• Question: Who is your favourite scientist?

    Asked by 268bera39 to Colin, John, Kevin, Shikha, Triona on 7 Nov 2014. This question was also asked by Eoin_The_Pope4040.
    • Photo: Shikha Sharma

      Shikha Sharma answered on 7 Nov 2014:

      Hi 268bera39,
      I believe all researchers are unique and they should get same kind of appreciation for their hard work. But I would say Marie Skłodowska-Curie was one scientist who really inspires me as she was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize. In 1903, she won this prestigious award with her husband for their work on radioactivity. And in 1911, she won her second Nobel Prize in chemistry for discovery of radium and polonium. Really hats off to the lady for her efforts in development of science.
      I know you have asked just one 🙂 but I really want to mention another prominent Indian scientist, C.V. Raman, he was the first Indian person who won Nobel Prize in science “Raman Effect”. The surprising thing is that he used equipment worth merely 2.6 Euros to make this discovery.
      Isn’t that amazing..
      Shikha

    • Photo: Kevin Motherway

      Kevin Motherway answered on 8 Nov 2014:

      André Geim who was one of the co-discoverers of graphene would be one good candidate. He won an Ig Nobel Prize In 2000 and faced international ridicule for doing experiments on trying to levitate frogs in magnetic fields and took it all in good spirits and turned up to accept the award saying he just loves mucking about in the lab.

      He had the last laugh when in 2010 he became the first person to have won both the Ig Nobel Prize and then the Nobel Prize for Physics for being a co-discoverers of graphene. Graphene is a super thin, super strong form of carbon that will revolutionise our world and make carbon fibre look like soggy cardboard by comparison. And how did he discover graphene? Using sellotape to try and get the thinnest layer possible of graphite from pencil leads, for a laugh. He got it down to one atom thick.

      Zero resources + endless curiosity + a sense of humour when you’re being ridiculed = Nobel Prize.

      His colleague from University of Manchester Brian Cox would also be a hero of mine though. Not because of his dreamy eyes or perfect hair but because he has done so much to popularise science and make it cool and relevant in our daily media. Again he is a very serious scientist who has achieved huge things at CERN, but he doesn’t take himself very seriously and is the first to mock his fame. All that adds up to funding for science and kids choosing science courses and hopefully really interesting careers “mucking about in the lab”.

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