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Stephen Hawking is a mediocre scientist

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Tesseract

Tesseract

Banned
Who said:
I agree. Listening to him has never really made my ears perk up as much as the likes of Carl Sagan, Einstein, or Tesla

He has a very boring and kind of depressing view of the universe where those three have such a fascinating sometimes almost mystical view on things.




Dammit.
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those are three strange names to lump together, idk mate
 
Tarkus

Tarkus

Member
Newt said:
1. Mendel
2. Darwin
3. Newton
4. Einstein
5. Galileo
6. Rutherford
7. Kepler
8. Curie
9. Watson + Crick
10. Tesla
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Crick was much more important than Watson. Replace Kepler with Joseph Lister and Tesla with William Osler.
Then you'd have a perfect list.
 
M

Mgoblue201

Won't stop picking the right nation
Jackpot said:
Hawking's main theory about black holes was disproved and he later came up with an even more unlikely theory about them. Just recently he wrote a new paper and it was full of holes.
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Hawking was one of the first scientists to quantify the nature of black holes in that they contain large amounts of entropy and therefore emit radiation. As far as I'm aware, many of his ideas about black holes still stand in some form and have important implications about our understanding of gravity at the level of quantum physics. And even if they are overturned, his contributions to physics are still very important.
 
terrisus

terrisus

Member
hockeypuck said:
Your allopathic biases are quite strong.
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MHXX67S.gif
 
D

Deleted member 231381

Unconfirmed Member
That list has no Robert Boyle on it and as such is clearly invalid.
 
Krappadizzle

Krappadizzle

Member
hucast21 said:
Faraday had no mathematical training to my knowledge, and then Maxwell came along.
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Unless I'm mistaken, Faraday more or less didn't know how to put it all down mathematically and Maxwell figured out how to say what Faraday couldn't. So yes, you're mostly right. It was still Faraday's science though.
 
V

Volimar

Member
My vote goes to pretty much anyone that got a shuttlecraft named after them on a Star Trek series.

I don't know what Dr. Delta Flyer discovered, but it was probably awesome.
 
A

Admiral Bone to Pick

Banned
Always interesting to see people who have likely never accomplished anything substantial in their lives criticizing famous/historical figures.

"Stephen Hawking is mediocre!"

"Alexander the Great...was he really that great?"
 
T

twobear

sputum-flecked apoplexy
hucast21 said:
Faraday had no mathematical training to my knowledge, and then Maxwell came along.
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Faraday was still incredibly significant. He had no mathematical training but he did a lot of work that would eventually (in the hands of Maxwell) turn into the concept of a field, which is a central (perhaps the central) concept in modern physics.
 
V

Volotaire

Member
Shame no one knows about the genius of Von Neumann.

Known for all this. Not to say he may be better than some scientists on the top ten lists (other theorems have much more widespread use in their disciplines and others vs quantity), but he needs more credit.

Abelian von Neumann algebra
Affiliated operator
Amenable group
Arithmetic logic unit
Artificial viscosity (a numerical technique for simulating shock waves)
Axiom of regularity
Axiom of limitation of size
Backward induction
Blast wave (fluid dynamics)
Bounded set (topological vector space)
Carry-save adder
Cellular automata
Class (set theory)
Decoherence theory (Quantum mechanics)
Computer virus
Commutation theorem
Continuous geometry
Direct integral
Doubly stochastic matrix
Duality Theorem
Density matrix
Durbin–Watson statistic
Game theory
Hilbert's fifth problem
Hyperfinite type II factor
Ergodic theory
EDVAC
explosive lenses
Lattice theory
Lifting theory
Inner model
Inner model theory
Interior point method
Mutual assured destruction
Merge sort
Middle-square method
Minimax theorem
Monte Carlo method
Normal-form game
Pointless topology
Polarization identity
Pseudorandomness
PRNG
Quantum mutual information
Radiation implosion
Rank ring
Operator theory
Operation Greenhouse
Self-replication
Software whitening
Standard probability space
Stochastic computing
Subfactor
von Neumann algebra
von Neumann architecture
Von Neumann bicommutant theorem
Von Neumann cardinal assignment
Von Neumann cellular automaton
von Neumann constant (two of them)
Von Neumann interpretation
von Neumann measurement scheme
Von Neumann Ordinals
Von Neumann universal constructor
Von Neumann entropy
von Neumann Equation
Von Neumann neighborhood
Von Neumann paradox
Von Neumann regular ring
Von Neumann–Bernays–Gödel set theory
Von Neumann spectral theory
Von Neumann universe
Von Neumann conjecture
Von Neumann's inequality
Stone–von Neumann theorem
Von Neumann's trace inequality
Von Neumann stability analysis
Quantum statistical mechanics
Von Neumann extractor
Von Neumann ergodic theorem
Ultrastrong topology
Von Neumann–Morgenstern utility theorem
ZND detonation model
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Krappadizzle

Krappadizzle

Member
Admiral Bone to Pick said:
Always interesting to see people who have likely never accomplished anything substantial in their lives criticizing famous/historical figures.

