10 ideas from Cambridge that changed the world

I saw this in the local paper and thought that this might of interest to you:

1.       The toilet: Sir John Harington invented the first flushing toilet in the 1590’s which is why we call it the ‘John’. He was a graduate of King’s College
2.       Gravity: Isaac Newton’s theory of gravitation was formed in 1666 at Trinity College. The apple tree that is said to have sparked this is said to be outside of Trinity College below the room Newton lived in as a student.
3.       Computers: Charles Babbage, who was a student of Trinity in 1810, came up with the idea when he was frustrated with human error. Before computers, there was a human computer who did the  numerical tables.
4.       DNA: James Watson and Francis Crick discovered the structure of DNA over a pint in the Eagle pub. They later won the Noble Prize.
5.       Modern Capitalism: Visiting Gonville and Caius Fellow Milton Friedman views in the 1950s on taxation, privatisation and deregulation has impacted the UK, US and the world.
6.       Evolution: Charles Darwin discovered his theory while on the Beagle.
7.       Football: The first formal code of a football game was developed in Parkers Piece.
8.       IVF: A chance meeting between scientist Robert Edwards and Doctor Patrick Steptoe in 1968 lead to the technique for in vitro fertilisation.
9.       Jet engines: Frank Whittle, RAF officer, wrote a thesis which changed the way the design of place around the world. He patented his design in 1930 and graduated from Cambridge.
10.   The structure of the atom: Ernest Rutherford (father of Nuclear Physics),  was in charge of the Cavendish Laboratory in the 1890’s, was responsible for both the discovery of the atom and for splitting it using a particle accelerator. He paved the way for nuclear power and the atom bomb.