A scientist is a person who researches to advance knowledge in an area of the natural sciences.[1][2]
Pierre Curie and Marie Curie demonstrating an apparatus that detects radioactivity. They received the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics for their scientific research; Marie also received the 1911 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. |
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| Occupation | |
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| Names | Scientist |
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Occupation type |
Profession |
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Activity sectors |
Laboratory, field research |
| Description | |
| Competencies | Scientific research |
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Education required |
Science |
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Academia, industry, government, nonprofit |
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Engineers |
In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, philosophers engaged in the philosophical study of nature called natural philosophy, a precursor of natural science.[3] Though Thales (circa 624–545 BC) was arguably the first scientist for describing how cosmic events may be seen as natural, not necessarily caused by gods,[4][5][6][7][8][9] it was not until the 19th century that the term scientist came into regular use after it was coined by the theologian, philosopher, and historian of science William Whewell in 1833.[10][11]
HistoryEdit
«No one in the history of civilization has shaped our understanding of science and natural philosophy more than the great Greek philosopher and scientist Aristotle (384-322 BC), who exerted a profound and pervasive influence for more than two thousand years» —Gary B. Ferngren[12]
Francesco Redi, referred to as the «father of modern parasitology», is the founder of experimental biology.
Physicist Albert Einstein developed the general theory of relativity and made many substantial contributions to physics.
Physicist Enrico Fermi is credited with the creation of the world’s first atomic bomb and nuclear reactor.
Atomic physicist Niels Bohr made fundamental contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum theory.
The roles of «scientists», and their predecessors before the emergence of modern scientific disciplines, have evolved considerably over time. Scientists of different eras (and before them, natural philosophers, mathematicians, natural historians, natural theologians, engineers, and others who contributed to the development of science) have had widely different places in society, and the social norms, ethical values, and epistemic virtues associated with scientists—and expected of them—have changed over time as well. Accordingly, many different historical figures can be identified as early scientists, depending on which characteristics of modern science are taken to be essential.
Some historians point to the Scientific Revolution that began in 16th century as the period when science in a recognizably modern form developed. It wasn’t until the 19th century that sufficient socioeconomic changes had occurred for scientists to emerge as a major profession.[13]
Classical antiquityEdit
Knowledge about nature in classical antiquity was pursued by many kinds of scholars. Greek contributions to science—including works of geometry and mathematical astronomy, early accounts of biological processes and catalogs of plants and animals, and theories of knowledge and learning—were produced by philosophers and physicians, as well as practitioners of various trades. These roles, and their associations with scientific knowledge, spread with the Roman Empire and, with the spread of Christianity, became closely linked to religious institutions in most of European countries. Astrology and astronomy became an important area of knowledge, and the role of astronomer/astrologer developed with the support of political and religious patronage. By the time of the medieval university system, knowledge was divided into the trivium—philosophy, including natural philosophy—and the quadrivium—mathematics, including astronomy. Hence, the medieval analogs of scientists were often either philosophers or mathematicians. Knowledge of plants and animals was broadly the province of physicians.
Middle AgesEdit
Science in medieval Islam generated some new modes of developing natural knowledge, although still within the bounds of existing social roles such as philosopher and mathematician. Many proto-scientists from the Islamic Golden Age are considered polymaths, in part because of the lack of anything corresponding to modern scientific disciplines. Many of these early polymaths were also religious priests and theologians: for example, Alhazen and al-Biruni were mutakallimiin; the physician Avicenna was a hafiz; the physician Ibn al-Nafis was a hafiz, muhaddith and ulema; the botanist Otto Brunfels was a theologian and historian of Protestantism; the astronomer and physician Nicolaus Copernicus was a priest. During the Italian Renaissance scientists like Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Galileo Galilei and Gerolamo Cardano have been considered as the most recognizable polymaths.
RenaissanceEdit
During the Renaissance, Italians made substantial contributions in science. Leonardo da Vinci made significant discoveries in paleontology and anatomy. The Father of modern Science,[14][15]Galileo Galilei, made key improvements on the thermometer and telescope which allowed him to observe and clearly describe the solar system. Descartes was not only a pioneer of analytic geometry but formulated a theory of mechanics[16] and advanced ideas about the origins of animal movement and perception. Vision interested the physicists Young and Helmholtz, who also studied optics, hearing and music. Newton extended Descartes’s mathematics by inventing calculus (at the same time as Leibniz). He provided a comprehensive formulation of classical mechanics and investigated light and optics. Fourier founded a new branch of mathematics — infinite, periodic series — studied heat flow and infrared radiation, and discovered the greenhouse effect. Girolamo Cardano, Blaise Pascal Pierre de Fermat, Von Neumann, Turing, Khinchin, Markov and Wiener, all mathematicians, made major contributions to science and probability theory, including the ideas behind computers, and some of the foundations of statistical mechanics and quantum mechanics. Many mathematically inclined scientists, including Galileo, were also musicians.
