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Hedy Lamarr
A Hollywood actress co-patented a jam-proof torpedo system — but never saw it built, tested, or used.
Patents
A temporary monopoly granted to encourage disclosure.
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Vladimir K. Zworykin
Zworykin didn’t invent television—he weaponised the cathode-ray tube and made it central to its first electronic incarnation.
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Abdus Salam
Salam didn’t discover a particle — he built the grammar that lets physicists speak about weak and electromagnetic forces as one thing.
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Abraham Maslow
Maslow didn’t measure self-actualisation—he curated it from heroes he admired.
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Ada Lovelace
Lovelace didn’t write code — she wrote the first argument for what code could mean.
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Al-Khwarizmi
He didn’t invent algebra—he founded it as a discipline with rules, not rhetoric.