Life Musings

"Because geniuses are willing to entertain novel combinations, they are able to discard accepted ideas of what is possible and accept what is actually possible. In 1448 Johannes Gutenberg combined the mechanisms for pressing wine and punching coins to produce movable type, which made printing practical. His method of producing movable type endured almost unchanged for five centuries. The laws of heredity on which the modern science of genetics is based are the result of the work of Gregor Mendel, who combined mathematics and biology to create this new science. Thomas Edison's invention of a practical system of lighting involved combining wiring in parallel circuits with high-resistance filaments in his bulbs, two things that were not considered possible."