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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Let me see if I got this right. 25,000 years ago people were using multiplication, but it took another 20,000 years to get to the first scientist “Alhazen” to light the world with Science. Do I have this right? I can only think that “It is a easier to just act as if I had never posted than to respond”.
The last post is on point with it’s statement.
“Cognitive Dissident”! -
Anonymous
I say that “al-Hasan ibn al-Haytham” is the first scientist, because he is the first to use the scientific method.
The scientific method rather than using the combination.Peoples from more than 7 thousand years discovered discoveries reliable scientists of our time.
Hasan Ibn al-Haytham was the first to use the scientific method to prove his hypothesis. So I think it is the first world.
You should note the method simply includes:- Ask a Question
- Do Background Research
- Construct a Hypothesis
- Test Your Hypothesis by Doing an Experiment
- Analyze Your Data and Draw a Conclusion
- Communicate Your Results
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