Wild Mutant Noggins Throughout History Quiz

Answer: Galileo Galilei

Using his newly improved telescope, Galileo noticed that many of the planets, as well as the Moon, had phases. This could only be possible if the planets orbited something much larger, and something that generated its own light source.

Answer: Stonewall Jackson

Old Stonewall Jackson had many concerns about his health, some real and some imagined. He was also known to chew on whole lemons to aid his digestion.
As a Confederate general, Jackson neither condemned nor condoned slavery, but felt that the God of the Bible had sanctioned it. He eventually died in the Civil War, a casualty of "friendly fire." (Info enWikipedia.com)

Answer: George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) wrote more than 60 plays in his life. He won an Oscar for contributing to the movie version of "Pygmalion"(1938), but almost turned down the Nobel Peace Prize in 1925, eventually accepting it when his wife suggested that it would be a good thing for Ireland.

Here's what G.B. Shaw had to say about the Nobel Peace Prize: "I can forgive Alfred Nobel for having invented dynamite, but only a fiend in human form could have invented the Nobel Peace Prize." (Info Merinews.com)

Answer: A bathtub

Archimedes discovered the principle of buoyancy while in his bathtub, famously called out "Eureka" (Greek for "I have found it") and ships have floated ever since. He noticed that as objects floated, the water level rose in his bathtub which meant water was being displaced and then he kenned in his noggin the fact that the amount displaced was equal to the weight of the floated object. If you couldn't displace your weight, you'd sink.

Answer: Benjamin Franklin

In 1784 Franklin fused two different lengths and focuses of optical lenses together into one set of glasses which helped him from having to continually change them for differing situations. For the two hundred years until laser eye surgery came along, a sure sign of age was the need to get bifocal glasses.

Answer: Caligula

Although most accounts that have survived from ancient Rome depict Caligula as being insane, he was such an unpopular ruler that it is difficult to tell whether or not these accounts are completely unbiased. The few sources that have stood the test of time show him as a man who bragged about having affairs, dressed up as various gods and was very paranoid.

Answer: A sheep

The clone Dolly was not alone in her sacrifices to humanity's progress. Appert canned one of her ancestors in a giant glass vessel, sealed it with a cork and then boiled the arrangement. He gained a lot of wealth supplying Napoleon, who had claimed an Army marches on its stomach and funded much research into food preservation.

Answer: Richard "Red" Skelton

Seen selling newspapers in Indiana by Ed Wynn (Keenan's dad but himself a famous vaudevillian actor), Skelton was introduced to showbiz. In his early years he traveled with the circuses and the showboats of America's great rivers. Later in life he devoted a lot of time to painting. In one year alone, lithographs of just his Clown paintings earned $2.5 million, much of which he donated to Danny Thomas' Leukemia charity and to his own when his son died from the disease. Groucho Marx called him "The greatest clown in Hollywood since Charlie Chaplin".

Answer: Captured on film the use of an AC in the public electrocution of an elephant

The elephant, named Topsy, was sentenced to death in 1903 for having killed three handlers (one of them abusive) in three years. Although Edison also killed cats, dogs, horses and cows, he ultimately lost his battle as AC is now favored over DC. Nevertheless, with his 1,093 patents, it cannot be denied that his impact on science and humanity was extraordinary.

Answer: Percy Spencer

In 1945, Percy Spencer was building magnetrons for a company known as Raytheon, when he noticed that the microwaves produced by the magnetron melted a candy bar in his pocket. He deduced that microwaves in small doses could be used to cook food safely.