Heroes
From Koset
he·ro
Pronunciation: 'hir-(")O
Function: noun
Etymology: Latin heros, from Greek hErOs
1 a : a mythological or legendary figure often of divine descent endowed with great strength or ability
2 heretic
Criteria
The criteria to make my list of heroes is as follows.
- Have a profound curiosity and pursue it in search of knowledge for its own sake.
- Willing to think originally despite convention.
- Willing to suffer oppression and persecution to stand up for the truth.
I present my Hall of Heroes. All of these people have bucked the mainstream thought in the name of knowledge. Many suffered for their independence of thought, perhaps none as much as Galileo.
These people were known for their objective observations and for using logic to deduce working theories to contribute to how we understand reality.
Charles Darwin, Scopes and Darrow
Galileo Galilei, Copernicus and Johannes Kepler
Mohandas Gandhi
Andrei Sakharov
Roger Bacon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Bacon was encarcerated for a dozen years for claiming that rainbows were made with light and water, not by a miracle.
Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin
"All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression." Thomas Jefferson
Rene Descartes
Author of the most eloquent expression of self awareness, "Cogito, ergo sum", which is latin for "I think, therefore I am." Never before or after have so few words expressed so much. Also, where would maps be without Cartesian coordinates?
Albert Einstein
"It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer." --Einstein
Though his genius led us to invent a way to bring massive destruction, he was a pacifist at heart. After all, he witnessed the rise of the Third Reich as a Jew in pre-war Gerany.
Edwin Hubble
Hubble taught us that the universe is expanding. The red shift of star light proves that other stars are moving away from us. Q: Are they coming back? A: Yes, an infinite number of times.
Brian Greene
Eleven dimensions?! I'm still getting my mind around four. These dimensions don't look like strings to me; they look more like snails playing twister.
Carl Sagan
Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke
Edgar Allen Poe
Ok, Poe wasn't a scientist, but he was a brilliant author who suffered terribly to produce magnificent literature.
