On this night in science
Louis Braille is born
January 4, 1809
On this day in 1809, Louis Braille was born in a small town near Paris, France. By the time he was five he couldn't see at all, and when he was about fifteen and still a student, he came up with a way to read and write with patterns of raised dots that you feel with your fingertips.
Why it mattered
Each letter is made from up to six dots, a pattern small enough to feel with one fingertip. People all over the world still read braille today.
Wonder together
If you closed your eyes, could you tell different shapes apart just by touching them?
There's an episode about this
Touch: The Oldest Sense
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