Mandelbrot, Benoit. 1924-. Mathematician born in Warsaw. Fractal geometer.

It's ironic that fractals, many of which were invented as examples of pathological behavior, turn out to be pathological at all. In fact they are the rule in the universe. Shapes, which are not fractal, are the exception. I love Euclidean geometry, but it is quite clear that it does not give a reasonable presentation of the world. Mountains are not cones, clouds are not spheres, trees are not cylinders, neither does lightning travel in a straight line. Almost everything around us is non-Euclidean.