In 2000 TIME Magazine dubbed Albert Einstein the "Person of the Twentieth Century".

Some pundits argued that TIME got it wrong. Hitler, they argued, had a greater influence on the history of the 20th Century than Einstein.

On balance I think TIME got it right. Here's why.

Think back to those two 17th Century figures, Oliver Cromwell and Isaac Newton. Outside the English speaking world few have heard of Cromwell; but every educated person knows about Isaac Newton. Similarly, I think Einstein's contribution to science will be remembered long after Hitler has been relegated to the status of obscure European warlord of interest only to a few historians.

But who deserves the title "Person of the Second Millennium"? Who, between AD 1000 and AD 2000 had the greatest impact on history?

Does Einstein get that title as well?

My vote goes to Charles Darwin though some would argue he should share the honour with Alfred Russell Wallace*. In 1859 the Theory of Evolution through NATURAL SELECTION was a BRILLIANT leap of scientific imagination.

In its early days the theory faced many obstacles. No one could imagine what sort of fuel could keep the sun burning for the hundreds of millions of years needed for evolution to work its magic. The actual mechanism of inheritance was unknown. Even the supposed age of the Earth – 400 million years at the outside said Lord Kelvin, one of the foremost scientists of his time – presented a problem. In reality, back in 1859, Darwinian evolution was not so much a "theory" as an "hypothesis".

But, in the end, Darwin's theory triumphed and the world has never been the same. The publication of "On the Origin of the Species" heralded a true discontinuity in human history.

As runners up I nominate Galileo Galilei and Isaac Newton.

Do other posters have any thoughts?

*See http://www.wku.edu/~smithch/index1.ht

My runners up for "Person of the 20th Century" would be Werner Heisenberg and Max Born for the uncertainty principle, Linus Pauling for his work on the nature of the chemical bond and James Watson and Frances Crick for the structure of DNA.

In terms of Australia, I don't really think you can go past John Howard.

If you believe most of the left wing political commentators, SMH letters contributors, and many of the OLO community this man had absolutely astounding influence on the very fabric of Australia. He had such amazingly wide ranging influence on the populace, in such a wholly negative way, reaching to the very core (and non-core) beliefs of every single citizen.

I mean Keating said 'if you change the Prime Minister, you change the country', but I'm sure he had no idea how fully and to what scale this was possible. The very fabric of Australian culture and personal values of each person was forever changed by this one man, John Winston Howard.

But on a world scale, well, who could go past Tom Cruise.

I think whoever discovered/invented electricity should win. It is the one most fundamental discovery that has led to everything else and without it we would have nothing.

Steven
Wow what a topic.
Nominations should include:
Pope Clement VII in that he excommunicated Henry VIII ( because he had one more “I” than him?) caused the schism in religion that arguably changed the world.

Pope Urban II that created the problem between the Christians and Muslims (first Crusade) it's still persists today.

Columbus he found America (before it was lost) and that has changed the world

Dirk Hartog because he found Australia but rightly described it as worthless. Dutch wisdom.

Gandhi because I like salt (?) (historical joke) because he introduced non violent protestation, a good idea.

Henry Ford he introduced road pollution in a systematic way, still with us today and has changed our world

How about the man that set up McDonald's he's changed food and the body weights of of the people in half the world.

Griggs Chandler the man who founded coca cola. As above and add god to dentists.

Neil Armstrong because he cocked up his speech that is now history

and me because I'm the best Zionist plot detector ever.

LOL Examinator

Some others that had big influences in their fields of endeavour:

Genghis Khan
Sam Adams (freeing up trade in the US)
Andrew Carnegie (building up the US steel industry)
Nikola Tesla (developing AC motors, a vastly more efficient technique than DC electricity, amongst other things)
George Westinghouse (for industrialising the US in the early 1900s)
Louis Pasteur (father of modern microbiology)

The trouble with picking the most influential person is on what criteria? Greatest practical benefit to mankind, the best idea, the best individual talent? Then you have to acknowledge that the modern greats stand on the shoulders of their predecessors. IMO, it's impossible to pick just one.

Henry the Navigator.