There are many compelling stories in medicine and biology, such as the development of ideas about the circulation of blood from Galen to Harvey. Some scholars and historians attributes Christianity to having contributed to the rise of the Scientific Revolution.[17][18][19][20][21]
Age of EnlightenmentEdit
During the age of Enlightenment, Luigi Galvani, the pioneer of the bioelectromagnetics, discovered the animal electricity. He discovered that a charge applied to the spinal cord of a frog could generate muscular spasms throughout its body. Charges could make frog legs jump even if the legs were no longer attached to a frog. While cutting a frog leg, Galvani’s steel scalpel touched a brass hook that was holding the leg in place. The leg twitched. Further experiments confirmed this effect, and Galvani was convinced that he was seeing the effects of what he called animal electricity, the life force within the muscles of the frog. At the University of Pavia, Galvani’s colleague Alessandro Volta was able to reproduce the results, but was sceptical of Galvani’s explanation.[22]
Lazzaro Spallanzani is one of the most influential figures in experimental physiology and the natural sciences. His investigations have exerted a lasting influence on the medical sciences. He made important contributions to the experimental study of bodily functions and animal reproduction.[23]
Francesco Redi discovered that microorganisms can cause disease.
19th centuryEdit
Until the late 19th or early 20th century, scientists were still referred to as «natural philosophers» or «men of science».[24][25][26][27]
English philosopher and historian of science William Whewell coined the term scientist in 1833, and it first appeared in print in Whewell’s anonymous 1834 review of Mary Somerville’s On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences published in the Quarterly Review.[28] Whewell wrote of «an increasing proclivity of separation and dismemberment» in the sciences; while highly specific terms proliferated—chemist, mathematician, naturalist—the broad term «philosopher» was no longer satisfactory to group together those who pursued science, without the caveats of «natural» or «experimental» philosopher. Whewell compared these increasing divisions with Somerville’s aim of «[rendering] a most important service to science» «by showing how detached branches have, in the history of science, united by the discovery of general principles.»[29] Whewell reported in his review that members of the British Association for the Advancement of Science had been complaining at recent meetings about the lack of a good term for «students of the knowledge of the material world collectively.» Alluding to himself, he noted that «some ingenious gentleman proposed that, by analogy with artist, they might form [the word] scientist, and added that there could be no scruple in making free with this term since we already have such words as economist, and atheist—but this was not generally palatable».[30]
Whewell proposed the word again more seriously (and not anonymously) in his 1840[31] The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences:
The terminations ize (rather than ise), ism, and ist, are applied to words of all origins: thus we have to pulverize, to colonize, Witticism, Heathenism, Journalist, Tobacconist. Hence we may make such words when they are wanted. As we cannot use physician for a cultivator of physics, I have called him a Physicist. We need very much a name to describe a cultivator of science in general. I should incline to call him a Scientist. Thus we might say, that as an Artist is a Musician, Painter, or Poet, a Scientist is a Mathematician, Physicist, or Naturalist.
He also proposed the term physicist at the same time, as a counterpart to the French word physicien. Neither term gained wide acceptance until decades later; scientist became a common term in the late 19th century in the United States and around the turn of the 20th century in Great Britain.[28][32][33] By the twentieth century, the modern notion of science as a special brand of information about the world, practiced by a distinct group and pursued through a unique method, was essentially in place.
20th centuryEdit
Marie Curie became the first female to win the Nobel Prize and the first person to win it twice. Her efforts led to the development of nuclear energy and Radiotherapy for the treatment of cancer. In 1922, she was appointed a member of the International Commission on Intellectual Co-operation by the Council of the League of Nations. She campaigned for scientist’s right to patent their discoveries and inventions. She also campaigned for free access to international scientific literature and for internationally recognized scientific symbols.
ProfessionEdit
As a profession, the scientist of today is widely recognized[citation needed]. However, there is no formal process to determine who is a scientist and who is not a scientist. Anyone can be a scientist in some sense. Some professions have legal requirements for their practice (e.g. licensure) and some scientists are independent scientists meaning that they practice science on their own, but to practice science there are no known licensure requirements.[34]
EducationEdit
In modern times, many professional scientists are trained in an academic setting (e.g., universities and research institutes), mostly at the level of graduate schools. Upon completion, they would normally attain an academic degree, with the highest degree being a doctorate such as a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD).[35] Although graduate education for scientists varies among institutions and countries, some common training requirements include specializing in an area of interest,[36] publishing research findings in peer-reviewed scientific journals[37] and presenting them at scientific conferences,[38] giving lectures or teaching,[38] and defending a thesis (or dissertation) during an oral examination.[35] To aid them in this endeavor, graduate students often work under the guidance of a mentor, usually a senior scientist, which may continue after the completion of their doctorates whereby they work as postdoctoral researchers.[39]
CareerEdit
After the completion of their training, many scientists pursue careers in a variety of work settings and conditions.[40] In 2017, the British scientific journal Nature published the results of a large-scale survey of more than 5,700 doctoral students worldwide, asking them which sectors of the economy they would like to work in. A little over half of the respondents wanted to pursue a career in academia, with smaller proportions hoping to work in industry, government, and nonprofit environments.[41][42]
Other motivations are recognition by their peers and prestige. The Nobel Prize, a widely regarded prestigious award,[43] is awarded annually to those who have achieved scientific advances in the fields of medicine, physics, and chemistry.
Some scientists have a desire to apply scientific knowledge for the benefit of people’s health, the nations, the world, nature, or industries (academic scientist and industrial scientist). Scientists tend to be less motivated by direct financial reward for their work than other careers. As a result, scientific researchers often accept lower average salaries when compared with many other professions which require a similar amount of training and qualification.[citation needed]
Research interestsEdit
Scientists include experimentalists who mainly perform experiments to test hypotheses, and theoreticians who mainly develop models to explain existing data and predict new results. There is a continuum between two activities and the division between them is not clear-cut, with many scientists performing both tasks.
