Robert Hooke

[rhye]

I did an interview today with Sauk Valley Community College. This included a 15 minute writing sample. The question I was asked is, "Who is your favorite physicist and why." Incidentally, when in undergrad minoring in Literature, my British Lit 1600-1800 professor assigned me to do a term paper on Robert Hooke. At the time I was like, "You mean the

Comments

[ragnarok_08]

This is the story as well of why women and people of color need to be included in physics-- more viewpoints and more ideas can never hurt science, as science can and does distinguish, eventually, between the valid and true ideas and the discarded hypotheses. Hooke's story is a story about dis-inclusion that is still relevant today.

You are so right, and you really have given me a lot to think about.

[rubyelf]

I think Newton was known for taking ideas other people were already working on and doing his own research on them, then discrediting the research of others to make sure his name stuck to the theory no matter who pioneered it...

[rhye]

Yeah he definitely did this to more than one person. Sadly, it's not uncommon among academics even today.

[i_beam]

Interesting! Thx