“Discoveries & Inventions”, a truly special collection for us is here and we’ll attempt to learn from women and men who have remodelled history with their inventions and discoveries. Who discovered the Law of Relativity? And who invented the technology transmission on which Bluetooth and Wi-Fi is actually based? We’d love to discover all that and much more together. Today, we’re discovering:
Maria was a doctor born in Chiaravalle (Italy) who dedicated her life to pedagogy. She recast the criteria of education used until then: the child becomes the protagonist and is at the centre of the entire educational process.
Louis was a French pedagogue who designed a system of reading and writing for persons who could not see. When he was 3 years old, he had an accident with his father’s tools, and when he was only 5, he lost his sight completely. His system changed the lives of many blind people the world over.
Virginia Apgar was a doctor who specialised in anaesthesia applied to obstetrics and paediatrics. She invented the well-known Apgar Test which is the method currently used to assess the health of newly born babies. It evaluates five simple visible features of a newborn: Appearance, Pulse, Grimace, Activity and Respiration. This test has reduced child mortality in the whole world. Her method is still being used after more than half a century!
Ann Moore was a children’s nurse. While in Africa, she was drawn by the way African mothers carried their babies tied to their backs in cloth slings. When she returned to the United States, she began to work on a backpack harness baby carrier together with her mother that she would later patent and market. Thanks to her invention, all mothers and fathers can carry their babies close to their bodies.
Albert Einstein was one of the most important and relevant scientists of the 20th century. Although you may find this hard to believe, he was considered a bad student by some of his teachers. He developed the Theory of Relativity that shifted the course of science. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921 for his discoveries on the photoelectric effect. Question: Can space be separated from time?
Hedy Lamarr had an original and efficient idea, that of sending messages and orders broken into tiny bits, each one of which was transmitted sequentially with a change in frequency each time and in a pseudorandom pattern. Yes, she invented the communications system known as “spread spectrum transmission technology” which is the basis for all wireless technologies currently available, the Wi-Fi.
Thomas Alva Edison was one of the most lavish inventors of all times and registered more than a thousand patents in his name. When he was just 10 years old, he built his first laboratory in the basement of his parent’s home and taught himself chemistry and electricity through experimentation. His most important and transforming invention was making electric light available to the entire population through a power supply system.
