Newsletter for Saturday 21 December

TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY NEWSLETTER - 21 DECEMBER

Book of the Day

On 21 Dec 1890, Hermann Muller was born, an American geneticist who demonstrated that mutations and hereditary changes could be caused by X-rays striking the genes and chromosomes of cells. He was another scientist who used the fruit fly in this productive research. Today's Science Store pick is: Fly: The Unsung Hero of Twentieth Century Science, by Martin Brookes, which revisits a webmaster's favorite. The book tells Muller's story along with the work of other significant researchers in the last century. It also outlines the resulting developments up to the present in the field. This is an informative delight to read, an Amazon best in 2001. It's enthusiastically recommended by your webmaster, who by reading it learned much about how that tiny fly seen buzzing around a banana skin in the trash made (and continues to make) such a surprisingly huge contribution to science. It is available New from $9.99. Used from $0.01. (As of time of writing.). For picks from earlier newsletters, see the Today in Science History Science Store home page.

Quotations for Today
	These motions were such as to satisfy me, after frequently repeated observation, that they arose neither from currents in the fluid, nor from its gradual evaporation, but belonged to the particle itself. Summary of Brownian motion. - Robert Brown, Scottish botanist (born 21 Dec 1773).
	As science is more and more subject to grave misuse as well as to use for human benefit it has also become the scientist's responsibility to become aware of the social relations and applications of his subject, and to exert his influence in such a direction as will result in the best applications of the findings in his own and related fields. Thus he must help in educating the public, in the broad sense, and this means first educating himself, not only in science but in regard to the great issues confronting mankind today. - Hermann Joseph Muller, American biologist and geneticist (born 21 Dec 1890).
	[Mercurial medicines] affect the human constitution in a peculiar manner, taking, so to speak, an iron grasp of all its systems, and penetrating even to the bones, by which they not only change the healthy action of its vessels, and general structure, but greatly impair and destroy its energies; so that their abuse is rarely overcome. When the tone of the stomach, intestines, or nervous system generally, has been once injured by this mineral ... it could seldom be restored. - Thomas Graham, Scottish physical chemist (born 21 Dec 1805).

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 21 Dec 1890, Hermann Muller was born, a Nobel Prize-winning American geneticist. He studied mutations and hereditary changes by affecting the genes and chromosomes of living cells. His first results were produced in the fruit fly Drosophila in 1927. How did Muller cause the mutations?
	Robert Brown, born 21 Dec 1773, was a botanist who recognized the fundamental distinction between the conifers and their allies (gymnosperms) and the flowering plants (angiosperms). He recognized, and coined the name for, the cell nucleus (Latin: “little nut”). However, he is best known for his description of the natural continuous motion of minute particles in solution, still called Brownian Motion. What nationality was Robert Brown?
Deaths
	Charles Benjamin Dudley was an American chemical engineer (1842-1909) who helped found the science of materials testing. Through continuing testing, he established the idea of rigorous standards. These covered fuels, lubricants, paints, lighting devices and various mechanical parts of locomotives and rolling stock. What was the first product he researched (published 1878)?
	An English physician and amateur paleontologist (1755-1824) wrote Essay on the Shaking Palsy (1817), in which he was the first to describe the neuromuscular disease which is now known by his name. The symptoms are a generalized slowness of movement, a tremor or slight shaking on one side of the body when at rest, some stiffness of the limbs, and problems of gait or balance. Who is this physician, remembered in the name of this disease?
Events
	On 21 Dec of a certain year, dried human blood serum was prepared for the first time in the U.S. The powdered, dried blood serum was used successfully for transfusions for the prevention of childhood diseases. Dried blood serum was used during wartime. In which decade was dried blood serum first prepared in the U.S.?
	On 21 Dec 1937, Walt Disney's first full-length, animated film opened in Los Angeles, California. What was the name of this first full-length animated film?

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 December 21 web page of Today in Science History. Or, try this link first for just the brief answers. Fast answers for the previous newsletter for December 20: Robert Van de Graaff • Cosmos • by the force produced through evaporation from the leaves • The decade containing the year 1892 • Albert Michelson • Great White Way.

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