Comments on: Name a scientist results

By: Teeny

Teeny — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 15:08:12 +0000

With regret, I'm guilty of not knowing many female scientists (other than the notable few mentioned in your post). In one of my enzymology lectures when we were learning about Michaelis-Menten kinetics, it came as a suprise to learn that Menten was in fact a woman. Taught me a valuable lesson to never assume that equations, bodies, processes etc will always be named after a male.

By: Teeny

Teeny — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 08:08:12 +0000

By: Thomas Overton

Thomas Overton — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 21:10:48 +0000

I agree that a greater awareness of women in science should be realized in such polls and on TWIV but we cannot turn a blind eye to African American males’ and other minorities’ roles in science, past and present.

By: PeterinKorea

PeterinKorea — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 12:02:12 +0000

From http://www.abc.net.au/rn/scienceshow/stories/20...
"We had a great experience in Korea. Korea has these very good science high schools. We were there to do a presentation at one in Daejeon, and anyway we showed a picture of Barry Marshall and asked, 'How many people know this famous Australian?' And probably two-thirds of them were shouting out who it was. We put up a picture of Kylie Minogue and said, 'Who knows this famous Australian?' No-one."

I have no idea how Barry Marshall looks like, but I know he proved Helicobacter pylori are the cause of most stomach ulcers (by drinking a suspension of it).
I am not sure if I would be able to recognize Kylie Minogue on a picture, but I guess there is a good chance that I would.

And since nine years I live and work in Korea, including two years in Daejeon.

By: mdubuque

mdubuque — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 01:40:57 +0000

One of Ronald Reagan's biggest mistakes was trying to abolish the Department of Education. This sent a clear signal that he did not comprehend that education was actually an urgent national security issue.

Let's expand the frame. My bet is that the median Japanese high school student would be able to name more Nobel Laureates in the sciences than the median here at this blog. I may be mistaken; there are lots of brilliant people here, but the Japanese school system produce kids that can think.

And it isn't just rote thinking. On a per capita basis, far more patents are awarded to Japanese than American applicants, a sign of creative thinking.

We have an extremely serious problem. We need to get out of our endless self-congratulation that we are the envy of the world.

We are not. We need to get organized, turn off the television and study.

And then study some more.

By: Everett197281

Everett197281 — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 00:02:36 +0000

Is the lack of non-Europeans/Americans to be expected then? Admittedly, Im not too sure I could do better then what I did, but it does seem odd doesn't it? I think the oldest one on your list is Leeuwenhoek, and yet science existed for 1500 years before him.

It makes we wonder what your survey would yield if done in Cairo, Bombay, Beijing or Tokyo.