TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY
NEWSLETTER • 5 SEPTEMBER
One letter stands out from the several thousand written by Charles Darwin in his lifetime. The letter, dated 5 Sep 1957, written from his home at Down, and sent to Asa Gray, contains his outline “on the means by which nature makes her species.” Darwin was aged 48 when he wrote this letter to the renowned botanist at Harvard University in the United States. With this letter, Darwin foreshadowed the publication of his great book, On the Origin of Species. The letter also fixed the date which established the priority of Charles Darwin for his great discovery. Of all of the letters written by Charles Darwin, the letter, dated 5 Sep 1957, is the most important one you should read.
On 5 Sep 1906, Ludwig Eduard Boltzmann died, the Austrian physicist who founded statistical mechanics. He held a firm belief in atomism (that all matter is made of atoms) and defended it against hostile opposition to this new idea. His struggle was a turning point in the history of the modern world. Today's book pick is: Boltzmanns Atom: The Great Debate That Launched A Revolution In Physics, by David Lindley who tells the story of this crucial scientific struggle over the existence of the atom during the second half of the 19th century. Boltzman had profound insights primarily into the physical nature of heat, gas and matter. Boltzman's brilliant insights brought about the golden age of physics that we continue to live in today. In 1850 no university taught such a subject as theoretical physics, but by 1900 it was a fully fledged discipline with whole institutes devoted to it. As the author shows, this burgeoning scientific movement led within just a few years to the discovery of quantum mechanics by Max Planck, radioactivity by Marie Curie, general relativity by Albert Einstein, the uncertainty principle by Werner Heisenberg, and more recently quantum electodynamics by Richard Feynman, the quark by Murray Gell-Mann, and even up-to-the minute developments in chaos and superstring theory. If you have read David Bodanis's E=mc², you will likely also enjoy this similar attempt to explain for laypeople the basis of modern physics.
It is available from Amazon, typically about New from $15.00. Used from $3.12. (As of earlier time of writing - subject to change.)
 | The most ordinary things are to philosophy a source of insoluble puzzles. In order to explain our perceptions it constructs the concept of matter and then finds matter quite useless either for itself having or for causing perceptions in a mind. With infinite ingenuity it constructs a concept of space or time and then finds it absolutely impossible that there be objects in this space or that processes occur during this time ... The source of this kind of logic lies in excessive confidence in the so-called laws of thought. — Ludwig Eduard Boltzmann, Austrian physicist (died 5 Sep 1906).  |
 | Belief begins where science leaves off and ends where science begins. — Rudolf Virchow, German pathologist and statesman (died 5 Sep 1902). |
 | Induction for deduction, with a view to construction. — Auguste Comte, French philosopher and mathematician (died 5 Sep 1857). |
| | The body is a cell state in which every cell is a citizen. Disease is merely the conflict of the citizens of the state brought about by the action of external forces. (1858) — Rudolf Virchow, German pathologist and statesman (died 5 Sep 1902). |
| 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 | |
 | Eugen Goldstein, born 5 Sep 1850, was a German physicist known for his work on electrical phenomena in gases and on cathode rays. He coined the term “cathode ray” (1876) emitted from a cathode. What other rays did he discover? |
 | On 5 Sep 1667, Girolamo Saccheri was born, an Italian mathematician who worked to prove a long-standing yet formerly unproven postulate, which can be stated as, “Through any point not on a given line, one and only one line can be drawn that is parallel to the given line.” Who originated (but didn't prove) the postulate? |
| Deaths | |
| | Ludwig Eduard Boltzmann (1844-1906) was a physicist who founded statistical mechanics. He also worked out a kinetic theory of gases, and the Stefan-Boltzmann law concerning a relationship between the temperature of a body and the radiation it emits. What was the cause of his death? |
| | On 5 Sep 1902, Rudolf Virchow died, a German pathologist and statesman who originated the concept that disease arises in the individual cells of a tissue and, with publication of his Cellular Pathology (1858), founded the science of cellular pathology. Virchow also worked on improving sanitary conditions in Berlin. He also helped develop yet another (unrelated) field of science in which he encouraged his friend Heinrich Schliemann. In what science did Virchow spend some time participating with Schliemann? |
| Events | |
 | On 5 Sep of a certain year, the first gasoline pump in the U.S. was sold to Jake Gumper, owner of a service station in Fort Wayne, Indiana, as invented and built by Sylvanus Bowser. What was the decade of this event? |
 | On 5 Sep 1862, metereologist James Glaisher and his pilot Henry Tracey Coxwell made a balloon ascent to a record height. Its precise altitude is unknown because Glaisher lost consciousness and was unable to read the barometer. Death was narrowly avoided by the courageous efforts of the pilot. The height was estimated by extrapolating measurements already recorded on the ascent. To what estimated height in the atmosphere did these men rise in 1862? |
Fast answers for the previous newsletter for September 4: a type of virus that infects bacteria, rather than ordinary cells • submarine • ice • 1,600,000 to 10,000 years ago • Harry Truman • decade of 1882.
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