Eccentric Stories About Geniuses, You've Never Ever Heard Before

1. Pythagoras - "No Bean Until Die"

Pythagoras was prominently famous with his geometry theorem, but some of his ideas were underrated at that time. Ironically, beans were partly to blame for his death. An eccentric tenet of his philosophy was a complete prohibition on touching or eating beans. Unfortunately, the death came after Pythagoras was being chased by attackers then he came upon a bean field but allegedly decided to die than enter the field.

2. Tycho Brahe - "Eccentric Parties"

Tycho Brahe is an eccentric astronomer in the 16th century. He was famous for his love to party. Danish scholar had enough money to own an island and invite friends to his castle. Most of his guests were requested to be seen as an elk or a dwarf named Jepp he kept as a “court jester” to sit under the table permanently and got fed by Brahe. Ironically, he was dead because of a kidney infection after taking part in a banquet in Prague. His decision to stay at the table finally led to the burst of his bladder a few days later. At that time, Brahe needed to pee but he considered that leaving would be a breach of etiquette.

3. Nikola Tesla - "Give Me Number 3, Not Dirt"

Serbian scientist Nikola Tesla was the pioneer in contributing to the radio industry, robotics, and especially electricity. For your information, the man who really invented the first light bulb is not Edison but Tesla. Scientific life of Tesla probably was involved with his obsessive-compulsive disorder. He was said to touch nothing if it got the slightest bit dirty. Before every meal, he would use exactly 18 napkins to polish his own forks and knives until they sparkled. Well, it’s foreseeable when he even obsessed with the number 3.

4. Werner Heisenberg - "How Does A Battery Work?"

The brilliant German physicist Werner Heisenberg was famous with the quantum mechanics work in a breakthrough paper, the famous rules that explain the behavior at small scales of tiny subatomic particles. But most of us should be surprised because he nearly failed the doctoral exam. He almost did not know anything about experimental techniques, even he had no idea when his professor wanted him to answer how a battery works.

5. Robert Oppenheimer - "Read Dutch Yourself"

Robert Oppenheimer is a versatile physicist. He was master of 8 languages, poetry, and philosophy. However, sometimes people could not keep up to his mind. He once asked his colleague Leo Nedelsky to prepare a lecture for him. He confirmed that it would be easy because the book included them all. Nedelsky finally came back with nothing because the book was written in Dutch. “But it’s such easy Dutch”, Oppenheimer said.

6. Buckminster Fuller - "The More The Better"

Buckminster Fuller is the architect known for creating many things fabulous from geodesic dome to futuristic city planning. Like other famous scientists, Fuller also had some eccentric habits as well. He usually wore three watches to catch up with time in several time zones, slept only two hours a night. All of his diaries were self-chronicled religiously in 15-min intervals. This Dymaxion chronofile so called is housed at Stanford University and could stack 82 meters

7. Paul Erdos - "Knock Knock Knock"

Paul Erdos is a genius mathematic in number theory from Hungary. The mathematician had published about 1,500 important papers, respectfully. He had never ever married, just lived with nothing but a suitcase, and often dropped by his friends’ houses without notice. He was said to work on his problems for a few days, before saying “My brain is open” then leaving.

8. Richard Feynman - "I Am Cool"

America’s atomic bomb project Manhattan was significantly contributed by famous physicist Richard Feynman. But Feynman was also famous for being a practical joker and a mischief-maker. He reportedly picked locked and cracked safes just to show how easily the systems could be cracked. In the stage of developing his theory which later won the Nobel-prize, he would hang out with Las Vegas showgirls, talked to them in Mayan language or simply performed a Tuvan throat singing.

9. Oliver Heaviside - "Nothing But Pink And Granite"

Oliver Heaviside is a British self-taught genius who developed complex mathematic techniques to solve differential equations and analyze electrical circuits. He was strongly eccentric when usually wore a pink silk kimono, had his nails bright pink painted or spent days drinking just milk. Heaviside also reportedly started moving granite blocks into his house for furniture.