This Day in Science History

yevaud · Jun 30, 2006

June 30 People Lee DeForest Died 30 Jun 1961 (born 26 Aug 1873) American inventor of the Audion vacuum tube, which made possible live radio broadcasting and became the key component of all radio, telephone, radar, television, and computer systems before the invention of the transistor in 1947. John William Strut Rayleigh Died 30 Jun 1919 (born 12 Nov 1842) (3rd Baron of Terling Place) English physical scientist who made fundamental discoveries in the fields of acoustics and optics that are basic to the theory of wave propagation in fluids. He received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1904 for his successful isolation of argon, an inert atmospheric gas. Abraham Gottlob Werner Died 30 Jun 1817 (born 25 Sep 1750) German geologist who founded the Neptunist school, which proclaimed the aqueous origin of all rocks, in opposition to the Plutonists, or Vulcanists, who argued that granite and many other rocks were of igneous origin. Werner rejected uniformitarianism ( the belief that geological evolution has been a uniform and continuous process). William Oughtred Died 30 Jun 1660 (born 5 Mar 1574) English mathematician and Episcopal minister who invented the earliest form of the slide rule, two identical linear or circular logarithmic scales held together and adjusted by hand. Improvements involving the familiar inner rule with tongue-in-groove linear construction came later. He introduced the familiar multiplication sign x in a 1631 textbook, along with the first use of the abbreviations sin, cos and tan. Events Eclipse from the Concorde In 1973, a solar eclipse, predicted as the longest for 1,000 years, was observed by British, French and American scientists aboard the French prot <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> Differential Diagnosis: "I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are." </div>

yevaud · Jun 30, 2006

July 1 People Amy Johnson Born 1 Jul 1903; died 5 Jan 1941. Pioneering British female aviator who first achieved fame as a result of her attempt (1930) to set a record for solo flight from London to Darwin, Australia, although she missed that record by three days. She took up flying in 1928, and also showed talent for mechanics. By 1930 she had qualified as both a pilot and a ground engineer. Flying a De Havilland Moth, Johnson set out to beat Bert Hinkler's record for flying to Australia. Though she did not beat the record, she made it to Australia, and was given a hero's welcome. She was the first woman to make the trip. The Daily Mail gave her a £10,000 prize. Johnson made other long-distance flights. While on a flying mission for the Air Ministry, 5 Jan 1941, she disappeared over the Thames estuary. Louis Bleriot Born 1 Jul 1872; died 2 Aug 1936. French aviator who made the world's first over-the-ocean flight in a heavier-than-air craft. As a successful inventor of automobile lights and accessories, he had his own funds available to turn his interest in aviation. After experimenting with gliders and light-engine airplanes of various designs, on 25 Jul 1909 he flew across the English Channel from Calais to Dover, piloting his Blériot XI, a monoplane with a 28-h.p. engine in 37 minutes. Blériot made the historic crossing after Lord Northcliffe, the owner of the Daily Mail, offered £1,000 to the first successful pilot. Georg Christoph Lichtenberg Born 1 Jul 1742; died 24 Feb 1799. German physicist and satirical writer, best known for his aphorisms and his ridicule of metaphysical and romantic excesses. At Göttingen University, Lichtenberg did research in a wide variety of fields, including geophysics, volcanology, meteorology, chemistry, astronomy, and mathematics. His most important were h <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> Differential Diagnosis: "I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are." </div>

yevaud · Jul 4, 2006

I was not feeling well for several days, so I did not post here. I now post the missing three days, including today. Thanks for your patience. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> Differential Diagnosis: "I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are." </div>

