The mental_floss Tournament of Genius

The Breakdown

This matchup features two Italian guys who need no last names, much less introductions. Leonardo’s going to come out on top in the diversity department; not only did he do a little bit of everything, he did all of it really well. Galileo is no pushover, though. He’s got a strong claim to the position of “father of science,” and he made huge strides in astronomy and physics. His work as a mathematician doesn’t get as much publicity, but he was a big dog in that field, too. (Galileo’s paradox famously concluded that although not all numbers are perfect squares, there are as many perfect squares as there are whole numbers. Try wrapping your head around that one.) Leonardo, though, had his own scientific observations and theories, and on top of that he was one of the greatest artists of all time. Tough call, but who’s the bigger genius?

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[See the whole bracket here.]

The Breakdown

Curie keeps rolling through this tournament after her second-round upset of Aristotle. Does the two-time Nobel winner have what it takes to take down the man who bought Louisiana and sent Lewis and Clark out on their famous expedition? Curie coined the word “radioactivity,” while Jefferson can claim the Earth-shattering “When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another…” that kicks off the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson may have been the greatest American president, but Curie was the first woman ever to have her ashes enshrined at Paris’ Pantheon on the strength of her own work. Both of these candidates are scholars for the ages, but which one’s the bigger genius?

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[See the whole bracket here.]

The Breakdown

Shakespeare’s catalog of poems and plays is unrivaled, and with his tight plots, beautiful wordplay, and ribald puns, there’s really something for everyone in the Bard’s work. Pasteur was less entertaining, but it’s tough to find any fault with his work. After all, he told us that microorganisms cause disease, which led to all sorts of health breakthroughs in addition to the rabies and anthrax vaccines Pasteur himself created. Without pasteurization, our milk and beer wouldn’t be as durable or as delicious. Shakespeare’s work is more quotable, while Pasteur’s is more drinkable. Who’s the bigger genius?

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[See the whole bracket here.]

The Breakdown

Someone’s getting his chiton ripped up in this matchup. These two ancient Greek heavyweights both have a lot going for them. Both made their marks on philosophy, and both were known as strong mathematical thinkers. (It’s sometimes forgotten that Plato was an early mathematician who helped stratify the discipline into applied math and pure mathematics.) Plato had a number of notable students, including Aristotle, while Pythagoras had a whole brotherhood following his teachings. In fact, Pythagoras’ ideas about rational philosophy set the stage for and influenced a lot of Plato’s work. Which Greek is the bigger genius, though?

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[See the whole bracket here.]

The Breakdown

Newton’s résumé is certainly more diverse; he’s got the gravity thing, calculus, his contributions to optics, and his laws of motion. Each of those things would make him a standout genius in history. Beethoven, though, has scores of brilliant compositions and the impressive feat that he overcame deafness to write them. Beethoven was the central figure in music’s transition from Classicism to Romanticism, while Newton was able to formulate calculus while he was stuck at home for two years during a plague outbreak. Neither of these guys is a slouch, but who gets the genius nod?

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[See the whole bracket here.]

The Breakdown

Tough to pick against either of these guys. Einstein’s breakthroughs have been pushing physics to exciting new places for nearly a century now, and he made wild hair seem like a terrific cosmetic decision. Salk, though, saved us from polio, and by establishing the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California, he created a place where top-flight scientific research is still being done almost 14 years after his death. Plus, he was popular with the ladies; Salk’s second wife was Francoise Gilot, a former mistress of Picasso. Einstein may be thought of as the 20th century’s greatest genius, but it’s tough to diminish Salk’s brilliance. Who’s going to take your vote here, the biologist or the physicist?

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[See the whole bracket here.]

(2) Thomas Edison

The sheer scope of Edison’s inventiveness is staggering. The Wizard of Menlo Park held a record 1,093 patents when he died in 1931. Everyone knows him for the light bulb, but Edison also had a hand in the invention of the radio, the phonograph, and an improved stock ticker. His achievements weren’t all nerdy science, either; Edison’s electric engraving pen needed just a few modifications to become the world’s first tattooing machine.

(7) Nikola Tesla

Not since Benjamin Franklin has one man’s name been so inextricably linked to electricity. Tesla’s major breakthroughs, including the rotating magnetic field, made the alternating current we use in our homes possible. His Tesla coil was a key part of early radios. He’s still revered as a god among electrical engineering fans, and he might just have been the most important inventor of the 20th century.

