History and Philosophy (often of Science)

Births 1785- Claude-Louis Navier, French physicist 1846 - Ira Remsen, American chemist 1897 - John Franklin Enders, American virologist and Nobel Prize laureate 1902 - Walter Houser Brattain, American physicist and Nobel Prize laureate Deaths 1865 - Heinrich Lenz, German physicist 1923 - Wilhelm Röntgen, German physicist and Nobel Prize laureate 1944 - Eugène Michel Antoniadi, Greek astronomer 1952 - Henry Drysdale Dakin, British-American biochemist
Births 1781 - Johann Baptist von Spix, German scientist 1865 - Erich von Drygalski, German geographer, geophysicist, and polar scientist 1910 - Jacques Monod, French biochemist and Nobel Prize laureate 1925 - Burkhard Heim, German physicist 1963 - Brian Greene, American physicist Deaths 1752 - Fredric Hasselquist, Swedish naturalist 1940 - Eugene Bleuler, Swiss psychiatrist 1979 - Dennis Gabor, Hungarian physicist and Nobel Prize laureate 1994 - Howard Martin Temin, American geneticist and Nobel Prize laureate
Births 1677 - Jacques Cassini, French astronomer 1807 - Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, English sculptor and naturalist 1834 - Dmitri Mendeleev, Russian chemist 1930 - James Deetz, American anthropologist Deaths 1856 - Agostino Bassi, Italian entomologist 1957 - Walther Bothe, German physicist and Nobel Prize laureate 1957 - John von Neumann, Hungarian-born mathematician and physicist 1975 - Robert Robinson, British chemist and Nobel Prize laureate
Births 1870 - Alfred Adler, Austrian psychologist 1905 - Ulf von Euler, Swedish physiologist and Nobel Prize laureate Deaths 1736 - Stephen Gray, English astronomer and scientist 1897 - Galileo Ferraris, Italian physicist 1960 - Igor Kurchatov, Russian physicist
James Hrynyshyn highlights an editorial in Nature that offers luke-warm support for Science Debate 2008. Frankly, the criticisms are paltry and misconceived. Well meant though it may be, the idea of Tim Russert or some other journalist-interrogator looking Republican hopeful John McCain in the eye and asking "What balance will you seek in federal science funding between major-programme project research and investigator-initiated basic-research grants?" is somewhat fantastical. It is also slightly disturbing. But who is advocating "Tim Russert or some other journalist-interrogator" asking…
This coming Sunday I will be giving a public lecture for the Humanist Society of Greater Phoenix. All are welcome, whether humanist or not. Details are: Was There A Darwinian Revolution? HomeTown Buffet, 1312 N. Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale February 10th, 2008 9:00 am [There is breakfast at 9, the talk will begin at 10] As usual, I will probably post the slides here after the talk.
Births 1744 - Pierre-Joseph Desault, French anatomist and surgeon 1853 - Ignacij KlemenÄiÄ, Slovenian physicist 1892 - William Parry Murphy, American physician and Nobel Prize laureate 1913 - Mary Leakey, British anthropologist Deaths 1617 - Prospero Alpini, Italian scientist 1833 - Pierre André Latreille, French entomologist 1950 - Georges Imbert, Alsatian chemist 1991 - Salvador Luria, Italian-born biologist and Nobel Prize laureate 1998 - Haroun Tazieff, French vulcanologist and geologist 2002 - Max Perutz, Austrian-born molecular biologist and Nobel Prize laureate
Tara has more details.
