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What are two big space breakthroughs of 2022?
Closest black hole ⚫️
By sifting through data released by the Gaia spacecraft, astrophysicists discovered in 2022 a black hole that’s just over 1,560 light-years from Earth. Dubbed Gaia BH1, it’s about twice as close as the previously nearest known black hole.
But that record may not stand, as about 100 million black holes are predicted to exist in the Milky Way and even closer black holes may turn up in the next years.
The Space Innovation of the Year 🔭
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, the giant infrared instrument now parked a million km from Earth, was named the Innovation of the Year.
Its first images were finally presented in July, revealing an unprecedentedly detailed view of the cosmos, “the deepest view of the universe ever” according to specialists.
The telescope is working through a long list of planned observations, exploring everything from the oldest galaxies to the atmospheres of distant exoplanets.
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What are two amazing medical discoveries of 2022?
Earliest surgery
After investigating the skeleton of a person who lived on the Indonesian island of Borneo about 31,000 years ago researchers found out that the first known surgical operation was a leg amputation ⬆️. Healed bone where the lower left leg had been removed suggests the individual survived for several years after the procedure. The discovery pushes surgery’s origin back by some 20,000 years.
Resurrecting dying organs
Yale scientists succeeded in reviving cells in the hearts, liver, kidneys, and brains of pigs that had been lying dead in a lab for an hour. The researchers used a device much like a heart-lung machine to pump a custom-made solution, dubbed OrganEx, into the pigs' bodies ⬆️. The pigs' hearts started beating. The pigs weren't revived, but the technology might be useful for human transplantation and in limiting damage to hearts from heart attacks, and to brains from strokes.
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What is an equinox?
There are only 2️⃣ times of the year when the Earth's axis is tilted neither toward nor away from the sun, resulting in a "nearly" equal amount of daylight and darkness at all latitudes.
These are Equinoxes ⬆️ (in 2013 and 2014) .
The name is derived from 2️⃣ Latin words - aequus (equal) and nox (night).
At the equator, the sun is directly overhead at noon on these events.
The "nearly" equal hours of day and night are due to refraction of sunlight or a bending of the light's rays that causes the sun to appear above the horizon when the actual position of the sun is below the horizon.
Additionally, the days become a little longer at the higher latitudes because it takes the sun longer to rise and set.
On the equinox and for several days before and after it, the length of day will range from about 12 hours and six and one-half minutes at the equator, to 12 hours and 8 minutes at 30 degrees latitude, to 12 hours and 16 minutes at 60 degrees latitude.
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What are some amazing facts about football/soccer players?
⚽️🇬🇭 Goalkeeper Arthur Wharton was the first black professional soccer player. He was born in Ghana (then Gold Coast). Arthur played his professional soccer for English team Rotherham United, in 1889.
⚽️🇷🇺 The only goalkeeper to win a ballon d’or was a Russian Lev Yashin.
Nicknamed The Black Spider, he spent his whole 20-year career plying his trade for Dynamo Moscow and representing The Soviet Union (now Russia).
He developed the role of the modern goalkeeper by guiding and controlling the game from the back and played a sweeper role by intercepting crossed and rushing opposition players at a period when goalkeepers were static between the posts.
Yashin forged his legacy in the 1958 world cup which was the first to be broadcast and showcased his brilliance to the whole world. He was honored by the prestigious Balon D’or and was inducted into the World Cup all-time team.
⚽️🇧🇷 Pele, one of many superstars with single word nicknames from Brazil, received his nickname due to having six toes on each foot when he was born. The word Pele means “six feet” in Brazilian Portuguese.
Pele is the only player to hoist the World Cup trophy three times. He won the 1958, 1962, and 1970 titles with Brazil.
⚽️🇱🇷 Ballon D’or winner George Weah became a President.
The only African player to win the prestigious Balon D’or, he earned the distinction of becoming the 25th president of Liberia. Regarded as one of the best strikers of his generation, the former PSG and AC Milan forward entered into politics first serving as a senator before campaigning for the top job. In 1996, George Weah also paid his teammates uniforms and expenses, so that Liberia could enter the African Nations Cup.
