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Who are the obvious ones, in your opinion?
Da Vinci, Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, and Einstein.
One might also include inventors James Watt, Alexander Graham Bell, and
Tom Edison.
Less obvious, but reasonable contenders:
Edward Jenner (discovered a vaccination for smallpox in 1796) - his
discovery has probably saved more lives in this world than any other.
Marcel Audiffren (a French parish priest and physics teacher who
invented the modern small refrigerator unit in the 1890's) - as a result,
food poisoning, spoilage and waste from farm to market to kitchen and the
resulting illnesses and deaths have been significantly reduced.
Ole Roemer (discovered that the speed of light was finite) - this
discovery is a part of practically every aspect (and equation)
of fundamental physical and chemical understanding. And it also meant
that the universe was a lot older than people had thought.
and a late entry -
John V. Atanasoff - who invented the first electronic computer in 1939
(others later took credit for his discovery - he died in 1995). From him
it was a hop, skip and a jump from ENIAC, IBM, Cray, DEC, and Altair to
all the PCs (and ironically to Y2K).
Rick
Richard G. Strickert, Ph.D. | "In mathematics you don't understand
Radian International, Austin, TX | things. You just get used to them."
512-310-5259, FAX 512-244-0160 |
Internet: rick_strickert@radian.com | -- John von Neumann
---> "All written IMHO." <--- |
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