Lise Meitner is my favorite scientist!!! She discovered what we now call the Auger effect (named after Pierre Auger, who discovered it a year after she did :/ ) which is when an inner shell electron is kicked out, and that energy is transferred to an outer electron which gets ejected, resulting in two electrons leaving. It's the basis for Auger Spectroscopy. Also, Lise Meitner was asked to be involved in the Manhattan project, but refused due to moral reasons
She was the one who first theorized that the effects they had seen in the lab was actually nucliar fission - had the idea while taking a walk on the beach in sweden. Communicated the idea back to her former collegues, who later published and got the credit.
How about a list about forgotten native American heroes. I'm not talking about sitting bull or Geronimo I'm talking about those who like doctors and scientists and the like.
If we talking underappreciated mathematicians then Emmy Noether is well worth mentioning. She had a huge impact on physics since Einstein used her work. And he did praise her for it.
Both fascinating women- would watch a biopic of either one in a heartbeat! I’ve always found Ada Lovelace fascinating though, especially with her aristocratic background & incredibly interesting parents. It’s a shame more people don’t know more about both women.
Yay, thank you! Also here's a little bonus fact: "factoid" originally meant an UNtrue statement that becomes accepted as true through repetition. We've had fierce debates in the office over whether we can use it the way you do here, to mean "a little fact." Clearly we're a lot of fun at parties...
@@MentalFloss Thank you!! I would love to be at that debate! I learn so much from these videos, and now I know I've been using that word wrong for the last two decades 😅
I feel like millennial's children will be the most informed people when they grow up. As a millennial, I wasn't taught many real life skills like taxes, how to budget, home mortgages, car insurances, hell my dad never taught me how to shave! As a father now, I have been and will continue teaching my son the aspects of life that he will inevitably find himself in.
That brings up an interesting question: how did you learn those skills? We thought about making a series covering all the stuff they ignored in school, along those lines.
@@MentalFloss man, it was a pain. I practically learned everything when I need to, day before kinda research. When getting my first car, I didn't realize it needed insurance before driving off the lot. Had to figure that out the hard way. The internet certainly wasn't what it was when I was younger but it helped. I went to the library to figure out how to file my taxes haha.
Considering what is going on today, I highly doubt that statement. If anything they will be mostly the opposite. Heavily misinformed, lacking any worth while skill (due the forced garbage some call as education). They'll probably scream about universal income just like some millenials do.
@@thedamnedatheist I wonder what teenager does. I happen to live in a country where you actually taught some of that stuff in school. Also live in a country where doing your taxes is as easy as checking a piece of paper then singing it off if everything looks correct. Would not have the slightest clue how to do taxes in USA. Now school did not prepare you for everything. But there was some basics. But I would say is also part of a parents job to teach your kids what they need to know. A parent can not just wait for a kid to get a interest in a subject. Sometimes they need to teach there kids stuff they might not find interesting or want to learn. That is simply a part of being a parent. On top of that when I meet people that lack life skills is often the case that they did not even know that it was a think to learn. Like the example of car insurgence. How would you learn that you needed to be allowed to drive your car if no one ever told you? It not a lack of interest. Just that you did not even know it was a think to know. (I am pretty sure where I live it would actually be part of the drivers licence education here that is quite extensive. Even includes car maintenance knowledge as obligatory part of the education. Though I do not own a car my self or have a licence so I can not say for sure. But I also know that in many countries there are a lot more lax about what you need to know to get a drivers licence.)
Franklin was only left out because she had died. Nobel prizes have never been awarded posthumously. If you do a part 2 to this, include Henry Cavendish, possibly one of the smartest people to ever live, extremely well known & respected in his day, but sadly forgotten now.
"Hutton is a household name today." I've lived in a number of households, but this is the first time I have ever heard his name. What households are you talking about? Are you jerking our chains?
@@artinteymourian8512 Artin, thank you! I listened again, and you're right! I can hear it now, and what I should've realized before is that "is a household name" wouldn't really make sense with the following "but ...". I will now go hang my head in shame.