yevaud · Jul 4, 2006

July 2 People Hans Albrecht Bethe Born 2 Jul 1906; died 6 Mar 2005. German-born American theoretical physicist who helped to shape classical physics into quantum physics and increased the understanding of the atomic processes responsible for the properties of matter and of the forces governing the structures of atomic nuclei. Bethe did work relating to armour penetration and the theory of shock waves of a projectile moving through air. He studied nuclear reactions and reaction cross sections (1935-38). In 1943, Oppenheimer asked Bethe to be the head of the Theoretical Division at Los Alamos on the Manhattan Project. After returning to Cornell University in 1946, Bethe became a leader promoting the social responsibility of science. He received the Nobel Prize for Physics (1967) for his work on the production of energy in stars. Hugh L. Dryden Born 2 Jul 1898; died 2 Dec 1965. Hugh L(atimer) Dryden was a U.S. physicist and deputy administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA, 1958) for 7 years. He made pioneering studies in the aerodynamics of high speed and some of the earliest studies of air flow around wing surfaces at the speed of sound. During WW II he headed the Washington Project of the National Defense Research Committee, which developed the Bat radar-homing missile, the first successful U.S. guided missile, which was used by the navy against the Japanese during WW II. In 1962, he led negotiations for joint U.S.-Soviet space projects. He was instrumental in achieving the exchange of weather-satellite data and operation of cooperative communications satellite tests. Sir William Bragg Born 2 Jul 1862; died 12 Mar 1942. Sir William Henry Bragg was a pioneer British scientist in solid-state physics who was a joint winner (with his son Sir Lawrence Bragg) of the No <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> Differential Diagnosis: "I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are." </div>

yevaud · Jul 4, 2006

July 3 People Samuel P. Massie Born 3 Jul 1919 Samuel Proctor Massie is an American chemist who was the U.S. Naval Academy's first African-American professor. He graduated from high school at age 13, and received his B.S. degree at age 18. In 1943, while working on his Ph.D., Massie joined a team of scientists working for the Manhattan Project on the development of the atomic bomb. He was asked to develop liquid compounds of uranium, though this research later proved to be a dead end. His major contributions include studies in silicon chemistry, the chemistry of phenothiazine, antimalarial-antibacterial agents, and studies on environmental agents. He is recognized for encouraging disadvantaged students into science careers. Jesse Douglas Born 3 Jul 1897; died 7 Oct 1965. American mathematician who was awarded one of the first two Fields Medals in 1936 for solving the Plateau problem. which had first been posed by the Italian-French mathematician Joseph-Louis Lagrange in 1760. The Plateau problem is one of finding the surface with minimal area determined by a fixed boundary. Experiments (1849) by the Belgian physicist Joseph Plateau demonstrated that the minimal surface can be obtained by immersing a wire frame, representing the boundaries, into soapy water. Douglas developed what is now called the Douglas functional, so that by minimizing this functional he could prove the existence of the solution to the Plateau problem. Douglas later developed an interest in group theory. Pierre Berthier Born 3 Jul 1782; died 24 Aug 1861. French mineralogist and mining engineer who discovered bauxite (aluminium ore) on 23 Mar 1821 near the village Les Baux de Provence in southern France. On 24 May 1806, he joined the central laboratory at the Board of Mines. From 1816, he was chief of the laboratory at the <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> Differential Diagnosis: "I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are." </div>

yevaud · Jul 4, 2006

July 4 People Frederick Seitz Born 4 Jul 1911 American physicist who made fundamental contributions to the theory of solids, nuclear physics, fluorescence, and crystals. As Eugene Wigner's first doctoral student, late in 1932, Seitz developed the cellular method of deriving solid-state wave functions. The widespread application of this Wigner-Seitz method to the understanding of metals is regarded as the catalyst for the formation of the field of solid-state physics in the U.S. His subsequent research focused on the theory and properties of crystals. He studied dislocations and imperfections in crystal structures, the effect of irradiation on crystals, and the process of diffusion (the movement of atoms or particles caused by random collision) in crystalline materials. Vincent Joseph Schaffer Born 4 Jul 1906; died 25 Jul 1993. U.S. research chemist who invented "cloud-seeding," artificially causing rain or snow using dry ice pellets. He experimented with weather control for U.S. military during WW II. In 1946, while conducting atmospheric research at the General Electric (GE) Research Laboratory in Schenectady, he investigated the physics of precipitation. Upon creating a method of producing a snowstorm in the laboratory, he proved the same was possible outdoors. He flew over Mount Greylock, Massachusetts, seeding clouds with pellets of dry ice (solid carbon dioxide) and produced snow. Later, he became founder and director of Atmospheric Sciences Research Center at State University of New York in Albany. Rube Goldberg Born 4 Jul 1883; died 7 Dec 1970. American cartoonist who satirized the American preoccupation with technology. His name became synonymous with any simple process made outlandishly complicated because of his series of "Invention" cartoons which use a string of outlandish tools, peo <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> Differential Diagnosis: "I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are." </div>

