While still a 16-year-old French schoolboy, Galois solved one of the great mathematical problems of all times. It was found that conventional methods failed to determe the roots of some fifth degree algebraic equations. By developing a new field of mathematics, group theory, this boy showed why such methods failed for certain 5th and higher degree equations. In doing so, Galois also created "Galois modular groups", in great use today. When you see sports, news, or entertainment from across the world, you can thank the economical coding provided by this boy's mathematics. ("Thanks, Ev!")

After completing "high school", Galois failed to secure entry to any university. Once, when an examiner couldn't understand his work at the blackboard, Galois lost his temper, hit the examiner in the face with an eraser, and stalked out.

In Paris, Galois became associated with student radicals -- Republicans opposing a Bourbon King. He was challenged to a duel with pistols and killed at the age of 20. His body was buried in a ditch, forever lost. If he had lived a little longer, he might have fought at the 1934 barricades with Marius and his fellow rebels of "Les Miserables".

Today, Galois Theory is a vast field in which a specialist can spend a lifetime of work and teaching.