• Question: who is your favourite scientists and why?

    Asked by anon-224969 to Simon, Selen, Paul, Nawapat, Natalie, Katy on 14 Nov 2019.
    • Photo: Paul Laurance-Young

      Paul Laurance-Young answered on 14 Nov 2019:

      Lots of them, there are literally loads!

    • Photo: Nawapat Kaweeyanun

      Nawapat Kaweeyanun answered on 15 Nov 2019: last edited 15 Nov 2019 1:57 am

      My favourite scientist is Emmy Noether. Some would say she was a mathematician but her works are very useful in physics. In physics we have a very basic but important concept call energy conservation. Energy cannot be created or destroyed – it can only change form. Noether explained why energy conservation exists, and also why every other conservation exists as well. Her theory is very beautiful and an astonishing achievement for any scientist – let alone a woman during the time when very few women got any education at all. There was a reason why Einstein called her a genius. She was truly my hero. 🙂

    • Photo: Natalie Fowler

      Natalie Fowler answered on 18 Nov 2019:

      There are so many amazing scientists out there, lots of whom we won’t ever know about but who do great work. I have lots of respect for Rosalind Franklin who discovered the structure of DNA and was not credited in the Nobel Prize for this work. Watson and Crick have since admitted they stole her ideas but she died before she saw any recognition for her part. She must’ve been such a strong character to carry on and stay motivated as a female scientist in a cut throat environment and it’s comforting to know she has since been awarded the recognition she deserved!

    • Photo: Katy Bruce

      Katy Bruce answered on 25 Nov 2019:

      I think Marie Curie was utterly awesome – she was awarded not one, but TWO Nobel Prizes, and in both Physics AND Chemistry! She discovered so much about radioactivity and during a time when women were not respected in science. She didn’t come from a privileged background and fought hard for what she had. She is said to have saved the lives of over a million WW1 wounded soldiers with a combination of her portable X-Ray units and Radium treatments for infected wounds, despite not being a medical doctor! She loved her work so much that it literally killed her – it was the continued exposure to radiation that eventually caused her death 🙁 What an inspirational scientist!

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