Happy Birthday Dave! Your erudite sister might be well aware of the contributions of Ada Lovelace, who essentially invented computer programming, exploring software solutions for her boss, Charles Babbage, who in turn designed the first computer, way back in 1843. There was Milena Maric, Mrs Einstein, for a while, who probably helped Albert solidify his thinking on Special Relativity, and had been the only female physicist at his University. He gave her his Nobel Prize money. Then there's Amelia Earhart, famous for disappearing during an around-the-world flight back in 1937, but she invented one very interesting and often-used thing. She invented --the airport. When she was first flying, pilots had to wait for the right wind direction, like sailors waiting for the tide. Airfields were just that, one rectangular field that might or might not face the wind. Earhart's solution? Just like a train-line terminal with lines radiating in various directions, she proposed that a central air-terminal should be connected to various runways facing in several directions, to facilitate what she believed was the coming age of passenger air travel. Now every major city in the world has an airport. And let's not forget Professor Maria Mitchel, the first-ever-hired professor (of any gender) at Vasser College, pioneer of astrophysics, nor Scottish physicist Mary Somerville, who pioneered the electromagentic theory of light and also wrote Cambridge University's astronomy textbook, thrity-eight years before the University admitted women. She was, not coincidently, Ada Lovelace's math teacher!
You included Humboldt but not Ada Lovelace??? Telling a German Alexander Humboldt is "overlooked" will get you the same reaction I'd expect from a US citizen telling him Alexander Hamilton is "overlooked" Humboldt is namesake for: cities, counties, glaciers, mountains and other landmarks (on earth and the moon), national parks, universities and schools (one of Germany's top universities, Berlin), several species of plants and animals (including but not limited to the Humboldt Squid and the Humboldt Penguin)
I like the book reading fact about millennials that indicate people of this age are more likely to read printed books and visit the library. I attribute those scholastic book fairs which were popularized while I was in school. That and Harry Potter.
Those of us who live in the District of Colombia are very familiar with two of the people on your list: Charles Drew and Benjamin Banneker. - - - Drew's daughter, Charlene Drew Jarvis, was a long-time member of the City Council and once ran for mayor. I remember thinking how dense I was not to have recognized the relationship in spite of her middle name. - - - Banneker is honored alongside L'Enfant as a creator of the original city plan. A thoroughfare known as L'Enfant Plaza SW loops around Banneker Circle near its southern end.
another overlooked scientist you may find interesting, and sort of related to James Hutton, or rather, his ideas. In the early 20th century, J Harlen Bretz studied Eastern Washington's geography and realized that the channeled scablands, when viewed from above, sort of looked like when you let water run through dirt. He discovered this by spending years taking forays into the scablands and mapping the terrain. He came up with the theory that perhaps a massive flood, or floods, washed through the land and carved it out. He gathered evidence and presented the theory, but was laughed out by other geologists. After all, everyone knew landscapes were formed gradually. Were they all just supposed to go back to the days of Catastrophism? I can't remember exactly how his story ends, how geologists came around to his ideas, but today those floods are generally known as the Missoula floods and sometimes the Bretz floods, and it's generally accepted that while landscapes usually form gradually, sometimes there are catastrophic events that formed those landscapes
You started with one of my scientific heroes! Alfred Russell Wallace also nearly discovered plate tectonics: he noticed the change in flora and fauna between two islands north of Australia, despite being (IIRC) 15 miles apart. There's a deep trench between them, on the west of which are only found in SE Asia, and on the east they're Australian. He was convinced that there was some mechanism which had caused this, but never took that final step. Btw, he had horrible luck as a collector of flora & fauna (his only real job). Check out his return from the Amazon and get left wondering why he continued! He also proved the idiot "Parallax" wrong. Parallax had measured some flat ground (the Bedford Levels) in the east of England and declared that he should have seen a lowering of the last pole if the world was round. He'd lined up a number of poles a certain distance from each other and set them at a given height, and could see all of the markers on them. Wallace realized that a) Parallax was a moron, b) he'd used poles which were too short and c) he hadn't taken into consideration the effect of temperature on vision over a distance (think mirage - I'm not going to write the full explanation here!). Wallace redid the experiment with poles more appropriately sized, so that the line he'd be measuring was _above_ the level of the temperature problem and got precisely the right amount of 'dip' at the end of the line. It more or less ended the flat earth lunacy until fairly recently (there have been ironic/joking uses of the term, even the founding of a very tongue-in-cheek Flat Earth Society, but unfortunately, today's idiots don't get the joke.) Not only did Wallace do this, he even wrote to Percival Lowell (Lowell was so obsessed he ignored the letter), *and* wrote a book called _Is Mars Habitable,_ in which he explained, amongst other things, that Mars was too cold, the atmosphere was too thin, liquid water couldn't exist on the surface, etc, etc, etc, in *1907!