Newsletter for Friday 2 November

 

 

TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY

NEWSLETTER - NOVEMBER 2

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.

On 2 Nov 1944, Thomas Midgley died, whose contributions to modern chemistry included leaded gasoline and freon. These, his two most infamous inventions, are now known to produce immense environmental damage. Freon replaced toxic refrigerants, but is now a banned CFC because it destroys atmospheric ozone. The tetra ethyl lead additive was a boon to prevent damaging "pinging" in car and airplane engines, but contains distributes lead, a toxic heavy metal that accumulates in plantlife and the body. Yet he deserves to be remembered for his hard work, creative genius, and a passion for research, Today's Science Store pick is his compelling biography, From the Periodic Table to Production: The Life of Thomas Midgley, Jr., the Inventor of Ethyl Gasoline and Freon Refrigerants, by Thomas Midgley. Price $24.95. Yesterday's pick: The Origin of Continents and Oceans. For picks from earlier newsletters, see the Today in Science Science Store home page.

Browse the new Science Store pages of Science Titles in Bargain Books.

Quotations for Today

"The beauty of physics lies in the extent which seemingly complex and unrelated phenomena can be explained and correlated through a high level of abstraction by a set of laws which are amazing in their simplicity." - Melvin Schwartz, American Nobel prize-winning physicist (born 2 Nov 1932) "No matter how correct a mathematical theorem may appear to be, one ought never to be satisfied that there was not something imperfect about it until it also gives the impression of being beautiful." - English mathematician in the quiz below (born 2 Nov 1815) "The most satisfactory definition of man from the scientific point of view is probably Man the Toolmaker." - Kenneth P. Oakley (died 2 Nov 1981)

QUIZ

Births

An English mathematician, born 2 Nov 1815, helped establish modern symbolic logic. Now named after him, his algebra of logic, is basic to the design of digital computer circuits. Can you name this man?

Deaths

Kenneth Oakley (1911-1981) was an English physical anthropologist, geologist, and paleontologist best known for his work in the relative dating of fossils by fluorine content. While working for the British Natural History Museum, Oakley become famous in 1953 for exposing a forgery. A skull had been "unearthed" in 1912, in England, and had for decades been said to represent the "missing link" in human evolution. He proved it was nothing more than a  modern human braincase and an orangutan jawbone. By what name is the forged "missing link" human ancestor known?

Events

On 2 Nov of a certain year, the DuPont company, of Wilmington, Delaware, announced the first synthetic rubber this day. It was known as DuPrene.  In what decade was this product announced?

On 2 Nov 1947, Howard Hughes piloted his huge wooden airplane on its only flight, which lasted about a minute over Long Beach Harbor in California. It was the first test of a U.S. plane with eight engines. Wing span was 319 feet, 11 inches. Can you name this airplane?

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 November 2 web page of Today in Science History. Or, try this link first for just the brief answers.

Fast answers for the previous newsletter for November 1: Staedy-State theory of the universe; Pangea; Pampers disposable diapers; the decade containing the year 1952; Goodyear.

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