1 mo. ago • 87%

What is the most unique thing a person has done or is?

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.

49 comments

Saving the world from nuclear war is a good unique one:

Vasili Arkhipov

30
- It happened twice!
  
  Stanislav Petrov
  
  14
  
  These are great examples.
  
  I knew about Petrov. Great humans both of them!
  
  1
- Having a species named after you, even if you're a fictional character
  
  Testudo Aubreii
  
  1
Robert Liston performed a single surgery with a 300% mortality rate (probably).

23
- 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.
  
  2
  
  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.
  
  2
  
  These surgeons were moving fast, I can see it.
  
  I was sawing wood one night and barely touched my thumb webbing, split open like a mouth. Bet you could take 3 fingers an single forward and back stroke. You can for sure with modern blades.
  
  (If anyone is considering a new saw, get the kind with this sort of edge: https://www.amazon.com/REXBETI-Folding-Camping-Pruning-Quality/dp/B07BLQBN8X/ Those are modern day light sabers.)
  
  2
Thomas Midgley Jr. Invented putting lead in fuel and using CFCs for refrigeration. He died when he was strangulated by the machine he invented to help him get out of bed.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Midgley_Jr.

19
- 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.
  
  8
  
  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.
  
  1
Born under a bad sign? This guy is the only officially recognized person to have survived two nuclear bomb detonations.

https://www.damninteresting.com/eyewitnesses-to-hiroshima-and-nagasaki/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsutomu_Yamaguchi

18
- Dang, that's unlucky
  
  3
- I remember reading about that guy a few years ago....unlucky / super lucky.
  
  2
Most isolated person https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Worden

11
For length there is a Smoot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoot

Edit: it's 1.702 metres/ 5'7"

9
- I love the Smoot; but for weird units of measure.... gestures vaguely in the direction of North America
  
  3
  
  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.
  
  3
atomic elements, there are 19 named after 20 people.

What do you mean? There's one named after two persons?

8
- Curium is named after both Pierre and Marie Curie
  
  20
  
  Curieous!
  
  15
  
  Maria Skłodowska-Curie <angry Polish noises>
  
  jk btw
  
  3
- Curium is named for Marie and Pierre Curie.
  
  3
Ad hoc weapons (Vjatsjeslav Mikhajlovitsj Molotov)?

6
Probably played some golf on the moon.

6
There's a whole series of books about this lol

(Referring to Guinness)

4
- 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.
  
  1
Having a species named after you, even if you're a fictional character

Testudo Aubreii

4
- 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.
  
  3
  
  Absolutely fantastic people still know this and share it.
  
  2
  
  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!
  
  1
Being the first to do x, first man on the moon for example. Or be the 28th president

3
- The first person to be the 28th President
  
  8
  
  He was number 1!
  
  4
- While true, I don't think it counts.
  
  There are a huge number of firsts, that have subsequently had a lot of people do that thing.
  
  However only 12 people have walked on the moon. So more unique than the elements.
  
  3
  
  We're about to see the three people who have gone the furthest from earth ever
  
  1
- be the 28th president
  
  César Gaviria or Salvador Allende?
  
  1
~~How about these two? (Tw: extreme body mods) https://news.bme.com/2013/03/06/adding-and-subtracting/~~

-2
- It says at the end that is an Aprils fool?
  
  6
  
  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.
  
  3
  
  .. To which i fell victim. Thanks to the commenter before you for wasting time. And thanks to the world being weird enough to make me believe this without hesitation.
  
  2
Permanently Deleted

-3
- You dont know any of this.
  
  10
- [citation needed]
  
  4
  
  Permanently Deleted
  
  -1

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