⚽️🇷🇺 Oleg Salenko of Russia holds the record for most goals scored in a single World Cup match. He was able to score 5 in Russia’s win over Cameron in 1994.
⚽️🇨🇮 Didier Drogba helped to stop a civil war in his country, Ivory Coast.
On October 8th, 2005, Ivory Coast battled to qualify for their first ever World Cup. After scoring a goal that sent Ivory Coast to the world cup for the first time, Drogba recorded a video urging the warring factions to hold their arms and make peace. The factions taking from the singing and dancing of the players in accord decided to lay down their arms silencing the civil war that had been raging.
⚽️🇧🇷 Rogelio Ceni is the top scoring goalkeeper with 131 goals.
Spending a bulk of his 25-year career in Sao Paulo, and earning 18 caps for Brazil Ceni, managed to reach a tally of goals some strikers dream of. The former Flamengo coach was a dead ball specialist and was his team’s official penalty and free-kick taker since 1997 until he hang up his gloves in 2015 at the age of 40. He was always comfortable with the ball at his feet and also an exceptional shot stopper which was evident in the Club World Cup Final win against Liverpool in 2005.
⚽️🇧🇳💵 The richest soccer player is Faiq Bolkiah.
While the debate will always rage on between Messi and Ronaldo in how their performances affect their income and who makes more, the richest soccer player is former Leicester City reserve player Faiq Bolkiah. Though most footballers derive their earnings from the game, the player derives his from family possessions. The player is nephew to the Sultan of Brunei and is worth an estimated 20 billion dollars.
⚽️🇧🇷💸 The most expensive transfer in soccer history came when Paris St. Germain paid FC Barcelona $263 million to obtain Neymar Jr.
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Soccer or football?
Nowadays, every country besides Australia, Canada, the United States, and Ireland, call the game football. So it is frequently expected that “soccer” is an Americanism, but the word is completely British in the cause.
By shortening "Association Football" to just "Assoc." and adding –er, the term "soccer" was born in England by 1895 and became popular in the U.S. (to differentiate the game from American football).
By the 1980s, "soccer" fell out of use in the U.K, in favor of "football."
Many languages adapted the word "football" to fit their pronunciation and rules – for example, it became futebol in Portuguese. Other languages broke the word apart, into foot and ball, and translated them separate, or did this with the words for "kick" and "ball" instead And then there's Italian, which uses a different word entirely: calcio! – from the verb calciare (to kick). You might hear football in Italy as well.
Whatever you call it, focus on enjoying the game!
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What are FIFA World Cup 1930 records?
⚽️ There were no qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup 1930 in Uruguay, making it an invitational tournament with every FIFA-affiliated country invited to play. It was the first and last time in FIFA World Cup history that no qualifiers took place.
⚽️ The first two matches at the FIFA World Cup - a Group 1 fixture between France and Mexico and a Group 4 opener between USA and Belgium - were played concurrently on July 13, 1930.
⚽️ 🇫🇷 French striker Lucien Laurent scored the first goal in FIFA World Cup history, courtesy of his 19th-minute opener against Mexico. France won that match by a 4-1 margin.
⚽️ 🇺🇸 USA’s Jimmy Douglas and Bert Patenaude became respectively the first goalkeeper to keep a clean sheet and the player to score the first hat-trick at the FIFA World Cup.
⚽️ 🇦🇷 Argentina’s Guillermo Stabile went on to top score in the tournament with eight goals.
⚽️ 🇺🇾 Alberto Horacio Suppici, who was the Uruguay coach at the time, was only 31 when he led his team to the 1930 FIFA World Cup title. To date, he holds the record for being the youngest coach ever to win a football World Cup.
⚽️ 🇦🇷 The last surviving participant of the inaugural FIFA World Cup final in 1930 was an Argentine forward Francisco “Pancho” Varallo, who died at the age of 100 in 2010.
