# 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:** 6
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2017, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-scientists-ever-elimination-game/800825/101 "2017-11-08T23:22:06Z")
**Eliminate** Tyson, Neil deGrasse Yeah, he’s been a good voice for science, but his actual research and accomplishments have been pretty slim. Sagan accomplished much more and was a more influential advocate. Ockham, William of The Razor is a useful tool for science, but it’s more of a philosophical idea. We might as well nominate Ronald Reagan for coming up with, “Trust, but verify.” I’m tempted to veto all the economists because economics is social science, not physical, but let’s see who else survives the cut before I use any more vetoes. **Keep** Jacob of Nisbus I nominated him, and by golly I’ll defend him. He founded a **university,** not just a seminary, and that university taught medicine and other sciency stuff. If nothing else, consider him a “patron” and base your decision on that. ---
**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 8, 2017, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-scientists-ever-elimination-game/800825/102 "2017-11-08T23:37:16Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > **Keep** > > Jacob of Nisbus > > I nominated him, and by golly I’ll defend him. He founded a **university,** not just a seminary, and that university taught medicine and other sciency stuff. If nothing else, consider him a “patron” and base your decision on that. Ok, I will. A patron of the sciences isn’t a scientist. If I pay for piano lessons, that doesn’t make me a musician. ---
**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 9, 2017, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-scientists-ever-elimination-game/800825/103 "2017-11-09T00:26:45Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > Ockham, William of > > The Razor is a useful tool for science, but it’s more of a philosophical idea. Could we not say the same of the Scientific Method itself? Indeed, it complements the Scientific Method; as Wikipedia puts it: > [@](#): > > In the scientific method, Occam’s razor is not considered an irrefutable principle of logic or a scientific result; the preference for simplicity in the scientific method is based on the falsifiability criterion. For each accepted explanation of a phenomenon, there may be an extremely large, perhaps even incomprehensible, number of possible and more complex alternatives. Since one can always burden failing explanations with ad hoc hypotheses to prevent them from being falsified, simpler theories are preferable to more complex ones because they are more testable. But Ockham himself was more a philosopher than a scientist so he’s on a later kill-list for me. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2017, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-scientists-ever-elimination-game/800825/104 "2017-11-09T04:33:23Z")
Keep Maurice Hilleman - saved millions of lives by developing over 40 vaccines. Placeholder for normal science. [Maurice Hilleman - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Hilleman) Keep Kenneth Arrow - Groundbreaking and rigorous work in wide span of economic research. Economics has data, testing, and theory, what more do you want? Eliminate Freud - not a scientist, not an empiricist, cared nothing for falsification, damaged psychological science for decades. Eliminate Edison, Thomas. A great man who established industrialized research. But cared little for scientific theory, thereby wasting time. His successors would correct that deficiency. Might make top 200 list though. Leibnitz - stole idea of calculus from Newton… JUST KIDDING. Eliminate Carl Sagan - great populizer, not leader in his field. Eliminate Gutenberg, Johannes on a technicality: he’s not a scientist. He advanced science tremendously, but that’s not the same thing. Eliminate Tyson, Neil - I love the guy, but he isn’t a leader in astronomy, he’s a popularizer. Eliminate Ge Hong - hard to see the science in the wiki article. Eliminate Huygens, Christiaan. I think the list is a little physics-heavy; this great man won’t make the cut. So that’s 2 keeps and 7 eliminates. ---
