# Greatest Scientists Ever: Elimination Game **URL:** \ **Category:** Thread Games\ **Created:** [November 5, 2017, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-scientists-ever-elimination-game/800825 "2017-11-05T21:08:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2017, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-scientists-ever-elimination-game/800825/1 "2017-11-05T21:08:21Z")
The first thread I participated in here, almost a decade ago, was “The President Elimination Game.” I learned a lot in that fun thread, and it introduced me to this message board… > [@The President Elimination Game](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-elimination-game/511317/1171): > > And with that, the game is over. By the process of elimination, the greatest US President is: > > George Washington (None, 1789-1797) > > Eliminated Presidents: > > 1. James Buchanan (Democrat, 1857-1861) > … > 2. Grover Cleveland (Democrat, 1885-1889, 1893-1897) > 3. Thomas Jefferson (Democratic-Republican, 1801-1809) > 4. James K. Polk (Democrat, 1845-1849) > 5. Dwight Eisenhower (Republican, 1953-1961) > 6. Harry S. Truman (Democrat, 1945-1953) > 7. Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Democrat, 1933-1945) > 8. Theodore Roosevelt (Republican, 1901-1909) > 9. Abraham Lincoln (Republican, 1861-1865) > > And for post-game celebrations, I will turn it over to [Brad Neely](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbRom1Rz8OA), for his unforgettable but perhaps not entirely historically accurate (and not completely work-safe) tribute. (Note that Polk edges out T. Jefferson for the Seventh Greatest President title. Dark horse Cleveland comes in Ninth!) \*The thread was started by **Qin Shi Huangdi** , then known as **Curtis LeMay**. The Great Emperor **Qin** is still around of course, recently posting on the same topic – Greatest American Presidents > [@Who Was the Greatest President of All Time?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-greatest-president-of-all-time/691593/202): > > 1. Abraham Lincoln > 2. FDR > 3. George Washington > 4. LBJ > 5. Harry Truman > 6. James K. Polk > 7. Thomas Jefferson > 8. Barack Obama > 9. Ulysses S. Grant > 10. Theodore Roosevelt Some of the other posts in _that_ thread are interesting. I’d agree with > [@Who Was the Greatest President of All Time?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-greatest-president-of-all-time/691593/209): > > I have to give Lincoln the nod over Washington if you’re looking for our Greatest President. If you’re going for lifetime achievement, Washington would win. But a large share of Washington’s reputation is based on things he did before becoming President. His presidency was pretty quiet. Lincoln had to handle a lot more as President than Washington ever had to in that office. 😃 **Surely we don’t need to wait the full decade to have** _ **Greatest Scientists Ever: Elimination Game** _ ```auto We are now in Phase I — Nomination Phase. Players may choose to add qualifiers (e.g. biology) to submissions. Mod reserves all rights. If we get fewer than 50 nominees, the Game is cancelled. In Phase II, the set of nominees will be reduced to twenty finalists. The final Phase III will rank the finalists. Mod is not allowed to vote, but may break ties. Nominations, please? ``` ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2017, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-scientists-ever-elimination-game/800825/2 "2017-11-05T21:26:24Z")
Let me offer a starter 13: Einstein Newton Leibnitz Darwin Archimedes Pythagoras Eratosthenes Galileo Ge Hong Zhang Heng Galen Brahmagupta Al Khwarizmi I’ll also offer that the farther back you go, the more nebulous the definition of scientist becomes. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2017, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-scientists-ever-elimination-game/800825/3 "2017-11-05T21:40:53Z")
Marie Curie Sir Humphrey Davy Robert Boyle Barbara McClintock Rosalind Franklin Emmy Noether ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2017, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-scientists-ever-elimination-game/800825/4 "2017-11-05T22:15:31Z")
Heisenberg Pauling Fermi William Smith Oppenheimer ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2017, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-scientists-ever-elimination-game/800825/5 "2017-11-05T22:24:24Z")
Wiki has [lists](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_scientists). ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2017, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-scientists-ever-elimination-game/800825/6 "2017-11-05T22:45:07Z")
Euclid Halley ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2017, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-scientists-ever-elimination-game/800825/7 "2017-11-05T22:47:54Z")
