A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

Heinz Pagels
One of the best most successful American popularizers of physics, he was Executive Director of the New York Academy of Sciences and an adjunct professor at Rockefeller University.

William Paley
Paley (1743-1805) belonged to the tradition of physico-theology. The mechanisms of the world that could not be scientifically explained, e.g. certain kinds of motion, were attributed to the direct action of God and cited as evidence of his design. This is embodied in his famous watchmaker argument. The discovery of a watch on a moor would suggest the existence of a watchmaker. Likewise, the intricate mechanisms in nature can only be explained by the existence of a Maker. Darwin saw Paley as his main nemesis and believed that his theory of evolution was fatal for Paley's analogy.

Parmenides
(c.480 B.C.) The leader of the Eleatics. He distrusted the evidence of the senses, held that change and plurality were illusions, and maintained that Reality was one.

Louis Pasteur
(1822-1895) A great biologist of the 19th century, he developed the germ theory of disease. He also performed experiments to disprove the idea of the spontaneous generation of life.

Wolfgang Pauli
Another pioneer of quantum theory. The Pauli Exclusion Principle which stipulates that two electrons cannot sit on top of one another was formulated by him.

Roger Penrose
Holds the Rouse-Ball Chair of Mathematics at Oxford University. Has applied mathematics to general relativity and cosmology. Collaborated with Stephen Hawking in developing the singularity theorems.

Arno Penzias
Winner of the 1978 Nobel Prize for the discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation that provided evidence for the Big Bang theory.

Steven Pinker
Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University. Author of The Language Instinct and How the Mind Works.

Max Planck
Planck (1858-1947) was the father of quantum physics. His observations of blackbody radiation led him to announce a theory of the quanta of energy in 1900. The theory was first experimentally confirmed by Niels Bohr and Robert Millikan. Planck taught at the Friedrich Wilhelm University in Munich for thirty seven years. He received a Nobel Prize in 1918.

Plato
Plato (429-348 B.C.) was the founder of the Academy in Athens, the world's first university. Apart from his Apology, which contains the speeches of Socrates, all his works were Dialogues. Plato argued for the immortality of the soul. He saw God as a divine craftsman.

Karl Popper
The Austrian-born Popper (1902-1984) was one of the most famous philosophers of science. His The Logic of Scientific Discovery is one of the better-known works in the field. He argued that no amount of verification could prove a theory; at best it could be falsified. He rejected Logical Positivism for being too narrow.