3 ms·
We aren't talking about the users of this board, we are talking about the average American who went through the public education system. 99.9% of them have hear
by jganetsk 18y ago
We aren't talking about the users of this board, we are talking about the average American who went through the public education system. 99.9% of them have heard of George Washington Carver, but not of Onsager and Landau.
- hugh 18y agoOh, I interpreted "almost no one reading this knows..." as referring to the users of this board.
- mhartl 18y agoYour original interpretation was right. Perhaps I underestimated the number of physicists hanging out here. (I hope so! It would be cool to think people here know who these guys are.) In any case, the original point remains: even on Hacker News, Marie Curie is far better-known than Lev Landau, and it's not because she was the greater scientist.
- AndyKelley 18y agoI am not a physicist, and I have not heard of either of those guys, but I've heard of Curie and Carver.
- daniel_yokomizo 18y agoI have a Landau book in my hands right now ;)