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Wikipedia

Scientist

A scientist is a person who researches to advance knowledge in an area of the natural sciences.[1][2][3][4]

Scientist
Pierre Curie and Marie Curie demonstrating an apparatus that detects radioactivity. They received the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics for their scientific research; Marie also received the 1911 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Occupation
NamesScientist
Occupation type
Profession
Activity sectors
Laboratory, field research
Description
CompetenciesScientific research
Education required
Science
Fields of
employment
Academia, industry, government, nonprofit
Related jobs
Engineers

In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, philosophers engaged in the philosophical study of nature called natural philosophy, a precursor of natural science.[5] Though Thales (circa 624–545 BC) was arguably the first scientist for describing how cosmic events may be seen as natural, not necessarily caused by gods,[6][7][8][9][10][11] it was not until the 19th century that the term scientist came into regular use after it was coined by the theologian, philosopher, and historian of science William Whewell in 1833.[12][13]

History edit

 
"No one in the history of civilization has shaped our understanding of science and natural philosophy more than the great Greek philosopher and scientist Aristotle (384-322 BC), who exerted a profound and pervasive influence for more than two thousand years" —Gary B. Ferngren[14]
 
Alessandro Volta, the inventor of the electrical battery and discoverer of methane, is widely regarded as one of the greatest scientists in history.
 
Francesco Redi, referred to as the "father of modern parasitology", is the founder of experimental biology.
 
Mary Somerville, for whom the word "scientist" was coined.
 
Physicist Albert Einstein developed the general theory of relativity and made many substantial contributions to physics.
 
Physicist Enrico Fermi is credited with the creation of the world's first atomic bomb and nuclear reactor.
 
Atomic physicist Niels Bohr made fundamental contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum theory.
 
Marine Biologist Rachel Carson launched the 20th century environmental movement.

The roles of "scientists", and their predecessors before the emergence of modern scientific disciplines, have evolved considerably over time. Scientists of different eras (and before them, natural philosophers, mathematicians, natural historians, natural theologians, engineers, and others who contributed to the development of science) have had widely different places in society, and the social norms, ethical values, and epistemic virtues associated with scientists—and expected of them—have changed over time as well. Accordingly, many different historical figures can be identified as early scientists, depending on which characteristics of modern science are taken to be essential.

Some historians point to the Scientific Revolution that began in 16th century as the period when science in a recognizably modern form developed. It was not until the 19th century that sufficient socioeconomic changes had occurred for scientists to emerge as a major profession.[15]

Classical antiquity edit

Knowledge about nature in classical antiquity was pursued by many kinds of scholars. Greek contributions to science—including works of geometry and mathematical astronomy, early accounts of biological processes and catalogs of plants and animals, and theories of knowledge and learning—were produced by philosophers and physicians, as well as practitioners of various trades. These roles, and their associations with scientific knowledge, spread with the Roman Empire and, with the spread of Christianity, became closely linked to religious institutions in most of European countries. Astrology and astronomy became an important area of knowledge, and the role of astronomer/astrologer developed with the support of political and religious patronage. By the time of the medieval university system, knowledge was divided into the trivium—philosophy, including natural philosophy—and the quadrivium—mathematics, including astronomy. Hence, the medieval analogs of scientists were often either philosophers or mathematicians. Knowledge of plants and animals was broadly the province of physicians.

Middle Ages edit

Science in medieval Islam generated some new modes of developing natural knowledge, although still within the bounds of existing social roles such as philosopher and mathematician. Many proto-scientists from the Islamic Golden Age are considered polymaths, in part because of the lack of anything corresponding to modern scientific disciplines. Many of these early polymaths were also religious priests and theologians: for example, Alhazen and al-Biruni were mutakallimiin; the physician Avicenna was a hafiz; the physician Ibn al-Nafis was a hafiz, muhaddith and ulema; the botanist Otto Brunfels was a theologian and historian of Protestantism; the astronomer and physician Nicolaus Copernicus was a priest. During the Italian Renaissance scientists like Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Galileo Galilei and Gerolamo Cardano have been considered as the most recognizable polymaths.

Renaissance edit

During the Renaissance, Italians made substantial contributions in science. Leonardo da Vinci made significant discoveries in paleontology and anatomy. The Father of modern Science,[16][17]Galileo Galilei, made key improvements on the thermometer and telescope which allowed him to observe and clearly describe the solar system. Descartes was not only a pioneer of analytic geometry but formulated a theory of mechanics[18] and advanced ideas about the origins of animal movement and perception. Vision interested the physicists Young and Helmholtz, who also studied optics, hearing and music. Newton extended Descartes's mathematics by inventing calculus (at the same time as Leibniz). He provided a comprehensive formulation of classical mechanics and investigated light and optics. Fourier founded a new branch of mathematics — infinite, periodic series — studied heat flow and infrared radiation, and discovered the greenhouse effect. Girolamo Cardano, Blaise Pascal Pierre de Fermat, Von Neumann, Turing, Khinchin, Markov and Wiener, all mathematicians, made major contributions to science and probability theory, including the ideas behind computers, and some of the foundations of statistical mechanics and quantum mechanics. Many mathematically inclined scientists, including Galileo, were also musicians.

There are many compelling stories in medicine and biology, such as the development of ideas about the circulation of blood from Galen to Harvey. Some scholars and historians attributes Christianity to having contributed to the rise of the Scientific Revolution.[19][20][21][22][23]

Age of Enlightenment edit

During the age of Enlightenment, Luigi Galvani, the pioneer of the bioelectromagnetics, discovered the animal electricity. He discovered that a charge applied to the spinal cord of a frog could generate muscular spasms throughout its body. Charges could make frog legs jump even if the legs were no longer attached to a frog. While cutting a frog leg, Galvani's steel scalpel touched a brass hook that was holding the leg in place. The leg twitched. Further experiments confirmed this effect, and Galvani was convinced that he was seeing the effects of what he called animal electricity, the life force within the muscles of the frog. At the University of Pavia, Galvani's colleague Alessandro Volta was able to reproduce the results, but was sceptical of Galvani's explanation.[24]

Lazzaro Spallanzani is one of the most influential figures in experimental physiology and the natural sciences. His investigations have exerted a lasting influence on the medical sciences. He made important contributions to the experimental study of bodily functions and animal reproduction.[25]

Francesco Redi discovered that microorganisms can cause disease.

