[Misc] Who are the true British geniuses? (and it's not 'genii' - I checked)

[Norman Potting]

john harrison

Glad he got a mention, it's about time

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Glad he got a mention, it's about time

There is longstanding NSC member with exactly that name. Spooky.

 

[Jaxie]

John Lennon or George Harrison
Paul Weller
Orwell

 

[Albion in the north]

A couple of locals to me
Sir John Cockroft - Physicist, Nobel Prize winner and most renowned for splitting the atom.
Ted Hughes - Poet.

 

[The Clamp]

Ada Lovelace. Arguably the first computer programmer.


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

 

[DavidinSouthampton]

Has nobody mentioned Christopher Cockerell, inventor of the Hovercraft?

 

[Weststander]

Sydney Camm
R.J.Mitchell
Frank Whittle

 

[AZ Gull]

James Tilly

Really? For a while he was certainly one of our more promising youngsters, but I'm not sure I can agree that he was a footballing genius.

 

[BadFish]

Milligan, Cleese, Everitt, Sessions

 

[Ceej]

George Martin. For harnessing incredible talent and creating moments of beauty and lasting impact. What a guy.

 

[jakarta]

There is longstanding NSC member with exactly that name. Spooky.

Also Bass Player with Hawkwind and Amon Düül II, but of course HWT would know that already...

 

[TheJasperCo]

Lol!

My old boss worked for Chain for a bit. One quote: "I don't have time to read the (scientific) literature - I'm too busy writing it"

OK, here are a few of mine (apologies if others have already mentioned some of them).

Sir James Whyte Black. Nobel prizewinner. He literally invented the first beta blocker (practolol, followed swiftly by the safer analogue, propranolol) and, for an encore, invented the first H1 antihistamine (cimetidine). I met him several times. One of his obituaries described him as 'peppery'. He left Scotland because he was never going to get promotion because he hated writing and publishing his research.

James Dyson (you don't have to like him). The vacuum man.

Eric Laithwaite. The linear induction motor and Maglev.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee. The internet

Denis Potter. Playwrite

Declan McManus. Songwriter

Oh you! Beat me to it with Prof Sir James Black. My physiology-pharmacology lecturer taught us about him and his serendipitous discoveries. Phenomenal achievement and a fairly inspirational man.

I'd also throw in the late Lynn Margulis for her work on evolutionary theory. Again, I was taught about her through one of my first-year lectures.

Some other pretty worthy contenders on this feel-good thread

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Oh you! Beat me to it with Prof Sir James Black. My physiology-pharmacology lecturer taught us about him and his serendipitous discoveries. Phenomenal achievement and a fairly inspirational man.

I'd also throw in the late Lynn Margulis for her work on evolutionary theory. Again, I was taught about her through one of my first-year lectures.

Some other pretty worthy contenders on this feel-good thread

I wouldn't call Black serendipitous. The opposite! He deliberately changes the structure of adrenaline and set up a bioassay to detect signs of antagonism, and up popped practolol. He did the same with histamine to get cimetidine. No luck involved.

I'll tell you an interesting story from the horse's mouth, though. After SK&F had invinted cimetidine using a canine in vivo gut acid bioassay for readout, they sought better analogues by creating a radiolabeled binding assay. Unfortunately they buggered it up and instead of a binding assay for the H2 receptor they made an assay for part of the molecule that is not the pharmacophore (the imidazole ring). Consequently when they synthesized ranitidine (which has a furan instead) it wasn't a hit in their assay and they discarded it. Later ranitidine was picked up by Allen and Hanburys (later bought by Glaxo) and Glaxo made a mint (Zantac!) because ranitidine lacks a couple of side effects found with cimetidine. Incidentally I have not been able to buy rantitidine for more than a year and the reasons are mysterious.....there may be a scandal in the offing...

I don't know Margulis. Will check up later...footy becons!

All the best

 

[Pint of Ale and a Burger]

Has anyone said Stephen Wiltshire yet?
If they have then I agree.
The absolute embodiment of a Genius and I always said I would go and see some of his art in real life but never did but I have put it on my"things I will do after lockdown"list.