Newsletter for Sunday 25 August

 

TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY

NEWSLETTER - AUGUST 25

Before you look at today's web page, see if you can answer some of these questions about the events that happened on August 25. 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.

Quotations for Today

"What, then, is it in particular that can be learned from teachers of special distinction? Above all, what they teach is high standards. We measure everything, including ourselves, by comparisons; and in the absence of someone with outstanding ability there is a risk that we come to believe that we are excellent and much better than the next man. Mediocre people may appear big to themselves (and to others) if they are surrounded by small circumstances. But the same token, big people feel dwarfed in the company of giants, and this is a most useful feeling. So what the giants of science teach us is to see ourselves modestly and not to overrate ourselves." - Sir Hans Adolf Krebs (born 25 Aug 1900) "We see it (the planet in quiz below) as Columbus saw America from the coast of Spain. Its movements have been felt, trembling along the far-reaching line of our analysis with a certainty hardly inferior to that of ocular demonstration." - Sir William Herschel (died 25 Aug 1822) "I am busy just now on electro-magnetism, and think I have got a hold of a good thing, but can't say. It may be a weed instead of a fish that, after all my labour, I may at last pull up." - scientist in quiz below (died 25 Aug 1867)

QUIZ

Births

Frederick Chapman Robbins, Sir Hans Adolf Krebs and Theodor Kocher were each born on 25 Aug, though in different years. Not necessarily in the same order, they were notable for: discovery of the basic system for the essential pathway of oxidation process within the cell; investigation of the thyroid gland; cultivating poliomyelitis virus in tissue cultures. Can you match each scientist to his claim to fame?

Deaths

A French physicist (1852-1908) discovered radioactivity through his investigations of uranium and other substances. In 1903 he shared the Nobel Prize for Physics with Pierre and Marie Curie. Can you name this man?

Sir William Herschel (1738-1822) was a German-born English astronomer, the founder of sidereal astronomy for the systematic observation of the heavens. He discovered a new planet. Can you name the planet he discovered?

An English chemist, physicist and inventor (1791-1867), published pioneering papers that led to the practical use of electricity, an is remembered for his public lectures. Can you name this man?

Events

On 25 Aug in 1981, the U.S. spacecraft Voyager II came within 63,000 miles of Saturn's cloud cover, sending back pictures of, and data about, the ringed planet; in its closest approach to Saturn, showing many rings. Is the number of Saturn's rings counted in tens, hundreds, thousands, or more?

On 25 Aug of a certain year, the first scan was made using CAT (Computer Assisted Tomography) In what decade was this CAT scan made?

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 August 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 August 24: Albert Claude = cytologist; Rudolf Geiger = microclimatology; Sir Daniel Gooch = laid the first Atlantic Cable. Troy. Rudolf Clausius. French. Vesuvius. Amelia Earhart.

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