As part of this, I've been researching scientists. Today, I discovered that astronomer Tycho Brahe lost part of his nose in a dueling accident when he was twenty, and wore a false nose of gold and silver for the rest of his life. Scientists and dueling, all in one! I was including him anyway, for reasons I'm going to keep to myself for now, but that just makes it even better.
Gaston Maurice Julia, an early fractal mathematician, also had a false nose. But his was much less fancy, just a leather thing that hooked around his ears with straps.
ReplyDeletewww.gap-system.org/~history/PictDisplay/Julia.html
Funny. That sounds like the Enlightenment equivalent of flaming. Of course, I'm sure there are times many of us have wished for a quick rapier thrust at a troll. (Usenet meaning, not spec fic meaning)
ReplyDeleteE.j. that link is awesome. It turns out that Tycho may have had a variety of noses, (one high in copper content, as post-mortem analysis suggests) that he wore on different occasions.
ReplyDeleteI love that learning things like this counts as work.