James Lovelock

Inventive, unorthodox, ingenious and a latter day Darwin, James Lovelock is undoubtedly one of the most outstanding and influential scientist-thinkers of our time. His establishment-science career reads like an honour role, and is reflected by his knighthood in 2002. Lovelock's many inventions include the electron capture detector (ecd), which has been of major significance in increasing our knowledge of the environment. The ecd was also instrumental in the discovery of global pollution by fluoro-carbons, critical to both global warming and the hole in the ozone layer.