TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY
NEWSLETTER • 15 DECEMBER
On 15 Dec 1852, Henri Becquerel was born, the French physicist who discoveredradioactivity in fluorescent salts of uranium. He shared the 1903 Nobel Prize for Physics for his work. His early researches were in optics. In 1896, in a drawer, he had stored for a few days a photographic plate wrapped in black paper. Upon it, he had left some uranium mineral crystals. Later, he developed the plate and found was fogged. The crystals, long out of sunlight, could not fluoresce, yet he accidentally discovered the salt was a source of a penetrating radiation: radioactivity. Three years later he showed the rays were charged particles by their deflection in a magnetic field. Initially, the rays emitted by radioactive substances were named after him. A contemporary account was written for the lay reader in “Radio-Activity A New Property of Matter” from Harper's Magazine (1902). From this, you can perhaps place yourself back in time over a century ago, when the world was excited not only by the discovery of radioactivity, but also X-rays. Illustrations include pictures of the images produced in Becquerel's first two experiments.
On 15 Dec 1832, Gustave Eiffel was born, the famous French civil engineer. Today's book pick is: Eiffel: The Genius Who Reinvented Himself, by David I. Harvie. The Eiffel tower is his well-known achievement, but Eiffel also helped with construction of locks for the ill-fated Panama Canal. Harvie reveals a dramatic story of Eiffel's life, which includes controversy and scandal. But also, do you know of his stupendous viaduct at Garabit? Or his rotatable dome for Nice Observatory?
It is available from Amazon, typically about New from $29.99. Used from $3.79. (As of earlier time of writing - subject to change.)
 | In geology the effects to be explained have almost all occurred already, whereas in these other sciences effects actually taking place have to be explained. — James Croll, British geologist (died 15 Dec 1890).  |
 | For me too, the periodic table was a passion. ... As a boy, I stood in front of the display for hours, thinking how wonderful it was that each of those metal foils and jars of gas had its own distinct personality. [Referring to the periodic table display in the Science Museum, London, with element samples in bottles] — Freeman Dyson, English-American physicist (born 15 Dec 1923). |
 | The French flag is the only one to have a staff a thousand feet tall. — Gustave Eiffel, French civil engineer (born 15 Dec 1832). |
| 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 | |
 | Dr. Lazarus Ludwig Zamenhof, born 15 Dec 1859, was a Polish physician and oculist who created an international artificial language. It was introduced in a pamphlet he published in 1887. Can you name this language? |
| | Henri Becquerel, born 15 Dec 1852, was a French physicist who discovered radioactivity through his investigations of uranium and other substances. In 1903 he shared the Nobel Prize for Physics. With whom did he share his Nobel Prize for work with radioactivity? |
| | Gustave Eiffel, born 15 Dec 1832, was a French civil engineer renowned for building (1887-9) the tower in Paris that bears his name. He built a number of iron bridges and was one of the first engineers to employ compressed-air caissons in bridge building. He also designed the movable dome of the observatory at Nice. How was his work related to the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor? |
| Deaths | |
 | An Austrian-born American (1900-1958) won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1945 for his discovery (1925) that in an atom no two electrons can occupy the same quantum state simultaneously. This principle clearly relates the quantum theory to the observed properties of atoms. Can you name this physicist? |
| Events | |
 | On 15 Dec of a certain year, nylon yarn was sold to hosiery mills to make women's stockings; marking the first use of commercial yarn for apparel. The product of DuPont, Wilmington, Del., enabled a record number of ladies' hose to go on sale for the first time in May the following year. In which decade was this nylon yarn sold to the hosiery mills? |
 | On 15 Dec 1612, Simon Marius was the first to observe a certain galaxy through a telescope. He described it in the preface to his Mundus Jovialis as, “like the flame of a candle seen through horn.” The galaxy is the most distant object in the sky that you can see with your unaided eye. Which galaxy did Marius observe on this day? |
Fast answers for the previous newsletter for December 14: Danish • Stourbridge Lion • glacier activity • Kellogg (John Harvey and William K.) • decade containing the year 1967 • Voyager.
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