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.

  • dylanmorgan@slrpnk.net
    2·
    2 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·
      2 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!