Newsletter for Friday 17 April.

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TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY

NEWSLETTER • 17 APRIL

Feature for Today

On 17 Apr 1598, Giovanni Riccioli was born, the Italian astronomer who was the first to observe a double star.

You can read more about Giovanni Riccioli’s contributions to Italian astronomy, including his book, Almagestum Novum (1651) in this article from The Penny Cyclopaedia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (1841).

Book of the Day

On 17 Apr 1933, Harriet Brooks died, the Canadian nuclear physicist who was probably the first to observe the recoil of the atomic nucleus as nuclear particles were emitted during radioactive decay. As one of the first researchers in the field of radioactivity, she was called by Ernest Rutherford the best woman scientist in the field next to Marie Curie. Today's book pick is: , by , who reveal how her success was hampered by the fact that she was a woman as she struggled to overcome conventions. Her premature death at age 56 was probably related to her work with radiation. This book is one that admirably fills the gap in describing the contribution of women to science.

It is available from Amazon, typically about (As of earlier time of writing - subject to change.)

Quotations for Today

	I think it is a duty I owe to my profession and to my sex to show that a woman has a right to the practice of her profession and cannot be condemned to abandon it merely because she marries. I cannot conceive how women’s colleges, inviting and encouraging women to enter professions can be justly founded or maintained denying such a principle. (From a letter Brooks wrote to her dean, knowing that she would be told to resign if she married, she asked to keep her job. Nevertheless, she lost her teaching position at Barnard College in 1906. Dean Gill wrote that “The dignity of women’s place in the home demands that your marriage shall be a resignation.”) — Harriet Brooks, Canadian nuclear physicist (died 17 Apr 1933).
	This therefore is Mathematics: She reminds you of the invisible forms of the soul; She gives life to her own discoveries; She awakens the mind and purifies the intellect; She brings light to our intrinsic ideas; She abolishes oblivion and ignorance which are ours by birth... — Proclus, Greek mathematician (died 17 Apr 485).
	In physiology, as in all other sciences, no discovery is useless, no curiosity misplaced or too ambitious, and we may be certain that every advance achieved in the quest of pure knowledge will sooner or later play its part in the service of man. — Ernest Henry Starling, English physiologist (born 17 Apr 1866).

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
	Giovanni Riccioli, born 17 Apr 1598, was an Italian astronomer who in 1651, assigned the majority of the current names to features on the Moon. He named the more prominent features after famous astronomers, scientists and philosophers. What general name did he give to the large dark smooth areas of the Moon?
	Augustus love, born 17 Apr 1863, was a British geophysicist and mathematician who made a discovery that was subsequently named for him. Love proposed a method, based on his discovery, to measure the thickness of the Earth’s crust. What discovery is known by his name?
Deaths
	An American printer and publisher (1706-1790) invented a type of stove, still being manufactured, to give more warmth than open fireplaces. The lightning rod and bifocal eyeglasses also were his ideas. What is the name of this scientist?
Events
	On 17 Apr 1967, the spacecraft Surveyor 3 was successfully launched from Cape Kennedy, Florida. It was the second US spacecraft to make a soft landing on the moon, where it studied the lunar surface and sent more than 6300 pictures back to Earth. Further Surveyor space probes followed to validate soft-landing technology, determine the lunar surface conditions and return various other exploratory data, ahead of the Apollo landings. What was the final number in the Surveyor series of space probes?
	On 17 Apr of a certain year, Jerrie Mock of Columbus, Ohio, became the first woman to complete a solo airplane flight around the world. She flew a single-engine Cessna Model 180 aircraft, on her 23,206-mile solo air voyage. The trip lasted 29½ days with 21 stopovers. In which decade was this woman’s transglobal flight 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 April 17 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 16: Wilbur • carbon dioxide • Rosalind Franklin • by accident, through the skin, upon touching its container • pistols.

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