I agree RobP, It is impossible to defiine the 'Man of the Second Millenium' (and why just Man, I ask?)
Lets not forget women like Florence Nightingale and Marie Curie for their benefits to mankiind. And what about development of art, music, literature, film? Where would we be without people like Picasso, Steinbeck or even MJ?!

Perhaps it would be better to create a top 100 'Person of the Second Millenium' lists in a variety of categories? So for example benefits to science, medicine, art, human rights (where would we be without Martin Luther King?, technology etc etc!

Mikk you twit, if someone tried to invent electricity now it would be illegal and considered highly dangerous. What it did was stop us lazy buggers from finding something better.

But anyways… Einstein said cool stuff so he should have it:

Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.
Albert Einstein

Intellectuals solve problems, geniuses prevent them.
Albert Einstein

Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.
Albert Einstein

But yeah… I didn’t meet EVERYONE before 2001 so really can’t decide.
The Pied Piper

Brilliant flanking move, StevenLMeyer! Three discussions about evolution up and running at the one time. You don't have to be Einstien to see what you have done. It will be interesting to see how the discussion evolves. Whilst we undoubtedly have the space, do we have the time in this continuum? Will time dilate for us, I wonder?

Love your focus on runners-up.

Brilliant, too, your up-front breaching of Godwin's Law. Saves a lot of time and slagging. Gave me the gefreiter of my life to see it right at the point of natural focus on the screen. What a shame we didn't get him at Frommelles.

I have to second (there you go again, time comes into it all the time) Agronomist's nomination:

Henry the Navigator.

An honourable mention to one of Henry's disciples, Cristovao de Mendonca, c.1521.

Another honourable mention, John Harrison, inventor of the chronometer. For measuring time accurately.

Year of the millenium? 1521, for a variety of reasons.

Singer/song of the millenium? Cindy Lauper, "Time after time".

Must go now. All I have time for. Congratulations once again.

PS Hope things are not too slow in the practice at the moment.

PPS The boat of the millenium, the Beagle, without which Darwin would not have been able to dog his theory down.

I'm glad you all like this thread.

Examinator, RobP, Robby22, Pied Piper

When deciding on Darwin I imagined the following thought experiment.

Takes four groups of 100 bright final year schoolchildren from each of the China, Europe,Indonesia and the US. Would more than two thirds of the children in each group have heard of the man or his achievements?

I think among bright schoolchildren Darwin passes that test. Darwin is known across three major cultures, Western, Confucian and Muslim. With respect to you all I don’t think any of the people you've proposed can meet that test.

Of course you can argue that I don’t know that Darwin could pass that test either. I'm just guessing.

True. But I think it is a plausible guess.

In the US and across the Muslim world people are not fighting the "Henry the Navigator" or "Florence Nightingale" wars. But they are passionate about Darwin.

Examinator, I suggest that evolution through natural selection changed the way we think about ourselves and what it means to be human in a way that a conflict between Christians and Muslims does not. Religions will come and go; but evolution will be a fact of life for so long as there will be a human civilisation

einstein wrote e=mc2...its gibberish...e stands for energy...einstein states...mass times the speed of light [squared]..=mass...so simplt speaking energy is two times a really big number...but we know the speed of light..thus can state it's.. double the m-asss...with a lot of 0's after it...but essentially its gibberish

this plagerising patent clerk...saw a clock face...or rather the light bounced off it...realised that if he could move at the same light speed...he would allways read the clock at the same time...because thats the reflection the light scatter conveys outwards...lol..at the speed of life...in REAL life it means cccrap..[as the clock keeps moving on...and he dont move at the speed of light..[nothing seen can]

but there is more[i just wasted two hours fruitlessly searching for it...it is a photo of einstein...lol its a slapstick comedy...[really...he made 3 of them...but with his dumb equations..gaining media credance[and the need to build science god heads..to sell the evolution fairytale..all three WERE SUPPRESSED...i only saw the photo years ago in a mens magizine

anyhow the myth building goes on..

