[fidotron]

The evidence would seem to suggest Newton belongs in this group too, and I suspect many others beyond that.

The modern mathematical and scientific establishments seem to have a big problem with the fundamental truth that many of the giants on whose shoulders they stand achieved their stature by also exploring lots of wildly unorthodox aspects of the human condition. They wish this stuff could be consigned to history, but in reality we rely on such things for progress.

[mbivert]

Adding to this list of unorthodox approaches, by modern standards: I've heard in some French conferences of Etienne Klein (I'm not sure how romanticized this is though) that Einstein had some breakthrough while being in a half-asleep state.

Here's another similar instance[0][1], better documented, of an engineer working on an automatic level recorder, and "realizing" in a dream that it could be used to improve the accuracy of anti-aircraft guns (WWII).

[0]: https://www.weirduniverse.net/blog/comments/parkinsons_dream...

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgF3OX8nT0w

[HerculePoirot]

• Friedrich August Kekulé: The renowned German chemist, Kekulé was responsible for discovering the ring structure of benzene. In a dream, he saw a snake biting its own tail, which inspired him to propose the cyclic structure of the benzene molecule.

https://dodona.be/en/activities/1633022739/

• Otto Loewi: Loewi's dream eventually won him a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of chemical neurotransmission. In his dream, he visualized an experiment that would later prove that the transmission of nerve impulses is chemical, not electrical.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4291908/

• Dmitri Mendeleev: As you mentioned, Mendeleev is known for his contribution to the development of the periodic table. The idea for organizing the elements by atomic weight and properties came to him in a dream.

https://www.themarginalian.org/2016/02/08/mendeleev-periodic...

• Elias Howe: The U.S. inventor of the sewing machine, Elias Howe, was struggling to design the needle mechanism. One night, he dreamt of being captured by hostile tribesmen who used spears with holes close to their pointed tips. This dream inspired him to design the sewing machine needle with the hole near the point instead of the blunt end.

https://nomadicschool.org/writings/breakthroughs-and-dreams-...

• Frederick Banting: was actually inspired by a dream which led to the discovery of insulin. In his dream, he envisioned a method to isolate the hormone and subsequently treat diabetes. Banting's pioneering work on insulin ultimately earned him a Nobel Prize and has saved countless lives since.

https://lisashea.com/lisabase/dreams/inspirations/insulin.ht...

• René Descartes: The French philosopher and mathematician is said to have experienced a series of dreams that profoundly influenced his work. One of these dreams led him to develop the idea of analytical geometry and Cartesian coordinates, which laid the foundation for modern mathematics.

https://physics.weber.edu/carroll/honors/descarte.htm

• Niels Bohr: The Danish physicist and Nobel Prize winner Niels Bohr is credited for his groundbreaking work in atomic structure and quantum mechanics. Bohr had a dream about a horse race, where the horses seemed to be placed in both continuous and discontinuous orbits around the track. This dream inspired his idea that electrons could only reside in specific orbits around the atom's nucleus.

https://lisashea.com/lisabase/dreams/inspirations/bohr.html

• James Watson: Co-discoverer of the DNA double-helix structure, Watson reported a dream that helped him make the connection between nucleotide bases, leading him and Francis Crick to propose the complementary base pair structure of DNA.

https://blog.genleap.co/the-shape-of-dna-was-inspired-by-dre...

• Benoît de Maillet: In the early 18th-century, French diplomat and naturalist Benoît de Maillet made notable contributions to earth sciences. Inspired by a dream about his great scientific destiny, he wrote the manuscript "Telliamed," exploring the Earth's history and suggesting it was once underwater. His ideas on subsidence laid the groundwork for future geological research.

https://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Page%3AMaillet_-_Telliamed%2C...

• Srinivasa Ramanujan: Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan, known for his impact on mathematical analysis and number theory, claimed divine inspiration for his ideas through dreams. The Hindu goddess Namagiri Thayar presented him with mathematical formulae in his dreams, resulting in novel discoveries. Ramanujan's intuitive and profound work continues to influence mathematicians today.

https://thesublimeblog.org/2022/08/09/it-came-to-me-in-a-dre...

• Alfred Russel Wallace: The British naturalist and biologist, who independently conceived the theory of evolution through natural selection, is said to have been inspired by a fever-induced dream. This dream helped him to visualize the process of selection, ultimately leading him to co-present the theory of evolution with Charles Darwin.

https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/alfred-wal...

[nwiswell]

Considering dreams are essentially natural hallucinations, one wonders about the impact of modern psychedelics. A few hundred years hence, would a similar list have many entries reflecting psychedelic inspiration?

[mbivert]

One can only "dream" what would happen in a few decades, if instead of having kids memorizing multiplication tables, we would have them memorize such facts about the history of science.

Fascinating.