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What is FIFA World Cup?
🏆 Since its creation in 1904, FIFA claimed rights to hold another world championship for the sport outside the Olympics.
🏆 As then only amateur players were allowed to participate at the Olympics, with the growing number of professional players such tournament was the need of the hour.
🏆 At the FIFA Congress held in Amsterdam on May 28, 1928, the federation officially decided to organize its own world championships. The day officially marked the birth of the FIFA World Cup.
🏆 The FIFA World Cup is international flagship tournament that takes place every four years, where national teams compete to determine which country has the best soccer team in the world.
🏆 Since 1930 2️⃣1️⃣ World Cups have been played, only skipping tournaments slated for 1942 and 1946 because of World War II.
📺 It's one of the most watched sports competitions globally. More than 3.5 billion viewers tuned into the 2018 World Cup in Russia 🇷🇺, and 1.12 billion watched the final.
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What is IFAB?
The IFAB is the International Football Association Board.
While FIFA is the governing body of international soccer, the IFAB plays the role of rule-maker and modifier for the game. IFAB maintains or amends the rules, and FIFA actively enforces them. The two organizations have worked together to ensure the integrity of international soccer, futsal, and beach soccer for over 100 years.
The IFAB was founded in 1886 by the four British football associations (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) as the worldwide body for developing and preserving the Laws of the Game.
Today the IFAB is comprised of the 4️⃣ 🇬🇧 football associations with 1️⃣ vote each, and FIFA, covering the remaining 2️⃣0️⃣7️⃣ national associations, with 4️⃣ votes. In this way, all five bodies ensure that Laws of the Game are preserved respecting football’s traditions as well as its international reality. Passing a motion requires a three-quarters majority.
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How modern soccer was born?
England 🏴 is rightfully considered to be the birthplace of modern soccer.
At the beginning of the 1800s, soccer was already played in 🏴 by the majority of schools and universities.
The problem was that there was no universally accepted set of rules that all games had to follow, and each school or university had its own set of rules. When two teams from different places tried to play against each other, it led to a lot of disagreements and confusion.
Between the 1840s and 1860s multiple attempts at creating a universally accepted set of rules were undertaken.
In October 1863, the Football Association was formed with the merging of 11 London schools and clubs. They met at the Freemason’s Tavern and finally established rules for the game.
The first game under these newly agreed rules was played on 19 December 1863 between Morley’s Barnes team and their neighbors Richmond.
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What is da Vinci’s Robotic Knight?
🦾 With his innovative, engineering mind, Leonardo da Vinci had many ideas that employed the use of pulleys, weights and gears, three components crucial to many of his automated inventions.
🦾 One of da Vinci’s inventions is his Robotic Knight.
🦾 According to historical sources, it was designed for a pageant in Milan and consisted of a knight suit filled with gears and wheels that were connected to an elaborate pulley and cable system. Through these mechanisms, this Robotic Knight was capable of independent motion - sitting down, standing up, moving its head and lifting its visor.
🦾 Though a full drawing of da Vinci’s robotic knight has never been recovered, a famous modern roboticist Mark Rosheim used several different da Vinci drawings as blueprints to build a prototype of the Robotic knight in 2002, which was able to walk and wave ⬆️. Rosheim also used da Vinci’s designs as inspiration for robots he developed for NASA.
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Who is the medieval “Father of robotics”?
While thinking of an answer to this question, one can name an Italian polymath Leonardo da Vinci. But there was another medieval savant that lived before da Vinci and even might have inspired the Italian.
It is Badi al-Zaman Abu al-Izz Ismail ibn al-Razzaz al-Jazari, known as Ismail Al-Jazari (1136-1206) ⬆️.
Born in Cizre (current Turkey) during the Islamic Golden Age, he was a polymath and served as an engineer in the service of the regional rulers, the Artuqids.
In 1206, drawing on a quarter of a century of prodigious output, he gave the world a catalog of his “matchless machines” - The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices.
