science newsletter: Newsletter for Saturday 16 February

Newsletter - February 16 - Today in Science History

TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY
NEWSLETTER - 16 FEBRUARY

Feature for Today

On 16 Feb 1834, Ernst Haeckel was born. Here, you can read a sample of his writing on Evolution, somewhat as road-kill left on science's relentlessly self-correcting path of progress.

Although Haeckel grasped Darwin's ideas on Evolution, Haeckel had his own concept "Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny," meaning that he supposed any animal embryo progresses through all previous evolutionary stages as it develops. Yes, he was shown to be wrong about that, as science itself evolved with better theories.

Yet your time will be still well-spent reading this time-capsule from the 19th century, when you regard it as one of the stepping stones in the history of biology—Haeckel's interpretation of Evolution.

Book of the Day

On 16 Feb 1822, Sir Francis Galton was born, English scientist, founder of eugenics, statistician and investigator of intellectual ability. He was a cousin and contemporary of Charles Darwin. Today's Science Store pick is A Life of Sir Francis Galton: From African Exploration to the Birth of Eugenics, by Nicholas Wright Gillham. Few scientists have made lasting contributions to as many fields as Francis Galton. He was an important African explorer, travel writer, and geographer. He was the meteorologist who discovered the anticyclone, the inventor of regression and correlation analysis in statistics, and the founder of the eugenics movement. Nicholas Gillham paints an engaging portrait of this Victorian polymath - a vibrant biography of a remarkable scientist as well as a superb portrait of science in the Victorian era. Price $60.00. Also available Used $2.69 (as of time of writing).

Yesterday's pick: Galileo: A Life, by James Reston.
For picks from earlier newsletters, see the Today in Science Science Store home page.

Quotations for Today
	"Where faith commences, science ends." - Ernst Haeckel, German zoologist (born 16 Feb 1834).
	"It is notorious that the same discovery is frequently made simultaneously and quite independently, by different persons. Thus, to speak of only a few cases in late years, the discoveries of photography, of electric telegraphy, and of the planet Neptune through theoretical calculations, have all their rival claimants. It would seem, that discoveries are usually made when the time is ripe for them—that is to say, when the ideas from which they naturally flow are fermenting in the minds of many men." - Sir Francis Galton, English anthropolist (born 16 Feb 1822)
	"There is only one thing worse than coming home from the lab to a sink full of dirty dishes, and that is not going to the lab at all!" - Chien-Shiung Wu, Chinese-American physicist (died 16 Feb 1997)

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
	Ernst Haeckel, born 16 Feb 1834, was a German zoologist and evolutionist who was a strong proponent of Darwinism and who proposed new notions of the evolutionary descent of man. He coined many words commonly used by biologists today, such as phylum, phylogeny, and the word used to mean "study of the interactions between organisms and their environment (home)." *What is this word for "study of the home" coined by Haeckel?*
	Sir Francis Galton, born 16 Feb 1822, was an English explorer, anthropologist, and eugenicist, known for his pioneering studies of human intelligence. He was a cousin of Charles Darwin. Galton experimentally verified that a certain human feature was unique to each individual. *What is this feature?*
Deaths
	Chien-Shiung Wu (1912-1997) was a Chinese-born American physicist who provided the first experimental proof (1956) that the principle of parity conservation does not hold in certain subatomic interactions, disproving what had been thought to be a universal symmetry law of nature. Which type of interactions did he prove not to conserve parity?
Events
	On 16 Feb of a certain year, Dr. Wallace Hume Carothers, a research chemist for DuPont, who invented nylon, received a patent for the synthetic fiber. The patent covered synthetic linear condensation polymers capable of being drawn into strong pliable fibres, as well as the process for making them. One of the first consumer uses of this new wonder plastic was replacing hog bristles in tooth brushes. In which decade was this patent for nylon issued?
	On 16 Feb 1923, archaeologist Howard Carter opened the sealed doorway to the sepulchral chamber of a tomb in Thebes, Egypt. A group of invited visitors and officials was present, including Lord Carnarvon, the aristocratic Englishman who had funded the excavation. *This was the tomb of which Egyptian?*

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 16 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 15: Hungary; Thomas Alva Edison; that the Earth rotates on its axis; the decade including the year 1922; fission.

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