* Long before any of these facts could be proven without doubt. He was right. (Even in the 1950s, there were still people who believed that the dark patches they could see through their telescopes were covered with plant life. I'm talking about professionals, btw.) Not bad for a bloke whose dad died when he was young, leaving his family near enough destitute, and he had to leave school at 14. So no higher education at all, yet he was well-respected by many scientists of his time. Whereas I agree that many of the scientists you discussed don't have public recognition, I think you underestimated the recognition of some of them. I'm not a scientist, I didn't do any science after I turned 14 at school until I was in my 40s and a mature student, and then it was basically a bit of maths and planetary science, yet I knew at least half (I know, half a person can't really exist, but you know what I mean) of the names you mentioned. It could just be because I love science documentaries, but I'm sure many more people know about at least 3-4 minimum on this list. I'm *not* saying that this list wasn't a good thing, btw, it was v interesting. It's just that I can think of a bunch of others who are probably even more overlooked, so a follow-up would be good. I'm sure you can find a list of even more "forgotten" scientists, engineers, mathematicians and so on who were never really known by the public even during their lifetimes, and I look forward to watching it.
While not-so-well-known in society abroad, Fresnel's name is familiar to everyone in the Theatre Community. Fresnel lensed lighting is very common in theatres. In stagecraft, every student will learn the name when learning about lighting and creating a design for ensuring coverage and focus on any part or along the breadth of the stage.
Yes! As a recovering theater kid, I immediately recognized fresnel lenses from lighting (they are sometimes used in film lighting, as well). But I never actually thought about where the name came from, and wasn't aware of all the other applications of the technology.
Maybe you should do a video on the jerks who claimed credit for the work of others. Can't believe how many times this happened in the video. Thanks for setting the record straight on these.
"Alexander von Humboldt is considered by some to be the last universal scientist. The trips of exploration and the scientific studies of the German naturalist were so extensive and of so much reach that today they bear his name multitude of geographical accidents ..." "After a quiet trip, on July 16 they landed in Cumana, in Venezuela, where they were fascinated by the rainforest. During the first three days "we ran like crazy from here to there, without being able to make clear observations because when we took some rare specimen we left it when we saw that there was another even more curious next to it." From National Geographic History"
A "global scientific celebrity" with a "best-selling book" who was "honored everywhere he went." "Plants, animals, geographical landmarks, cultural institutions and even asteroids were named after him." Isn't this the exact OPPOSITE of an "overlooked scientist"? I suspect Mental Floss stuck this in here so that chumps like me would comment on it. A cheap way to get more action in the comments. And it worked.
Ah, I actually first heard about Alfred Russel Wallace from Charles Darwin (Darwin references some of Wallace's work in _On the Origin of Species,_ which I decided to read back in high school. Which, by the way, is not a bad read, as science books go). Unlike some other famous scientists, *cough cough Newton* Darwin seems to have been fine with sharing credit. So that's nice.
Alexander von Humboldt is all but forgotten in his home country Germany. Just because somebody isn't known or popular in the US, doesn't mean they're overlooked or generally not known.
How is Humboldt forgotten? We have a university named after him, there have been recent bestsellers about his life, Humboldt is very well known in Germany.
I don't know if it would count as a fact about millennials but the the time a man threatened to sue a magazine for using his picture to show a generic hipster, but it turned out he had misidentified the picture as himself is a pretty great tidbit in my opinion
Alfred Russell Wallace referred to natural selection as "Darwinism" (he published a book of the same name!). As time went by, Wallace's ideas became quite irrational. Darwin disagrees with Wallace in parts of Descent of Man due to Wallace's teleological views.
