What books would you recommend for those interested in reading more on the topic of Physics in general?

 This would be my top fifteen:

1.The Elegant Universe – Brian Greene – an excellent introduction to the fundamentals of Modern Physics.

2. Hyperspace – Michio Kaku - wonderful take on extra dimensions by a strong narrator.

3. The Ideas of Physics – Ernest Hutten - an oldie but a goldie – discusses key ideas that shaped the discipline.

4. Fearful Symmetry – A. Zee - Looks at the Beauty in Physics.

5. Physics of Immortality – Frank Tipler - a bit over the top but highly entertaining, nevertheless.

6. Theories of Everything – John Barrow - Low key but well written.

7. Feynman Lecture Series – Richard Feynman - A struggle for the layperson, but if you can get through a third of it, your effort will be rewarded.

8. The Trouble with Physics – Lee Smolin - an important critique of the groupthink that has worked its way into particle physics.

9. Physics – Douglas Giancoli - Doesn’t matter what the edition is; its treatment of classical physics is splendid.

10. The Flying circus of Physics – Jearl Walker – Challenging problems that force one to really think deeply about everyday physics.

11. Relativity Simply Explained – Martin Gardiner – Its title says it all.

12. The First Three Minutes: A Modern View of the Origin of the Universe – Steven Weinberg- Still one of the best treatments of the Big Bang.

13. The Constants of Nature – John Barrow – Delves into the details of these definitive constants that so encapsulate our universe.

14. Thirty Years that Shook Physics: The Story of Quantum Theory – Gamow is a great storyteller, and he didn’t disappoint with this useful read.

15. Fifty Physics Ideas – Joanne Baker – Lots of fun and really easy to navigate

Why does time slow down the faster you move?

 My Answer on Quora.

It doesn’t slow down at least in the sense that this question is worded. This is a misconception. Lets look a bit more at the bigger picture that comes from Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity (1905).

Time is a relative concept. There is no such thing as absolute time in the broader scope of non-Galilean relativity. The measurement of time is specific to the frame of reference of the person making the measurement. Within the same frame of reference all observers agree on the same time measurement. However if one frame of reference is moving with respect to the other then there will be a disagreement in how much time has elapsed between events.

You see the only ‘absolute’ here is that the laws of physics hold across all frames of reference. The speed of light in a vacuum as measured by all is the SAME. We call it c. One cannot add or subtract onto c. It is what it is. There is no such thing as c + v or c-v (which Galilean relativity argues for).

Which means that something has to give. Actually several entities do, including absolute time and absolute length. The relative motion of one frame of reference to the other has to be taken into account and it is corrected for by invoking the Lorentz or Gamma factor.

where v = speed of the one frame of reference relative to the other.

For example if Bob boards a space ship and travels at a constant speed v relative to his Earthbound cousin Ann. Bob will experience what is called proper time (a poorly worded term). Ann will be the benefactor of relativistic or measured time. Both measurements of time are correct within their specific frame of reference.

Now the two times are related by the Gamma factor as shown below:

where delta t prime = measured time and delta t is proper time. Gamma is included in this equation and is always greater than or equal to 1. As v approaches c gamma tends to infinity so that the discrepancy between measured time and proper time ramps up considerably. We don’t see this as much in the day-to-day as v is so small compared to c. However the phenomenon is real….we call it TIME DILATION.

Consequently for Ann it will seem that Bob’s clock is running VERY slow. However from Bob’s perspective life is normal and there is nothing wrong with his clock. He will likely argue that Ann’s clock is running too fast. Both are correct in their own frame of reference.

Worth noting is that there is an additional assumption built into this analysis. Both frames of reference are not-accelerating. That is they are Inertial. For accelerating Frames of reference we need to bring in ideas from Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity (1915).

Sabine Hossenfelder looks at the fraud that is driving a retraction crisis in the science. She points a finger at the 'Special Issues' craze that has allowed the literature to become littered with published papers that are fundamentally flawed (deliberately or not). AI is partly to blame but like most critiques she avoids going deeper into a proposed solution. 

In addition she carefully avoids the politically motivated topic of Anthropegenic Climate Change that has for all intent of purpose become the poster child for groupthink, scientism and shoddy science. 

