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| NEWSLETTER - JANUARY 2 | |
| 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 short, the scientific vocabulary is really an adventure. Hidden in the queer jawbreakers and in the shorter oddities are little stories; concise descriptions; thumbnail sections of history; tiny bits of testimony to great scientific achievements and too human error, too; reminders of great men and of mistaken and forgotten theories. As the words pass in review, they are all so different, and each in its own way is so interesting" - Isaac Asimov, biochemist and himself an alchemist of words (born 2 Jan 1920) "The fundamental laws of the universe which correspond to the two fundamental theorems of the mechanical theory of heat. (1) The energy of the universe is constant. (2) The entropy of the universe tends to a maximum." - Rudolf Clausius, German physicist, co-founder of thermodynamics (born 2 Jan 1822) "A nuclear power plant is infinitely safer than eating, because 300 people choke to death on food every year." - Dixy Lee Ray, American marine biologist, first female chair of the Atomic Energy Commission (died 2 Jan 1994) | |
| QUIZ | |
| Births | |
| An American author and biochemist, born 2 Jan 1920, coined the term "robotics," and was a prolific writer of science fiction and science non-fiction books for the layperson. Born in Petrovichi, Russia, he emigrated with his family to New York City at age three. He taught biochemistry at Boston University School of Medicine, but he is most admired as a writer and popularizer of science. Can you name this author? | |
| Charles Hatchett, born 2 Jan 1765, was an English manufacturer, chemist, and discoverer in 1801 of a new element, which he called columbium. Forty years later another chemist, Heinrich Rose of Germany, rediscovered the metal and gave it the name by which it is now known. It is used in arc-welding rods for stabilized grades of stainless steel. What is this element? | |
| Deaths | |
| Sir George Biddell Airy (1801-1892) was the seventh British Astronomer Royal. In his life he studied interference fringes in optics, made a mathematical study of the rainbow, and computed the density of the Earth (with experimental measurements made at the top and bottom of a deep mine.) What simple device did Airy use to make the measurements to compute the density of the earth? | |
| Events | |
| On 2 Jan of a certain year, the first lunar space shot to escape the Earth's gravitational pull, the unmanned Luna I, was launched by the Soviet Union. It passed to within 4,600 miles of the moon before moving on to a solar orbit. In what decade did this space shot take place? | |
| On 2 Jan 1995, the most distant galaxy yet discovered was found by scientists using the Keck telescope in Hawaii. It was named 8C 1435+63. How many billion light-years away is this galaxy? | |
| 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 2 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 1: bosons; rear admiral; Heinrich Hertz; the decade including the year 1966; ENIAC. | |
| Feedback | |
| If you enjoy this newsletter, the website, or wish to offer encouragement or ideas, please write. |
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