Geniuses are those individuals that the world is always in awe of, they are the ones that think out of the box and change the world for the better. They think of the unbelievable to do what is always deemed as improbable.
Such men are always revered, and history remembers them for their contribution. Sadly, though that’s not always the case with all such great minds, some, unfortunately, get lost in obscurity, and their achievements that shape our better future are undervalued.
You would be surprised to read many of the names mentioned in our list and the contribution they made.
#1. Ignaz Semmelweis
Hygiene is an important issue and should not be taken lightly. It becomes all the more crucial if you are a surgeon that is about to perform surgery. Though the case was different in the 1800s and surgeons didn’t feel that lack of hygiene can affect the health of a patient. It was only when Hungarian physician Ignaz Semmelweis discovered in 1847 while working in a maternity department that females had more chances of surviving childbirth when surgeons washed their hands before delivery. Ignaz Semmelweis was scorned for his discovery and spent his last days in an asylum.
(Image Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons)
#2. Mary Anning
Our understanding of the Jurassic period has a lot to do with this woman and her love for paleontology which had her braving deadly landslide to go fossil hunting. She dug out evidence from the ground and studied them but the male scientists of the 19th century were misogynist, to say the least. They took all the credit for her work and far from accolades; she didn’t even get a mention for her work.
(Image Courtesy: JSDOR Daily)
#3. Frank Kafka
Today he is considered to be one of the greatest writers, but in his own life, Kafka was nobody. He was just an insane man roaming the streets of Prague. Kafka had burned most of his work, and if his friend Max Brod had respected his dying request of burning away whatever was left, we would have nothing left of his great work.
(Image Courtesy: Wikipedia)
#4. Alan Turing
Perhaps one of the saddest tales of a genius is that of Alan Turing. The man was blessed with one of a unique mind ever. He was polymath genius, who founded computer science and was apt at formal logic, mathematics, cryptography, and morphology. He was a world-class marathon runner and famously broke the Nazi Enigma code during WWII. He is also termed as the visionary father of artificial intelligence. Despite all these great achievements, Turing was arrested, humiliated and made to undergo chemical castration, all because he was gay which was illegal in Britain. Alan was tired of all the humiliation that he was made to suffer, took his own life by eating a cyanide-laced apple in 1954.
(Image Courtesy: Wikipedia)
#5. Rosalind Franklin
Apparently, misogyny has pushed a lot of females geniuses into obscurity and Rosalind is one of them. She had through her hard work and talent landed a prestigious research position at King's College in 1951. It is there that she did her research on the structure of DNA, her male colleague Maurice Wilkins though found her inferior solely based on her gender and stole away her work, giving it away to her competitor James Watson. The duo Francis Crick and James Watson got all the recognition whereas Rosalind died of ovarian cancer before she could fight for justice.
((Image Courtesy: Wikipedia)
Are there more such geniuses that you feel should have made our list, then feel free to share your opinions using the comment box given below. We look forward to your comments.
Share
