| | |
| NEWSLETTER - DECEMBER 23 | |
| 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. | |
| |
| Quotations for Today | |
| "No people, either ancient or modern, have had a national architecture at once so sublime in scale, so grand in expression, and so free from littleness as that of the ancient Egyptians." - Jean-François Champollion (born 23 Dec 1790) (source) "I had fought on behalf of man against the sea, but I realised that it had become more urgent to fight on behalf of the sea against men." (2002) - Alain Bombard, French biologist and avid environmentalist who made a single-handed transatlantic lifeboat voyage completed on 23 Dec 1952. "An immune system of enormous complexity is present in all vertebrate animals. When we place a population of lymphocytes from such an animal in appropriate tissue culture fluid, and when we add an antigen, the lymphocytes will produce specific antibody molecules, in the absence of any nerve cells. I find it astonishing that the immune system embodies a degree of complexity which suggests some more or less superficial though striking analogies with human language, and that this cognitive system has evolved and functions without the assistance of the brain." - Niels Jerne, British-Danish immunologist (born 23 Dec 1911) | |
| QUIZ | |
| Births | |
| Sir Richard Arkwright, born 23 Dec 1732, was an English textile industrialist and inventor whose use of power-driven machinery and employment of a factory system of production were perhaps more important than his inventions. His Water Frame was able to produce a thread that was far stronger than that made by the former Spinning-Jenny. Why was the Water Frame so-called? | |
| Deaths | |
| Pierre Janssen (1824-1907) was a French astronomer who in 1868 discovered how to observe solar prominences without an eclipse. He noted an unknown yellow spectral line in the Sun in 1868 and forwarded the data to Lockyer, who is credited with the recognizing a new element, named after the sun What is the element they discovered? | |
| Events | |
| On 23 Dec of a certain year, the experimental airplane Voyager, piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, completed the first non-stop, round- the- world flight without refueling. It returned safely to Edwards Air Force Base in California after travelling 24,986 miles in 216 hours (about nine days), at an average speed of 115.8 mph. In which decade was this flight accomplished? | |
| On 23 Dec 1968, three American astronauts on Apollo 8 became the first men to orbit the Moon. Not only was this the first manned flight to and from the Moon, but Apollo 8 served to validate many of the technical procedures necessary to support upcoming lunar missions. Can you name one of the crew? | |
| On 23 Dec 1953, the former director of the Manhattan Project was notified that his security clearance had been suspended. There were allegations questioning his trustworthiness for association with Communists. Can you name this scientist? | |
| 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 December 23 web page of Today in Science History. Or, try this link first for just the brief answers. | |
| Fast answers for the previous newsletter for December 22: radio telescope; palladium (1803) and rhodium (1804); the decade containing the year 1882; Coney Island. | |
| Feedback | |
| If you enjoy this newsletter, the website, or wish to offer encouragement or ideas, please write. |
If you do not want to receive any more newsletters, this link
To update your preferences and to unsubscribe visit this link
! !
Δεν υπάρχουν σχόλια:
Δημοσίευση σχολίου