KittenKoder
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Nikola Tesla. More of an inventor I guess, but his inventions were scientific.
Lots of people don't know who Nikola Tesla was. He's less famous than Einstein. He's less famous than Leonardo. He's arguably less famous than Stephen Hawking. Most gallingly for his fans, he's considerably less famous than his arch-rival Thomas Edison. But his work helped deliver the power for the device on which you are reading this. His invention of the induction motor that would work with alternating current (AC) was a milestone in modern electrical systems. Mark Twain, whom he later befriended, described his invention as "the most valuable patent since the telephone".
Tesla was on the winning side in the War of the Currents - the battle between George Westinghouse and Thomas Edison to establish whether AC or direct current (DC) would be used for electricity transmission. But as far as posterity goes, time has not been kind to Tesla. Born in what is now Croatia to Serbian parents, he moved to New York in 1884 and developed radio controlled vehicles, wireless energy and the first hydro-electric plant at Niagara Falls. But he was an eccentric. He believed celibacy spurred on the brain, thought he had communicated with extraterrestrials, and fell in love with a pigeon.
Over recent decades he has drifted into relative obscurity, while Edison is lauded as one of the world's greatest inventors. But his memory is kept alive by legions of "geeks" and science historians. A Tesla museum on the site of his former laboratory is being planned after a crowdfunding project orchestrated by The Oatmeal cartoon site. It raised more than its target of $850,000 - which will be matched by the New York state authorities - in the first week. The total is now well over $1m. A possible biopic starring Christian Bale and directed by Mike Newell is doing the rounds of the Hollywood rumour mill.
The crowdfunding idea was the brainchild of Matthew Inman, the cartoonist behind The Oatmeal. Inman heard of the museum appeal and decided to help. Tesla is a hero, he argues who "drop-kicked humanity into a second industrial revolution". His triumph was his work on systems for AC. Edison's DC worked well for lighting but could not be used to transmit electricity for long distances. AC was backed by the Westinghouse Corporation. Its voltage could be stepped up and down easily so it could be transported over long distances at high voltage, using a lower current and therefore losing less energy in transit. The stumbling block for AC had been motors. But Tesla's design for an induction motor and transformer cleared the way. It's enough to justify a fair measure of adulation, says Inman.
More BBC News - Nikola Tesla: The patron saint of geeks?
1) Isacc Newton: Gravity, calculus, and the laws of mechanics. and motion Top dog. Game over.
2) Charles Darwin: No, dinosaurs did not live along side humans, and the earth is not 6000 years old.
3) Galileo: Rennassaince man, the poster child of enlightenment against the Church's ignorance and oppression.
For the women:
-Marie Curie: If I'm not mistaken, the only scientist in history who won two Nobel prizes in two different scientific fields.
Nikola Tesla. More of an inventor I guess, but his inventions were scientific.
when they're that brilliant, they're "eccentric".
I have to add Jonas Salk to the list.
for mani:
Professor from Gilligan's Island.
I actually met a science legend once.
I met Jane Goodall. That was cool. She smelled like chimpanzee.