here is a quote on how to get science degrees...its the score bias...upon which pas or fail rests...its very revealing....<<..for mentioning..Electricity & Magnetism..score...30..point..for defending..<<..E = mc2 Defense earns...60..points...for..NHS Writing Rubric..=10..lol

from
http://s3-us2.startpage.com/do/highlight.pl?l=english&c=hf&cat=web&q=einstein+hanging+off+a+clock+face&rl=NONE&rid=MBLMPPLOLSTR&hlq=http%3A%2F%2Fs3-us2.startpage.com%2Fdo%2Fmetasearch.pl%3Fstartat%3D10%26cat%3Dweb%26cmd%3Dprocess_search%26language%3Denglish%26query%3Deinstein++hanging+off+a+clock+face%26qid%3DMBLMPPLOLSTR%26rl%3DNONE&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pbs.org%2Fwgbh%2Fnova%2Fteachers%2Fideas%2F2311_einstein.html&nwwndw=1

also from link...please note who invented what...<<
energy (Michael Faraday)
mass (Antoine-Laurent and Marie Anne Lavoisier)
light (Michael Faraday and James Clerk Maxwell)
velocity - c2 (Gottfried von Leibniz and Emilie du Châtelet)
development of E = mc2 (Albert Einstein) >>...and of course anything equal to the speed of light...comes from his brain drifting somewhere...out there...where the time is allways 6 oclock...lol

to save double posting give some science here
http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=3114&page=0

the thread is full of mind numb hynotised a'thiest'ss
who cant explain the science..behind their athiest faithlessness..lol

but its all..a zionist media driven distraction...
pre bomb/bomb iran...bringing on army-geddon..bah humbuggggggeroff
that and promoting the superman/..

zionist/teutionic/bolchovic/jews who rule every facit of human endeavour..thanks to media/guilt..hero making..of frauds...playing their genes..

as promoted in film..and word...look at the commentators constantly promoted as spokesman..in lue of news..that goes as far as suppressing..possably the funniest comedy/comedian..ever...its nearly intelectual../but mostly slapstiche...reportedly

personally i nominate pope joan...the only/pope ever..who gave bith..while pope...many of the mary/child.. pictures are actually the pope joan...she made a whole new ritual[sitting nakid...on a bench with a hole in it...with the male appendage dangling...and tested..for attatchment..lol

now thats a pope worth knowing about..but completly written out..of his-story...even during the womans liberarchics/age..

as-for nominating the millenium person
its not a person...person means personum..[a mask]..persona have spin merchants...spinning their legend...ok i give it to alex jones...

my nomination is the sun...long may the long lived sun shine its belessings and goodness and life...in thy light

OUG,

>>also from link...please note who invented what...<<
energy (Michael Faraday)
mass (Antoine-Laurent and Marie Anne Lavoisier)
light (Michael Faraday and James Clerk Maxwell)
velocity - c2 (Gottfried von Leibniz and Emilie du Châtelet)
development of E = mc2 (Albert Einstein)<<

Yes, there were a whole cast of different people that discovered the important elements that culminated in Einstein's famous E=mc2.

Faraday discovered electricity, Maxwell discovered that a current in a wire created an electromagnetic field like light, du Châtelet proved that the energy of a body was proportional to the square of its velocity and a Jewess who worked in a German university in the 1930s (can't remember her name now) discovered that, in an atom bombardment experiment, the energy released + mass of the resultant particles after a nucleus was broken up, was equal to the binding energy holding the atom together plus the mass of the constituent protons and neutrons - hence, E=mc2 as well the law of conservation of mass and energy was proved. She, BTW, had to flee Germany when Hitler rose to prominence and consequently had the credit for her discovery stolen by her supervisor.

So, when you sift through it all, the one who gets the most credit, Steven, is the biggest celebrity, not the one who works the hardest. (Sounds just like a "There was a mathematician, a scientist and an engineer ..." joke.) But then again he might just have got your gong because of his penchant for wearing mismatching socks and inspiring Bob Dylan (they look very much alike, you know).

LOL RobP

The "Jewess" you are thinking of was probably Lisa Meitner. Together with Otto Hahn she discovered nuclear fission in the 1930s.

See:
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/373527/Lise-Meitner

Mikk,

No one person invented or discovered electricity.

Alessandro Volta seems to have built the first battery around 1800 – hence volts as the measure of potential difference.

