Heinrich Rudolf Hertz: Google Doodle for a guy who rode a wave

Google's doodle honoring Hertz

Google put up an animated doodle of their logo honoring the 155th birthday of Heinrich Hertz. The animated logo doodle was posted on Wednesday, February 22, 2012.

Here's more from the LA Times:

Heinrich Rudolf Hertz -- who, like Van Gogh and Mozart, was a rare genius not fully appreciated during his lifetime -- is honored with a Google Doodle today, his 155th birthday. And perhaps the reason the German physicist wasn't valued for his work was that no one at that point was smart enough to do so.

Even Hertz didn't get it.

The German physicist, who was the first to broadcast and receive radio waves, did not realize at the time the broader implications of his work -- which laid the groundwork for the invention of the wireless telegraph, radio and TV.

"I do not think that the wireless waves I have discovered will have any practical application," Hertz once wrote, according to Scotland's University of St. Andrews.

Hertz made his discoveries young -- he began exercising his smarts early and was beginning his groundbreaking work at age 28. But his life was short, likely depriving the world of a host of amazing efforts. 

Contemplating the accomplishments he did make is enough to give those with more average brains a headache.  

He was the first to broadcast and receive radio waves, and he established "beyond any doubt" that light and heat were electromagnetic radiations.

Read more here.