Celebrating the badasses of science

[raffaellasworld]

We now take a break from our regularly scheduled program of hisorical food and related geekery to bring you- the top 6 badasses of science.
http://rufinia.livejournal.com/1146175.html?style=mine

I love this stuff- it reminds me of when I first heard of oppenhiemer quoting from the Bhagavad-Gita "...now I am become Death,  the destroyer of worlds..."  and his colleague, Ken Bainbridge, put it in another way when he leaned close to Oppenheimer and whispered, “Now we are all sons of bitches.”

When I was little I wanted to be a scientist, because in my childish enthusiasm I decided that since it was scientists that may bring about the end of the world only a scientist could save it. Then I realized just how much math was involved.

Comments

[skaldic.livejournal.com]

cool.

And thanks for answering a question I've had for ages -- I didn't know it was Ken Bainbridge who added the comment to Oppenheimer.

[ayeshadream.livejournal.com]

I used to think it was an american serviceman, and I loved that symmetry, that in his simplicity he could say the same thing in a much more accessible way. Knowing that it was a fellow scientist is still cool, but I still have a misty fondness for that first mistaken impression (which was actually told to me by my high school history teacher).

[skaldic.livejournal.com]

not just a scientist, but the director of the Trinity test. Knew what he was speaking about.

[tsuruko-sensei.livejournal.com]

The Jackass Show for geeks?

[ayeshadream.livejournal.com]

Essentially. Petty concerns (such as their own possible mortality, for instance) are clearly beneath these men of action, science, and complete lack of caution.

I also wish they would have included some badass women of science. There are plenty to choose from, but they seem to go about it in a less testosterone poisioned kind of way:
http://www.astr.ua.edu/4000WS/

[shadowdryad.livejournal.com]

This... it... I...

...wow.

Damn.