19th century edit

Until the late 19th or early 20th century, scientists were still referred to as "natural philosophers" or "men of science".[26][27][28][29]

English philosopher and historian of science William Whewell coined the term scientist in 1833, and it first appeared in print in Whewell's anonymous 1834 review of Mary Somerville's On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences published in the Quarterly Review.[30] Whewell wrote of "an increasing proclivity of separation and dismemberment" in the sciences; while highly specific terms proliferated—chemist, mathematician, naturalist—the broad term "philosopher" was no longer satisfactory to group together those who pursued science, without the caveats of "natural" or "experimental" philosopher. Whewell compared these increasing divisions with Somerville's aim of "[rendering] a most important service to science" "by showing how detached branches have, in the history of science, united by the discovery of general principles."[31] Whewell reported in his review that members of the British Association for the Advancement of Science had been complaining at recent meetings about the lack of a good term for "students of the knowledge of the material world collectively." Alluding to himself, he noted that "some ingenious gentleman proposed that, by analogy with artist, they might form [the word] scientist, and added that there could be no scruple in making free with this term since we already have such words as economist, and atheist—but this was not generally palatable".[32]

Whewell proposed the word again more seriously (and not anonymously) in his 1840[33] The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences:

The terminations ize (rather than ise), ism, and ist, are applied to words of all origins: thus we have to pulverize, to colonize, Witticism, Heathenism, Journalist, Tobacconist. Hence we may make such words when they are wanted. As we cannot use physician for a cultivator of physics, I have called him a Physicist. We need very much a name to describe a cultivator of science in general. I should incline to call him a Scientist. Thus we might say, that as an Artist is a Musician, Painter, or Poet, a Scientist is a Mathematician, Physicist, or Naturalist.

He also proposed the term physicist at the same time, as a counterpart to the French word physicien. Neither term gained wide acceptance until decades later; scientist became a common term in the late 19th century in the United States and around the turn of the 20th century in Great Britain.[30][34][35] By the twentieth century, the modern notion of science as a special brand of information about the world, practiced by a distinct group and pursued through a unique method, was essentially in place.

20th century edit

Marie Curie became the first woman to win the Nobel Prize and the first person to win it twice. Her efforts led to the development of nuclear energy and Radiotherapy for the treatment of cancer. In 1922, she was appointed a member of the International Commission on Intellectual Co-operation by the Council of the League of Nations. She campaigned for scientist's right to patent their discoveries and inventions. She also campaigned for free access to international scientific literature and for internationally recognized scientific symbols.

Profession edit

As a profession, the scientist of today is widely recognized[citation needed]. However, there is no formal process to determine who is a scientist and who is not a scientist. Anyone can be a scientist in some sense. Some professions have legal requirements for their practice (e.g. licensure) and some scientists are independent scientists meaning that they practice science on their own, but to practice science there are no known licensure requirements.[36]

Education edit

In modern times, many professional scientists are trained in an academic setting (e.g., universities and research institutes), mostly at the level of graduate schools. Upon completion, they would normally attain an academic degree, with the highest degree being a doctorate such as a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD).[37] Although graduate education for scientists varies among institutions and countries, some common training requirements include specializing in an area of interest,[38] publishing research findings in peer-reviewed scientific journals[39] and presenting them at scientific conferences,[40] giving lectures or teaching,[40] and defending a thesis (or dissertation) during an oral examination.[37] To aid them in this endeavor, graduate students often work under the guidance of a mentor, usually a senior scientist, which may continue after the completion of their doctorates whereby they work as postdoctoral researchers.[41]

Career edit

After the completion of their training, many scientists pursue careers in a variety of work settings and conditions.[42] In 2017, the British scientific journal Nature published the results of a large-scale survey of more than 5,700 doctoral students worldwide, asking them which sectors of the economy they would like to work in. A little over half of the respondents wanted to pursue a career in academia, with smaller proportions hoping to work in industry, government, and nonprofit environments.[43][44]

Other motivations are recognition by their peers and prestige. The Nobel Prize, a widely regarded prestigious award,[45] is awarded annually to those who have achieved scientific advances in the fields of medicine, physics, and chemistry.

Some scientists have a desire to apply scientific knowledge for the benefit of people's health, the nations, the world, nature, or industries (academic scientist and industrial scientist). Scientists tend to be less motivated by direct financial reward for their work than other careers. As a result, scientific researchers often accept lower average salaries when compared with many other professions which require a similar amount of training and qualification.[citation needed]

Research interests edit

Scientists include experimentalists who mainly perform experiments to test hypotheses, and theoreticians who mainly develop models to explain existing data and predict new results. There is a continuum between two activities and the division between them is not clear-cut, with many scientists performing both tasks.

Those considering science as a career often look to the frontiers. These include cosmology and biology, especially molecular biology and the human genome project. Other areas of active research include the exploration of matter at the scale of elementary particles as described by high-energy physics, and materials science, which seeks to discover and design new materials. Others choose to study brain function and neurotransmitters, which is considered by many to be the "final frontier".[46][47][48] There are many important discoveries to make regarding the nature of the mind and human thought as much still remains unknown.