Those considering science as a career often look to the frontiers. These include cosmology and biology, especially molecular biology and the human genome project. Other areas of active research include the exploration of matter at the scale of elementary particles as described by high-energy physics, and materials science, which seeks to discover and design new materials. Others choose to study brain function and neurotransmitters, which is considered by many to be the «final frontier».[44][45][46] There are many important discoveries to make regarding the nature of the mind and human thought as much still remains unknown.
By specializationEdit
Natural scienceEdit
Physical scienceEdit
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Life scienceEdit
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Edit
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Formal scienceEdit
- Computer scientist
- Computational scientist
- Data scientist
- Mathematician[31]
- Algebraist
- Analyst
- Geometer
- Logician
- Probabilist
- Statistician
- Topologist
- Systems scientist
AppliedEdit
- Agriculturist
- Applied physics
- Health physicist
- Medical physicist
- Biomedical scientist
- Engineering scientist
- Environmental scientist
- Food scientist
- Kinesiologist
- Nutritionist
- Operations research and management analysts
- Physician scientist
InterdisciplinaryEdit
- Materials scientist
- Mathematical biologist
- Mathematical chemist
- Mathematical economist
- Mathematical physicist
- Mathematical sociologist
By employerEdit
- Academic
- Independent scientist
- Industrial/applied scientist
- Citizen scientist
- Government scientist
DemographyEdit
By countryEdit
The number of scientists is vastly different from country to country. For instance, there are only four full-time scientists per 10,000 workers in India, while this number is 79 for the United Kingdom, and 85 for the United States.[47]
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United StatesEdit
According to the National Science Foundation, 4.7 million people with science degrees worked in the United States in 2015, across all disciplines and employment sectors. The figure included twice as many men as women. Of that total, 17% worked in academia, that is, at universities and undergraduate institutions, and men held 53% of those positions. 5% of scientists worked for the federal government, and about 3.5% were self-employed. Of the latter two groups, two-thirds were men. 59% of scientists in the United States were employed in industry or business, and another 6% worked in non-profit positions.[48]
By genderEdit
Scientist and engineering statistics are usually intertwined, but they indicate that women enter the field far less than men, though this gap is narrowing. The number of science and engineering doctorates awarded to women rose from a mere 7 percent in 1970 to 34 percent in 1985 and in engineering alone the numbers of bachelor’s degrees awarded to women rose from only 385 in 1975 to more than 11000 in 1985.[49][clarification needed]
See alsoEdit
- Engineers
- Inventor
- Researcher
- Fields Medal
- Hippocratic Oath for Scientists
- History of science
- Intellectual
- Independent scientist
- Licensure
- Mad scientist
- Natural science
- Nobel Prize
- Protoscience
- Normative science
- Pseudoscience
- Scholar
- Science
- Social science
- Related lists
- List of engineers
- List of mathematicians
- List of Nobel laureates in Physics
- List of Nobel laureates in Chemistry
- List of Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine
- List of Russian scientists
- List of Roman Catholic cleric-scientists
ReferencesEdit
- ^ «Eusocial climbers» (PDF). E.O. Wilson Foundation. Retrieved 3 September 2018.
But he’s not a scientist, he’s never done scientific research. My definition of a scientist is that you can complete the following sentence: ‘he or she has shown that…’,» Wilson says.
- ^ «Our definition of a scientist». Science Council. Retrieved 7 September 2018.
A scientist is someone who systematically gathers and uses research and evidence, making a hypothesis and testing it, to gain and share understanding and knowledge.
- ^ Lehoux, Daryn (2011). «2. Natural Knowledge in the Classical World». In Shank, Michael; Numbers, Ronald; Harrison, Peter (eds.). Wrestling with Nature : From Omens to Science. Chicago: University of Chicago, U.S.A. Press. p. 39. ISBN 978-0226317830.
- ^ Aristotle, Metaphysics Alpha, 983b18.
- ^ Smith, William, ed. (1870). «Thales». Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. p. 1016.
- ^ Michael Fowler, Early Greek Science: Thales to Plato, University of Virginia [Retrieved 2016-06-16]
- ^ Frank N. Magill, The Ancient World: Dictionary of World Biography, Volume 1, Routledge, 2003 ISBN 1135457395
- ^ Singer, C. (2008). A Short History of Science to the 19th century. Streeter Press. p. 35.
- ^ Needham, C. W. (1978). Cerebral Logic: Solving the Problem of Mind and Brain. Loose Leaf. p. 75. ISBN 978-0-398-03754-3.
- ^ Cahan, David, ed. (2003). From Natural Philosophy to the Sciences: Writing the History of Nineteenth-Century Science. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-08928-2.
- ^ Lightman, Bernard (2011). «Science and the Public». In Shank, Michael; Numbers, Ronald; Harrison, Peter (eds.). Wrestling with Nature : From Omens to Science. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 367. ISBN 978-0226317830.
- ^ Gary B. Ferngren (2002). «Science and religion: a historical introduction Archived 2015-03-16 at the Wayback Machine«. JHU Press. p.33. ISBN 0-8018-7038-0
- ^ On the historical development of the character of scientists and the predecessors, see: Steven Shapin (2008). The Scientific Life: A Moral History of a Late Modern Vocation. Chicago: Chicago University Press. ISBN 0-226-75024-8
- ^ Einstein (1954, p. 271). «Propositions arrived at by purely logical means are completely empty as regards reality. Because Galileo realised this, and particularly because he drummed it into the scientific world, he is the father of modern physics—indeed, of modern science altogether.»
