Lonnie Johnson’s having a good week. The former NASA engineer just won $73 million in a royalties dispute with the toymaker Hasbro for inventing the Super Soaker, the coolest toy you ever had growing up. The lawsuit also covered royalties for Nerf which Johnson also masterminded because he is awesome.
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Long ago and far away in a place called the 1980s, a man with a dream and a uniquely excellent knowledge of fluid dynamics decided to quit his day job designing rocket ships and design the world’s best ever water gun instead. For that, we thank you Lonnie Johnson.
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Before Angry Birds, Call of Duty, and Halo, there was Pong. And before that there was Tennis (cartridge 3) for the Magnavox Odyssey. And that machine was Ralph Baer’s baby. An inventor by trade, Baer developed the first working prototype, “the Brown Box,” in 1968, and just four years later, the Odyssey burst onto store shelves, jump-starting console gaming as we know it. More »
On Wednesday night, Stanford Ovshinsky, inventor of the nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) battery, passed away at the age of 89 due to complications from cancer. The Akron, Ohio native may not be a household name, but there’s a good chance that many of your electronics have been powered by his work, as NiMH batteries are used in everything from mice to hybrid cars. A self-taught inventor who didn’t attend college, Ovshinsky held hundreds of patents, received a number of honorary degrees and is even the namesake of a branch of electronics dubbed Ovonics. Flat-panel displays, solar cells and even phase change memory are just a handful of other technologies that his work helped to develop. Next time you pick up a modern gadget, just remember that Ovshinsky is partly responsible for its existence.
[Image credit: Joi Ito, Flickr]
Filed under: Science
Stanford Ovshinsky, inventor of the NiMH battery, passes away at 89 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Oct 2012 06:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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