By specialization edit

Natural science edit

Physical science edit
Life science edit

Social science edit

Formal science edit

Applied edit

Interdisciplinary edit

By employer edit

Demography edit

By country edit

The number of scientists is vastly different from country to country. For instance, there are only four full-time scientists per 10,000 workers in India, while this number is 79 for the United Kingdom, and 85 for the United States.[49]

Scientists per 10,000 workers for selected countries[49]

United States edit

According to the National Science Foundation, 4.7 million people with science degrees worked in the United States in 2015, across all disciplines and employment sectors. The figure included twice as many men as women. Of that total, 17% worked in academia, that is, at universities and undergraduate institutions, and men held 53% of those positions. 5% of scientists worked for the federal government, and about 3.5% were self-employed. Of the latter two groups, two-thirds were men. 59% of scientists in the United States were employed in industry or business, and another 6% worked in non-profit positions.[50]

By gender edit

Scientist and engineering statistics are usually intertwined, but they indicate that women enter the field far less than men, though this gap is narrowing. The number of science and engineering doctorates awarded to women rose from a mere 7 percent in 1970 to 34 percent in 1985 and in engineering alone the numbers of bachelor's degrees awarded to women rose from only 385 in 1975 to more than 11000 in 1985.[51][clarification needed]

See also edit

Related lists

References edit

  1. ^ "scientist". Cambridge Dictionary. Cambridge University Press. Retrieved 27 September 2023.
  2. ^ "science". Cambridge Dictionary. Cambridge University Press. Retrieved 27 September 2023.
  3. ^ (PDF). E.O. Wilson Foundation. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 April 2019. Retrieved 3 September 2018. But he's not a scientist, he's never done scientific research. My definition of a scientist is that you can complete the following sentence: 'he or she has shown that...'," Wilson says.
  4. ^ "Our definition of a scientist". Science Council. Retrieved 7 September 2018. A scientist is someone who systematically gathers and uses research and evidence, making a hypothesis and testing it, to gain and share understanding and knowledge.
  5. ^ Lehoux, Daryn (2011). "2. Natural Knowledge in the Classical World". In Shank, Michael; Numbers, Ronald; Harrison, Peter (eds.). Wrestling with Nature : From Omens to Science. Chicago: University of Chicago, U.S.A. Press. p. 39. ISBN 978-0226317830.
  6. ^ Aristotle, Metaphysics Alpha, 983b18.
  7. ^   Smith, William, ed. (1870). "Thales". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. p. 1016.
  8. ^ Michael Fowler, Early Greek Science: Thales to Plato, University of Virginia [Retrieved 2016-06-16]
  9. ^ Frank N. Magill, The Ancient World: Dictionary of World Biography, Volume 1, Routledge, 2003 ISBN 1135457395
  10. ^ Singer, C. (2008). A Short History of Science to the 19th century. Streeter Press. p. 35.
  11. ^ Needham, C. W. (1978). Cerebral Logic: Solving the Problem of Mind and Brain. Loose Leaf. p. 75. ISBN 978-0-398-03754-3.
  12. ^ Cahan, David, ed. (2003). From Natural Philosophy to the Sciences: Writing the History of Nineteenth-Century Science. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-08928-2.
  13. ^ Lightman, Bernard (2011). "Science and the Public". In Shank, Michael; Numbers, Ronald; Harrison, Peter (eds.). Wrestling with Nature : From Omens to Science. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 367. ISBN 978-0226317830.
  14. ^ Gary B. Ferngren (2002). "Science and religion: a historical introduction 2015-03-16 at the Wayback Machine". JHU Press. p.33. ISBN 0-8018-7038-0
  15. ^ On the historical development of the character of scientists and the predecessors, see: Steven Shapin (2008). The Scientific Life: A Moral History of a Late Modern Vocation. Chicago: Chicago University Press. ISBN 0-226-75024-8
  16. ^ Einstein (1954, p. 271). "Propositions arrived at by purely logical means are completely empty as regards reality. Because Galileo realised this, and particularly because he drummed it into the scientific world, he is the father of modern physics—indeed, of modern science altogether."
  17. ^ Stephen Hawking, Galileo and the Birth of Modern Science 2012-03-24 at the Wayback Machine, American Heritage's Invention & Technology, Spring 2009, Vol. 24, No. 1, p. 36
  18. ^ Peter Damerow (2004). "Introduction". Exploring the Limits of Preclassical Mechanics: A Study of Conceptual Development in Early Modern Science: Free Fall and Compounded Motion in the Work of Descartes, Galileo and Beeckman. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 6.
  19. ^ Harrison, Peter (8 May 2012). "Christianity and the rise of western science". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 28 August 2014.
