science newsletter: Newsletter for Monday 4 February

Newsletter - February 4 - Today in Science History

TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY
NEWSLETTER - 4 FEBRUARY

Feature for Today

On 4 Feb 1841, Clément Ader was born, one of the most prominent and successful aviators of the pre-Wright Brothers era. In a time before internal-combustion engines were used for flying machines, in 1890, he constructed a steam-powered aircraft with bat-shaped wings, named the Eole. Very briefly, and uncontrolled, he made the first manned, powered flight in it. Well, if barely lifting off the ground can be called flight! Thirteen years later, the Wright Brothers' definitive flight is now where the history of aviation begins in earnest. Yet, if you'd like to know a little more about what an industrious French inventor accomplished before that, see The Air Craft of Clément Ader.

Book of the Day

On 4 Feb 1906, Clyde W. Tombaugh was born, American astronomer who discovered Pluto. Today's Science Store pick is Clyde Tombaugh: Discoverer of Planet Pluto, by David H. Levy (remembered for his sighting of the Shoemaker-Levy comet), who writes this biography from knowing Tombaugh over many years. Levy conveys the sheer joy of astronomy and the scientific challenges Tombaugh experienced in his systematic sky survey. Tombaugh not only discovered Pluto, but began to document the clumpy distribution of galaxies. (Edwin Hubble's opinion had been that the galaxies were distributed more uniformly.) Tombaugh found adventure not only in astronomy, but was also in pioneer rocketry, spending several years at White Sands in the 1950s, helping Von Braun's team. New $~~13.95~~, Save 32%: Price: $9.53. Also available Used from $5.92 (as of time of writing).
Yesterday's pick: Oliver Heaviside: The Life, Work, and Times of an Electrical Genius of the Victorian Age. For picks from earlier newsletters, see the Today in Science Science Store home page.

Quotations for Today
	"I guess the two things I was most interested in were telescopes and steam engines. My father was an engineer on a threshing rig steam engine and I loved the machinery." - Clyde Tombaugh (born 4 Feb 1906)
	"How long can men thrive between walls of brick, walking on asphalt pavements, breathing the fumes of coal and of oil, growing, working, dying, with hardly a thought of wind, and sky, and fields of grain, seeing only machine-made beauty, the mineral-like quality of life?" - Charles Lindbergh, American aviator who was the first to make a solo, nonstop flight across the Atlantic (born 4 Feb 1902) (source)
	"One may characterize physics as the doctrine of the repeatable, be it a succession in time or the co-existence in space. The validity of physical theorems is founded on this repeatability." - Friedrich Hund, German physicist known for his work on the electronic structure of atoms and molecules (born 4 Feb 1896) (source)

QUIZ
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.
Births
	Clyde W. Tombaugh, born 4 Feb 1906, was an American astronomer known for his successful discovery of the new planet, Pluto, for which a systematic search had been instigated by the predictions of other astronomers. Born of poor farmers, his first telescope was made of parts from worn-out farming equipment. *In which decade of his life did Tombaugh discover Pluto?*
	Raymond A. Dart, born on 4 Feb 1893, was an Australian-born South African physical anthropologist. In 1924, working with students in the Taung limestone works in Bechuanaland, he found the skull of the Taung child, only three years old at the time of death. He named it Australopithecus africanus, "australis" meaning south and "pithecus" meaning ape. *What significance did he recognize about this discovery?*
Deaths
	On 4 Feb 1974, Satyendra Nath Bose died. He was a mathematician and physicist who collaborated with Albert Einstein to develop a theory of statistical quantum mechanics, now called Bose-Einstein statistics. P.A.M. Dirac coined a name for particles obeying these statistics. *What is this particle name coined by Dirac?*
Events
	On 4 Feb 1941, Roy Plunkett received a U.S. patent for "Tetrafluoro-ethylene Polymers." *By what trade name is his invention better known?*
	On 4 Feb 1915, a series of experiments began to find the cause of the disease pellagra, conducted by Dr. Joseph Goldberger. The illness was eventually found to result from poor diet, lacking certain essential nutrients. *By what name are these "essential nutrients" now 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 February 4 web page of Today in Science History.. Or, try this link first for just the brief answers.

Fast answers for the previous newsletter for February 3: gene; maximite; Cats; Luna 9; Joseph Wilson Swan.

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