- ^ Stephen Hawking, Galileo and the Birth of Modern Science Archived 2012-03-24 at the Wayback Machine, American Heritage’s Invention & Technology, Spring 2009, Vol. 24, No. 1, p. 36
- ^ Peter Damerow (2004). «Introduction». Exploring the Limits of Preclassical Mechanics: A Study of Conceptual Development in Early Modern Science: Free Fall and Compounded Motion in the Work of Descartes, Galileo and Beeckman. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 6.
- ^ Harrison, Peter (8 May 2012). «Christianity and the rise of western science». Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 28 August 2014.
- ^ Noll, Mark, Science, Religion, and A.D. White: Seeking Peace in the «Warfare Between Science and Theology» (PDF), The Biologos Foundation, p. 4, archived from the original (PDF) on 22 March 2015, retrieved 14 January 2015
- ^ Lindberg, David C.; Numbers, Ronald L. (1986), «Introduction», God & Nature: Historical Essays on the Encounter Between Christianity and Science, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, pp. 5, 12, ISBN 978-0-520-05538-4
- ^ Gilley, Sheridan (2006). The Cambridge History of Christianity: Volume 8, World Christianities C.1815-c.1914. Brian Stanley. Cambridge University Press. p. 164. ISBN 0-521-81456-1.
- ^ Lindberg, David. (1992) The Beginnings of Western Science University of Chicago Press. p. 204.
- ^ Robert Routledge (1881). A popular history of science (2nd ed.). G. Routledge and Sons. p. 553. ISBN 0-415-38381-1.
- ^ «Spallanzani — Uomo e scienziato» (in Italian). Il museo di Lazzaro Spallanzani. Archived from the original on 2010-06-03. Retrieved 2010-06-07.
- ^ Nineteenth-Century Attitudes: Men of Science. «Nineteenth-Century Attitudes: Men of Science». Archived from the original on 2008-03-09. Retrieved 2008-01-15.
- ^ Friedrich Ueberweg, History of Philosophy: From Thales to the Present Time. C. Scribner’s sons v.1, 1887
- ^ Steve Fuller, Kuhn VS. Popper: The Struggle For The Soul Of Science. Columbia University Press 2004. Page 43. ISBN 0-231-13428-2
- ^ Science by American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1917. v.45 1917 Jan-Jun. Page 274 Archived 2017-03-02 at the Wayback Machine.
- ^ a b Ross, Sydney (1962). «Scientist: The story of a word». Annals of Science. 18 (2): 65–85. doi:10.1080/00033796200202722. To be exact, the person coined the term scientist was referred to in Whewell 1834 only as «some ingenious gentleman.» Ross added a comment that this «some ingenious gentleman» was Whewell himself, without giving the reason for the identification. Ross 1962, p.72.
- ^ Whewell, William. Murray, John (ed.). «On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences By Mrs. Sommerville». The Quarterly Review. LI (March & June 1834): 54–68.
- ^ Holmes, R (2008). The age of wonder: How the romantic generation discovered the beauty and terror of science. London: Harper Press. p. 449. ISBN 978-0-00-714953-7.
- ^ a b Whewell, William. The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences Volume 1. Cambridge. p. cxiii. or Whewell, William (1847). The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences: Founded Upon Their History, Vol. 2. New York, Johnson Reprint Corp. p. 560.. In the 1847 second edition, moved to volume 2 page 560.
- ^ «William Whewell (1794-1866) gentleman of science». Archived from the original on 2007-06-25. Retrieved 2007-05-19.
- ^ Tamara Preaud, Derek E. Ostergard, The Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory. Yale University Press 1997. 416 pages. ISBN 0-300-07338-0 Page 36.
- ^ «Everyone is a Scientist – Scientific Scribbles».
- ^ a b Cyranoski, David; Gilbert, Natasha; Ledford, Heidi; Nayar, Anjali; Yahia, Mohammed (2011). «Education: The PhD factory». Nature. 472 (7343): 276–279. Bibcode:2011Natur.472..276C. doi:10.1038/472276a. PMID 21512548.
- ^ «STEM education: To build a scientist». Nature. 523 (7560): 371–373. 2015. doi:10.1038/nj7560-371a.
- ^ Gould, Julie (2016). «What’s the point of the PhD thesis?». Nature. 535 (7610): 26–28. Bibcode:2016Natur.535…26G. doi:10.1038/535026a. PMID 27383968.
- ^ a b Kruger, Philipp (2018). «Why it is not a ‘failure’ to leave academia». Nature. 560 (7716): 133–134. Bibcode:2018Natur.560..133K. doi:10.1038/d41586-018-05838-y. PMID 30065341.
- ^ Lee, Adrian; Dennis, Carina; Campbell, Phillip (2007). «Nature’s guide for mentors». Nature. 447 (7146): 791–797. Bibcode:2007Natur.447..791L. doi:10.1038/447791a. PMID 17568738.
- ^ Kwok, Roberta (2017). «Flexible working: Science in the gig economy». Nature. 550: 419–421. doi:10.1038/nj7677-549a.
- ^ Woolston, Chris (2007). Editorial (ed.). «Many junior scientists need to take a hard look at their job prospects». Nature. 550: 549–552. doi:10.1038/nj7677-549a.
- ^ Lee, Adrian; Dennis, Carina; Campbell, Phillip (2007). «Graduate survey: A love–hurt relationship». Nature. 550 (7677): 549–552. doi:10.1038/nj7677-549a.
- ^ Stockton, Nick (7 October 2014), «How did the Nobel Prize become the biggest award on Earth?», Wired, retrieved 3 September 2018
- ^ Foreword. National Academies Press (US). 1992.
