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What is the most unique thing a person has done or is? (lemmy.nz)

submitted 1 month ago by absGeekNZ@lemmy.nz to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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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.

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[–] 5oap10116@lemmy.world 23 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (5 children)

Robert Liston performed a single surgery with a 300% mortality rate (probably).

[–] absGeekNZ@lemmy.nz 2 points 1 month ago (4 children)

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 2 points 1 month 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.

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