Greatest Scientists Ever: Elimination Game

Thread Games
41

I agree with Little Nemo. How can you compare Darwin to Galileo? But on the other hand, it’s just an internet game.

42

No reason; 36 is a pretty, round number. Anyway, the voting protocol may not change much between “phase II” and “phase III.”

But the 36 Finalists will end up with numbers, #36 - #1, while the others will just be shown as “eliminated before final 36.”

If participants prefer, we can subdivide into categories (biology, physics, anthropology, ?), and first vote within categories.

43

Hedy Lamarr (not Hedley), whose spread spectrum wireless technology is largely responsible for why we have cell phones in modern day. (And you know, was useful in preventing the Nazis from intercepting allied messages during WWII as well as aiding the U.S during the Cuban Missile Crisis.)

Oh, and she was a talented actress who was easy on the eyes as well.

44

Clair Patterson. He campaigned against leaded gasoline, after discovering how harmful its effects were.

45

Looking over the list of nominations I see some unlikely omissions — just oversights probably. And I think we should have another 1 or 2 scientists from the Islamic Golden Age.

Here are ten scientists still missing I’d want to add. As a game within a game, whoever guesses any of the scientists I have in mind from these meager clues gets an extra vote in the first Elimination Round!

  • Two important geologists
  • Two important quantum physicists
  • Two physical scientists, one Russian, one Austrian
  • Four very influential thinkers associated with medicine or the study of humans
46

If we’re doing anthropology then surely Margaret Mead needs to be on the list.

47

The ‘Father of Information Theory’, Claude Shannon, has not yet been nominated. I will do so here. He will fail the “recognizable by last name” test, but IMHO he deserves a nomination.

48

Fine choice but not one of the anthropologists I was thinking of. All ten free votes are still available.

ETA: Claude Shannon is also a fine choice, though obviously not one of the categories for free vote.

49

Andrei Sakharov – nuclear physicist who conceived the nuclear fusion reactor (or tokamak)?

50

Dmitri Mendeleev – chemistry, periodic table
Max Planck – quantum physics

Are either or both of these good for a bonus vote?

51

Saying “thinkers” makes me think he is not one you’re thinking of, but:

Sir Alexander Fleming, discoverer of antibiotics?

52

Bringing these to Pg 2 to make searching easier … though a few nominations made since this post are missing.

53

Septimus, is **Alfred Wegener **(plate tectonics) one of your geologists?

54

For another very important classical Arab scientist, I nominate Al-Hazen (optics)

55

Another “[thinker] associated with medicine or the study of humans”: **Craig Ventner **(human genome mapping, applied synthetic-species creation)

56

Since you specified “two important *quantum *physicists” … I see that Erwin Schrödinger’s name is missing from the nominations list.

57

Since we have a few polymaths listed … how about Thales?

58

You’ll get blowback on Sigmund Freud. **Carl Jung **would probably go over better.

59

Hippocrates

60

James Hutton – “The Father of Modern Geology” – could perhaps be one of septimus’ geologists?