Newsletter for Tuesday 18 March

TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY NEWSLETTER - 18 MARCH

Feature for Today

On 18 Mar 1858, Rudolf Diesel was born, the German engineer who invented the compression-ignition internal-combustion engine now widely used for heavy-duty applications. In his era, it provided He envisioned using coal tar products and oil from plants as alternative fuels for his engine as need may arise - the latter in the case of exhaustion of fossil fuel supplies. You can read in his own words, the inventor's fascinating vision of The Diesel Engine that he wrote in Dec 1911, in which he explains the benefits over the steam engines still prevalent in his time. In the article, he also reveals his concern for the development of his invention: "I would add a warning that the attempt should never be made to try to build it cheaply, by unfinished workmanship, particularly for export." When he died in 1913, it was not from natural causes.

Book of the Day

On 18 Mar 1920, Wesley F. Buchele was born, the American agricultural engineer who invented the farm machine that produces the familiar large round hay bales in U.S. fields since the 1960's. Today's Science Store pick is a book he co-authored: The Grain Harvesters, by Graeme Quick and Wesley Buchele. This profusely illustrated book tells the story of the tools, machines, and systems used throughout history to harvest grain. It highlights machines and equipment, their inventors, and the innovations. New Price $27.95. Available Used from $9.74 (as of time of writing). Yesterday's pick: The True History of the Elephant Man, by Michael Howells and Peter Ford. For picks from earlier newsletters, see the Today in Science Science Store home page.

Quotations for Today
	"The mortal enemies of man are not his fellows of another continent or race; they are the aspects of the physical world which limit or challenge his control, the disease germs that attack him and his domesticated plants and animals, and the insects that carry many of these germs as well as working notable direct injury. This is not the age of man, however great his superiority in size and intelligence; it is literally the age of insects." - Warder Clyde Allee, American zoologist (died 18 Mar 1955)
	"Scientific discovery consists in the interpretation for our own convenience of a system of existence which has been made with no eye to our convenience at all." - Norbert Wiener, U.S. mathematician (died 18 Mar 1964)
	"As to writing another book on geometry [to replace Euclid] the middle ages would have as soon thought of composing another New Testament." - Augustus De Morgan, English mathematician (died 18 Mar 1871)

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 engineer, born 18 Mar 1858, invented a form of internal-combustion engine that bears his name. He died in 1913 after having lost control over the development of his invention and after receiving a great deal of criticism in the German engineering journals for his theories. Yet his engine is one of the most widely used today in heavy-duty applications. How did he die?
Deaths
	Norbert Wiener (1894-1964) was an American mathematician who established a science, and coined its name, which is concerned with the common factors of control and communication in living organisms, automatic machines, and organizations. What was the science he established and named?
	A Swiss-American anthropologist (1840-1914) was among the first to study the American Indian cultures of the southwestern United States, Mexico, and Peru-Bolivia. The methodology he used was that of participant observation - living with the Indians. A National Monument in New Mexico with many archaeological sites was named after him. Can you name this anthropologist?
Events
	On 18 Mar 1999, the Nipah virus was first isolated, by Dr Chua Kaw Ping, of the University Malaya. This caused a previously unrecorded viral disease, and was implicated by laboratory testing in many of cases of febrile encephalitic and respiratory illnesses or death among workers in Malaysia and Singapore who had exposure to certain animals. Nearly a million of the animals were destroyed to contain the outbreak. What was the animal carrying the Nipah virus?
	On 18 Mar 1987, the discovery of "high-temperature" superconductivity was announced to thousands of scientists at a packed meeting of the American Physical Society in New York City. The phenomenon, discovered 1911, was at first known to occur at only 4 degrees above absolute zero, when all electrical resistance in a metal sample disappeared. In what kind of material was the high-temperature superconductivity discovered?
	On 18 Mar 1965, Voskhod 2 was launched into space carrying cosmonauts Aleksey Leonov and Pavel Belyayev aboard. What activity by Leonov during this mission was the first of its kind?

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 18 web page of Today in Science History. Or, try this link first for just the brief answers. Fast answers for the previous newsletter for March 17: electric arc lamp; Ir�ne Joliot-Curie; Austrian; the decade including the year 1958; it was for a life-form (a genetically-engineered bacterium capable of breaking down crude oil).

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