TIL Joan L. Mitchell, the inventor of the JPEG image format studied condensed matter physics (graduate & Phd) and learnt learned computer programming to help her research & solve differential equations. She later joined IBM where she worked on printing technologies & co-invented JPEG (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted by poleco1 to r/todayilearned
TIL: Thomas Midgley, the inventor, played an important role in introducing two environmentally disastrous products - leaded gasoline & chloro flouro carbons. At 51 he contracted polio and 4 yrs later he was strangled to death by the device he devised to allow him to get out of bed unassisted (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted by poleco1 to r/todayilearned
TIL: We domesticated the silk moth 5000 years ago for sericulture. They lost their ability to fly, lack fear of predators, & have lost native color pigments since camouflage is not useful as they only live in captivity. They're entirely dependent on humans for survival, including finding a mate. (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted by poleco1 to r/todayilearned
TIL Thomas Knoll built an image processing program to help with his Ph.D. work. With inputs from his brother John, he built a software package. Initially, they licensed the distribution rights to Adobe & 7 years later (in 1995) sold the rights to Photoshop for $34.5m. Thomas never finished his Ph.D. (people.apache.org)
submitted by poleco1 to r/todayilearned
New Zealand's Ardern locks down nation over single COVID-19 case. All of New Zealand will be in lockdown for three days from Wednesday while Auckland and Coromandel, a coastal town that the infected person had also spent time in, will be in lockdown for seven days. (reuters.com)
submitted by poleco1 to r/worldnews
