Are scientific discoveries more a product of the person or their time?
It’s usually their time, but in my conversation with ChatGPT, I found four that were mostly person-driven:
- Newton’s laws of gravitation
- Einstein’s general relativity
I knew these. Both were far ahead of their times. In contrast, Newton’s laws of motion and Einstein’s special relativity weren’t.
- McClintock’s discovery of Transposable Elements: genes that can turn physical characteristics on and off. Her work was dismissed for decades.
- Mullis’ invention of the PCR that makes billions of DNA copies rapidly. Other scientists were using very different methods.
I didn’t know these. Both are in biology - a rapidly advancing field.
Time to learn. What do YOU think are the biggest discoveries in the biological sciences lately?
PS: Here’s the ChatGPT link: https://chatgpt.com/share/6722ec5e-56b8-800c-b869-3c09f10ad685