What If: Scientists Who Died Too Young Quiz

Answer: G. H. Hardy

Ramanujan showed an early aptitude in mathematics, but failed to achieve a university degree in India due to his disinterest in other subjects. He was employed as a clerk in Madras, but gained a reputation in Indian mathematical circles. At their suggestion he sent drafts of his work to famous British mathematicians. Most rejected the papers as typical amateur mistakes, but G.H Hardy recognized the genius in these papers and invited him to England.

Ramanujan left for England at age 26 and worked with Hardy for five years. He struggled with many of the aspects of his new home, cultural differences, weather, and food. He returned to India and died shortly thereafter from a disease thought to be related to earlier bouts of dysentery.

Though he had almost no formal training in pure mathematics, he made substantial contributions to mathematical analysis, number theory, infinite series, and continued fractions, including solutions to mathematical problems then considered unsolvable. Many of his ideas have generated avenues of research for nearly a century.

One of his famous results was his answer to Hardy, who rode in a taxicab numbered 1729, and commented what a boring number that 1729 was. Ramanujan replied that it was not, and 1729 was the smallest number that was the sum of two different pairs of cubes (1 cubed + 12 cubed and 9 cubed + 10 cubed).

Answer: Spectroscopy work leading to updates to the Periodic Table of Elements

In 1913, Moseley observed and measured the X-ray spectra of various chemical elements (mostly metals) that were found by the method of diffraction through crystals.

Mendeleev's Periodic Table was based on atomic weight, the mass of the number of protons of an element plus the weighted average of the number of neutrons across its isotopes. Some elements would be placed in the wrong location, based strictly on atomic weight, and gaps in the table were not identified correctly. The modern periodic table is based on the number of protons, made possible by Moseley's methods.

Isaac Asimov wrote that Moseley's death may have been the most costly one of World War I to mankind generally.  Moseley's mentor and compatriot, Ernest Rutherford, believed that Moseley's work would have earned him the Nobel Prize (which is never awarded posthumously).

Answer: Verified Maxwell's Electromagnetic Wave Theory

Hertz (1857-1894) proved the existence of electromagnetic waves that were predicted by James Maxwell. He was able to construct an experiment that produced radio waves between two antennas. He later worked on the development of cathode rays, a precursor to the discovery of X rays by Röntgen.

He helped demonstrate the photoelectric effect. He died at age 36 due to complications after surgery to relieve an infection brought on after migraines.

Answer: Development of the wave theory of light

Augustin-Jean Fresnel (1788-1827) was a French civil engineer and physicist who demonstrated the wave theory of light, disproving Newton's Corpuscular Theory. He is probably best known for his Fresnel Lens and the pioneering use of stepped lenses to improve the visibility of lighthouses, among other effects.

He provided important papers on diffraction of light, polarization, and the phasing of light. He had a lifelong struggle with tuberculosis and succumbed to it at age 36.

Answer: Identified the structure of DNA

People associate the discovery of the double helix structure with Francis Crick and James Watson, who along with Maurice Wilkins won the Nobel Prize for it in 1962. In 2023 several notable scientists declared that Rosalind Franklin was an equal contributor deserving of the same honor.

An innocent explanation for the omission of Franklin from the Nobel Prize was that she had died four years before the award was given. However, she had to deal with sexism in her field and personality conflicts with other researchers. Due to these conflicts she chose to leave King's College, where the DNA research was being performed, shortly before conclusive results were published. Franklin began her career in spectroscopy and X-ray crystallography with coal. After her groundbreaking work on the structure of DNA, she turned her efforts to RNA and viruses. She died in 1958 at age 37 of cancer.

Aaron Klug, a close colleague of hers, won the Nobel Prize in 1982 in work Franklin had started; and many believe that if Franklin had lived that she would have shared this award also.

Answer: Killed in a duel

Evariste Galois (1811-1832) was a French mathematician, who developed significant work in the study of solutions to polynomial equations and group theory. His life has attained legendary status in the mathematical community. He was refused entry twice the France's premiere school of mathematics Ecole Polytechnique mostly due to incompetence of the administrators. Some of the papers he submitted for publication were rejected, although three were published.

