History and Philosophy (often of Science)
jlynch | January 7, 2008Births
1823 - Alfred Russel Wallace, British naturalist and biologist
1891 - Walther Bothe, German physicist and Nobel Prize laureate
1902 - Carl Rogers, American psychologist
1903 - Igor Kurchatov, Russian physicist
1942 - Stephen Hawking, English theoretical physicist
Deaths
1642 - Galileo Galilei, Italian astronomer and scientist
1980 - John Mauchly, American physicist
1997 - Melvin Calvin, American chemist and Nobel Prize laureate
2002 - Alexander Prochorow, Russian physicist and Nobel Prize laureate
jlynch | January 6, 2008
Events
1838 - Samuel Morse first successfully tests the electrical telegraph.
Births
1714 - Percivall Pott, English physician
1795 - Anselme Payen, French chemist
1822 - Heinrich Schliemann, German archaeologist
1920 - John Maynard Smith, English biologist
1932 - Stuart A. Rice, American chemist
1944 - Rolf M. Zinkernagel, Swiss immunologist and Nobel Prize laureate
Deaths
1689 - Seth Ward, English mathematician and astronomer
1731 - Ãtienne François Geoffroy, French chemist
1884 - Gregor Johann Mendel, Austrian geneticist (above)
1945 - Vladimir Vernadsky, Russian mineralogist
1990…
jlynch | January 4, 2008Events
1896 - An Austrian newspaper reports that Wilhelm Roentgen has discovered a type of radiation later known as X-rays.
1972 - Richard Nixon orders the development of a space shuttle program.
2005 - Eris, the largest known dwarf planet in the solar system, is discovered.
Births
1865 - Julio Garavito Armero, Colombian astronomer
1874 - Joseph Erlanger, American physiologist and Nobel Prize laureate
1879 - Hans Eppinger, Austrian physician
1906 - Kathleen Kenyon, English archaeologist
Deaths
1904 - Karl Alfred von Zittel, German palaeontologist
1922 - Ernest Shackleton, Irish explorer…
jlynch | January 3, 2008Events
1885 - The first successful appendectomy is performed by William W. Grant.
1958 - Sputnik 1 falls to Earth from its orbit
1959 - Luna 1 becomes the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon.
2004 - Spirit, a NASA Mars Rover, lands successfully on Mars
Births
1643 - Isaac Newton, English natural philosopher
1894 - Manuel de Abreu, Brazilian physician
1900 - James Bond, American ornithologist
1940 - Brian David Josephson, British physicist and Nobel Prize laureate
1945 - Richard R. Schrock, American chemist and Nobel Prize laureate
Deaths
1761 - Stephen Hales, English…
jlynch | January 3, 2008The National Academy of Sciences’ new book, Science, Evolution, and Creationism is now available for free download. It is a revision of an older work and features chapters on the nature of science, the evidence for evolution, and creationist claims. No doubt the Discovery Institute will respond with its usual blather.
jlynch | January 2, 2008Events
1496 - Leonardo da Vinci unsuccessfully tests a flying machine.
1999 - The Mars Polar Lander launches.
Births
1722 - Fredric Hasselquist, Swedish naturalist
Deaths
1641 - Jeremiah Horrocks, English astronomer
1927 - Carle David Tolmé Runge, German physicist
1969 - Jean Focas, Greco-French astronomer
1980 - Joy Adamson, Czech conservationist
jlynch | January 2, 2008The 486 nominations for Open Laboratory 2007 have been whittled down to 53 and Bora has the complete listing of the entries that will appear in book form in time for the 2nd Science Blogging Conference. I’m happy to report that my Pithecophobes of the World, Unite! Part I, Part II, Part III and Part IV have been judged suitable for inclusion. Thanks again to the reader who nominated them!
I guess I have some editing and formatting to do!
jlynch | January 1, 2008Events
1860 - The discovery of the planet Vulcan is announced at a meeting of the Académie des Sciences
1959 - Luna 1, the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon and to orbit the Sun, is launched
2004 - Stardust successfully flies past Comet Wild 2, collecting samples that it will return to Earth two years later.
Deaths
1893 - John Obadiah Westwood, British entomologist
1917 - Edward Burnett Tylor, English anthropologist
2005 - Maclyn McCarty, American geneticist
jlynch | January 1, 2008Events
1801 - Dwarf planet Ceres is discovered by Giuseppe Piazzi.
1925 - Edwin Hubble announces the discovery of galaxies outside the Milky Way.
1983 - The ARPANET officially changes to using the Internet Protocol, creating the Internet.
1985 - The Internet’s Domain Name System is created.
1989 - The Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer comes into force.
Births
1774 - André Marie Constant Duméril, French zoologist
1854 - Sir James George Frazer, Scottish anthropologist
1876 - Harriet Brooks, Canadian physicist
1878 - Agner Krarup Erlang, Danish scientist and…
jlynch | December 16, 2007I’m going to close things down here until the beginning of the New Year - a combination of projects I need to finish and family commitments mean that I will be posting little (if anything) for the next two weeks. I wish all my readers a happy, safe & peaceful holiday season.
Your Today in Science is below the fold.
