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Tournament of Genius
Joined: Nov 21, 2012
This spring, we'll be having a little March Madness of our own here at mentalfloss.com. Instead of playing hoops, though, we'll be working to put the title of "History's Greatest Genius" on its rightful owner. To find this singularly great thinker, we're having a single-elimination tournament to settle the debate about humanity's greatest mind once and for all. Is it Albert Einstein? Sir Isaac Newton? Evel Knievel? (Every tournament needs its Cinderellas.) The winner will be crowned on April 6th!
The Title Game: Einstein vs. Leonardo
(2) Ben Franklin vs. (1) Leonardo Da Vinci
(1) Albert Einstein vs. (1) Isaac Newton
(1) Leonardo Da Vinci vs. (7) Nikola Tesla
The Breakdown Tesla continued his Cinderella run through the tournament by knocking off Descarte, but will the electrical wizard be able to drop one of history's most beloved geniuses? Leonardo's got the more diverse résumé with top-flight artworks, ske
(1) Thomas Jefferson vs. (2) Ben Franklin
The Breakdown An epic clash between two Founding Fathers! Both were prolific writers, Jefferson of the Declaration of Independence and his own version of the Bible, Franklin of Poor Richard's Almanack and countless newspapers and pamphlets. Franklin inven
(1) Isaac Newton vs. (3) Louis Pasteur
The Breakdown Pasteur is fresh off of his upset of Shakespeare, but a matchup against Sir Isaac Newton hardly gives him a chance to catch his breath. Pasteur's discoveries and innovations in microbiology and vaccinology help keep all of us healthy and giv
(1) Einstein vs. (2) Plato
The Breakdown Any competition between guys who go by one-word names is going to be tight, and this one's no exception. Our beloved cover boy Einstein has a pretty solid claim to being the 20th century's greatest scientist on the merits of his explanation
(3) Rene Descartes vs. (7) Nikola Tesla
The Breakdown Tesla zapped his old rival Edison in the second round, but how will he fare against the father of modern philosophy? Tesla's got the fan following and the slew of inventions to keep him rolling through the bracket, but don't discount Descart
(3) Michelangelo vs. (2) Benjamin Franklin
The Breakdown Two of the bracket's more colorful characters square off here. The ever-quotable Franklin was an inventor, scientist, author, and diplomat without peer in his day, but he was also a fellow who enjoyed a good beer and a fur hat and had an ill
(1) Leonardo Da Vinci vs. (4) Galileo
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
(1) Thomas Jefferson vs. (5) Marie Curie
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
(3) Louis Pasteur vs. (2) William Shakespeare
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 w
(6) Pythagoras vs. (2) Plato
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
(1) Isaac Newton vs. (4) Beethoven
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 brilli
(1) Albert Einstein vs. (12) Jonas Salk
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,