How Nikola Tesla Inspired Google Founder Larry Page

The favorite biography among Tesla fans, Prodigal Genius: The Life of Nikola Tesla by John J. O'Neill has been getting some recent media attention in The Business Insider.  The article documents the untold story of Larry Page (the co-founder of Google), how he came to found Google, his struggles, his successes, and his relationships with his coworkers. The writer of the article, Nicholas Carlson, compares the two individuals and depicts how Page learned from Tesla's story* and read O'Neill's biography as a young boy. 

Some highlights from the article include:

"In that moment, Page realised it wasn’t enough to envision an innovative technological future. Big ideas aren’t enough. They need to be commercialized. If Page wanted to be an inventor, he was going to have to start a successful company, too."

"Tesla’s story also taught Page to watch out for the Thomas Edisons of the world — people who will use you and place your dreams in the service of their own cynical ends."

To read the full Business Insider article, please do so here. We add a note to this article, which states that Tesla was a Croatian immigrant to the U.S. However, although he was born in Smiljan, currently in Croatia then in the mid 1880s part of the Austrian Hungarian empire, his parents were Serbian and he is considered by most to be Serbian.

Among a hardcover, paperback and eBook version of Prodigal Genius, Cosimo also offers the following titles by Nikola Tesla:

- My Inventions: The Autobiography of Nikola Tesla in paperback, hardcover, and eBook versions

- Experiments With Alternate Currents of High Potential and High Frequency in both paperback and hardcover

- The Problem of Increasing Human Energy: With Special Reference to the Harnessing of the Suns Energy in paperback

Cosimo co-sponsors Sustainable Styles Launch Party at Tesla Showroom in NY

Sustainable Styles, a new magazine venture from sustainable activist Pamela Peeters, held a launch party co-sponsored by Cosimo last Wednesday evening. Among the guests was Frans Verhagen, whose recent book, The Tierra Solution, was being raffled along with Nikola Tesla's autobiography My Inventions. The launch party was held at Tesla's namesake, the Tesla Motors Showroom, where guests were treated to a close-up look at one of the innovative electrical cars, inspired by the works and inventions of Nikola Tesla. 

If you're interested in learning more about Sustainable Styles and Pamela Peeters work, please visit their Facebook page or consider a donation to the magazine.

New York Times on Keeping Nikola Tesla's Flame Bright

According to The New York Times, fans of inventor and writer Nikola Tesla are hosting fundraisers to create a museum featuring Tesla's inventions and life in his dilapidated laboratory, Wardenclyffe.

One such method of fundraising is producing a movie about Tesla, which would include the purchase of and subsequently feature the estate. Other plans include online fundraising and philanthropy, but all will contribute to the purchase of the museum, which will educate the public on the largely under-publicized man.

Fans or newcomers to Tesla's work can start with his autobiography, My Inventions, available in both paperback and hardcover. Additionally, you can read about his Experiments with Alternate Currents of High Potential and High Frequency, also in paperback and hardcover, and The Problem of Increasing Human Energy, an always-hot topic with the discussions of climate change.