# General Science Question **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 29, 2000, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-science-question/31132 "2000-08-29T02:00:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![margie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@margie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/margie)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2000, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-science-question/31132/1 "2000-08-29T02:00:10Z")
What do you think is the most important science discovery and why? ---
**Author:** ![Lance\_Turbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lance_turbo/32/6156_2.png) [@Lance\_Turbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lance_Turbo)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2000, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-science-question/31132/2 "2000-08-29T02:06:00Z")
I see a topic that looks like something I might be able to help with, and out of nowhere I get polled by **margie**. I never saw it coming. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2000, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-science-question/31132/3 "2000-08-29T02:09:46Z")
This may be a homework question, but I’ll bite. The most important discovery was that you actually have to do the experiment, not just theorize or pontificate. IIRC, this was the message of Roger Bacon. For the “most important” specific ‘discovery’, I’ll suggest Maxwell’s wave equation (describing electomagnetic radiation). A huge amount of modern ‘hard’ science (physics etc.) stems from it. ---
**Author:** ![wevets](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9a140/32.png) [@wevets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wevets)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2000, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-science-question/31132/4 "2000-08-29T02:23:37Z")
Gee, I’m baffled. Not an easy question to think about. I’m waffling between the germ theory of disease, cellular nature of life, or heliocentric theory of the solar system. So much to choose from… ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2000, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-science-question/31132/5 "2000-08-29T02:35:55Z")
Phlogiston. If it weren’t for the discovery of phlogiston, we would never have been able to protect ourselves from the Shaver robots from the hollow center of the Earth. Phlogiston based weapons were able to close the energy vortexes at the North Pole and the Bermuda Triangle (actually a rhomboid). Otherwise the Defenders of Mu and Lemuria would have succeeded in their plot to enslave us, the Dwellers in the Sunlight. Remember, the Illuminati are your friends… ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2000, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-science-question/31132/6 "2000-08-29T02:48:56Z")
My orgone box will keep me safe ---
**Author:** ![Spiritus\_Mundi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c68b51/32.png) [@Spiritus\_Mundi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiritus_Mundi)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2000, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-science-question/31132/7 "2000-08-29T03:03:49Z")
Spiritus likes leftovers. ---
**Author:** ![Spiritus\_Mundi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c68b51/32.png) [@Spiritus\_Mundi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiritus_Mundi)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2000, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-science-question/31132/8 "2000-08-29T03:04:55Z")
But then I realized that distilling is an art. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2000, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-science-question/31132/9 "2000-08-29T03:13:28Z")
From the Far Side: two cavemen holding meat in a fire with their bare hands, grimacing in pain, look at a third “nerdy” caveman with meat on a stick over the fire. “Hey! Look what Grog do!” ---
**Author:** ![John\_Kentzel-Griffin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ccd318/32.png) [@John\_Kentzel-Griffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Kentzel-Griffin)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2000, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-science-question/31132/10 "2000-08-29T03:48:05Z")
Sliced bread, of course! ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2000, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-science-question/31132/11 "2000-08-29T04:37:22Z")
Three guys talking about the greatest invention ever. Guy A: I think it’s the internal combustion engine. Before that, people would spend their whole lives within a few miles of their birth place, not knowing what was over that next hill. Guy B: No, I think it’s the transistor. Electronics has allowed us previously unimaginable feats, from walking on the moon to Internet message boards. Guy C: I think it’s the thermos. Guys A and B, in unison: The thermos, why? All it does it keep hot things hot and cold things cold! Guy C: Yeah, but how does it _know_? ---
**Author:** ![Wood\_Thrush](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b38774/32.png) [@Wood\_Thrush](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wood_Thrush)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2000, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-science-question/31132/12 "2000-08-29T05:37:55Z")
The cell. A helluva lof of modern biology would be unknown were it not for the discovery that all life is composed of cells and the resultant studies of cells. Hey, no one created the cell, but you said “discovery,” not “invention.” ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2000, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-science-question/31132/13 "2000-08-29T05:43:51Z")
It’s either the wheel or the time a monkey/proto-human figured it could whack another monkey over the head with a thigh bone ala 2001: A Space Odyssey. ---
**Author:** ![RM\_Mentock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@RM\_Mentock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RM_Mentock)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2000, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-science-question/31132/14 "2000-08-29T06:42:20Z")
When they found out you know what fit in you know where. IMHO. Probably a very early discovery, it’s been downhill ever since. ---
**Author:** ![Phobos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Phobos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phobos)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2000, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-science-question/31132/15 "2000-08-29T12:31:23Z")
When shall we say “science” started? With the dawn of Humanity? Ancient Greece? With Galileo? There are discoveries about nature…then there are discoveries about nature using the scientific method. Perhaps the greatest discovery of science is that the scientific method works well. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Wonko\_The\_Sane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/258eb7/32.png) [@Wonko\_The\_Sane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wonko_The_Sane)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2000, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-science-question/31132/16 "2000-08-29T12:57:59Z")
The best discovery may be that you put food and water (and beer, if you have it) in your mouth. Keeps you alive. ---
**Author:** ![Wonko\_The\_Sane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/258eb7/32.png) [@Wonko\_The\_Sane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wonko_The_Sane)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2000, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-science-question/31132/17 "2000-08-29T13:00:02Z")
Ok, maybe that would be instinct. ---
**Author:** ![Myndephuquer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f0a364/32.png) [@Myndephuquer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myndephuquer)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2000, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-science-question/31132/18 "2000-08-29T13:54:21Z")
The most important scientific breakthrough that I have been a witness to (many years ago) was the bringing together of a fellow 12-year-old, a fast-fuse firecracker, a pack of matches, and a big pile of dogshit. Lance Turbo: > [@](#): > > …out of nowhere I get polled by margie. I never saw it coming. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2000, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-science-question/31132/19 "2000-08-29T13:56:17Z")
Yeah, you just know that had to hurt. Off to IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2000, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-science-question/31132/20 "2000-08-29T17:17:22Z")
Darwin’s theory of natural selection to explain how evolution occurs. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-science-question/31132.md?page=2)