science newsletter: Newsletter for Thursday 27 September

Newsletter - September 27 - Today in Science History

TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY
NEWSLETTER - 27 SEPTEMBER

Feature for Today

On 27 Sep 1838, Bernard Courtois died. Iodine became known as a new element from the serendipitous discovery he made. While routinely processing the ash from seaweed to recover sodium and potassium compounds, he released a curious violet vapour that condensed into attractive crystals.He had to leave to others the confirmation of his hunch that this was a new element.

Thus seaweed, surely one of the most unlikely places to discover a new element, is recorded in the history of chemistry for yielding the substance that would in modern times be added to table salt as a health measure to prevent goitre.

You can read more about Courtois and how he discovered iodine in this excerpt from The Discovery of the Elements (1934).

Book of the Day

Today's Science Store suggestion is a sumptuous science photo collection: On the Nature of Things: The Scientific Photography of Fritz Goro, by Peter Goreau. For almost fifty years, Fritz Goro gave Life magazine readers of all ages an eyewitness view of the greatest scientific and technological breakthroughs of our time. The splitting of the atom; the deciphering of DNA; the invention of the hologram; the coming of fiber optics, lasers, computers, microsurgery - these are only a handful of the momentous discoveries he captured in his consummately innovative photography, providing an intimate look at the way new phenomena work and revealing as never before the infinite shapes and dazzling lights and colors that comprise the universe. Several available used from $5.95.
Yesterday's pick: The Dam Busters. For picks from earlier newsletters, see the Today in Science Science Store home page.

Quotations for Today
	"We have before us the restoration of that ancient land whose name was a synonym for abundance, prosperity, and grandeur for many generations. Records as old as those of Egypt and as well attested tell of fertile lands and teeming populations, mighty kings and warriors, sages and wise men, over periods of thousands of years. ... A land such as this is worth resuscitating. Once we have apprehended the true cause of its present desolate and abandoned condition, we are on our way to restoring it to its ancient fertility. A land which so readily responded to ancient science, and gave a return which sufficed for the maintenance of a Persian Court in all its splendor, will surely respond to the efforts of modern science and return manifold the money and talent spent on its regeneration." - Sir William Willcocks, British civil engineer, designed the first Aswan Dam, executed major irrigation projects in South Africa and Turkey (born 27 Sep 1852) from an address before the Khedival Geographical Society at Cairo, promoting irrigation works for Mesopotamia.
	"Not long ago I expressed the view that the lack of general education and of thorough training in chemistry of quite a few professors of chemistry was one of the causes of the deterioration of chemical research in Germany. Will anyone to whom my worries seem exaggerated please read, if he can, a recent memoir by a Herr van’t Hoff on ‘The Arrangements of Atoms in Space’, a document crammed to the hilt with the outpourings of a childish fantasy. This Dr J H van’t Hoff, employed by the Veterinary College of Utrecht, has, so it seems, no taste for accurate chemical research. He finds it more convenient to mount his Pegasus (evidently taken from the stables of the Veterinary College) and to announce how, on his daring flight to Mount Parnassus, he saw the atoms arranged in space." (1877) - Hermann Kolbe, German chemist (born 27 Sep 1818) in an example of withering criticism of a kind not uncommon in the 18th and 19th centuries. Kolbe was dead by 1900, when J H van’t Hoff received the first Nobel Prize in chemistry – for his work on the shapes of molecules!
	"IODINE It was Courtois discover'd Iodine (In the commencement of this century), Which, with its sisters, bromine and chlorine, Enjoys a common parentage - the sea; Although sometimes 'tis found, with other things, In minerals and many saline springs. But yet the quantity is so minute In the great ocean, that a chemist might, With sensibilities the most acute, Have never brought this element to light, Had he not thought it were as well to try Where ocean's treasures concentrated lie. And Courtois found that several plants marine, Sponges, et cetera, exercise the art Of drawing from the sea its iodine In quantities sufficient to impart Its properties; and he devised a plan Of bringing it before us - clever man!" - written about Bernard Courtois, French chemist who discovered the element iodine (died 27 Sep 1838), from Discursive Chemical Notes in Rhyme (1876)

QUIZ
Before you look at today's web page, see if you can answer some of these questions about the events that happened on this day. Some of the names are very familiar. Others will likely stump you. Tickle your curiosity with these questions, then check your answers on today's web page.
Births
	Robert Edwards, born 27 Sep, is a British medical researcher who, with Patrick Steptoe, perfected in-vitro fertilization of the human egg. Their technique made possible in the birth of Louise Brown, the world's first "test-tube baby." *In what decade did this birth occur?*
	Hermann Kolbe, born 27 Sep 1818, was a German chemist who accomplished the first generally accepted synthesis of a certain kind, with a result that was strikingly different from prior work in chemistry. *What was his accomplishment?*
Deaths
	Auguste Michel-Levy , (1844 -1911) was a French geologist and mineralogist who was a pioneer in microscopic petrology. *What is petrology?*
Events
	On 27 Sep of a certain year, scientists at the Naval Aircraft Radio Laboratory near Washington, D.C., demonstrated that if a ship passed through a radio wave being broadcast between two stations, that ship could be detected, the essentials of radar. *In which decade did this occur?*
	In 1854, the first great disaster involving an Atlantic Ocean liner occurred when a steamship sank with 300 people aboard. *What was the name of this steamship?*

Answers

When you have your answers ready to all the questions above, you'll find all the information to check them, and more, on the September 27 web page of Today in Science History. Or, try this link first for just the brief answers.

Fast answers for the previous newsletter for September 26: the bombs skipped over the water surface to land against the dam wall; Levi Strauss; Yellow fever; Portland cement; U.S.A., (Oracle) Arizona, two years.

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