science newsletter: Newsletter for Friday 19 October

Παρασκευή 19 Οκτωβρίου 2012

Newsletter for Friday 19 October

Newsletter - 19 October - Today in Science History

TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY
NEWSLETTER - 19 OCTOBER

Feature for Today

Book of the Day

A Force of Nature: The Frontier Genius of Ernest Rutherford

On 19 Oct 1937, Ernest Rutherford died, the Nobel prize-winning British physicist, a pioneer in the structure of the atom who made numerous revolutionary discoveries, he is remembered in particular in school science text books for his gold-foil alpha-particle scattering experiment. From the "half-life" of radioactive materials, he led a massive reevaluation of the age of the earth—previously judged just 100 million years old. Rutherford and his colleagues were the first to split the atom. Under Rutherford's rigorous and boisterous direction, a whole new generation of remarkable physicists emerged. Today's Science Store pick is A Force of Nature: The Frontier Genius of Ernest Rutherford, a new intellectual biography by Richard Reeves, in whose description, Rutherford leaps off the page, a ruddy, genial man and a towering figure in scientific history. Release date 3 Dec 2007. New Price $23.95. Also available Used from $0.01.
Yesterday's pick: Charles Babbage: Pioneer of the Computer. For picks from earlier newsletters, see the Today in Science Science Store home page.

Quotations for Today
	"Science is a perception of the world around us. Science is a place where what you find in nature pleases you." - Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, (born 19 Oct 1910)
	"I came into the room, which was half-dark, and presently spotted Lord Kelvin in the audience and realised that I was in for trouble at the last part of my speech dealing with the age of the earth, where my views conflicted with his. To my relief, Kelvin fell fast asleep, but as I came to the important point, I saw the old bird sit up, open an eye and cock a baleful glance at me! Then a sudden inspiration came, and I said Lord Kelvin had limited the age of the earth, provided no new source was discovered. That prophetic utterance refers to what we are now considering tonight, radium! Behold! The old boy beamed upon me." - Ernest Rutherford, (died 19 Oct 1937)
	"Good sense travels on the well-worn paths; genius, never. And that is why the crowd, not altogether without reason, is so ready to treat great men as lunatics." - Cesare Lombroso, (died 19 Oct 1909)

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
	Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, born 19 Oct 1910, is an American astrophysicist who, with William A.Fowler, won the 1983 Nobel Prize for Physics. What was his prize-winning astrophysical theory?
Deaths
	On 19 Oct 1937, Ernest Rutherford died, the British physicist who solved the mystery of atomic structure, and identified the existance of a massive but tiny nucleus containing the positive charges, surrounded by electrons. In which country was Rutherford born?
Events
	On 19 Oct 1973, a US Federal Judge signed his decision following a lengthy court trial which declared the ENIAC patent invalid and belatedly credited a physicist with developing the first electronic digital computer, the ABC, in 1937-42 at Iowa State University. Who was declared the first to build the ABC electronic digital computer?
	On 19 Oct 1872, a slab of slate in New South Wales was found containing the largest mass of gold ever found. How closely can you guess the mass of this gold (in kilograms)?

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 October 19 web page of Today in Science History. Or, try this link first for just the brief answers.

Fast answers for the previous newsletter for October 18: ozone ("ozo" from the Greek for "smell"); Thomas Alva Edison; Intelligence Quotient, the ratio of "mental age" to chronological age, with 100 being average; the decade containing the year 1969; determining the double-helix molecular structure of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid).

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