“Hidden Breakthroughs: 69 Scientific Marvels That Shocked Experts but Were Ignored by the World”
Not a scientist, but quantum entanglement is pretty f*****g cool. Most people have no idea what it is, though. Hell, I barely understand it, just have a gist.
The fax modem. It was invented in 1843 or so, but sat around for 120 years because everyone just sort of shrugged and didn’t really know what to do with it until the Internet was invented. Most people think of it as being heavily in use in the 1970s and 1980s and whatever, but no– it’s a 19th century invention that got a collective shrug from the cowboys of its day.
140 year old DNA evidence may have identified the identity of Jack the Ripper.
From a February 15th article on the New York Post:
“English historian and author Russell Edwards said DNA found on a shawl recovered from the scene of one of the k**ler’s vicious slayings was tested, revealing the butcher who terrorized Victorian London’s East End in the late 1800s was a 23-year-old Polish immigrant named Aaron Kosminski — who died in a mental institution in 1919.
“When we matched the DNA from the blood on the shawl with a direct female descendant of the victim, it was the singular most amazing moment of my life at the time,” Edwards told “Today” in Australia. ”
Not a scientist but a student here- central pattern generators. Neuroscientists figured out that our spine can generate rhythmic movement patterns (such as walking) without brain involvement. This is currently being explored for treatment options for spinal cord injury. A local researcher with a lab dedicated to this came to my neuroscience class last semester and did a guest lecture on it. He thinks we’re within 20 years of people paralyzed from SCI being able to walk again with an electric implant. I think about this at least once a week and have never heard this mentioned by non-neuroscience people.
The first picture of a black hole. It was a big news story but I don’t think the general public got how cool that is.
Here’s the image.
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