A biography of the pixel, the elementary particle of pictures.

Americans are usually taught that Claude Shannon first proved the sampling theorem, but he never even claimed it. It was ‘common knowledge’, he said. Several countries have claimants to the title, but Kotelnikov was the first to prove the entire theorem as it’s used today. Russians certainly believe so. In 2003 in the Kremlin, on the 70th anniversary of Kotelnikov’s proof, Russia’s president Vladimir Putin awarded him with the Order of Merit to the Fatherland.