One of Al-Jazari’s fantastical contraptions is regarded by many to be the first programmable “robot” in history. It was a boat that floated on a lake and entertained guests with 4 robot musicians. ⬆️ The mechanisms animating the drummers could be programmed to play different beats.
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What were the first modern robots?
🤖 In 1948 the British robotics pioneer, William Grey Walter (1910-1977) invented robots Elmer and Elsie ⬆️ that could mimic life-like behavior using elementary electronics. They were tortoise robots programmed to find their charging stations once they started running low on power.
🤖 In 1954, an American inventor George Devol (1912-2011) created the first digitally operated and programmable robot called the Unimate. In 1961, the first industrial Unimate went into operation in a General Motors automobile factory in New Jersey.
🤖 In 1958 at the Stanford Research Institute, Charles Rosen (1917-2002) led a research team in developing a robot called "Shakey". It was far more advanced than the original Unimate and could wheel around the room, observe the scene with his television "eyes," move across unfamiliar surroundings, and to a certain degree respond to his environment. He was given his name because of his wobbly and clattering movements.
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What is robotics and its laws?
🤖 Nowadays, robotics is defined as a branch of engineering that embraces conception, design, manufacture and operation of robots. Its objective is to create intelligent machines that can assist humans in a variety of ways.
The word robotics first appeared in Isaac Asimov’s science-fiction story Runaround (1942), in which this American writer also formulated the Three Laws of robotics.
1️⃣ A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2️⃣ A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3️⃣ A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.
Later, Asimov added a fourth (or more precisely a Zeroth law) one:
4️⃣ A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.
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What are new details of the dino-killing impact discovered in 2022?
The impact that ended the age of 🦖🦕 some 66 million years ago was the worst single day for the life on Earth.
A 6.5-mile-wide asteroid called Chicxulub slammed into the waters off what is now Mexico, triggering a mass extinction that killed off more than 75 % of Earth’s species!
📌In 2022, researchers were studying a set of fossil fish that died in the blast and concluded the asteroid struck during spring in the Northern Hemisphere.
📌They provided another glimpse of the asteroid’s devastation: Within minutes of the impact, rocks that formed in the extreme temperatures rained down more than a thousand miles from the crater’s center.
📌Scientists also announced that they had found signs of another possible undersea crater off the coast of West Africa that is about the same age as Chicxulub—perhaps evidence that a fragment of the incoming asteroid broke off and smashed into Earth separately.
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What are some record-breaking biological discoveries of 2022?
Biggest single-celled bacterium
Averaging about a centimeter long and visible to the naked eye, Thiomargarita magnifica, is a newfound bacterium, which lives in the mangrove forests of the Caribbean’s Lesser Antilles, is about 50 times larger than other species of big bacteria and about 5,000 times larger than typical bacteria. Why this species evolved into such a giant is unknown.
Largest fish colony 🐟
Deep off the coast of Antarctica, a breeding colony of some 60 million nests of Jonah’s icefish (Neopagetopsis ionah) is stretching across at least 240 square kilometers of seafloor.
The world's smallest new snail species 🐌
In Southeast Asia, scientists discovered two new snail species, smaller than any seen before. They dubbed the smallest one, measuring only 0.6 millimeters in diameter, Angustopila psammion, as “psammion” derives from the ancient Greek word for “grain of sand.”
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Why does each season start twice?
📌 Seasons are defined in two ways: astronomical seasons, which are based on Earth’s position as it rotates around the Sun, and meteorological seasons, which are based on annual temperature cycles. Both divide the year into spring, summer, autumn, and winter—yet with slightly different start and end dates for each.
📌 In the past people marked astronomical seasons with different calendars, but now, the start of each astronomical season is marked by either an equinox or a solstice.
This method of measuring the seasons, however, presents some challenges.
The solar year is approximately 365.2422 Earth days long, making it impossible for any calendar to perfectly sync with Earth’s rotation around the sun. As a result, astronomical seasons start on slightly different days and times each year—making it difficult to keep the climate statistics that are used in agriculture, commerce, and more.
