science newsletter: Newsletter for Saturday 6 October

Σάββατο 6 Οκτωβρίου 2012

Newsletter for Saturday 6 October

Newsletter - 6 October - Today in Science History

TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY
NEWSLETTER - 6 OCTOBER

Feature for Today

Book of the Day

On 6 Oct 1846, George Westinghouse was born, an American inventor who introduced devices for safer rail transportation, steam turbines, gas lighting, and is especially remembered for being chiefly responsible for the adoption of alternating current for electric power transmission in the U.S. (prevailing over Edison's D.C. system). Today's Science Store pick is George Westinghouse: Gentle Genius, by Quentin R. Skrabec, a biography of this significant industrialist who innovated also in providing for his employees. Price New $24.95. Also available Used from $17.05 (as of time of writing).
Yesterday's pick: Rocket Man: Robert H. Goddard and the Birth of the Space Age. For picks from earlier newsletters, see the Today in Science Science Store home page.

Quotations for Today
	"Progress is man's ability to complicate simplicity." - Thor Heyerdahl (born 6 Oct 1914)
	"If someday they say of me that in my work I have contributed something to the welfare and happiness of my fellow man, I shall be satisfied." - George Westinghouse (born 6 Oct 1846)
	"An inventor is one who can see the applicability of means to supplying demand five years before it is obvious to those skilled in the art." (1925) - Reginald A. Fessenden, Canadian inventor who made the first long-range radio transmissions of voice (born 6 Oct 1866)

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
	Thor Heyerdahl, born 6 Oct 1914, was a Norweigan ethnologist and adventurer who organized and led the famous transoceanic scientific expeditions intended to prove the possibility of ancient transoceanic contacts between distant civilizations and cultures. His first was a 101-day, 4,300-mile drifting voyage (1947) from Peru to Polynesia on a 40-square-foot raft, a replica of a pre-Inca vessel. *What was this raft named?*
	George Westinghouse, born 6 Oct 1846, was an American inventor and industrialist who first founded his own company to manufacturer his invention. (He was also chiefly responsible for the adoption of alternating current for electric power transmission in the U.S.) *What invention was manufactured by this scientist's first company?*
Deaths
	Otto Fritz Meyerhof (1884-1951) was a German biochemist and corecipient, with Archibald V. Hill, of the 1922 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for research. What did his research demonstrate?
Events
	On 6 Oct 1997, American biology professor Stanley B. Prusiner won the Nobel Prize for medicine for discovering what was described as "an entirely new genre of disease-causing agents." *What had he discovered?*
	On 6 Oct 1956, Dr. Albert Sabin developed a polio vaccine which eliminated shots and scars from the old method. *How was this polio vaccine administered?*

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 October 6 web page of Today in Science History. Or, try this link first for just the brief answers.

Fast answers for the previous newsletter for October 5: The decade including the years 1912 and 1915; massive supercomputers; Mach 8; Edwin Hubble.

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