Scientists, Inventors And Techno Wizards

[maryportfuncity 10,646]

Watching a re-run of Horizon's Signals from Space it struck me that Frank Drake is still around. Founder member of the Order of the Dolphin (elite group of scientists who helped form the Drake equation which was central to the first attempts to detect ET life), and the only survivor of that pioneering group. 

 

Was 90 in May and likely obitable

 

[drol 11,945]

Welsh chemist John Meurig Thomas dead at 87. 

 

Remarkably one of the pioneers in the study of heterogeneous catalysts, mainly via electron microscopy, ESCA (XPS/UPS), neutron diffraction (neutrons interact with nuclei distribution, which is a collection of Dirac's deltas in direct space, therefore its Fourier transform gives a constant in reciprocal space, implying the structure factor does not decay with Bragg's angle like in XRD diffraction) and mainly Magic Spin Angle (MAS) NMR. He was not the inventor of these techniques, but applied them in very original way. Heterogeneous catalysis is a central concept in green chemistry, though now the current approach is to immobilize on a surface homogeneous catalysts, using their activity and the long lifetime typical of hetereogeneous catalysts. Sadly, no low brow version available 

[gcreptile 10,970]

DDP pick Benjamin Abeles, a czech physicist, apparently just died aged 95:

https://www.idnes.cz/technet/veda/benjamin-abeles-fyzik-raf.A201214_192614_veda_pka

 

This obituary says that his invention was used in the Voyager missions.

[Ulitzer95 12,596]

15 minutes ago, gcreptile said:

DDP pick Benjamin Abeles, a czech physicist, apparently just died aged 95:

https://www.idnes.cz/technet/veda/benjamin-abeles-fyzik-raf.A201214_192614_veda_pka

 

This obituary says that his invention was used in the Voyager missions.

Saw this earlier.

He was also one of the children saved via Kindertransport during World War II.

There's a handy Wiki list of all of the notable ones here. Quite a few of them died this year.

[msc 18,443]

3 minutes ago, Ulitzer95 said:

Saw this earlier.

He was also one of the children saved via Kindertransport during World War II.

There's a handy Wiki list of all of the notable ones here. Quite a few of them died this year.

 

Alf Dubs (Lord Dubs) and Dr Ruth feel like DL type picks, from that list.

[Ulitzer95 12,596]

9 minutes ago, msc said:

 

Alf Dubs (Lord Dubs) and Dr Ruth feel like DL type picks, from that list.

Dr Ruth is really getting on and may go soon. I’d give Dubs a few more years, still quite active I believe.

[msc 18,443]

5 minutes ago, Ulitzer95 said:

Dr Ruth is really getting on and may go soon. I’d give Dubs a few more years, still quite active I believe.

 

Spoken over 30 times in the last two months in the HoL. Unless that was about his impending death (pretty sure we'd had heard!) I think he seems OK for now too.

[time 8,599]

Andrew Brooks, a research scientist at Rutgers who developed the first covid-19 saliva test has died unexpectedly aged 51.

[arghton 6,731]

This year it's going to be 10 years since the death of Steve Jobs...

 

Apple Founders:

Steve Jobs 1955-2011

Steve Wozniak (b.1950)

Ronald Wayne (b.1934)

 

Apple CEOs:

1. Michael Scott (b. 1945) 1977-1981

2. Mike Markkula (b. 1942) 1981-1983

3. John Sculley (b. 1939) 1983-1993  Called one of the worst American CEOs.

4. Michael Spindler (1942-2017) 1993-1996

5. Gil Amelio (b. 1943) 1996-1997

6. Steve Jobs (1955-2011) 1997-2011

7. Tim Cook (b. 1960) 2011-

 

Apple Chairmen (is this list right?)

1. Mike Markkula (b. 1942) 1977-1981

2. Steve Jobs (1955-2011) 1985

3. Mike Markkula (b. 1942) 1985-1993

4. John Sculley (b. 1939) 1993

5. Mike Markkula (b. 1942) 1993-1997

6. Steve Jobs (1995-2011) 2011

7. Arhur D. Levinson (b. 1950) 2011-

[alt obits guy 3,371]

Rupert Neve, a renown British audio design and engineering wizard, whose multi-decade career began in the UK army in World War II, took him through the 1970s, where he took an interest in digital technology, and continued until present day, has died. He was 94.

 

https://sonicstate.com/news/2021/02/13/rupert-neve-dies-at-94/

 

[harrymcnallysblueandwhitearmy 1,689]

17 hours ago, alt obits guy said:

Rupert Neve, a renown British audio design and engineering wizard, whose multi-decade career began in the UK army in World War II, took him through the 1970s, where he took an interest in digital technology, and continued until present day, has died. He was 94.

 

https://sonicstate.com/news/2021/02/13/rupert-neve-dies-at-94/

 

I’m inconsoleable that he’s fadered away. His funeral will have a warm, fuzzy ambience, but his coffin, complete with 500 mystifying knobs, will be too big and heavy to carry.

