19th Nov 2018, 7:42 pm | #81 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Ramsbottom (Nr Bury) Lancs or Bexhill (Nr Hastings) Sussex.
Posts: 5,817
|
Re: Which Scientist on the new £50 Note?
Yes Fred Hoyle is another good candidate. Wasn't A For Andromeda, where they built Julie Christie from computer code, one of his books?. The establishment didn't like him much either [well he did have a Yorkshire accent after all, plus his alternative cosmology created a big bang of an entirely different kind].
There is a similar "Hawking" attitude towards Brian Cox in some quarters but it all seems a bit churlish to me. I was never quite sure if there was jealousy re Hawkins fame and ability or just the women in his life Surely you can also be recognised for outstanding communication about science without having to be absolute top dog in Research or meeting somebody's definition Dave W Last edited by dave walsh; 19th Nov 2018 at 7:51 pm. |
19th Nov 2018, 8:08 pm | #82 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Oxfordshire, UK.
Posts: 4,934
|
Re: Which Scientist on the new £50 Note?
Patents are highly controversial; so many US companies are trying to patent bits of human DNA they've connected with illnesses, and so potentially with their cures and $$$$. Most scientists outside the US think that these should be in the public domain. Also, I think patents are more engineers' territory than scientists.
Re Hawkin's celebrity dimension; quite difficult (impossible) to consider him without it. Re Cox, well Ok, he's been minor pop star, he's tenured at Manchester and then gets paid megga bucks by the beeb, so only a modest amount of deep green envy necessary there. Then it goes much too far when one day, on R4, he casually says "Oh, I was at Joni Mitchell's house one day...." what . B
__________________
Saturn V had 6 million pounds of fuel. It would take thirty thousand strong men to lift it an inch. |
19th Nov 2018, 8:27 pm | #83 |
Dekatron
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Invercargill, New Zealand
Posts: 3,457
|
Re: Which Scientist on the new £50 Note?
We've got a scientist on our $100. You don't often see a Rutherford in real life!
|
19th Nov 2018, 8:45 pm | #84 |
Moderator
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Fife, Scotland, UK.
Posts: 22,869
|
Re: Which Scientist on the new £50 Note?
I'm waiting for an image of Fred Dibnah on a bank note. Pint in hand, smoking chimney toppling in the background and an evil wink.
Scientist, no. Quintessentially English, oh yes. Perhaps more deserving than many of the gong recipients. David
__________________
Can't afford the volcanic island yet, but the plans for my monorail and the goons' uniforms are done |
19th Nov 2018, 8:50 pm | #85 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Oxfordshire, UK.
Posts: 4,934
|
Re: Which Scientist on the new £50 Note?
YES! If they had Royalty in Lancashire...Fred. Cannot believe his TV stuff is not showing any more
__________________
Saturn V had 6 million pounds of fuel. It would take thirty thousand strong men to lift it an inch. |
20th Nov 2018, 7:45 am | #86 |
Octode
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Bracknell, Berkshire,UK.
Posts: 1,172
|
Re: Which Scientist on the new £50 Note?
I would argue that Turing was a mathematician, or maybe cryptologist, rather than scientist. A great thinker, but not a scientist. As for Hawking, far too much of a theorist and lets face it, quantum physics and the origin of the universe hasn't really done much for the life of mankind.
|
20th Nov 2018, 8:54 am | #87 | |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Oxfordshire, UK.
Posts: 4,934
|
Re: Which Scientist on the new £50 Note?
Quote:
B
__________________
Saturn V had 6 million pounds of fuel. It would take thirty thousand strong men to lift it an inch. |
|
20th Nov 2018, 4:29 pm | #88 | |
Octode
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: West Midlands, UK.
Posts: 1,571
|
Re: Which Scientist on the new £50 Note?
Quote:
My suggestion is Magnus Pike. In these days of plastic bank notes the image could be a hologram with his arms whirling wildly. |
|
20th Nov 2018, 5:40 pm | #89 |
Rest in Peace
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Basildon, Essex, UK.
Posts: 4,100
|
Re: Which Scientist on the new £50 Note?
Sir Charles Kuen Kao.
