Newsletter for Saturday 5 April

TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY NEWSLETTER - 5 APRIL

Feature for Today

On 5 Apr 1753, the British Museum was founded by an Act of Parliament granting �20,000 to purchase the 50,000 volume library of Sir Hans Sloane and his vast collection of 69,352 items of nature and art. Montagu House, Bloomsbury, was purchased in 1754 by the government to house this and other collections. Since it opened, on 15 Jan 1759, the Museum has been collecting, conserving and studying millions of artefacts. You can read an historical introduction and description of the building, from the General Guide to the British Museum of Natural History (1898).

Book of the Day

On 5 Apr 1964, driverless trains first ran on the London Underground. on the new Victoria Line. Once the Train Operator closes the train doors and presses the start buttons, the trains run automatically to the next station, responding to coded impulses transmitted through the track. Even this part of subterranean London that we see is only the tip of the iceberg. Much more is out of sight, underground, such as the pioneering deep level water main (80 km long,longer than the Channel Tunnel); new power tunnels and the enormous substation beneath Leicester Square; new underground railways; and glass fibre communication. Today's Science Store pick is London Under London: A Subterranean Guide, by Richard Trenchand and Ellis Hillman, who describe all of the above, and much more in their fascinating book. Available Used from $6.00 (as of time of writing). Today deserves a double! On 5 Apr 1967, Hermann Joseph Muller died, followed on the same day in another year by the death of Alfred Henry Sturtevant on 5 Apr 1970. Both were American geneticists who did significant work in their field using Drosophila, the fruit fly. This insect, the tiny fly you have surely noticed hovering around a disgarded banana skin, has contributed so much more than you probably realise to the understanding of genetics. Your webmaster highly recommends as a favorite book on hisbookshelf: Fly - The Unsung Hero of the 20th Century, by Martin Brookes. In this highly readable book, the author gives a biography of a creature that changed science, as for generations, the fruit fly has been defining biology's major landmarks. Available Used from $0.01 (as of time of writing). For picks from earlier newsletters, see the Today in Science Science Store home page.

Quotations for Today
	"The frequency of disastrous consequences in compound fracture, contrasted with the complete immunity from danger to life or limb in simple fracture, is one of the most striking as well as melancholy facts in surgical practice." - British surgeon in the quiz below, (born 5 Apr 1827)
	"As science is more and more subject to grave misuse as well as to use for human benefit it has also become the scientist's responsibility to become aware of the social relations and applications of his subject, and to exert his influence in such a direction as will result in the best applications of the findings in his own and related fields. Thus he must help in educating the public, in the broad sense, and this means first educating himself, not only in science but in regard to the great issues confronting mankind today." - Hermann Joseph Muller, American biologist and geneticist (died 5 Apr 1967)
	"How dare we speak of the laws of chance? Is not chance the antithesis of all law? " - Joseph Bertrand, French mathematician and educator (died 5 Apr 1900)

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
	Lawrence Dale Bell, born 5 Apr 1894, was an American aircraft designer and founder of Bell Aircraft Co. In addition to the rocket-propelled experimental X-1 airplane, this firm also produced such significant aviation contributions as the nation's first jet propelled airplane, the world's first commercial helicopter, the world's fastest and highest flying airplane, the Bell X-1A, and the first jet vertical take-off and landing plane. What did the X-1 aircraft accomplish for the first time?
	A British surgeon, born 5 Apr 1827, was the founder of antiseptic medicine and a pioneer in preventive medicine. While his method, based on the use of antiseptics, is no longer employed, his principle - that bacteria must never gain entry to an operation wound - remains the basis of surgery to this day. Can you name this surgeon?
Deaths
	The 5th Earl of Carnarvon (George Edward Stanhope Molyneux Herbert) was a British egyptologist (1855-1923). He funded the excavations by HowardCarter which led to a memorable discovery November 1922. What discovery did his funding make possible?
	Hermann Joseph Muller(1890-1967) investigated mutations and hereditary changes that could be caused in the genes and chromosomes of living cells (first produced in the fruit fly Drosophila in 1927). He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1946. How did he produce the mutations?
Events
	On 5 Apr of a certain year, Thomas Corwin Mendenhall, then Superintendent of Weights and Measures, with the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury, decided that the International Meter and Kilogram would in the future be regarded as the fundamental standards of length and mass in the United States, both for metric and customary weights and measures. This decision has come to be known as "The Mendenhall Order." In which decade was this order published?

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 April 5 web page of Today in Science History. Or, try this link first for just the brief answers. Fast answers for the previous newsletter for April 4: high-voltage direct-current electrical generator; open-hearth steel-making; John Napier; the British Naval research vessel HMS Challenger that sailed the Atlantic and Pacific oceans during the 1870's; vitamin C.

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