Who is greatest scientist

Paul Ratner. Share The 10 greatest living scientists in the world today on Twitter. Share The 10 greatest living scientists in the world today on LinkedIn. Ashoke Sen breakthrough prize China Elizabeth Blackburn india James Jane Goodall japan medicine noam chomsky nobel prize physics ranking science scientist stephen hawking top 10 Top Ten united states Yuri Milner. In this article.

A mouthwash solution containing ferumoxytol and a dye could treat, prevent, and diagnose tooth decay, according to UPenn researchers. Prozac is a widely used antidepressant. Data indicates that the drug could be used to prevent blindness due to macular degeneration.

The credibility problem facing the biomedical and public health establishment is, at least in part, a product of its own making. Up Next. Surprising Science. The scientists on this list, however, are here because of their preeminence as scientists doing science. The scientists described here are all creative and brilliant.

Many of them are also unusual and interestingcolorful personalities that it would be a pleasure to know! As you feast on the names and biographies of the scientists on this list, also check out our article " The World's 50 Smartest Teenagers. Join us this summer as two world-renowned thinkers, Rupert Sheldrake and Michael Shermer , discuss and debate the nature of science!

Alain Aspect. Aspect made his most crucial breakthroughs in quantum theory. In , he was awarded the CSNR Gold Medal by settling a year-old dispute between Niels Bohr and Albert Einstein over the basic understanding of quantum physics by demonstrating the fascinating phenomenon of entanglement non-local instantaneous interactions between particles, which Einstein rejected for propagating physical influences faster than the speed of light.

Aspect's work is foundational to the field of quantum computing. These experiments measured two particles that were released at the same time and from the same source in opposite directions.

The results were conclusive proof of entanglement. Aspect continues his experiments, which are fundamental to our understanding of how everything in the world is interconnected. He is currently studying the localization of waves in solids using ultra-cold atoms. Web resource: Alain Aspect's Home Page.

David Baltimore. David Baltimore is currently Professor of Biology at the California Institute of Technology, where he served as president from to He also serves as the director of the Joint Center for Translational Medicine, which joins Caltech and UCLA in a program to translate basic science discoveries into clinical realities. Baltimore is a graduate of Swarthmore College and Rockefeller University. They were awarded the prize for their discoveries concerning the interaction between tumor viruses and the genetic material of the cell.

One of Baltimore's most significant contributions was in virology, for his discovery of the protein reverse transcriptase , essential for the reproduction of retroviruses such as HIV. He has had a profound influence on national science policy, spanning everything from stem cell research to cloning to AIDS. Baltimore is past president and chair of the American Association of the Advancement of Science Baltimore has published peer-reviewed articles.

His recent research focuses on the control of inflammatory and immune responses, on the roles of microRNAs in the immune system, and the use of gene therapy methods to treat HIV and cancer. Web resource: David Baltimore's Home Page. Allen J. He received his Ph. In , Bard was awarded the National Medal of Science for his contributions in electrochemistry, including electroluminescence, semiconductor photo-electrochemistry, electro-analytical chemistry, and the invention of the scanning electrochemical microscope.

He has also published over papers and chapters, while editing the series Electroanalytical Chemistry 21 volumes and the Encyclopedia of the Electrochemistry of the Elements 16 volumes. He is currently editor-in-chief of the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Bard's current research focuses on harnessing the power of natural sunlight to produce sustainable energy.

His lab at the University of Texas tests different chemical compounds in the hopes of discovering a material that will carry out artificial photosynthesis. Bard feels strongly that such discoveries must be sought and made because otherwise humanity will be in deep trouble as fossil fuels run out.

Web resource: Allen J. Bard's Home Page. Timothy Berners-Lee. Berners-Lee graduated from Queens College, Oxford. While there, he proposed using hypertext to facilitate sharing and updating information among researchers.

Over a decade later, he built the first website at CERN, and it was first put online in August of He was also awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree from the University of St. John Tyler Bonner. John Tyler Bonner is one of the world's leading biologists, primarily known for his work in the use of cellular slime molds to understand evolution.

He has led the way in making Dictyostelium discoideum a model organism central to examining some of the major questions in experimental biology.