(Slightly past) middle aged white guy here. I got to number 7 before posting this. I'm seeing a trend of women being the unknown scientists here. And we wonder why we are struggling to get young girls interested in science. If they could see all of these women who did so much, maybe they'd be more interested. It's always inspiring when you can see someone like you having done something before you. It lets you know that you can do it, too. Then again, if they saw all these women getting screwed over and forgotten, maybe they'd be like, why bother. Things have to change.
It's not surprising that many individuals contributions and pioneering work was usurped by their peers who claimed all for themselves because of their egos. It's even less surprising that men took credit that rightly should have gone to a woman. I believe that if this hadn't happened and these women had been given the credit and awards they deserved, it would have forced the notion that women were incapable of serious thought a lot earlier.
Re: millennials, many are into the ReWilding Movement, which belies a lot of unfair stereotypes. There are so many unfair stereotypes and insulting generalities about Millennials.
Because the white male ones don't tend to get overlooked, and tended to steal the credit from the minorities and women, then shove them aside for their own aggrandizement?
You keep telling us that you are whatever editor and i don't care what. Does that make you feel better? Is it that important to who you are? Please stop it!
Lise Meitner is my favorite scientist!!! She discovered what we now call the Auger effect (named after Pierre Auger, who discovered it a year after she did :/ ) which is when an inner shell electron is kicked out, and that energy is transferred to an outer electron which gets ejected, resulting in two electrons leaving. It's the basis for Auger Spectroscopy.
Also, Lise Meitner was asked to be involved in the Manhattan project, but refused due to moral reasons
She was the one who first theorized that the effects they had seen in the lab was actually nucliar fission - had the idea while taking a walk on the beach in sweden. Communicated the idea back to her former collegues, who later published and got the credit.
@@idnwiw She was discussing the problems with her nephew on that beach. He was also a physicist, but he gets even fewer mentions!
How about a list about forgotten native American heroes.
I'm not talking about sitting bull or Geronimo I'm talking about those who like doctors and scientists and the like.
Like the windtalkers in WW2. Genius!
I'm so curious about Mary Golda Ross's CLASSIFIED research now
Technically she’s more of a mathematician, but Ada Lovelace is another fascinating unsung hero.
If Babbage can be said to be the father of computers then Lovelace is the mother of programming. Surprised she didn't make the list
If we talking underappreciated mathematicians then Emmy Noether is well worth mentioning. She had a huge impact on physics since Einstein used her work. And he did praise her for it.
Both fascinating women- would watch a biopic of either one in a heartbeat! I’ve always found Ada Lovelace fascinating though, especially with her aristocratic background & incredibly interesting parents. It’s a shame more people don’t know more about both women.
Happy birthday Dave! I don't have any factoids about millennials, but I absolutely love these list shows!! Thank you!!
~Cheers!
Yay, thank you! Also here's a little bonus fact: "factoid" originally meant an UNtrue statement that becomes accepted as true through repetition. We've had fierce debates in the office over whether we can use it the way you do here, to mean "a little fact." Clearly we're a lot of fun at parties...
@@MentalFloss Thank you!! I would love to be at that debate! I learn so much from these videos, and now I know I've been using that word wrong for the last two decades 😅
I feel like millennial's children will be the most informed people when they grow up.
As a millennial, I wasn't taught many real life skills like taxes, how to budget, home mortgages, car insurances, hell my dad never taught me how to shave!
As a father now, I have been and will continue teaching my son the aspects of life that he will inevitably find himself in.
That brings up an interesting question: how did you learn those skills?
We thought about making a series covering all the stuff they ignored in school, along those lines.
@@MentalFloss man, it was a pain. I practically learned everything when I need to, day before kinda research.
When getting my first car, I didn't realize it needed insurance before driving off the lot. Had to figure that out the hard way.
The internet certainly wasn't what it was when I was younger but it helped.
I went to the library to figure out how to file my taxes haha.
Considering what is going on today, I highly doubt that statement. If anything they will be mostly the opposite. Heavily misinformed, lacking any worth while skill (due the forced garbage some call as education). They'll probably scream about universal income just like some millenials do.