 Publish or Perish and competitive grant money have not helped the process but if science cannot extricate itself from the politics that skews its bias it runs the risk of crashing in on itself. Nobody will benefit from that. The success of Western Civilization is grounded in a solid science. This involves a science that incorporates rationalism and empiricism and places the truth at the apex of all investigation quests. 

More Answers to Quick Quora Questions II

Did Britain refuse to support Anti-Bolshevik forces in the Russia before World War II?

No. In fact between 1918 and 1920 The British together with France, the United States, Japan and Czechoslovakia actively backed the anti-Bolshevik White Movement in the Russian Civil War. Almost a thousand Brits died in this conflict.

Check out: Kinvig, Clifford (2006). Churchill's Crusade: The British Invasion of Russia 1918–1920. London

Can totalitarianism exist in a liberal form?

No. The key unit in Liberalism is the individual with the prime focus being its sovereignty. Any totalitarian system biases the collective over the individual and therefore ceases to be liberal. Progressivism is not liberal.    

Can Nuclear fusion be stopped or reversed if accidently started?

I assume you mean in a lab or power planet. The answer is yes. Nuclear Fission Processes are shutdown using the SCRAM procedure (safety control rod axe man - the term was coined by Enrico Fermi). In light reactors (water cooled) this done by inserting a control rod that absorbs neutrons. For CANDU reactors a neutron poison is injected via the EPIS system (Emergency Poison Injection system).

In Nuclear Fusion the process is stopped by releasing the pressure on the plasma/fuel mix. Worth thinking about is that a fusion reaction is easier to control as it is not a chain reaction.

When did the meaning of Liberalism change from its classical roots?

It didn’t. Liberalism is the authentic classic version. In the United States Progressive groups co-opted the name in the early to mid 20th century as a way of polishing their progressive image which had become increasingly tarnished over time. The re-brand unfortunately stuck with the details lost to history. In Europe and Australia, Liberal Party Parties are closer to the original definition in political philosophy (although not always in action) than those who go by the same mantra in North America.

Why did Germany betray Austria and not provide assistance during World War I?

The Germans were fighting the French/British Empires on one front and the Russians on the other. The fight against the Russians relieved some of the pressure on the Austrian/Hungarian forces who could concentrate more of their efforts against the Italians and the Serbs. Anymore German assistance was unlikely as the nations was under naval blockade and was stretched to the limits on both the Western and Eastern Fronts for most of the war. While there was some relief to Germany when Russia pulled out of the war this did not last long as the Allied forces were bolstered on the West by the entry of the United States.

What are the 10 most Important paradigm shifts in the History of Science?

Great Question on Quora (my answer)

 I tried with 10 but I believe that 12 does this answer more justice. There are others that I could add here viz. William Harvey’s work on the circulation system, the various developments in Optics, Acid-Base chemistry, Plate Tectonics, applications of Boolean Algebra, the Gas Laws, neuron physiology and topography. However I will go with these 12.

1. Copernican Revolution. (15th-17th century)

• Main Idea - Overthrow of the Geocentric model of the Universe. Subsequent developments - Kepler’s Three Laws of Planetary motion. Galileo’s observations. Orbital Periodicity. Newtonian Synthesis. Consequences - Rethinking of the centrality of humanity’s centralized position in the universe. Inspiration for further astronomical developments that now see the Milky Way as one of possibly two trillion galaxies in the universe.

Copernicus: Science at your Doorstep

2. Newton’s Laws of Motion (17th-18th century)

• Main Idea - Three Laws of motion that define the nature of velocity, acceleration, inertia, action and reaction and cause and effect. Build heavily on Galilean Empiricism and Relativity. Subsequent Development - Formalization of ideas on Momentum, Impulse, rotational mechanics and fluid flow. Practical application of the calculus and further extensions into Lagrangian and Hamiltonian mechanics. Consequence - Mechanical determinism, clockwork universes and a framework for analyzing physical systems under Cartesian reductionism.

Classical Mechanics Timeline: source: citizendium

3. Laws of Thermodynamics (18th-19th centuries)

• Main idea - Conservation of Energy. Direction of heat flow. Organization and disorganization in a system. Absolute zero limits. Work-Energy equivalencies. (Three Laws plus one zeroth law). Subsequent Developments - Enthalpy and Entropy formalization. Gibb’s Free Energy. Hess’s Law. Kinetic Molecular Theory. Chemical Equilbrium. Physics of machines (Carnot, Rankin, Otto cycles etc). Heat exchange. Statistical Mechanics. Consequences - Arrow of Time, Constraints on system performance. Directionality of information. Key Driver for the Transformational era of the Industrial Revolution.

