Meet Valerie Thomas, the scientist whose computer code let NASA see the earth from space [NCJS]

NASA scientist Valerie Thomas stands next to a set of Computer Compatible Tapes, disks that stored information from NASA’s Landsat satellite. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

When someone looks in the mirror, the image staring back at them is two-dimensional. It’s flat, just like the surface of the mirror. But what if that mirror was curved, like the bottom of a bowl? Could the light reflect back an image that looks three-dimensional?

These were the exact questions that American scientist Valerie Thomas was trying to answer when she designed her Illusion Transmitter, patented in 1980: a device that uses concave, or curved, mirrors to create the appearance of a 3-D image on the receiving end. This technology has modern applications: televisions could someday use this transmitter to project three-dimensional shows directly into our dining rooms. NASA used this technology to observe Halley’s Comet, and scientists are now exploring its potential to see inside the human body.

[READ MORE AT THE NATIONAL COLLEGIATE JOURNAL OF SCIENCE]