Did you ever ask your parents to teach you any of those things? Did you even have the slightest interest in taxes or mortgages as a teenager?
@@thedamnedatheist I wonder what teenager does. I happen to live in a country where you actually taught some of that stuff in school. Also live in a country where doing your taxes is as easy as checking a piece of paper then singing it off if everything looks correct. Would not have the slightest clue how to do taxes in USA. Now school did not prepare you for everything. But there was some basics.
But I would say is also part of a parents job to teach your kids what they need to know. A parent can not just wait for a kid to get a interest in a subject. Sometimes they need to teach there kids stuff they might not find interesting or want to learn. That is simply a part of being a parent.
On top of that when I meet people that lack life skills is often the case that they did not even know that it was a think to learn. Like the example of car insurgence. How would you learn that you needed to be allowed to drive your car if no one ever told you? It not a lack of interest. Just that you did not even know it was a think to know.
(I am pretty sure where I live it would actually be part of the drivers licence education here that is quite extensive. Even includes car maintenance knowledge as obligatory part of the education. Though I do not own a car my self or have a licence so I can not say for sure. But I also know that in many countries there are a lot more lax about what you need to know to get a drivers licence.)
Franklin was only left out because she had died. Nobel prizes have never been awarded posthumously. If you do a part 2 to this, include Henry Cavendish, possibly one of the smartest people to ever live, extremely well known & respected in his day, but sadly forgotten now.
Amazing episode!
I always go to mental floss for the best facts!
"Hutton is a household name today."
I've lived in a number of households, but this is the first time I have ever heard his name.
What households are you talking about?
Are you jerking our chains?
No idea, never heard of the guy either.
I think you may have misheard, she said "Hutton isn't a household name"
@@artinteymourian8512 Artin, thank you!
I listened again, and you're right! I can hear it now, and what I should've realized before is that "is a household name" wouldn't really make sense with the following "but ...".
I will now go hang my head in shame.
How can you call Beaufort forgotten? His scale is mentioned in every single weather forecast or report.
Happy Birthday Dave! Your erudite sister might be well aware of the contributions of Ada Lovelace, who essentially invented computer programming, exploring software solutions for her boss, Charles Babbage, who in turn designed the first computer, way back in 1843. There was Milena Maric, Mrs Einstein, for a while, who probably helped Albert solidify his thinking on Special Relativity, and had been the only female physicist at his University. He gave her his Nobel Prize money. Then there's Amelia Earhart, famous for disappearing during an around-the-world flight back in 1937, but she invented one very interesting and often-used thing. She invented --the airport. When she was first flying, pilots had to wait for the right wind direction, like sailors waiting for the tide. Airfields were just that, one rectangular field that might or might not face the wind. Earhart's solution? Just like a train-line terminal with lines radiating in various directions, she proposed that a central air-terminal should be connected to various runways facing in several directions, to facilitate what she believed was the coming age of passenger air travel. Now every major city in the world has an airport. And let's not forget Professor Maria Mitchel, the first-ever-hired professor (of any gender) at Vasser College, pioneer of astrophysics, nor Scottish physicist Mary Somerville, who pioneered the electromagentic theory of light and also wrote Cambridge University's astronomy textbook, thrity-eight years before the University admitted women. She was, not coincidently, Ada Lovelace's math teacher!
Well of course~!
Happy birthday to Dave!
You included Humboldt but not Ada Lovelace??? Telling a German Alexander Humboldt is "overlooked" will get you the same reaction I'd expect from a US citizen telling him Alexander Hamilton is "overlooked"
Humboldt is namesake for: cities, counties, glaciers, mountains and other landmarks (on earth and the moon), national parks, universities and schools (one of Germany's top universities, Berlin), several species of plants and animals (including but not limited to the Humboldt Squid and the Humboldt Penguin)
Alexander Hamilton is pretty overlooked actually. That is why they made the musical. Maybe a better comparison would be George Washington
I like the book reading fact about millennials that indicate people of this age are more likely to read printed books and visit the library. I attribute those scholastic book fairs which were popularized while I was in school. That and Harry Potter.