Source: Lawofthernodynamics.com

4. Unification of Electricity and Magnetism (19th-20th centuries)

• Main Idea - Electricity and Magnetism as related field phenomena. Unified mathematically by James Clerk Maxwell. Notion of the Electromagnetic Wave. Field ideas developed by Faraday. Earlier work - Oersted, Gauss, Weber and Ampere. Subsequent Development (or Parallel Developments) - Electric Motor, Generators, Relay Systems, Transformers, Dynamos, AC Current. EM Waves - Radio transmission - Microwaves. Consequences - Mechanization of society, reduction in mechanical work tasks (societal consequences), enhancement of information transfer.

Source: www.chegg.com

5. Atomic Theory (Early Models Ancient Greeks, 19th-20th centuries)

• Main Idea - The Atom as a building block of nature. Its elucidation into sub-atomic particles. Applied use in virtually all of the physical and life sciences. Subsequent Development - Understanding of chemical bonding, nuclear physics, molecular biology, radioactivity and nanotechnology. Consequences - Energy provision, medical applications (biotechnology), warfare and analytics.

Source: Key Figures in Atomic Theory picture source: Middle School Science Blog

6. Evolution by Natural Selection (19th century)

• Main Idea - Natural Selection acted on diverse traits as a driver for evolutionary change and species formation. Factors act on variation within population. Key thinkers - Darwin, Wallace. Influenced by notion of Old Earth (Hutton, Lyell) and Malthusian checks. Subsequent Development - Neo-Darwinian refinements (including modification based on genetics and mutation theory), taxonomic re-writes, cladistics/phylogenetics. Models of Gradualism and Punctuated Equilibrium. Consequences - removal of humanity as the apex of the so-called Ladder of Life, Models of descent from a common ancestor.

Charles Darwin source: Britannica

7. Quantum Mechanics (19th and 20th Century)

• Main Idea - The discrete nature of matter and energy at the most fundamental level. Earlier development by Max Planck comes out of the application of Statistical Mechanics (Ludwig Botzmann) to the Blackbody Radiation problem. Subsequent Development - Advances in the atomic model, Wave-particle duality, photoelectric effect, matter waves, photoelectric effect, photonic momentum, stellar evolution, development of the standard model, transistors and Energy transitions in atomic systems. Consequences - Key driver in the technological revolution and Computer Age with Integrated circuits, microprocessors etc. Challenges to Philosophical Determinism (Uncertainty), development of Electron Microscopes/Lasers.Possible models of consciousness.

Integrated Circuits were made possible by our understanding of Quantum Mechanics source: Total Phase.

8. Special and General Relativity (20th Century)

• Main Idea - Reworking of the notions of space, time, gravity, energy and momentum within a relative and non-absolute framework (albeit on the inherent postulate that the Laws of Physics hold for all observers). Subsequent Development - Mass-Energy Equivalency, Rework on Simultaneity, Impact on the Big Bang, Singularity Physics (Black Holes), Hidden Mass, Models of the future and past of the universe. Consequences - Key pillar in Modern Physics (alongside Quantum mechanics), rethinking causality. Macroworld consequences. Overarching theory for which Newtonian/Galilean models are low velocity approximations.

Space-time Diagram source: Gravity Probe B - Stanford U

9. DNA/RNA and Genetic Engineering (20th century)

• Main Idea: DNA and its sister RNA are the molecules of life and through processes of transcription and translation are ultimately responsible for building the protein that provides the structural and functional framework for living organisms. Subsequent Development - Better understanding of the mechanisms of hereditary (beyond the Mendelian model), Genetic Engineering, drug development/targeting, PCR, and CRISPR. Consequences - Break throughs in medical treatment (vaccines, monoclonal antibodies etc), tools in forensics, fertility. Overriding ethical considerations with respect to cloning and privacy.