Galois was also very active politically and was imprisoned for six months after graduation. Shortly after his release he was fatally wounded in a duel. Many details of the duel are shrouded in mystery. It is generally believed that the duel took place over a woman that Galois loved, although others believe the duel was an attempt to eliminate a dangerous political rebel. The night before the duel, Galois, convinced he was going to die, wrote letters to his political friends and described his various thoughts on mathematics. The legend that Galois wrote mathematical works that were previously unknown is an exaggeration. Much of his work had already been published or was in his notes; although he did include new information and thoughts.

Answer: Mathematics - impossibility of finding a formula for roots of quintic equation

Niels Henrik Abel was a Norwegian mathematician, who is most noted for demonstrating that there is no formula for solving the general quintic equation (polynomial of the form ax^5 +bx^4 +cx^3 +dx**2 +ex +f) or higher degree equations. In keeping with a common thread of these young scientists, the eminent mathematician Gauss discarded Abel's paper without reading it, considering it to be the work of a crank. From there he made contributions to the theory of functions, especially elliptical functions. While traveling in Europe, Abel contracted tuberculosis and died at age 26.

The Abel Prize in mathematics was proposed as a complement to the Nobel Prize and has been offered since 2003. The other major award in Mathematics is the Fields Award, given for outstanding contributions by a mathematician under the age of 40.

Answer: Thermodynamics - efficiency of engines

Nicolas Leonard Sadi Carnot was a French army mechanical engineer who was the first person to develop a theory for the maximum efficiency of a heat engine. Steam engines were coming into use, and there was little scientific study. Carnot simplified the problem by dealing with an idealized heat engine that could provide the calculation for the maximum power.

The method or Carnot Cycle was a basic thermodynamic system; and Carnot is often called the Father of Thermodynamics. However, Carnot received little acclaim from his contemporaries. It wasn't until Lord Kelvin defined the concept of entropy and the second law of thermodynamics that Carnot's work was appreciated widely. Carnot died of cholera during an epidemic in 1832. Because of the contagious nature of cholera many of his possessions and writings were buried with him.

Carnot came from a prominent family. He was the older brother of statesman Hippolyte Carnot and the uncle of Marie François Sadi Carnot, who would serve as President of France from 1887 to 1894.

Answer: Bernhard Riemann

Bernhard Riemann was a German mathematician who made significant contributions to analysis, differential geometry, and number theory. He is most well known for the Riemann Hypothesis, considered by many to be the most important unproven mathematical problem today.

A deeply religious man, Riemann was studying theology to become a pastor like his father, when Gauss convinced him to use his gifts in mathematics. By age 28 he had developed Riemannian geometry, which later helped support Einstein's general relativity and was a forerunner to the study of topology. He also made contributions to complex analysis and number theory before his death of a long-standing case of tuberculosis.

Riemann refused to published his unfinished works. When he died, his housekeeper began to discard his notebooks before being stopped by scientists working with Riemann. Some of the saved manuscripts, when published and reviewed later, matched "discoveries" by later mathematicians.

Answer: Hydraulics and the presence of atmospheric pressure

Torricelli was a protege of Galileo and is most noted for his discovery of the barometer as a means of measuring atmospheric pressure. He also made discoveries in optics and mathematics (the cycloid). Torricelli had come to the notice of Galileo for his monograph on the path of projectiles.

One unexplained problem at that time was why suction pumps could only raise water to a height of about 10 meters. Torricelli proposed that we live in a sea of air, that exerts pressure in a similar manner to a sea of water. The force of the air pressure equaled a 10 meter column of water, and the equal pressure at 10 meters explained the limitation of suction pumps. Torricelli created a one meter high vacuum tube filled with mercury to measure the air pressure, the first instance of a barometer.

He later measured the speed of a liquid flowing out of an opening, which was an instance of the later Bernoulli's Principle. He defined the parabolic shape of the paths of projectiles, explained the cause of wind being due to differences in air pressure, and designed several telescopes and microscopes.

Torricelli died at age 39 from what is believed to be typhoid fever.