- ^ «The Brain: The Final Frontier?». November 2014.
- ^ «The Last Frontier — Carnegie Mellon University | CMU».
- ^ a b van Noorden, Richard (2015). «India by the numbers». Nature. 521 (7551): 142–143. Bibcode:2015Natur.521..142V. doi:10.1038/521142a. PMID 25971491.
- ^ «Employment: Male majority». Nature. 542 (7642): 509. 2017-02-22. doi:10.1038/nj7642-509b. S2CID 256770781.
- ^ Margaret A. Eisenhart, Elizabeth Finkel (1998). Women’s Science: Learning and Succeeding from the Margins. University of Chicago Press. p. 18.
External articlesEdit
- Further reading
- Alison Gopnik, «Finding Our Inner Scientist», Daedalus, Winter 2004.
- Charles George Herbermann, The Catholic Encyclopedia. Science and the Church. The Encyclopedia press, 1913. v.13. Page 598.
- Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 1962.
- Arthur Jack Meadows. The Victorian Scientist: The Growth of a Profession, 2004. ISBN 0-7123-0894-6.
- Science, The Relation of Pure Science to Industrial Research. American Association for the Advancement of Science. Page 511 onwards.
- Websites
- For best results, add a little inspiration – The Telegraph about What Inspired You?, a survey of key thinkers in science, technology and medicine
- Peer Review Journal Science on amateur scientists
- The philosophy of the inductive sciences, founded upon their history (1847) – Complete Text
- Audio-Visual
- «The Scientist», BBC Radio 4 discussion with John Gribbin, Patricia Fara and Hugh Pennington (In Our Time, Oct. 24, 2002)
1
: a person learned in science and especially natural science : a scientific investigator
Example Sentences
Recent Examples on the Web
University of California, Berkeley scientist Jack Gallant began studying brain decoding over a decade ago using a different algorithm.
—
Sara Ruberg, NBC News, 25 Mar. 2023
In an interview with The Verge, Ilya Sutskever, OpenAI’s chief scientist, explained that this was to keep the company’s competitive advantage over rivals (and, as a future consideration, to stop misuse of its technology).
—James Vincent, The Verge, 24 Mar. 2023
Paul Peden, 29, is an environmental scientist with a surprisingly robust social media presence of his own.
—Anna Moeslein, Glamour, 24 Mar. 2023
Roiland co-created the show with Dan Harmon and voiced the titular characters, mad scientist Rick Sanchez and his grandson, Morty Smith.
—Jonah Valdez Los Angeles Times (tns), al, 23 Mar. 2023
Based on the iconic 1985 film of the same name, Back to the Future: The Musical follows teenager Marty McFly and his pal, eccentric scientist, Dr. Emmett Brown, as Marty accidentally time travels from 1985 to 1955 in Doc Brown’s DeLorean.
—Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 22 Mar. 2023
University of New Orleans political scientist Ed Chervenak also indicated that the issue is not that clear-cut.
—Kevin Mcgill, ajc, 22 Mar. 2023
The hypoxia event is unexplained, but not uncommon in the Sound, said Powell, the coastal scientist.
—Anita Lee, ProPublica, 22 Mar. 2023
The storm came in much stronger than expected, particularly in the southern half of the San Francisco Bay and Monterey Bay areas, UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain said in a briefing Tuesday.
—Hayley Smith, Los Angeles Times, 21 Mar. 2023
See More
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word ‘scientist.’ Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Etymology
scient- (in Latin scientia «knowledge, science» or in scientific) + -ist entry 1
Note:
The word scientist was apparently first introduced by the English polymath William Whewell (1794-1866). The coinage is referred to in an unsigned book review authored by Whewell in The Quarterly Review, vol. 51 (March & June, 1834), pp. 58-59: «The tendency of the sciences has long been an increasing proclivity to separation and dismemberment …The mathematician turns away from the chemist; the chemist from the naturalist; the mathematician, left to himself, divides himself into a pure mathematician and a mixed mathematician, who soon part company; the chemist is perhaps a chemist of electro-chemistry; if so, he leaves common chemical analysis to others; between the mathematician and the chemist is to be interpolated a ‘physicien‘ (we have no English name for him), who studies heat, moisture, and the like. And thus science, even mere physical science, loses all traces of unity. A curious illustration of this result may be observed in the want of any name by which we can designate the students of the knowledge of the material world collectively. We are informed that this difficulty was felt very oppresively by the members of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, in their meetings at York, Oxford, and Cambridge, in the last three summers. There was no general term by which these gentlemen could describe themselves with reference to their pursuits. Philosophers was felt to be too wide and too lofty a term, and was very properly forbidden them by Mr. [Samuel Taylor] Coleridge, both in his capacity of philologer [philologist] and metaphysician; savans was rather assuming, besides being French instead of English; some ingenious gentleman [apparently William Whewell himself] proposed that, by analogy with artist, they might form scientist, and added that there could be no scruple in making free with this termination when we have such words as sciolist, economist and atheist—but this was not generally palatable ….» As Whewell indicates, his coinage was not a success, though, undeterred, he reintroduced it in 1840, and the word seems to have been produced independently of Whewell in the following two decades in both Britain and the United States (where it was more readily accepted). For documentation and details, see Sydney Ross, «Scientist: the story of a word,» Annals of Science, vol. 18, no. 2 (June, 1962), pp. 65-85.
