I was reading a post about unique things you wouldn’t want, such as a nasty medical condition named after you.

That got me thinking.

What is the most unique thing.

Being the tallest person doesn’t count, because there is always a tallest person…

I thought maybe units of measure, there are not really that many units named after people. Newton, Pascal, ampere etc… Turns out there are quite a few.

Next thought was atomic elements, there are 19 named after 20 people. That is fairly unique 20 people out of the ~110 billion to have ever lived, have an element named after them.

    • absGeekNZ@lemmy.nzOPEnglish
      2·
      3 months ago

      I wonder how much is embellishment over the years.

      If you sawed off your assistants fingers (hard to do with a hand saw); good chance they would also catch gangrene. Far more likely is that at the first sign of a saw hitting your finger, you move it out of the way.

      The third person “died of fright”, could have been heart attack. So definitely plausible.

      • lightnsfw@reddthat.com
        2·
        3 months ago

        Surgeons back then were basically professional limb amputaters. Note that he went through a whole leg in 2.5 minutes. He would have blown through some fingers in no time.

        • TheFriar@lemm.ee
          2·
          3 months ago

          These surgeons were moving fast, I can see it

          Everybody was limb-fu cutting (hiya!)

          Those cats were fast as lightning (hiya!)

    • very_well_lost@lemmy.worldEnglish
      7·
      3 months ago

      Environmental historian J. R. McNeill opined that Midgley “had more adverse impact on the atmosphere than any other single organism in Earth’s history”

      Ouch.

      • Subtracty@lemmy.world
        1·
        3 months ago

        I have often thought about who the person with the worst carbon footprint would be if you accounted for factors like inventions/policies/war etc. This answers my question, unless there are even worse contributors.

        • very_well_lost@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          3 months ago

          I don’t think Midgley really did anything to increase the amount of carbon in the atmosphere — just the amount of lead and CFCs.

          • Subtracty@lemmy.world
            2·
            3 months ago

            I was wrong to say carbon footprint, I suppose I’m curious about who has contributed the most to polluting the environment and damaging our climate.

    • absGeekNZ@lemmy.nzOPEnglish
      3·
      3 months ago

      I love the Smoot; but for weird units of measure… gestures vaguely in the direction of North America

      • Cheradenine@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        3·
        3 months ago

        Off the top of my head though I can’t think of any that are based on a persons name. Rod, Chain, Peck, Hogshead etc.

  • Tiefling IRL
    4·
    3 months ago

    There’s a whole series of books about this lol

    (Referring to Guinness)

    • absGeekNZ@lemmy.nzOPEnglish
      1·
      3 months ago

      True.

      I haven’t looked at one since I was a kid.

      I know they do, tallest/fastest/biggest etc… But they are all things that always exist.

      E.g. the biggest pizza in the world, well before that there was also a biggest pizza it was just smaller than the current one, and before that etc…

      I guess anything with a single record, not just the latest in a long string should count.

    • dylanmorgan@slrpnk.net
      3·
      3 months ago

      Gary Larson has several species of animals named after him. He also named the spiked part of a stegosaurus tail in a comic (the thagomizer, “after the late Thag Simmons”) and had that name adopted as the official name by paleontologists.

      • absGeekNZ@lemmy.nzOPEnglish
        1·
        3 months ago

        I loved that story; in my imagination paleontologist 1 (P1) sees the cartoon and wonders what the official name is. Gets to work and asks old and wise paleontologist 2 (P2) what the official name is.

        P2: I don’t know. I’ll have to ask my venerable colleague (P3) about it next time we are together.
        P1: ok cool, I’ll just use “Thagomizer” until we find out the official name.
        P2: seems reasonable.
        a few months pass…
        P2: hey P3 what is the official name of the Thagomizer?
        P3: um, I have no idea. I should know, I’m a steggy expert, how about we just keep it as Thagomizer!

      • ch00f@lemmy.world
        3·
        3 months ago

        Ah, I remember finding it on stumbleupon like 20 years ago. I always thought it odd that there was no video or follow up story.

        Hunted for a link at 1am last night and wasn’t really paying attention. Plus the whole thing grossed me out, so I didn’t look too closely.

        Sorry for wasting everyone’s time.

  • 10_0@lemmy.ml
    2·
    3 months ago

    Being a complex oragism is pretty special, to think that so many potential civilizations have met Great Filters and not survived enough to grow past having a large body, let alone the challenge of climate change is telling of the unique phase we find ourselves in.