• Question: do you think that you are the best scientist in the world? and if so why?

    Asked by jakepearl to Alice JB, Andy, Barbara, James, Jo on 13 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Andy Norton

      Andy Norton answered on 13 Jun 2011:

      Hehe. No, I don’t think that I am. I try really hard at what I do, and I get better at experiments and more knowledgeable as I get older, but I don’t think that I am the best at what I do. Maybe one day, if I keep working hard, I might be one of the experts in my research field, and I’ll be happy with that 🙂

      Who do you think is the best scientist in the world?

    • Photo: Barbara Guinn

      Barbara Guinn answered on 13 Jun 2011:

      I am definately not the best scientist in the world. The best scientists in the world (I think) are decided based on the number and quality of their scientific publications, or their ability to communicate their research, or their invention of something really important (cure for a childhood leukaemia, invention of the telephone and the internet) and probably all of the above. The best scientists I think were Albert Einstein, Galileo, Marie Curie, Charles Darwin, Francis Crick & James Watson, Gregor Mendel and Edward Jenner.

    • Photo: Alice Jones Bartoli

      Alice Jones Bartoli answered on 13 Jun 2011:

      haha, no way… there are LOADS of people that are brilliant scientists, and it’s great for me to have so many to look up to. I’ve been lucky enough to work with some of the very best psychologists in the area of child development and antisocial behaviour, and I’ve been able to learn a lot from them.

      The best scientists in the world are sometimes the most creative – those people who are able to see a solution to a problem in a different way, sometimes challenging the way that everyone else is thinking. For me, one of the best scientists in the world has been John Snow, who challenged everyone’s beliefs about what caused illnesses like cholera, by demonstrating that it was a water pump that was causing a lot of sickness and death in London in 1854. You can read about him here (read the bit about cholera – it’s the best bit) – it’s that kind of thinking and stubbornness that makes you the best.

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