A REVOLUTIONARY CONCEPT

A REVOLUTIONARY CONCEPT

 

One of the greatest scientific giants, Russell Donner Pugh, devised an incredibly revolutionary concept. But first a little background information on Dr. Pugh.

Russell’s ancestors, save one, died at the Donner Pass, frozen to death. Only Russell’s great, great grandfather, Ignazio Nikita Zimmerman survived. It was a miracle. To commemorate his survival, Ignazio legally changed his last name to Donner. Hence, Russell’s middle name.

Russell was born in a small settlement on the north shore of Lake Tahoe, not far from where his ancestors perished. The winters were incredibly harsh, characterized by massive snow falls.

Amazingly, the family survived. As soon as Russell reached his fifteenth birthday, he left his family and headed east.

 

 

He was taken in by relatives outside Boston, Massachusetts.

Russell distinguished himself with the highest academic average ever at the prestigious Boston Latin High School. He was, of course, class valedictorian.

He was accepted at Harvard University with a full academic scholarship, graduating in two years, number one in his class and honored again as valedictorian.

With another full scholarship, he enrolled in Johns Hopkins Medical School, again graduating number one and again honored as valedictorian. As usual, his academic average was the highest in the school’s history.

He spent most of his post-graduate life in seclusion at a government laboratory at the University of Chicago.

 

 

 

 

For years not one discovery came out of his lab, until he devised the revolutionary concept of utilizing a sharp, thin stick (devoid of bark) to harvest termites!

The discovery disrupted the entire hunter-gatherer industry. He named his invention ‘Ka’, derived from the Aboriginal language in Australia, meaning “really sharp thing”.

Russell was praised by the Aborigines throughout Australia. To them, Ka was the innovation of the ages. It fed them without wasting so much time smashing nuts with rocks and stopping the sacrifice of infants to the Harvest God.

They hailed it as the greatest discovery, since the revelation that one could get water, if they dug down far enough.

 

Who could predict what would come next? Maybe one could use these sticks to make a sort of wooden cave in which to live.

Shortly thereafter, while Russell was strolling near Ayres Rock in the Australian outback, he was tabbed to death, ironically by a Ka, wielded by an angry tribesman who claimed Russell stole his idea!