**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 9, 2017, 8:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-scientists-ever-elimination-game/800825/105 "2017-11-09T08:58:40Z")
We have a whopping 100 scientists to eliminate just to get down to the 36 finalists. **I’ll want advice to ensure that the game _proceeds at a proper pace_.** Eventually, the vote allotment will be reduced from Nine, but perhaps an even larger number is appropriate for the early rounds? I have not double-checked the counts but there appear to be ten who have already got 3 or more eviction votes: Tyson 7 Freud 5 Nisibis, St. Jacob 6 minus 1 keep Sagan 4 Edison 4 Friedman 4 Ockham 4 Ge Hong 3 Lamarr 3 Ricardo 3 Aristotle, Adam Smith, Arrow, Gutenberg, Jung, Wigner - 2 each **I plan to evict all the 4’s and Ge Hong about 9 hours from now** , so that players can reuse their votes more quickly. For example, if five or six of his picks are eliminated, Snarky Kong will get 5 or 6 new votes this afternoon. A good Mod would add a little humor — that’s all my “quasi-misogynist … Hedy Lamarr” was intended as — but my feeble attempts just irritate and confuse. Similarly, with the heavy voting against the “capitalists” Milton Friedman and Adam Smith I’m tempted to ask if you guys would rather have Karl Marx on the list 🙂 … but will refrain. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2017, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-scientists-ever-elimination-game/800825/106 "2017-11-09T10:06:00Z")
I’ll use my last vote to evict **Kenneth Arrow**. Because there are too damn many economists on this list. ---
**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 9, 2017, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-scientists-ever-elimination-game/800825/107 "2017-11-09T17:29:06Z")
Remember: Every SDMB Member or Guest may vote, even if you didn’t participate in the Nomination phase. The rules favor whoever **Votes Early and Votes Often**! **Votes are not binding: You may change them at any time.** I missed this earlier: > [@What\_Exit](#): > > Sagan, Carl > Edison, Thomas > Friedman, Milton > Jung, Karl > Lamarr, Hedy > Tyson, Neil deGrasse > **St. Jacob of Nisibis** > Freud, Sigmund > Aristotle > > **Keep** > Ben Franklin > > I have 1 keep left. I’ll use it later. You’re allowed 9 votes\*\*\* Total\*\*\*. If you use two Keeps, then you only get seven Evicts. So instead of having 1 vote left, you need to cancel one of the votes you have. (Benjamin Franklin is in no immediate danger so, if I don’t hear from you, I’ll cancel your Keep Franklin.) **Measure for Measure** also appears to have ten votes down, but it looks like Leibniz wasn’t intended. Show mercy on me, folks! — use parentheses or something to name someone without voting. 🙂 I will do the first eliminations at about 2 pm EST — in an hour and half. With the votes as they stand now, seven scientists will be eliminated: Tyson 7 Freud 6 Sagan 5 Nisibis, St. Jacob of 6-1 = 5 Friedman 4 Edison 4 Ge Hong 3 **And there will be a second elimination 24 hours later, based on the counts then. Don’t forget: Once the eliminations are announced at 2 pm, those of you who voted for any of the evictees can re-use those votes to evict someone else.** (Several of you will get four or more new votes that way.) Other scientists with 2 or more votes (whether Evict or Keep) are Lamarr 3 Ockham 3 Ricardo 3 Aristotle 2 Smith, Adam 2 Arrow 2-1 = 1 Gutenberg 2 Jung 2 Franklin, Benj 1-1 = 0 Hilleman, Maurice 1-1 = 0 Thorne, Kip 1-1 = 0 ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2017, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-scientists-ever-elimination-game/800825/108 "2017-11-09T17:44:11Z")
Sorry, Please cancel my Tyson, he’ll be gone anyway from the looks of it. ---