Chemical Structure of DNA Source: Compound Interest

10. Germ Theory (18th-20th century)

• Main Idea: Microorganisms (Bacteria, viruses, viroids, protozoa etc) as the cause for many diseases. Development made possible by optics revolution (magnifying glasses, microscopes etc) and chemical assays. Subsequent Development - Antibiotics, antivirals, Immunization mechanisms and Antiseptics. Consequences - More effective disease treatment. Better outcomes for infant mortality and longevity. Destruction of Vitalism and Spontaneous Generation as earlier biological explanations for disease.

Germ Theory in Bacteriology source: Bitlanders

11. Feedback mechanisms(Cybernetics) (19th and 20th century)

• Main Idea: The understanding of positive and negative feedback loops as regulators of system functioning. Has application in a variety of the physical, information and life sciences. Subsequent Development - Mechanisms of Biological homeostasis (endocrine system, neuro-muscular framework, response to stimuli, plant trophisms, cell biology), Chemical Process control, artificial intelligence, decision analysis and Chaos Theory. Consequences - Broader understanding of stability of systems, cause-and effect analysis, understanding levels of complexity through factor analysis.

Cell homeostasis source: OpenCurriculum

12. Organic Chemistry (19th-20th century)

• Main Idea: Understanding of the chemistry around carbon and the ability to synthesize compounds that were once deemed outside the scope of chemistry. Subsequent Development - Modern Biochemistry, Polymerization (Plastics etc), Drug development, Nutritional Sciences Consequences - Improved medical treatment. Enhanced product development. Largely positive however there are environmental consequences as well (just like inorganic chemistry).

Functional Groups and Polymerization source: Britannica

What are Emprical Laws? How are Newton's Laws Emprical?

 My answer on Quora

These are phenomena that at their very core are driven by the nature of what the universe is at its fundamental level and can only be elucidated through experimentation (not deductive rationalism). They could indeed be otherwise if the nature of the physical universe and its key constants were different. We can probe deeper with mathematics to explain the ‘how’ but the ‘why’ is a different beast altogether.

Newton’s Three Laws of motion emerge as special cases of a broader physics model that rests on a deeper physical base empirically in the MODERN framework. CLASSICALLY without the benefits of Quantum Mechanics and Relativity (both Special and General) we treat them as Empirical.

What does Gibbs Free Energy measure?

 (My answer on Quora).

Gibb’s Free Energy (delta G) measures the maximum amount of reversible work that can be extracted from a system. The caveat though is that the system has to be at constant temperature and pressure (or volume). It must also be a closed system (that is one that does not exchange matter although it can exchange heat and work)

Gibb’s Energy (also known as available energy) is given by the symbol G and is named after the American chemist Josiah Gibbs. The unit of G (like all energies) is Joules (J).

When a system is in chemical equilibrium G is minimized. Delta G becomes zero which implies that no spontaneous energy can be extracted from the system at this pressure and temperature.

Science v Scientism

 Pure Science itself isn’t inherently an ideology. It a method of examining claims through empirical investigation and then drawing conclusion that have predictive value. It uses the framework of mathematics and statistics to analyze the evidence thereby opening up further avenues of investigation to test deeper claims. In this regard it has been very successful.

Having said that though Paul Feyerabend has a point when the practitioners of science become dogmatic and political in their outlook to the point that they transform the practice of science into a milieu dominated by groupthink, the willful neglect of contrary evidence and the elevation of the power dynamic of credentialism.

This invariably results in stagnant thinking, the formation of a closed secretarian priesthood/authority and the sacrifice of the rigorous scientific methodology to preordained conclusions.

The further venture of science into realms which are less quantifiable or indeed falsifiable (eg. morality and metaphysics) further challenges the scope of science’s applicability. A realism that seems lost to those who with each passing moment are intent in transforming science into the ideology of scientism.

What is the closest galaxy to Earth?

 (My answer on Quora).

Earth exists in the Milky Way galaxy whose galactic center is about 0.0265 million light years from us here on the Third Rock. Ironically the Canis Major Dwarf satellite galaxy is 0.0250 million light years from Earth although its classification as a galaxy is disputed.

There are a myriad of satellite galaxies that are very close to the Milky Way (including the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds) but the closest Major galaxy to the Milky Way is Andromeda (M31) which is about 2.5 million light years from Earth. It is a barred spiral galaxy with about twice as many stars as the Milky Way.

