Odd People
So that the person becomes interesting before the theory. Strangeness is a clue, not a joke.
- BC 287 – BC 212 Archimedes What he asked for on his tomb was not a war machine but a shape 1 · Ask
- 약 350 – 415 Hypatia It was not she who was strange, but the world that found her so 2 · Carry
- 973 – 1048 Al-Biruni On his deathbed, what he asked about was not comfort but a calculation 2 · Carry
- 1546 – 1601 Tycho Brahe The astronomer with the metal nose 3 · Observe
- 1632 – 1723 Antonie van Leeuwenhoek He took his lens-making method to the grave 3 · Observe
- 1643 – 1727 Isaac Newton He pushed a needle into his own eye 3 · Observe
- 1731 – 1810 Henry Cavendish He barely spoke, and so was discovered a century late 4 · Measure
- 1706 – 1749 Émilie du Châtelet She dressed as a man to get into the café 4 · Measure
- 1799 – 1847 Mary Anning The baby who survived the lightning 4 · Measure
- 1809 – 1882 Charles Darwin He sailed around the world, came home, and spent twenty years keeping pigeons 4 · Measure
- 1867 – 1934 Marie Curie Her notebooks are still radioactive 5 · Unsettled
- 1882 – 1935 Emmy Noether Her lectures were announced under someone else's name 5 · Unsettled
- 1902 – 1992 Barbara McClintock When no one listened, she simply stopped talking 6 · Build