# Scientist who has made the largest impact on the field of science? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 11, 2000, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientist-who-has-made-the-largest-impact-on-the-field-of-science/28978 "2000-08-11T16:15:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Silo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ac91a4/32.png) [@Silo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silo)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2000, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientist-who-has-made-the-largest-impact-on-the-field-of-science/28978/1 "2000-08-11T16:15:19Z")
I think Isaac Newton. His _Principia Mathematica_ has to have made the largest single leap/impact on the field of science (or more specifically–physics). He also devoloped Calculus–which underlies much of _modern_ science. For these 2 reasons alone, I think, relative to the time, Newton has made the largest contribution to the field of science. A close second, in my book, would have to be Einstien… Who do you think has made the greatest impact/contribution to a particular branch of science, or science (as a whole) itself? ---
**Author:** ![hawthorne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@hawthorne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hawthorne)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2000, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientist-who-has-made-the-largest-impact-on-the-field-of-science/28978/2 "2000-08-11T16:21:28Z")
Oh no. Darwin, by a mile. And his lead is extending. picmr ---
**Author:** ![Silo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ac91a4/32.png) [@Silo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silo)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2000, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientist-who-has-made-the-largest-impact-on-the-field-of-science/28978/3 "2000-08-11T16:31:22Z")
Yes Darwin did make a BIG contribution to science indeed! ---
**Author:** ![Triskadecamus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2000, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientist-who-has-made-the-largest-impact-on-the-field-of-science/28978/4 "2000-08-11T16:41:52Z")
> [@](#): > > - From Science Magazine this month \* > > **One Hundred Years of Quantum Physics** > > by Daniel Kleppner and Roman Jackiw > > This year marks the 100th anniversary of Max Planck’s creation of the quantum concept, an idea so revolutionary that it took nearly 30 years for scientists to develop it into the theory that has transformed the way scientists view reality. The real effects of QM on the rest of science are not always clear. Even the Biology revolution grows out of the understanding gained from it, and from the Chemistry that also grew from it. Tris ---
**Author:** ![Necros](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/necros/32/11086_2.png) [@Necros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Necros)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2000, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientist-who-has-made-the-largest-impact-on-the-field-of-science/28978/5 "2000-08-11T17:19:42Z")
I think that as time goes on, Crick and Watson’s DNA discovery will prove to be even more momentous than it already is. ---
**Author:** ![Freyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freyr/32/5763_2.png) [@Freyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freyr)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2000, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientist-who-has-made-the-largest-impact-on-the-field-of-science/28978/6 "2000-08-11T20:17:52Z")
Gallileo… for introducing the scientific method into research. Rather than simply relying on Authority for an answer, you go do an experiment and find out… Well, that’s what they taught me back in school! ---
**Author:** ![Philbuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e9a140/32.png) [@Philbuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philbuck)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2000, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientist-who-has-made-the-largest-impact-on-the-field-of-science/28978/7 "2000-08-11T23:04:52Z")
When I saw the thread title, I thought immediately of Newton or Galileo, for the same reasons listed above; I think I would lean towards the latter. More than just his particular contributions to physics, he revolutionized the way science was done in modern times. A case can perhaps be made (as _Scientific American_ recently did) that Darwin has been the most influential scientist as far as effect on “modern thought”, but for “largest impact on the field of science”, I don’t think he comes close to Galileo (or Newton, or Einstein, or others). ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_H](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a5b964/32.png) [@Bill\_H](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_H)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2000, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientist-who-has-made-the-largest-impact-on-the-field-of-science/28978/8 "2000-08-11T23:21:33Z")
If you look in the index of a typical college math book, you’ll find more references to Isaac Newton than any other individual, typically more than double the entries of any other. Pre-Newton, there were disconnected understandings of the world. Newton was the first human to really put things together. In a very real way, he created science. I would’ve liked to name one of my two sons Isaac, but my last name (and theirs) is Hunt, so that just wasn’t a good fit. ---
**Author:** ![Silo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ac91a4/32.png) [@Silo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silo)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2000, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientist-who-has-made-the-largest-impact-on-the-field-of-science/28978/9 "2000-08-11T23:29:27Z")
> [@](#): > > I think that as time goes on, Crick and Watson’s DNA discovery will prove to be even more momentous than it already is. Heh, wouldja believe it that my mom was the secretary at Crick and Watson’s lab when DNA was discovered. ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2000, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientist-who-has-made-the-largest-impact-on-the-field-of-science/28978/10 "2000-08-11T23:29:28Z")