Source: D. Karachentsev et al.(2004) A Catalog of Neighboring Galaxies.

What is considered to be the beginning of space science?

(My answer on Quora)

Space science is an amalgamation of scientific ideas and concepts that emerge from physics, chemistry and mathematics. Our initial understanding of planetary motion relies heavily on the work of Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Newton, Lagrange, Laplace and Euler. Such thinking has its origin in the Renaissance but extends into the Age of Reason and the Scientific Enlightenment (essentially the period that spans the 15th to the 18th centuries).

Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1857–1935) source: New World Encyclopedia

Rocket Science (yes it is a real subject) though as a discipline in and of itself owes much to the pioneering work of Russian thinker Konstantin Tsiolkovsky in the late 19th and early 20th century. Tsiolkovsky wrote the foundational texts on Rocket propulsion and space flight. He was a visionary who even spoke about the notion of space stations, air locks and future colonization efforts. He formulated the famous Tsiolkovsky Equation associated with Rocket propulsion that is shown below.

source: Relativity and science calculator

Tsiolkovsky was without doubt the Father of Modern Space Science and deserves a tremendous amount of credit for his foresight. He understood the significance of multi-stage rockets and the importance of fuels such as liquid oxygen and hydrogen. His work influenced later designers that included Robert Esnault-Pelterie , Robert Goddard and Hermann Oberth.

Western History 169: What were the important developments that occurred in 19th century Chemistry?

As discussed in an earlier answer 18^th century Chemistry could call on such notable figures as Carl Wilhelm Scheele, Henry Cavendish, Antoine Lavoisier, Robert Boyle, Jacques Charles, Joseph Proust  and Alessandro Volta. They set  a high standard for Chemistry as a science. Lavoisier himself is often regarded as the father of Modern Chemistry.

The 19^th century would be even more of a productive period. Englishman John Dalton (1808) , an earlier developer of a periodic table of elements, formulated his law of partial pressures to describe the relationship between components in a gas mixture. He also advanced the notion of multiple proportions.

John Dalton source: Leonardo Newtonic

Swede Jöns Jacob Berzelius (1808) started popularizing the modern use of symbols and notation that we use  today.

Frenchman Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac (1805) showed that water is composed of two parts hydrogen  to one part oxygen and added to the Gas law work carried out by Charles and Boyle in the previous century.

Italian Amedeo Avogadro (1811) proposed the Law that now bears his name in 1811, which states that equal volumes of gas under the same temperature and pressure contain the same number of particles.  The Chemistry concept of the mole (the curse of every high school student), used to define the amount of a substance, follows from his work and was developed later by Johann Lofschmidt (1865).

Amedeo Avogadro with his famous constant (the number of items in a mole of a substance) source: chemistrygod.com

Advances in Organic Chemistry were highlighted by Frederick Wohler’s synthesis of urea  in 1825 (the birth of Organic Chemistry), and his additional endeavours together with Justus von Liebig on Isomers. Both chemists would stress the importance of functional groups in Organic Chemistry as well as the notion of chemical radicals (1832).

Germain Hess in 1840 provided an early version of the concept of Conservation of Energy and this was followed by other advances in physical chemistry around Absolute Zero (Lord Kelvin - 1848), Mass action (Cato Maximilian Goldberg and Peter Wage - 1864), Entropy (Ludwig  Boltzmann - 1877), Chemical Equilibrium shifts (Henri Le Chatelier - 1884), Free Energy (Josiah Gibbs - 1876) and Kinetics (Jacobus van't Hoff- 1884 ).

Hess's Law (named after German Hess - useful in determining energy associated with chemical reactions) source: Socratic

Earlier developments in light spectrometry set in motion the development of analytical chemistry and owe a debt of gratitude to August Beer (1852), Pierre Bouger and Johann  Lambert. Gustav Kirchoff and Robert Bunsen used this technique to discover the elements caesium and rubidium (1859-1860). Similar discoveries from light spectrometery allowed for the identification of iridium, thalium and helium soon afterwards.

Beer's Law (Named after August Beer - shows how the concentration of a solution is related to its light absorbance factor) source: Thoughtco.com

Models highlighting the nature of chemical bonding became more sophisticated in the 19th century. Friedrich August Kekulé (1857) showed how carbon has a tetravalent nature. Soon afterwards Alexandre-Émile Béguyer de Chancourtois (1862), John Newlands (1864) and Julius Lothar Meyer provided earlier versions of the Periodic table (1864). The German Meyer is particularly well known for his organization of the elements around valencies (bonding capacities).