He is the George M. Bonner studied at Harvard University. His Ph. He soon joined the faculty of Princeton University. He holds three honorary doctorates and is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He was made a National Academy of Sciences fellow in Bonner's work argues for the underappreciated role that randomness, or chance, plays in evolution. In one of his latest works, Randomness in Evolution, Bonner shows how the effects of randomness differ for organisms of different sizes, and how the smaller an organism is, the more likely it is that morphological differences will be random and selection may not be involved to any significant degree.

He also discusses how sexual cycles vary depending on size and complexity, and how the trend away from randomness in higher forms has even been reversed in some social organisms. Bonner's present research interests include experiments designed to understand how this reversal is achieved in a number of species that vary morphologically.

Dennis Bray. He was trained as a biochemist at MIT and a neurobiologist at Harvard Medical School before returning to the UK, where he had a long research career in the fields of nerve growth and cell motility. Bray has authored numerous textbooks on molecular and cell biology such as Molecular Biology of the Cell and Cell Movements.

His most recent book, Wetware , is for a general audience. In it, Bray taps the findings of the new discipline of systems biology to show that the internal chemistry of living cells constitutes a form of computation.

In the book he argues that the computational power of cells provides the basis of all the distinctive properties of living systems, allowing organisms to embody in their internal structure an image of the world, which accounts for their adaptability, responsiveness, and intelligence.

He used detailed computer simulations, tied to experimental data, to ask how the macromolecular pathway controlling cell motility in bacteria works as an integrated unit. His team found that the physical location of molecular components within the molecular jungle of the cell interior is crucial to understand their function.

Bray's most recent work includes the propagation of allosteric states in large multi-protein complexes. Web resource: Dennis Bray's Home Page. Sydney Brenner.

Robert Horvitz and John Sulston. His major contributions are in elucidating the genetic code. Among his many notable discoveries, Brenner established the existence of messenger RNA and demonstrated how the order of amino acids in proteins is determined. Beginning in , he also began to conduct the pioneering work with the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans , which ultimately led to his Nobel Prize.

In this research, he laid the groundwork to make C. Brenner, along with George Pieczenik, created the first computer matrix analysis of nucleic acids using the TRAC computer language, which Brenner continues to use. They returned to their early work on deciphering the genetic code with a speculative paper on the origin of protein synthesis, where constraints on mRNA and tRNA co-evolved, allowing for a five-base interaction with a flip of the anticodon loop, and thereby creating a triplet code translating system without requiring a ribosome.

This is the only published paper in scientific history with three independent Nobel laureates collaborating as authors the other two were Francis Crick and Aaron Klug. Most recently, Brenner is studying vertebrate gene and genome evolution. His work in this area has resulted in new ways of analyzing gene sequences, which have developed into a new understanding of the evolution of vertebrates.

Web resource: Sydney Brenner's Home Page. Pierre Chambon. Chambon made significant contributions to the discovery of the superfamily of nuclear receptors, and to the elucidation of their universal mechanism of action that links transcription, physiology, and pathology.

These discoveries revolutionized the fields of development, endocrinology, and metabolism, as well as their disorders, pointing to new tactics for drug discovery and important new applications in biotechnology and modern medicine. The author of more than publications, Chambon has been ranked fourth among the most prominent life scientists during the period. Some of his awards include the Gairdner Foundation International Award in for the elucidation of fundamental mechanisms of transcription in animal cells and the discovery of the nuclear receptor superfamily , the Lasker Basic Medical Research Award in , and the March of Dimes Prize in Developmental Biology in He also serves on a number of editorial boards.

Simon Conway Morris. He is renowned for his work on the Burgess Shale fossils. The Burgess Shale Formation, located in the Canadian Rockies of British Columbia, is one of the world's most productive fossil fields, famous for the exceptional preservation of the soft parts of its fossils. At million years old, it is one of the earliest fossil beds containing soft-part imprints.

As a paleobiologist, Conway Morris is known for being a devout Christian, one who tries to show that the evidence from paleobiology and evolution supports the existence of God. He is an increasingly active participant in discussions relating to science and religion. In recent years, Conway Morris has been studying evolutionary convergencethe phenomenon whereby unrelated groups of animals and plants develop similar adaptationsthe main thesis of which is put forward in his popular Life's Solution: Inevitable Humans in a Lonely Universe.

