Hedy Lamarr -- Screen Siren and Intellectual Giant

I'm not easily impressed but this story is just so amazing. Hedy Lamarr, the 40's star of films such as Samson and Delilah created and patented part of the technology that works your cell phone! She along with composer George Antheil, devised a system that would allow for radio guided torpedos to be used against the Nazis in WWII. The technology was based on controlled frequency hopping which made the signals jam-proof. Do yourself a favor... read this story and then shake your fist in outrage when you find out that she died having never received a penny for her patent.