TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY
NEWSLETTER • 18 SEPTEMBER
On 18 Sep 1840, Constantine Rafinesque died, a French naturalist, traveller and writer who made extensive travels, including a large area of America, collecting, cataloging and naming huge numbers of plants. He published prolifically with ideas that could be brilliantly insightful, and sometimes careless or wrong.
He is described in a chapter, An Eccentric Naturalist in Science Sketches (1885). It opens as Rafinesque “crossed the Falls of the Ohio and stood on Indiana soil. He came on foot, with a note-book in one hand and a hickory stick in the other, and his capacious pockets were full of wild-flowers, shells, and toads. He wore ‘a long, loose coat of yellow nankeen, stained yellower by the clay of the roads, and variegated by the juices of plants.’ In short, in all respects of dress, manners, and appearance, he would be described by the modern name of ‘tramp.’ Nevertheless, no more remarkable figure has ever appeared in the annals of Indiana or in the annals of science. To me it has always possessed a peculiar interest; and so, for a few moments, I wish to call up before you the figure of Rafinesque, with his yellow nankeen coat, ‘his sharp tanned face, and his bundle of plants, under which a pedler would groan,’ before it recedes into the shadows of oblivion.”
If that has whet your appetite to know more about this interesting character, there is much more in the extract on Constantine Rafinesque to read about his exploits.
On 18 Sep 1819, Jean Bernard Léon Foucault was born, a French physicist, whose Foucault's Pendulum experimentally proved that the Earth rotates on its axis. Today's book pick is: , by , one of the best science popularizers, tells of the scientist and one of the cleverest experiments in scientific history. Foucault, and his many other discoveries, are little-known now, but his pendulum widely seen in science museums. The book is a fascinating journey through the mind and findings of one of the most important and lesser-known characters in the history of science. Through careful research and lively anecdotes, world-renowned author Amir D. Aczel reveals the astonishing range and breadth of Foucault's discoveries. For, in addition to offering the first unequivocal proof of Earth's rotation, Foucault gave us the modern electric compass and microscope, was a pioneer in photographic technology, and made remarkable deductions about color theory, heat waves, and the speed of light.
It is available from Amazon, typically about (As of earlier time of writing - subject to change.)
 | For since the fabric of the universe is most perfect and the work of a most wise creator, nothing at all takes place in the universe in which some rule of the maximum or minimum does not appear…. — Leonhard Euler, Swiss mathematician and physicist (died 18 Sep 1783).  |
| | Science gains from it [the pendulum] more than one can expect. With its huge dimensions, the apparatus presents qualities that one would try in vain to communicate by constructing it on a small [scale], no matter how carefully. Already the regularity of its motion promises the most conclusive results. One collects numbers that, compared with the predictions of theory, permit one to appreciate how far the true pendulum approximates or differs from the abstract system called 'the simple pendulum'. — Jean-Bernard-Léon Foucault, French physicist (born 18 Sep 1819). |
 | All the truths of mathematics are linked to each other, and all means of discovering them are equally admissible. — Adrien-Marie Legendre, French mathematician (born 18 Sep 1752). |
| 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 | |
 | Edwin McMillan, born 12 Sep 1907, was a chemist who discovered two elements, and helped build the first atom bomb. What two elements did he discover? |
 | John Aitken, born 18 Sep 1839, was a Scottish physicist and meteorologist who is remembered for his explanation of a meterological phenomenon based on Aitken nuclei. What are Aitken nuclei - and what do they cause? |
| Deaths | |
 | The English physicist, Sir John Cockcroft (1897-1967) was joint winner with Ernest T.S. Walton of Ireland of the 1951 Nobel Prize for Physics. Together, they built the Cockcroft-Walton generator. What was the function of their generator? |
 | A French physicist (1819-1896) was the first to measure the speed of light successfully without using astronomical calculations (1849). His apparatus used a narrow beam of light sent between gear teeth on the edge of a rotating wheel. Can you name this scientist? |
| Events | |
 | On 18 Sep of a certain year, Cuban cosmonaut Arnaldo Tamayo-Mendéz became the first person of color and the first Latin American sent into space on board Soyuz 38 (for 188.7 hours), one of a two men comprising the seventh international crew under the Intercosmos programme. Tamayo-Mendéz spent several days aboard the Soviet space laboratory Salyut 6. During which decade did this event occur? |
 | In 1830, the first locomotive built in America raced a horse over a distance of 14-km, but lost due to a boiler leak. What is the name of the first locomotive built in America? |
Fast answers for the previous newsletter for September 17: Bernhard Riemann • white blood cells • concrete operational and formal operational • he invented the negative-positive photographic process - to produce a positive picture of which he was able to make further copies • mercury vapour lamp • Rosetta stone.
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