yevaud · Jul 5, 2006

July 5 People Andrew Ellicott Douglass Born 5 Jul 1867; died 20 Mar 1962 American astronomer and archaeologist who established the principles of dendrochronology (the dating and interpreting of past events by the analysis of tree rings). He coined the name of that study when, while working at the Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, Ariz. (1894-1901), he began to collect tree specimens, believing that variations in the width of tree rings would show a connection between sunspot activity and the terrestrial climate and vegetation. William John Macquorn Rankine Born 5 Jul 1820; died 24 Dec 1872 Scottish engineer and physicist and one of the founders of the science of thermodynamics, particularly in reference to steam-engine theory. As the chair (1855) of civil engineering and mechanics at Glasgow, he developed methods to solve the force distribution in frame structures. Rankine also wrote on fatigue in the metal of railway axles, on Earth pressures in soil mechanics and the stability of walls. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1853. Among his most important works are Manual of Applied Mechanics (1858), Manual of the Steam Engine and Other Prime Movers (1859) and On the Thermodynamic Theory of Waves of Finite Longitudinal Disturbance. Robert Fitzroy Born 5 Jul 1805; died 30 Apr 1865 British naval officer, hydrographer, and meteorologist who commanded the voyage of HMS Beagle, aboard which Charles Darwin sailed around the world as the ship's naturalist. That voyage provided Darwin with much of the material on which he based his theory of evolution. Fitzroy retired from active duty in 1850 and from 1854 devoted himself to meteorology. He devised a storm warning system that was the prototype of the daily weather forecast, invented a barometer, and published The Weather Book (1863). His deat <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> Differential Diagnosis: "I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are." </div>

yevaud · Jul 6, 2006

July 6 People J. Carson Mark Born 6 July 1913; died 2 Mar 1997 Canadian-born American scientist who, as head of the theoretical division at the Los Alamos (N.M.) Scientific Laboratory, was instrumental in the development of the hydrogen bomb. He began at Los Alamos in 1945 as a collaborator on the Manhattan Project. He joined the staff in 1946 and became leader of T Division the following year until his retirement in 1973. At the Laboratory, he was involved in the development of various weapons systems, including thermonuclear bombs. He had a broad range of research interests, including hydrodynamics, neutron physics and transport theory. By the 1960s, much of the weapons work had been relocated and the T division diversified into working with outside agencies and private industry. Lawrence Hargrave Died 6 July 1915 (born 29 Jan 1850) Australian aeronautical pioneer best known for his invention of the box kite. Hargrave "flew" in 1894, by attaching himself to a huge four kite construction attached to the ground by piano wire.Due to their innate abilities to carry heavy payloads, steady flight, and capacity for high altitude flight these kites have had many industrial and military uses in the past. Box kites were used until the 1930's to carry meteorological equipment for high altitude weather studies and by the Royal Air Force as sea rescue equipment to deliver radio aerials. Hargrave also made important studies of wing surfaces and worked with rotary engines and gliders. Joseph LeConte Died 6 July 1901 (born 26 Feb 1823) American geologist who was a universalist in the scope of his scientific writings. As a founding member of John Muir's Sierra Club, he spoke fervently for broad preservation of California forests by government and wise use of timberlands in private enterprise. He was one of <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> Differential Diagnosis: "I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are." </div>

yevaud · Jul 7, 2006

July 7 People Rudolf Wolf Born 7 July 1816; died 6 Dec 1893. Swiss astronomer and astronomical historian. Wolf's main contribution was the discovery of the 11 year sunspot cycle and he was the codiscoverer of its connection with geomagnetic activity on Earth. In 1849 he devised a system now known as Wolf's sunspot numbers. This system is still in use for studying solar activity by counting sunspots and sunspot groups. In mathematics, Wolf wrote on prime number theory and geometry, then later on probability and statistics - a long paper discussed Buffon's needle experiment. He estimated by Monte Carlo methods. Herman Kahn Died 7 July 1983 (born 15 Feb 1922; died 7 Jul 1983) American physicist, who worked on nuclear strategy as a military analyst (1948-61). Later, he became known as a futurist making controversial studies of nuclear warfare in his books, including his provocative analysis of nuclear war in On Thermonuclear War (1960) and his predictions of the probability and survivability of nuclear war in Thinking About the Unthinkable (1962). He held that since it might be possible to survive a nuclear war, it was essential to plan to do just that. Kahn founded the influential Hudson Institute in New York in 1961 to study aspects of national security related to narcotics policy, international economics and trade, population, transportation, crime, medicine. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Died 7 July 1930; born 22 May 1859. Scottish novelist, physician, spiritualist. His fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes emulates the scientist, diligently searching through data and to make sense of it. "It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts." Events <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> Differential Diagnosis: "I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are." </div>

