Human Potential

These messages focus on individuals who helped pioneer the development of talent in others as well as fully utilizing their own talent.

    • Forgetting

      Hermann Ebbinghaus was born in 1850 in the Kingdom of Prussia. He is noted today for his pioneering work in the study of memory. Using himself as a subject, he would memorize nonsense words formed by a consonant-vowel-consonant combination that had no meaning (e.g.,...

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    • Diversity of Talent

      As the United States ventured into space, NASA realized that the space suits worn by astronauts were critical to mission success. As early as 1947, the military had developed suits for pilots which were partially or fully pressurized. But these were considered...

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    • A Life of Creating Images

      Stanley was born in 1928 in New York City. He had an above average IQ but struggled in school because of poor attendance. When his father bought him a camera, Stanley developed a lifelong interest in photography. A neighbor had a darkroom, and that furthered Stanley’s...

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    • Opening Up a New World of Imagination

      Satoshi Tajiri was born in 1965 in a suburb of Tokyo. Satoshi spent a lot of time outdoors collecting insects. He was called Dr. Bug by his friends. As the outdoors where he lived disappeared, Satoshi could no longer collect insects and he turned his obsession to...

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    • Word Challenges

      Herman Hollerith was born in 1860. His parents were German immigrants. He struggled in school and his parents home-schooled him after he jumped out of a grade school window to avoid a spelling test. The 1880 consensus was the stimulus for the idea that would make...

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    • Contributions of Obsessive Compulsive

      It was the second time in the last three months that a patient had been lost in surgery due to not having the right instruments available to the surgical team. Something needed to be done. Sterile Supply was responsible for preparing surgical kits and having them in...

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    • Contributions of Those with Wandering Minds

      Mike had been a concern to his parents ever since he started to school. His teachers were constantly mentioning his lack of attention. Even with his attention issues, Mike generally had the best grades of his classmates. In fact, the times when Mike was more focused...

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    • Careers and Marriage

      Nora Stanton (Blatch) Barney was born in England, but came to the United States when she was 19. Her grandmother was Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a pioneer in women’s rights, especially voting. Nora’s mother was also an activist, and Nora had both her mother and...

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    • Algebra – A Gate to an Inclusive Society

      Bob Moses was an African American civil rights leader who made two distinctive contributions to the civil rights movement. He was a leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and worked to get African Americans to register to vote in Mississippi....

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    • Career Barriers

      Few people believed in Yvonne Brill. Her high school teacher told her that a woman would never succeed in a science career. Her father wanted her to stay at home and be a store keeper. She wasn’t allowed to study engineering at the University of Manitoba because of...

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