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I would say Sir Isaac Newton. He invented calculus before turning 26, and discovered some of the most important discoveries which modern engineering relies on, such as how light is composed and how gravity works.

What are your thoughts?

Your question cant have an answer.Why consider calculus a more important creation than antibiotics?Or why consider abstract mathematics more important than the analysis of an ecosystem?Would you say that those that invented them have contributed more to science because their field was more complex?

What Almaria said. Our collective scientific knowledge was build like a skyscraper. Floor upon floor. And if any step would have been skipped the tower would collapse.

The discovery that 2 apples + 2 apples equals 4 apples was just as important as the discovery of particle/wave duality.

Thomas Edison

09/01/2012 12:06Posted by Almaria

Your question cant have an answer.Why consider calculus a more important creation than antibiotics?Or why consider abstract mathematics more important than the analysis of an ecosystem?Would you say that those that invented them have contributed more to science because their field was more complex?

I'd have to disagree to some extent. Applied sciences (like Edison mentioned allready, though he's a poor example as he stole ideas and lied out of his butt to try to dominate what was going to be sold) can't get anywhere without the hard basics.

Additionally, you can't get past that scientists discovers and makes theory based on the age and knowledge of the time they live in. To quote someone I can't remember the name off "when it's steam engine time, people make steam engines". And which persons name get attributed is often a tad random, James Watts while being brilliant for sure, was by no means the inventor of the steam engine, just an engineer that with some practical changes made them alot more usable. In a different age he might have done something similar, or nothing notable at all.

Just to add, you'd really need to split what sort of science it was.

Discovery -> light behaves like waves etc
Theory -> evolution and relativity etc
Application -> steam power etc

Personally my favs .. probably Darwin and Kepler, not so much because they were amazingly smart (which they still were), but because both had to get past their own preconceived ideas, have the will to put years of work aside, and move to a quite different conclusion based on what the facts showed them. Which is the ideal of a scientist.

09/01/2012 12:08Posted by Laïra

What Almaria said. Our collective scientific knowledge was build like a skyscraper. Floor upon floor. And if any step would have been skipped the tower would collapse.

Agreed.

That, and there are quite a few cases where, had one person not discovered something, its likely somebody else could have reasonably quickly. And sometimes discoveries are such accidents that anybody could do them. And some of the other cases? Well, as it stands, they're so obscure that again, by the time we could start using them, somebody else would probably have worked them out.

But yeah, it's kinda hard to say who's the most important simply because there are so many important steps in between the big discoveries. And it's the guys who make the big links who get the credit, far more than the ones who made the important but seemingly minor points.

(And yeah, Leibniz says hi)

09/01/2012 18:25Posted by Ttbank

I'd have to disagree to some extent. Applied sciences (like Edison mentioned allready, though he's a poor example as he stole ideas and lied out of his butt to try to dominate what was going to be sold) can't get anywhere without the hard basics.

Yes but you can say that Einstein contributed less than Newton,just because Newton's discoveries are in a sense more "elementary"?

09/01/2012 21:31Posted by Almaria

I'd have to disagree to some extent. Applied sciences (like Edison mentioned allready, though he's a poor example as he stole ideas and lied out of his butt to try to dominate what was going to be sold) can't get anywhere without the hard basics.

Yes but you can say that Einstein contributed less than Newton,just because Newton's discoveries are in a sense more "elementary"?

Well no, but that's cause both are sort of within the same sort of science (basic maths and physics) and in the same "league" in the manner of how they both transformed science.

Your question cant have an answer.Why consider calculus a more important creation than antibiotics?Or why consider abstract mathematics more important than the analysis of an ecosystem?Would you say that those that invented them have contributed more to science because their field was more complex?

I'd have to disagree to some extent. Applied sciences (like Edison mentioned allready, though he's a poor example as he stole ideas and lied out of his butt to try to dominate what was going to be sold) can't get anywhere without the hard basics.
Additionally, you can't get past that scientists discovers and makes theory based on the age and knowledge of the time they live in. To quote someone I can't remember the name off "when it's steam engine time, people make steam engines". And which persons name get attributed is often a tad random, James Watts while being brilliant for sure, was by no means the inventor of the steam engine, just an engineer that with some practical changes made them alot more usable. In a different age he might have done something similar, or nothing notable at all.

You are the one who is lying out his butt and also you are also a thief for saying those things about a man who is dead and can not defend himself. He has more patents than you ever dream of owning yourself. You are the poor example of something yourself, a poor example of a human being, you have to stoop so low you insult one of the most important inventors ever.

T Bank I hope you act so superior and self righteous IRL often enough that someone reacts to you and set you in your place forever.

You are the one who is lying out his butt and also you are also a thief for saying those things about a man who is dead and can not defend himself. He has more patents than you ever dream of owning yourself. You are the poor example of something yourself, a poor example of a human being, you have to stoop so low you insult one of the most important inventors ever.

T Bank I hope you act so superior and self righteous IRL often enough that someone reacts to you and set you in your place forever.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_Currents

Start reading there. No matter how smart he was, he still lied.

i would say Jack Kilby and the other ppl that invented the first IC (integrated circut), also know as a micro chip, that is the invention that changed the world the most over the shortest time.

those ppl are the reason im writing this now.

i would say Jack Kilby and the other ppl that invented the first IC (integrated circut), also know as a micro chip, that is the invention that changed the world the most over the shortest time.

those ppl are the reason im writing this now.

But their inventions are 100% dependant on quantum theory etc etc and their invention is more or less a sure bet once tech and science was that advanced.

Tesla and Einstein.
It's amazing how much progress they made back when there was so little use for their science. They were trully brilliant minds way too advanced for their time. Life would've been so different without Tesla's inventions, and Einstein's theories are still standing strong, 70+ years later.

Edit: I forgot Darwin.

I'm going with Newton, just for the phrase "If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants."

Newton was the smartest man who ever lived..than I was born.