Born in Serbia in 1856 to an illiterate mother and a priest, Nikola Tesla was no doubt a genius. At college he showed how he could perform integral calculus in his head, prompting his teachers to accuse him of cheating. During his first year at University he worked from 3am to
11pm every day, but later became addicted to gambling, losing all his allowance before winning it back and returning the bal- ance to his family. He failed to graduate and worked as a drafts- man. During this time he had a nervous breakdown. Then, in 1884 he sailed for the US, arriving with only four
cents in his pocket. Here, he was hired by Thomas Edison at his Edison Machine Works, where he was asked to solve some of the company's most difficult problems, including redesigning Edison's direct current generators. After arguing with Edison, Tesla set up his own company and devised an alternating current electrical system. He went on to invent the Tesla coil, wireless electrical transmission, laid down the foundations of radar, made early studies of X-rays and in 1898 demonstrated a radio-controlled boat. His inventions were so advanced that they were used at the cutting edge of technology. When Mar- coni made his famous first ever transatlantic radio transmission in 1901, Tesla quipped that it was done with 17 Tesla patents. Tesla’s work on electricity and radio at the beginning of the 20th Century were the foundation of many things we now take for granted. As such, there is no doubt he was an extraordinary, world-changing figure.
Nikola Tesla is often cited as the misunderstood genius of the 19th and 20th centuries. He overcame hardship to allow his brilliance to shine through, and many of the things we now take for granted were first conceived in his brilliant mind. Bernardo Moya
Our virtues and our failings are inseparable, like force and matter. When they separate, man is no more.
Born in the US in 1880, Helen Keller was struck blind and deaf by a mystery illness at 19 months. Though she had the basic ability to communicate using hand signals, her life was one of frustration at not being able to understand what was going on around her. She had no way of connecting an object with a word until her instructor, Anne Sullivan, took over her teaching. Sullivan's problem was clear. How could she get Keller to
understand that each thing in the world had a word signifying it? The breakthrough came in a famous moment when Helen Keller connected the concept "water" that was being spelled on her hand with the water being run on her other hand. After that, she wore Sullivan out asking her for the words for the things around her. This breakthrough revealed Keller to have a first rate mind,
and after attending a series of educational establishments she was admitted in 1900 to Radcliffe College and in 1904, at the age of 24, became the first deaf blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. Keller learned to speak and went on to spend much of the rest
of her life giving speeches and lectures, as well as becoming a famous author. Devoted to helping the disadvantaged, she became an influ-
ential socialist, an advocate for birth control, a pacifist and suf- fragist, she was a beacon of hope and an inspiration to millions throughout the world afflicted with disabilities.
Helen Keller is synonymous with overcoming disability in order to become a full and active member of the community. She gave a voice to so many like her who would otherwise never have been heard. Bernardo Moya
Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light.