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Swiss Inventions
The following list is composed of items, techniques and processes that were invented by or discovered by people from Switzerland. Biology * Nucleic acid, DNA by Friedrich Miescher (1868) * Restriction endonuclease by Werner Arber * Research of the Immune system by Rolf M. Zinkernagel Chemistry * Laudanum by Paracelsus * Aluminium foil by Robert Victor Neher * Cellophane by Jacques E. Brandenberger * DDT by Paul Hermann Müller * Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) by Albert Hofmann * Reichstein process by Tadeus Reichstein * Glyphosate by Henri Martin Clothes and Fashion * Velcro by George de Mestral Computing * Computer mouse by René Sommer, co-inventor * Smaky by Jean-Daniel Nicoud * programming language Pascal by Niklaus Wirth * World Wide Web at CERN Cuisine * Muesli by Maximilian Bircher-Benner * White chocolate by Nestlé * Immersion blender by Roger Perrinjaquet * Hazelnut chocolate by Charles-Amédée Kohler * Conching by Rudolf Lindt * Milk chocolat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel, St. Gallen a.o.). , coordinates = , largest_city = Zürich , official_languages = , englishmotto = "One for all, all for one" , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , religion = , demonym = , german: Schweizer/Schweizerin, french: Suisse/Suissesse, it, svizzero/svizzera or , rm, Svizzer/Svizra , government_type = Federalism, Federal assembly-independent Directorial system, directorial republic with elements of a direct democracy , leader_title1 = Federal Council (Switzerland), Federal Council , leader_name1 = , leader_title2 = , leader_name2 = Walter Thurnherr , legislature = Fe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Albert Hofmann
Albert Hofmann (11 January 1906 – 29 April 2008) was a Swiss chemist known for being the first to synthesize, ingest, and learn of the psychedelic effects of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD). Hofmann's team also isolated, named and synthesized the principal psychedelic mushroom compounds psilocybin and psilocin. He authored more than 100 scientific articles and numerous books, including ''LSD: Mein Sorgenkind'' (''LSD: My Problem Child''). In 2007, he shared first place with Tim Berners-Lee on a list of the 100 greatest living geniuses published by ''The Daily Telegraph'' newspaper. Early life and education Albert Hofmann was born in Baden, Switzerland, on 11 January 1906. He was the first of four children to factory toolmaker Adolf Hofmann and Elisabeth ( Schenk) and was baptized Protestant. When his father became ill, Hofmann obtained a position as a commercial apprentice in concurrence with his studies. At age 20, Hofmann began his chemistry degree at the University of Zü ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Niklaus Wirth
Niklaus Emil Wirth (born 15 February 1934) is a Swiss computer scientist. He has designed several programming languages, including Pascal (programming language), Pascal, and pioneered several classic topics in software engineering. In 1984, he won the Turing Award, generally recognized as the highest distinction in computer science, for developing a sequence of innovative computer languages. Biography Wirth was born in Winterthur, Switzerland, in 1934. In 1959, he earned a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree in electronic engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich (ETH Zürich). In 1960, he earned a Master of Science (MSc) from Université Laval, Canada. Then in 1963, he was awarded a PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) from the University of California, Berkeley, supervised by the computer design pioneer Harry Huskey. From 1963 to 1967, he served as assistant professor of computer science at Stanford University and again at the Univer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pascal (programming Language)
Pascal is an imperative and procedural programming language, designed by Niklaus Wirth as a small, efficient language intended to encourage good programming practices using structured programming and data structuring. It is named in honour of the French mathematician, philosopher and physicist Blaise Pascal. Pascal was developed on the pattern of the ALGOL 60 language. Wirth was involved in the process to improve the language as part of the ALGOL X efforts and proposed a version named ALGOL W. This was not accepted, and the ALGOL X process bogged down. In 1968, Wirth decided to abandon the ALGOL X process and further improve ALGOL W, releasing this as Pascal in 1970. On top of ALGOL's scalars and arrays, Pascal enables defining complex datatypes and building dynamic and recursive data structures such as lists, trees and graphs. Pascal has strong typing on all objects, which means that one type of data cannot be converted to or interpreted as another without explicit conversi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jean-Daniel Nicoud
Jean-Daniel Nicoud (born 31 August 1938), is a Swiss computer scientist, noted for inventing of a computer mouse with an optical encoder and the CALM (Common Assembly Language for microprocessors). He obtained a degree in physics at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in 1963. Around 1965, he became interested in logical systems. He obtained his PhD at the EPFL in 1970 and became a professor in 1973. His laboratory, LAMI (''LAboratoire de Micro-Informatique''), developed the Smaky computer, in addition to the optical computer mouse, an update of the traditional kinetic mouse invented by Douglas Engelbart. The Khepera mobile robot The Khepera is a small (5.5 cm) differential wheeled mobile robot that was developed at the LAMI laboratory of Professor Jean-Daniel Nicoud at EPFL (Lausanne, Switzerland) in the mid 1990s. It was developed by Edo. Franzi, Francesco Mond ... was also developed at the LAMI. He left the EPFL in August 2000 and is active ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Smaky
The Smaky is a line of mostly 8-bit personal computers and accompanying operating system developed by Professor Jean-Daniel Nicoud and others at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland beginning in 1974. The computers were used at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and in Swiss schools. The names derives from SMArt KeYboard, reflecting the form factor that contained a compact motherboard which fit within the same housing as the keyboard. The first three models, Smaky 1, Smaky 2, and Smaky 4, were based on the Intel 8080 microprocessor (Smaky 3 was a prototype that was never completed). In 1978, the Smaky switched to using the 8-bit Zilog Z80 processor. A portable Smaky was made during this period, which resembled Osborne portable computers. In 1981, the platform again changed to the 32-bit Motorola 68000 processor. A new operating system was written, called Psos, which was developed specifically for the Smaky, and used on all subsequent mod ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World Radio Switzerland