Mildred S. Dresselhaus received her master's degree at Radcliffe College and her Ph. During that time she switched from research on superconductivity to magneto-optics, and carried out a series of experiments which led to a fundamental understanding of the electronic structure of semi-metals, especially graphite.

A leader in promoting opportunities for women in science and engineering, Dresselhaus received a Carnegie Foundation grant in to encourage women's study of traditionally male-dominated fields, such as physics. She was also appointed to the Abby Rockefeller Mauze Chair, an Institute-wide chair, endowed to support the scholarship of women in science and engineering.

Some of her awards include the Karl T. Petersburg, Russia, in In , Dresselhaus was awarded the prestigious Kavli Institute's prize in nanoscience. In , she received the National Medal of Science in recognition of her work on electronic properties of materials. Web resource: Mildred S. Dresselhaus passed away February 20, Gerald M. Edelman is a biologist, immunologist, and neuroscientist. He is the founder and director of the Neurosciences Institute, a non-profit research center that studies the biological bases of higher brain function in humans, and he is on the scientific board of the World Knowledge Dialogue project.

Their research uncovered the structure of antibody molecules as well as the deep connection between how the components of the immune system evolve over the life of the individual and how the neural circuitry of the brain evolves over that same life.

By this they laid a firm foundation for truly rational research, something that was previously lacking in immunology. Their discoveries represent clearly a break-through that immediately incited a fervent research activity the whole world over, in all fields of immunological science, yielding results of practical value for clinical diagnostics and therapy.

Edelman is noted for his theory of consciousness, which he has documented in several technical books, as well as books written for a general audience, including Bright Air, Brilliant Fire , A Universe of Consciousness with Giulio Tononi , Wider than the Sky , and Second Nature: Brain Science and Human Knowledge. Ronald M. He is best known for his work in the physiology and the molecular genetics of muscle performance, metabolic disease, inflammation, and cancer, and for using this information to devise small-molecule therapy.

Evans received his Ph. In , he shared the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award with Pierre Chambon 8 on our list and Elwood Jensen for the discovery of the superfamily of nuclear hormone receptors, and for the elucidation of the unifying mechanism that regulates embryonic development and diverse metabolic pathways. Other research of Evans focuses on a new hormone that appears to be the molecular trigger controlling the formation of fat cells. Identifying this trigger represents one of the newest and most important advances in understanding problems arising from obesity and the potential treatment of adult onset Type II diabetes.

Web resource: Ronald M. Evans's Home Page. Anthony S. He is widely recognized for delineating the precise mechanisms by which immunosuppressive agents modulate the human immune response. Fauci on the treatment of polyarteritis nodosa and Wegener's granulomatosis as one of the most important advances in patient management in rheumatology over the previous 20 years. Fauci has made seminal contributions to the understanding of how the AIDS virus destroys the body's defenses, leading to its susceptibility to deadly infections, and he continues to devote much of his research time to identifying the nature of the immunopathogenic mechanisms of HIV infection and the scope of the body's immune responses to the HIV retrovirus.

He is a member of the U. Fauci has authored, co-authored, or edited more than 1, scientific publications as well as several textbooks. Web resource: Anthony S. Fauci's Home Page. Andrew Z. Fire is a scientist and professor of pathology and genetics at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Prior to his current position, he was on the faculty in the department of biology at Johns Hopkins University. Mello 29 on our list conducted their Nobel Prize winning research, which resulted in the discovery of RNA interference RNAi , a mechanism for controlling the flow of genetic information.

Nick Hastie, director of the Medical Research Council's Human Genetics Unit, commented on the scope and implications of Fire's research by stating: "It is very unusual for a piece of work to completely revolutionize the whole way we think about biological processes and regulation, but this has opened up a whole new field in biology.

His recent research focuses on the molecular understanding of the RNAi machinery and its roles in the cell, as well as on the identification of other triggers and mechanisms used in the recognition of, and response to, chemical information coming from outside the cell.

Web resource: Andrew Z. Fire's Home Page. Jean M. He also serves as the associate editor of the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

He has noted that most of his projects involve three stages: 1 design; 2 synthesis; and 3 characterization, where the function of the structure and properties are tested.

Web resource: Jean M. Margaret J. She received her Ph. She made pioneering maps of the large-scale structures of the universe, which led to the discovery of the filamentous galactic superstructure popularly known as the "Great Wall"the largest known superstructure in the universe. Geller has also developed innovative techniques for investigating the internal structure and total mass of clusters of galaxies and the relationship of clusters to the large-scale structure.