There's probably a list of "Millennial characteristics that can be attributed to the Harry Potter novels."
@@MentalFloss True. Owl sales have probably skyrocketed.
Happy birthday Dave! 🎉
*#1 Overlooked scientist :*
Dr. Funkenstein 😎
*The More You Know🌈🌟*
*"NUFF SAID"*
Those of us who live in the District of Colombia are very familiar with two of the people on your list: Charles Drew and Benjamin Banneker.
- - - Drew's daughter, Charlene Drew Jarvis, was a long-time member of the City Council and once ran for mayor. I remember thinking how dense I was not to have recognized the relationship in spite of her middle name.
- - - Banneker is honored alongside L'Enfant as a creator of the original city plan. A thoroughfare known as L'Enfant Plaza SW loops around Banneker Circle near its southern end.
another overlooked scientist you may find interesting, and sort of related to James Hutton, or rather, his ideas. In the early 20th century, J Harlen Bretz studied Eastern Washington's geography and realized that the channeled scablands, when viewed from above, sort of looked like when you let water run through dirt. He discovered this by spending years taking forays into the scablands and mapping the terrain. He came up with the theory that perhaps a massive flood, or floods, washed through the land and carved it out. He gathered evidence and presented the theory, but was laughed out by other geologists. After all, everyone knew landscapes were formed gradually. Were they all just supposed to go back to the days of Catastrophism?
I can't remember exactly how his story ends, how geologists came around to his ideas, but today those floods are generally known as the Missoula floods and sometimes the Bretz floods, and it's generally accepted that while landscapes usually form gradually, sometimes there are catastrophic events that formed those landscapes
You started with one of my scientific heroes!
Alfred Russell Wallace also nearly discovered plate tectonics: he noticed the change in flora and fauna between two islands north of Australia, despite being (IIRC) 15 miles apart. There's a deep trench between them, on the west of which are only found in SE Asia, and on the east they're Australian. He was convinced that there was some mechanism which had caused this, but never took that final step. Btw, he had horrible luck as a collector of flora & fauna (his only real job). Check out his return from the Amazon and get left wondering why he continued!
He also proved the idiot "Parallax" wrong. Parallax had measured some flat ground (the Bedford Levels) in the east of England and declared that he should have seen a lowering of the last pole if the world was round. He'd lined up a number of poles a certain distance from each other and set them at a given height, and could see all of the markers on them.
Wallace realized that a) Parallax was a moron, b) he'd used poles which were too short and c) he hadn't taken into consideration the effect of temperature on vision over a distance (think mirage - I'm not going to write the full explanation here!). Wallace redid the experiment with poles more appropriately sized, so that the line he'd be measuring was _above_ the level of the temperature problem and got precisely the right amount of 'dip' at the end of the line.
It more or less ended the flat earth lunacy until fairly recently (there have been ironic/joking uses of the term, even the founding of a very tongue-in-cheek Flat Earth Society, but unfortunately, today's idiots don't get the joke.)
Not only did Wallace do this, he even wrote to Percival Lowell (Lowell was so obsessed he ignored the letter), *and* wrote a book called _Is Mars Habitable,_ in which he explained, amongst other things, that Mars was too cold, the atmosphere was too thin, liquid water couldn't exist on the surface, etc, etc, etc, in *1907!* Long before any of these facts could be proven without doubt. He was right. (Even in the 1950s, there were still people who believed that the dark patches they could see through their telescopes were covered with plant life. I'm talking about professionals, btw.)
Not bad for a bloke whose dad died when he was young, leaving his family near enough destitute, and he had to leave school at 14. So no higher education at all, yet he was well-respected by many scientists of his time.
Whereas I agree that many of the scientists you discussed don't have public recognition, I think you underestimated the recognition of some of them. I'm not a scientist, I didn't do any science after I turned 14 at school until I was in my 40s and a mature student, and then it was basically a bit of maths and planetary science, yet I knew at least half (I know, half a person can't really exist, but you know what I mean) of the names you mentioned. It could just be because I love science documentaries, but I'm sure many more people know about at least 3-4 minimum on this list. I'm *not* saying that this list wasn't a good thing, btw, it was v interesting. It's just that I can think of a bunch of others who are probably even more overlooked, so a follow-up would be good. I'm sure you can find a list of even more "forgotten" scientists, engineers, mathematicians and so on who were never really known by the public even during their lifetimes, and I look forward to watching it.