📌 That’s why weather forecasters and climatologists turned to meteorological seasons instead.
Meteorological seasons are far simpler than astronomical seasons. They divide the calendar year into four seasons that each last exactly three months and are based on the annual temperature cycle. Winter takes place during the coldest three months of the year, summer in the hottest three months, and spring and fall mark the remaining transition months.
In the Northern Hemisphere, that means the start date for each season is March 1 (spring), June 1 (summer), September 1 (fall), and December 1 (winter). In the Southern Hemisphere, the seasons are reversed; spring begins in September, summer in December, fall in March, and winter in June.
The consistency of meteorological seasons allows meteorologists to make the complex statistical calculations necessary to make predictions and compare seasons to one another.
ℹ️ So the first day of each meteorological season is respectively March 1, June 1, September 1, and December 1 while each astronomical season starts respectively with the first equinox around March 21, the first solstice between June 20-22, the second equinox around September 22, and the second solstice between December 20-23.
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What is a solstice?
The solstice (combining the Latin words sol for “Sun” and sistere for “To Stand Still”) is the point where the Sun appears to reach either its highest or lowest point in the sky for the year.
On our planet, solstices are twice-yearly phenomena defined by solar declination.
During the June solstice (marked between June 20-22), solar declination is about 23.5°N (the Tropic of Cancer). It is the longest day of the year with the maximum intensity of the sun’s rays and the most hours of sunlight.|
During the December solstice (marked between December 20-23), solar declination is about 23.5°S (the Tropic of Capricorn). It is the shortest day of the year and has the fewest hours of daylight.
Solstices are marked by various celebrations that go back generations the most well known of which is the Christmas holiday celebrated a few days after the December Solstice which borrows many of its traditions from earlier pagan traditions.
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What are some amazing facts about football/soccer?
⚽️🏴 The oldest professional football club in the world still in existence today is Sheffield FC. It was founded in 1857, and they have fluctuated in different tiers of play in England.
⚽️🟨🟥 Referees were not used in official soccer matches until 1881. Up until then, people playing were responsible for making any calls.
⚽️📺 The first televised game was an Arsenal practice match at the Highbury ground in 1937.
⚽️🇧🇷🇺🇾 The most fans to attend one football match took place in 1950 in Rio de Janeiro. A total of 199,854 people watched Brazil play Uruguay in the World Cup.
⚽️🇮🇳 In 1950, India withdrew from the World Cup after FIFA refused to let their team play barefoot.
⚽️🇦🇷🇧🇷🏴🇫🇷🇩🇪🇮🇹🇪🇸🇺🇾 Only eight countries have won the World Cup: Uruguay, France, Italy, Brazil, Germany, Argentina, England, and Spain. Every winning country (and runner-up) is located in either Europe or South America.
⚽️🇪🇺 European Teams have reached the final of every World Cup tournament, except in 1930 and 1950.
⚽️🇹🇷🇪🇸 Turkey eliminated Spain from the 1954 World Cup by drawing straws. Blindfolded Italian boy Luigi Franco Gemma picked the straws to decide the winner, as there were no penalty shots back then.
⚽️🇬🇱 Greenland has never been able to have a FIFA recognized team. That is because they can’t grow grass to create fields.
⚽️🇺🇸 United States has more official soccer players than any other nation in the world - almost 18 million. Of these, 78 percent are under the age of 18. In the 1990s, soccer was recognized as the fastest-growing college and high school sport in the US.
⚽️🇳🇴 Norway might not be considered the best country for soccer success, but they are the only football team not to lose to Brazil in international competition. They have two wins and two draws against the powerhouse.
⚽️🇧🇷 Brazil has hosted the world cup twice and they are the only country to have won it five times. Interestingly, they did not win the cup when they hosted it. However, they are also the only country to have attended every single cup.
⚽️🇶🇦 The FIFA World Cup in 2022 in Qatar was not only the first World Cup held in the Middle East, but it was also for the first time moved to the winter for cooler weather.
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What are the positions in soccer?
