• Question: Who are your favourite scientists?

    Asked by xXMaisieXx to Hannah, Lucy, Phil, rochellevelho, Stephen on 9 Mar 2017. This question was also asked by chong hai.
    • Photo: Lucy Kissick

      Lucy Kissick answered on 9 Mar 2017:

      The absolute top on my list is an American astronomer called Carl Sagan, who in my opinion was one of the noblest humans to ever live. Along with being a world-leading scientist in every field from astronomy to cosmochemistry to astrobiology, he made science accessible to the public through his own TV show called Cosmos (get your teacher to show it you!). He also spoke very elegantly on humankind’s place in the universe: if you YouTube his speech ‘The Pale Blue Dot’, I promise you will think differently about your fellow humans and our potential to one day become a wise, kind, interplanetary species.

    • Photo: Phil Sutton

      Phil Sutton answered on 11 Mar 2017:

      I’m going to go with Issac Newton and Albert Einstein as there work is fundamental to what I do now. But also they have been key in helping us understand the universe and space. Somethings I find most exciting though is that as our technology gets better we are starting to test many of the ideas they came up. So far many of the things they came up with are being backed up by observations of the universe.

      For example Einstein’s theory of general relativity predicted that very large stars or black holes orbiting close to one another could emit gravitation energy (gravitational waves) that distort space. In the last couple of years we have proved this to be correct. It amazes me that you can come up with a correct theory 100 years before we have the ability to test it experimental, an then for it to be right.

    • Photo: Hannah Sargeant

      Hannah Sargeant answered on 12 Mar 2017:

      My favourite is a man called Richard Feynman. He was famous for making physics a bit more fun because he was so passionate about it! He believed that understanding science made the world more beautiful because you can understand how complex it is. Richard Feynman also worked on the investigation into the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster which killed 7 astronauts. He solved the mystery which then made space shuttle safer.

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