science newsletter: Newsletter for Tuesday 13 August

Newsletter - August 13 - Today in Science History

TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY
NEWSLETTER - 13 AUGUST

Feature for Today

A medical triple feature for this newsletter begins with two people who died not quite a half-century apart on this day. But they had something in common—caring about clean bed sheets for their hospital patients. That, and much more, make them both giants in the history of improvement of hospital conditions. A third physician, who also died on this day, introduced a new techique for diagnosis that is a staple for today's doctors, and makes him also worthy of special recognition. You have undoubtedly been touched by his invention.

On 13 Aug 1910, Florence Nightingale died, the English nurse and statistician, known as “The Lady With The Lamp,” who tirelessly worked for the improvement of nursing practices following her experience in the Crimean War, and continued to raise respect for nurses as medical professionals.

In 1855, she provided the House of Commons Inquiry on Scutari, with a Report upon the State of the Hospitals of the British Army in Crimea and Scutari. In it, she detailed the problems with requisitioning necessary supplies. She continued with information on how she provided the wounded soldiers with clean shirts, and the regimen she introduced for washing clothes, sheets and bandages. A relatively short read, this is an interesting insight into the difficulties she faced and attempted to overcome, all in her own words.

On 13 Aug 1865, Ignaz Semmelweis died, the German physician who greatly reduced deaths from puerperal (“child bed”) fever by introducing antisepsis into medical practice. He insisted on health workers rigorously handwashing between patients, and clean bed sheets. His efforts met with much resistance from a profession of doctors too unwilling to change their habits. But he persisted, and looking back, we know he right and give him more respect for what he accomplished than he received during his lifetime. His struggles, and sad circumstances of his own death, are a stimulating read in this article Pathfinders in Medicine: Semmelweis, the Obstetrician from Medical Review of Reviews (1912).

On 13 Aug 1826, René Laënnec died, a French physician whose lasting contribution to medicine is described in an article Laennec And Auscultation, from Pathfinders in Medicine (1912), which also gives you as reader an insight into his life and times.

Book of the Day

On 13 Aug 1888, a Scottish engineer was born who was the first man to televise outline pictures of objects (1924) followed the next year by recognizable human faces. By 1926, he was able to demonstrate TV for moving objects at the Royal Institution, London, and colour TV in 1928. Today's Science Store pick is Television and Me: The Autobiography of ..., (you'll name this inventor in the quiz below). The genius who not only invented television but went on to develop colour and 3D versions of it, wrote his own life story. It is a highly readable account of the dramatic pioneering days of television. With blunt candour and caustic wit, he writes about the wild escapades of his early business career and later troubled relationship with Lord Reith and the fledgling BBC. This heavily illustrated edition adds new material, including a recently discovered final chapter by his wife, and together gives us a very human portrait of the harshly honest, but sophisticated and cultured man who was one of the creators of the modern world. Available New from $6.95 or Used from $6.09 (as of time of writing).

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

Quotations for Today
	"But we have reason to think that the annihilation of work is no less a physical impossibility than its creation, that is, than perpetual motion." - Sir George Gabriel Stokes, British theoretical physicist known for his law of viscosity, and for Stokes' theorem, in vector analysis. Stokes also worked in optics, investigated the nature of fluorescence and was a founder of geodesy with his study of variations in gravity (born 13 Aug 1819)
	"Apprehension, uncertainty, waiting, expectation, fear of surprise, do a patient more harm than any exertion. Remember he is face to face with his enemy all the time." - Florence Nightingale, English nurse and statistician (died 13 Aug 1910)
	"In my opinion the separation of the c- and ac-stars is the most important advancement in stellar classification since the trials by Vogel and Secchi ... To neglect the c-properties in classifying stellar spectra, I think, is nearly the same thing as if a zoologist, who has detected the deciding differences between a whale and a fish, would continue classifying them together." - Hermann Carl Vogel, German astronomer (died 13 Aug 1907)

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
	Felix Wankel, born 13 Aug 1902, was a German engineer and inventor of the Wankel internal combustion engine. Advantages of the Wankel engine include light weight, few moving parts and compactness. What was Wankel's novel innovation in his engine?
	Born 13 Aug 1888, a Scottish inventor and engineer, was a father of TV. In fact, he was the first man to televise pictures of objects in motion. Can you name this man?
Deaths
	Jack Ryan (1926-1991) was an inventor with 1000 patents. *Which of the following did he invent: Barbie, Military Missiles, Hot Wheels?*
	René-Théophile-Hyacinthe Laënnec (1781-1826) was a French physician whose invention means he is generally considered the father of chest medicine. *What device did he invent?*
Events
	On 13 Aug 1642, Christiaan Huygens discovered a Martian feature. What feature on Mars did he observe?
	On 13 Aug of a certain year, William Gray of Hartford, Connecticut, received the first U.S. patent for a coin-operated telephone. In what decade was this patent issued?

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 13 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 12: Erwin Schrödinger; roots outwards and stems inwards; transistor; The Rocket; after the spacecraft of the Star Trek TV series; zebra; Joseph Lister.

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