  20. ^ Noll, Mark, (PDF), The Biologos Foundation, p. 4, archived from the original (PDF) on 22 March 2015, retrieved 14 January 2015
  21. ^ Lindberg, David C.; Numbers, Ronald L. (1986), "Introduction", God & Nature: Historical Essays on the Encounter Between Christianity and Science, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, pp. 5, 12, ISBN 978-0-520-05538-4
  22. ^ Gilley, Sheridan (2006). The Cambridge History of Christianity: Volume 8, World Christianities C.1815-c.1914. Brian Stanley. Cambridge University Press. p. 164. ISBN 0-521-81456-1.
  23. ^ Lindberg, David. (1992) The Beginnings of Western Science University of Chicago Press. p. 204.
  24. ^ Robert Routledge (1881). A popular history of science (2nd ed.). G. Routledge and Sons. p. 553. ISBN 0-415-38381-1.
  25. ^ (in Italian). Il museo di Lazzaro Spallanzani. Archived from the original on 2010-06-03. Retrieved 2010-06-07.
  26. ^ Nineteenth-Century Attitudes: Men of Science. "Nineteenth-Century Attitudes: Men of Science". from the original on 2008-03-09. Retrieved 2008-01-15.
  27. ^ Friedrich Ueberweg, History of Philosophy: From Thales to the Present Time. C. Scribner's sons v.1, 1887
  28. ^ Steve Fuller, Kuhn VS. Popper: The Struggle For The Soul Of Science. Columbia University Press 2004. Page 43. ISBN 0-231-13428-2
  29. ^ Science by American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1917. v.45 1917 Jan-Jun. Page 274 2017-03-02 at the Wayback Machine.
  30. ^ a b Ross, Sydney (1962). "Scientist: The story of a word". Annals of Science. 18 (2): 65–85. doi:10.1080/00033796200202722. To be exact, the person coined the term scientist was referred to in Whewell 1834 only as "some ingenious gentleman." Ross added a comment that this "some ingenious gentleman" was Whewell himself, without giving the reason for the identification. Ross 1962, p.72.
  31. ^ Whewell, William. Murray, John (ed.). "On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences By Mrs. Sommerville". The Quarterly Review. LI (March & June 1834): 54–68.
  32. ^ Holmes, R (2008). The age of wonder: How the romantic generation discovered the beauty and terror of science. London: Harper Press. p. 449. ISBN 978-0-00-714953-7.
  33. ^ a b Whewell, William. The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences Volume 1. Cambridge. p. cxiii. or Whewell, William (1847). The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences: Founded Upon Their History, Vol. 2. New York, Johnson Reprint Corp. p. 560.. In the 1847 second edition, moved to volume 2 page 560.
  34. ^ "William Whewell (1794-1866) gentleman of science". from the original on 2007-06-25. Retrieved 2007-05-19.
  35. ^ Tamara Preaud, Derek E. Ostergard, The Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory. Yale University Press 1997. 416 pages. ISBN 0-300-07338-0 Page 36.
  36. ^ "Everyone is a Scientist – Scientific Scribbles".
  37. ^ a b Cyranoski, David; Gilbert, Natasha; Ledford, Heidi; Nayar, Anjali; Yahia, Mohammed (2011). "Education: The PhD factory". Nature. 472 (7343): 276–279. Bibcode:2011Natur.472..276C. doi:10.1038/472276a. PMID 21512548.
  38. ^ "STEM education: To build a scientist". Nature. 523 (7560): 371–373. 2015. doi:10.1038/nj7560-371a.
  39. ^ Gould, Julie (2016). "What's the point of the PhD thesis?". Nature. 535 (7610): 26–28. Bibcode:2016Natur.535...26G. doi:10.1038/535026a. PMID 27383968.
  40. ^ a b Kruger, Philipp (2018). "Why it is not a 'failure' to leave academia". Nature. 560 (7716): 133–134. Bibcode:2018Natur.560..133K. doi:10.1038/d41586-018-05838-y. PMID 30065341.
  41. ^ Lee, Adrian; Dennis, Carina; Campbell, Phillip (2007). "Nature's guide for mentors". Nature. 447 (7146): 791–797. Bibcode:2007Natur.447..791L. doi:10.1038/447791a. PMID 17568738.
  42. ^ Kwok, Roberta (2017). "Flexible working: Science in the gig economy". Nature. 550: 419–421. doi:10.1038/nj7677-549a.
  43. ^ Woolston, Chris (2007). Editorial (ed.). "Many junior scientists need to take a hard look at their job prospects". Nature. 550: 549–552. doi:10.1038/nj7677-549a.
  44. ^ Lee, Adrian; Dennis, Carina; Campbell, Phillip (2007). "Graduate survey: A love–hurt relationship". Nature. 550 (7677): 549–552. doi:10.1038/nj7677-549a.
  45. ^ Stockton, Nick (7 October 2014), "How did the Nobel Prize become the biggest award on Earth?", Wired, retrieved 3 September 2018
  46. ^ Foreword. National Academies Press (US). 1992.
  47. ^ "The Brain: The Final Frontier?". November 2014.
  48. ^ "The Last Frontier - Carnegie Mellon University | CMU".
  49. ^ a b van Noorden, Richard (2015). "India by the numbers". Nature. 521 (7551): 142–143. Bibcode:2015Natur.521..142V. doi:10.1038/521142a. PMID 25971491.
  50. ^ "Employment: Male majority". Nature. 542 (7642): 509. 2017-02-22. doi:10.1038/nj7642-509b. S2CID 256770781.
  51. ^ Margaret A. Eisenhart, Elizabeth Finkel (1998). Women's Science: Learning and Succeeding from the Margins. University of Chicago Press. p. 18.

