TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY
NEWSLETTER • 10 NOVEMBER
On 10 Nov 1895, John Knudsen (“Jack”) Northrop was born, an American aircraft designer, who was an early advocate of all-metal construction and the flying wing design. As early as 1923, Jack Northrop had been convinced that the flying wing, in which the aircraft carried all loads and controls within the wing and required no fuselage and or tail sections. Such a design, he believed, would be substantially more efficient than conventional airplanes and should be the next major step forward in aircraft design. After WWII, Northrop produced a practical prototype, and the Air Force was sufficiently impressed to order 30 production models. Today's book pick is: Jack Northrop and the Flying Wing: The Story Behind the Stealth Bomber, by Ted Coleman, Robert Wenkam. In a sad twist to history, in 1948, interference from the subsequent Air Force Secretary, Stuart Symington, resulted in cancellation of the contract and destruction of components in production. Northrop was so disheartened that he went into premature retirement. Three decades later, in an irony-heavy turn of events, the government began pouring billions of dollars into the development of the supersecret Stealth bomber, based directly on Northrop's pioneering aerodynamic discoveries. The Northrop B-2, it turns out, is a flying wing. The author Ted Coleman was one of the Northrop Corporation's founding directors, and sheds light on Symington's questionable motives in obstructing Northrup's original 1940s work.
It is available from Amazon, typically about New from $34.95. Used from $3.03. (As of earlier time of writing - subject to change.)
 | The embryological record is almost always abbreviated in accordance with the tendency of nature (to be explained on the principle of survival of the fittest) to attain her needs by the easiest means. — Francis Maitland Balfour, Scottish embryologist and zoologist (born 10 Nov 1851).  |
 | I may finally call attention to the probability that the association of paternal and maternal chromosomes in pairs and their subsequent separation during the reducing division as indicated above may constitute the physical basis of the Mendelian law of heredity. — Walter S. Sutton, American geneticist (died 10 Nov 1916). |
 | When autumn returns with its long anticipated holidays, and preparations are made for a scamper in some distant locality, hammer and notebook will not occupy much room in the portmanteau, and will certainly be found most entertaining company. — Sir Archibald Geikie, Scottish geologist (died 10 Nov 1924). |
| 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 | |
 | Ernst Otto Fischer, born 10 Nov 1918, was a German theoretical chemist. He shared the 1973 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his identification of a completely new way in which metals and organic substances can combine. Fischer first knew of a newly synthesized organometallic sandwich compound in 1951, while its structure was unknown. So Fischer studied it, and determined that it consisted of a single metal atom sandwiched between two five-sided carbon rings. Which metal atom was in the compound he studied? |
 | Robert Innes, born 10 Nov 1861, was a Scottish astronomer who in 1915 discovered the closest star to earth after the Sun. Can you name this star? |
| Deaths | |
 | Gideon Algernon Mantell (1790-1852) was a British paleontologist who, in 1825, named the iguanodon (“iguana tooth”) based on his find of its fossil teeth (1822). He observed they had similarities to those of the present lizard, the iguana. In his life he also discovered fossils of 4 of the 5 genera of a certain type of animals known in time. For which kind of animal did he find 4 of the 5 then-known genera? |
 | Alexandre-Henri Mouhot was a French naturalist and explorer who is remembered for his reports on the ruins of the ancient capital, Angkor. Although the location was known to the local population, and had been visited by several westerners since the 16th century, it was Mouhot's evocative accounts and detailed sketches that popularized the Angkor series of sites with the western public. He died at age 35 of malaria. Angkor is in which country? |
| Events | |
 | On 10 Nov 1885, the world's first motorcycle, designed by Gottlieb Daimler, made its debut. The frame and wheels were made of wood. Power from the engine was transferred to large brass gears mounted to the rear wheel. What was used to transfer the engine power to the wheel gears? |
 | On 10 Nov of a certain year, the discovery of the “charmed quark” subatomic particle was announced simultaneously by the two American experimental groups responsible. The new particle, of mass 3095 MeV had a lifetime about 1000 times more than that of other particles of comparable mass. In what decade was this discovery made? |
Fast answers for the previous newsletter for November 9: stuff • condensed milk • Israel's first president • the “rainbow” hologram used as a security feature on credit cards • decade including the year 1967 • light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation • decade containing the year 1925.
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