Newsletter for Sunday 30 March

 

TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY

NEWSLETTER - MARCH 30

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.

QUIZ

Births

Mary Whiton Calkins, born 30 Mar 1863, was an educator and psychologist. she was the first American woman to attain distinction in these fields of study. Calkins studied psychology at Harvard as a "guest." She established the first psychology laboratory at a women's college (Wellesley). She developed the paired-associate procedure for studying verbal memories. One of her main findings was that repeated pairings of words increased memory.  Why did she pursue her studies at Harvard only as a "guest?"

Deaths

A German-American physicist (1900-1954) devised the first quantum mechanical treatment of the hydrogen molecule (with Walter Heitler). Certain forces, named after this physicist, are weak intermolecular forces that arise from the attractive force between otherwise nonpolar molecules. (They are also sometimes called Van der Waals forces after a Dutch scientist.) Can you name the German-American physicist?

Antoine-J�r�me Balard (1802-1876) was a French chemist who in 1826 discovered an element bromine, determined its properties, and studied some of its compounds. Later he proved its presence in sea plants and animals. This discovery was a by-product of a more general chemical investigation of the sea and its life forms. Which element did Balard discover?

Events

On 30 Mar 1842, physician Dr. Crawford W. Long of Jefferson, Georgia, first used a certain anesthetic during a minor operation (the removed a tumour from a patient's neck. This event predated Morton's public demonstration of the same anesthetic by four years, but was not disclosed until 1849 - several years after Morton's widely publicized feat. Morton was long given credit for the accomplishment, but Long is now widely considered to have made the discovery of surgical anesthesia. What chemical compound did Long and Morton use as an anesthetic?

The date 30 Mar in 239 B.C., is the first recorded perihelion passage of a certain comet, made by Chinese astronomers. The comet's highly elliptical, 75-year orbit carries it out well beyond the orbit of Neptune and well inside the orbits of Earth and Venus when it swings in around the Sun, travelling in the opposite direction from the revolution of the planets. It was the first comet that was recognized as being periodic, by an Englishman astronomer, who predicted years in which it would reappear. What is the name of this comet?

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 March 30 web page of Today in Science History. Or, try this link first for just the brief answers.

Fast answers for previous newsletter for March 29: food chain; Pennsylvania (Titusville); Ruth Sager; the decade including the year 1974; Coca-Cola.

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