External articles edit

Further reading
  • Alison Gopnik, "Finding Our Inner Scientist" 2016-04-12 at the Wayback Machine, Daedalus, Winter 2004.
  • Charles George Herbermann, The Catholic Encyclopedia. Science and the Church. The Encyclopedia press, 1913. v.13. Page 598.
  • Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 1962.
  • Arthur Jack Meadows. The Victorian Scientist: The Growth of a Profession, 2004. ISBN 0-7123-0894-6.
  • Science, The Relation of Pure Science to Industrial Research. American Association for the Advancement of Science. Page 511 onwards.
Websites
  • – The Telegraph about What Inspired You?, a survey of key thinkers in science, technology and medicine
  • Peer Review Journal Science on amateur scientists
  • The philosophy of the inductive sciences, founded upon their history (1847) – Complete Text
Audio-Visual
  • "The Scientist", BBC Radio 4 discussion with John Gribbin, Patricia Fara and Hugh Pennington (In Our Time, Oct. 24, 2002)

scientist, this, article, about, profession, other, uses, disambiguation, scientist, person, researches, advance, knowledge, area, natural, sciences, pierre, curie, marie, curie, demonstrating, apparatus, that, detects, radioactivity, they, received, 1903, nob. This article is about the profession For other uses see Scientist disambiguation A scientist is a person who researches to advance knowledge in an area of the natural sciences 1 2 3 4 ScientistPierre Curie and Marie Curie demonstrating an apparatus that detects radioactivity They received the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics for their scientific research Marie also received the 1911 Nobel Prize in Chemistry OccupationNamesScientistOccupation typeProfessionActivity sectorsLaboratory field researchDescriptionCompetenciesScientific researchEducation requiredScienceFields ofemploymentAcademia industry government nonprofitRelated jobsEngineersIn classical antiquity there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist Instead philosophers engaged in the philosophical study of nature called natural philosophy a precursor of natural science 5 Though Thales circa 624 545 BC was arguably the first scientist for describing how cosmic events may be seen as natural not necessarily caused by gods 6 7 8 9 10 11 it was not until the 19th century that the term scientist came into regular use after it was coined by the theologian philosopher and historian of science William Whewell in 1833 12 13 Contents 1 History 1 1 Classical antiquity 1 2 Middle Ages 1 3 Renaissance 1 4 Age of Enlightenment 1 5 19th century 1 6 20th century 2 Profession 2 1 Education 2 2 Career 2 2 1 Research interests 2 3 By specialization 2 3 1 Natural science 2 3 1 1 Physical science 2 3 1 2 Life science 2 3 2 Social science 2 3 3 Formal science 2 3 4 Applied 2 3 5 Interdisciplinary 2 4 By employer 3 Demography 3 1 By country 3 1 1 United States 3 2 By gender 4 See also 5 References 6 External articlesHistory edit nbsp No one in the history of civilization has shaped our understanding of science and natural philosophy more than the great Greek philosopher and scientist Aristotle 384 322 BC who exerted a profound and pervasive influence for more than two thousand years Gary B Ferngren 14 nbsp Alessandro Volta the inventor of the electrical battery and discoverer of methane is widely regarded as one of the greatest scientists in history nbsp Francesco Redi referred to as the father of modern parasitology is the founder of experimental biology nbsp Mary Somerville for whom the word scientist was coined nbsp Physicist Albert Einstein developed the general theory of relativity and made many substantial contributions to physics nbsp Physicist Enrico Fermi is credited with the creation of the world s first atomic bomb and nuclear reactor nbsp Atomic physicist Niels Bohr made fundamental contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum theory nbsp Marine Biologist Rachel Carson launched the 20th century environmental movement The roles of scientists and their predecessors before the emergence of modern scientific disciplines have evolved considerably over time Scientists of different eras and before them natural philosophers mathematicians natural historians natural theologians engineers and others who contributed to the development of science have had widely different places in society and the social norms ethical values and epistemic virtues associated with scientists and expected of them have changed over time as well Accordingly many different historical figures can be identified as early scientists depending on which characteristics of modern science are taken to be essential Some historians point to the Scientific Revolution that began in 16th century as the period when science in a recognizably modern form developed It was not until the 19th century that sufficient socioeconomic changes had occurred for scientists to emerge as a major profession 15 Classical antiquity edit Knowledge about nature in classical antiquity was pursued by many kinds of scholars Greek contributions to science including works of geometry and mathematical astronomy early accounts of biological processes and catalogs of plants and animals and theories of knowledge and learning were produced by philosophers and physicians as well as practitioners of various trades These roles and their associations with scientific knowledge spread with the Roman Empire and with the spread of Christianity became closely linked to religious institutions in most of European countries Astrology and astronomy became an important area of knowledge and the role of astronomer astrologer developed with the support of political and religious patronage By the time of the medieval university system knowledge was divided into the trivium philosophy including natural philosophy and the quadrivium mathematics including astronomy Hence the medieval analogs of scientists were often either philosophers or mathematicians Knowledge of plants and animals was broadly the province of physicians Middle Ages edit Science in medieval Islam generated some new modes of developing natural knowledge although still within the bounds of existing social roles such as philosopher and mathematician Many proto scientists from the Islamic Golden Age are considered polymaths in part because of the lack of anything corresponding to modern scientific disciplines Many of these early polymaths were also religious priests and theologians for example Alhazen and al Biruni were mutakallimiin the physician Avicenna was a hafiz the physician Ibn al Nafis was a hafiz muhaddith and ulema the botanist Otto Brunfels was a theologian and historian of Protestantism the astronomer and physician Nicolaus Copernicus was a priest During the Italian Renaissance scientists like Leonardo da Vinci Michelangelo Galileo Galilei and Gerolamo Cardano have been considered as the most recognizable polymaths Renaissance edit During the Renaissance Italians made substantial contributions in science Leonardo da Vinci made significant discoveries in paleontology and anatomy The Father of modern Science 16 17 Galileo Galilei made key improvements on the thermometer and telescope which allowed him to observe and clearly describe the solar system Descartes was not only a pioneer of analytic geometry but formulated a theory of mechanics 18 and advanced ideas about the origins of animal movement and perception Vision interested the physicists Young and Helmholtz who also studied optics hearing and music Newton extended Descartes s mathematics by inventing calculus at the same time as Leibniz He provided a comprehensive formulation of classical mechanics and investigated light and optics Fourier founded a new branch of mathematics infinite periodic series studied heat flow and