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 Posted: Mon Jul 03, 2006 3:40 am
So, who do you think gets far too much attention compared with their actual contribution to physics in general?
Can be past or present.
Oh, the reason for this is because I'm tired of all the major love given to Stephen Hawking by Pop.Sci. readers when I think he's massively overrated. >_> [Of course, you may disagree, I'm just curious and I do think there are some people who may be courting fame more than trying to further understanding]
Let the bitching commence!
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Posted: Mon Jul 03, 2006 3:23 pm
This is a little bit unrelated, but I couldn't resist blaugh :  this is an action figure of stephen hawking XD (I so want one of those, I have one of einstein!) here's the link. http://www.armchairempire.com/action-figures/dr-stephen-hawking.htm A Lost Iguana: hm I don't know if he's overrated, what about Hawking radiation?
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Posted: Mon Jul 03, 2006 3:42 pm
poweroutage This is a little bit unrelated, but I couldn't resist blaugh : this is an action figure of stephen hawking XD (I so want one of those, I have one of einstein!) here's the link. http://www.armchairempire.com/action-figures/dr-stephen-hawking.htm A Lost Iguana: hm I don't know if he's overrated, what about Hawking radiation? He was wrong about information loss in black holes, though. He was WRONG! Information can leak from black holes!
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Posted: Mon Jul 03, 2006 3:53 pm
Layra-chan He was wrong about information loss in black holes, though. He was WRONG! Information can leak from black holes! oh wow, so I guess he isn't as loved as he appears to be. Do you think his paralysis helps then? or is this a little controversial to throw at the table?
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ZenithofTechnicalEnlighte
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Posted: Mon Jul 03, 2006 9:25 pm
poweroutage Layra-chan He was wrong about information loss in black holes, though. He was WRONG! Information can leak from black holes! oh wow, so I guess he isn't as loved as he appears to be. Do you think his paralysis helps then? or is this a little controversial to throw at the table? I think that's EXACTLY why the people love Hawking so much--because he's paralyzed and still a leading voice in the world. I don't know anyone who gets TOO much attention (maybe Einstein, not due to a lack of contribution but simply too much memorabilia... I actually saw an Einstein thong once, no joke), but I can name someone who deserves a bit more recognition from people: Johannes Kepler. His work on astronomy, albeit pre-physical and very much guided by theological beliefs, laid out the groundwork that Newton used to formulate his three laws. I don't think that without Kepler Newton would have been able to do squat, and then where would we be smile ?
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Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2006 2:01 am
Then what of Tycho Brahe? If Kepler gets the kudos then you ought to reserve some credit to Brahe and his superb measurements.
Anyway, my point about Hawking is that he is not as great as people make out. It may be controversial to suggest, poweroutage, but I do not think that it is a massive thing; his popular science work probably does more for his reputation than sympathetic notions.
You could argue that Einstein's is a little overrated but anyone who has a year like 1905 deserves a little bit of press. Though, from the following generation you have the likes of Enrico Fermi and Lev Landau who seem to have been ignored by the public with respect to "older" Einstein.
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Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2006 11:14 am
I'm going with who is over-rated in the community, as the rating of the general public in these matters means very little.
Most over-rated: Edward Witten, by far. A fantastic mathematician, but not an outstanding physicist.
I don't think Hawking is over-rated as he gave us our only two insights into Quantum Gravity, information loss and black hole entropy, the former is a work of sheer genius.
Einstein can't be over-rated in the physics community.
Under-rated:
Julian Schwinger. One of the fathers of QFT, gets very little mention sometimes.
Moo-Young Han, Yoichiro Nambu and Oscar W. Greenberg. The fathers of QCD. They never get a mention. Considering QCD is the most interesting field theory intellectually I find this unusual.