World Radio Switzerland (WRS) is the only 24-hour, English-language broadcast radio station in Switzerland. Until October 2013, it broadcast on 101.7 MHz FM in the Lake Geneva region, and now continues on DAB+ digital radio across Switzerland. It can also be heard through live streaming on the WRS website, internet radio hubs and mobile apps. Administration WRS is owned by SwissVille Broadcasting Sàrl, registered in Geneva. The radio station's broadcast operations are headquartered at 9, Rue de Veyrot, Meyrin, 1217 in Geneva, Switzerland. History In the late 1980s, the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SRG SSR) decided that an English-language radio station in Geneva would enhance its international reputation and provide a useful service to the international organizations established in the city. To that end, SRG SSR applied to the Federal Office of Communications for an FM frequency. The first application, made in 1992, was rejected. The application was resubmitted i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
René Sommer
René Sommer (1951 – 5 October 2009) was a Swiss inventor and computer programmer, credited as a co-inventor of the computer mouse. Along with Professor Jean-Daniel Nicoud and André Guignard, Sommer helped invent the computer mouse at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne. Sommer was credited for making the mouse "more intelligent" by adding a micro-processor to the mouse's design in 1985. Sommer died on 5 October 2009 in Saint-Légier, Vaud, Switzerland, at the age of 58. Logitech Logitech International S.A. ( ; often shortened to Logi) is a Swiss multinational manufacturer of computer peripherals and software, with headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, and Newark, California. The company has offices throughout Europe ..., which manufactured the original mouse, called Sommer a ‘brilliant and impassioned engineer’ in reaction to his death. References {{DEFAULTSORT:Sommer, Rene 1951 births 2009 deaths 20th-century Swiss inventors Swiss com ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Computer Mouse
A computer mouse (plural mice, sometimes mouses) is a hand-held pointing device that detects two-dimensional motion relative to a surface. This motion is typically translated into the motion of a pointer on a display, which allows a smooth control of the graphical user interface of a computer. The first public demonstration of a mouse controlling a computer system was in 1968. Mice originally used two separate wheels to track movement across a surface: one in the X-dimension and one in the Y. Later, the standard design shifted to utilize a ball rolling on a surface to detect motion. Most modern mice use optical sensors that have no moving parts. Though originally all mice were connected to a computer by a cable, many modern mice are cordless, relying on short-range radio communication with the connected system. In addition to moving a cursor, computer mice have one or more buttons to allow operations such as the selection of a menu item on a display. Mice often also feature ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George De Mestral
George de Mestral () was a Swiss electrical engineer who invented the hook and loop fastener which he named Velcro. Biography He was born to Albert de Mestral, an agronomist engineer, and Marthe de Goumoëns in Saint Saphorin sur Morges, near Lausanne, Switzerland. De Mestral designed a toy airplane at age twelve and patented it. He attended the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). After graduation in 1930, he worked in the machine shop of an engineering company. He went for his favorite hobby of hunting and when he came back he discovered that his dog was covered with burs that had attached themselves to its fur. He then worked on inventing hook and loop fasteners for ten years starting in 1948. In 1955 he successfully patented hook and loop, eventually selling 60 million yards (about 55,000 km) a year through a multimillion-dollar company. Marriage George was married three times: in 1932 to Jeanne Schnyder (two sons: Henri and François), in 1949 to Mo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Velcro
Velcro, officially known as Velcro IP Holdings LLC and trading as Velcro Companies, is a British privately held company, founded by Swiss electrical engineer George de Mestral in the 1950s. It is the original manufacturer of hook-and-loop fasteners, which de Mestral invented. History Swiss electrical engineer George de Mestral invented his first touch fastener when, in 1941, he went for a walk in the Alps, and wondered why burdock seeds clung to his woolen socks and coat, and also his dog Milka. He discovered it could be turned into something useful. He patented it in 1955, and subsequently refined and developed its practical manufacture until its commercial introduction in the late 1950s. The fastener consisted of two components: a lineal fabric strip with tiny hooks that could 'mate' with another fabric strip with smaller loops, attaching temporarily, until pulled apart. Initially made of cotton, which proved impractical, the fastener was eventually constructed with nylon a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henri Martin (chemist)
Henri Martin may refer to: *Henri Martin (historian) (1810–1883), French historian *Henri-Jean Guillaume Martin (1860–1943), French impressionist painter *Henri Martin (French politician) (1927–2015), French communist leader *Henri Martin (American politician), State Senator, 31st Senate District, Connecticut * Henri Martin (winemaker) (1903–1991), French mayor of Saint-Julien, owner of Château Gloria and Château Saint-Pierre *Henri-Jean Martin Henri-Jean Martin (16 January 1924 – 13 January 2007) was a leading authority on the history of the book in Europe, and an expert on the history of writing and printing. He was a leader in efforts to promote libraries in France, and the history o ... (1924–2007), specialist on history of the book in Europe, history of writing and printing See also * Henry Martin (other) {{hndis, Martin, Henri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
