Editing Lev Landau (section)

==Landau's ranking of physicists==

Landau kept a list of names of [[physicist]]s which he ranked on a logarithmic scale of productivity and [[genius]], such as [[creativity]] and innate [[Aptitude|talent]], ranging from 0 to 5.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Goldberg |first=Elkhonon |author-link=Elkhonon Goldberg |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Rr9EDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA166 |title=Creativity: The Human Brain in the Age of Innovation |date=2018 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-046649-7 |location=New York, NY |pages=166 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Li |first1=Jichao |last2=Yin |first2=Yian |last3=Fortunato |first3=Santo |last4=Wang |first4=Dashun |title=Nobel laureates are almost the same as us |journal=Nature Reviews Physics |date=18 April 2019 |volume=1 |issue=5 |pages=301–303 |doi=10.1038/s42254-019-0057-z |bibcode=2019NatRP...1..301L |url=https://par.nsf.gov/servlets/purl/10113092 |access-date=9 April 2024}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Alter |first=Adam |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yI4CEQAAQBAJ&pg=PA214 |title=Anatomy of a Breakthrough: How to Get Unstuck When It Matters Most |date=2023 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |isbn=978-1-9821-8296-0 |location=New York |pages=214 |language=en}}</ref> The highest ranking, 0, was assigned to [[Isaac Newton]]. [[Albert Einstein]] was ranked 0.5. A rank of 1 was awarded to the founding fathers of [[quantum mechanics]], [[Niels Bohr]], [[Werner Heisenberg]], [[Satyendra Nath Bose]], [[Paul Dirac]] and [[Erwin Schrödinger]], and others, while members of rank of 5 were deemed "pathologists".<ref>{{cite book | url = http://sgtnd.narod.ru/wts/rus/Landau.htm | author = Anna Livanova | title = Ландау | trans-title = Landau | language = ru | year = 1983 | publisher = Znanie | edition = 2nd expanded | accessdate = 1 August 2022}}</ref> Landau ranked himself as a 2.5 but later promoted to a 2. [[N. David Mermin]], writing about Landau, referred to the scale, and ranked himself in the fourth division, in the article "My Life with Landau: Homage of a 4.5 to a 2".<ref>{{cite book | author = N. David Mermin | title = Boojums All the Way Through: Communicating Science in a Prosaic Age | page = 39 | publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] | year = 1990 | isbn = 9780521388801}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Mitra |first=Asoke |date=2006-11-01 |title=New Einsteins need positive environment, independent spirit |url=https://pubs.aip.org/physicstoday/article/59/11/12/395831/New-Einsteins-need-positive-environment |journal=Physics Today |language=en |volume=59 |issue=11 |pages=12 |doi=10.1063/1.4797321 |bibcode=2006PhT....59k..12M |issn=0031-9228}}</ref>

Landau had a lesser known scale to measure the genius of a scientist using diagrams instead. He had four classes of diagrams, with the first being a simple triangle, which included those who were the most original and brilliant, such as Dirac and Einstein. The diagrams were formed by two parallel lines, bottom representing tenacity, while the top measured genius and originality.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mussardo |first=Giuseppe |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nGcHEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA115 |title=The ABC's of Science |date=2020 |publisher=Springer International Publishing AG |isbn=978-3-030-55168-1 |location=Cham |pages=115–117}}</ref>