Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Latino/Hispanic Inventors...


It’s taken over four hundred years for the US government to recognize and acknowledge the contributions of my fellow latinos/hispanics in this country. Hispanics were here long before the English came to Plymouth rock. The oldest continuously inhabited city in the United States is St. Augustine, Florida was founded in 1565 by the Spaniards. As school children we were never taught that Spanish, Hispanicized Africans and Native Americans and their mixed-blood descendants provided the basis for the development of much of American agriculture, mining, transportation grid, city planning, architecture and even law in the Southeast and Southwest. Concepts such as the right of women to inherit and own property, homestead rights, and the rights of adopted children to be treated the same as genetic offspring are examples of originally Hispanic legal principles that have benefited all of American society and continues to effect us in the present.
Did you know it was a Hispanic/Latino Inventor who engineered the 1st submarine, gyroplane (helicopter), and the atomic bomb (nuclear weapons)? In addition, the adjustable wrench, a reversible motor, an optical analysis system, and a system for color televisions were all created by the minds and hands of a Hispanic/Latino inventors.


César Milstein - Argentina
In work with his colaureate Georges J. F. Koehler, Milstein developed the techniques for producing monoclonal antibodies, antibodies with a specific affinity for certain sites in the body that might find diseased cells but leave healthy cells intact.

Carlos Finlay - Cuba
Finlay became famous for his work in identifying the mosquito as a carrier of the deadly yellow fever germ.

Clatonia Joaquin Dorticus - United States - Cuba
Invented an improved photographic print wash method.

Severo Ochoa de Albornoz - Spain
His research on high-energy phosphates and their role in the body's energy processes resulted in the discovery and application of the enzyme polynucleotyde phosphorilase, which catalizes the synthesis of RNA.

Santiago Ramón y Cajal - Spain
Famous hispanic inventor Santiago Ramón y Cajal was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work on the structure of the nervous system.

Narciso Monturiol - Spain
Monturiol, a Catalonian earched the first underwater navigation and in 1859 he drove the first fully operable submarine in the world, the Ictineo. The Spanish inventor offered the US Confederacy his advanced submarine to smash the Federal blockade. The "Ictineo" was never purchased. Jules Verne apparently based the Nautilus on this, the world's most advanced vessel of the day.

Miguel Servet - Spain
His work in anatomy and physiology led him to the discovery of the circulation of blood through the human body.

Ellen Ochoa - United States
Ellen Ochoa Mexican American invented optical analysis systems and was also the world's first Hispanic female astronaut. On a personal note you may one day be seeing another latina in space;my father's cousin just got accepted into the astronaut program at NASA. She's been in the airforce for about 15 yrs now.

Baruj Benacerraf - Venezuela
Benacerraf won the Nobel Prize, along with his colleagues Dausset and Snell, "for discoveries concerning genetically determined structures on the cell surface that regulate immunological reactions."

Guillermo González Camarena - Mexico
In 1940 at the age of 22, Guillermo Gonzalez Camarena obtained US Patent No. 2,296,022, which protected his “Trichromatic” system used for color television transmissions.

Bernardo Houssay - Argentina
Famous Hispanic inventor and Argentinian scientist and activist Bernardo Houssay was recognized by the Academy for "his discovery of the part played by the hormone of the anterior pituitary lobe in the metabolism of sugars".

Luis Federico Leloir - Argentina
Luis Leloir was awarded the Nobel Prize for "his discovery of sugar nucleotides and their role in the biosynthesis of carbohydrates".



Posted by @ 11:49 PM
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