yevaud · Jul 11, 2006

I have been posting this since February, wheh! Lately, I was very, very busy, so I took a few days break. However, here are the missing days of "This Day in Science History": July 8 People Igor Yevgenyevich Tamm Born 8 July 1895 (died 12 Apr 1971) Soviet physicist who shared the 1958 Nobel Prize for Physics with Pavel A. Cherenkov and Ilya M. Frank for his efforts in explaining Cherenkov radiation. Tamm was an outstanding theoretical physicist, after early researches in crystallo-optics, he evolved a method for interpreting the interaction of nuclear particles. Together with I. M. Frank, he developed the theoretical interpretation of the radiation of electrons moving through matter faster than the speed of light (the Cerenkov effect), and the theory of showers in cosmic rays. He has also contributed towards methods for the control of thermonuclear reactions. Pyotr Kapitsa Born 8 July 1894; died 8 Apr 1984. Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa, Russian physicist, was a corecipient of the 1978 Nobel Prize for Physics for his basic strong magnetic field inventions and discoveries in the area of low-temperature physics. He discovered that helium II (the stable form of liquid helium below 2.174 K, or -270.976 C) has almost no viscosity (i.e., resistance to flow). Late in the 1940's Kapitza changed his focus, inventing high power microwave generators - planotron and nigotron (1950-1955) and discovered a new kind of continuous high pressure plasma discharge with electron temperatures over a million K. Count Ferdinand Von Zeppelin Born 8 July 1838; died 8 Mar 1917. Born in Baden, Germany, Count von Zeppelin is one of the most famous pioneers of aviation as the airship designer and first builder of the rigid dirigible airships now known after his name. At first, some of his fellow citizens in his t <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> Differential Diagnosis: "I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are." </div>

yevaud · Jul 11, 2006

July 9 People Ben R. Mottleson Born 9 July 1926 American-Danish physicist, born in Chicago, Ill., who shared the 1975 Nobel Prize for Physics with Aage N. Bohr and James Rainwater for "for the discovery of the connection between collective motion and particle motion in atomic nuclei and the development of the theory of the structure of the atomic nucleus based on this connection." This work in determined the asymmetrical shapes of certain atomic nuclei and the reasons behind such asymmetries. Later research investigated the fact that nuclear matter has properties reminiscent of superconductors. John Wheeler Born 9 July 1911 John Archibald Wheeler was the first American physicist involved in the theoretical development of the atomic bomb. He also originated a novel approach to the unified field theory. Wheeler was awarded the 1997 Wolf Prize "for his seminal contributions to black hole physics, to quantum gravity, and to the theories of nuclear scattering and nuclear fission." After recognizing that any large collection of cold matter has no choice but to yield to the pull of gravity and undergo total collapse, Wheeler first coined the term "black hole" in 1967. Nikola Tesla Born 9 July 1856; died 7 Jan 1943 Serbian-American inventor and researcher (born on the stroke of midnight) who designed and built the first alternating current induction motor in 1883. He emigrated to the United States in 1884. Having discovered the benefits of a rotating magnetic field, the basis of most alternating-current machinery, he expanded its use in dynamos, transformers, and motors. Because alternating current could be transmitted over much greater distances than direct current, George Westinghouse bought patents from Tesla the system when he built the power station at Niagara Falls to provide electricity p <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> Differential Diagnosis: "I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are." </div>