First Known Use
1834, in the meaning defined at sense 1
Time Traveler
The first known use of scientist was
in 1834
Dictionary Entries Near scientist
Cite this Entry
“Scientist.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/scientist. Accessed 14 Apr. 2023.
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- Afrikaans: wetenskaplike (af)
- Albanian: dijetar (sq) m, dijetare (sq) f, shkencëtar (sq) m, shkencëtare (sq) f
- Amharic: ሳይንሰኛ m or f (saynəsäña)
- Arabic: عَالِم (ar) m (ʕālim), عَالِمَة f (ʕālima)
- Armenian: գիտնական (hy) (gitnakan)
- Asturian: científicu m
- Azerbaijani: alim (az)
- Bashkir: ғалим (ğalim)
- Basque: zientzialari
- Belarusian: вучо́ны m (vučóny), вучо́ная f (vučónaja)
- Bengali: বিজ্ঞানী (bn) (biggêni)
- Bulgarian: у́чен (bg) m (účen), у́чена (bg) f (účena)
- Burmese: ပညာရှင် (my) (pa.nyahrang)
- Catalan: científic (ca) m, científica (ca) f
- Chechen: ӏилманча (ˀilmanča)
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 科學家／科学家 (zh) (kēxuéjiā)
- Czech: vědec (cs) m, vědkyně (cs) f
- Danish: videnskabsmand c, videnskabskvinde c
- Dutch: wetenschapper (nl) m, wetenschapster (nl) f
- Esperanto: sciencisto, scientisto
- Estonian: teadlane (et)
- Faroese: vísindamaður m, vísindakvinna f
- Finnish: tieteilijä (fi), tiedemies (fi), tiedenainen (fi)
- French: scientifique (fr) m or f, savant (fr) m, savante (fr) f
- Galician: científico (gl) m
- Georgian: მეცნიერი (mecnieri)
- German: Wissenschaftler (de) m, Wissenschaftlerin (de) f, Wissenschafter (de) m, Wissenschafterin (de) f
- Greek: επιστήμονας (el) m (epistímonas)
- Hebrew: מַדְעָן (he) m (mad’án)
- Hindi: वैज्ञानिक (hi) m (vaigyānik), आलिम (hi) m (ālim), विज्ञानी (hi) m (vigyānī)
- Hungarian: tudós (hu)
- Icelandic: vísindamaður (is) m, vísindakona f
- Ido: ciencisto (io)
- Indonesian: ilmuwan (id)
- Irish: eolaí m
- Italian: scienziato (it) m, scienziata (it) f, ricercatore (it) m, ricercatrice (it) f
- Japanese: 科学者 (ja) (かがくしゃ, kagakusha)
- Karakalpak: ilimpaz
- Kazakh: ғалым (kk) (ğalym)
- Khmer: អ្នកវិទ្យាសាស្ត្រ (nĕək vityiəsaah)
- Korean: 과학자(科學者) (ko) (gwahakja)
- Kurdish:
- Northern Kurdish: zanistmend (ku) m, zanistvan (ku), zanistyar (ku)
- Kyrgyz: окумуштуу (ky) (okumuştuu), илимпоз (ky) (ilimpoz), аалым (ky) (aalım)
- Lao: ນັກວິທະຍາສາດ (lo) (nak wi tha nyā sāt)
- Latgalian: zininīks m, zinineica f
- Latvian: zinātnieks m, zinātniece f
- Lithuanian: mokslininkas m, mokslininkė f
- Macedonian: научник m (naučnik), научничка f (naučnička)
- Malay: saintis (ms), ahli sains (ms)
- Maltese: xjentist m
- Maori: kaipūtaiao, mātanga pūtaiao
- Mongolian:
- Cyrillic: эрдэмтэн (mn) (erdemten)
- Mongolian: ᠡᠷᠳᠡᠮᠲᠡᠨ (erdemten)
- Navajo: naʼałkaahí
- Norwegian:
- Bokmål: forsker (no) m, vitenskapsmann m, vitenskapskvinne m or f
- Nynorsk: forskar (nn) m, vitskapsmann m, vitskapskvinne f
- Oriya: ବିଜ୍ଞାନୀ (or) (bijñani)
- Pashto: عالم (ps) m (‘ālam)
- Persian: دانشمند (fa) (dânešmand), عالم (fa) (‘âlem)
- Plautdietsch: Wissenschoftla m
- Polish: naukowiec (pl) m, naukowczyni (pl) f, uczony (pl) m, uczona (pl) f
- Portuguese: cientista (pt) m or f
- Punjabi: ਵਿਗਿਆਨੀ m (vigiānī)
- Romanian: om de știință (ro) m, femeie de știință (ro) f, savant (ro) m, savantă (ro) f, învățat (ro) m
- Russian: учёный (ru) m (učónyj), учёная (ru) f (učónaja)
- Samogitian: muokslėninks m, muokslėninkė f
- Sanskrit: वैज्ञानिक (sa) m (vaijñānika), वैज्ञानिकी f (vaijñānikī)
- Scottish Gaelic: eòlaiche m
- Serbo-Croatian:
- Cyrillic: на̀учнӣк m, на̀учница f (Bosnian, Serbian), зна̀нственӣк m, зна̀нственица f (Croatian)
- Roman: nàučnīk (sh) m, nàučnica (sh) f (Bosnian, Serbian), znànstvenīk (sh) m, znànstvenica (sh) f (Croatian)
- Sicilian: scinziatu m, scinziata f
- Slovak: vedec m, vedkyňa f
- Slovene: znanstvenik (sl) m, znanstvenica f
- Sorbian:
- Lower Sorbian: wědomnostnik m, wědomnostnica f
- Spanish: científico (es) m, científica (es) f
- Swahili: mwanasayansi (sw)
- Swedish: vetenskapsman (sv) c, forskare (sv) c, vetenskapskvinna c
- Tagalog: dalub-agham (rare), siyentipiko
- Tajik: олим (olim), донишманд (donišmand)
- Tatar: галим (tt) (ğalim)
- Telugu: శాస్త్రవేత్త (śāstravētta)
- Thai: นักวิทยาศาสตร์ (nák-wít-tá-yaa-sàat)
- Tibetan: ཚན་རིག་མཁས་པ (tshan rig mkhas pa)
- Turkish: âlim (tr) m (chiefly religion), âlime (tr) f (chiefly religion), bilim adamı (tr), bilim insanı (tr), bilim kadını (tr) f, ilim adamı (tr) m (obsolecent), ilim kadını (tr) f (obsolecent)
- Turkmen: alym (tk)
- Tuvan: эртемден (ertemden)
- Ukrainian: вче́ний m (včényj) / уче́ний m (učényj), вче́на f (včéna) / уче́на f (učéna); науко́вець m (naukóvecʹ), науко́виця f (naukóvycja)
- Urdu: عالِم (ur) m (‘ālim), سائِنْس داں m (sāins dā̃)
- Uyghur: ئالىم (alim)
- Uzbek: olim (uz)
- Vietnamese: nhà khoa học (vi)
- Volapük: nolavan (vo)
- Welsh: gwyddonydd (cy) m
- Yiddish: וויסנשאַפֿטלער m (visnshaftler), וויסנשאַפֿטלערין f (visnshaftlerin)
- Zhuang: gohyozgyah
- Zulu: please add this translation if you can
I know you think your claimed standing as a scientist is a universal trump card around here, but you seriously should consider the possibility that other people around here sometimes have relevant expertise. ❋ Unknown (2010)
When you think of the word scientist, like most, you might immediately conjure up images of a guy in a laboratory and a white lab coat doing experiments, and it usually has a clinical depiction. ❋ Phd Gary E. Schwartz (2011)
Less weight, in fact, because our scientist is an «expert» and therefore, an «elitist.» ❋ Unknown (2010)
Mark Lynas writes on the Guardian blog about how not being a scientist is a help, not a hindrance, in enabling him to communicate science effectively. ❋ Maxine (2009)
The measure of credibility of a scientist is asking questions that are advance their field, no matter what the answer is. ❋ Unknown (2010)
I’m a little surprised that people react so badly to your job because I think being a scientist is the coolest job in the world! ❋ Darwi (2009)
Part of being a scientist is about using the scientific method to investigate things and attain new information while correcting the old. ❋ Unknown (2010)
«Being a scientist is a good career for mothers, because you can work at midnight while feeding babies,» she said. ❋ Peggy (2008)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Two NASA space probes that visited Mars 30 years ago may have found alien microbes on the Red Planet and inadvertently killed them, a scientist is theorizing. ❋ Bill Crider (2007)
The life of a scientist is about understanding nature and communicating findings, which should naturally lend itself to engaging the public as well. ❋ Nick Anthis (2006)
But being a scientist is all about going where the evidence leads, and not on what you might intuitively prefer. ❋ Darren Naish (2006)
