Charles Kuen Kao received the Nobel Prize for research that has revolutionized our lives and our communication. Its abbreviated name has a funny connotation in German.
Charles K. Kao is known worldwide with the abbreviated middle initial. But the real name of the famous physicist was Charles Kuen Kao. Pronounced German, the abbreviated version sounds like “Kakao”, but the genius of physicists probably didn’t have much to do with hot chocolate, at least nothing of the kind has come down to us.
Charles K. Kao, who was born in China, brought the world a technology that is used billions of times every day and raised our communication to a whole new level. In 2009 he received the Nobel Prize in Physics for his research on fiber optic technology. He would probably get the award again at any time, so the tenor in a recent article about him – fiber optics are still so important today. It is used for the technical transmission of data and made it much faster than before with previously unknown bandwidths. A cornerstone for the digital revolution.
Google also needs Charles K. Kao’s invention
The American-British scientist would have turned 88 on November 4th – reason enough for Google to dedicate a doodle to Charles K. Kao that illustrates in a simple but very catchy way what the researcher once invented.
Because the word “Google” is represented today as a fiber optic cable, in the animation data is sent through it. At the same time, the animation looks like an experimental setup. The search engine also benefits from this technology, for which Charles K. Kao was celebrated around the world a little more than a decade ago – long after its invention.
Most of his pioneering work came about in the 1960s when, after graduating from England, he made his discoveries in a research laboratory as Director of Engineering at telecommunications company ITT in Harlow, Essex.
The researcher – then in his early 30s – tried to find out how telecommunications could be improved while making better use of optical fibers. It was then that he found out that glass fibers were not technically unsuitable – the products of the time were simply not pure enough. It was the impurities that caused the fiber optic cables of the time to suffer from very high data losses.
Charles K. Kao found that glass fibers had to be extremely pure
His idea was that fiber optics could very well be used as a suitable transmission medium – but to do this one would have to significantly reduce data loss, which he finally succeeded in doing with the help of his experiments.
Kao’s research made it possible to transmit data via fiber optics at completely new speeds – a technology that would begin its triumphal march through the world in the coming decades. Companies like Google would be inconceivable without Charles K. Kao’s invention. Probably one of the reasons why the US search engine honors the scientist with a doodle. He died in Hong Kong in the fall of 2018.
Source From: Stern
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