Without turning the question into some snowball rethoric, who do you think was the most influential thinker in the history of science? I'm really happy for all of them but I got to say, Newton was definitely up there. What do you say?
I would have to go for galileo and for all his scientific work and notably for being the one offering the heliocentric model of our solar system even though it was considered blasphemy
John Bardeen The true strength of science is that it cannot possibly be done with one person. It's a collective social effort.
there's so many its hard to choose. Maybe leo because even though his flying machines didn't work he kind of had an understanding to how it worked which was huge back then.
There are so many great scientists in the history. Charles Darwin was the one of them. He went to many countries and find extensive research.
Newton. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/physics/newton-legacy.html He's actually referred to as the father of modern science. They didn't give him that name for nothing.
Too many to narrow it down to one really...but some names that come to my mind: Newton: not only did he create an entire branch of physics, he ALSO created an entire field of mathematics (calculus) to solve his physics problems. Einstein: for obvious reasons. The stroke of genius he gave us (time is not constant) may go down as one of the greatest thoughts every. Watson, Crick and Franklin: The folks who solved the structure of DNA Lynn Margulis: first to come up with idea of endosymbiosis and that the mitochondria in eukaryotes originated from bacteria. Revolutionized the entire field of evolution. Perutz, Kendrew, et al: The folks who solved the very first structure of a protein at atomic level. Revolutionized, well, everything we know about how biology works. Shcrodinger, Heisenburg and Pauling: The folks who, in a nutshell, figured out how nature works at the atomic level with quantum mechanics. Marie Curie: Revolutionized our understanding of radioactivity, and also showed the world women can do it up in the sciences too! Maxwell: his four equations unified electricity and magnetism. Amazing simplicity with profound implications. Darwin: for obvious reasons.
[quote name='"sonocroc"']Nikola tesla my boy[/quote] This was the most correct answer. I found an article about everything he did, and it was amazing. I'm not near my computer now, but I'll post it later.
I don't know much about Poppler but you're right about Thomas Kuhn. Most people either don't know or forget how important his book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions was to the theory of science. But my vote would go to either Darwin or Newton or Pasteur.