Marriage is one of the most important and significant events that happen in our lives. One not only has to accept and share everything with a partner but also spend the rest of their lives together. It also has been a crucial part of each and every culture throughout our history, with each region organizing this event in a slightly different way it sure is a special moment that is also considered very sacred in some religions. However, today people prefer not to get married for obvious reasons such as the ever-increasing cost of living and complications regarding the families. Though today it is acceptable by society, some of the greatest minds in the past stayed unmarried for various reasons.
Scientists who remained unmarried
For these great scientists, life was more than just sharing life with someone as it can be seen from their contributions to us.
1. Sir Isaac Newton: Perhaps the father of modern physics, Sir Isaac Newton never got married. While most of us know him as the physicist who discovered gravity, he was also a mathematician, astronomer, theologian, and author. He continued to give us vital information regarding our physical world and to this day we follow his physics as standard. Not only that, Albert Einstein idolized him, thanks to his vast knowledge of the world and its forces we were able to understand the world better. Though according to historians and psychologists, Newton was an extreme introvert and preferred to live by himself and avoid any social interaction he could. Not only that, he suffered two major nervous breakdowns which would cause an individual to shift their worldview and make drastic changes in their lives. All of these traits combined, it can be said that he was not good at befriending people and women in this case, and in England, arranged marriages are not the norm so this was not an option. So ultimately, this led him to remain single, though his true love was physics.
Sir Isaac Newton thinking prior to discovering gravity.
2. Nikola Tesla: Unlike Newton, Tesla was a different kind of man. Physicists and psychologists today consider him to be one of a kind individual who was the smartest to ever live on this planet. He was an unparalleled inventor and futurist, who possessed vivid imagination and could even find errors or problems of his creations and even their solution all in his imagination, without having to use a piece of paper, this just goes to show on what level of mental capability he was. The technology we use today, half a decade after his death is thanks to his creations and ideas. Upon being asked why Tesla never got married, he always had one answer that he simply doesn’t have time for such things. Some people speculate that the downside of having such a mind was that he was trapped to live in his mind, as he could envision a married life without even getting married and didn’t see any benefit in it.
A photograph of Nikola Tesla.
3. Robert Boyle: Considered the first modern chemist, Boyle was born in Ireland and spent most of his life in England. Boyle, like others on this list, gave us an invaluable understanding of the world. He gave us Boyle’s law, which in simple terms states that the pressure of gas decreases as the container in which it is kept is increased and physicists have found many uses of it. Chemistry was one of his favorite subjects, he enjoyed studying combustion, respiration, and the composition of various substances was very intriguing to him. As for his marriage, why he never chose to get married is unknown but one thing was certain that he preferred to be alone that could be observed from his actions at the age of 41. During that time he went to London to live with his sister, as she was a significant member of society, the assistance of thousands was given to him, however, he refused and continued to work alone.
A portrait of Robert Boyle.
4. Alfred Nobel: His last name is synonymous with excellence in the realm of science as the Nobel peace prize is given to those who perform significantly in this field that improves the lives of people. Nobel was a Swedish chemist, engineer, and inventor. Though he had about 355 different patents to his name, the most significant was the invention of dynamite. As you can imagine he made a fortune by creating such a devasting material in times of constant wars. However, in the year 1888 when his brother passed away but multiple newspaper publishers thought Alfred had died and starting publishing news that strongly condemned him for his actions and creations even calling him a merchant of death, that he was responsible for much bloodshed, he was mentally broken due to this. Following this, Nobel signed his last will and set aside his wealth to whoever brings about peace onto the planet. As for his marriage, he was strongly attracted to his secretary, Berta Kinsky and slowly he started to develop intense feelings for her and finally confessed his love for her. Unfortunately for him, she was already engaged to someone and this led Nobel to never get married.
A photograph of Alfred Nobel.
5. Nicolaus Copernicus: Though one may not be familiar with his name right away, his work was essential for our understanding of our place in the universe. Copernicus was a polish mathematician and astronomer who formulated the model that our Earth orbits the Sun and not the other way around. Due to his father being a merchant, his father passing away, and him having to travel to various countries he became proficient in many languages as he was polyglot being able to speak Polish, German, Italian, Greek, and five other languages. His reason for not getting married was not due to his bad sociability or preference for being alone but being an active Catholic, he vowed to be a celibate in the church. Though he was surrounded by children as he helped her sister with raising her children.
A sketch of Nicolaus Copernicus.
6. Gregor Mendel: While others on the list gave us the understanding of forces, materials, and fundamentals of our existence, Mendel gave us the understanding of hereditary. He was a Czech mathematician and biologist. He experimented a lot with various plant species understanding how they work and behave under certain circumstances, over the course of 8 years he had tested upon 28,000 plants and came up with the basic principles of hereditary and laid the mathematical foundation to the science of genes. He was a monk, as an Augustinian friar most of them are not married and neither did he.
Gregor Mendel working with the plants.
Though, now in today’s world not getting married is acceptable and understandable, back in those times it was a bizarre idea. Yet these scientists stayed loyal to their discipline and worked solely for and with science for the betterment of our society as without them we wouldn’t have the same life and understanding that we have today.
