February 8: Three-Dimensional Photographs

The inventor of holography (a form of three-dimensional imaging), Dennis Gabor (Günzberg), died on this date in 1979. The Hungarian-born scientist fled Nazi Germany in 1933 and did his research — for which he won the 1971 Nobel Prize in physics — in Great Britain. In his autobiography for the Nobel Committee, Gabor noted that “a serious mismatch has developed between technology and our social institutions,” and that “inventive minds ought to consider social inventions as their first priority.” This conviction was expressed in three books, Inventing the Future, 1963, Innovations, 1970, and The Mature Society, 1972. Holography is widely used in data storage, security, modern art, DVD recorders, and other technical applications.

“The most important and urgent problems of the technology of today are no longer the satisfactions of primary needs or of archetypal wishes, but the reparation of evils and damages by technology of yesterday.” —Dennis Gabor