Scientists contribute to the development of technology.
Scientific is an adjective from the Latin scientifĭcus that allows us to name something belonging to or related to science . This last term, which comes from scientia ( "knowledge" ), refers to the set of methods and techniques that organize the information acquired through experience or introspection.
The systematic application of the aforementioned methods and techniques allows the production of scientific knowledge , which is concrete and verifiable information. In this case, the adjective scientific is linked to the precision and objectivity implicit in the methodology of science.
Scientist characteristics
The most common meaning of the term indicates that a scientist is a person who is dedicated to science. There are numerous professions whose exercise turns the subject into a scientist, although the term is generally associated with sciences that are developed in laboratories .
In any case, anthropologists, biologists, physicists, paleontologists, political scientists, chemists and sociologists, among many others, are scientists.
A scientist is a researcher . You can develop experiments to prove or refute a hypothesis, always following the scientific method. The data you obtain in your analyses, studies or trials are then captured in a publication (such as a scientific article in an academic journal) so that the rest of the scientific community and the general population can appreciate the results of your work.
With their work, scientists provide evidence or tests that allow us to build knowledge . However, no conclusion is definitive, since the advance of science itself can demonstrate, over the years, that knowledge was invalid or erroneous.
Scientists need to have the support of the State to carry out their work. Financing of projects is key: although the private sector is also important, without state subsidies or investment it is difficult for science to prosper and innovation to be achieved. We must not forget that scientists are in permanent training since they never stop studying. Even those who achieve a postdoctoral degree continue learning at conferences and seminars and through their research experience.
It must be considered that the activity of the scientist is often questioned from a moral point of view . A scientist who uses his knowledge to invent a weapon , for example, is not contributing to social development, even though the specific knowledge is not harmful in itself.
Collaboration between scientists is key to validating knowledge.
Albert Einstein, a reference
There are many scientists who have become key figures in history thanks to the contributions, theories or discoveries they have made in different areas or disciplines. This would be the case, for example, of the German Albert Einstein (March 14, 1879 – April 18, 1955), who is considered by the vast majority to be the most important scientist of the 20th century .
This consideration or cataloging comes from the fact that he proposed the theory of general relativity , which represented a true revolution regarding the concept of gravity. A fact that, in turn, led to the creation of a new scientific branch within the field of physics: cosmology , which is responsible for studying and analyzing the evolution of the universe.
All of this without forgetting that Einstein raised other questions that even led him to obtain the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921 . We are referring to his contributions to the field of theoretical physics and his ideas about the photoelectric effect.
Each scientific discovery contributes to the progress of humanity.
Examples of scientist
In the same way, we cannot overlook other scientists who, due to their work, have been ranked among the most important and influential of all time. Among them are figures of the stature of the physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking ; Isaac Newton , who laid the foundations of classical mechanics; Charles Darwin , famous for his theory on the evolution of species; Thomas Edison , who is the father of the light bulb; and Marie Curie , for her discovery of radioactivity.
There are several distinctions to recognize the most outstanding scientists in the world. The most important at a global level is the aforementioned Nobel Prize , which has been awarded since 1901 by the will of the inventor of dynamite, the Swede Alfred Nobel .
The Nobel Prize honors the most outstanding personalities in physics , chemistry , medicine , economics and literature , in addition to recognizing those activists who worked for peace .
If we think about the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine , to mention one case, in 2024 it was awarded to the Americans Victor R. Ambros and Gary Ruvkun for their contributions on microRNA or miRNA . These biology experts managed to explain its relevance in the post-transcriptional regulation of genes.
That same distinction was granted, from 1901 onwards, to scientists who helped understand everything from diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis to the functioning of the nervous system, the physiology of the thyroid gland and the mechanism of the electrocardiogram, among many other issues.