Futility Closet

In 1804, when she was 5 years old, Mary Anning began to dig in the cliffs that flanked her English seaside town. What she found amazed the scientists of her time and challenged the established view of world history. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll tell the story of "the greatest fossilist the world ever knew.” We'll also try to identify a Norwegian commando and puzzle over some further string pulling. Intro: William Rowan Hamilton was so pleased with the fundamental formula for quaternions that he carved it into the bridge on which it occurred to him. On Christmas morning 1875, Mark Twain's daughter discovered a letter from the moon. Sources for our feature on Mary Anning: Shelley Emling, The Fossil Hunter: Dinosaurs, Evolution, and the Woman Whose Discoveries Changed the World, 2009. Thomas W. Goodhue, Fossil Hunter: The Life and Times of Mary Anning (1799-1847), 2004. Hugh Torrens, "Presidential Address: Mary Anning (1799-1847) of Lyme; 'The Greatest Fossilist the World Ever Kn