Holography inventor is honoured

The inventor of the hologram has been honoured with a blue plaque.

Dennis Gabor was commemorated at 79 Queens Gate, Kensington, south-west London, on Thursday.

The physicist discovered holography by accident while working to improve the electron microscope and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1971.

He described himself as "one of the few lucky physicists who could see an idea grow into a sizeable chapter of physics".

He is also credited with inventing the quartz mercury street lamp and the flat television tube.

Mr Gabor lived in Kensington from 1949 to 1967 with his wife and he taught Electron Physics at the local Imperial College.

Holograms have many applications in everyday life and are used on credit cards, for research, in medicine and also as an art medium.

He died in 1979 aged 79 in a nursing home in South Kensington.