yevaud · Jul 11, 2006

July 10 People Owen Chamberlain Born 10 July 1920 American physicist who shared the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1959 with Emilio Segrè for their discovery of the antiproton. This previously postulated subatomic particle was the second antiparticle to be discovered and led directly to the discovery of many additional antiparticles. Alvan Graham Clark Born 10 July 1832; died 9 June 1897. U.S. astronomer, one of an American family of telescope makers and astronomers who supplied unexcelled lenses to many observatories in the U.S. and Europe during the heyday of the refracting telescope. He began a deep interest in astronomy while still at school, then joined the family firm of Alvan Clark & Sons, makers of astronomical lenses. In 1861, testing a new lens, he looked through it at Sirius and observed faintly beside it, Sirius B, the twin star predicted by Friedrich Bessel in 1844. Carrying on the family business, after the deaths of his father and brother, Clark made the 40" lenses of the Yerkes telescope (still the largest refractor in the world). Their safe delivery was a source of anxiety. He died shortly after the first use of the Yerkes lenses. Frank Scleshinger Died 10 July 1943 (born 11 May 1871) American astronomer who pioneered in the use of photography to map stellar positions and to measure stellar parallaxes, which could give more precise determinations of distance than visual ones, and with less than one hundredth as much time at the telescope. He designed instruments and mathematical and numerical techniques to improve parallax measurements. He published ten volumes of zone catalogs, including some 150,000 stars. He compiled positions, magnitudes, proper motions, radial velocities, and other data to produce the first edition and, with Louise Jenkins, the second, of the widely-used <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> Differential Diagnosis: "I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are." </div>

yevaud · Jul 11, 2006

July 11 People Theodore Maiman Born 11 Jul 1927 Theodore H(arold) Maiman is an American physicist. He began working with electronic devices in his teens, while earning college money by repairing electrical appliances and radios. In the 1960s, he developed, demonstrated, and patented a laser using a pink ruby medium. The laser is a device that produces monochromatic coherent light (light in which the rays are all of the same wavelength and phase). The laser has since been applied in a very wide range of uses, including eye surgery, dentistry, range-finding, manufacturing, even measuring the distance between the Earth and the Moon. Cesar’ Lattes Born 11 Jul 1924; died 8 Mar 2005. César (Mansueto Giulio) Lattes was the Brazilian physicist who, with American physicist Eugene Gardner at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1948 confirmed the existence of heavy and light mesons formed during the bombardment of carbon nuclei with alpha particles. The experimental discovery of the pi meson was fundamental to explaining the nuclear binding force. Japanese theoretical physicist, Hideki Yukawa, had proposed (1935) a new, unknown particle with 200 times more mass than the electron, that was emitted and absorbed by protons and neutrons. The exchange of those particles between the nucleons would produce a short-range attraction between them. Aleksander Prokhorov Born 11 Jul 1916; died 8 Jan 2002. Aleksandr Mikhaylovich Prokhorov is the Soviet physicist who received, (with Nikolay G. Basov, USSR and Charles H. Townes, US), the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1964 "for fundamental work in the field of quantum electronics, which has led to the construction of oscillators and amplifiers based on the maser-laser principle." "Maser" stands for "microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation." An a <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> Differential Diagnosis: "I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are." </div>

yevaud · Jul 12, 2006

July 12 People William Lamb Born 12 July 1913 Willis Eugene Lamb, Jr. was an American physicist and joint winner, with Polykarp Kusch, of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1955 "for his discoveries concerning the fine structure of the hydrogen spectrum." His experimental work spurred refinements in the quantum theories of electromagnetic phenomena. Buckminster Fuller Born 12 July 1895; died 1 July 1983. R(ichard) Buckminster Fuller was an American inventor, educator, author, philosopher, engineer and architect who developed the geodesic dome, the only large dome that can be set directly on the ground as a complete structure, and the only practical kind of building that has no limiting dimensions (i.e., beyond which the structural strength must be insufficient). He held over 2000 patents. Saul Dushman Born 12 July 1883; died 1954. Russian-American physical chemist, a world leader in vacuum science and technology, a GE assistant director of research and author of several standard scientific textbooks. One example is Scientific Foundations of Vacuum Technique (1922). It is very readable and he gets to the hows and whys things work the way they do. One of the true classics, it was completely revised in 1961 by his colleague James Lafferty. Using a formula he derived, Dushman calculated the conductances for cylindrical tubes based on their measured dimensions and produced the table which he included in the book that is still used to design a vacuum system. Jean Picard Died 12 July 1682 (born 21 Jul 1620) French Jesuit, active astronomer, cartographer, hydraulics engineer, Jean Picard devised a movable-wire micrometer to measure the diameters of celestial objects such as the Sun, Moon and planets. For land surveying and leveling, he designed instruments tha <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> Differential Diagnosis: "I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are." </div>

