Mendeleev: Hot or not?
Monday, February 16, 2009 - 12:10 PM
In our show, Yellow Fluff & Other Curious Encounters, Robert describes the great Russian chemist, Dmitri Mendeleev, as unlikely to win any beauty pageants. This listener wrote in to disagree and has the photo to prove it:
Jad & Robert,
I was aghast to hear the unflattering physical description of this impressive genius! I find him quite striking. Here's an image I took of his memorial in Moscow, which I stumbled upon quite by accident. A magnificent visage!
Paul Oscar Hamilton
www.pauloscarhamilton.com
Robert responds:
Let me place alongside your heroic sculpture of the Father of Chemistry this photograph of the real Dmitri:
A portrait of the Russian chemist
I think we can agree that the Real Dmitri isn't going to be showing up soon on America's Next Top Model. The sculptural Dmitri might turn a few heads beauty-wise, but the real guy needs a haircut. Badly.
Comments [3]
During the broadcast Oliver Sachs at one point says that Mendeleev looks like a sort of cross between Rasputin and someone whose name he can't quite come up with. I'm thinking it was probably Karl Marx. At least, they apparently went to the same barber.
A face only a mother could love and hair that static electricity can lay claim to. In his defense he was to busy being smart to care about fashion.
Ha ha ha... definitely — NOT! I did an image search when listening to the podcast, so intriguing was the description. It's kinda sweet that Hamilton came to his defense. Beauty is truly in the eye of the beholder. But who wouldn't envy a mind like his? Thanks for the laugh, and keep up the excellent work at Radiolab. I'm looking forward to the next season.
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