infrared radiation and discovered the greenhouse effect Girolamo Cardano Blaise Pascal Pierre de Fermat Von Neumann Turing Khinchin Markov and Wiener all mathematicians made major contributions to science and probability theory including the ideas behind computers and some of the foundations of statistical mechanics and quantum mechanics Many mathematically inclined scientists including Galileo were also musicians There are many compelling stories in medicine and biology such as the development of ideas about the circulation of blood from Galen to Harvey Some scholars and historians attributes Christianity to having contributed to the rise of the Scientific Revolution 19 20 21 22 23 Age of Enlightenment edit During the age of Enlightenment Luigi Galvani the pioneer of the bioelectromagnetics discovered the animal electricity He discovered that a charge applied to the spinal cord of a frog could generate muscular spasms throughout its body Charges could make frog legs jump even if the legs were no longer attached to a frog While cutting a frog leg Galvani s steel scalpel touched a brass hook that was holding the leg in place The leg twitched Further experiments confirmed this effect and Galvani was convinced that he was seeing the effects of what he called animal electricity the life force within the muscles of the frog At the University of Pavia Galvani s colleague Alessandro Volta was able to reproduce the results but was sceptical of Galvani s explanation 24 Lazzaro Spallanzani is one of the most influential figures in experimental physiology and the natural sciences His investigations have exerted a lasting influence on the medical sciences He made important contributions to the experimental study of bodily functions and animal reproduction 25 Francesco Redi discovered that microorganisms can cause disease 19th century edit Until the late 19th or early 20th century scientists were still referred to as natural philosophers or men of science 26 27 28 29 English philosopher and historian of science William Whewell coined the term scientist in 1833 and it first appeared in print in Whewell s anonymous 1834 review of Mary Somerville s On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences published in the Quarterly Review 30 Whewell wrote of an increasing proclivity of separation and dismemberment in the sciences while highly specific terms proliferated chemist mathematician naturalist the broad term philosopher was no longer satisfactory to group together those who pursued science without the caveats of natural or experimental philosopher Whewell compared these increasing divisions with Somerville s aim of rendering a most important service to science by showing how detached branches have in the history of science united by the discovery of general principles 31 Whewell reported in his review that members of the British Association for the Advancement of Science had been complaining at recent meetings about the lack of a good term for students of the knowledge of the material world collectively Alluding to himself he noted that some ingenious gentleman proposed that by analogy with artist they might form the word scientist and added that there could be no scruple in making free with this term since we already have such words as economist and atheist but this was not generally palatable 32 Whewell proposed the word again more seriously and not anonymously in his 1840 33 The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences The terminations ize rather than ise ism and ist are applied to words of all origins thus we have to pulverize to colonize Witticism Heathenism Journalist Tobacconist Hence we may make such words when they are wanted As we cannot use physician for a cultivator of physics I have called him a Physicist We need very much a name to describe a cultivator of science in general I should incline to call him a Scientist Thus we might say that as an Artist is a Musician Painter or Poet a Scientist is a Mathematician Physicist or Naturalist He also proposed the term physicist at the same time as a counterpart to the French word physicien Neither term gained wide acceptance until decades later scientist became a common term in the late 19th century in the United States and around the turn of the 20th century in Great Britain 30 34 35 By the twentieth century the modern notion of science as a special brand of information about the world practiced by a distinct group and pursued through a unique method was essentially in place 20th century edit Marie Curie became the first woman to win the Nobel Prize and the first person to win it twice Her efforts led to the development of nuclear energy and Radiotherapy for the treatment of cancer In 1922 she was appointed a member of the International Commission on Intellectual Co operation by the Council of the League of Nations She campaigned for scientist s right to patent their discoveries and inventions She also campaigned for free access to international scientific literature and for internationally recognized scientific symbols Profession editAs a profession the scientist of today is widely recognized citation needed However there is no formal process to determine who is a scientist and who is not a scientist Anyone can be a scientist in some sense Some professions have legal requirements for their practice e g licensure and some scientists are independent scientists meaning that they practice science on their own but to practice science there are no known licensure requirements 36 Education edit In modern times many professional scientists are trained in an academic setting e g universities and research institutes mostly at the level of graduate schools Upon completion they would normally attain an academic degree with the highest degree being a doctorate such as a Doctor of Philosophy PhD 37 Although graduate education for scientists varies among institutions and countries some common training requirements include specializing in an area of interest 38 publishing research findings in peer reviewed scientific journals 39 and presenting them at scientific conferences 40 giving lectures or teaching 40 and defending a thesis or dissertation during an oral examination 37 To aid them in this endeavor graduate students often work under the guidance of a mentor usually a senior scientist which may continue after the completion of their doctorates whereby they work as postdoctoral researchers 41 Career edit After the completion of their training many scientists pursue careers in a variety of work settings and conditions 42 In 2017 the British scientific journal Nature published the results of a large scale survey of more than 5 700 doctoral students worldwide asking them which sectors of the economy they would like to work in A little over half of the respondents wanted to pursue a career in academia with smaller proportions hoping to work in industry government and nonprofit environments 43 44 Other motivations are recognition by their peers and prestige The Nobel Prize a widely regarded prestigious award 45 is awarded annually to those who have achieved scientific advances in the fields of medicine physics and chemistry Some scientists have a desire to apply scientific knowledge for the benefit of people s health the nations the world nature or industries academic scientist and industrial scientist Scientists tend to be less motivated by direct financial reward for their work than other careers As a result scientific researchers often accept lower average salaries when compared with many other professions which require a similar amount of training and qualification citation needed Research interests edit Scientists include experimentalists who mainly perform experiments to test hypotheses and theoreticians who mainly develop