Top ten physicists

Top ten physicists 

Recently there appeared many lists of top ten physicists. Here I give mine. 

My focus is on social impacts instead of current fame among physicists. Imagine five hundred years from now. Scientists then have little direct impressions of the figures we are discussing today. What would be their opinions?

I will list these people in four groups: classical, electromagnetism, thermodynamics, and quantum theory.

In the classical period, there are Copernicus, Kepler, and Newton. 

In electromagnetism, there are Faraday and Maxwell. Faraday’s discovery about generating electricity from moving magnets is the foundation of modern economy.

In thermodynamics, there are Carnot and Boltzmann. Carnot’s profound insight about relation between temperature differential and work output is the most important result that is relevant to life.

In quantum theory, there are Planck, Heisenberg, and Schrodinger. Heisenberg was the first one to propose a theory of quantum mechanics.It would be interesting to note that Planck and Schrodinger spent their most time working on thermodynamics.

There is an obvious omission, Einstein. Einstein is no doubt a brilliant genius. But he caused a lot more damage to physics than his contribution. Take general relativity for example. Einstein’s insight is the equivalence of gravity and curvature. Because of the equivalence, one might expect most results in general relativity can be obtained from Newtonian mechanics. This is indeed the case. For example, the explanation on the precession of perihelion of Mercury had been obtained by Paul Gerber earlier. But Einstein and his backers ruthlessly suppressed the fact with intimidation and coercion. After Einstein, to survive in academia, one has to align with the politically powerful closely. Think about climate change. Researchers are eager to embrace the “consensus” dictated by the powerful. Einstein and his backers totally demolished science as a relatively objective, relatively neutral pursuit.