Newsletter for Monday 7 July

TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY NEWSLETTER - 7 JULY

Feature for Today

Book of the Day

On 7 Jul 1996, Ian Wilmut was born, who in 1996 supervised the team of scientists that produced Dolly a cloned sheep, at the Roslin Institute, Edinburgh, Scotland. Dolly was the first mammal cloned from a cell from an adult. Today's Science Store pick is: The Second Creation: Dolly and the Age of Biological Control, by Ian Wilmut, et al. Written by the noted science author Colin Tudge, the book is based on interviews with Ian Wilmut and Keith Campbell, the scientists who cloned Dolly the sheep. They reveal their contribution to genetic engineering and cloning, and the control that science has over the process of life. The book's aim is to explain the story of how and why they came to cloning sheep and the implications for the future, from curing diseases to human cloning. Price $16.95, save 9%, New $15.41. Also 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
	"I see nothing wrong ethically with the idea of correcting single gene defects [through genetic engineering]. But I am concerned about any other kind of intervention, for anything else would be an experiment, [which would] impose our will on future generations [and take unreasonable chances] with their welfare ... [Thus] such intervention is beyond the scope of consideration." - Ian Wilmut, English embryologist (born 7 Jul 1944)
	"When we think how narrow and devious this path of nature is, how dimly we can trace it, for all our lamps of science, and how from the darkness which girds it round great and terrible possibilities loom ever shadowly upwards, it is a bold and a confident man who will put a limit to the strange by-oaths into which the human spirit may wander." -  Scottish author and physician in the quiz below (died 7 Jul 1930)

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
	Rudolf Wolf, born 7 Jul 1816, was a Swiss astronomer and astronomical historian. Wolf's main contribution concerned sunspots and he was the codiscoverer of its connection with geomagnetic activity on Earth. What did he discover about sunspots?
	Joseph Marie Jacquard, born 7 Jul 1752,  was a French silk weaver and inventor of a power loom for brocaded fabric. His loom would mechanically produce any pattern. What method did he devise to control the loom, and how did it develop into an application in computers?
Deaths
	A novelist (1859-1930) wrote books whose character emulates the scientist, diligently searching through data and to make sense of it. "It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts." Can you name this author and his character?
Events
	On 7 Jul 1936, several U.S. patents were issued to its inventor, Henry F. Phillips for a fastener and fastening system. What was the fastener, and what industry adopted it?
	On 7 Jul 1668, Isaac Newton received something for his work over the previous few years. What did he receive?

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 July 7 web page of Today in Science History. Or, try this link first for just the brief answers. Fast answers for the previous newsletter for July 6: American Ornithology (birds); French; PET (polyethylene terephthalate); Georg Ohm; rabies; the decade including the year 1905; the decade including the year 1952.

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