models to explain existing data and predict new results There is a continuum between two activities and the division between them is not clear cut with many scientists performing both tasks Those considering science as a career often look to the frontiers These include cosmology and biology especially molecular biology and the human genome project Other areas of active research include the exploration of matter at the scale of elementary particles as described by high energy physics and materials science which seeks to discover and design new materials Others choose to study brain function and neurotransmitters which is considered by many to be the final frontier 46 47 48 There are many important discoveries to make regarding the nature of the mind and human thought as much still remains unknown By specialization edit Natural science edit Physical science edit Chemist Agrochemist Analytical chemist Astrochemist Atmospheric chemist Biophysical chemist Clinical chemist Computational chemist Electrochemist Femtochemist Geochemist Green chemist Chemical laboratory technician Inorganic chemist Medicinal chemist Nuclear chemist Organic chemist Organometallic chemist Pharmacologist Physical chemist Quantum chemist Solid state chemist Stereochemist Structural chemist Supramolecular chemist Theoretical chemist Thermochemist Earth scientist Astrogeologist Biogeochemist Climatologist Dendroarchaeologist Dendrologist Edaphologist Gemologist Geoarchaeologist Geobiologist Geographer Geologist Geomicrobiologist Geomorphologist Geophysicist Glaciologist Hydrogeologist Hydrologist Hydrometeorologist Limnologist Meteorologist Mineralogist Oceanographer Paleoclimatologist Paleoecologist Paleogeologist Paleoseismologist Palynologist Petrologist Sedimentologist Seismologist Speleologist Volcanologist Physicist Acoustician Agrophysicist Astrophysicist Atmospheric physicist Atomic physicist Biological physicist Chemical physicist Computational physicist Cosmologist Condensed matter physicist Engineering physicist Material physicist Molecular physicist Nuclear physicist Particle physicist Plasma physicist Polymer physicist Psychophysicist Quantum physicist Theoretical physicist Astronomer Planetary science Space science CosmologyLife science edit Main article List of life sciences Biologist Acarologist Aerobiologist Anatomist Arachnologist Bacteriologist Bioclimatologist Biogeographer Bioinformatician Biotechnologist Bioarcheologist Biochemist Biolinguist Biological anthropologist Biophysicist Biostatistician Botanist Cell biologist Chronobiologist Cognitive biologist Computational biologist Conservation biologist Dendrochronologist Developmental biologist Ecologist Electrophysiologist Embryologist Endocrinologist Entomologist Epidemiologist Ethologist Evolutionary biologist Geneticist Hematologist Herbchronologist Herpetologist Histologist Human behavioral ecologist Human biologist Ichnologist Ichthyologist Immunologist Integrative biologist Lepidopterist Mammalogist Marine biologist Medical biologist Microbiologist Molecular biologist Mycologist Neuroendocrinologist Neuroscientist Neuropsychologist Ornithologist Osteologist Paleoanthropologist Paleobotanist Paleobiologist Paleontologist Paleopathologist Parasitologist Pathologist Physiologist Phytopathologist Population biologist Primatologist Quantum biologist Radiobiologist Sclerochronologist Sociobiologist Structural biologist Theoretical biologist Toxicologist Virologist Wildlife biologist ZoologistSocial science edit Anthropologist Archaeologist Cultural anthropologist Linguistic anthropologist Communication scientist Criminologist Demographer Economist Management scientist Political economist Political scientist Psychologist Abnormal psychologist Clinical psychologist Cognitive psychologist Comparative psychologist Developmental psychologist Educational psychologist Evolutionary psychologist Experimental psychologist Forensic psychologist Health psychologist Industrial and organizational psychologist Medical psychologist Social psychologist Sport psychologist SociologistFormal science edit Computer scientist Computational scientist Data scientist Mathematician 33 Algebraist Analyst Geometer Logician Probabilist Statistician Topologist Systems scientistApplied edit Agriculturist Applied physics Health physicist Medical physicist Biomedical scientist Engineering scientist Environmental scientist Food scientist Kinesiologist Nutritionist Operations research and management analysts Physician scientistInterdisciplinary edit Materials scientist Mathematical biologist Mathematical chemist Mathematical economist Mathematical physicist Mathematical sociologistBy employer edit Academic Independent scientist Industrial applied scientist Citizen scientist Government scientistDemography editBy country edit The number of scientists is vastly different from country to country For instance there are only four full time scientists per 10 000 workers in India while this number is 79 for the United Kingdom and 85 for the United States 49 Scientists per 10 000 workers for selected countries 49 Nigeria 1 Indonesia 1 Malaysia 2 Thailand 2 Bangladesh 2 Pakistan 3 India 4 Kenya 6 Chile 7 Brazil 14 Egypt 14 United Arab Emirates 15 Saudi Arabia 15 China 18 South Africa 20 New Zealand 35 Spain 54 Russia 58 France 68 Australia 69 Germany 70 Italy 70 Canada 73 United Kingdom 79 Japan 83 United States 85 Israel 140United States edit According to the National Science Foundation 4 7 million people with science degrees worked in the United States in 2015 across all disciplines and employment sectors The figure included twice as many men as women Of that total 17 worked in academia that is at universities and undergraduate institutions and men held 53 of those positions 5 of scientists worked for the federal government and about 3 5 were self employed Of the latter two groups two thirds were men 59 of scientists in the United States were employed in industry or business and another 6 worked in non profit positions 50 By gender edit See also Women in science Scientist and engineering statistics are usually intertwined but they indicate that women enter the field far less than men though this gap is narrowing The number of science and engineering doctorates awarded to women rose from a mere 7 percent in 1970 to 34 percent in 1985 and in engineering alone the numbers of bachelor s degrees awarded to women rose from only 385 in 1975 to more than 11000 in 1985 51 clarification needed See also editEngineers Inventor Researcher Fields Medal Hippocratic Oath for Scientists History of science Intellectual Independent scientist Licensure Mad scientist Natural science Nobel Prize Protoscience Normative science Pseudoscience Scholar Science Social scienceRelated listsList of engineers List of mathematicians List of Nobel laureates in Physics List of Nobel laureates in Chemistry List of Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine List of Russian scientists List of Roman Catholic cleric scientistsReferences edit scientist Cambridge Dictionary Cambridge University Press Retrieved 27 September 2023 science Cambridge Dictionary Cambridge University Press Retrieved 27 September 2023 Eusocial climbers PDF E O Wilson Foundation Archived from the original PDF on 27 April 2019 Retrieved 3 September 2018 But he s not a scientist he s never done scientific research My definition of a scientist is that you can complete the following sentence he or she has shown that Wilson says Our definition of a scientist Science Council Retrieved 7 September 2018 A scientist is someone who systematically gathers and uses research and evidence making a hypothesis and testing it to gain and share understanding and knowledge Lehoux Daryn 2011 2 Natural Knowledge in the Classical World In Shank Michael Numbers