James Hutton's theory of the gradual evolution of earth's crust is usually cited in geology texts as "uniformitarianism" rather than "gradualism."
While not-so-well-known in society abroad, Fresnel's name is familiar to everyone in the Theatre Community. Fresnel lensed lighting is very common in theatres. In stagecraft, every student will learn the name when learning about lighting and creating a design for ensuring coverage and focus on any part or along the breadth of the stage.
Yes! As a recovering theater kid, I immediately recognized fresnel lenses from lighting (they are sometimes used in film lighting, as well). But I never actually thought about where the name came from, and wasn't aware of all the other applications of the technology.
Happy birthday Dave.
I would love to see you guys do a treatment of Anna Sofaer and her work in Chaco Canyon and environs.
Alexander Von Humboldt is a bit of a national hero in México
Really? How so?
Same in Germany.
Humboldt actually did a lot more than just science, he also pioneered public education in Germany as well as Liberalism. Pretty cool guy.
Careful interchanging “theory” with “hypothesis”...they’re not the same thing!
Legit question: what is the difference?
Candyland, check out ua-cam.com/video/lqk3TKuGNBA/v-deo.html
Maybe you should do a video on the jerks who claimed credit for the work of others. Can't believe how many times this happened in the video. Thanks for setting the record straight on these.
Charles Henry Turner
Learned about him thnx to my little brother history fair project.
You overlooked Ceclia Payne-Gaposchkin...
Happy birthday, Dave!
Pretty much all of these concepts went right over my head. I never was good at science.
Anyway, happy belated birthday, Dave
Happy birthday Dave
Happy Birthday, Dave!
"Alexander von Humboldt is considered by some to be the last universal scientist. The trips of exploration and the scientific studies of the German naturalist were so extensive and of so much reach that today they bear his name multitude of geographical accidents ..."
"After a quiet trip, on July 16 they landed in Cumana, in Venezuela, where they were fascinated by the rainforest. During the first three days "we ran like crazy from here to there, without being able to make clear observations because when we took some rare specimen we left it when we saw that there was another even more curious next to it." From National Geographic History"
A "global scientific celebrity" with a "best-selling book" who was "honored everywhere he went." "Plants, animals, geographical landmarks, cultural institutions and even asteroids were named after him."
Isn't this the exact OPPOSITE of an "overlooked scientist"?
I suspect Mental Floss stuck this in here so that chumps like me would comment on it. A cheap way to get more action in the comments.
And it worked.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVE!!!😁
Yay!! 🎉🎉
Clara Immerwahr and Carlos Finlay are two of my favorite overlooked scientist
Oo, two more I haven't heard of. More research to do!
Lise Meitner also has an element named after her (element 109, Meitnerium)
Oo maybe a list on the stories behind each of the human beings who lent their name to an element!
I'm an ecologist. Wallace is well talked about in our field, alongside Darwin. At least when learning evolution.
Interesting video. Yes, I knew the scientists and you left some out.
Yay! Hope I helped :)
One slight inaccuracy. The Beaufort scale doesn't run from 0 to 12. It actually runs from 0 to oh god, oh god, oh god
Your intros are all Eurocentric, except for the tsunami wave on this channel. The other shows have the same problem. Can you update?
Ah, I actually first heard about Alfred Russel Wallace from Charles Darwin (Darwin references some of Wallace's work in _On the Origin of Species,_ which I decided to read back in high school. Which, by the way, is not a bad read, as science books go). Unlike some other famous scientists, *cough cough Newton* Darwin seems to have been fine with sharing credit. So that's nice.
Alexander von Humboldt is all but forgotten in his home country Germany. Just because somebody isn't known or popular in the US, doesn't mean they're overlooked or generally not known.
How is Humboldt forgotten? We have a university named after him, there have been recent bestsellers about his life, Humboldt is very well known in Germany.
@@TheChemicalMuffin That is what I meant with using the phrase "all but" to emphasize how famous he still is in Germany
I teach my second graders in Colorado about Mary Anning!
