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| NEWSLETTER - DECEMBER 25 | |
| 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 | |
| "The sole aim of science is the glory of the human spirit." - Gerhard Herzberg, German-Canadian Nobel prize-winning physicist (born 25 Dec 1904) This aphorism attributed to mathematician Carl Jacobi was cherished by Herzberg. (source) "I was like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me." - Isaac Newton (born 25 Dec 1642) "A considerable number of persons are able to protect themselves against the outbreak of serious neurotic phenomena only through intense work." - Karl Abraham, German psychoanalyst (died 25 Dec 1925) | |
| QUIZ | |
| Births | |
| Ernst August Friedrich Ruska, born 25 Dec 1906, was a German electrical engineer. In 1928 Ruska attempted to focus an electron beam with an electromagnetic lens. He went on to add a second lens and thus produced a new and very useful invention, for which he shared the 1986 Nobel Prize for Physics. What was Ruska's invention? | |
| Herman Frasch, born 25 Dec 1851, was a German-born American scientist who devised the Frasch Process for mining - a drilling, melting and pumping process. It made possible the exploitation of extensive deposits of a certain substance otherwise obtainable only at prohibitive expense. What substance is mined using the Frasch process? | |
| A 17th century English scientist, born 25 Dec, did some of his work in optics. He discovered the composition of white light, integrated the phenomena of colours into the science of light and laid the foundation for modern physical optics. Can you name this scientist? | |
| Deaths | |
| Eugen Goldstein (1850-1930) was a German physicist known for his work on electrical phenomena in gases and on cathode rays. He coined the term "cathode ray" (1876) emitted from a cathode, and is also credited with discovering canal rays (1886). What are canal rays? | |
| Events | |
| On 25 Dec 1960, Dr Irving Cooper received a Christmas gift that inspired his invention of the first cryosurgery device (to freeze tissue). It was a simple household device using a capsule of compressed carbon dioxide. He observed the gas was very cold when released and he could direct small squirts from it to freeze tiny areas on the palm of his hand and watch them thaw. He also observed the freezing effect was very localized and isolated from the surrounding tissue. What was this gift? | |
| 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 25 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 24: first law of thermodynamics; Sequoia and Yosemite; the decade containing the year 1948; phosphorus-32. | |
| Feedback | |
| If you enjoy this newsletter, the website, or wish to offer encouragement or ideas, please write. |
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