Ronald Harrison Peter eds Wrestling with Nature From Omens to Science Chicago University of Chicago U S A Press p 39 ISBN 978 0226317830 Aristotle Metaphysics Alpha 983b18 nbsp Smith William ed 1870 Thales Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology p 1016 Michael Fowler Early Greek Science Thales to Plato University of Virginia Retrieved 2016 06 16 Frank N Magill The Ancient World Dictionary of World Biography Volume 1 Routledge 2003 ISBN 1135457395 Singer C 2008 A Short History of Science to the 19th century Streeter Press p 35 Needham C W 1978 Cerebral Logic Solving the Problem of Mind and Brain Loose Leaf p 75 ISBN 978 0 398 03754 3 Cahan David ed 2003 From Natural Philosophy to the Sciences Writing the History of Nineteenth Century Science Chicago Illinois University of Chicago Press ISBN 0 226 08928 2 Lightman Bernard 2011 Science and the Public In Shank Michael Numbers Ronald Harrison Peter eds Wrestling with Nature From Omens to Science Chicago University of Chicago Press p 367 ISBN 978 0226317830 Gary B Ferngren 2002 Science and religion a historical introduction Archived 2015 03 16 at the Wayback Machine JHU Press p 33 ISBN 0 8018 7038 0 On the historical development of the character of scientists and the predecessors see Steven Shapin 2008 The Scientific Life A Moral History of a Late Modern Vocation Chicago Chicago University Press ISBN 0 226 75024 8 Einstein 1954 p 271 Propositions arrived at by purely logical means are completely empty as regards reality Because Galileo realised this and particularly because he drummed it into the scientific world he is the father of modern physics indeed of modern science altogether Stephen Hawking Galileo and the Birth of Modern Science Archived 2012 03 24 at the Wayback Machine American Heritage s Invention amp Technology Spring 2009 Vol 24 No 1 p 36 Peter Damerow 2004 Introduction Exploring the Limits of Preclassical Mechanics A Study of Conceptual Development in Early Modern Science Free Fall and Compounded Motion in the Work of Descartes Galileo and Beeckman Springer Science amp Business Media p 6 Harrison Peter 8 May 2012 Christianity and the rise of western science Australian Broadcasting Corporation Retrieved 28 August 2014 Noll Mark Science Religion and A D White Seeking Peace in the Warfare Between Science and Theology PDF The Biologos Foundation p 4 archived from the original PDF on 22 March 2015 retrieved 14 January 2015 Lindberg David C Numbers Ronald L 1986 Introduction God amp Nature Historical Essays on the Encounter Between Christianity and Science Berkeley and Los Angeles University of California Press pp 5 12 ISBN 978 0 520 05538 4 Gilley Sheridan 2006 The Cambridge History of Christianity Volume 8 World Christianities C 1815 c 1914 Brian Stanley Cambridge University Press p 164 ISBN 0 521 81456 1 Lindberg David 1992 The Beginnings of Western Science University of Chicago Press p 204 Robert Routledge 1881 A popular history of science 2nd ed G Routledge and Sons p 553 ISBN 0 415 38381 1 Spallanzani Uomo e scienziato in Italian Il museo di Lazzaro Spallanzani Archived from the original on 2010 06 03 Retrieved 2010 06 07 Nineteenth Century Attitudes Men of Science Nineteenth Century Attitudes Men of Science Archived from the original on 2008 03 09 Retrieved 2008 01 15 Friedrich Ueberweg History of Philosophy From Thales to the Present Time C Scribner s sons v 1 1887 Steve Fuller Kuhn VS Popper The Struggle For The Soul Of Science Columbia University Press 2004 Page 43 ISBN 0 231 13428 2 Science by American Association for the Advancement of Science 1917 v 45 1917 Jan Jun Page 274 Archived 2017 03 02 at the Wayback Machine a b Ross Sydney 1962 Scientist The story of a word Annals of Science 18 2 65 85 doi 10 1080 00033796200202722 To be exact the person coined the term scientist was referred to in Whewell 1834 only as some ingenious gentleman Ross added a comment that this some ingenious gentleman was Whewell himself without giving the reason for the identification Ross 1962 p 72 Whewell William Murray John ed On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences By Mrs Sommerville The Quarterly Review LI March amp June 1834 54 68 Holmes R 2008 The age of wonder How the romantic generation discovered the beauty and terror of science London Harper Press p 449 ISBN 978 0 00 714953 7 a b Whewell William The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences Volume 1 Cambridge p cxiii or Whewell William 1847 The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences Founded Upon Their History Vol 2 New York Johnson Reprint Corp p 560 In the 1847 second edition moved to volume 2 page 560 William Whewell 1794 1866 gentleman of science Archived from the original on 2007 06 25 Retrieved 2007 05 19 Tamara Preaud Derek E Ostergard The Sevres Porcelain Manufactory Yale University Press 1997 416 pages ISBN 0 300 07338 0 Page 36 Everyone is a Scientist Scientific Scribbles a b Cyranoski David Gilbert Natasha Ledford Heidi Nayar Anjali Yahia Mohammed 2011 Education The PhD factory Nature 472 7343 276 279 Bibcode 2011Natur 472 276C doi 10 1038 472276a PMID 21512548 STEM education To build a scientist Nature 523 7560 371 373 2015 doi 10 1038 nj7560 371a Gould Julie 2016 What s the point of the PhD thesis Nature 535 7610 26 28 Bibcode 2016Natur 535 26G doi 10 1038 535026a PMID 27383968 a b Kruger Philipp 2018 Why it is not a failure to leave academia Nature 560 7716 133 134 Bibcode 2018Natur 560 133K doi 10 1038 d41586 018 05838 y PMID 30065341 Lee Adrian Dennis Carina Campbell Phillip 2007 Nature s guide for mentors Nature 447 7146 791 797 Bibcode 2007Natur 447 791L doi 10 1038 447791a PMID 17568738 Kwok Roberta 2017 Flexible working Science in the gig economy Nature 550 419 421 doi 10 1038 nj7677 549a Woolston Chris 2007 Editorial ed Many junior scientists need to take a hard look at their job prospects Nature 550 549 552 doi 10 1038 nj7677 549a Lee Adrian Dennis Carina Campbell Phillip 2007 Graduate survey A love hurt relationship Nature 550 7677 549 552 doi 10 1038 nj7677 549a Stockton Nick 7 October 2014 How did the Nobel Prize become the biggest award on Earth Wired retrieved 3 September 2018 Foreword National Academies Press US 1992 The Brain The Final Frontier November 2014 The Last Frontier Carnegie Mellon University CMU a b van Noorden Richard 2015 India by the numbers Nature 521 7551 142 143 Bibcode 2015Natur 521 142V doi 10 1038 521142a PMID 25971491 Employment Male majority Nature 542 7642 509 2017 02 22 doi 10 1038 nj7642 509b S2CID 256770781 Margaret A Eisenhart Elizabeth Finkel 1998 Women s Science Learning and Succeeding from the Margins University of Chicago Press p 18 External articles editFurther readingAlison Gopnik Finding Our Inner Scientist Archived 2016 04 12 at the Wayback Machine Daedalus Winter 2004 Charles George Herbermann The Catholic Encyclopedia Science and the Church The Encyclopedia press 1913 v 13 Page 598 Thomas Kuhn The Structure of Scientific Revolutions 1962 Arthur Jack Meadows The Victorian Scientist The Growth of a Profession 2004 ISBN 0 7123 0894 6 Science The Relation of Pure Science to Industrial Research American Association for the Advancement of Science Page 511 onwards WebsitesFor best results add a little inspiration The Telegraph about What Inspired You a survey of key thinkers in science technology and medicine Peer Review Journal Science on amateur scientists The philosophy of the inductive sciences founded upon their history 1847 Complete TextAudio Visual The Scientist BBC Radio 4 discussion with John Gribbin Patricia Fara and Hugh Pennington In Our Time Oct 24 2002 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Scientist amp oldid 1194936368, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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