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| NEWSLETTER - JANUARY 12 | |
| 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 | |
| In the U.S.S.R., the Council of Ministers, despite having approved a simple satellite program in Feb 1957, failed to agree in late Aug 1957 on giving formal permission for a planned actual launch. At the next session, this request succeeded (since none of the members wanted to take the blame for a potential miscalculation): "I propose let us put the question of national priority in launching the world's first artificial satellite to the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. Let them settle it." - Sergey Pavlovich Korolev, Soviet leader of many early space projects (born 12 Jan 1907) (source) "I conducted my early experiments myself in those days and still do so today since, in my view, nothing is better than making one's own observations. Such personally conducted biological investigations stimulate the chemist in his work.... He will also test substances synthesized by himself with far more keenness and understanding than will a biologist working at a distance from him, who, unconsciously tends in time to lose interest because the tedious chemical formulae mean little to him." - Paul Hermann Müller, Swiss Nobel prize-winning chemist (born 12 Jan 1899) (source) "(Intelligence is) the aggregate, or global capacity to act purposefully, think rationally, and deal effectively with the environment. It is global because it characterizes the individual's behavior as a whole; it is an aggregate because it is composed of elements or abilities which, though not entirely independent, are qualitatively differentiable." (1938) - David Wechsler, American psychologist, inventor of intelligence tests (born 12 Jan 1896) | |
| QUIZ | |
| Births | |
| Ruth Rogan Benerito, born 12 Jan 1916, worked as a chemist whose pioneering research produced a major development for fabrics made by the textile industry. The result is known by an every-day term. What was the development this scientist gave to the textiles now in everyday use? | |
| Jan Baptista van Helmont, born 12 Jan 1580, recognized the existence of discrete gases. He determined that the gas given off by burning charcoal is the same as that given off by fermenting grape juice. He called it spiritus silvestre ("wild spirit"). By what name is this "wild spirit" gas now known? | |
| Deaths | |
| A French mathematician (b.1601) died on 12 Jan 1665 leaving an enigmatic reference to his solution of a theorem, but without the full explanation. For centuries, others attempted to recreate a proof for a simply written extension to the Pythagorean theorem. "In an + bn = cn, the new equation cannot be solved in integers for any value of n greater than 2." Who is the mathematician who proposed this theorem? | |
| Events | |
| On 12 Jan 1908, a wireless message was sent long-distance for the first time from a European structure selected for this purpose because of its height What was this structure? | |
| 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 January 12 web page of Today in Science History. Or, try this link first for just the brief answers. | |
| Fast answers for the previous newsletter for January 11: the decade including the year 1934; cosmic rays; cigarette smoking; francium; Titania. | |
| Feedback | |
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