Geek of the Week: Vannevar Bush, Nicolas Flamel

Welcome to "Geek of the Week"; here we honor one Muggle geek and one Wizard geek who embody Ravenclaw spirit...
when they succeed, they soar, and when they fail, they fail spectacularly!

Vannevar Bush (1890 - 1974)

"Fear cannot be banished, but it can be calm and without panic; it can be mitigated by reason and evaluation."

Vannevar Bush was an electrical engineer, inventor, and science administrator.  His early work to improve submarine detection during WWI, successful in testing, was unsuccessfully implemented by Navy officials.  Afterward, undeterred by this frustration, Bush completed the first differential analyzer; his work at MIT was the beginning of digital circuit design theory.  During WWII, he briefed the U.S. President on the feasibility of atomic weapons and began work on the Manhattan Project.

The year 1945 found Bush theorizing in some major publications.  His article Science-- The Endless Frontier detailed the importance of government support for scientific research, spurring the creation of the National Science Foundation, and his Atlantic Monthly article As We May Think has been hailed as an introduction to the possibility of hypertext, decades before the creation of the internet.

Find out more about Vannevar Bush on Wikipedia.

Nicolas Flamel (1327 - 1992)

"You must learn to question everything. 
To wait before moving, to look before stepping, 
and to observe everything."

Nicolas Flamel is known as the greatest alchemist in world history.  His work on the creation of the only known Philosopher's Stone, guided by the Book of Abramelin the Mage, has been well documented over the centuries. 

Some Muggle records indicate that Flamel died in 1418 at the age of 91; however, those in the wizarding world know of Flamel lived to be 665, thanks to the Elixir of Life generated by his famous invention.

Read the Muggle version of Flamel's life on Wikipedia.