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Ask HN: What living scientists do you consider heroes?

8 points by vwcx ↗ HN

10 comments

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loa_in_
All of them, except those compromising their integrity or bending their results to please the money providers
verdverm
This could very well be less than half after your filter.
dyingkneepad
First name that comes to mind overall: Neil deGrasse Tyson. Nerds should understand that having great communication skills is paramount. IMHO he's better than Carl Sagan, exactly because of his communication skills.

Donald Knuth. First Computer Scientist that comes to mind.

Bonus: there's a chance Alan Turing could still be alive today and had advanced Computer Science much more if it weren't for stupid homophobia and distorted religion shit.

pestaa
Interesting comparison to Carl Sagan, because no matter how little I know about a topic, Carl can put it in terms I can understand even in my sleep.
dyingkneepad
Yes but he has a very 'nerdy' tone and attitude that turns a lot of non-nerdy people away. Compare it with Neil deGrasse, which is always clear and simple too but also sounds like he's just another normal guy. He doesn't give the same vibe as Carl Sagan at all.

I don't know, this is just how I view it, and my view may be influenced by the fact that I'm not a native English speaker.

pestaa
I don't know about heroism, but Sam Harris has my utmost respect.
vwcx
I'm curious to see what scientists the community here holds us. I'm looking specifically for scientists currently working today, not necessarily the historical giants.

I'll add mine: The work of Laurent Ballesta and others studying shark interactions is fascinating to me. His work really underscores how little we understand of the natural world around us, and how stereotypes of a species are often very wrong.