science newsletter: Newsletter for Monday 12 August

Newsletter - August 12 - Today in Science History

TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY
NEWSLETTER - 12 AUGUST

Feature for Today

On 12 Aug 1812, Ephrain Ball was born, the American inventor and manufacturer whose “Ball's Ohio Mower and Reaper” was widely successful (1854). This machine was a leader in the change to double driving wheels. His factories annually produced up to 10,000 of this and later models.

In his day, he was a self-made man who was one of the world's benefactors to agriculture. If you are unfamiliar with his accomplishments, learn more from this short biography of Ephraim Ball from A History of American Manufactures (1866).

Book of the Day

On 12 Aug 1848, George Stepohenson died, the English engineer and inventor who was a principal pioneer of the railroad locomotive. The first railway he built ran from Darlington to Stockton which opened 27 Sep 1825 when large crowds saw him at the controls of the locomotive as it pulled 36 wagons filled with sacks of coal and flour. Today's Science Store pick is a biography of him and his son, George and Robert Stephenson: The Railway Revolution, by L.T.C. Rolt. The Stephensons carried Britain into the modern age with dramatic speed, transforming the pace and style of everyday life. The author, with his own practical knowledge of mechanical and civil engineering, is an experienced writer of biographies on several great British engineers, including Brunel and Thomas Telford, as well as Narrow Boat. Available New from $15.28 or Used from $23.83 (as of time of writing).

For picks from earlier newsletters, see the Today in Science Science Store home page.

Quotations for Today
	"Science is a game—but a game with reality, a game with sharpened knives ... If a man cuts a picture carefully into 1000 pieces, you solve the puzzle when you reassemble the pieces into a picture; in the success or failure, both your intelligences compete. In the presentation of a scientific problem, the other player is the good Lord. He has not only set the problem but also has devised the rules of the game, but they are not completely known, half of them are left for you to discover or to deduce. The experiment is the tempered blade which you wield with success against the spirits of darkness—or which defeats you shamefully. The uncertainty is how many of the rules God himself has permanently ordained, and how many apparently are caused by your own mental inertia, while the solution generally becomes possible only through freedom from its limitations." - Austrian theoretical physicist, in the quiz below (born 12 Aug 1887)
	"Frequently, I have been asked if an experiment I have planned is pure or applied science; to me it is more important to know if the experiment will yield new and probably enduring knowledge about nature. If it is likely to yield such knowledge, it is, in my opinion, good fundamental research; and this is more important than whether the motivation is purely aesthetic satisfaction on the part of the experimenter on the one hand or the improvement of the stability of a (device) on the other." - William B. Shockley, English-American physicist and engineer (died 12 Aug 1989)
	"Science, as long as it limits itself to the descriptive study of the laws of nature, has no moral or ethical quality and this applies to the physical as well as the biological sciences." - Sir Ernst Boris Chain, German-English biochemist (died 12 Aug 1979)

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
	On 12 Aug 1887, an Austrian theoretical physicist was born who contributed to the wave theory of matter and to other fundamentals of quantum mechanics. He shared the 1933 Nobel Prize for Physics with the British physicist P.A.M. Dirac. Can you name this man?
	To investigate the geotropism of roots and stems, he invented a machine, rotating to simulate gravity with centrifugal force in either horizontal or vertical position. In each case, On 12 Aug 1759, Thomas Andrew Knight was born, a British horticulturalist who initiated the field of fruit breeding.he noted the inwards towards the centre, or outwards, growth direction for the roots or stems. In each case rotating on this machine, in which direction did the roots grow? In which direction did the stems grow? (Towards the centre? Or away from the centre?)
Deaths
	William B. Shockley (1910-1989) was an English-American engineer and teacher, cowinner (with John Bardeen and Walter H. Brattain) of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1956 for the development of an important improvement on another device, able to do the same function with much less bulk and more efficiency. *What device did he invent?*
	George Stephenson (1781-1848) was an English engineer and principal inventor of the railroad locomotive. In the Rainhill trials of 1829, there was a competition as to who could build the fastest locomotive. He won with his locomotive which traveled at an unheard of speed of 36 miles per hour. *What was the name of his winning locomotive?*
Events
	In 1977, the Enterprise, the prototype for the space shuttle, made its first flight on its own within Earth's atmosphere after being launched from a Boeing 747, separated, and then touched down in California's Mojave Desert; the space shuttle Enterprise passed its first solo flight test. What was the origin of the shuttle's name?
	In 1883, the quagga became extinct when the last mare at Amsterdam Zoo died. It was not immediately realised that she was the very last of her kind. Because of the confusion caused by the indiscriminate use of the term "Quagga" for similar animals, the true quagga had been hunted to extinction without this being realised until many years later. What animal did the quagga resemble?
	In 1865, after studying Louis Pasteur's germ theory of disease (that infections are caused by bacteria), a surgeon was the first use disinfectant during an operation. He introduced phenol (carbolic acid) as a form of disinfectant into his surgery; the higher standards of hygiene reduce the surgical death rate from 45% to 15%. He was the first medical person raised to the peerage. Can you name this surgeon?

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 August 12 web page of Today in Science History. Or, try this link first for just the brief answers.

Fast answers for the previous newsletter for August 11: cathode-ray tube; an attendant had been feeding his laboratory chickens with cooked white rice instead of whole rice, Eijkman discovered by accident that diet produced a disease resembling beriberi in human beings; Andrew Carnegie; Phobos and Deimos; S.O.S.

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