In addition, she is a co-discoverer of hypervelocity stars, stars ejected at high velocity from the Galactic center. These stars can travel across the Milky Way and may be an important tracer of the matter distribution in the Galaxy. Geller's current main research interests include a project she leads called the "Smithsonian Hectospec Lensing Survey" SHELS , which uses the phenomenon of gravitational lensing to map the distribution of the mysterious, ubiquitous dark matter in the universe.

She is also investigating the implications of the discovery of hypervelocity stars, as well as heading up a project called "HectoMAP," which uses large databases of information to map clusters of galaxies, and which in turn aids us in understanding how these systems develop over the history of the universe. Geller has made films about science. Her eight-minute video, "Where the Galaxies Are," produced in , was the first graphic voyage through the universe based on observation. The video was displayed at several major science museums, and graphics from it were widely broadcast.

Later, a minute film was produced that contains prize-winning graphics, which are on display at the National Air and Space Museum. Web resource: Margaret J. Geller's Home Page. Jane Goodall. Jane Goodall is a primatologist, ethologist, and anthropologist. She has studied the social and family interactions of wild chimpanzees for over 40 years, and is thus considered the foremost expert on chimpanzees.

She studied at Darwin College in Cambridge and holds several honorary doctorates from universities such as Syracuse University, Rutgers University, the University of Liverpool, and the University of Toronto, among others. Goodall has conducted most of her research, starting in with no scientific training, at Gombe Stream National Park, which is located in the western Kigoma region of Tanzania, on the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika.

Goodall advocates for chimpanzee welfare, the conservation of biodiversity, and general stewardship of the Earth. The research conducted by Goodall at Gombe Stream not only is scientifically important but also benefits the park itself.

Today, Goodall devotes virtually all of her time to advocacy on behalf of chimpanzees and the environment, traveling nearly days a year. It is the world's largest chimpanzee sanctuary outside of Africa. Web resource: The Jane Goodall Institute. Alan Guth. Alan Guth is a theoretical physicist and cosmologist, who currently serves as the Victor Weisskopf Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Guth is the originator of the inflationary cosmology, a theory of the universe that answers the conundrum posed by the Big Bang of why the universe appears flat, homogeneous, and isotropic, when one would expect on the basis of the physics of the Big Bang a highly curved, heterogeneous, and anisotropic universe.

His theory, if correct, would explain the origin of the large-scale structure of the cosmos. Guth's first step to developing his theory of inflation occurred at Cornell in , when he attended a lecture by Robert Dicke about the flatness problem of the universe. Dicke explained how the flatness problem showed that something significant was missing from the Big Bang theory at the time. Intrigued, Curie decided to explore uranium and its mysterious rays as a Ph.

It was a defining moment for what Curie would eventually call radioactivity. The two started examining minerals containing uranium and pitchblende, a uranium-rich ore, and realized the latter was four times more radioactive than pure uranium. They reasoned some other element must be in the mix, sending those radioactive levels through the roof. They published a paper in July , revealing the find.

And just five months later, they announced their discovery of yet another element, radium, found in trace amounts in uranium ore. In , Curie, her husband and Becquerel won the Nobel Prize in Physics for their work on radioactivity, making Curie the first woman to win a Nobel. Tragedy struck just three years later.

Pierre, who had recently accepted a professorship at the University of Paris, died suddenly after a carriage accident. Curie was devastated by his death.

In Curie won her second Nobel Prize, this time in chemistry, for her work with polonium and radium. She remains the only person to win Nobel prizes in two different sciences.

She died in from a type of anemia that very likely stemmed from her exposure to such extreme radiation during her career. Isaac Newton was born on Christmas Day, Never the humble sort, he would have found the date apt: The gift to humanity and science had arrived. A sickly infant, his mere survival was an achievement.

Just 23 years later, with his alma mater Cambridge University and much of England closed due to plague, Newton discovered the laws that now bear his name. He had to invent a new kind of math along the way: calculus. The introverted English scholar held off on publishing those findings for decades, though, and it took the Herculean efforts of friend and comet discoverer Edmund Halley to get Newton to publish.

