Question: Which famous scientist do you admire the most?

Jon Copley answered on 18 Jun 2010:

Charles William Beebe, who was a biologist, explorer and writer in the early 20th century (he was born in 1877 and died in 1962).

On August 15th, 1934, Beebe and his engineer colleague Otis Barton climbed into a tiny metal capsule and became the first people to visit another world. That capsule was the first deep-sea vehicle, called the bathysphere, and the alien world they visited was the deep ocean. Beebe was the first scientist ever to venture into the deep ocean and see deep-sea creatures alive with his own eyes.

He and Barton were as daring as any astronauts, and their discoveries at least as spectacular. But although most people can name the first person on the Moon, I think fewer have heard of Beebe and Barton. Unlike astronauts, there was no ticker-tape parade afterwards to celebrate their achievement. In fact, other scientists at the time scoffed at Beebe’s reports of what he saw, accusing him of hallucinating from a lack of oxygen! But we now know that Beebe was right.

Beebe discovered and described 64 new species of deep-sea fish – but he wasn’t just a marine biologist. He led more than 50 scientific expeditions all over the world, for example studying birds in jungles as well.

But one of the things I admire most about Beebe is that he was also a brilliant writer. Unlike most scientists, who just write articles for other scientists to read, he wrote superb accounts of his expeditions that everyone could read (he published 24 books, many of which were best-sellers, and he wrote articles for magazines like National Geographic).

Three decades before the televised Moon landings, Beebe even broadcast live on the radio across the United States from his bathysphere, describing what he could see as he explored the ocean depths. His popular books, articles and radio broadcast allowed people to share in the excitement of his discoveries, and inspired many people afterwards to become scientists.

Here’s my favourite quote from one of his books (“The Arcturus Adventure”, which is an account of his scientific voyage on a ship called the Arcturus):

“There are two kinds of thrill in science. One is the result of long, patient, intellectual study… But the other thrill lies in a completely unexpected discovery.”

We’re still making completely unexpected discoveries, and feeling that same thrill, as we continue to explore the deep ocean, eighty years later.

I’m also a fan of Sylvia Earle (who is still alive and working as a scientist – you can read about her here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvia_Earle), who is another marine scientist and ocean explorer. What I particularly admire about her work is that in the 1960s, at a time when NASA would not let women go into space, she led an all-female team of “aquanauts” to prove that people could live and work under the ocean. To me, that showed that there aren’t differences between men and women that make one better than the other as explorers.