Google Celebrates Joseph Plateau On His 218th Birth Anniversary
It’s the 218th birth anniversary of Belgian physicist Joseph Antoine Ferdinand Plateau.
Google celebrated the 218th birth anniversary of Belgian physicist Joseph Antoine Ferdinand Plateau, a well-known scientist in the nineteenth century, with a google doodle on Monday, 14 October. Plateau is revered for his discovery of physiological optics, particularly the effect of light and color on the human retina.
In his doctoral dissertation, he recorded the effect of colours on the retina, the duration for which an image lasts on the retina and with what intensity. He also conducted a mathematical research to study the intersections of revolving curves (locus), the observation of the distortion of moving images, and the reconstruction of distorted images through counter revolving discs (he dubbed these anorthoscopic discs).
This research inspired him to invent the phenakistiscope, a device that led to the onset of cinema by creating the illusion of moving images. The doodle is a pictorial depiction of Plateau’s genius device.
Tributes Pour In
Joseph Plateau lost his vision later in life but continued to have a productive career in science working as a physics professor at Ghent University. He died in 1883 in Ghent.
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