Who doesn't love a good scientist fight?

Here, the combatants are Nobel laureate Linus Pauling, one of the most respected scientists of the 20th century, and Israeli chemist Dan Schechtman. The subject of the fight: the existence of quasicrystals. Brace for the excitement!

As opposed to plain old regular crystals, which are ordered and periodic, quasicrystals were theorized to be the former, but not the latter. "Theorized" is the key word here, because for decades, the scientific community was split on their existence. "There is no such thing as quasicrystals, only quasi-scientists," said Pauling, in reference to Schechtman. Nice guy.

So what did Schechtman do when he proved that quasicrystals actually existed? Fearing the backlash from Pauling and pals, he hid his findings for two years. However, once the discovery was announced, the scientific community embraced Schechtman, giving him his own Nobel in 2011.

By then, Pauling had been dead for 17 years.

Winner: Schechtman!