Great Scientists You've never heard of.

GuanYin

I was talking with some people the other day, about people who made great contributions to science that not many people have heard of.

One I'd just read about myself was Clair Patterson, possibly the most overlooked scientist of the last 100 years.

He determined the age of the earth (in 1956), developed the tecniques used for ice core sampling and used it to determine that the amount of lead in the atmosphere rose exponentially since lead was incorporated into motor fuel. He subsequently almost singlehandedly lobbyed the US government into banning lead fuels.

Another person that is often overlooked by Irish people is Ernest Walton, a trinity science grad. He's to only Irish man ever to win a Nobel Prize in Science (Physics). The 3 Trinity scientists I spoke to didn't know him.


Anyone got anymore?

simu

That's interesting. It's a pity most science programmes on TV focus on only a few famous scientists such as Einstein and Marie Curie. It would be cool, in fact, if RTÉ or TG4 did a series about Irish scientists. If you look at the history of science in Ireland, we have actually produced quite a few interesting scientists but we tend to pay more attention to writers and poets. For example, I found it really cool studying computer science at UCC and knowing that George Boole (who invented Boolean Logic) had been a professor there in the 19th century. A TV series on Irish scientists would also raise public awareness of science and the work of scientists in general.

Sev

I'm not sure how 'unheard of' he was, but Nikola Tesla did some pretty cool stuff.

Capt'n Midnight

There is a book called something like 100 irish inventors..

There's yer man what invented the induction coil (in Maynooth)

There is all the stuff about Boyle etc.

Imoteph (the eqyptian lad)

The Jesuit priest who did a simple experiment. Before it the universe consisted of the solar system and celestial sphere - people knew how big the sun was and how far away it was.

He who put a spectroscope up to starlight - proved that the stars were the same stuff as the sun. Finally killed the celestial sphere theory, proved how small the solar system was , expanded the universe - calculations had been done to explain how the sun's heat could be generated by gravity acting on a large mass of gas so the stars had to be of the same order of size...


Og ? (first user of fire)

simu

Nicholas Tesla was Serbian, not Irish:)

Here's a page on Irish scientists from science.ie:
http://www.science.ie/content/content.asp?section_id=483&language_id=1

simu

I just read the first post again and realised that it was about lesser known scientists in general, not just Irish ones. Oops!

However, it's still interesting to see that, despite popular belief that we're a nation of "spiritual", poetic Celts, Ireland has produced good scientists too.

GuanYin

Well Ireland is actually well renowned for science and technology.

I have a poster in my office with the following irish scientists.

An interesting thing I ask students is how many of the inventions or achievements are they aware of, and then how many did they know came from an irish scientist.

Usually the answer is about 9 (knew) - 3 (knew were irish) ....and these are science students!

Robert Boyle (1627-1691)
Quite simply the father of modern chemistry.

Sir Francis Beaufort (1774-1857 )
Developed the Beaufort Wind Force Scale.

Rev. Nicholas Callan (1799-1864)
Developed the induction coil.

Sir William Rowan Hamilton (1805-1865)
Developed "Hamiltonian Mechanics" which is used today in determining satellite trajectories.

John Tyndall (1820 –1893)
Discovered the Tyndall effect (he scattering of light by invisibly small suspended particles). Importantly showed that air contains dust particles, Tyndall also showed that it contains micro-organisms (without which I wouldn't be in a job).

William Thomson Kelvin (1824–1907)
Developed the Kelvin temperature scale.
His work on the conservation of energy in 1851 led to the second law of thermodynamics.
Did most of the theoretical groundwork for what led to the first successful transatlantic telegraph cable.

John Phillip Holland (1841-1914)
Designed the blueprint for what are now modern navy submarines.

George Fitzgerald (1851-1901) Proposer of the Fitzgerald-Lorentz contraction in the theory of relativity as the explanation for the null result of the Michelson-Morley experiment, which led directly to Einstein's Special Relativity.

Harry Ferguson (1884-1960)
Contributed tomodern agriculture with his design for what is now the basis of modern tractors.

Kathleen Londsdale (1903-1971)
Showed that Benzene has a flat ring structure (a discovery of paramount importance to organic chemistry).

Ernest Walton (1903-1995)
Nobel prize winner for Physics. With John Cockfort, split the nucleus of an atom for the first time.

ecksor

Originally posted by sykeirl
Sir William Rowan Hamilton (1805-1865)
Developed "Hamiltonian Mechanics" which is used today in determining satellite trajectories.

Quaternions too!

GuanYin

Originally posted by ecksor
Quaternions too!

Hehe, I was just gonna post in maths and ask you if you knew any more about him....


Just saved me the hassle!

jd

Originally posted by sykeirl
John Phillip Holland (1841-1914)
Designed the blueprint for what are now modern navy submarines.


Harry Ferguson (1884-1960)
Contributed tomodern agriculture with his design for what is now the basis of modern tractors.

engineers-not scientists imho

GuanYin

Or possibly "technologists"

CuLT

Alex Chiu

Invented "Immortality Device" .

smiles

Originally posted by ecksor
Quaternions too!

We get to talk about him in Maths.

tbh, they're constantly dropping the Irish inventors / mathematicans names all over the place in my course.

<< Fio >>

Sparks

I'm rather surprised a TCD science student wouldn't know of Walton - there's a lecture theatre they all use named after him, and Joly and McNeill, there's a building named after Hamilton and there's a plaque on the outside of the physics building dedicate to Walton and saying who he was.

GuanYin

It doesn't surprise me in the least to be honest.

People have an incredible ability to miss something right in front of them. Or put inability to put 2 and 2 together and get 4.