Oersted and Ampere elucidated relationship between electricity and magnetism. Ampere is the unit of current used in the SI system of units. Oersted is the unit of magnetic flux.

Biot & Savat quantified that relationship – we still use the "Biot – Savat" law they established to this day.

Georg Ohm discovered the laws that govern the conduction of electricity. The unit of electrical resistance is called the ohm.

Michael Faraday discovered magnetic induction – the basis for electricity generation. The farad, the unit of capacitance, is named in his honour. (RobP, he did not discover electricity)

In 1850 William Gladstone, then British Chancellor of the Exchequer, allegedly asked Faraday of what practical value electricity was.

'One day sir, you may tax it' was Faraday's supposed reply.

Thomas Edison set up the world's first commercial electricity generating and distribution company. His system used direct current (DC).

Westinghouse and Tesla introduced the alternating current (AC) system in use today. The advantage of the AC system is that electricity can be transmitted economically over long distances at high voltages and then "stepped down" using transformers to lower voltages that are safe for domestic use.

Tesla was a true eccentric genius. See:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla

The tesla, the unit of magnetic flux density in the SI system, is named in his honour.

Tesla BTW reputedly said "Never trust a Jew".

Steven,

It was Lise Meitner I was talking about. Not sure what you're laughing out loud about, but what I said about her was my recollection of a multi-part documentary re E=mc2 I saw on TV a few years ago. Anyway, if my recollection was right, the show said she was a Jewess, who was forced to flee from the university she was working at. The show also portrayed her as being the first person to prove Einstein's equation in subatomic experiments.

>>Tesla BTW reputedly said "Never trust a Jew".<<

I read a biography on Tesla and agree he was a scientific superstar. Maybe it was because he finished life penniless after festooning mankind with all sorts of great inventions, that he saw Jews the way he did. Perhaps it was a case of he worked hard and prolifically but was not rewarded, while they used political leverage to get ahead.

As you probably know, when Tesla first came to the US, he worked for Edison. They were poles apart (no pun intended) and Tesla did not like working for him. If it is said of Edison that he believed making progress was "1% inspiration and 99% perspiration" then one could probably say the exact opposite of Tesla. Tesla was aware that his way of looking at electricity was dynamic and more powerful than Edison's. For example, to get the same output from a DC system as an AC system a much heavier cable was required. My understanding is that the invention of alternating current effectively made portable motors that could be used in equipment like backhoes and on-site generators possible.

This difference in philosophy and practice was the stumbling block between them.

<<The 1921 Nobel-Prize..to Albert Einstein..(awarded..1922)>>
it was for a formula..[no supprise there..[but i dare you to name the formula..[and it isnt..e=mc2]

<<Albert Einstein in 1905 drew the conclusion that light sometimes behaves as particles>>>wrongly as it turns out[light is individual particles..released by an..'event'..releasing the particles in waves

anyhow einstein/plagerised..<<..through an ingenious statistical analysis of Wien's formula..for the wave length distribution of heat radiation.

Einstein saw that his..'new idea'..would provide a natural explanation..lol..of the photoelectric effect,i.e...the emission of electrons from metal surfaces illuminated by light...The wave theory of light..was quite unable to do so.>>

Nobel Prize..to Einstein..in 1922 was based on his..'discovery'..of the law of..the photoelectric effect.



Einstein repeated the statistical calculation.with Planck's formula as the basis,..which is more..'general'..lol..than Wien's,..and drew the conclusion..that both the concept of waves..and the concept of particles>>>..both pregsisting

During a seminar/discussion..in 1909..Einstein used..this..'new calculation'..in order to..try to..convince Planck and others present..of the necessity to consider light..also..as..consisting of..a number of independent particles.

As is well known Einstein..did not get the Nobel Prize for his relativity theories..The 1911 Nobel Laureate..in Physiology or Medicine..Allvar Gullstrand..was of the opinion..that the correctness of Einstein's..special relativity theory..rested on belief.....not proven facts,>>>lol<<..and..the general relativity theory..could in his opinion..not stand a critical analysis.

Now,..does not the prize to Einstein..imply that the Academy recognised the particle nature of light?..