Sheesh, mixing desk humour is a tough gig. 

[Ulitzer95 12,596]

On 12/04/2020 at 19:25, drol said:

Bernard Lown, developer of defibrillator, and Epstein-Barr virus discoverer Sir Michael Anthony Epstein will both be 100 next year.

Bernard Lown (wiki) won’t be turning 100, as he’s just died aged 99.

 

Regularly picked in the DDP, but not this year!

[drol 11,945]

18 hours ago, Ulitzer95 said:

Bernard Lown (wiki) won’t be turning 100, as he’s just died aged 99.

 

Regularly picked in the DDP, but not this year!

In a new standard for low quality journalism, WMTMW Portland insists Bernard Lown was a Nobel Prize winner.

[Whitehouse 872]

The car world mourns Bruce F. Meyers, creator of the Meyers Manx buggy, the daddy of them all. And if you ask me, they were the best looking buggies ever.

 

 

 

[alt obits guy 3,371]

David Schindler, characterized by some as Canada's leading ecologist, has died. He was 80.

 

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/david-schindler-obituary-1.5938189

 

[alt obits guy 3,371]

Lou Ottens, the man who invented the cassette tape, has died. He was 94. 

 

https://www.volkskrant.nl/nieuws-achtergrond/lou-ottens-1926-2021-was-de-uitvinder-van-het-cassettebandje-maar-vond-de-cd-beter~bc9c01b0/?referrer=https%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2FlQxfcoZiu5%3Famp%3D1

(Dutch language obit)

[Sir Creep 7,070]

1 hour ago, alt obits guy said:

Lou Ottens, the man who invented the cassette tape, has died. He was 94. 

 

https://www.volkskrant.nl/nieuws-achtergrond/lou-ottens-1926-2021-was-de-uitvinder-van-het-cassettebandje-maar-vond-de-cd-beter~bc9c01b0/?referrer=https%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2FlQxfcoZiu5%3Famp%3D1

(Dutch language obit)

 

Let me rewind this post to give you not just an English language obit, but an interesting read.  

The Tape Stopped: Lou Ottens, June 21, 1926 to March 9, 2021 (freethoughtblogs.com)

[gcreptile 10,970]

7 hours ago, alt obits guy said:

Lou Ottens, the man who invented the cassette tape, has died. He was 94. 

 

https://www.volkskrant.nl/nieuws-achtergrond/lou-ottens-1926-2021-was-de-uitvinder-van-het-cassettebandje-maar-vond-de-cd-beter~bc9c01b0/?referrer=https%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2FlQxfcoZiu5%3Famp%3D1

(Dutch language obit)

Fascinating. Inventors are always interesting deadpool names.

 

And so, i had to check, the inventor, or well, one of the main inventors, of the CD is also still alive, James Russell at 89/90 years old:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Russell_(inventor)

 

Another big contributor, David Paul Gregg, has been dead for a while now though.

[time 8,599]

10 hours ago, alt obits guy said:

Lou Ottens, the man who invented the cassette tape, has died. He was 94. 

 

https://www.volkskrant.nl/nieuws-achtergrond/lou-ottens-1926-2021-was-de-uitvinder-van-het-cassettebandje-maar-vond-de-cd-beter~bc9c01b0/?referrer=https%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2FlQxfcoZiu5%3Famp%3D1

(Dutch language obit)

As someone with a much quicker wit than me wrote, its good that he lived to see 90.

[Whitehouse 872]

English language article on the death of Lou Ottens.

[Sir Creep 7,070]

19 minutes ago, Whitehouse said:

English language article on the death of Lou Ottens.

if only someone posted something along those lines 18 hours ago

[TQR 14,391]

On 10/03/2021 at 01:25, alt obits guy said:

Lou Ottens, the man who invented the cassette tape, has died. He was 94. 

 

https://www.volkskrant.nl/nieuws-achtergrond/lou-ottens-1926-2021-was-de-uitvinder-van-het-cassettebandje-maar-vond-de-cd-beter~bc9c01b0/?referrer=https%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2FlQxfcoZiu5%3Famp%3D1

(Dutch language obit)

He said his last words. Then, after a brief silence, he went over to the other side.

[Toast 16,140]

42 minutes ago, The Quim Reaper said:

He said his last words. Then, after a brief silence, he went over to the other side.

 

Or this happened.

 

[maryportfuncity 10,646]

3 hours ago, The Quim Reaper said:

He said his last words. Then, after a brief silence, he went over to the other side.

 

 

Either way - he could C90 but not C120, eh?

[drol 11,945]

Peng Shilu, the "father of Chinese nuclear submarines", dead at 95.

 

Huang Xuhua, who is also 95, is often referred with that title, and it generated quite a controversy. Historians believe Peng deserved the title more. Huang is a student of decrepit naval engineer Yang You (1917) who has been in hospital for three years and counting.