science newsletter: Newsletter for Saturday 23 March

Newsletter - March 23 - Today in Science History

TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY
NEWSLETTER - 23 MARCH

Feature for Today

On 23 Mar 1861, the first horse-drawn tramcars began service in London. Although similar operations had already been established in America, France and even Ireland, it took the effort of American entrepreneur George Francis Train to introduce them to London. (Image from 1875)

Before starting, he needed consent from officials to put iron rails into some London streets. These reduce friction, and make it far easier for a horse to pull many passengers on a carriage with flanged wheels. As with any new idea that threatens the livelihoods of those operating in the old way (here, with the horse-drawn road omnibus) he met with opposition.

In 1860, Train published a 59-page booklet describing the merits of the tramcar. It included articles from newspapers expressing different opinions. You can read an extract from his appeal, addressed to the President of the Board of Trade, London, and gain a sense of what it took to establish this new form of transport. Train titled his booklet Observations on Horse Railways.

Book of the Day

On 23 Mar 1769, William Smith was born, an English engineer and geologist who travelled the entire country to verify that relationships between the strata and their characteristics were consistent everywhere. He created a great geologic map of England and Wales (1815) set the standard for modern geologic maps.
Today's Science Store pick is his autobiography: The Map That Changed the World: the Tale of William Smith by Simon Winchester, the author of several engrossing popular biographies, including the best-selling The Professor and the Madman. Winchester's strength is his ability to meld into compelling narrative a host of literary conventions, such as foreshadowing and fictionalized, internal dialogue. Instead of what might be an otherwise dry reading, Winchester injects such a lot of life that his books are gripping. He presents a very human tale of endurance and achievement, of one man's dedication in the face of ruin. New: $~~14.99~~. Save 32% Price $10.19. Available Used from $0.01 (as of time of writing).

On 23 March 1699, John Bartram was born, an American explorer who is regarded as the father of American botany. He had a Quaker schooling, pursued his interest in botany, ecology, and better methods of farming. He became George III’s botanist for North America, and was a friend of Benjamin Franklin, and a co-founder of the American Philosophical Society. The Bartram's Garden that he created is now part of Philadelphia's small park system. It is the oldest living botanical garden in the U.S., where many giant trees may still be seen that he planted. Today's Science Store pick is: The Life and Travels of John Bartram: by Edmund Berkeley Jr. and Dorothy Smith Berkeley, who enthuse you with the genuine passion that Bartram had to learn about and discover new botanical plants. New Price $19.95. >Available Used from $8.90 (as of time of writing).

Yesterday's pick: The Autobiography of Robert A. Millikan, by Robert Andrews Millikan.
For picks from earlier newsletters, see the Today in Science Science Store home page.

Quotations for Today
	"An egg is a chemical process, but it is not a mere chemical process. It is one that is going places—even when, in our world of chance and contingency, it ends up in an omelet and not in a chicken. Though it surely be a chemical process, we cannot understand it adequately without knowing the kind of chicken it has the power to become." - Sir John Randall, English physicist (born 23 Mar 1905)
	"An intelligence which at a given instant knew all the forces acting in nature and the position of every object in the universe – if endowed with a brain sufficiently vast to make all necessary calculations – could describe with a single formula the motions of the largest astronomical bodies and those of the smallest atoms. To such an intelligence, nothing would be uncertain; the future, like the past, would be an open book." - Pierre-Simon Laplace, French mathematician, physicist, statistician and astronomer (born 23 Mar 1749)
	"Our two greatest problems are gravity and paper work. We can lick gravity, but sometimes the paperwork is overwhelming." - Engineer in the quiz below, (born 23 Mar 1912)

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
	An engineer, born in Germany on 23 Mar 1912, moved to America after World War II, and played a prominent role in all aspects of rocketry and space exploration. *Can you name this engineer?*
	Richard Anthony Proctor, born 23 Mar 1837, was an English astronomer who in 1873 was the first to suggest that lunar craters were the result of meteor impacts. *What had previously been assumed to be the source of lunar craters before Proctor's proposal?*
Deaths
	Andrés Manuel Del Rio (1764-1849) discovered a new element (1801). While a professor of mineralogy in Mexico, Del Rio examined a specimen of brown lead from Zimapan and found a new metal, similar to chromium and uranium, which he name erythronium, after the red colour of one of its chemical compounds (Greek erythros, "red"). He was dissuaded by other chemists, and eventually regarded it as impure chromium. Swedish chemist Nils Gabriel Sefström, rediscovered the element (1830) and named it after the Scandinavian goddess of beauty, because of its beautiful multi-coloured compounds. *What is the name of this element?*
Events
	On 23 Mar of a certain year, Dr. Barney C. Clark who had been the first recipient of a permanent artificial heart, died at the University of Utah's Medical Center after 112 days with the device. *In which decade was the first human permanent artificial heart implanted?*
	On 23 Mar 1965, America's first two-person space flight blasted off from Cape Kennedy with astronauts Virgil I. Grissom and John W. Young aboard. What was the name of their spacecraft?

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 March 23 web page of Today in Science History. Or, try this link first for just the brief answers.

Fast answers for the previous newsletter for March 22: cosmic rays; Cambrian; paddle-wheel; the decade including the year 1960; France.

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