NationStates Jolt Archive

What is theMost Important Scientific Discoveries of the Century?

Considering the century just started... who cares?

if you talk about the 20th century, I think the DNA reserch is the most important. that reserch could cure many things, and increase the life time.

DNA, by far. now if we could only silence those dumbass protesters, who would rather see hundreds die of horrible genetic diseases rather than eat GM bread...

well it seems he means the 20th century(since the just added poll shows discoverys made before 2000)


I agree the discovery of DNA and it's structre was one of the most important, and that it will become obvious in years to come as genetic disases are cured and genetic modifcations become possible based on the discovery.

I think you need to change your wording of some of those voting boxes. Radar wasnt "discovered". It didnt exist originally and then someone found it. It was "Invented".

relativity.
The link between mass and energy (simplified by E=mc2)

I think in a few centuries time, DNA will seen as the most important discovery of the C20th. But looking just looking at the C20th, I would say Atomic Power had the most impact on that particular century.

The internet

The discovery of DNA. I think that in the future, it will completely change the way we treat everything in medicine.

I reckon aids because now we know about it, research can start on a treatment or cure.

WTF!? AIDS?! Are you kidding?!

What kind of crap is that. You get your comeuppance for being sleazebags and crackheads and I laugh at your pathetic dying ass.

WTF!? AIDS?! Are you kidding?!

What kind of crap is that. You get your comeuppance for being sleazebags and crackheads and I laugh at your pathetic dying ass.


YEah, and especially all those people who contracted the virus because they or their loved one got tainted blood during an operation inthe days before a need (and ability) to screen donors for it was known.

That's what you deserve for requiring medical care after all!


Not to mention all of those children born with the disease. Didn't those little knuckleheads know how to pick proper parents?


You'd have thought that they all would have known better....

I was going to say the same thing, Zeppistan.

Depends what great we're looking at. To better the future or to learn of the past? To learn about things on earth or things in the universe?
For the latter I'd say various findings in space, for which alot of credit goes to Hubble.
For the good of humanity, DNA research.

"Discovery of AIDS"? I guess this means the greatest scientific discovery of the dark ages was the invention of the bubonic plague, huh? That's a pretty terrible list.

If important means "most influential," you need to be aiming a lot lower.

Semiconductors.
Heavier-than-air flight.
The automobile.
The Salk vaccine.
Television.
the atom bomb.
Hormonal birth control.

These are the inventions/discoveries that affected the greatest number of people to the greatest degree in the last century. "The Jet Stream"? Gimme a break.

Normally I hate all those people that are like "you forgot blank" but I think the most significant dicovery would have to be you know microchips and computer technology and all that stuff, without it how would you be able to post stupid stuff on forums?

Atomic Power was somewhat important last century, but it is slowly being fazed out in the US, where we haven't built any new plants since the 70s mostly becasue it is too expensive and nuclear power plants need a lot of subsidies and of course we have no real good place to store the waste.

If you are talking about nuclear weapons it is much closer, but we never really use nuclear weapons so it is kind of hard to say the world's most important invention in a century filled with inventions just sits in underground bunkers collecting dust. Then again nukes might have prevented the cold war from ever turning into a hot war but hopefully one day they are dismanteld, but I can't imagine computers ever being scrapped.

"Discovery of AIDS"? I guess this means the greatest scientific discovery of the dark ages was the invention of the bubonic plague, huh? That's a pretty terrible list.

If important means "most influential," you need to be aiming a lot lower.

Semiconductors.
Heavier-than-air flight.
The automobile.
The Salk vaccine.
Television.
the atom bomb.
Hormonal birth control.

These are the inventions/discoveries that affected the greatest number of people to the greatest degree in the last century. "The Jet Stream"? Gimme a break.
he said atomic power. I think you could see that as atom bomb.
also the automobile invented in the last years of the 19th century, so he can't be in the list.

DNA was not discovered in this century. Though I do believe that this is possibly the most important of the choices given (DNA/genetics/medicine) the double helix structure discovery by no means sums it up. The research of DNA was not marked by a single discovery.

And so my vote goes to atomic power. Efficient as a weapon and energy source. In the right hands, it has great potential. That is, until we start massively utilizing anti-matter reactions.

he said atomic power. I think you could see that as atom bomb.
also the automobile invented in the last years of the 19th century, so he can't be in the list.

I wasn't listing items that were forgotten, I was listing items that were significant. And when you look at the influence atomic power had on the globe in the 20th century versus the influence the atom bomb has had on the world in the same time, I gotta give the edge to the bomb.

