Categoría: Scientists Who have Changed and Who Will Change the World

The Four Main Creators of the Internet: Vinton Cerf (Connecticut, 1943), Robert “Bob” Kahn (New York, 1938), Larry Roberts (1937, Connecticut) and Sir Tim Berners-Lee (London, 1955)

October 2013 saw the 50th anniversary of the invention of the LED (light-emitting diode), attributed to the General Electric engineer Nick Holonyak. However, in order to tell the complete story of this lighting system, which now forms an integral part of our daily lives, it seems we also have to consider the work of earlier and later researchers.

The Russian-born scientists Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov were working at Manchester University (United Kingdom) when they received the news that they had won the Nobel Prize for Physics for their research on graphene. Six years earlier, in 2004, they had discovered the material together.

With his four equations, Maxwell established the relationship between electricity and magnetism. Optimal use of these equations enables good design of the alternators used in generators.

Thanks to the discovery of electromagnetic induction it has been possible to construct power units (alternators) and, as a result of that, generators.

Thanks to Rudolf Diesel’s invention we are able to produce Inmesol generators: the diesel internal combustion engine generates the mechanical energy necessary for the alternator (another essential component) to produce the electric power supplied by the generator.

Thanks to Tesla, our homes and any other building have electricity at the flick of a switch. He invented the AC induction motor, the Tesla coil for the alternating-current generator, spark plugs, the alternator, radio, remote control, fluorescent and neon light among the more than seven hundred inventions and one hundred patents that are attributed to him. In brief, he brought about a technological revolution.

Alessandro Volta invented what is known as the Volta pile, the forerunner of the electric battery. His work constitutes a crucial milestone in the history of science since he was the first inventor who managed to produce a stable flow of electricity. His battery was made out of alternating discs of zinc and silver with brine-soaked cardboard discs placed between the metals.