I’m going to add Marconi. He was on a very short list of thinkers who used a physical property that was not intuitively visible to common men, and apply it to practical use. And Benjamin Franklin. Just because he did other things does not detract from his being a brilliant theoretical scientist. Wikipedia itemizes eleven different scientific principles to which Franklin contributed. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2017, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-scientists-ever-elimination-game/800825/8 "2017-11-05T23:39:44Z")
I think an immediate sniff test for Western scientists would be to see if you could recognise them by only their last name. And I’ll add Dalton to the list of nominations. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2017, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-scientists-ever-elimination-game/800825/9 "2017-11-05T23:48:11Z")
James Clerk Maxwell ---
**Author:** ![wevets](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9a140/32.png) [@wevets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wevets)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2017, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-scientists-ever-elimination-game/800825/10 "2017-11-06T01:46:21Z")
Sounds great - a few nominations in no particular order… Francis Bacon Louis Pasteur Paul Dirac Lise Meitner Edwin Hubble Richard Feynman Jonas Salk Johannes Kepler Nicolai Tesla ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2017, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-scientists-ever-elimination-game/800825/11 "2017-11-06T09:26:48Z")
Here are the nominations so far, in alphabetical order: Al-Khwarizmi, Muhammad ibn Musa - math, astronomy Archimedes - math, physics Bacon, Francis - philosophy Boyle, Robert - chemistry, physics Brahmagupta - math, astronomy Curie, Marie - radioactivity Dalton, John - chemistry Darwin, Charles - biology Davy, Sir Humphrey - chemistry Dirac, Paul - physics Einstein, Albert - physics Eratosthenes - math, astronomy Euclid - math Fermi, Enrico - atomic physics Feynman, Richard - physics Franklin, Benjamin - physics, etc. Franklin, Rosalind - chemistry, X-ray crystallography Galen, of Pergamon - biology, medicine Galileo - physics, astronomy, etc. Ge Hong - philosophy, alchemy Halley, Edmond - astronomy, etc. Heisenberg, Werner - quantum theory Hubble, Edwin - astronomy Kepler, Johannes - astronomy, math Leibnitz, Gottfried - math, physics, etc. Marconi, Guglielmo - radio transmission Maxwell, James Clerk - physics McClintock, Barbara - genetics Meitner, Lise - atomic physics Newton, Sir Isaac - math, physics Noether, Emmy - math Oppenheimer, Robert - atomic physics Pasteur, Louis - chemistry, biology Pauling, Linus - chemistry Pythagoras - math Salk, Jonas - medicine, vaccination Smith, William - geology Tesla, Nicolai - physicist, inventor Zhang Heng - astronomy, mechanics Participants are free to define their own criteria for “greatness,” to advocate for their choices in the thread, and to suggest improvements for the _very brief_ summary shown in the List. _ **I think several very important scientists are still missing.** _ Feel free to contribute more names; encourage your friends to participate! > [@snfaulkner](#): > > Wiki has [lists](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_scientists). Wholesale nomination by linking is not permitted. If any of those lists contain scientists you think should be nominated, please submit them individually. Following the precedent set by **Quartz** , no more than 13 scientists may be nominated in a single post. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2017, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-scientists-ever-elimination-game/800825/12 "2017-11-06T09:46:45Z")
Aristotle Ptolemy Nicolas Copernicus Pierre de Fermat Niels Bohr Bertrand Russell Gregor Mendel ---
**Author:** ![Iggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iggy/32/3364_2.png) [@Iggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iggy)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2017, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-scientists-ever-elimination-game/800825/13 "2017-11-06T11:54:16Z")
Norman Borlaug ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2017, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-scientists-ever-elimination-game/800825/14 "2017-11-06T12:41:47Z")
Leonard Euler (mathematics) Karl Frederich Gauss (astronomy, mathematics) Carl Sagan (astronomy) Murray Gel-Mann (physics) Kip Thorne (physics) Kary Mullis (biology) I figure we need at least a few contemporary names on the list, and a great science popularizer. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2017, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-scientists-ever-elimination-game/800825/15 "2017-11-06T13:18:27Z")
Most of my picks have been spoken, but want to give a shout-out to Edwin Hubble, without whom this game would be meaningless. IMHO, of course. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2017, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-scientists-ever-elimination-game/800825/16 "2017-11-06T13:47:31Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Most of my picks have been spoken, but want to give a shout-out to Edwin Hubble, without whom this game would be meaningless. IMHO, of course. 🙂 Ninja’ed by **wevets** in #10. But I agree Hubble is a good choice. How prescient of his folks to name him after the famous space telescope! ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2017, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-scientists-ever-elimination-game/800825/17 "2017-11-06T13:50:48Z")
