TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY
NEWSLETTER • 20 OCTOBER
On 20 Oct 1942, Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard was born, who shared the 1995 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. The paper in Nature “Mutations Affecting Segment Number and Polarity in Drosophila” (1980), which she co-authored with Eric Wieschaus, revolutionised the field of developmental genetics. Today's book pick is: Coming to Life: How Genes Drive Development, by Christiane Nusslein-Volhard, who gives a concise and illustrative overview of genetics, evolution, and cellular processes as well as a discussing of current ethical issues in human biology. Her book is a remarkable journey through developmental biology that reveals miraculous processes in the microscopic world of cells. She tells us many answers to historical and contemporary questions in science.
As Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard leads us from laboratory research to its applications in human beings, we also come to understand why children look like their parents, how an embryonic cell knows to become an eye rather than an eyelash, and other incredible influences that result in variety in life.
It is available from Amazon, typically about New from $20.00. Used from $8.77. (As of earlier time of writing - subject to change.)
 | I immediately loved working with flies. They fascinated me, and followed me around in my dreams. — Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, German developmental geneticist (born 20 Oct 1942).  |
 | A time will come when men will stretch out their eyes. They should see planets like our Earth. — Sir Christopher Wren, English architect, mathematician and astronomer (born 20 Oct 1632). |
 | I consider that I understand an equation when I can predict the properties of its solutions, without actually solving it. — Paul A. M. Dirac, English theoretical physicist (died 20 Oct 1984). |
 | The Pole moves from day to day. Perhaps if commander Byrd did not strike the exact spot with his flag the Pole will find the flag. — Harlow Shapley, American astronomer (died 20 Oct 1972). |
| 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 | |
 | Sir James Chadwick, born 20 Oct 1891, was an English physicist, who received the Nobel Prize for Physics (1935) for the discovering evidence of a new nuclear particle. He led the UK's work on the atomic bomb in WW II, and was knighted in 1945. Which particle did Chadwick discover? |
| Deaths | |
| | P.A.M. Dirac (1902-1984) was an English physicist and mathematician. In 1933 he shared the Nobel Prize for Physics with the Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger. What was his great contribution to physics? |
| Events | |
 | On 20 Oct of a certain year, Dr. Lee DeForest (26 Aug 1873 - 30 Jun 1961), one of the “fathers of radio,” announced his three-element electrical vacuum tube (now known as a triode) to a meeting of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers He had discovered that when a mesh, or grid, of wire was placed between the filament and collector “plate” in a diode tube (first made by J. Ambrose Fleming, 1904), a large voltage-amplifying effect could be produced. In what decade was the triode announced? |
 | On 20 Oct 1970, American agricultural pioneer Norman Borlaug received the Nobel Prize for his contribution to the "green revolution" that increased grain production throughout the Third World by perfecting and introducing new strains of wheat and rice crops. Which category of Nobel Prize was awarded to Norman Borlaug? |
Fast answers for the previous newsletter for October 19: theory on the later evolutionary stages of massive stars • francium • New Zealand • to accurately measure resistance • John Atanasoff • 82 kg.
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