Newsletter for Sunday 25 May

TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY NEWSLETTER - 25 MAY

Feature for Today

On 25 May 1861, Hans Goldschmidt was born, the German chemist who invented the use of Thermite for welding (patented 1895). In Mining Magazine (1905), a digest of two articles describes the process of what Goldschmidt called Aluminothermics.

Book of the Day

On 25 May 1967, C. B. Momsen died, the American inventor of methods to save crew from disabled submarines. Today's Science Store pick is: The Terrible Hours: The Greatest Submarine Rescue in History, by Peter Maas, who relates the miraculous survival of 33 crew members of America's newest submarine, the Squalus, using a huge pear-shaped diving bell. Maas reconstructs the harrowing 39 hours between the disappearance of the submarine Squalus during a test dive off the New England coast and the eventual rescue of crew trapped in the vessel 250 feet beneath the sea. Under the worst possible circumstances, Momsen led a successful mission and helped change the future of undersea lifesaving. It's a white-knuckler of a read. Available Used from $0.01 (as of time of writing). Yesterday's pick: Making Time: Lillian Moller Gilbreth: A Life Beyond "Cheaper by the Dozen", by Jane Lancaster. For picks from earlier newsletters, see the Today in Science Science Store home page.

Quotations for Today
	"Firm support has been found for the assertion that electricity occurs at thousands of points where we at most conjectured that it was present. Innumerable electrical particles oscillate in every flame and light source. We can in fact assume that every heat source is filled with electrons which will continue to oscillate ceaselessly and indefinitely. All these electrons leave their impression on the emitted rays. We can hope that experimental study of the radiation phenomena, which are exposed to various influences, but in particular to the effect of magnetism, will provide us with useful data concerning a new field, that of atomistic astronomy, as Lodge called it, populated with atoms and electrons instead of planets and worlds." - Pieter Zeeman, Dutch physicist (born 25 May 1865)
	"I heard Professor Cannon lecture last night, going partly on your account. His subject was a physiological substitute for war—which is international sports and I suppose motorcycle races—to encourage the secretion of the adrenal glands!" - James McKeen Cattell, American psychologist (born 25 May 1860)
	"The effect of a concept-driven revolution is to explain old things in new ways. The effect of a tool-driven revolution is to discover new things that have to be explained." - Sir Frank Dyson, British astronomer (died 25 May 1939)

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
	Jack Steinberger, a German-born American physicist, born on 25 May 1921, along with Leon M. Lederman and Melvin Schwartz, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1988 for their joint discoveries concerning a certain nuclear particle. Can you name this particle?
	On 25 May 1889, an American pioneer in aircraft design was born in Russia. He is best known for his successful development of the helicopter. Can you name this man?
Deaths
	Hans Goldschmidt (1861-1923) was a German chemist who invented a process sometimes called the Goldschmidt reduction process (1905). This operation has been employed to produce such metals as chromium, manganese, and cobalt from oxide ores. It is also used for welding, whereby iron oxides react with another common metal releasing both intense heat and molten iron. What is the common metal used in the reduction process of the oxides of other metals?
	Sir Frank Dyson (1868-1939) was a British astronomer who in 1919 organized observations of stars near the Sun, which provided evidence supporting the earlier prediction of another scientist of the bending of light in a gravitational field. What scientist predicted this bending of light?
Events
	On 25  May 1961, U.S. President John F. Kennedy formally announced that "I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out..." Can you complete his sentence?

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 May 25 web page of Today in Science History. Or, try this link first for just the brief answers. Fast answers for the previous newsletter for May 24: Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit; scientist and physicist; Nicolaus Copernicus; electricity; Brooklyn Bridge; the decade including the year 1960; Westminster Bridge.

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