Is Carl Sagan acknowledged as an inventive scientist? What are his best innovative contributions?
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Actually I believe Carl Sagan might best be described as a publicist of Astronomy and extra terrestrial life. And of course he was an astronomer of some note. However, his fame comes principly from three sources. 1) his Cosmos series on PBS, which was an outstanding presentation of cosmology for the masses. 2) his association with SETI (search of estraterrestrial intellegence). 3)He was one of the first to propose global warming.  I am not sure that one could call him an inventive scientist in that he did not invent things.  However, many of his insites into planitary astronomy later proved correct. \n\n  On the other hand Asimov is a noted writer of science fiction. My favorite being The Gods Themselves. I do not think that the two are comparable. \n\nVelikovsky wrote a book that drew a lot of popular interest based on its hypothesis.  It is not really based on science and it is not science fiction either.
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oh yeah, he was the guy that discovered that thing like ummm, yeah, ok hold on while I cut & paste please....\n\nHe began his professional life as a lawyer, but he has become best known as a philosophical advocate and defender of the scientific revolution. His works establish and popularize an inductive methodology for scientific inquiry, often called the Baconian method. Induction implies drawing knowledge from the natural world through experimentation, observation, and testing of hypotheses. In the context of his time, such methods were connected with the occult trends of hermeticism and alchemy.
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Marilyn vos Savant is a columnist, not a scientist.\n\nNewton, I have to say, kicked Einstein's booty.  No doubt, Einstein was a genius, but Newton was just that much more.  Einstein made great conclusions in well developed fields, leading to new fields, but Newton created quantitaive science as we know it.  He invented calculus.\n\nBoth were very prodigious, but i have to give Newton the slight advantage for having innovated in a desert rather than flourishing in a garden, as I would say Einstein did.  Although Gauss was a mathmatician first and a scientist second, I'd also have to say he is almost on par with Einstein.  Einstein is famous for the revolutionary nature of his works, while Gauss is known for the enormous quantity of work he turned out.\n\nMost over-rated: Galileo\nMost under-rated: James Clerk Maxwell
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I'd like to join the list... I'm not kidding it's my dream. To your question there are many... Albert Einstein, Christian Huygens, Nicola Tesla, Maxwell, Max Plank, Schrodinger.... the list is long
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There are new inventions / discoveries practically every day.  The best catalog of them I've seen used to be the McGraw Hill Yearbook of Science and Technology.  But the IEEE and ACM both have great tech newsletters talking about new discoveries and inventions.\n\nIf you're tlaking about non-tech stuff, you only need look as far as the discovery of new islands just off Togo... a couple of weeks ago, a yachter discovered "pumice rafts" drifting in the ocean from an underwater volcano, and within a week an island had formed.\n\nFor a start, check out the Science News section of Yahoo.
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try this link\nhttp://www.invent.org/hall_of_fame/106.html
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If it were not for the comet that is named after him he would be largely unknown save for a few science historians.  \n\nTwo items do standout however\n\n"In 1705, applying historical astronomy methods, he published Synopsis Astronomia Cometicae, which stated his belief that the comet sightings of 1456, 1531, 1607, and 1682 related to the same comet, which he predicted would return in 1758. When it did it became generally known as Halley's Comet."\n\nand \n\n"One problem that attracted his attention was the proof of Kepler's laws of planetary motion. In August 1684 he went to Cambridge to discuss this with Isaac Newton, only to find that Newton had solved the problem but published nothing. Halley convinced him to write the Principia Mathematica Philosophiae Naturalis (1687), which was published at Halley's expense."\n\nThe last point seems unique and significant.  That particular work of Newton was very important at that time and influenced many other scientists.\n\nMost of Halley's work, while important then, could easily have been completed by other people without consequence.
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read the whole of this link. he invented and patented some kind of paper clip - but maybe not the type that was eventually produced. Most people regard it as a myth that he invented the paper clip - except the Norwegians apparently. Read the wikipedia stuff.
