USA Today’s Snapshot for 29 June was a survey in which 1000 adults were asked to name a famous scientist. Here are the results:
47% named Albert Einstein
23% could not name anyone
6% named Marie Curie
4% named Louis Pasteur
4% named Thomas Edison
The survey was conducted by L’Oreal, but the methods were not revealed. Therefore it is not possible to determine if the results can be extended to the adult population in general. Nevertheless, the poor showing on naming a famous scientist is an indictment of the science education of those who participated in the survey.
I’m interested in how the readers of virology blog would respond to the question, ‘Name a scientist’ – it doesn’t have to be a famous scientist, and it should not be a relative, or the author of virology blog. Don’t look up someone in a book or online – I’m interested in who you would think of spontaneously. Post your answer – just one scientist – in the comments section, or send it to virology@virology.ws. I’ll reveal the results here in a few weeks.
In attempting to determine how the L’Oreal survey was conducted, I learned about the L’Oreal-UNESCO For Women in Science Program, an effort to celebrate women who have dedicated their careers to scientific research, and to encourage emerging talent to pursue scientific discoveries. It’s a commendable program, and I do hope they impress upon the recipients of these awards the need to educate the public about their work.
Ernest Rutherford.
Then again I'm a Kiwi and he's probably one of the more well known Kiwi's in history. 🙂
Hi there!
Pasteur was the man!
Virology blog is in my blogroll (which is a nanobiotechnology blog in portuguese, named magic bullet – in portuguese too of course)
Congratulations for your blog!
Louis Pasteur was the first one to jump into my head. Surprised he could fit really.
Not surprised that a significant percentage of the general population were unable to name a scientist though.
Wesley Wong who recently published some fine work in Nature elucidating cleavage mechanisms in the von Willebrands protein was the first non-relative to come to my mind. He's also a friendly and receptive chap when faced with communications from stranger than average (Kiwi) strangers.
Lavoisier
Geraldo Rivera.
Sorry, couldn't resist!
Gregory Bateson.
Watson & Crick
Watson and Crick
Richard Feynman – the best!
My favorites for me are Carl Sagan (astronomer) and Isaac Asimov (PhD in biochemistry). I chose them primarily for their literature works but still they're scientists.
Alexander Fleming
Darwin was the first to come to mind.
Doris Taylor. I just listened to a podcast from the Univ. of Minnesota a couple of days ago in which she discussed her work with stem cells and replacing damaged organs. Fascinating research.
L. Pasteur and J. Monod are groundbreaking scientists!
Carl Woese.
James Watson.
Isaac Newton
Norman Borlaug
Linus Pauling
Stephen Hawking
Richard Feynman !
Robert Koch
Stephen Hawking was my first thought
Dr. E.O. Wilson
Benjamin Frankin
Sorry Mr. Franklin
John Travolta, Tom Cruise, Isaac Hayes, and Sarah Palin
Max Planck
Gregor Mendel, considered the father of genetics for documenting inherited traits in plants.
Herb York (RIP) first comes to mind, Henry Abarbanel at UCSD, Ramanathan at UCSD- Scripps, Vujica (sp?) and Dan Chivers, Bethany Lyles, all at UC Berkeley's Nuclear Engineering Dept.,
Chu. Oppenheimer. Maybe I read the wrong blogs? But am I the only one to notice that 4% named an engineer?
Stephen Hawking.
Darwin; Wallace; Planck; Lorentz; Maxwell; Feynman; Sagan; Kelvin; Watt; Volt; Ohm; Dennett; Asimov; Ada; Curie; Tesla; Bernouillie; Pascal; Newton; Minsky; Rontgen; Becquerel; Joule; Gallileo; da Vinci; Nobel; Dawkins; Mendelev; Petrie; Bohr; Hofstadter; Goldstein; Savoy; Dirac; Hawking; Penrose; Fermi; Drake; Hubble; Oppenheimer; Einstein; Hertz; Vander Waal; Cherenkov; Bose; Podolsky; Dyson; Herzsprung; Russell; Schwarzschild; Gellmann; Wolfram; Ervynck
/not a US adult, sorry.
a pure guess – Edward Jenner. Who I think was famous in relation to vaccinations
In less than 5 minutes from the top of my head.
Aristotle
Charles Darwin
Lord Kelvin
Albert Einstein
Heisenberg
Alfred Nobel
Schroedinger
Louis Pasteur
Mendel
Nicolas Tesla
Marie Curie
Bose
Carnot
Max Planck
Maxwell
Fibonacci
Voltaire
Leonardo DaVinci
Gallileo
Corpernicus
Verner Von Brown
Isaac Newton
Isaac Asimov
Michael Faraday.
My dear friend , Mr. Spock of Vulcan.
I'm biased as I would say: Albert Osterhaus. But that's because of my previous jobs where his name would regularly be mentioned in relation to electronic publishing.
Jerry brukheimmer or openhiemmer I dont know, well he did something.
Asimov, well then how about Forsyth or Ludlum?
Clarke Fraser
Galileo Galilei, Faraday, Werner Heisenberg, The Curies, Guglielmo Marconi, Nikola Tesla,
Francis Bacon was my first thought. Although that could be mostly because I'm hungry…
Off the top of my head, I'd say Hawking, Newton, Einstein, Bohr, Degrasse Tyson, Pasteur, Curie, Edison, Franklin, Tesla.
Can I count computer scientists, like Vint Cerf?
nikola tesla – makes einstein look like george bush
First name that popped into my head: Feynman.
Niels Bohr.
John von Neumann: computer science, physics, math, economics. A real polymath.
Carl Sagan
Paul Dirac