TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY
NEWSLETTER • 16 SEPTEMBER
Sir Ronald Ross, an English physicist, bacteriologist and mathematician died on 16 Sep 1932. He was the first Briton to be awarded a Nobel Prize, for his research that identified the Anopheles mosquito as the carrier of the malaria parasite. In 1899, he published Instructions for the Prevention of Malarial Fever: For the Use of Residents of Malarious Places. It is another opportunity to read of the work of a scientist in his own words, as he outlines the key points to know about malaria, and some facts on mosquitos. If you don't know whether a mosquito may live for hours, days, weeks, or months, you can learn that answer within this feature article.
The International Day for the Protection of the Ozone Layer was proclaimed as 16 Sep by the United Nations General Assembly (19 Dec 1994). As a second feature view the artistic 30-second video, The Drummers, made in 2007 as a TV public service announcement for the year that celebrated the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Montreal Protocol.
When Gordon Gould died on 16 Sep 2005, he had spent 30 years of his life battling the U.S. Patent Office to have his claim recognized as the inventor of the laser. Gould had the idea, and had it time-stamped before anyone else. His idea was brought to practical form by Ted Mainman. Townes and Schawlow made significant contributions. Together, they introduced one of the key technologies of the twentieth century. Today's book pick is: Laser: The Inventor, the Noble Laureate, and the Thirty-Year Patent War, by Nick Taylor, who outlines the patent dispute, and its long litigation. Although Gould was not the first to build a working laser, that is not required to secure the first patent. Gould had described the invention in sufficient detail for someone else “skilled in the art” to construct it. That has always been the key to obtaining patent rights, and to subsequent compensation. The author of this book has an appreciation for the human drama of scientific discovery and intertwines it with the legal drama and the bullying from corporatations. The plot builds to the final victorious courtroom argument.
It is available from Amazon, typically about New from $35.00. Used from $1.07. (As of earlier time of writing - subject to change.)
 | America forms the longest and straightest bone in the earth's skeleton. — Ellsworth Huntington, American geologist, climatologist, explorer and geographer (born 16 Sep 1876).  |
 | Put three grains of sand inside a vast cathedral, and the cathedral will be more closely packed with sand than space is with stars. — Sir James Jeans, English physicist, astronomer and mathematician (died 16 Sep 1946). |
 | A discovery must be, by definition, at variance with existing knowledge. During my lifetime, I made two. Both were rejected offhand by the popes of the field. Had I predicted these discoveries in my applications, and had those authorities been my judges, it is evident what their decisions would have been. — Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, Hungarian-American biochemist (born 16 Sep 1893). |
| 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 | |
| | Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, born 16 Sep 1893, was Hungarian biochemist whose discoveries concerning the roles played by certain organic compounds in the oxidation of nutrients by the cell brought him the 1937 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. Which organic compound in particular did he examine? |
 | On 16 Sep 1877, the inventor of the electric razor was born Can you name this inventor? |
| Deaths | |
| | The English physicist, astronomer, and mathematician who died 16 Sept 1946, was the first to propose that matter is continuously created throughout the universe. Can you name this man? |
 | A German physicist (1686-1736) who lived in Holland for most of his life was involved in the manufacture of meteorological instruments. In 1714, he created the first thermometer to use mercury instead of alcohol. He originally took as the zero of his scale the temperature of an equal ice-salt mixture. Of course, you name this scientist, but what is his first name? |
| Events | |
 | On 16 Sep 1835, aboard the ship HMS Beagle, British naturalist Charles Darwin arrived at a cluster of islands on the equator 600 miles west of South America. During his five weeks studying the fauna there, he found the giant tortoises there greatly differed from one another according to which island they came from. What islands were these? |
 | On 16 Sep 1908, former carriage-maker William Crapo "Billy" Durant founded an American automobile company. Unlike Henry Ford, his name is little recognized today, though his company remains well-known. Which automobile company did Durant found? |
Fast answers for the previous newsletter for September 15: quarks • shoe-lasting machine • Willy Messerschmitt • banking • made of dust from the impacts of cosmic bodies that crashed into Jupiter's moons • George Stephenson.
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