Google, on Sunday, dedicated its doodle to German physician and microbiologist Robert Koch.
Well known for identifying the specific causative agents of tuberculosis, cholera, and anthrax, while providing experimental support for the concept of infectious disease, Koch's lived during the mid-19th century.
He was born in Clausthal in Hanover, Germany on December 11, 1843, and died on May 27, 1910, in Baden-Baden, Germany.
The son of a mining engineer, Koch had apparently announced to his parents that at the age of five that he had taught himself to read, thanks to newspapers.
He developed a new experimental method to test whether a particular micro-organism is the cause of a disease. Interestingly, his assistant, Julius Richard Petri, developed the Petri dish, making the observation of bacteria easier.
The physician's research led to the creation of Koch’s postulates, a series of four generalized principles linking specific micro-organisms to specific diseases that even today are considered the 'gold standard' in medical microbiology.
As a result of his groundbreaking research on tuberculosis, Koch received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1905.
On what would have been her 104th birthday, Google pays tribute to
yet another trailblazer – Homai Vyarawalla, India’s first female
photojournalist – with a doodle. Other women who have made it to the
Google Doodle list this year include Begum Akhtar, Cornelia Sorabji, and Anasuya Sarabhai.
Codenamed
Dalda 13 in the photo archives, she also went by that pseudonym. Her
pseudonym comes from the year of her birth – 1913 – and the Dalda from
her car’s number plate DLD 13. The
Padma Vibhushan awardee was born in a Parsi family in Gujarat, and much
of her childhood was spent travelling with her father’s travelling
theatre company. She later moved to Bombay, now Mumbai, and studied at
Bombay University and Sir J J School of Art. A friend taught her
photography, and she started exploring life in Bombay through her camera
lens early on, starting to work as a photographer professionally in her
late teens.
Her career took off after her marriage to Manekshaw Vyarawalla, who
worked as an accountant and a photographer for Times of India. Her
photos were initially published under his name, or her pseudonym.
Her work soon started gaining national attention,
and in 1942 she had moved to Delhi with her family to work at the
British Information Services. Here she photographed world leaders such
as Ho Chi Minh, and American Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F.
Kennedy, and the first ladies, Mamie Eisenhower and Jacqueline Kennedy.
She also photographed Queen Elizabeth II’s State visit, and the Dalai Lama who had just escaped Tibet.
Some of her best
work, however, came during Independence. Her key works include
photographs of Mahatma Gandhi, and Jawaharlal Nehru, the latter being
her favourite subject. Some of her notable pictures that resonated with
the masses were of Nehru addressing jubilant crowds in Delhi, Lord
Mountbatten, the last Viceroy departing from India, and Gandhi being
prepared for the funeral.
Soon after her husband’s death, in 1970,
she gave up photography disappointed with the change the profession had
undergone. In 1982, she moved to Vadodara with her son Farooq who she
lost to cancer in 1989.
Later on, she handed her collection of
photographs to the Delhi-based Alkazi Foundation for the Arts. In 2011,
she was awarded the second highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan.
She died in Vadodara on January 15, at the age of 98 due to a lung disease.
In
1998, Sabeena Gadihoke from Jamia Milia Islamia University made a
documentary on Homai and two other photographers titled ‘Three Women and
a Camera’. Sabeen also wrote Homai’s biography – Camera Chronicles of
Homai Vyarawalla – which was published in 20o6. The biography celebrates
her work and her contribution to photojournalism especially as a lone
woman in a field that continues to be male-dominated even today.
Homai’s
Google Doodle today is a reminder of her contribution, her will to
succeed despite the odds, and an inspiration who shows nothing is
impossible.
Google Celebrates 50 Years of Kids Coding Languages
Google
celebrated the 50th anniversary of Logo, the world’s first programming
language designed for kids, on Monday with a Doodle that celebrates kids
coding languages and is aimed at teaching children to code.
In an interactive Doodle,
called “Coding for Carrots,” users help an animated rabbit navigate a
block maze.
The rabbit hops from block to block in response to
increasingly complex code sequences the game directs its players to
input.
Designed in 1967 by Seymour Papert and a team of
researchers at MIT, the pioneer of kids coding languages helped kids
learn about math by inputting commands that would direct an on-screen or
electronic turtle. MIT’s Champika Fernando, who worked on Coding for
Carrots with Google, said she was 9 years old when she first coded
through Papert’s program.
“It makes me happy to think of all of the nine-year-olds who will get
their first coding experience playing with today’s Doodle,” Fernando
said. “My hope is that people will find this first experience appealing
and engaging, and they’ll be encouraged to go further.”
