TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY
NEWSLETTER • 13 JUNE
On 13 Jun 1773, English physician, physicist and Egyptologist was born. If you've taken a physics class, his name probably came up, though without much fanfare.
And yet he has been called one of the greatest minds since Isaac Newton. His breadth of knowledge was almost all-encompassing. In fact, it was said that if he learned something about law, he'd know a little about everything!
Even if you know his name, you probably did not know he started as a physician (M.D.). The biography of Thomas Young from Harper's Magazine (1890) reveals a fascinating man, and is another example of an article you read—and then come away wondering how you could have known so little before about a scientist who had made such significant contributions.
On 13 Jun 1831, James Clerk Maxwell, a Scottish physicist was born. His name is so well-known you, because he is one of the giants in his work on electromagnetic fields. Maxwell bridged the gap between Newton and Einstein. Today's book pick is: , by , who writes a biography of this remarkable scientist, known for approaching science with a freshness unbound by convention or previous expectations. He produced some of the most original scientific thinking of the nineteenth century — and his discoveries went on to shape the twentieth century.
It is available from Amazon, typically about (As of earlier time of writing - subject to change.)
| | All the mathematical sciences are founded on relations between physical laws and laws of numbers, so that the aim of exact science is to reduce the problems of nature to the determination of quantities by operations with numbers. — James Clerk Maxwell, Scottish mathematician and physicist (born 13 Jun 1831).  |
 | All the good experimental physicists I have known have had an intense curiosity that no Keep Out sign could mute. — Luis W. Alvarez, American physicist (born 13 Jun 1911). |
 | The study of the serum of immunized animals forms a new chapter in the history of the struggle between the animal and infective agents, under which heading practical results of the highest importance are already inscribed. Any explanation of the phenomena is, however, still far from complete. — Jules Bordet, Belgian bacteriologist and immunologist (born 13 Jun 1870). |
| 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 | |
| | James Clerk Maxwell, a Scottish physicist and mathematician, was born on 13 Jun 1831. His researches united electricity and magnetism into the concept of the electro-magnetic field. The four partial differential equations, now known by his name, first appeared in fully developed form in Electricity and Magnetism (1873). On what evidence did he proposed that the phenomenon of light is an electromagnetic phenomenon? |
| | Thomas Young, English physician, physicist and Egyptologist, was born 13 Jun 1773. His study of the interference of light reinforced the wave theory of light. A modulus of elasticity is named after his work with elasticity. Which Egyptian hieroglyphs did Young help decipher? |
| Deaths | |
 | James B. Pollack died 13 Jun 1994. He was a NASA researcher, who helped develop the theory that atomic war would result in a “nuclear winter.” He modelled the early evolution of the giant gas planets. He discovered the first real evidence that the clouds of Venus are composed of acid. Which acid did he find in the clouds of Venus? |
 | Freidrich Earnst Dorn (1848-1916) was a German physicist who followed Madame Curie's discoveries with his own study of radioactivity and discovered that radium not only emitted radiation, but released a gas that was also itself radioactive. The experiment provided the first clearly demonstrated example of one element transmuting to another through the process of releasing radiation. What radioactive gaseous element did he discover? |
| Events | |
 | In 1877, Louis Pasteur began his quest to develop a vaccine for a certain disease by visiting the slaughterhouses of Chartres to take blood samples from corpses of farm animals that had died of this disease. For what disease did he seek to prepare a vaccine? |
 | In 1983, space probe vehicle Pioneer 10 crossed the orbit of a ceratin planet, a landmark event in its travel across the Solar System. Which planet orbit did it cross, and why was it a landmark event? |
Fast answers for the previous newsletter for June 12: radio waves • John Augustus Roebling • bees • the study of rock minerals by viewing thin slices of rock under a microscope • Gossamer Albatross • the walking gait of individuals, to distinguish between actual and spurious limps in damage claims for injuries • the decade including the year 1913.
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