The Breakdown

A bitter grudge match over a century in the making! These two had legitimate beefs on both a scientific and a personal level. When Tesla arrived in the U.S. in 1884 with little more than four cents and a schematic for a flying machine, Edison was his first employer. Edison allegedly jilted Tesla on payment, and the two had a falling out. Later, they engaged in a “War of Currents” over whose system of electric power distribution was superior, with Edison backing direct current and Tesla in alternating current’s corner. In the end, Tesla got the last laugh. Alternating current brings juice into our homes, and he outlived Edison, which enabled him to slam Edison in the New York Times on the day after his rival’s death. Which one’s the bigger genius, though?

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[See the whole bracket here.]

(1) Leonardo Da Vinci

Even if he hadn’t diversified his brain so thoroughly, Leonardo might still be on this list for his achievements in any single field. His Mona Lisa and Last Supper make him a titan among artists. His engineering plans for flying machines and bridges show his technical mind was ahead of his time. His journals full of scientific observations show a keen grasp of everything from architecture to botany. Nobody wants to draw this #1 seed.

(8) Sigmund Freud

Freud requires very little introduction, as his creation of the psychoanalytic wing of psychology has made him a household name. Freud divided our psyches into egos, superegos, and ids; advocated cocaine use for, among other things, indigestion; studied cerebral palsy; and made us all feel just a little bit weird about our relationships with our mothers. Finally, his notion of the Freudian slip gave us all a get-out-of-jail-free card for our occasional verbal lapses. Thanks, Sigmund.

The Breakdown

After fending off a hard charge by Burt Reynolds, Leonardo’s made it into the second round. The competition doesn’t get much easier here, though, as Freud’s a titan in his own right. Plus, these two have a backstory; Freud wrote a book-length psychoanalysis called Leonardo da Vinci, a Memory of His Childhood. You’re not going to believe the conclusions Freud came to: that Leonardo’s works manifest both passive homosexual fantasies and an interest in his mother’s nipples. Although they lived nearly 350 years apart, we’re guessing that analysis might not have pleased Leonardo all that much. Let’s settle any possible disputes for them. Who’s the bigger genius?

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[See the whole bracket here.]

(3) Rene Descartes

The Frenchman is no easy matchup given his resume: Father of modern philosophy. “I think, therefore I am.” Inventor of dualism, which proposes a disconnect between mind and matter. Maker of wax-based analogies. Inventor of coordinate geometry. Writer of an ontological proof of God’s existence. Busy guy.

(6) The Wright Brothers

It’s tough to envision the modern world without airplanes, but without a pair of printers-turned-bicycle-makers-turned-glider-builders, ocean liner travel might still be the only way to get to Europe. Although they never attended college, the Ohio brothers were such determined and keen students of mechanics and aerodynamics that they eventually got us off the ground after hundreds of failed attempts at flight. Plus, with apologies to Orville Redenbacher, both Wright brothers are still the greatest people ever to bear their respective first names.

The Breakdown

I think I am cramped, therefore I am in the middle seat of a cross-country flight. Descartes gave us an awful lot, from Cartesian coordinates to the whole cogito ergo sum thing to possibly history’s only convincing argument based on wax. The Wright brothers, though, gave us a way to get where we want to go as quickly as possible and effectively made the globe shrink for travelers. Who’s the greater genius?

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[See the whole bracket here.]

(2) Benjamin Franklin

Possibly the first great American genius, Franklin was many things. Statesman. Diplomat. Almanac writer. Bifocal inventor. Ill-timed flyer of kites. Glass harmonica maker. Signer of the Declaration of Independence. Lover of turkeys. In all of them, though, he showed an undeniable genius.

(7) Hypatia

Think sexism kept women out of math until fairly recently? Think again. Hypatia, who lived in fourth- and fifth-century Alexandria, was one of the most notable mathematicians of her day. Hypatia wrote commentaries on some of math’s most important texts and also made advanced astronomical studies. Furthermore, she lectured to a large number of followers on both math and Neoplatonist philosophy, another discipline in which she excelled. Unfortunately, brains were not so popular in those days, and Hypatia was murdered as a pagan by a Christian mob.

The Breakdown

Here’s a matchup of two scientific thinkers you probably wouldn’t find in a church. Hypatia valiantly fought to keep scientific and religious thinking separate, a decision that ultimately cost the scholar her life. Franklin, on the other hand, used Sundays as his “studying day” and rarely went to church, although he was a firm believer in Deism. Hypatia’s name eventually became synonymous with scholarship and virtue, while Franklin’s writings perfectly encapsulated his own cleverly Puritanical values. Who’s the greater genius, though: the lightning rod for early Christian anti-intellectualism or the man who invented the lightning rod?

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[See the whole bracket here.]