Scientist (disambiguation).

Montage of some highly influential scientists from a variety of scientific fields. From left to right:
Top row: Merit-Ptah, Aristotle, Archimedes, Ibn al-Haytham, Isaac Newton, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, Johannes Kepler, Galileo Galilei, Leonardo da Vinci;
Second row: Carl Linnaeus, James Hutton, Antoine Lavoisier, John Dalton, Robert Brown, Michael Faraday, Charles Darwin, Ada Lovelace, Gregor Mendel;
Third row: Louis Pasteur, Lord Kelvin, James Clerk Maxwell, Nikola Tesla, Ellen Swallow Richards, Max Planck, Ernest Rutherford, Marie Curie, Albert Einstein;
Fourth row: Max Born, Niels Bohr, Erwin Schrödinger, Linus Pauling, Enrico Fermi, Werner Heisenberg, Paul Dirac, Grace Hopper, Alan Turing;
Bottom row: Hedy Lamarr, Richard Feynman, Rosalind Franklin, E. O. Wilson, Carl Sagan, Jane Goodall, Richard Dawkins, Stephen Hawking, and Neil deGrasse Tyson

A scientist, in a broad sense, is one engaging in a systematic activity to acquire knowledge. In a more restricted sense, a scientist may refer to an individual who uses the scientific method.^[1] The person may be an expert in one or more areas of science.^[2] This article focuses on the more restricted use of the word. Scientists perform research toward a more comprehensive understanding of nature, including physical, mathematical and social realms.
Philosophy is a distinct activity that is not generally considered science. Philosophers aim to provide a comprehensive understanding of intangible aspects of reality and experience that cannot be physically measured.
Scientists are also distinct from engineers, those who design, build and maintain devices for particular situations. When science is done with a goal toward practical utility, it is called applied science. An applied scientist may not be designing something in particular, but rather is conducting research with the aim of developing new technologies and practical methods. When science is done with an inclusion of intangible aspects of reality it is called natural philosophy.

Contents

• 1 Description
• 2 Historical development and etymology of the term
  • 2.1 Ancient and medieval science
  • 2.2 Historical scientists
  • 2.3 Women in science
• 3 Types of scientists
  • 3.1 By field
  • 3.2 By employer
• 4 See also
• 5 References
• 6 External articles