The earliest recorded use of jersey numbers in English league play was in 1928.
In 1939 soccer jersey numbers were made mandatory.
Soccer positions by number
1️⃣ Goalkeeper (GK)
2️⃣ Right Fullback (RB)
3️⃣ Left Fullback (LB)
4️⃣ Center Back (CB)
5️⃣ Center Back (CB)
6️⃣ Defending/Holding Midfielder (CDM)
7️⃣ Right Midfielder/Winger (RM/LW)
8️⃣ Central/Box-to-Box Midfielder (CM)
9️⃣ Striker (S)
1️⃣0️⃣ Attacking Midfielder/Playmaker (CAM)
1️⃣1️⃣ Left Midfielder/Wingers (LM/LW)
There are three main categories: Forwards, Midfielders, and Defenders (including Goalkeepers), each of them providing guidelines, but not restrictions.
⚽️✅ What puts soccer on a level above other sports is that the rules don’t try to limit the abilities of specific positions. Players are sorted into their positions based on their specific skill sets like shooting, passing, dribbling, and tackling rather than more arbitrary measures like their height, strength, or weight.
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What teams took part in the first FIFA World Cup and who won it?
At the FIFA Congress in Barcelona in 1929, Uruguay was officially announced as the first host country of the FIFA World Cup.
It became a 1️⃣3️⃣-team affair with Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, the USA, France, Belgium, Romania, Yugoslavia and Uruguay as hosts.
Teams were divided into four groups.
Group 1️⃣: 🇦🇷, 🇨🇱, 🇫🇷, 🇲🇽
Group 2️⃣: Yugoslavia, 🇧🇷, 🇧🇴
Group 3️⃣: 🇺🇾, 🇷🇴, 🇵🇪
Group 4️⃣: 🇺🇸, 🇵🇾, 🇧🇪
🏆🇺🇾 Uruguay, who had won Gold in the 1928 Olympics, became the first world champions⬆️. In the final in a heated contest with Argentina hosts sealed the 4-2 victory.
❗️Uruguay is the only World Cup champion not to attempt to defend their title four years later. They refused to enter the 1934 World Cup hosted in Italy. It was considered a revenge snub towards Italy, as they refused to make the trip to Uruguay four years prior.
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What are official dimensions and markings of a soccer field?
⚽️ According to IFAB and FIFA the recommended dimensions of a soccer field for competition:
• Length (touchline): 90-120 meters (100-130 yards)
• Width (goal line): 45-90 meters (50-100 yards)
⚽️ For international competition the official dimensions are:
• Length: 100-110 meters (110-120 yards)
• Width: 64-75 meters (70-80 yards)
⚽️ The field of play must be rectangular and marked with continuous lines which must not be dangerous.
⚽️ The two longer boundary lines are the touchlines.
⚽️ The two shorter lines are the goal lines.
⚽️ The field of play is divided into two halves by a halfway line.
⚽️ The mark in the center of the field is at the midpoint of the halfway line and a circle with a radius of 9.15 m (10 yds) is marked around it.
⚽️ All lines must be of the same width, which must not be more than 12 cm (5 inches) and the goal lines must be of the same width as the goalposts and the crossbar.
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What is FIFA?
The birth of the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) was a result of the growing number of international games shortly after the dawn of the 20th century. Soccer leaders in Europe felt that such expanded competition required a governing body.
🇧🇪🇩🇰🇫🇷🇳🇱🇪🇸🇸🇪🇨🇭FIFA was established on May 21, 1904, by seven national associations — Belgium, Denmark, France, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland — to “promote the game of Association Football (as opposed to rugby or American football), to foster friendly relations among National Associations, Confederations, and their officials and players, by promoting the organization of football matches at all levels, and to control every type of association football by taking steps as shall be deemed necessary or advisable.”
❗️Founded in 1904, FIFA boasts now 211 members, rivaling that of the United Nations 🇺🇳, and is arguably the most prestigious sports organization in the world.
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Who invented the first variation of soccer?
