Beyond Einstein and Poincaré, why is it that certain scientists achieve such heroic standing?
Galison: Fame is a complicated issue, and standing is not constant over time. The stature of an enormously salient scientist can change in a generation or two, just as it does with politicians, painters, or musicians. William Whewell, for instance, was a figure of major standing in 19th-century Britain and now is largely forgotten. Gregor Mendel was not famous at all and now is a hero. Darwins fame has been more unbroken but needs to be understood in terms of larger pedagogical and theological issueshe became a culture hero in the United States by being assimilated to a form of teleological, almost Panglossian progressivism, not because of his advocacy of natural selection. Fame or heroic standing is a historical problem to be cracked, but it has to be approached not as a natural category but as a historical category that must be produced and constantly reproduced. We have an Einstein now, but its not the same as the Einstein of 1960, 1933, or 1919. People pick out of these figures dif
