This day being July 10, 2012, we take a moment now to mark the birth of Nikola Tesla, a man who is known by many for his work in the development of Alternating Current, for his quirks of character, for being an “enemy” of Thomas Edison, and for being a vampire on a science-fiction television program. Hailed as a “geek icon”, Tesla may be more well-known today than any time since his death, but how many are interested in the work he was actually pioneering on the borderland of science, work that is now largely relegated to the fringe? While we may applaud his development of alternating current and radio, or marvel at the effects of Tesla coils and plasma lamps, these must be seen as the beginnings, and not the ending, of what are Tesla’s great contributions to science and society, and there is much left to be learned from his research. As far as we appear to have come, there is further to go if we are to understand, recreate, and expand on the theories and technologies he envisioned. There is more to Tesla than meets the eye. Extensive Tesla research by electrical engineer Eric Dollard Gerry Vassilatos’s “The Ray of Discovery”: Ray I: Nikola Tesla (video, 90m) George Trinkaus’s “The Tesla Mystique” debunks some of the myths to rediscover the real Nikola Tesla The slightly kooky DIY Tesla Spirit Radio (for Communicating with Mars?)

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This day being July 10, 2012, we take a moment now to mark the birth of Nikola Tesla, a man who is known by many for his work in the development of Alternating Current, for his quirks of character, for being an “enemy” of Thomas Edison, and for being a vampire on a science-fiction television program. Hailed as a “geek icon”, Tesla may be more well-known today than any time since his death, but how many are interested in the work he was actually pioneering on the borderland of science, work that is now largely relegated to the fringe?

While we may applaud his development of alternating current and radio, or marvel at the effects of Tesla coils and plasma lamps, these must be seen as the beginnings, and not the ending, of what are Tesla’s great contributions to science and society, and there is much left to be learned from his research. As far as we appear to have come, there is further to go if we are to understand, recreate, and expand on the theories and technologies he envisioned. There is more to Tesla than meets the eye.

Notes

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