Larian Studios Forums General Chat Chat (Anything) XXth century scientific references.

idea: sharing scientific cultural references even in a not too serious tone...

rules: a link + a personnal short comment. limited to XXth century (or it would be too long)

wish: many people participating to this here, with many different references.

i begin

Albert Einstein

personnnal comment: no need to comment... All has already been said much better than I can do

Stephen Hawking

personnal comment: same thing as Einstein... Main difference is a dice's thing and the role of God in the universe <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/silly.gif" alt="" />

Kurt Gödel
personnal comment: oops... it take me years to understand the right use of his 3 theorems. None except in the logical order. Philosophers have almost overlooked that fact for some years. And i still have to make understand to some of my students he is not a popstar who has commited suicide some years ago <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" />

David Hilbert

personnal comment: He was a sweet dreamer but such a visionnary it is not really hard to forgive him to be definitly wrong! Oned of my greater regret in life is to not have been alive in 1905 when he was in paris... not that i would have been able to make anything with his challenge but... just for being there!!!

Benoît Mandelbrot

personnal comment: it's so cute, so beautiful... fractal theory is born perfect. Something quite rare in History of science.

To Be Continued....?

Dr. Edward Witten

M-Theory is a solution proposed for the unknown theory of everything which would combine all five superstring theories and 11-dimensional supergravity together.

Nikola Tesla - a genius ? At least a person who's concepts are still far from widely understood.

Preston Tucker - although no scientist, his works are still unmatched. Only last year I read about the first automobile featuring his unique "middle lamp" for enlightenig the road as the driver uses the steering wheel.

Jules Verne - although no scientist, his concepts sketched in his works were far aheade of his time.

(Sorry, I wanted Jules Verne to be in.)

Henri Poincaré

comment: one of the most curious mind of the last century (well i cheat a bit more XIXth than XXth... some of his major works were XXth though). Intuitionnist before the Intuitionnists and one of the scientific who discovered the main elements of Einstein relativity theory without seeing it was a theory <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/disagree.gif" alt="" />... Between many other things... the link is probably not the better that may be found but i'm not very knowing about informations for french mathematicians in english <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/silly.gif" alt="" />

Alfred Tarski

comment: the only one who truly understood Gödel's theorems? At least the one who had the courage to have a true coherent axiomatic project after them.

Alexander Fleming

comment: certainly one of the greatest and most important inventions for today's medicine.

Erich Fromm

comment: In my opinion one of the brightest brains of our times. He is brilliant, really. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Thomas Alva Edisson - u don't get any brighter than that. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/silly.gif" alt="" />

not a light bulb, rather a dark sucker!

Thomas Alva Edisson is 19th century <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

Max Planck

comment: one of the greatest physicians of the century and it is near impossible to see physics theory with a newtonian model in head after his works.
link to Max Planck Institute

but nobody told him about it! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ROFL.gif" alt="" />

Watson and Crick

Love the pic. What a pair of geeks. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ROFL.gif" alt="" />