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| NEWSLETTER - DECEMBER 18 | |
| 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. | |
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| Quotations for Today | |
| "If the modern conception of the atom is correct the barrier which separated physics and chemistry has been removed" - J.J. Thomson, English physicist (born 18 Dec 1856) "Anyone who has had actual contact with the making of the inventions that built the radio art knows that these inventions have been the product of experiment and work based on physical reasoning, rather than on the mathematicians' calculations and formulae. Precisely the opposite impression is obtained from many of our present day text books and publications." - Edwin H. Armstrong, inventor of radio circuits (born 18 Dec 1890) "The gifts of microscopes to our understanding of cells and organisms is so profound that one has to ask: What are the gifts of the microscopist? Here is my opinion. The gift of the great microscopist is the ability to think with the eyes and see with the brain. Deep revelations into the nature of living things continue to travel on beams of light." - Daniel Mazia, American cell biologist (born 18 Dec 1912) | |
| QUIZ | |
| Births | |
| Sir J.J. Thomson, an English physicist, born 18 Dec 1856, helped revolutionize the knowledge of atomic structure by his discovery of the electron (1897). He received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1906 and was knighted in 1908. He experimented with "cathode rays," which prompted him to make a bold proposal: these mysterious rays are streams of particles much smaller than atoms. By what name did J.J. Thomson refer to the particles he discovered? | |
| Deaths | |
| Andrija Mohorovicic (1857-1936) was a Croatian meteorologist and geophysicist who discovered the boundary now named the Mohorovicic discontinuity. He analyzed the spreading of seismic waves with shallow depths through the Earth. From these, he was the first to establish, on the basis of seismic waves, a surface of velocity discontinuity. What regions of the Earth's structure are separated by this boundary? | |
| Sir Richard Owen (1804-1892) was an English anatomist and paleontologist who is remembered for his contributions to the study of fossil animals and for his strong opposition to the views of Charles Darwin. He created the word "Dinosaur" and many of the terms still used today in anatomy and evolutionary biology, including "homology." What is the meaning of the words used to coin the name "dinosaur?" | |
| Events | |
| On 18 Dec of a certain year, John William Draper took an image of the moon, the first celestial photograph made in the U.S. He exposed the plate for 20 minutes using a 5-inch telescope and produced an image one inch in diameter. In which decade was this image captured? | |
| In 1912, the discovery of a skull then regarded as the first important fossil human skull ever to be unearthed in England was announced at a meeting of the Geological Society of Great Britain. In 1953, thanks to some rigorous scholarly detective work, it was revealed to be modern forgery. By what name was this "fossil man" 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 December 18 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 17: the atmosphere, where cosmic rays cause nuclear transmutation of nitrogen; ionosphere; potassium and sodium ; Lord Kelvin (of Largs); 120 feet. | |
| Feedback | |
| If you enjoy this newsletter, the website, or wish to offer encouragement or ideas, please write. |
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