yevaud · Aug 5, 2006

For those who have faithfully followed this thread, do not despair. Overwork of late had forced me to temporarily discontinue daily posts here. However, I will continue again shortly (early next week), and I will make certain to fill in the missing month when I do so. Thank you for your patience. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> Differential Diagnosis: "I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are." </div>

search · Sep 3, 2006

Until you get back here is website for all: http://www.todayinsci.com/

yevaud · Sep 3, 2006

Overwork, Mon. I've been waiting for a few days free and clear, and I will spend a few hours catching up to the current date. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> Differential Diagnosis: "I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are." </div>

yevaud · Sep 12, 2006

On vacation all week long, so I shall begin to update this thread (finally!). Not all at once, mind you, but I will keep going until it's current. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> Differential Diagnosis: "I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are." </div>

yevaud · Sep 12, 2006

July 13 People Erno Rubik Born 13 July 1944 Hungarian mathematician, educator and inventor of Rubik's Cube (1974), which became a popular toy of the 1980s. Rubik's Cube consists of 26 small cubes that rotate on a central axis; nine coloured cube faces, in three rows of three each, form each side of the cube. When the cube arrangement is randomized, the player must then return it to the original condition of faces with matching colours, which is one among 43 quintillion possible configurations. Heinrich Louis D’Arrest Born 13 July 1822; died 14 June 1875. German astronomer who, while a student at the Berlin Observatory, hastened the discovery of Neptune by suggesting comparison of the sky, in the region indicated by Urbain Le Verrier's calculations, with a recently prepared star chart. The planet was found the same night. His father-in-law was A. F. Moebius (1790 - 1868). d'Arrest found several comets, the one of 1851 with a period of 6.6 years bears his name. One work he published was on the Asteroids between Mars and Jupiter, another work titled Siderum nebulosorum observationes Hafniensis contained 1942 nebula, 340 described for the first time. Patrick M.S. Blackett Died 13 July 1974 (born 18 Nov 1897) (Baron Blackett of Chelsea) Patrick Maynard Stuart Blackett was an English physicist and winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1948 for his discoveries in the field of cosmic radiation. In these studies he used cloud-chamber photographs that revealed the way in which a stable atomic nucleus can be disintegrated by bombarding it with alpha particles (helium nuclei). Although such nuclear disintegration had been observed previously, his data explained this phenomenon for the first time and were useful in explaining disintegration by other means. Gabriel Lippman <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> Differential Diagnosis: "I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are." </div>

yevaud · Sep 12, 2006

July 14 People Florence Bascom Born 14 July 1862; died 18 Jun 1945. Florence Bascom was an American geologist and teacher. She was the first woman to receive a doctorate from Johns Hopkins University. Two years later she launched the geology department at Bryn Mawr. Bascom was the first woman to work as a geologist for the U.S. Geological Survey and to be made a fellow of the Geological Society of America. Bascom was an expert in crystallography, mineralogy, and petrography. She is known for inventing techniques that used microscopic analysis in the study of the oil-bearing rocks. She died at age 82. Geeorge Green Born 14 July 1793; died 31 May 1841. George Green was an English mathematician, born near Nottingham, who was first to attempt to formulate a mathematical theory of electricity and magnetism. He was a baker while, remarkably, he became a self-taught mathematician. In March 1828 he published An Essay on the Application of Mathematical Analysis to the Theories of Electricity and Magnetism. He became an undergraduate at Cambridge in October 1833 at the age of 40. Lord Kelvin (William Thomson) subsequently saw, was excited by the Essay. Through Thomson, Maxwell, and others, the general mathematical theory of potential developed by an obscure, self-taught miller's son heralded the beginning of modern mathematical theories of electricity. Richard Von Mises Died 14 July 1953 (born 19 Apr 1883) Austrian-American mathematician and aerodynamicist who notably advanced statistics and the theory of probability. Von Mises' contributions range widely, also including fluid mechanics, aerodynamics, and aeronautics. His early work centred on aerodynamics. He investigated turbulence, making fundamental advances in boundary-layer-flow theory and airfoil design. Much of his work involved numerical metho <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> Differential Diagnosis: "I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are." </div>