A bet the former had with other scientists on the nature of planetary orbits. When Halley mentioned the orbital problem to him, Newton shocked his friend by giving the answer immediately, having long ago worked it out. Not only did it describe for the first time how the planets moved through space and how projectiles on Earth traveled through the air; the Principia showed that the same fundamental force, gravity, governs both.

Newton united the heavens and the Earth with his laws. Newton never went halfway on anything. It would take too long to list his other scientific achievements, but the greatest hits might include his groundbreaking work on light and color; his development and refinement of reflecting telescopes which now bear his name ; and other fundamental work in math and heat.

So how did Newton pass his remaining three decades? But Newton, focused as ever, threw himself into it. He also focused his attention on counterfeiters, searching them out as zealously as he sought answers from the heavens. Newton was known by his peers as an unpleasant person. He had few close friends and never married. He famously feuded with German scientist Gottfried Leibnitz, mainly over who invented calculus first, creating a schism in European mathematics that lasted over a century.

How fitting that the unit of force is named after stubborn, persistent, amazing Newton, himself a force of nature. As a young man, his main interests were collecting beetles and studying geology in the countryside, occasionally skipping out on his classes at the University of Edinburgh Medical School to do so.

It was a chance invitation in to join a journey around the world that would make Darwin, who had once studied to become a country parson, the father of evolutionary biology. Aboard the HMS Beagle , between bouts of seasickness, Darwin spent his five-year trip studying and documenting geological formations and myriad habitats throughout much of the Southern Hemisphere, as well as the flora and fauna they contained.

He noticed small differences between members of the same species that seemed to depend upon where they lived. The finches of the Galapagos are the best-known example: From island to island, finches of the same species possessed differently shaped beaks, each adapted to the unique sources of food available on each island. This suggested not only that species could change — already a divisive concept back then — but also that the changes were driven purely by environmental factors, instead of divine intervention.

Today, we call this natural selection. When Darwin returned, he was hesitant to publish his nascent ideas and open them up to criticism, as he felt that his theory of evolution was still insubstantial. Instead, he threw himself into studying the samples from his voyage and writing an account of his travels. Through his industrious efforts, Darwin built a reputation as a capable scientist, publishing works on geology as well as studies of coral reefs and barnacles still considered definitive today.

Darwin also married his first cousin, Emma Wedgwood, during this time. This was a level of attention uncommon among fathers at that time — to say nothing of eminent scientists. That wasn't all that made Darwin unique. He had an appreciation for taxidermy and unusual food, and suffered from ill health. Through it all, the theory of evolution was never far from his mind, and the various areas of research he pursued only strengthened his convictions.

Darwin slowly amassed overwhelming evidence in favor of evolution in the 20 years after his voyage. All of his observations and musings eventually coalesced into the tour de force that was On the Origin of Species , published in when Darwin was 50 years old.

The page book sold out immediately, and Darwin would go on to produce six editions, each time adding to and refining his arguments. It was based on two ideas: that species can change gradually over time, and that all species face difficulties brought on by their surroundings.

From these basic observations, it stands to reason that those species best adapted to their environments will survive and those that fall short will die out. Nikola Tesla grips his hat in his hand. He points his cane toward Niagara Falls and beckons bystanders to turn their gaze to the future.

This bronze Tesla — a statue on the Canadian side — stands atop an induction motor, the type of engine that drove the first hydroelectric power plant. His designs advanced alternating current at the start of the electric age and allowed utilities to send current over vast distances, powering American homes across the country. He developed the Tesla coil — a high-voltage transformer — and techniques to transmit power wirelessly.

Cellphone makers and others are just now utilizing the potential of this idea. Tesla is perhaps best known for his eccentric genius. He once proposed a system of towers that he believed could pull energy from the environment and transmit signals and electricity around the world, wirelessly.

But his theories were unsound, and the project was never completed. San Diego Comic-Con attendees dress in Tesla costumes. The American Physical Society even has a Tesla comic book where, as in real life, he faces off against the dastardly Thomas Edison.

While his work was truly genius, much of his wizardly reputation was of his own making. It was around for decades. But his ceaseless theories, inventions and patents made Tesla a household name, rare for scientists a century ago. And even today, his legacy still turns the lights on. Around Dec. But his conclusions changed history. And his law of inertia allowed for Earth itself to rotate.