Biographical Oddities, a Sample

Alfred James Lotka | March 2, 1880–Dec. 5, 1949  |  c.f. Chapter 01

A founding member of the Population Association of America (PAA) and its president 1938–39. Founded initially as a coalition of population scientists, birth control activists, immigration restrictionists, and eugenicists.

In addition to his work in population dynamics, known for “Lotka’s law” (a variation on Zipf’s law which relates to the productivity of scientists), thereby contributing to the groundwork for the field of scientometrics.

Leo Szilárd (born Spitz) | Feb. 11, 1898–May 30, 1964  |  c.f. Chapter 02

Encouraged everyone he knew to flee Germany after Hitler’s appointment as chancellor. He was a cofounder of the Academic Assistance Council to get scholars out of dangerous zones in Europe; by the start of WWII they had gotten over 2,500 people out successfully.

Founded Council for a Livable World in 1962 to deliver “the sweet voice of reason” about nuclear weapons to Congress and the White House.

“If the uranium project could have been run on ideas alone, no one but Leo Szilárd would have been needed.”
—Eugene Wigner

Do your work for six years; but in the seventh, go into solitude or among strangers so that the memory of your friends does not hinder you from being what you have become.
 — from Szilárd’s Ten Commandments

Sewall Green Wright  |  Dec. 21, 1889–March 3, 1988  |  c.f. Chapter 03

In 1897, at the age of seven, Wright wrote his first “book,” entitled “Wonders of Nature;” he published his last paper in 1988 and could therefore be considered the scientist with the longest science-writing career.

Interestingly, in light of Wright’s major work on inbreeding: his parents were first cousins.

Wright was known for writing on chalkboards and erasing in a hurried frenzy. Legend has it that, once while lecturing, he supposedly tried to erase the board using as an eraser one of the guinea pigs he had been observing. (Wright always denied this.)

Conrad Hal Waddington  |  Nov. 8 1905–Sept. 26, 1975  |  c.f. Chapter 04

Scientific advisor to the Royal Air Force Commander in Chief of Coastal Command during WWII. 

Known as “Wad” to his friends and “Con” to family.

Waddington was a poet; according to his friend Alan Robertson, he thought of Ludwig Wittgenstein as really a poet made to act like a philosopher.

Warren Sturgis McCulloch | Nov. 16, 1898–Sept. 24, 1969  | c.f. Chapter 05

McCulloch published sonnets, enjoyed a good whiskey, and hosted big parties at his farm in Connecticut, where he often encouraged skinny dipping.

McCulloch and Pitts were hospitalized at the same time in April of 1969, in two separate hospitals, across the street from one another. They wrote to each other from their neighboring hospital beds. That same year, both of them passed away, four months apart from one another, as a result of the ailments that originally hospitalized them.

Walter Harry Pitts, Jr. | April 23, 1923–May 14, 1969 | c.f. Chapter 05

At age twelve, Pitts wrote to Bertrand Russell with ideas on how to improve Principia Mathematica. Russell, impressed, offered preteen Pitts the opportunity to study with him at Cambridge, which Pitts declined.

Pitts never really attended the University of Chicago; he audited lectures, beginning at age fifteen, when he was an unsheltered runaway. McCulloch brought Pitts and Jerome Lettvin home to live with him and his family when Pitts was eighteen. 

Pitts never wanted anyone to know his full name and refused to sign employment contracts for this reason. However, he eventually needed a passport, and for that McCulloch procured his birth certificate for him, so now his full name is public knowledge.

Arturo Rosenblueth | Oct. 2, 1900–Sept. 20, 1970 | c.f. Chapters 06, 08

Known for his research and as a pioneer in cybernetics, but was also a physician.

One of eight siblings, all of whom were instructed in some form of art or music, Arturo played the piano. As a student, he supported himself by playing music in restaurants and accompanying silent films in local movie houses.

“The best material model for a cat is another [cat], or preferably the same cat.” —Arturo Rosenblueth, from The Role of Models in Science with Norbert Wiener