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Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2006 11:59 am
Friendship coordinator Moo-Young Han, Yoichiro Nambu and Oscar W. Greenberg. The fathers of QCD. They never get a mention. Considering QCD is the most interesting field theory intellectually I find this unusual. It may be because the quark model and QCD is seen as the vindication of Gell-Mann. I'm not sure. Can you call string theorists physicists? [Okay, that's a cheap shot… XD]
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Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2006 12:15 pm
A Lost Iguana It may be because the quark model and QCD is seen as the vindication of Gell-Mann. I'm not sure. That's definitely the case, but it's kind of lame as the SU(3) property of the strong force was what set it apart from the other forces. Where as Gell-mann layed the foundation for quarks, they actually came to terms with the Strong Force itself. Quote: Can you call string theorists physicists? [Okay, that's a cheap shot… XD] I have to say String Theory is getting a bit silly now on the physics side of things. Not a single prediction in twenty years is terrible.
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Posted: Wed Jul 05, 2006 5:35 am
A Lost Iguana Then what of Tycho Brahe? If Kepler gets the kudos then you ought to reserve some credit to Brahe and his superb measurements. Anyway, my point about Hawking is that he is not as great as people make out. It may be controversial to suggest, poweroutage, but I do not think that it is a massive thing; his popular science work probably does more for his reputation than sympathetic notions. You could argue that Einstein's is a little overrated but anyone who has a year like 1905 deserves a little bit of press. Though, from the following generation you have the likes of Enrico Fermi and Lev Landau who seem to have been ignored by the public with respect to "older" Einstein. Tycho Brahe does need more kudos. For that, and for his awesome metal nose.
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ZenithofTechnicalEnlighte
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Posted: Sun Jul 23, 2006 4:41 pm
Well overall I would say that there are a lot of people who get too much attention but I don't think that any of them are really physicists. I won't begrudge Hawking or Einstein their fame when Elvis has more of it than the both of them combined.
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Posted: Fri Aug 04, 2006 1:29 am
Perhaps a quicker question would be, "Who does get exactly the amount of fame they deserve?" And from that category, I put forth Einstein and Feynman. The others I could think of would be pretty disputable.
And Einstein got me into thinking...you know who we haven't had in a while (it seems, since Einstein and Oppenheimer)? A well-known physicist who was also a political activist. Or mathematician, or chemist, for that matter. Einstein put his fame and reputation to use to (attempt to) make the world better, and he kinda succeeded. Maybe Hawking needs a round table show?
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Posted: Fri Aug 04, 2006 12:33 pm
We've had Chomsky, if he counts. He wasn't quite hard science, but he did try to turn theoretical linguistics into a mathematically precise study.
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Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2006 7:04 am
Swordmaster Dragon Perhaps a quicker question would be, "Who does get exactly the amount of fame they deserve?" And from that category, I put forth Einstein and Feynman. The others I could think of would be pretty disputable. And Einstein got me into thinking...you know who we haven't had in a while (it seems, since Einstein and Oppenheimer)? A well-known physicist who was also a political activist. Or mathematician, or chemist, for that matter. Einstein put his fame and reputation to use to (attempt to) make the world better, and he kinda succeeded. Maybe Hawking needs a round table show? you think the Manhattan project was a good thing? I think Einstein never intended his theories to be used for something so destructive, but he didn't exactly change the world in a better way. I think that, perhaps since the time of Einstein, physicists have been weary in participating in politics, these days we say physics to physics and politics to politics. When I was 11-13 I used to think that Stephen Hawking was the new Einstein, you know, the new "smartest person in the world", because that's how Einstein was presented to me, whenever I asked who he had been people would say "the smartest person in the 20th century". It's a misconception, since later I learned there were different kinds of intelligences, but nonetheless the feeling stuck. I think that this idea that physics and math being the more academic fields from the academic fields definitely contributed to my decision to study in them since to be considered the smartest person, Einstein had to frequent that field. It's a funny thing, I think no longer in that manner, but, it's funny that I used to. On a lighter note, I guess Feynman got the fame he deserved.
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