Newsletter for Sunday 19 January

 

TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY

NEWSLETTER - JANUARY 19

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.

On 19 Jan 1944, M. Lee Goff was born, American forensic entomologist. Today's Science Store pick is A Fly for the Prosecution: How Insect Evidence Helps Solve Crimes, by M. Lee Goff, who is a scientist at the forefront of the new profession of forensic entomology. Equal parts scientific and true-crime journalism, the book reports unflinchingly on the development of this field as an important adjunct to traditional means of investigation. Based on a constantly improving knowledge of the reproduction and growth of carrion flies and beetles, an informed examiner can determine the time and location of death with great precision, often lending the final evidence needed to close a case. From Harvard University Press. New: $16.95, Price: $12.71. Yesterday's pick: The Ascent of Man. For picks from earlier newsletters, see the Today in Science Science Store home page.

Quotations for Today

"Insects are major players in nature's recycling effort, and in nature a corpse is simply organic matter to be recycled. Left to its own devices, nature quickly populates a corpse with a diverse community of organisms, all dedicated to reducing the body to its basic components." - M. Lee Goff (born 19 Jan 1944) "I had an immense advantage over many others dealing with the problem inasmuch as I had no fixed ideas derived from long-established practice to control and bias my mind, and did not suffer from the general belief that whatever is, is right." - Henry Bessemer (born 19 Jan 1813) "The technology is the independent variable, the social system the dependent variable. Social, systems are therefore determined by systems of technology; as the latter change, so do the former." - Leslie A. White, American anthropologist (born 19 Jan 1900) (source)

QUIZ

Births

Sir Henry Bessemer, born 19 Jan 1813, was an English inventor and engineer who developed the first process for manufacturing a certain important product inexpensively (1856), leading to the development of the Bessemer converter. What was this product?

A Scottish instrument maker, born 19 Jan 1736,  invented the steam engine which contributed substantially to the Industrial Revolution. He was elected fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1785. His name remains in popular use as a unit of measurement. Can you name this scientist?

Deaths

Carl Graebe (1841-1927) was an organic chemist who, assisted by Carl Liebermann, synthesized (1868) the orange-red dye alizarin, which in the textile industry quickly replaced the dye made from a natural source, the madder plant root. Upon this, one of the early dyestuff products, arose rapidly a great chemical industry. In what country did Graebe initiate this chemical dye industry?

Events

On 19 Jan of a certain year, a U.S. patent was issued to George Claude of Paris for a neon tube advertising sign. In which 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 January 19 web page of Today in Science History. Or, try this link first for just the brief answers.

Fast answers for the previous newsletter for January 18: Ray Dolby; barbed wire; it measures the acuity of a person's eyesight compared to a standard observer with good normal acuity (20/20 means he can resolve 2 target features at 20 feet); the decade including the year 1936.

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