In celebration of Hedy Lamarr’s 101st birthday, Google put a nifty animation together for us all to enjoy. Though more well-known as a movie star of Hollywood’s Golden Age in films like I Take This Woman and Lady Of The Tropics, Lamarr was ALSO an inventor. During the Second World War, she co-patented a frequency hopping system that was “intended to make radio-guided torpedoes harder for enemies to detect or jam.” This was done by using a piano roll to change signals within a range of up to 88 frequencies– because pianos have 88 keys. Clever! The signal would literally “hop” from one frequency to the next in order to avoid being caught. It’s all very scientific. But there you have it. Hedy Lamarr, Hollywood starlet and inventor extraordinaire.