Galilei?

[fbsthreads]

why are all scientists refered to by the their surname except Galileo who gets first name treatment.

how did this come about?

is it becuase Galileo sounds better and it's close enough to his surname so it will do.

[jimmy p]

well it is such a unique name really (or how i see it). There could have been plenty of great achievers called Isaac, or Ernest, or John, but not many Galileo's. Or maybe its cos he may not be classed as a scientist.. more a philosopher, like Democritus or something. Anyway, my attention span isnt long enough to carry on thinking....

[Evo]

Good question.

Another good question - why is the middle finger of Galileo's right hand on display at the Museo di Storia del Scienza in Italy? :confused:

[chroot]

And how about Archimedes and Pythagoras? Why did those old dudes only have one name? Maybe we can just call them Joneses. "Archimedes Jones." I like the sound of that.

- Warren

[Hugo Holbling]

Galileo was probably so-called to distinguish him from his father, also an important thinker of those times. His middle finger is found in the museum in Firenze and you can read about it here (http://brunelleschi.imss.fi.it/genscheda.asp?appl=SIM&xsl=catalogo&indice=54&lingua=ENG&chiave=404010). It's well worth a visit.