Can't help but noticed that there's a lot of women...
You wouldn't be noting if there was a lack of women in this list. Get over yourself.
Happy Birthday Davilas
Careful Erin, you almost said, "and finally we return to the salon" Ha Ha.
Hahahahahahaha!
I don't know if it would count as a fact about millennials but the the time a man threatened to sue a magazine for using his picture to show a generic hipster, but it turned out he had misidentified the picture as himself is a pretty great tidbit in my opinion
Alfred Russell Wallace referred to natural selection as "Darwinism" (he published a book of the same name!). As time went by, Wallace's ideas became quite irrational. Darwin disagrees with Wallace in parts of Descent of Man due to Wallace's teleological views.
(Slightly past) middle aged white guy here. I got to number 7 before posting this. I'm seeing a trend of women being the unknown scientists here. And we wonder why we are struggling to get young girls interested in science. If they could see all of these women who did so much, maybe they'd be more interested. It's always inspiring when you can see someone like you having done something before you. It lets you know that you can do it, too. Then again, if they saw all these women getting screwed over and forgotten, maybe they'd be like, why bother. Things have to change.
good episode....i also have a Sawyers viewmaster like yours..:D
Thanks! And
@@MentalFloss yes...i've got an old Popeye one that came with it...:D
@@gregmiller9710 Jealous! ;-)
@@MentalFloss ^^
My fave millennial fact: Hank Green (yes THAT Hank) is a millennial. While John is Gen X
6:33 If you upload it on April 1st, both would be true
Wallace didn’t think evolution applied to human brains.
another overlooked scientist: Georges Lemaître
Yes! Adding him to the list for next time.
What about Norman Borlaug?
Check out Ian Clark who studies CO2 in the atmosphere. Promise it'll be interesting.
Where did John Green go?
He left a while back to pursue other projects
My partner and I were born in the overlap years of millennials and Gen Z. We claim Genz.
Ha! Nice. Much better than MillennialZ.
James Clerk Maxwell
I knew quite a few of these.
me before watching: Nobel price for Peace and Economics are a joke
me after watching: All Nobel prices are jokes
It's not surprising that many individuals contributions and pioneering work was usurped by their peers who claimed all for themselves because of their egos.
It's even less surprising that men took credit that rightly should have gone to a woman. I believe that if this hadn't happened and these women had been given the credit and awards they deserved, it would have forced the notion that women were incapable of serious thought a lot earlier.
Re: millennials, many are into the ReWilding Movement, which belies a lot of unfair stereotypes. There are so many unfair stereotypes and insulting generalities about Millennials.
This video should have been called "Women Shafted by Male Colleages in Science"
I don't watch since Green gone 😭
Favourite fact about millennials? That there not a uniformed group.
You didn't mention Robert Hooke. My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined.
I think it's interesting that the Russian Communists put a woman in space over 20 years before we did.
BRING BACK JOHN GREEN, MENTAL FLOSS!!!!!
Yelling will definitely get results.
Bello
Man... you got a lot of women and minorities on that list... I wonder why.
Because the white male ones don't tend to get overlooked, and tended to steal the credit from the minorities and women, then shove them aside for their own aggrandizement?
@@ms_scribbles Whaaaaaaaat? That never happens! 😏
boo hoo BE THE CHANGE
You wouldn't be noting if there was a lack of women or lack of minorities in this list. Get over yourself.
ROSALIND FRANKLIN. MA GIRL
You keep telling us that you are whatever editor and i don't care what. Does that make you feel better? Is it that important to who you are? Please stop it!
So woman being snubbed
That poorly scrambled Rubik's cube is an eyesore. Sorry.
Is this some kind of woke... feminist pro minor video?
Ivan Ivanov Ivan, you’re an idiot
You wouldn't be noting if there was a lack of women in this list. Get over yourself.
@@happyfacefries Well all would be nothing if there was a lack of women or men in everything, science doesn't have a gender or race.
Happy Birthday Dave!
Happy birthday Dave!
Happy Birthday Dave. 🥳
Happy birthday Dave!!
Happy birthday Dave!