The Web’s Most Prominent Scientists

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Nye and Tyson
Popular TV host, science educator, engineer, and all-around “pro-science” personality, Bill Nye “The Science Guy” (PeekYou profile here), was the focus of much buzz this week for his live, streaming head-to-head debate — called “Is creation a viable model of origins in today’s modern scientific era?” — with “young world creationist,” and Creation Museum president, Ken Ham (PeekYou profile here).

While the so-called Scopes Monkey Trial was nearly 90s years ago, a passionate debate still lingers in some quarters over the validity of the theory of evolution.

We won’t weigh in on that here, as that’s not the business PeekYou’s in. But we will say that the amount of attention paid to this debate, and the degree to which it was trending throughout the Web speaks loudly to the fact that in the minds of some this matter is not settled.

In honor of Mr. Nye’s moment amongst cyberspace’s global trends, we decided it a fine time to revisit our PeekScore list of the Web’s most prominent scientists; seeing just how “The Science Guy” stacks up next to the Internet’s other most high profile science names.

Rank Picture Name Bio PeekScore
1

Stephen Hawking Probably the most famous living physicist 9.13 / 10.00
2

Richard Dawkins Known best for his outspoken views on evolution, God, and religion 9.03 / 10.00
3

Neil deGrasse Tyson Director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York City 8.96 / 10.00
4

Jane Goodall Has spent decades studying chimpanzee behavior 8.71 / 10.00
5

Bill Nye Popular writer and TV host 8.28 / 10.00
6

James Watson Co-discoverer of DNA’s structure 8.17 / 10.00
7

J. Craig Venter Best known for being one of the first to sequence the human genome 8.16 / 10.00
8

Brian Cox Physicist and TV host 8.15 / 10.00
9

Michio Kaku Theoretical physicist, and host of numerous TV programs 8.04 / 10.00
10

Brian Greene Theoretical physicist and string theorist 7.89 / 10.00
11

James Hansen Climate scientist and vocal proponent of climate change 7.83 / 10.00