yevaud · Sep 12, 2006

July 15 People Jocelyn Bell Burnett Born 15 Jul 1943 British astronomer who discovered the first four pulsars. She was a Cambridge University graduate student, age 24, searching for quasars in 1967, when she noticed an unusual stellar radio signal - a rapid series of pulses repeating every 1.337 sec. This interstellar beacon was not man-made, so it was nicknamed in fun as LGM, for Little Green Men. In the next few months, Bell (her maiden name) found three more sources of radio pulses by careful scrutiny of hundreds of feet of pen-recorder paper. These represented a new class of celestial objects - pulsars - which astronomers eventually associated with superdense matter in the final stage of the evolution of massive stars. To date, hundreds more pulsars have been identified. Stephen Smale Born 15 Jul 1930 American mathematician who was awarded the Fields Medal in 1966 for his work in topology and dynamical systems. One of his studies (1961) was on the generalised Poincaré conjecture, a famous problem of 20th-century, which asserts that a simply connected closed 3-dimensional manifold is a 3-dimensional sphere. Smale proved a higher dimensional Poincaré conjecture for an n-dimensional manifold where n is at least 5. In other work, related to strange attractors, one of the early fractals to be studied known, he discovered strange attractors which lead to chaotic dynamical systems. (An attractor in classical mechanics is a geometrical way of describing the behaviour of a dynamical system.) His recent work has been on theoretical computer science. Leon Max Lederman Born 15 Jul 1922 American physicist who, along with Melvin Schwartz and Jack Steinberger, received the Nobel Prize for Physics in1988 for their joint research and discovery (1960-62) of a new subatomic particle, the muon neutrino. Neut <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> Differential Diagnosis: "I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are." </div>

yevaud · Sep 12, 2006

July 16 People Dan Bricklin Born 16 July 1951 American computer scientist who with Bob Frankston created VisiCalc, the first spreadsheet computer program (1979) which created a market beyond hobbyists for the emerging personal computers. Businesses found the program very useful because of the speed and accuracy of its calculations. Originally written in 6502 assembly language to run on a 32K-byte Apple II, it was soon ported to virtually all major 6502- and Z80-based personal computers then available. They did not reap huge financial profits from the spreadsheet program, despite eventually selling over a half-million copies by 1983, because at the time, copyright protection was not generally sought for software, and it was subsequently surpassed by Lotus 1-2-3. Giuseppe Piazza Born 16 July 1746; died 22 Jul 1826. Italian astronomer and author, born in Valtellina, discovered the first asteroid - Ceres. He established an observatory at Palermo and mapped the positions of 7,646 stars. He also discovered that the star 61 Cygni had a large Proper Motion, which led Bessel to chose it as the object of his parallax studies. He discovered Ceres on 1 Jan 1801, but was able to make only three observations. The term "asteroid," meaning "star-like" was coined (1803) by Herschel. Fortuitously, Gauss had recently developed mathematical techniques that allowed the orbit to be calculated. Within the next few years, astronomers discovered three more asteroids: Pallas, Juno, and Vesta. The thousandth Asteroid discovered was named Piazzi in his honor. Events Shoemaker-Levy In 1994, the first of 21 asteroids, major fragments of the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 broken-up 2 years earlier, hit Jupiter, creating a 1200-mile wide fireball 600 miles high to the joy of astronomers awaiti <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> Differential Diagnosis: "I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are." </div>

