science newsletter: Newsletter for Thursday 14 February

Newsletter - February 14 - Today in Science History

TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY
NEWSLETTER - 14 FEBRUARY

Feature for Today

On 14 Feb 1877, Greenleaf Whittier Pickard was born, the Ameerican electrical engineer who invented the crystal detector, which opened the frontiers of early radio, and was a precursor of the transistor.

In the article An Untold Romance of Invention, you can read how Pickard's career began using a kite to collect upper air samples for a data bank to show whether the ice ages were caused by variations in the carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere. (If that sounds familiar, note that his experiments were in 1898!)

The article gives you the chain of events that led to his discovery of the crystal detector for radio. Chances are, Pickard's name is unfamiliar to you, but as always, it is fascinating to learn about the background to an invention, described in this article.

Book of the Day

On 14 Feb 1827, George Bassett Clark was born, who contributed to the family business of Alvan Clark & Sons. Today's Science Store pick is Alvan Clark & Sons, Artists in Optics, by Deborah Jean Warner and Robert B. Ariail. The authors give a meticulously researched history of Alvan Clark & Sons, America's premier 19th century telescope maker. In a biographical section, there are numerous photographs of of the Clark family, their instruments, their workshop. The characteristics of nearly all the optical instruments the company made are cataloged. An appendix is included on the known portraits painted by Alvan Clark, who was a portrait painter before he turned to manufacturing telescopes.)
Yesterday's pick: Broken Genius: The Rise and Fall of William Shockley, Creator of the Electronic Age, by Joel N. Shurkin
For picks from earlier newsletters, see the Today in Science Science Store home page.

Quotations for Today
	"I have a good idea every two years. Give me a topic, I will give you the idea!" - Fritz Zwicky, Swiss astronomer and physicist (born 14 Feb 1898). Reputed to have been a remark made to the head of his department at Caltech.
	"Operationally, God is beginning to resemble not a ruler, but the last fading smile of a cosmic Cheshire Cat." - Sir Julian Huxley, English biologist (died 14 Feb 1975).
	"You know that my apprehension is, that the thing may take a while, and for a while there may be an active demand for them, but that like any other novelty, it will have its brief day and be thrown aside. - Christopher Latham Sholes, American inventor of first practical typewriter (born 14 Feb 1819).

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
	Fritz Zwicky, born 14 Feb 1898, was a Swiss astronomer and physicist, who made valuable contributions to the theory and understanding to a certain type of star. *Which type of stars were the subject of the theory for which he is remembered?*
	C.T.R. Wilson, born 14 Feb 1869, was a Scottish physicist who received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1927 for his invention of the Wilson cloud chamber. It is based upon the formation of clouds, which develop when sufficiently moist air is suddenly expanded, thus dropping the temperature below the dew-point. Thereafter, vapour condenses into small drops, formed around dust particles, but the cloud chamber served another purpose. *What is the purpose of the Wilson cloud chamber?*
Deaths
	Karl Jansky (1905-1950) was an American electrical engineer who found a certain emission came from a specific region on the sky every 23 hours and 56 minutes, from the direction of Sagittarius toward the center of the Milky Way. At the age of 26, he was the first to discover that celestial bodies could emit this type of radiation as well as light waves. *What part of the electromagnetic spectrum did Jansky find emitted from space?*
	An English seaman (1728-1779) was one of the first really scientific navigators. While surveying the coast of Newfoundland, he observed a solar eclipse. On the first of three expeditions into the Pacific (1768) he took Joseph Banks as the ship's botanist to study the flora and fauna discovered. (This practice of carrying a naturalist took place some 75 years before Charles Darwin's famous voyage.) In 1769, he observed the transit of Venus from the island of Tahiti. *Can you name this Captain?*
Events
	On 14 Feb 2003, the world's most famous sheep - the first born cloned sheep - was put down. She had been suffering from a progressive lung disease. From her birth, at the Roslin Institute, Edinburgh, Scotland on 5 Jul 1996 fears were expressed about the wisdom of cloning, which were renewed upon her death What was this sheep named?

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 14 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 13: The decade including the year 1956; head; France; ENIAC (the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator); the electric charge of an electron.

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