In 1869 Russian Dmitri Mendeleev would publish the First modern Periodic Table containing within it gaps of elements that were awaiting discovery. Much of his efforts were aided by the earlier work of Stanislao Cannizzaro and his organization of the elements by atomic weight in 1860.

Dmitri Mendeleev source: New Scientist

Between 1894-98 Mendeleev’s missing element hypothesis was given credence by William Ramsay’s  discovery of the Noble gases.

Kekulé (1865) also showed how it was possible that Benzene has a six ring carbon structure, ensuring its stability as the base molecular for the Aromatic hydrocarbons. There was a more sophisticated understanding of chemical reactions overall thanks to Alfred Werner’s  work on chemical coordination (1893). Svante Arrhenius ion theory (1883) also helped explain conductivity in electrolytes. 

An early version of the Periodic Table source: Chemistry libre texts

Chemical advances were often driven by the practical needs associated with the industrial revolution. Alexander Parkes' (1862) development of the one of the earliest polymers falls into this category as were the use of dyes (such as indigo) that formed the basis of the work of Adolf von Baeyer (1865) and  William Perkin (mauve - 1856). Benjamin Stillman Jr. was a trendsetter for his ingenuity with respect to petroleum cracking (1855).

William Perkin source: sciencehistory.org

However it is important to note that many chemical breakthroughs were driven by advances in Physics. JJ Thomson’s discovery of the electron in 1897 was one such event and this was followed by Ernest Rutherford and Pierre and Marie Curie’s work on radioactivity. The development of devices such as the Mass Spectrometer by Wilhelm Wien (1898) helped Chemists immensely.

Western History 168: What important breakthroughs impacted the Life Sciences during the 19th century?

The biological sciences made great strides in the 19^th century  with the term itself being coined by Karl Friedrich Budach in 1800. Jean-Baptiste Lamarck  (1809) proposed a theory of evolution that posited the importance of the inheritance of acquired characteristics. However his work here was superseded by Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace’s Theory of ‘descent through modification’ (1858).

Although Darwin did not use the word evolution in his earlier work the notion of natural selection as a key driver for evolutionary change fundamentally changed the nature of how we understand the life sciences. It provided the overriding platform on which our understanding of both biology rests.

Charles Darwin source: biography.com

Like Copernicus's earlier Heliocentric model of the universe Darwin's work challenged the privilege notion of humanity in the universe. The ladder of life was not crowned by our species.

Austrian monk Gregor Mendel (1865) would add to Darwin’s work by elucidating and describing  the rules that seem to underpin genetic inheritance.The Principle of Segregation states that there are two genes per trait and that these segregate when an animal makes an egg or a sperm. The Law of Independent Assortment argues that genes in a pair are distributed independently. Much of Mendel's work on pea plants was 'lost' but it was re-discovered years later (by Hugo De Vries in 1900) and now plays an important role modern science of genetics.

Gregor Mendel - Schematic showing how genes combine during Fertilization source: biomedcentral.com

In terms of cell biology Theodor Schwann and Matthias Schleiden (1839) made the case that all living organisms are made up of cells (Cell Theory). Rudolf Virchow (1858) advanced this idea further by showing that all cells come from pre-existing cell. This built further on the discovery of the mammalian egg by Karl von Baer (1826) and Martin Barry's (1843) revelation that showed how egg and sperm fuse in the case of rabbit egg fertilization.

Organic Chemistry and with it biochemistry came of age in the 19^th century with Friedrich Woehler’s synthesis of urea (1828) The enzyme pepsin, that acts to facilitate protein digestion was identified by Schwann in 1836. Before that chlorophyll, which plays a vital role in Photosynthesis, was identified in 1817 with Friedrich Miescher (1869) and Emil Fischer (1884) adding to our knowledge of nucleic acids and sugars by their respective biochemical discoveries .

Adding to this work was the tremendous accomplishments of the Frenchman Louis Pasteur, the Father of Immunology, who showed how microorganisms are responsible for Fermentation (Pasteur's name is associated with the high temperature process used to kill bacteria in milk). Pasteur also produced the first vaccine for rabies and in 1864 dealt the final blow to the age old theory of Spontaneous Generation.