Births
1706 - Ãmilie du Châtelet, French mathematician and physicist
1778 - Sir Humphry Davy, English chemist and physicist
1835 - Alexander Emanuel Agassiz, American scientist; son of Louis Agassiz
1853 - Ãmile Roux, French physician
1908 - Willard Frank Libby, American…
jlynch | December 15, 2007Births
1776 - Johann Wilhelm Ritter, German physicist
1882 - Walther Meissner, German physicist
1901 - Margaret Mead, American anthropologist
Deaths
1687 - William Petty, English scientist and philosopher
jlynch | December 15, 2007Births
1852 - Henri Becquerel, French physicist and Nobel Prize laureate
1860 - Niels Ryberg Finsen, Danish physician and Nobel Prize laureate
1916 - Maurice Wilkins, New Zealand-born physicist and Nobel Prize laureate
1923 - Freeman Dyson, English-born American physicist
Deaths
1958 - Wolfgang Ernst Pauli, Austrian-born American physicist and Nobel Prize laureate
jlynch | December 14, 2007Events
1782 - The Montgolfier brothers first balloon lifts on its first test flight.
1900 - Max Planck presents a theoretical derivation of his black-body radiation law.
1962 - Mariner 2 becomes the first spacecraft to fly by Venus.
Births
1909 - Edward Tatum, American geneticist and Nobel Prize laureate
1922 - Nikolay Basov, Soviet physicist and Nobel Prize laureate
Deaths
1873 - Louis Agassiz, Swiss-born American zoologist and geologist [See last year’s post on Agassiz]
jlynch | December 14, 2007A couple of weeks back I noted I noted historian Mark Borrello’s engagement with John West regarding West’s particular spin on the history of eugenics. Now Mark has commented publicly.
Though I repeatedly e-mailed the coordinator of the event and he assured me that he was working hard to get a response from West, the material did not arrive until three days before the talk. Had this been the result of working down to the wire I would’ve understood. Instead, the file I received was a two-year old pdf entitled "Darwin’s Public Policy: Eugenics, Democracy, and the Dangers of Scientific…
jlynch | December 12, 2007Births
1640 - Robert Plot, English naturalist
1662 - Francesco Bianchini, Italian philosopher and scientist
1724 - Franz Aepinus, German scientist
1867 - Kristian Birkeland, Norwegian explorer and scientist
1923 - Philip Warren Anderson, American physicist and Nobel Prize laureate
Deaths
1565 - Conrad Gessner, Swiss naturalist
1783 - Pehr Wilhelm Wargentin, Swedish astronomer
1868 - Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius, German botanist
1895 - Anyos Jedlik, Hungarian physicist
1919 - Woldemar Voigt, German physicist
1930 - Fritz Pregl, Slovenian/Austrian chemist and Nobel Prize laureate…
jlynch | December 11, 2007Births
1866 - Alfred Werner, Swiss chemist and Nobel Prize laureate
1892 - Herman PotoÄnik, Slovenian rocket engineer
jlynch | December 11, 2007
The ancient Greeks said that the Spartans threw any deformed or sick newborns over a cliff, thus practicing eugenics. Indeed, Plato - certainly an individual with a soft spot for Sparta - himself hints at these practices in his Republic. Recent studies of human remains from one such cliff (apothetes) has shown that the remains below are those of individuals between the ages of 18 and 35 and that no children or newborns were disposed of in this manner. Researchers believe the remains are likely to be those of prisoners or traitors.
(source)
jlynch | December 10, 2007Events
1684 - Isaac Newton’s derivation of Kepler’s laws from his theory of gravity, contained in the paper De motu corporum in gyrum, is read to the Royal Society by Edmund Halley.
Births
1452 - Johannes Stöffler, German mathematician and astronomer
1588 - Isaac Beeckman, Dutch scientist and philosopher
1751 - George Shaw, English botanist and zoologist
1805 - Josef Skoda, Bohemian physician
1934 - Howard Martin Temin, American geneticist and Nobel Prize laureate
Deaths
1198 - Averroes, Arab physician and philosopher
1603 - William Gilbert, English scientist
1831 - Thomas Seebeck,…
jlynch | December 8, 2007Births
1571 - Metius, Dutch mathematician and astronomer
1652 - Augustus Quirinus Rivinus, German physician
1748 - Claude Louis Berthollet, French chemist
1906 - Grace Murray Hopper, American computer pioneer
1917 - James Rainwater, American physicist and Nobel Prize laureate
1919 - William Lipscomb, American chemist and Nobel Prize laureate
1926 - Henry Way Kendall, American physicist and Nobel Prize laureate
Deaths
1798 - Johann Reinhold Forster, German botanist
1830 - Heinrich Christian Friedrich Schumacher, Danish surgeon, botanist and professor of anatomy
1937 - Nils Gustaf Dalén…
jlynch | December 8, 2007Births
1730 - Jan Ingenhousz, Dutch-born British physiologist and botanist
1795 - Peter Andreas Hansen, Danish astronomer
1874 - Ernst Moro, Austrian physician
1947 - Thomas R. Cech, American chemist and Nobel Prize laureate
Deaths
1632 - Philippe van Lansberge, Flemish astronomer
1779 - Nathan Alcock, English physician