yevaud · Sep 12, 2006

July 17 People Gordon Gould Born 17 July 1920 Physicist, coined the word "laser": acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. Even before high school, thinking of Marconi, Bell, and Edison, Gould intended to be an inventor. During WWII, Gould worked with the Manhattan Project on the separation of uranium isotopes. By the 50's, he was a graduate student at Columbia University. On 9 Nov 1957, during a Saturday night without sleep, he had the inventor's inspiration and began to write down the principles of what he called a laser in his notebook Although Charles Townes and Arthur Schawlow, also successfully developed the laser, eventually Gould gained his long-denied patent rights. Georges LeMaitre Born 17 July 1894; died 20 June 1966. Georges (Henri) Lemaître was a Belgian astronomer and cosmologist, born in Charleroi, Belgium. He was also a civil engineer, army officer, and ordained priest. He did research on cosmic rays and the three-body problem. Lemaître formulated (1927) the modern big-bang theory. He reasoned that if the universe was expanding now, then the further you go in the past, the universe’s contents must have been closer together. He envisioned that at some point in the distant past, all the matter in the universe was in an exceedingly dense state, crushed into a single object he called the "primeval super-atom" which exploded, with all its constituent parts rushing away. This theory was later developed by Gamow and others. Sir James Lighthill Died 17 July 1998 (born 23 Jan 1924) Sir Michael James Lighthill was a British mathematician who was considered one of the greatest mathematicians of the 20th century; his innovative contributions to such fields as applied mathematics, aerodynamics, astrophysics, and fluid mechanics found such applications as the des <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> Differential Diagnosis: "I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are." </div>

yevaud · Sep 12, 2006

July 18 People Thomas Kuhn Born 18 July 1922; 17 June 1996. Thomas S(amuel) Kuhn was an American historian of science, MIT professor, noted for The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962), one of the most influential works of history and philosophy written in the 20th century. His thesis was that science was not a steady, cumulative acquisition of knowledge, but it is "a series of peaceful interludes punctuated by intellectually violent revolutions." Then appears a Lavoisier or an Einstein, often a young scientist not indoctrinated in the accepted theories, to sweep the old paradigm away. Such revolutions, he said, came only after long periods of tradition-bound normal science. Hendrik Antoon Lorentz Born 18 July 1853; died 4 Feb 1928. Dutch physicist and joint winner (with Pieter Zeeman) of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1902 for his theory of the influence of magnetism upon electromagnetic radiation phenomena. The theory was confirmed by findings of Zeeman and gave rise to Albert Einstein's special theory of relativity. From the start, Lorentz made it his task to extend James Clerk Maxwell's theory of electricity and of light. Already in his doctor's thesis, he treated the reflection and refraction phenomena of light from this new standpoint. His fundamental work in the fields of optics and electricity revolutionized conceptions of the nature of matter. In 1878, he published an essay relating the velocity of light in a medium, to its density and composition.. Samuel Molyneux Born 18 July 1689; died 13 Apr 1728. British astronomer (Royal Observatory at Kew) and politician. Together with assistant James Bradley, he made measurements of abberation - the diversion of light from stars. They made observations of the star Â Draconis with a vertical telescope. Starting in 1725 they had the pro <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> Differential Diagnosis: "I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are." </div>

yevaud · Sep 12, 2006

July 19 People Edward Pickering Born 19 July 1846; 3 Feb 1919 Edward Charles Pickering, was born Boston, Mass., U.S. physicist and astronomer. After graduating from Harvard, he taught physics for ten years at MIT where he built the first instructional physics laboratory in the United States. At age 30, he directed the Harvard College Observatory for 42 years. His observations were assisted by a staff of women, including Annie Jump Cannon. He introduced the use of the meridian photometer to measure the magnitude of stars, and established the Harvard Photometry (1884), the first great photometric catalog. By establishing a station in Peru (1891) to make the southern photographs, he published the first all-sky photographic map (1903). Alexander Bache Born 19 July 1806; died 1867 Alexander (Dallas) Bache was Ben Franklin's great grandson. A West Point trained physicist, Bache became the second Superintendent of the Coast Survey (1844-65). He made an ingenious estimate of ocean depth in 1856. He studied records of a tidal wave that had taken 12 hours to cross the Pacific. Knowing that wave speeds depend on depth, he calculated a 2 1/5-mile average depth for the Pacific (within 15% of the right value). Bache created the National Academy of Sciences, securing greater government involvement in science. Through the Franklin Institute he instituted boiler tests to promote safety for steamboats. Georges Friedel Born 19 July 1865; died 1933 French crystallographer who formulated basic laws concerning the external morphology and internal structure of crystals. He was the son of Charles Friedel (1832-99), French mineralogist and organic chemist. He recognized, in 1892, that liquid crystals had three types of organisation (mesophases). In 1893, he became professor at the National School of the Mines in S <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> Differential Diagnosis: "I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are." </div>

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