Lots actually:

The impending switch on of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN on Wednesday got me thinking about other Swiss inventions and discoveries.

I found this site that lists many of the most important ones.
http://www.muellerscience.com/ENGLIS...iscoveries.htm
Here are a few examples:


What do you consider to be the most important inventions or discoveries in Switzerland, or by Swiss people? They could be the most important to you, not necessarilly the most important for the world.

Rod

Little pieces of paper, by which a fellow may enjoy illuminating (and occasionally disturbing) entertainment for a few hours of an evening...

chevrolet was a swiss guy, not that i am into chevy's but this story has been told to me a dozen times by swiss FIL!

i think i must have had a flashback for i swore you wrote something else here?...........

Indeed, I did.

Until I realised quite how much of a hippy it made me look. Man.

Hey Hey now watch it with the Chevy's.

How about the best roller coasters in the world. I know its not an invention but the best ones anywhere are made in Schweiz.

Othmar Ammann

One of Switzerland's greatest structural designers.

Famous bridges by Ammann include:
George Washington Bridge
Bayonne Bridge
Triborough Bridge
Bronx-Whitestone Bridge
Throgs Neck Bridge
Verrazano Narrows Bridge
He assisted in construction of the Golden Gate Bridge and in addition to his work on bridges Ammann also directed the planning and construction of the Lincoln Tunnel.


George de Mestral

The inventor of Velcro.


Jacques E. Brandenberger

The inventor of cellophane.


Georges Audemars

Created the first artificial silk (rayon)


Mario Botta

World famous modern architect

If you don't want to count Albert Einstein's Theory of Relativity (I wouldn't know why as he was a Swiss citizen living in Switzerland and a graduate from Kantonsschule Aarau and ETH Zurich) my vote would go to

Leonard Euler as in e (Euler's constant)

"Euler introduced and popularized several notational conventions through his numerous and widely circulated textbooks. Most notably, he introduced the concept of a function[3] and was the first to write f(x) to denote the function f applied to the argument x. He also introduced the modern notation for the trigonometric functions, the letter e for the base of the natural logarithm (now also known as Euler's number), the Greek letter Σ for summations and the letter i to denote the imaginary unit."

"Euler introduced the use of the exponential function and logarithms in analytic proofs. He discovered ways to express various logarithmic functions using power series, and he successfully defined logarithms for negative and complex numbers, thus greatly expanding the scope of mathematical applications of logarithms.[18] He also defined the exponential function for complex numbers, and discovered its relation to the trigonometric functions. "

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euler

or Daniel Bernoulli

"In 1740 Daniel Bernoulli published Hydrodynamica, which laid the basis for the kinetic theory of gases. In this work, Bernoulli positioned the argument, still used to this day, that gases consist of great numbers of molecules moving in all directions, that their impact on a surface causes the gas pressure that we feel, and that what we experience as heat is simply the kinetic energy of their motion. The theory was not immediately accepted"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinetic_theory
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernoulli%27s_principle

Let's not leave out Carl Jung and his contributions to the field of Psychology.

I'd list but you can google.

post-it notes?

and for the sake of not de-railing the thread...... a whole heap of very important steps have been made in the atmospheric sciences in switzerland

Ricola.....whal else...

So this country is responsible for global warming then? Because they found out about it?

He can certainly be included. No reason why not.

Rod

are we sure about D&D? Wiki (speaking of truth seekers! ) only says that Gygax's father was Swiss. Not sure that one would count no matter how desperate one is to claim that as ones most important invention....

Fair comment. In reality, many of the names on the list have tenuous links to Switzerland. But probably no more so than Greg Rusedski being British!

Rod

Ladies & Gentleman,

Do not forget the one of the greatest musical contribution of all times.
And yes he is Swiss as of his international status you may not know and I am sure if you ask any Swiss person, they are proud of him:

DJ BOBO


here a sample of one of his great songs.



I am sure if there was no DJ Bobo we would not have others ( big bands such as Nsync come to mind )

My favourite things that the Swiss have given us are.....
LSD from the late great Albert Hofman and humane ways of flushing goldfish down the dunny.

What about Meringues from Meiringen?

"
What Have The Swiss Done For Us?
Lots actually:

The impending switch on of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN on Wednesday got me thinking about other Swiss inventions and discoveries."



CERN is not a Swiss organisation. It is European, and also financed by countries outside Europe, including US and Saudi Arabia. Its director-general is French.

Is Alfred Hoffmann's problem child available on prescription anywhere? I was thinking of doing some investigative experimentation.....