Today in Science

"The scientist does not study nature because it is useful to do so. He studies it because he takes pleasure in it, and he takes pleasure in it because it is beautiful. If nature were not beautiful it would not be worth knowing, and life would not be worth living."

Births

1854 - Henri Poincaré, French mathematician and physicist (source of above quote)

Deaths

1768 - Georg Brandt, Swedish chemist and minerologist

1793 - John Michell, English scientist

1798 - Nikolaus Poda von Neuhaus, German entomologist

1916 - Jørgen Pedersen Gram, Danish mathematician