Interactive, Fun, and Very Hungarian – New Science Exhibition at Millenà¡ris
Rubik’s cube, vitamin C, holograms, computers, the ballpoint pen, the prevention of puerperal fever, the vaccine against coronavirus, and much more: without any of these, the world as we know it today would not be the same. What they all have in common is that we owe them all to Hungarians. These discoveries and inventions are examples of what visitors can learn more about at Millernáris now showcasing more than 600 Hungarian innovations.
ErnÅ‘ Rubik, Albert Szent-Györgyi, Dénes Gábor, János Neumann, László Bíró, Ignác Semmelweis, Katalin Karikó and many more: they are the people behind these world-changing discoveries, all featured in the Dreamers of Dreams. After all, as its website says, “Science without men is but a mystery.”
The exhibition was made for the 20th anniversary of the original Dreamers of Dreams exhibition and the opening of Millenáris. However, new discoveries have been made since then; it is enough to think about the already mentioned coronavirus and Katalin Karikó.
There are so many things to look at and a seemingly endless amount of names that are mentioned in connection to discoveries. Therefore, we are highlighting some aspects of the exhibition without being exhaustive.
Let’s start with a more famous example of a Hungarian invention – the hologram – by Dénes Gábor, who won a Nobel Prize for this discovery. The exhibition clearly shows how well a hologram works: if we could not look through the plates, we could easily mistake the hologram for a statue.
Digital storage would also be different without Hungarians. For example, Marcell Jánosi invented the micro floppy disk. Today, of course, we use a different kind of storage, the evolution of which is also shown at the exhibition.
Some, however, still include music in their digital storage but not everyone knows that even the music industry could be different if not for Péter Károly Goldmark (or Peter Carl Goldmark) who, during his time with Columbia Records, was instrumental in developing the long-playing microgroove 331⁄3 rpm phonograph disc, the standard for incorporating multiple or lengthy recorded works on a single disc for two generations. Visitors can also see via an enlarged, interactive needle how phonograph records work.
There would be no sitting in front of our TVs to unwind after a long day at work if not for Kálmán Tihanyi, who is also often mentioned in English language technical literature as Coloman Tihanyi or Koloman Tihanyi. He was one of the early pioneers of electronic television and made significant contributions to the development of cathode ray tubes (CRTs). But there were more who contributed to the televisions in use today: in the mid-1930s, Tihamér Nemes began to study the theory and practice of television and then participated in the first Hungarian experiments. In 1938 he filed a patent application for color television. Read More...
