• Question: Which scientist do you look up to most? (Are they related to cancer?)

    Asked by marema to Leo, Gioia, Iain, Jo, Mariam on 20 Jun 2010 in Categories: . This question was also asked by helen1, kannah, alisonkatie, issiphee1, roseandellie, icedancer.
    • Photo: Iain Moal

      Iain Moal answered on 14 Jun 2010:

      Hmm… thats a tough questions. There are some truely inspirational cancer researchers around nowadays. I can’t really pick one single scientist, because there are too many: Darwin, Einstein, Newton, Archimedes, Pasteur, Jenner… the list goes on and on.

    • Photo: Gioia Cherubini

      Gioia Cherubini answered on 14 Jun 2010:

      The scientist I admire the most is Dr. Robert Sapolsky, an american neurobiologist that spends half of his time in Africa studying the behaviour of baboons. I don’t know him personally, but I read all of his books (and I highly recommend them, try Monkey luv for example). Not only he is a great scientist with an excellent record of publications, but he is also extremely good at communicating science to not scientist and make everything sounds interesting. He also comes across as a humble person and very caring for his family (even if he called his children with the names of his favourite baboons!) He is exactly the kind of scientist I would like to be.

    • Photo: Mariam Orme

      Mariam Orme answered on 14 Jun 2010:

      Charles Darwin is one of my ‘favourite’ scientists, because his theory of evolution made a huge impact on the way we think about biology – it really changed everything. And it was very unpopular because people at the time saw it as being ungodly, so he was very brave to publish it.

      I also really look up to Gregor Mendel. He was a monk in the 1800s and he made some incredibly important observations just using pea plants, that led to much of our understanding of genetics. Sadly for him, no one really got the importance of his work when he was alive, it’s only more recently that we’ve realised how important his observations were.

    • Photo: Leo Garcia

      Leo Garcia answered on 20 Jun 2010:

      In terms of scientists who aren’t dead, I look up to Richard Dawkins, who I find an inspiration. I also like Ben Goldacre and Brian Cox!

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