Births 1795 - Wilhelm Karl Ritter von Haidinger, Austrian mineralogist 1910 - Charles Leblond, Canadian cell biologist 1914 - Alan Lloyd Hodgkin, British physiologist and Nobel Prize laureate 1915 - Robert Hofstadter, American physicist and Nobel Prize laureate Deaths 1790 - William Cullen, Scottish physician and chemist 1977 - Oskar Klein, Swedish physicist 1992 - Miguel Rolando Covian, Brazilian physiologist
Events 1936 - Radium E becomes the first radioactive element to be made synthetically. Births 1725 - Dru Drury, English entomologist 1778 - A. P. de Candolle, Swiss botanist 1846 - Nikolay Umov, Russian physicist 1875 - Ludwig Prandtl, German physicist 1896 - Friedrich Hund, German physicist 1906 - Clyde Tombaugh, American astronomer Deaths 1615 - Giovanni Battista della Porta, Italian physicist 1928 - Hendrik Lorentz, Dutch physicist and Nobel Prize laureate 1974 - Satyendra Nath Bose, Indian physicist 1987 - Carl Rogers, American psychologist
Births 1754 - George Crabbe, English naturalist 1817 - Achille Ernest Oscar Joseph Delesse, French geologist 1821 - Elizabeth Blackwell, American physician 1912 - Jacques Soustelle, French anthropologist 1920 - Henry Heimlich, American physician Deaths 1862 - Jean-Baptiste Biot, French physicist 1929 - Agner Krarup Erlang, Danish scientist 2005 - Ernst Mayr, German-born evolutionary biologist
Births 1695 - William Borlase, English naturalist 1802 - Jean Baptiste Boussingault, French chemist 1829 - Alfred Brehm, German zoologist 1841 - François-Alphonse Forel, Swiss hydrologist Deaths 1712 - Martin Lister, English naturalist and physician 1907 - Dmitri Mendeleev, Russian chemist 1957 - Grigory Landsberg, Russian physicist 1970 - Bertrand Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, English mathematician, writer and philosopher
Births 1635 - Marquard Gude, German archaeologist 1761 - Christian Hendrik Persoon, South African mycologist 1844 - G. Stanley Hall, American psychologist Deaths 1897 - Constantin von Ettingshausen, Austrian geologist 1903 - George Gabriel Stokes, Irish physicist 1958 - Clinton Davisson, American physicist and Nobel Prize laureate 1976 - Werner Heisenberg, German physicist and Nobel Prize laureate 1976 - George Whipple, American scientist and Nobel Prize laureate
Events 1958 - Explorer program: Explorer I - The first successful launch of an American satellite into orbit. 1958 - James Van Allen discovers the Van Allen radiation belt. 1961 - Project Mercury: Mercury-Redstone 2 - Ham the Chimp becomes the first hominid in outer space. Births 1868 - Theodore William Richards, American chemist and Nobel Prize laureate 1881 - Irving Langmuir, American chemist and Nobel Prize laureate 1929 - Rudolf Mössbauer, German physicist and Nobel Prize laureate
Razib notes "I’m sure you know that Marx was a keen follower of Darwin’s theory." Eh, no. Not so much. While Marx in 1860 described Origin as containing "the natural-historical basis of our outlook," by 1861 he was noting that "[i]t is remarkable how Darwin recognises among beasts and plants his English society with its labour, competition, opening up of new markets, 'inventions’, and the Malthusian 'struggle for existence’". Indeed he would view Darwinism as a bourgeois ideology which mirrored the bourgeois competitive struggle in capitalist society. Marx’s use of Darwin is underwhelming…
Events 1996 - Comet Hyakutake is discovered by Japanese amateur astronomer Yuji Hyakutake. Births 1720 - Charles De Geer, Swedish industrialist and entomologist 1822 - Franz Ritter von Hauer, Austrian geologist 1899 - Max Theiler, South African virologist and Nobel Prize laureate 1949 - Peter Agre, American biologist and Nobel Prize laureate Deaths 1858 - Coenraad Jacob Temminck, Dutch zoologist 1928 - Johannes Andreas Grib Fibiger, Danish scientist and Nobel Prize laureate 1962 - Manuel de Abreu, Brazilian physician 1991 - John Bardeen, American physicist 1995 - Gerald Durrell, British…
Births 1688 - Emanuel Swedenborg, Swedish scientist and philosopher 1846 - Karol Olszewski, Polish scientist 1901 - Allen B. DuMont, American scientist and inventor 1926 - Abdus Salam, Pakistani physicist and Nobel Prize laureate 1947 - Linda B. Buck, American scientist and Nobel Prize laureate Deaths 1934 - Fritz Haber, German chemist and Nobel Prize laureate
Razib is reading Stephen Jay Gould’s monumental The Structure of Evolutionary Theory. I have to admit that I bought it when it appeared nearly six years ago and, as yet, have not managed to get beyond the first ninety-odd pages. What I liked about Gould when I was an undergraduate over twenty years ago now just seems annoying. What worked in small doses turns into a nightmare when presented in a five pound package. In short, Gould clearly needed an editor. That said, Razib has inspired me to try again. Who knows, I might even finish it this time. So, have any readers started (or finished!)…
Events 1986 - Space Shuttle Challenger breaks apart 73 seconds after liftoff killing all seven astronauts onboard Births 1608 - Giovanni Alfonso Borelli, Italian physiologist and physicist 1611 - Johannes Hevelius, astronomer 1622 - Adrien Auzout, French astronomer 1755 - Samuel Thomas von Sömmering, German physician 1884 - Auguste Piccard, Swiss physicist 1922 - Robert W. Holley, American biochemist and Nobel Prize laureate Deaths 1687 - Johannes Hevelius, Polish astronomer 1864 - Ãmile Clapeyron, French engineer and physicist 1915 - Nikolay Umov, Russian physicist 1988 - Klaus Fuchs,…
Births 1621 - Thomas Willis, English physician 1903 - John Carew Eccles, Australian neuropsychologist and Nobel Prize laureate 1936 - Samuel C. C. Ting, American physicist and Nobel Prize laureate Deaths 1851 - John James Audubon, French-American naturalist, ornithologist, and painter 1967 - Apollo 1 astronauts Gus Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee (above) were killed in a fire during a test of the spacecraft at the Kennedy Space Center.