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Part of the Beauty of Einstein's work on relativity is how easy it applied all the existing work, including Newton's work. When it comes to calculating forces necessary to bend light around a sun relativity does come into play.  And you are right early attempts were thwarted by weather and such. As I recall the first such measurements were carried out by a party that journeyed down to South Africa to make observations during a solar eclipse.  They were doing it, not to prove Newton's work, but to test the need for Einstein's corrective formulas.  The measurements were a roaring success and Einstein's ideas concerning Spacetime was quickly excepted by the larger scientific community.\n\nAppended thoughts - Before we get all sanctimonious here, let us keep in mind Newton and Einstein were 300 years apart, both men were geniuses, both men were deeply religious and both men DEFENDED errors in their thinking.  This is what Kuhn talked of when he put forth his ideas on Paradigm Shifts.  It was Maxwell who punched holes in Newton's thinking on Aether and it was Bohr who ushered in Quantum Mechanics. And it was hundred other people making a hundred other contributions that have gotten us where we are today.  And there will probably be a hundred more in the future trying to sort out these difficult questions.
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carl sagan said it first
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A sampling of famous astronomers\nAstronomer Contribution \nHipparchus and Ptolemy Determined the positions of about 1,000 bright stars, tried to explain the puzzles of astronomy without refuting only believed geocentric model of universe and classified stars by magnitude. \nAristarchus of Samos First known person to propound the heliocentric model of universe. Attempted to calculate the sizes and distances of the Sun and Moon. \nNasir al-Din al-Tusi This Persian astronomer gave the first extant exposition of the whole system of plane and spherical trigonometry. Made very accurate tables of planetary movements and named many stars. Developed the Tusi-couple which resolves linear motion into the sum of two circular motions. He also calculated the value of 51' for the precession of the equinoxes and contributed to construction and usage of astrolabe. \nNicolaus Copernicus First exponent of heliocentrism in modern times. \nTycho Brahe Did develop many important astronomical instruments, and achieved accurate measurments of the heavens by improving scentific methodology and by designing instruments on a large scale. His measurements of the orbit of Mars were very important to the development of astronomy. \nJohannes Kepler Suggested the elliptical orbits of planets, and propounded his Laws of Planetary Motion. \nGalileo Galilei Was the first to use the telescope to observe the sky. Condemned to house arrest for his discoveries by Inquisitional edict, which was lifted 359 years later by Pope John Paul II. \nIsaac Newton Published Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687), containing the "Newton's laws of motion", which are fundamental to mechanical physics, and which explained Kepler's laws of planetary motion. Predicted the orbits of the planets. \nSubrahmanyan Chandrasekhar Extensive work on the internal mechanisms of stars, particularly known for determining the effect of special relativity on stars, including being the first to calculate the Chandrasekhar limit, which he did, without a calculator, on a boat journey. \nHenrietta Swan Leavitt Catalogued Cepheid variable stars in the Magellanic Clouds, in 1912 discovered the relationship between luminosty and periodicity in Cepheids -- leading to Hertzprung's later work. \nEjnar Hertzsprung determined the distance to several Cepheids, when Cepheids were detected in other galaxies such as the Andromeda galaxy, the distance to those galaxies could then be determined. \nEdwin Hubble Discovered the expansion of the universe. (Hubble's Law) The Hubble Orbiting Space Telescope was named in his honor.
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Yes, modern day inventions are fascinating. Imagine the stuff that companies have developed but have not shown us. Just the other day, I was reading about quantum teleportation and about creating force fields with plasma. It is amazing how far we have come and where our imagination can take us.
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http://www.amazon.com/Cosmos-Carl-Sagan-Jarom%C3%ADr-Hanzl%C3%ADk/dp/B000055ZOB
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I think Isaac Newton might have been as good, considering the limitations of his own time. Just remember he had to develop a new whole math to support his theories! (calculus) Then I dunno, but today Stephen Hawking? Have you read a brief history of time and the universe in a nutshell? I dunno, really, Einstein was GREAT!
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Philo T. Farnsworth \nhttp://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventors/farnsworth.htm
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Darwin did just about everything, much more than just evolution. He also discovered how an atolls were formed. Gregor Mendel for genetics, Watsin and Crick for DNA, Coriolis, for the coriolis effect. If you really need to know this now, why not look it up yourself?
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I would list first  the late Vikram Sarabhai and his Physical Research Laboratory at Ahmedabad. I am consciously omitting space technologists from the list. Another great institution for space sciences is the Tata Institute of Fundamental research at Mumbai. Another source is the Indian National Committee for Space Research. A visit to their web sites will help identify individual researchers. They are too many to name.