The Nobel Committee says that Einstein..had found that..the energy exchange..between matter and ether>>..note..no comment on the validity of aether?...lol..<<..occurs by atoms emitting...or...lol..absorbing..a quantum of energy,

As a consequence..of the new concept of light quanta..(in modern terminology..photons)..Einstein proposed the law..that an electron..emitted from a substance..by..monochromatic light..with the frequency?..has to have a maximum energy of..>>[no words omitted]<<where is the energy needed..to remove..the electron from the substance.

Robert Andrews Millikan..carried out a series of measurements..over a period of 10 years,..finally confirming the validity..of this law in 1916...did he get the prize,...no

einstein got his..for adding a '-p'..to Planck's constant....This new constant of nature..(with the dimension of energy..multiplied by time)..connects the quantum of energy..with the frequency of light..

through the formula E=hv...einsteins was E=hv-P...where the heck is E=mc2....that didnt earn buckiss..but see where the light/2..[and the P-/lank]..come from...lol

OUG

A correction to OUG's previous post.

Robert A. Millikan won a Nobel in 1923.

See:

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1923/millikan-bio.html

I do not think it worthwhile commenting on the rest of OUG's post

BTW Millikan is certainly one of the more intiguing figures of early 20th Century physics. For those who are interested here is a link to a sort of scientific biography of the man.

http://eands.caltech.edu/articles/Millikan%20Feature.pdf

Quote:

"Undoubtedly Millikan’s biases [about Jews]were typical at the time of a man of his upbringing and background. It should be said that, regardless of whatever prejudices he harbored, they never interfered with his judgment of scientists. His hero A. A. Michelson was Jewish, as were many of the stars Millikan personally recruited to Caltech: Paul Epstein, Albert Einstein, Theodore von Kármán, and Beno Gutenberg among others."

thanks for the correction steve
here is the link...
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/articles/ekspong/

the..'no'..was my bad..
i just presumed the reward/prize..would go to the one did the work
not the einstein..who added a p to planks formula
also the result of a lot of work

but guess middle men..make the most of what they done

but the rest is cut/edited straight from the link
my main point being
i knew he got a reward for a formula

but it wernt e=mc2...but much like it...
except then it was re ...light energy..then just energy

clearly he loved a good read...reading others patents/articles...you just happen to get ideas...despite mainly being a commic..clowing it up to the media...needing to make legands/heroes/idols..for the goyam

The two giants of applied mathematics were Newton and Einstein.

Both of their works provided tools for practical and scientific work for many generations. I personally would be hard put to choose.

Darwin's work was ground breaking and original, but with the work that other scientists were doing, survival of fittest was becoming self evident.

Steven,

I should of course say that Einstein was a genius scientific thinker. The point of my earlier post is that the people who paved the way for him are all too often forgotten in the history. What I liked about the TV documentary I saw was that it gave equal weight and import to chronicling all the steps that were involved in the evolution to the scientific baseline of knowledge that Einstein was able to build on.

Where Einstein is strong is in his ability to understand the Earth as only a small part of the cosmos which is governed by universal laws. Where he was weak (so far at least) is in the applicability of his ideas to benefit mankind. While it's great to see experiments that prove that gravity waves exist and that the Theory of General Relativity holds true, what do these actually do for anyone?

In the end, who is voted as the greatest ever is open to subjective interpretation. My view is that Tesla was greater because he was genuinely interested in helping mankind live a less physically exhausting life of sheer drudgery. It was this feeling, brought about by debilitating events early in his life, that drove him to wanting his discoveries commercialised. Hence his great partnership with Westinghouse was born.

RobP,

The point of general relativity was not to show the Earth as only a small part of the cosmos, but to show matter, energy, light and time were all tied together.

Tessla showed that magnetism was generated by electricity, Relativity showed that magnetism was an relativistic effect of electricity.

In the last 100 years, in spite of all the massive focus on string theory, trying to find a unified field theory, general relativity is still without equal.

Without relativity none of the satelite or mobile systems could work efficiently.

As an electrical engineer, I am in awe of what Tessla achieved, however, as far as pure depth of understanding Tessla was not in the same league.

Sir Isaac Newton.