an influential ethnic scientist to suggest?

reply to post by boncho


Not really, just an observation.

Originally posted by TheLaughingGod
reply to post by boncho

 

Not really, just an observation.

I actually looked for one... Couldn't find one...

How are Weinberg and Witten ranked near last while Hawking is 7th? The former two are considered among the greatest living physicists today, while Stephen Hawking wouldn't even make a top 20 list despite his brilliance and contributions to cosmology.

Originally posted by boncho

Do you have a substitution of an influential ethnic scientist to suggest?

Makoto Kobayashi, theoretical physicist and should be ranked way higher than Stephen Hawking. But of course, Hawking is considered to be the greatest living physicist alive today by the media.

It is quite evident this list was compiled by a person with a non-scientific background.

reply to post by TheLaughingGod


So is your avatar - not being rude, just an observation.

reply to post by boncho


You couldn't find even ONE? I know of many but here's my bid:



*swoon*

reply to post by boncho


Another obvious candidate:

reply to post by boncho


Just in case you were thinking I was biased towards astronomy:

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine - 2012

There are many "Ethnic" scientists but western world is shown more light, and sometimes, work of others get bought out, well used to be anyway.

Like many mentioned, Hawking is smart, but he is exaggerated by media. Of course being crippled is a plus for media.

reply to post by Phagette


He is such a chill guy. ive actually met him a couple times when i went to the museum of natural history. he should definitely be on that list.

Originally posted by MathematicalPhysicist

Originally posted by boncho

Do you have a substitution of an influential ethnic scientist to suggest?

Makoto Kobayashi, theoretical physicist and should be ranked way higher than Stephen Hawking. But of course, Hawking is considered to be the greatest living physicist alive today by the media.

It is quite evident this list was compiled by a person with a non-scientific background.

I don't see a point in pitting them against each either, but Kobayashi would have been a good addition to the list.

reply to post by Phagette


Michio Kaku... Not even close.

I'd throw Neil on the list in a heartbeat though.

I would throw Brian Cox in there too, ok, he hasn't made any discoveries or anything, but his documentaries are always a pleasure to watch, especially for the younger generation, so he influences them? Yeah, my son would agree, first time I have ever managed to get him to watch anything to do with science/astronomy and he actually seemed to enjoy it.