TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY
NEWSLETTER • 25 AUGUST
On 25 Aug 1908, Henri Becquerel died, the French physicist who discovered radioactivity in fluorescent salts of uranium. He shared the 1903 Nobel Prize for Physics for his work. His early researches were in optics.
In 1896, in a drawer, he had stored for a few days a photographic plate wrapped in black paper. Upon it, he had left some uranium mineral crystals. Later, he developed the plate and found was fogged. The crystals, long out of sunlight, could not fluoresce, yet he accidentally discovered the salt was a source of a penetrating radiation: radioactivity. Three years later he showed the rays were charged particles by their deflection in a magnetic field. Initially, the rays emitted by radioactive substances were named after him.
A contemporary account was written for the lay reader in “Radio-Activity A New Property of Matter” from Harper's Magazine (1902). From this, you can perhaps place yourself back in time over a century ago, when the world was excited not only by the discovery of radioactivity, but also X-rays. Illustrations include pictures of the images produced in Becquerel's first two experiments.
On 25 Aug 1867, Michael Faraday died. He is perhaps most remembered by those taking science classes for his discovery of electromagnetic induction. But he did so much more—Faraday is one of the most significant figures in experimental physical science. He was beloved by those who attended his public lectures, where he was a popularizer of science to the common people. The Evening Discourses he initiated are continued at the Royal Institution into the present, as a series of Faraday Lectures are held every Christmas, entrancing the children in the lecture theatre - the same one where Faraday stood - and the wider television audience.
Today's book pick is: The Electric Life of Michael Faraday, by Alan W. Hirshfeld. You may find this biography so compelling and inspiring that you'll perhaps find tears in your eyes as you reach the last pages, about his funeral, at the end of such a productive life. This is a scientist everyone should know as a person.
It is available from Amazon, typically about New from $69.99. Used from $8.82. (As of earlier time of writing - subject to change.)
 | I am busy just now again on Electro-Magnetism and think I have got 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. — Michael Faraday, English physicist and chemist (died 25 Aug 1867).  |
 | I have tried to improve telescopes and practiced continually to see with them. These instruments have play'd me so many tricks that I have at last found them out in many of their humours. — Sir William Herschel, German-English astronomer (died 25 Aug 1822). |
 | 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 easily 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. By 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, German-British biochemist (born 25 Aug 1900). |
| 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 | |
 | 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 giving popular public lectures. Can you name this person? |
| 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? |
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 • decade of 1968 • Amelia Earhart.
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