Fleischman and Pons. ::d&r:: ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2000, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientist-who-has-made-the-largest-impact-on-the-field-of-science/28978/11 "2000-08-12T00:13:30Z")
Still waiting for those neutrons! ---
**Author:** ![lastgasp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3bc359/32.png) [@lastgasp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lastgasp)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2000, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientist-who-has-made-the-largest-impact-on-the-field-of-science/28978/12 "2000-08-12T00:18:01Z")
What about Galen? The windpipe connected to the… liver. ---
**Author:** ![Danielinthewolvesden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Danielinthewolvesden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Danielinthewolvesden)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2000, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientist-who-has-made-the-largest-impact-on-the-field-of-science/28978/13 "2000-08-12T00:40:28Z")
Newton. ---
**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 12, 2000, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientist-who-has-made-the-largest-impact-on-the-field-of-science/28978/14 "2000-08-12T00:52:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Necros \* > \*\*I think that as time goes on, Crick and Watson’s DNA discovery will prove to be even more momentous than it already is. \*\* While Watson and Crick (and Franklin!) made a great contribution, I’d say that the structure of DNA was just waiting to be described. If Watson had broken a leg and taken a year or so off, Linus Pauling might be known as the discoverer of the structure of DNA. ---
**Author:** ![iampunha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/74df32/32.png) [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2000, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientist-who-has-made-the-largest-impact-on-the-field-of-science/28978/15 "2000-08-12T01:53:27Z")
van Leeuwenhoeck (sp?). Not to discount the discoveries, inventions or other achievements of other great scientists . . . but this guy did what he did for a phenomenally long time . . . took strides in directions that were decades . . . centuries, some would say, ahead of the rest of science. ---
**Author:** ![Utopia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/d07c76/32.png) [@Utopia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Utopia)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2000, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientist-who-has-made-the-largest-impact-on-the-field-of-science/28978/16 "2000-08-12T02:05:31Z")
My initial response to the thread topic, without looking at the replies, was Darwin. But I’m leaning more towards Newton now that I’ve given it some thought. > [@](#): > > I would’ve liked to name one of my two sons Isaac, but my last name (and theirs) is Hunt, so that just wasn’t a good fit. Hah! You probably have one of them from being the focus of constant ridicule through out grade school. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![mipsman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mipsman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mipsman)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2000, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientist-who-has-made-the-largest-impact-on-the-field-of-science/28978/17 "2000-08-12T02:32:00Z")
I’d vote for Copernicus in Astronomy, Cavendish in Chemistry, Mendel in Genetics, Vesalius (rather than Galen, Lastgasp) in Anatomy, Lyell in Geology. We should be indebted to the pioneers who lifted us out of the darkness. Along the lines of what Lemur said about the inevitability of some discoveries, I remember somebody once wrote that Planck’s Constant was always out there, waiting to be discovered, but Mozart’s music would never have been written by anybody else. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_H](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a5b964/32.png) [@Bill\_H](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_H)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2000, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientist-who-has-made-the-largest-impact-on-the-field-of-science/28978/18 "2000-08-12T02:33:19Z")
The book, “The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History” by Michael H. Hart, names Newton as #2, just below Muhammad. An excellent book by the way. FYI, the top ten go: Muhammad Newton Jesus Buddha Confucious St. Paul Ts’ai Lun Gutenburg Columbus Einstein ---
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2000, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientist-who-has-made-the-largest-impact-on-the-field-of-science/28978/19 "2000-08-12T02:45:07Z")
I’d have to say that Michael Faraday’s work with electricity and chemistry place him up there, at least in the Underrated Scientist category. He discovered electromagnetism, thereby laying the framework for such things as electric motors, generators, X-rays, and so forth. It may not be the most earth-shattering work, but it does have widely-reaching implications. Robin ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Dave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/46a35a/32.png) [@Great\_Dave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Dave)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2000, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientist-who-has-made-the-largest-impact-on-the-field-of-science/28978/20 "2000-08-12T03:03:39Z")
how about Edison or Babbage? only pure scientists? or how about some good ol’ Greeks that laid the foundations, such as Euclid or Eratothsenes? sure, they had some weird ideas thrown in with the good ones, but so did newton. another title to check out is _The Discoverers_ by Boorstin. dave [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientist-who-has-made-the-largest-impact-on-the-field-of-science/28978.md?page=2)