Newsletter for Thursday 8 November

 

 

TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY

NEWSLETTER - NOVEMBER 8

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 8 Nov 1656, Edmond Halley was born, the second Astronomer Royal, remembered in the name of Halley's Comet, which he predicted would return. But his significant work also includes prompting Newton to write the Prinicipia, which he editted and funded for publication. Halley predicted the transit of Venus that led to Cook's voyage to Tahiti. He made many more fundamental contributions to astronomical knowledge. Today's Science Store pick is Edmond Halley: Charting the Heavens and the Seas, by Alan Cook, who reveals a character of extraordinary breadth and depth. Although out of print, several copies are available Used from $7.00 (as of time of writing).  Yesterday's picks: Obsessive Genius: The Inner World of Marie Curie and Marie Curie: And the Science of Radioactivity. 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

"Aristotle's opinion ... that comets were nothing else than sublunary vapours or meteors ... prevailed so far amongst the Greeks, that this sublimest part of astronomy lay altogether neglected; since none could think it worthwhile to observe, and give an account of the wandering and uncertain path of vapours floating in the Ether." - Edmond Halley (born 8 Nov 1656)  "(It is infinitely better to transplant a heart) than to bury it so it can be devoured by worms." -  Dr. Christiaan Barnard, South African surgeon who performed the first human heart transplant operation (born 8 Nov 1922) "... geology is the music of the earth." - Hans Cloos, German geologist (born 8 Nov 1855)

QUIZ

Births

Swiss psychiatrist who devised the inkblot test that bears his name was born on 8 Nov 1884. The test is widely used clinically for diagnosing psychopathology. His secondary-school nickname was Kleck, meaning "inkblot," because of his interest in sketching. Can you name this scientist?

Edmond Halley, born 8 Nov 1656, was an English astronomer and mathematician, best known for recognizing that a bright comet (later named after him) had appeared several times, calculating its orbit (1682) and successfully predicting its return.  What is the average number of years between each return of the comet?

Deaths

Edwin Drake (1819-1880) is known for a first productive oil well the that launched the modern U.S. petroleum industry. After his well began to produce oil, other prospectors drilled wells nearby. Other men, with better business sense, grew rich from the oil boom, yet Drake died in poverty, after years of crippling illnesses. Where in the U.S. did Drake drill his well?

Events

On 8 Nov 1931, Fredrick Allison, working in Alabama, reported (erroneously) the discovery of  "alabamine", element 85, the heaviest halogen. The first synthesis and correct identification of this element eventually happened in 1940 by bombarding bismuth with alpha particles (Corson, MacKenzie, and Segré)..  By what name is "alabamine" now correctly known?

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 8 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 7:  Austrian; radium; 12 oarsmen; the decade containing the year 1918; Mercury.

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