• Question: who is your favourite scientist

    Asked by cam123456789oonroblox to Dan, Jennifer, Luke, Martin, sakshisharda on 7 Mar 2018.
    • Photo: Dan Gordon

      Dan Gordon answered on 7 Mar 2018:

      Very interesting question. Can I give a couple of answers. Historically I am fascinated by a scientist called Archibald Viviane Hill. He lived and worked here in Cambridge. The reason I adore him and his work was that he was a pioneer in human physiology and indeed exercise science.

      My second choice is Professor Richard Feynman. He was a physicist in a American but a true genius and pioneer.

    • Photo: Luke Williams

      Luke Williams answered on 7 Mar 2018:

      I didn’t know you could put youtube videos here!

      Anyhow, there are a few scientists who stick out in my mind. The first is Maud Menten, who was one of the first Canadian women to get a medical degree. At the time she worked, women were not allowed to vote, and they weren’t even considered persons by Canadian law. She travelled around the world to work with the best scientists that she could, inventing the equation that now bears her name – the Michaelis-Menten equation, which is incredibly important and more or less started a whole new field of science. She also invented LOADS of new medical techniques as well!

      Another incredibly important scientist is Rear Admiral Grace Hopper, known for inventing a new computer language (COBOL) and coming up with the idea that you could program computers in english rather than maths. She had a very long career in the naval reserves – she tried to join the US Navy in World War 2, but they didn’t let her because she was too old and too light! In the end she retired three times from the Naval reserves as they kept bringing her back because she was so good. “Amazing Grace” was also one of the top women in the entire Navy, as there were so few.

      A third one? Why not! Sir David Attenborough has always astounded me. For those of you who do not think he is a scientist, he is a naturalist or natural historian, which despite the name, does come under science. In ancient times, and even quite recently, ALL of science was called natural history, but these days it is now only looking at wildlife in its natural environment. He doesn’t just produce TV programmes, he knows a great deal about the things that he talks about on TV. Something I didn’t know about him for a long time was that he nearly ended up running the BBC, but left to go back to presenting TV shows.

    • Photo: Sakshi Sharda

      Sakshi Sharda answered on 8 Mar 2018:

      I love Robert Sapolsky, because he does cool work on stress in humans and monkeys. He works on understanding how we are affected by stress and how stress can be good and bad for us. For example, when we’re right before our exams, we’re super stressed and that helps us to learn faster and better sometimes. So, to spring into action it might sometimes be nice to be stressed. Very interestingly, higher stress levels can also be bad for the body. Sometimes, in animal societies, hierarchies are maintained because the alpha males impose more stress on the other males, which makes them weaker.

      Here you go, a video of Sapolsky!

      https://www.ted.com/talks/robert_sapolsky_the_uniqueness_of_humans

    • Photo: Martin Lindley

      Martin Lindley answered on 8 Mar 2018:

      I am slightly different in that I really like the scientists I work with …that’s why I work with them 🙂

      So I work with some senior professors like Prof Paul Thomas (Chemistry) and Prof Philip Calder (Medical Nutrition) while my most influential scientist was probably from my university days in Liverpool and a Prof call Don MaClaren. He was a huge influence on me and a really good friend.

    • Photo: Jennifer Paxton

      Jennifer Paxton answered on 8 Mar 2018:

      This took a lot of thought actually. I’ve decided to go with Professor Sue Black, who is a professor of anatomy at the University of Dundee. She is an incredible woman, with a fantastically interesting career in anatomy and forensics. She also examined my PhD and is a lovely women!

      You can read more about her here – https://thebiologist.rsb.org.uk/biologist-interviews/162-biologist/biologist-interviews/1403-staring-death-in-the-face

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