Death of Famous Scientists

DEATH OF FAMOUS SCIENTISTS

Michael Lahanas

But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. Paul 1 Corinthians 13

DEMOCRIT

He said that often a long life is nothing than a elongated death and he decided almost 100 years old to die. He refused to eat. His sister also almost 100 years old complained that she could not go to the Thesmophoria festival because she had to be at his home until his death. Democrit asked her to put a hot bread on his face. So he survived the next three days by just breathing the smell of the bread and his sister could go to the festival. When his sister confirmed that the festival is over he died.

GIROLAMO CARDANO

Italian mathematician and astrologer (1501-1576)

Cardano turned to gambling to make ends meet, where he had advantage with his superior knowledge of probability. His addiction to gambling led him to formulate a mathematical theory of chance.

Cardano was renowned throughout Europe as an astrologer, even visiting England to cast the horoscope of the young king, Edward VI. A steadfast believer in the accuracy of his so-called science, Cardano constructed a horoscope predicting the hour of his own death. When the day dawned, it found him in good health and safe from harm. Rather than have his prediction falsified, Cardano killed himself.

(I. Asimov, Biographical Encyclopedia)

ISAAC NEWTON

Death Mask of Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727)

Isaac Newton looks deep in concentration.

Newton was born into the Anglican church and publicly conformed to it. He was a religious person and in a list that he has written in 1662 some of his 50 sins listed are: "Threatning my father and mother Smith to burne them and the house over them"; "Punching my sister"; "Calling Derothy Rose a jade"; "Having uncleane thoughts words and actions and dreamese"; "Making pies on Sunday night"; "Swimming in a kimnel [a tub] on Thy day"; "Idle discourse on Thy day and at other-times"; "Not turning nearer to Thee for my affections"; "Not fearing Thee so as not to offend Thee".

At about thirty, he convinced himself that Trinitarianism was a fraud and that Arianism was the true form of primitive Christianity, considering the worship of Christ to be idolatry. Newton held these views, very privately, until the end of his life. Newton died early in the morning on March 20, 1727, at the age of eighty four. To the end, he refused, privately in the presence only of the Conduitts, to receive the sacraments of the Anglican Church of England.

PIERRE CURIE

Life was seeming a bit rosier to Pierre Curie in the spring of 1906. During the family's recent Easter holiday in the country, he had enjoyed watching the efforts of 8-year-old Irene to net butterflies and of 14-month-old Eve to keep her footing on the uneven turf.

Pierre Curie's agenda for Thursday, April 19, 1906, was that of a man fully engaged in both professional and social life.... After the meeting was over he headed out toward his publisher in the rain, only to find that the doors were locked because of a strike. Hurrying to cross the street, he was run over by a horse-drawn wagon with a load of military uniforms, weighing some six tons. He was killed instantly.

(APS)

“He wasn't careful enough when he was walking in the street, or when he rode his bicycle. He was thinking of other things.” --Pierre Clerc the Sorbonne lab assistant who identified Curie's body

ERWIN SCHRÖDINGER

Death Mask of Erwin Schrödinger

08-12-1887 - 01-04-1961

Cause of Death: Tuberculosis

In the afternoon she gave him a sip of orange juice, and then heard his last words: “Annikin, stay with me – so that I don't crash”. Then he became still and seemed to sleep. Around 5 o'clock the doctor came and said that he could last only a few hours. At around 6.55 p.m. his pulse stopped – he was dead.

The ceremony at the graveside on Sunday was simple but impressive. Hans Thirrig gave a talk and Father Metzner, a Jesuit, said the Lord's prayer. Almost all villagers of Alpbach were gathered around. The next day the gravemound was completely covered by snow.

(Walter Moore, Schrödinger LIFE AND THOUGHT)

ALAN MATHISON TURING

British mathematician (1912-1954) founder of computer science, he was also responsible for decoding Enigma codes used by German Navy during the Second World War.

The case of Regina v. Turing and Murray was heard on March 31, 1952. With the Looking-Glass symmetry of symmetrical crimes, they began:

Alan Mathison Turing
1. On the 17th day of December, 1951, at Wilmslow, being a male person, committed an act of gross indecency with Arnold Murray, a male person.
2. On the 17th day of December, 1951, at Wilmslow, being a male person was party to the commission of an act of gross indecency with Arnold Murray, a male person.

and so forth, for each of the other two nights.
Two years later on July 7, 1954, Turing killed himself. Like Snow White, he ate an apple that was dipped in cyanide. But there was to be no Prince.
(Timothy Ferris, The World Treasury of Physics, Astronomy, and Mathematics, 1991)

KURT GÖDEL

Rudolf Gödel, himself a medical doctor, wrote of his brother Kurt Göde (1906-1978)l:
"My brother had a very individual and fixed opinion about everything and could hardly be convinced otherwise. Unfortunately he believed all his life that he was always right not only in mathematics but also in medicine, so he was a very difficult patient for doctors. After severe bleeding from a duodenal ulcer ... for the rest of his life he kept to an extremely strict diet which caused him slowly to lose weight."
Towards the end of his life Gödel became convinced that he was being poisoned and, refusing to eat to avoid being poisoned, starved himself to death.
(MacTutor History of Mathematics)

RICHARD PHILLIPS FEYNMAN

Jerry and Daphne Zorthian visited him in the hospital. ... At one point Feynman broke down and cried. He was remembering Arline and he said that he had finished the book “ What do you care what other people think?”, something which Arline used to say all the time. The memories of Arline and their youth together came crowding in and Feynman sobbed for a long while...

Well, I think I was about seven years old when I knew that I would ultimately die. I don't see why I should start complaining about it now. It's OK, Tom. Don' worry . I don't want to have to comfort you!” I said, “OK, Dick”. We went on talking about an hour and a half about different things. Then he got tired and needed to sleep, so I left. I didn't see him again.

Feynman’s puzzling last words were, “I would hate to die twice.” Feynman died at age sixty-nine. He was in a coma the last days, and he died at the UCLA medical center on Monday, February 15, 1988, at 10:34 p.m.

He was absolutely sure that the evolutionary process terminated existence in the same way as a leaf falling from a tree and that life rolls over through genetics. The concept of a consiousness in the universe manifesting itself through a deity or an afterlife seemed to parochial to him.

After Feynman’s death Danny Hillis saw him in his dream, he asked Feynman, “Hey, Richard! How come you are talking to me? You are dead!” and he replied, “Oh well. At least we won’t get interrupted this way!”

(Parts from Jagdish Mehra, THE BEAT OF A DIFFERENT DRUM)