**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 9, 2017, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-scientists-ever-elimination-game/800825/109 "2017-11-09T19:25:09Z")
Elimination Round #1 is over. The seven names in my previous post are killed: Tyson 7 Freud 6 Sagan 5 Nisibis, St. Jacob of 6-1 = 5 Friedman 4 Edison 4 Ge Hong 3 _ **Elimination Round #2 will end 24 hours from now.** _ I don’t know yet what the threshold for elimination will be tomorrow. In Round #2, like Round #1, _ **players will have nine votes total** _ (8 evicts/1 keep, or 9-0, 7-2) When you vote in Round 2. **please also tell me the number of votes-per-player you recommend** for Round #3. Scientist List [spoiler] Agassiz, Louis - biology, geology Al-Biruni, Abu Rayhan Muhammad - natural philosophy Al-Khwarizmi, Muhammad ibn Musa - math, astronomy Alhazen Ibn al-Haytham - physics, etc. Anning, Mary - paleontology Archimedes - math, physics Aristotle - philosophy, geology, biology, etc. Arrow, Kenneth - economics Babbage, Charles - computer science Bacon, Francis - philosophy Bardeen, John - physics, invention Bernard, Claude - physiology Berzelius, Jacob - chemistry Boas, Franz - anthropology Bohr, Niels - atomic physics Boltzmann, Ludwig - thermodynamics Borlaug, Norman - agronomics Boyle, Robert - chemistry, physics Brahmagupta - math, astronomy Braun, Wernher von - rocket science Bruno, Giordano - philosophy Cannon, Annie Jump - astronomy Copernicus, Nicolas - astronomy Crick, Francis - Dna Curie, Marie - radioactivity Dalton, John - chemistry Darwin, Charles - biology Davy, Sir Humphrey - chemistry Dirac, Paul - physics Doppler, Christian - 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 Fleming, Sir Alexander - medicine, biology Franklin, Benjamin - physics, etc. Franklin, Rosalind - chemistry, X-ray crystallography Galen, of Pergamon - biology, medicine Galileo - physics, astronomy, etc. Gauss, Karl - math, astronomy Gell-Mann, Murray - physics Goddard, Robert - rocket science Godel, Kurt - math Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von - natural philosophy Goodall, Jane - primatology Gutenberg, Johannes - invention Haber, Fritz - chemistry; invention (fertilizer, gas warfare) Halley, Edmond - astronomy, etc. Hamilton, William - astronomy, optics, math Harvey, William - anatomy, blood Hawking, Stephen - cosmology Heisenberg, Werner - quantum theory Hilleman, Maurice - biology, vaccination; saved more lives Hipparchus, of Nicaea - astronomy, etc. Hippocrates, of Cos - medicine Hopper, Grace - computer science Hubble, Edwin - astronomy Hutton, James - geologist Huygens, Christiaan - optics, physics Ibn al-Nafis - anatomy, blood Jenner, Edward - vaccination Jung, Carl - psychology Kepler, Johannes - astronomy, math Keynes, John Maynard - economics Lamarr, Hedy - invention Lavoisier, Antoine - chemistry Leakey, Louis - anthropology Leavitt, Henrietta Swan - astronomy Leeuwenhoek, Antonie van - microbiology, microscopy Leibnitz, Gottfried - math, physics, etc. Leonardo da Vinci - anatomy, invention, etc. Liebig, Justus von - organic chemistry; a great practical scientist. Linnaeus, Carolus - botany, taxonomy Lister, Joseph - antiseptics Lovelace, Ada Byron Countess of - computer science Lyell, Charles - geology Mach, Ernst - physics, cosmology Marconi, Guglielmo - radio transmission Marsh, Othneil = paleontology Maxwell, James Clerk - physics McClintock, Barbara - genetics Mead, Margaret - anthropology Meitner, Lise - atomic physics Mendel, Gregor - genetics Mendeleev, Dmitri - chemistry Michelson, Albert - astronomy; speed of light Morley, Edward - astronomy, chemistry, optics, and physics. Mullis, Kary - biology Neumann, John von - computer science, etc. Newton, Sir Isaac - math, physics Noether, Emmy - math Ockham, William of - philosophy Oppenheimer, Robert - atomic physics Pasteur, Louis - chemistry, biology Patterson. Clair - geochemistry Pauli, Wolfgang - quantum physics Pauling, Linus - chemistry Planck, Max - quantum physics Poincare, Henri - math Ptolemy - astronomy Pythagoras - math Ricardo, David - economics Rubin, Vera - astronomy Russell, Bertrand - math Rutherford, Ernest - nuclear physics, atomic theory, radioactivity. Sakharov, Andrei - nuclear physics Salk, Jonas - medicine, vaccination Samuelson, Paul - economics Schrodinger, Erwin - wave mechanics Semmelweis, Ignaz - antiseptics Shannon, Claude - computer science Smith, Adam - economics Smith, William - geology Tesla, Nicolai - physics, invention Thales, of Miletus - math Thorne, Kip - physics Turing, Alan - computer science, etc. Ventner, Craig - genetics Vesalius, Andreas - founder of anatomical sciences Virchow, Rudolf - medicine, cell doctrine, etc. Volta, Alessandro - chemistry, physics Watson, James - Dna Wegener, Alfred - meteorology, continental drift Wigner, Eugene - physics, symmetry Zhang Heng - astronomy, mechanics [del]Edison, Thomas Alva - invention[/del] 11/09 [del]Freud, Sigmund - psychology[/del] 11/09 [del]Friedman, Milton - economics[/del] 11/09 [del]Ge Hong - philosophy, alchemy[/del] 11/09 [del]Nisibis, St. Jacob of - theology, founded early school[/del] 11/09 [del]Sagan, Carl - astronomy[/del] 11/09 [del]Tyson, Neil deGrasse - astrophysics, science popularizer[/del] 11/09 [/spoiler] Players bunched up, so that many have replacement votes coming (I’ve not double-checked all figures): Snarky gets 6 new votes (assuming he keeps his leftovers: Franklin, Jung, Lamarr), Pepperwinkle gets 3, Gyrate 4, Chronos 5, What Exit? 6 new votes, Sternvogel 1, Quartz 2, penultima thule 3, kunilou 8, Measure for Measure 5, and of course _many_ of you — especially including **bordelond, Dendarii Dame, JohnT, Little Nemo** — have all nine votes coming. ( Of course any player may write: _Cancel previous. Here are nine new votes._) ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2017, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-scientists-ever-elimination-game/800825/110 "2017-11-09T20:10:14Z")
Eliminations: Anning, Mary Arrow, Kenneth Bruno, Giordano Hamilton, William Noether, Emmy Patterson, Clair Ricardo, David Samuelson, Paul Wigner, Eugene I’ll suggest we each get twelve votes for the next round. ---
**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 9, 2017, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-scientists-ever-elimination-game/800825/111 "2017-11-09T20:19:58Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > When you vote in Round 2, **please also tell me the number of votes-per-player you recommend** for Round #3. And, since we’re coming up on a weekend (Round #2 ends Friday afternoon), tell me when Round 3 should end. Monday? ---
**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 9, 2017, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-scientists-ever-elimination-game/800825/112 "2017-11-09T21:14:23Z")
Tyson, Neil deGrasse - astrophysics, science popularizer Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von - natural philosophy Lamarr, Hedy - invention Edison, Thomas Alva - invention Friedman, Milton - economics Samuelson, Paul - economics Smith, Adam - economics Ricardo, David - economics Keynes, John Maynard - economics This is my “why was this person on this list?” elimination vote. While I consider Edison to be one of the most influential people of our age, and he discovered the Edison effect… naw. Not a scientist. Same thing with the economists (and where was Marx on this list?). They aren’t scientists. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2017, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-scientists-ever-elimination-game/800825/113 "2017-11-09T21:17:45Z")
Among the (5) economists, I might order them roughly as follows. (OBTW, 5/136= 3.7%, hardly overwhelming) Most keepable (((Samuelson)))- Not merely a popularizer: his textbook cemented the economic paradigm of microeconomics covering individual markets (and needing special justification for governmental intervention) and macroeconomics covering whole economies (which are inherently unstable so they require some sort of management, even if it’s merely that of a central bank). He also did groundbreaking research on his own, not incidentally including considerable mathematical rigor during the 1930s. (((Arrow))) - see preceding (((Keynes))) - constructed the first model of a whole economy, thereby basically inventing macro-economics. …But Hicks did it better a couple of years later. (((Ricardo))) - thought more deeply about the concepts that Adam Smith introduced. (((Friedman))) - [http://delong.typepad.com/pdf/20070308\_108-115.delong.FINAL.pdf](http://delong.typepad.com/pdf/20070308_108-115.delong.FINAL.pdf) (((Adam Smith))) - arguably too chatty to really be considered a scientist. Least keepable. ---
