By the end of his life, Ovshinsky had established a new field of science: the study of “amorphous” materials, messy solids that have no regular atomic structure. He published around 300 academic papers on the subject. His inventions gained more than 400 patents. All this from a man who taught himself physics using books borrowed from the public library in his home town of Akron, Ohio.
The technology behind rewritable CDs and DVDs was Ovshinsky’s brainchild, as was the material for “phase-change memory”, now standard in data storage technologies today.He designed the solar panels used in the Japanese calculators that flooded the world market in the 1980s. Similarly ubiquitous is his rechargeable nickel-metal hydride battery.
As one of the first people to spot that burning fossil fuels would lead to global climate change, Ovshinsky geared much of his research towards steering us away from that future. His altruism was unbounded: he threw ideas to anyone who would listen. Nevill Mott, on receiving his Nobel Prize in Physics in 1977, admitted that he got some of his best ideas from Ovshinsky.
More here – New Statesman
In 1968, the New York Times declared that his new electronic switch would lead to a future in which we would all have “small, general-purpose desktop computers for use in homes, schools and offices” and “a flat, tubeless television set that can be hung on the wall like a picture”.
It’s incredible how the establishment stuff up the future by ignoring or outright ‘white anting’ people like this. Nicola Tesla is another example http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla but the list is endless and the stort often the same. Man or woman has radical idea – establishment ridicules them – They futilely try to get things gong for the rest of their lives and eventually the idea is lost to mankind OR the idea is picked up by the opposition to the current establishment and many years later the idea is being sold back to the fools who pooh poohed it in the first place
Makes one wonder who they are doing it to right now
Note to self – apply specs before typing – might then avoid spelling blunders – sorry everybody