"Stephen Hawking is mediocre!"

"Alexander the Great...was he really that great?"
Click to expand...

Can you tell me how Mr. Hawking has advanced or impacted physics/science in a substantial way?
 
A

Asbel

Member
dionysus said:
That is why my first paragraph talked about penicillin and DDT. Both of those have saved 100s of millions of lives. Got to define how we measure greatness.
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Benjamin Franklin proved that lightning was electricity and created the lightning rod, which saved countless lives, homes and cities. He was a great man but people don't compare his scientific accomplishments to Einstein, who showed us some of the basic natures of reality like how time is relative. Really, just think about how insane it is that time progresses at different speeds depending on where you are at or what you are doing.
 
T

Trey

Member
godelsmetric said:
Faraday was still incredibly significant. He had no mathematical training but he did a lot of work that would eventually (in the hands of Maxwell) turn into the concept of a field, which is a central (perhaps the central) concept in modern physics.
Click to expand...

Einstein has said he would not have made progress in his theory of special relativity without the work of Maxwell, who in turn would have no base for his mathematical prowess if not for Faraday.

The line of scienctific progress is so fascinating.
 
K

Kill3r7

Member
Trey said:
Einstein has said he would not have made progress in his theory of special relativity without the work of Maxwell, who in turn would have no base for his mathematical prowess if not for Faraday.

The line of scienctific progress is so fascinating.
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"If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants." - Isaac Newton
 
Krappadizzle

Krappadizzle

Member
Asbel said:
Benjamin Franklin proved that lightning was electricity and created the lightning rod, which saved countless lives, homes and cities. He was a great man but people don't compare his scientific accomplishments to Einstein, who showed us some of the basic natures of reality like how time is relative. Really, just think about how insane it is that time progresses at different speeds depending on where you are at or what you are doing.
Click to expand...

I've not been able to explain relativity in a way that my wife will understand it. She has trouble grasping how time and gravity/speed are related. It blows my mind and get's me so giddy thinking about it. I love science. Shit is crazy.
 
A

Aristion

Banned
bitocoder said:
The foundations of Science were formulated by a bunch of people who were proven wrong. And being in someone's top ten does not make you a terrible Scientist.

Go look at those top ten Physicists. I have no doubt they are all over 100 and were proven wrong a thousand times.
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OP said Hawking is mediocre, not terrible.
 
S

smokeandmirrors

Banned
PSA: Having a theory disprove is also important to science.

Volotaire said:
Shame no one knows about the genius of Von Neumann.

Known for all this. Not to say he may be better than some scientists on the top ten lists (other theorems have much more widespread use in their disciplines and others vs quantity), but he needs more credit.
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dude was one of the last great polymath's. and (a variant of) von Neumann architecture is still the base architecture for computing. also cellular automata are so fucking cool i did an entire project on them alone.

what I would give to hear this man speak. on anything.
 
D

Delta Assault

Member
Neuromancer said:
Let's have this fight right now. Who are everyone's top 10 scientists? I'll go first.


  1. Einstein
  2. Edison
  3. Copernicus
  4. Whitney
  5. DaVinci
  6. Archimedes
  7. Nye
  8. DeGrasse Tyson
  9. Sagan
  10. Perkins
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Carl Linnaeus: Named absolutely everything. This is an achievement. We also derived the word "lineage" from his name.
Georg Wilhelm Steller: Named the few things that Linnaeus didn't get to. Famous for naming a giant ass sea cow after himself. Sea cow is now unfortunately dead.
Rosalind Franklin: Actually did most of the work that Watson and Crick took credit for. I discovered this while reading a particularly enthralling issue of "Y the Last Man."
Albert Einstein: Helped Christian Walker make sense of the world in Brian Michael Bendis's "Powers."
Nicolai Tesla: Helped Hugh Jackman teleport in Christopher Nolan's "The Prestige."
Carl Sagan: I really liked his movie "Contact."

Wait, I guess that's not ten. Oh well.
 
D

Deleted member 80556

Unconfirmed Member
marrec said:
Tesla was alright but no way does he make a top ten, people.

Unless it's "Top Ten grossly overrated scientists"
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Geez, you people wouldn't even be having this conversation through a computer if it weren't for Tesla. Next time you also change your TV channel, thank Tesla. Also the disponibility of electricity. Hidroelectric plants. Radio astronomy, etc.

He might not have done huge discoveries like others, but he shaped modern lifestyles. He was an inventor first and most.
 
T

twobear

sputum-flecked apoplexy
Trey said:
Einstein has said he would not have made progress in his theory of special relativity without the work of Maxwell, who in turn would have no base for his mathematical prowess if not for Faraday.

The line of scienctific progress is so fascinating.
Click to expand...

Yeah. It's often claimed that Einstein drew the idea for special relativity from the null result of the Michelson-Morley experiment, but he actually took it from considerations of symmetry in Maxwell's equations (I don't think his 1905 paper mentions the Michelson-Morley experiments at all, at least not directly, only discussions of asymmetries in Maxwell's equations).
 
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