Historians suppose that humans could already begin playing variations of early soccer about 4,000 years ago.
So, the game of Kemari was played in Japan as far back as 600 A.D. while other variations of early soccer saw the Native Americans having Pahsaherman, the Indigenous Australians having Marn Grook and the Moari’s having Ki-o-rahi.
However, according to FIFA, the game of Cuju (also Tsu-Chu which translates to “kicking the ball”) originating from China during the period of the Han Dynasty which ruled from 206 B.C. to 220 A.D. is the earliest form of the sport for which there is historical evidence.
Cuju is played on a rectangular field by two teams who have to juggle a leather ball and try to kick the ball into a goal. The use of hands is banned. The Chinese military often used the competitive version of the game as fitness training. There are still teams in China that play it and try to keep the tradition alive.
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What do we know about Al-Jazari’s inventions?
🔺 Al-Jazari designed bloodletting devices, fountains, musical automatons; water-raising machines; and machines for measuring.
🔺 One of his most famous devices is an enormous water clock that featured an elephant carrying his driver and a tower filled with creatures ⬆️. Simple water clocks had been used in ancient Egypt and Babylonia, but al-Jazari’s intricate invention clearly expresses his ambition to perfect them. The creatures represent different cultures, like the dragons from China and the elephant of India. Every half hour, the internal mechanisms activate: The bird atop the dome whistles, a man drops a ball into a dragon’s mouth, and the elephant driver strikes the beast’s head.
🔺 Most of his innovations were centuries ahead of the achievements of European science. His work on conical valves—a key component in hydraulic engineering—was first mentioned in Europe more than two centuries later by Leonardo da Vinci.
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Who is known as the “Father of industrial robotics”?
Although the first robot manipulator was invented by George Devol, many experts called another person the “Father of industrial robotics”.
This “Father” is an American physicist, engineer and entrepreneur Joseph Engelberger (1925-2015) ⬆️.
In the late 1960s, Engelberger acquired Devol's robot patent to modify it into an industrial robot and form a company called Unimation to produce and market the robots.
After leaving Unimation, and seeing his parents age, Engelberger saw an opportunity for robotics to improve the medical field. He founded Transitions Research Corporation in 1984, selling in 1988 the first HelpMate unit-a robot designed to deliver different supplies within hospitals. In the 1990s, over 100 hospitals worldwide were operating HelpMates. This success gained him even more recognition.
Even in his eighties he continued to work in the field of robotics, especially in the sub-field for elderly care.
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Why Isaac Asimov is called one of the “Fathers of Robotics”?
American science fiction writer Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) ⬆️ is considered one of the “Fathers of Robotics” not only because he invented the word robotics and positronic robot.
He built a whole universe and unified history promoting the subject of interaction between humans, robots, and moral aspects of such interaction. He showed not only what the future of technology could be, but also that of the humanity. Combined with his care for details and plausible science fiction, that made his work a pillar of modern science fiction. His books influenced a whole span of people, technologies, and so much more.
Without Asimov, the modern world would be very different, and robotics would surely not be where it is today.
ℹ️ He was a very prolific author whose bibliography counts around 500 books.
ℹ️ He was born in a Jewish family in the Soviet Union not far from the city of Smolensk. His family moved to New York in 1923.
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What were Čapek’s robots?
In the Čapek’s drama R.U.R. robots have distinct differences from robots today.
The play describes the activities of Rossum’s Universal Robots (R.U.R.) company that makes artificial people from man-made synthetic, organic matter.
These beings were created using the latest biology, chemistry and physiology, and are meant to “lack everything but a soul”. They are more artificial biological organisms than machines.
Initially they seem happy to serve humans, but that changes with time, and at the end a hostile robots revolt points to the extinction of the human race, perhaps to be saved by a male robot and a female robot acting as Adam and Eve.
R.U.R. premiered in January 1921, and quickly became famous and influential in both Europe and North America. By 1923, it had been translated into thirty languages and was considered as one of the "classic titles" of inter-war science fiction.
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