Who was the first scientist?
Brian Clegg
Saturday, 13 October 2007 12:53 UTC
A few years ago I took part in a debate at the Royal Institution on ‘who was the first scientist?’
Lewis Wolpert championed Archimedes, I stood up for Roger Bacon (not entirely surprising having written a book about him called The First Scientist) and Frank James spoke for James Clerk Maxwell.
Archimedes won, with Bacon a close second. The arguments were loosely that Archimedes was the first to use maths in science, Bacon the first to emphasise the importance of experimental verification, maths and the communication of results, and Maxwell because the word ‘scientist’ wasn’t invented until his time.
I have my doubts about Archimedes. Although he was a great mathematician and engineer, he still had the ancient Greek tendency to ignore experiment and rely on pure argument. Some have disagreed about Bacon, because he was loose in his definition of experiment, including little more than ‘someone saw X’ as well as more formal experiments. But I would argue that you wouldn’t expect the first scientist to be a very good one! The first person to do everything is feeling their way.
I know it’s a very arbitrary point, but who out of all scientific history would you call the first, and why?
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Hello Brian
It is without doubt is an interesting discussion but I think it would be very difficult to speak who was the first scientist.
Many scientists that were in epoca anonymity.
Archimedes was without doubt a great scientist but I do not think it is the first.
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I take your point, Renato, but I it is possible to do, provided you take ‘first’ to mean ‘first scientist we know anything about’ and are specific about what you mean by ‘science/scientist’. I know John Gribbin puts forward Galileo… so any other contenders?
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Hello Craig,can you say, who was the first man or trying for thousands of years who was the first man stood up on his own feet successfully?Considering the term science or scientist how can we answer to this question. Archemides or Becon were of elite class and very much close to the rullers ,you think of someone working in a remote area among people successfully ,what will you say about him ?
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Hello, brian this is a very interesting question to talk about, but I think it is a no answer question, because no one can tell the truth, before Archimedes there must be someone use the scientific idea but not noted in the long history.
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Come on guys, lighten up! I know it’s not possible to really say who the first scientist was, any more that it’s possible to say what was the best scientific idea – but we still have a Nobel Prize.
The idea of this exercise (more contributions, please!) is to nominate the person you would like to be thought of as the first scientist and to give a reason.
It’s a game, not deadly serious, hence, for example, Frank James’ naming James Clerk Maxwell. No one, certainly not Frank, thinks that there were no scientists before Maxwell, but he was making an interesting point about the fact that the word ‘scientist’ wasn’t coined until 1834 (by analogy with artist).
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Eve, is my vote. She was the person who did the first scientific experiment, isn’t she?
If you won’t count her, I suggest the unnamed man, woman or ape who first worked out how to make fire by rubbing two sticks together.
I believe that suggestions such as Galileo and Bacon far too late to be considered “first” (and also show a bit of cultural influence, perhaps?)
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Pierre’s youtube link, may indeed be the last word on this subject, though I suppose I could try to extend it by suggesting:
Uncle Quentin from the Famous Five books
Because he was the first scientist that I came across.I think that the first real scientist that I was “aware” of was, boringly, Archimedes. This was from a bbc comedy program (World Service in South Africa) – and because I was VERY young all I can remember was that I did not understand the punchline at the time. It was the “phonetic pun”: “your e-car” or something to that effect.
Surely there must be some ancient chinese or indian mathematical genius. It seems that there is a whole subject area called Archeoastronomy as well…
Am personally into sundials. Need to go to India at some point. :)
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To Pierre
- or her! (I didn;t watch more than the first couple of seconds, but on that basis you cannot tell whether it is a female or a male.))
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To Maxine: hum… I’ve just read the very first page of Clarke’s novel; I’m afraid he is a male named “Moon Watcher”… :-)
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I’m cheering for Uncle Quentin. Those were the days when a scientist could be scary to small children, could work from a home lab, was able to ignore the children, could work whatever hours he or she fancied, and was fed regular meals.
I’m afraid I can’t go with these prehistoric types, as I require a scientist to:
- recognise the importance of experiment
- understand the necessity of maths to underpin science
- consider information dispassionately without bias
- understand the need to communicate – it’s not enough to find out for your own purposes
… it’s putting these four together that makes me go for Roger Bacon (not to be confused with Francis Bacon).
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