Newsletter for Saturday 22 February

TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY NEWSLETTER - 22 FEBRUARY

Feature for Today

On 22 Feb 1824, Pierre Janssen was born. And standard biographies will tell you of his work with the solar spectrum, yada, yada, etc. … But they don't tell you this… So, you've got this astronomer, who's been lame since early childhood, pushing 70 years of age, who decides that to know if the Earth's atmosphere changes what is seen in the solar spectrum, he must go up to where the air in thinnest—up a mountain—on Mont Blanc! With his infirmity, he had to get there in a sedan chair made using a ladder carried by a team of porters. Liked what he saw up there, so he decided he needed an observatory built there. He made the next trip up in a sled pulled by a team of porters. And yes, he did have an observatory built a few feet below the summit of Mont Blanc. In snow so deep there was no bed-rock to rest the structure on. Ready to read more? Try this article from 1894: The Observatory On Top Of Mont Blanc. You'll find out more about Pierre Janssen's adventurous life in the pursuit of scientific knowledge. Astonishing!

Book of the Day

On 22 Feb 1936, J. Michael Bishop was born, an American virologist who shared the 1989 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for research associated with cancer cells. Today's Science Store pick is: How to Win the Nobel Prize: An Unexpected Life in Science (The Jerusalem-Harvard Lectures), by J. Michael Bishop. In this autobiography, Bishop tells how he and Harold Varmus made the momentous discovery that normal genes under certain conditions can cause cancer. Alongside his own story, Bishop writes for the non-scientist, and gives an engrossing background of the microbe hunters. It is a narrative enlivened by vivid anecdotes about our deadliest microbial enemies—the Black Death, cholera, syphilis, tuberculosis, malaria, smallpox, HIV—and by biographical sketches of the scientists who led the fight against these scourges. He then presents the molecular underpinnings of cancer and the future of the battle against cancer. It is available New from $17.74. 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
	Science now finds itself in paradoxical strife with society: admired but mistrusted; offering hope for the future but creating ambiguous choice; richly supported yet unable to fulfill all its promise; boasting remarkable advances but criticized for not serving more directly the goals of society. - J. Michael Bishop, American virologist (born 22 Feb 1936).
	Logic issues in tautologies, mathematics in identities, philosophy in definitions; all trivial, but all part of the vital work of clarifying and organising our thought. - Frank Plumpton Ramsey, English mathematician, logician and philosopher (born 22 Feb 1903).
	Amidst the vicissitudes of the earth's surface, species cannot be immortal, but must perish, one after another, like the individuals which compose them. There is no possibility of escaping from this conclusion. - Sir Charles Lyell, Scottish geologist (died 22 Feb 1875).

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
	A German physicist, born 22 Feb 1857, was the first to broadcast and receive radio waves. His main work was on electromagnetic waves (1887). 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. His condenser was a pair of metal rods, placed end to end with a small gap for a spark between them. Can you name this scientist?
	Jean-Charles-Athanase Peltier, born 22 Feb 1785, was a French physicist who discovered the Peltier effect (1834), at the junction of two dissimilar metals through which a current flows. What is the effect at the metals' junction that he observed?
Deaths
	Sir Thomas Clifford Allbutt (1836-1925) was an English physician who invented a variation on the thermometer more suitable to his needs. What thermometer did he introduce?
	Sir Charles Lyell (1797-1875) was a Scottish geologist who extended the ideas of uniformitarianism (as earlier stated by James Hutton) and promoted his own theory of gradualism. What was Lyell's theory of gradualism?
Events
	On 22 Feb of a certain year, German biochemist Friederich W�hler informed Jakob Berzelius that he had synthesized the organic chemical, urea. This was a landmark event, for it was the first time a material previously only associated with the body function of a living thing, was made from inorganic chemicals of non-living origin. In this case, urea had formerly been known only from the urine of animals. In which decade was this discovery made?
	On 22 Feb 1995, the first hot air balloon flight over Pacific Ocean (9600 km) was completed. Can you name of this balloonist?

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 February 22 web page of Today in Science History. Or, try this link first for just the brief answers. Fast answers for the previous newsletter for February 21: vitamin K • penicillin • pancreas • decade including the year 1953 • chlorine, from the Greek word for “green”.

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