And instead of automobile, say either the Model T or the Ford assembly line. You are right about the auto being 19th century, but the game changed in the 20th because of Ford.

All these discoveries have been made by people standing on the shoulders of giants.

It's like congratulating Edison for the discovery of light. I mean, the discovery that DNA had this and that structure is really just "aha, so that's what it looks like". The molecule was known to exist, in one shape or another.

And nuclear power? With all the theories and people involved in discovering that you might as well say that Demokrit was the inventor, since he theorized and named the atom.

The only "real" discovery in the newly gone century is computers, but even that is based on mathematical theories dating before the century.

If I were to pick one missing from the list I'd pick "non-violent disobedience for the achievement of a goal". That was new and got the Brits out of India.

PS:
I think the guy that made the list meant "the discovery of a retrovirus" when he put on AIDS. That was a big discovery, although based on a tragedy. The retrovirus (before AIDS) was thought unlikely, and the research that has come out of battling AIDS so far has meant breakthroughs in most biological disciplines. So cut him some slack before you yell yourself hoarse just from seeing the acronym.

"Discovery of AIDS"? I guess this means the greatest scientific discovery of the dark ages was the invention of the bubonic plague, huh? That's a pretty terrible list.

I think it means that we discovered it in a medical sense, now we can look for a cure. In that way it is a great discovery.

If important means "most influential," you need to be aiming a lot lower.

Semiconductors.
Heavier-than-air flight.
The automobile.
The Salk vaccine.
Television.
the atom bomb.
Hormonal birth control.

These are the inventions/discoveries that affected the greatest number of people to the greatest degree in the last century. "The Jet Stream"? Gimme a break.

Most of the things on your list are inventions, not discoveries. They didn't just find a TV in nature a few decades ago.

Anyway, I'd go for DNA too.

If I were to pick one missing from the list I'd pick "non-violent disobedience for the achievement of a goal". That was new and got the Brits out of India.



Blah, Ghandi is just hyped up becasue the powers that be would be would like you to think that is how you go about defeating oppression so you don't go off and do any thing actually effective--like Ben Bella, Toussaint Le'Oveture, Ho Chi Minh or any other genuine third world patriotic hero. The British empire was teetering with or without Ghandi, and it was the Nazi onslaught against the british more than anything sealed the fate of their empire. After Ghandi allegedly defeated the british there was massive communalist slaughter and the country broke apart into two opposing countries, which are now 3 countries, which kill each other constantly over Kashmir and are always threatening to nuke each other. If he had any balls and started an armed rebellion he might have been able to unify the country and heal the divisions the British had fostered and exploited.

Anyway Computers are #1

How is the discovery of flight any different than the discovery of atomic power? Or RADAR? The initial list didn't seem to distinguish between invention and discovery, so I was continuing in that vein. Also, every invention is more-or-less capitalizing on a discovered theory.

Invention: A-bomb, discovery: fission.
Auto, internal combustion.
Heavier than aircraft, flight.
Modern computers, semiconductors.

Or did we find RADAR in nature a few decades ago?

The happiest day in the 20th Century happened when the A-bomb was first used against the Japs. If it weren't for the greatest scientific discovery of all time, we would all be speaking Jap today!

How is the discovery of flight any different than the discovery of atomic power? Or RADAR? The initial list didn't seem to distinguish between invention and discovery, so I was continuing in that vein. Also, every invention is more-or-less capitalizing on a discovered theory.

Invention: A-bomb, discovery: fission.
Auto, internal combustion.
Heavier than aircraft, flight.
Modern computers, semiconductors.

Or did we find RADAR in nature a few decades ago?

Well, radar itself was a scientific discovery based on the physics of radio waves but I can see what you mean. The poll is kind of unclear.

Dark Energy

*lol, but i put physics before bio...

Dark Energy

*lol, but i put physics before bio...

Dark Energy?! Do physicists even know what it is yet? Isn't Dark just a prefix which means weird shit we can't explain?

The double-blind clinical test.

Dark Energy?! Do physicists even know what it is yet? Isn't Dark just a prefix which means weird shit we can't explain?

there are a few theories

some want to call it Einstein's Cosmological Constant
there was this one called "quintessence" which explained it as a reverse gravity... that was sort of thrown out after some tests last year i think...

I personally like quintessence, but it may be wrong, or it may need to be reworked...

If its not, I'm not a fan of the reversion to the Cosmological Constant, Einstein himself said it was his most grevious error