science newsletter: Newsletter for Tuesday 29 January

Newsletter - January 29 - Today in Science History

TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY

NEWSLETTER - JANUARY 29

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.

Today's Science Store pick is a series of books from the Smithsonian that use story-telling to teach science in combination with improving literacy for students in middle and high school. Each of three titles in the series The Story of Science, by Joy Hakim is presented with wit, narrative depth and well researched substance that has been extensively vetted by specialists and educators. Teachers will find anecdotal information to enliven their lessons. Parents can encourage their kids to read the books at home to greatly increase their understanding of the history and discovery of scientific theory, while extending their literacy.
The Story of Science: Aristotle Leads the Way gives an account of the dawn of modern science up to the revolution created by moveable type. Its multidisciplinary approach is evidenced by chapter subtitles such as science, math, language arts, technology and engineering, geography, or philosophy. New $~~24.95~~, Price $16.47.
In The Story of Science: Newton at the Center, readers will meet great scientific minds of Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Newton, and others. "Read this book and you'll know more science than Isaac Newton did," says the author as she introduces an explosion of research in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries up to the discovery of radioactivity. New $~~24.95~~, Price $16.47.
The Story of Science: Einstein Adds a New Dimension extends the stories into the twentieth century with more coverage of specific individuals, theories and inventions in a larger volume. New $~~27.95~~, Price: $18.45.
(Free Super-Saver Shipping applies for the purchase of two or more of these titles.)
Yesterday's pick: Between Earth and Sky. For picks from earlier newsletters, see the Today in Science Science Store home page.

Quotations for Today

"From time immemorial, man has desired to comprehend the complexity of nature in terms of as few elementary concepts as possible." - Abdus Salam (born 29 Jan 1926)

"American contributions to ethnology may fall below their accustomed standards of meticulous care and logical finality. But the loss will be a gain if they reveal a proportionate rise in creative ideas and illuminating syntheses." - Alexander Goldenweiser, Russian-American anthropologist (born 29 Jan 1880) (source)

"When their qualities become known, the two-celled kite will be considered a, barbarism of the past." - Lawrence Hargrave, inventor of the box kite (born 29 Jan 1850)

QUIZ

Births

Abdus Salam, born 29 Jan 1926, was a Pakistani nuclear physicist who was one of three men that shared the 1979 Nobel Prize for Physics for independently formulating a theory explaining the underlying unity of the weak nuclear force and a certain other fundamental force.
What is other related fundamental force?

Deaths

Fritz Haber (1868-1934) was a German physical chemist, winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry (1918) for his development of a method of synthesizing ammonia (1909). This method had commercial potential in the large-scale synthesis of fertilizer.
What were the raw materials used in the Haber process ?

Events

On 29 Jan of a certain year, Émil H. Grubbe, a Chicago researcher, became the first known to administer x-ray radiation treatment for the recurrent breast cancer of a fifty-five-year-old woman. Grubbe tried radiation as a tool against cancer after he suffered a radiation burn while experimenting with X-rays.
In what decade did Grubbe make this first attempt at using x-rays against cancer?

On 29 Jan 1958, The Boston Herald printed a letter from Olga Owens Huckins attacking a certain pesticide as dangerous. Huckins was a friend of Rachel Carson, and also sent a personal letter to her, which together prompted the writing of Carson's book Silent Spring.
What was the pesticide being criticized?

On 29 Jan 1924, Carl R. Taylor was issued a U.S. patent for a "machine for forming thin, freshly baked wafers while still hot into cone shaped containers." Multiple dies were designed on a turntable, such that when formed, the product had time to cool and harden before rotating into position for release. This was the first U.S. patent for such a product.
What was the intended use for these cones?

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 29 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 28: 120 degrees; Christa McAuliffe; the decade including the year 1807; Neptune.

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