Known as the "Godfather of Broadband", the "Father of Fibre Optics", and the "Father of Fibre Optic Communications", Kao was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics for "ground breaking achievements concerning the transmission of light in fibres for optical communication". |
20th Nov 2018, 6:55 pm | #90 |
Octode
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Bracknell, Berkshire,UK.
Posts: 1,172
|
Re: Which Scientist on the new £50 Note?
|
20th Nov 2018, 9:44 pm | #91 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Oxfordshire, UK.
Posts: 4,934
|
Re: Which Scientist on the new £50 Note?
Sorry, I did look but missed it. I suspect that relatively few people will have heard of Maxwell and understand what he did. That leads me to the name of another great physicist, for whom the same would be true; Paul Dirac, Nobel Prize winner in 1933. Dirac holds a special place in my heart for his remark,
"The aim of science is to make difficult things understandable in a simpler way; the aim of poetry is to state simple things in an incomprehensible way. The two are incompatible." This was prompted in response to Oppenheimer's fascination with poetry. I'm with Dirac!!!. B
__________________
Saturn V had 6 million pounds of fuel. It would take thirty thousand strong men to lift it an inch. |
26th Nov 2018, 9:08 pm | #92 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Heckmondwike, West Yorkshire, UK.
Posts: 9,642
|
Re: Which Scientist on the new £50 Note?
A long Shortlist: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-46343965
|
26th Nov 2018, 11:22 pm | #93 |
Octode
Join Date: Sep 2017
Location: Bristol, UK.
Posts: 1,654
|
Re: Which Scientist on the new £50 Note?
In the Guardian today - a report that there is a significant movement to nominate Margaret Thatcher....! (She had a previous life as a chemist).
|
27th Nov 2018, 9:07 am | #94 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Oxford, UK.
Posts: 4,982
|
Re: Which Scientist on the new £50 Note?
I heard that too. It won't happen - too controversial.
|
27th Nov 2018, 9:29 am | #95 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: West Cumbria (CA13), UK
Posts: 6,127
|
Re: Which Scientist on the new £50 Note?
Besides, what contribution to chemistry would it be celebrating?
__________________
Mending is better than Ending (cf Brave New World by Aldous Huxley) |
27th Nov 2018, 3:52 pm | #96 |
Nonode
Join Date: Sep 2017
Location: Stockport, Cheshire, UK.
Posts: 2,002
|
Re: Which Scientist on the new £50 Note?
Soft scoop ice cream!?
__________________
Hello IT: Have you Tried Turning It Off & On Again? |
27th Nov 2018, 3:57 pm | #97 |
Octode
Join Date: Feb 2018
Location: Southampton, Hampshire, UK.
Posts: 1,061
|
Re: Which Scientist on the new £50 Note?
I've voted for Michael Faraday. A great scientist with great character who fought against adversity and the establishment to change our world for the better.
|
27th Nov 2018, 4:40 pm | #98 |
Hexode
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Oswestry, Shropshire, UK.
Posts: 408
|
Re: Which Scientist on the new £50 Note?
Joseph Priestley?
William Harvey? Regards, Richard |
27th Nov 2018, 6:41 pm | #99 | |
Octode
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: Penrith, Cumbria, UK
Posts: 1,993
|
Re: Which Scientist on the new £50 Note?
Quote:
But with you all the way especially as he knew the science behind the engineering and really understood the history and methods of the industrial revolution, which was based as much on scientific advancements as it was on engineering progress. He was so much more than a simple steeplejack and chimney demolisher. And he had a wonderful knack of getting the message across without appearing to talk down to his audience. He'd have been a brilliant technology teacher in a different age (today). My pennorth, after a bit of brain racking, I'll say Henry Bessemer for his development of steelmaking which involved a fair amount of knowledge of chemistry. Too much to go into here, stuff like the nature of refractories and their interaction with molten metals. His invention, the Bessemer converter lives on today in it's evolution into the modern Basic oxygen furnace which is the principal steel making method for non specialist steels these days. And without cheap, reliable steels our present society just couldn't exist. Andy. |
|
15th Jul 2019, 11:29 am | #100 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Heckmondwike, West Yorkshire, UK.
Posts: 9,642
|
Alan Turing
If you're lucky enough to use £50 notes, Alan Turing is to be the new "face": https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-48962557
|