> [@Iggy](#): > > Norman Borlaug This is what I came in to say. Certainly a required person. ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2017, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-scientists-ever-elimination-game/800825/18 "2017-11-06T15:28:18Z")
Faraday. Took to post 9 for Maxwell? Tsk tsk. I think a lot of this will come down to criteria. Is science that has a lot of applications better? Is revolutionary better than incremental improvement? Depth vs breadth of contributions? Interesting thread. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2017, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-scientists-ever-elimination-game/800825/19 "2017-11-06T16:07:45Z")
A few more nominations: Fritz Haber - Controversial figure. Chemist who invented artificial fertilizer and gas warfare. Maurice Hilleman - Biologist who developed dozens of vaccines. Saved more lives than any other person in history. Justus von Liebig - One of the founders of organic chemistry and a great practical scientist. Albert Michelson - One of the first astronomers to measure the speed of light. First American to win a Nobel Prize in science. Edward Morley - The other half of the Michelson-Morley experiment. Did major work in astronomy, chemistry, optics, and physics. Ernest Rutherford - Major figure in nuclear physics. Advanced atomic theory and explained radioactive decay. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2017, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-scientists-ever-elimination-game/800825/20 "2017-11-06T16:37:51Z")
We’re up to sixty nominations already. Let’s shoot for an even hundred! Al-Khwarizmi, Muhammad ibn Musa - math, astronomy Archimedes - math, physics Aristotle - philosophy, geology, biology, etc. Bacon, Francis - philosophy Bohr, Niels - atomic physics Borlaug, Norman - agronomics Boyle, Robert - chemistry, physics Brahmagupta - math, astronomy Copernicus, Nicolas - astronomy Curie, Marie - radioactivity Dalton, John - chemistry Darwin, Charles - biology Davy, Sir Humphrey - chemistry Dirac, Paul - physics Einstein, Albert - physics Eratosthenes - math, astronomy Euclid - math Euler, Leonhard - math Faraday, Michael - electromagnetism, etc. Fermat, Pierre de - math, optics Fermi, Enrico - atomic physics Feynman, Richard - physics Franklin, Benjamin - physics, etc. Franklin, Rosalind - chemistry, X-ray crystallography Galen, of Pergamon - biology, medicine Galileo - physics, astronomy, etc. Gauss, Karl - math, astronomy Ge Hong - philosophy, alchemy Gell-Mann, Murray - physics Haber, Fritz - controversial figure; chemist who invented artificial fertilizer and gas warfare. Halley, Edmond - astronomy, etc. Heisenberg, Werner - quantum theory Hilleman, Maurice - biologist who developed dozens of vaccines; saved more lives than any other person in history. Hubble, Edwin - astronomy Kepler, Johannes - astronomy, math Leibnitz, Gottfried - math, physics, etc. Liebig, Justus von - one of the founders of organic chemistry and a great practical scientist. Marconi, Guglielmo - radio transmission Maxwell, James Clerk - physics McClintock, Barbara - genetics Meitner, Lise - atomic physics Mendel, Gregor - genetics Michelson, Albert - one of the first astronomers to measure the speed of light; first American to win a Nobel Prize in science. Morley, Edward - the other half of the Michelson-Morley experiment; did major work in astronomy, chemistry, optics, and physics. Mullis, Kary - biology Newton, Sir Isaac - math, physics Noether, Emmy - math Oppenheimer, Robert - atomic physics Pasteur, Louis - chemistry, biology Pauling, Linus - chemistry Ptolemy - astronomy Pythagoras - math Russell, Bertrand - math Rutherford, Ernest - major figure in nuclear physics; advanced atomic theory and explained radioactive decay. Sagan, Carl - astronomy Salk, Jonas - medicine, vaccination Smith, William - geology Tesla, Nicolai - physicist, inventor Thorne, Kip - physics Zhang Heng - astronomy, mechanics When Phase II begins, eliminations will be fast and furious! So advocates for dark horses like _Ge Hong_ may want to start campaigning now. I may incorporate suggested bio synopses as I did with **Little Nemo** ’s nominees. > [@Snarky\_Kong](#): > > I think a lot of this will come down to criteria. Is science that has a lot of applications better? Is revolutionary better than incremental improvement? Depth vs breadth of contributions? It will be hard to agree on criteria. Genius versus Influence — often they don’t go together. Feel free to debate in-thread which criteria are most appropriate. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-scientists-ever-elimination-game/800825.md?page=2)