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.

    • absGeekNZ@lemmy.nzOP
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      2 months ago

      I wonder how much is embellishment over the years.

      If you sawed off your assistants fingers (hard to do with a hand saw); good chance they would also catch gangrene. Far more likely is that at the first sign of a saw hitting your finger, you move it out of the way.

      The third person “died of fright”, could have been heart attack. So definitely plausible.

      • lightnsfw@reddthat.com
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        2 months ago

        Surgeons back then were basically professional limb amputaters. Note that he went through a whole leg in 2.5 minutes. He would have blown through some fingers in no time.