**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 9, 2017, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-scientists-ever-elimination-game/800825/114 "2017-11-09T21:23:00Z")
I understand. However, econ was my major and the proportion of bullshit:math was about 60:40, if that. In my experience, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2017, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-scientists-ever-elimination-game/800825/115 "2017-11-09T21:24:57Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Same thing with the economists (and where was Marx on this list?). They aren’t scientists. I kept Marx off intentionally. He advocated the overturning of capitalism while dismissing small scale attempts to establish socialism (later called Utopian experiments). That’s a cardinal error, and a non-scientific one: you need to do a proof of concept before instituting massive changes. Furthermore, Marx can be paired with Freud as a thinker whose followers were hostile to hypothesis testing and falsification. Ref: Karl Popper. Economics is (mostly) a non-experimental system science, like meteorology. One difference is that the data tends to be quarterly or monthly, while weather data can be daily or even hourly. Economists get a bad rap due to macroeconomic forecasting, which frankly isn’t very good (though earthquake prediction is arguably worse). But macro-forecasting is a small part of the field. ---
**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 9, 2017, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-scientists-ever-elimination-game/800825/116 "2017-11-09T21:29:47Z")
To keep it simple, drop my previous votes. I’d stay with 9 votes, and end the next one on Monday. Current votes for elimination: Arrow, Kenneth Gutenberg, Johann Haber, Fritz Jenner, Edward Keynes, J. M. Lamarr, Hedy Ricardo, David Samuelson, Paul Smith, Adam ---
**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 9, 2017, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-scientists-ever-elimination-game/800825/117 "2017-11-09T21:31:46Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > And, since we’re coming up on a weekend (Round #2 ends Friday afternoon), tell me when Round 3 should end. Monday? I would propose making a schedule, announcing it, and then keeping to it. Like the third post here: [The 100 Most Influential People - Try the Third - The Game Room - Straight Dope Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=559639) Also, can’t change things once the game has started. Keep things as they are, no more rule changes, additions/deletions, and just let it play out. Otherwise, what’s the point other than getting some vague predetermined outcome? ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2017, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-scientists-ever-elimination-game/800825/118 "2017-11-09T21:36:08Z")
Finally: Scientific American (SA) routinely carries articles on economics, though admittedly its editors have differing tastes from the American Economic Review (AER). But then again, the AER is far more math heavy than SA, which tends to favor charting over formulas, never mind multivariate regression. ---
**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 9, 2017, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-scientists-ever-elimination-game/800825/119 "2017-11-09T21:38:20Z")
Benjamin Franklin Jung Lamarr Gutenburg Ockham Arrow Adam Smith ---
**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 10, 2017, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-scientists-ever-elimination-game/800825/120 "2017-11-10T01:08:36Z")
For my picks, I have started from the beginning of the list, giving rough rankings based on \*output over their lifetime (I have been relatively kind to the earlier scientists on the basis that if we have less evidence for them it’s not their fault) \*non-obviousness of their discoveries at the time \*extent to which they are a trailblazer, early leader, or creator of their field. I found 9 names which came in under my arbitrary floor by the time I got to F. There may be even better examples in the second half of the list, but I’ll probably ditch them next turn. This round’s picks: Mary Anning Kenneth Arrow John Bardeen Ludwig Boltzmann Norman Borlaug Wernher von Braun Annie Jump Cannon Christian Doppler Alexander Fleming [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-scientists-ever-elimination-game/800825.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-scientists-ever-elimination-game/800825.md?page=7)