Newsletter for Wednesday 1 January

 

TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY

NEWSLETTER - JANUARY 1

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 1 Jan 1874, Albert Hoyt Taylor was born, American physicist known as the "father of navy radar." Today's Science Store pick is The Invention That Changed the World: How a Small Group of Radar Pioneers Won the Second World War and Launched a Technological Revolution, by Robert Buderi. Taylor's contribution is only briefly mentioned in this book, but this well-written, technically accurate, and even exciting account captures the urgency of the race to win World War II, the people behind the magnetrons, screens and antennae, and the use of radar in the cold war. Available Used from $8.92 (as of time of writing). Yesterday's pick: The Best American Science Writing 2007. For picks from earlier newsletters, see the Today in Science Science Store home page.

Quotations for Today

"Man's chief enemy is his own unruly nature and the dark forces put up within him." - Ernest Jones, Welsh psychoanalyst (born 1 Jan 1879) "Disease may be defined as 'A change produced in living things in consequence of which they are no longer in harmony with their environment." - William Thomas Councilman, American pathologist (born 1 Jan 1854) "It is a common rule with primitive people not to waken a sleeper, because his soul is away and might not have time to get back." - James George Frazer, Scottish anthropologist (born 1 Jan 1854)

QUIZ

Births

Satyendra Nath Bose, born 1 Jan 1894, was an Indian mathematician and physicist who did important work in quantum theory, in particular on Planck's black body radiation law. Bose also published on statistical mechanics leading to the Einstein-Bose statistics.  What term was coined by Dirac for particles obeying these statistics?

Deaths

Grace Murray Hopper (1906-1992) was an American mathematician who was a pioneer in developing computer technology, helping to devise Univac I, the first commercial electronic computer. She served the U.S. Navy, first commissioned as a Lieutenant (Junior Grade) 1944, and immediately then became involved in the development of the then-embryonic electronic computer. To what rank did she rise in the Navy?

A German physicist (1857-1894) was the first to broadcast and receive radio waves. He generated electric waves by means of the oscillatory discharge of a condenser through a loop provided with a spark gap, and then detecting them with a similar type of circuit.  Can you name this scientist?

Events

From 1 Jan of a certain year, all US cigarette packages were required to carry the health warning: Caution: Cigarette smoking may be hazardous to your health.. In what decade did this label come into effect?

On 1 Jan 1946, the first U.S. computer was finished by Mauchly and Eckert. Can you name this computer?

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 1 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 31:  double stars; Andreas Vesalius; John Flamsteed; the decade including the year 1938; Marie Curie.

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