[Evil leader]: «Is the [fusion] machine ready?»
[Subordinate]: «Not yet sir, but we’ll get more scientists and finish on schedule.» ❋ _Henry_ (2009)
❋ Dr Agnostic (2003)
Scientists baffled as [tremors] [subside], [easing] quake fears.
Jesus on toast leaves scientists baffled. ❋ Rafcio (2008)
don’t be a scientist, [be an] [engineer]. ❋ Bmedork (2004)
[Coldplay’s] «The Scientist» is [my favorite] song to [date]. ❋ Constantine (2004)
As a scientist, I find the mindset behind *insert cultural [atrocity]* both [horrifying] and [fascinating] and I want to study it. ❋ RavenAngel (2014)
[Scientists] improve the world and [you know it], [bitch]. ❋ Xjelly-jellx (2010)
«The model uses a multilayered [canopy] submodel of [photosynthesis] and [phenology] initially developed for the PnET-Day and PnET-II models by Aber et al.» ❋ GiBe (2005)
Wow, I’ve never [seen] [Mikey] this scientistically inclined when he’s [high]! ❋ Killercoke2 (2019)
The scientists didn’t really want anybody’s [lights on], they just pretended to [illuminate] people’s lives while keeping them [in the dark] and not really telling them anything. ❋ The Original Agahnim (2021)
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examples:
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Roger Bacon
English scientist and Franciscan monk who stressed the importance of experimentation; first showed that air is required for combustion and first used lenses to correct vision (1220-1292)
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Benjamin Franklin
printer whose success as an author led him to take up politics; he helped draw up the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution; he played a major role in the American Revolution and negotiated French support for the colonists; as a scientist he is remembered particularly for his research in electricity (1706-1790)
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Sir Francis Galton
English scientist (cousin of Charles Darwin) who explored many fields including heredity, meteorology, statistics, psychology, and anthropology; founder of eugenics and first to use fingerprints for identification (1822-1911)
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William Harvey
English physician and scientist who described the circulation of the blood; he later proposed that all animals originate from an ovum produced by the female of the species (1578-1657)
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Robert Hooke
English scientist who formulated the law of elasticity and proposed a wave theory of light and formulated a theory of planetary motion and proposed the inverse square law of gravitational attraction and discovered the cellular structure of cork and introduced the term `cell’ into biology and invented a balance spring for watches (1635-1703)
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types:
- show 81 types…
- hide 81 types…
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cosmographer, cosmographist
a scientist knowledgeable about cosmography
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bibliotist
someone who engages in bibliotics
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biologist, life scientist
(biology) a scientist who studies living organisms
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chemist
a scientist who specializes in chemistry
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cognitive scientist
a scientist who studies cognitive processes
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computer scientist
a scientist who specializes in the theory of computation and the design of computers
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geologist
a specialist in geology
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linguist, linguistic scientist
a specialist in linguistics
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mathematician
a person skilled in mathematics
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medical scientist
a scientist who studies disease processes
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microscopist
a scientist who specializes in research with the use of microscopes
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mineralogist
a scientist trained in mineralogy
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oceanographer
a scientist who studies physical and biological aspects of the seas
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fossilist, palaeontologist, paleontologist
a specialist in paleontology
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physicist
a scientist trained in physics
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PI, principal investigator
the scientist in charge of an experiment or research project
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psychologist
a scientist trained in psychology
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radiologic technologist
a scientist trained in radiological technology
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investigator, research worker, researcher
a scientist who devotes himself to doing research
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social scientist
someone expert in the study of human society and its personal relationships
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behaviorist, behaviourist
a psychologist who subscribes to behaviorism
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experimenter
a research worker who conducts experiments
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acoustician
a physicist who specializes in acoustics
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algebraist
a mathematician whose specialty is algebra
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anthropologist
a social scientist who specializes in anthropology
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arithmetician
someone who specializes in arithmetic
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astronomer, stargazer, uranologist
a physicist who studies astronomy
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bacteriologist
a biologist who studies bacteria
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biochemist
someone with special training in biochemistry
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biophysicist
a physicist who applies the methods of physics to biology
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boffin
(British slang) a scientist or technician engaged in military research
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botanist, phytologist, plant scientist
a biologist specializing in the study of plants
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cognitive neuroscientist