Pasteur's Test of Spontaneous Generation source: AmoebaMike

Ignác Semmelweis and Joseph Lister would make use of Pasteur's Germ Theory in their development of antiseptics thereby revolutionizing our understanding of disease management and pathology.

Lord Joseph Lister source: rcseng.ac.uk

While Antiseptics stands as the one arm of modern medicine the other is anaesthetics that was given a vital lift by Scotsman James Simpson (1847) and his pioneering work with chloroform. This would open the door for pain reduced surgeries.

As mentioned the Chemistry and Biology into the fledgling Biochemistry was an emerging reality of the 19^th century and breakthroughs were all the more common as scientists learnt more about the action of germs in causing disease. Martinus Beijernick for one identified a new pathogen that caused the Tobacco Mosaic plant disease. It was much smaller than a  bacterium and he named it the virus.

Was Charles Darwin the most influential thinker of the Scientific Revolution?

 (My Answer on Quora)

Charles Darwin’s contribution to the Life Sciences probably stands front-and-center in that particular area of Natural Philosophy but is he the greatest contributor in the long history of the Scientific Revolution ? I am not convinced.

Darwin articulated the importance of natural selection as a key driver for evolution which has obvious explanatory benefits in both zoology and biology as well as human medicine (think antibiotic resistance).

However there are other figures whose contribution in the biological sciences should not be forgotten and deserve a mention even within Darwin’s heightened context - Pasteur, Mendel (although his results were later re-discovered), Harvey, Vesalius, Cajal, Virchow, van Leeuwenhoek, and Hooke come to mind.

I would also give a nod to his contemporary Alfred Russel Wallace. Having said that Darwin probably shades it over the pack here as Natural Selection has such overarching reach in the Life Sciences and the Englishman - who was well connected through familial ties - got to the end post first.

Darwin like most mortals stood on the broad shoulders of others before him - Malthus, Hutton, Linneaus - to peer further into the scientific horizon (a sentiment articulated much earlier by Sir Issac Newton). One should not forget that as we rush forward with hagiographic intent.

Had the big man himself not existed I suspect his ideas would still have seen the light of day with the often downplayed and under appreciated Wallace perhaps earning more credit than he is traditionally afforded.

The scientific revolution was well under way before Darwin was born. Long before in fact with tremendous contributions already having been made by Copernicus, Galileo, Bruno, Kepler, Newton, Huygens, Laplace etc.

Darwin furthered its progress in the biological ream but much of the key breakthroughs in terms of methodology, rational thought, necessary skepticism and empirical verification preceded him.

It was Galileo for one who vaulted Experimentation to the front and center of the Sciences (he is my personal choice for Greatest contributor) while Copernicus (before him) overthrew the primacy of the human dominated Earth as the focus of the Universe.

Newton’s genius in synthesizing the physics of the celestial and the terrestrial are immeasurable and his contribution to optics, calculus cannot be understated. Our understanding of classical mechanics, a discipline that impacts every facet of our lives whether we know it or not, is well described by his Laws of Motion.

To this I would add the work of Faraday and Maxwell that saw the practical and theoretical synthesis of Electricity and Magnetism. This a pivotal to the ongoing scientific revolution that places a high premium on elucidating unity between phenomena and birthed the very powerful notion of the Field.

The same can be said with the development of chemistry through Dalton, Priestley, Lavoisier, Berzelius and Mendeleev. In terms of overarching structures the Periodic Table is as critical to our understanding of elemental structure and reactions as natural selection is to biology.

One could argue as well that Einstein and his work in shattering key paradigms of space, time, simultaneity and gravity are even greater contributions, not to mention the many pioneers who blazed the trail in Quantum Mechanics - an area of science that is often touted as the greatest accomplishment in all of Intellectual History. Max Planck as the discipline's forefather stands aloft here as does Ludwig Boltzmann, the originator of Statistical Mechanics.

The Modern age of Telecommunications and Information technology with all its benefits arise from the insights we have gained in understanding the counter intuitive nuances of this discipline.

Yes one ought to value Darwin for his scientific thinking but in the rarefied competition of who is the greatest I would argue that there are strong examples elsewhere.