a cognitive scientist who studies the neurophysiological foundations of mental phenomena
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computational linguist
someone trained in computer science and linguistics who uses computers for natural language processing
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cytologist
a biologist who studies the structure and function of cells
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ecologist
a biologist who studies the relation between organisms and their environment
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economic expert, economist
an expert in the science of economics
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epidemiologist
a medical scientist who studies the transmission and control of epidemic diseases
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fieldworker
a researcher who works in the field
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geneticist
a biologist who specializes in genetics
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geometer, geometrician
a mathematician specializing in geometry
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geophysicist
a geologist who uses physical principles to study the properties of the earth
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grammarian, syntactician
a linguist who specializes in the study of grammar and syntax
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Hebraist
linguist specializing in the Hebrew language
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hydrologist
a geologist skilled in hydrology
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hypnotiser, hypnotist, hypnotizer, mesmerist, mesmerizer
a person who induces hypnosis
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immunologist
a medical scientist who specializes in immunology
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lexicographer, lexicologist
a compiler or writer of a dictionary; a student of the lexical component of language
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microbiologist
a specialist in microbiology
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molecular biologist
a biologist who studies the structure and activity of macromolecules essential to life
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natural scientist, naturalist
a biologist knowledgeable about natural history (especially botany and zoology)
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neurobiologist
a specialist in neurobiology
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neurolinguist
someone trained in neuroscience and linguistics who studies brain processes during language production and reception
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nuclear chemist, radiochemist
a chemist who specializes in nuclear chemistry
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nuclear physicist
a physicist who specializes in nuclear physics
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number theorist
a mathematician specializing in number theory
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parapsychologist
someone who studies the evidence for such psychological phenomena as psychokinesis and telepathy and clairvoyance
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penologist
a person who studies the theory and practice of prison management
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oil geologist, petroleum geologist
a specialist in petroleum geology
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phonetician
a specialist in phonetics
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phonologist
a specialist in phonology
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physiologist
a biologist specializing in physiology
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phytochemist
a chemist who specializes in the chemistry of plants
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political scientist
a social scientist specializing in the study of government
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post doc, postdoc
a scholar or researcher who is involved in academic study beyond the level of a doctoral degree
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probability theorist
a mathematician who specializes in probability theory
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psycholinguist
a person (usually a psychologist but sometimes a linguist) who studies the psychological basis of human language
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psychophysicist
a psychologist trained in psychophysics
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radiobiologist
a biologist who studies the effects of radiation on living organisms
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semanticist, semiotician
a specialist in the study of meaning
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serologist
a medical scientist who specializes in serology
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sociobiologist
a biologist who studies the biological determinants of social behavior
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sociolinguist
a linguist who studies the social and cultural factors that influence linguistic communication
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sociologist
a social scientist who studies the institutions and development of human society
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mathematical statistician, statistician
a mathematician who specializes in statistics
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systematist, taxonomer, taxonomist
a biologist who specializes in the classification of organisms into groups on the basis of their structure and origin and behavior
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toxicologist
one who studies the nature and effects of poisons and their treatment
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trigonometrician
a mathematician specializing in trigonometry
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vivisectionist
a biologist who cuts open live animals for research
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animal scientist, zoologist
a specialist in the branch of biology dealing with animals
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Charles Hard Townes, Charles Townes, Townes
United States physicist who developed the laser and maser principles for producing high-intensity radiation (1915-)
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type of:
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individual, mortal, person, somebody, someone, soul
a human being