TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY
NEWSLETTER • 8 DECEMBER
Sir Thomas Edward Thorpe, born 8 Dec 1845, English chemist and author whose work in inorganic chemistry included the supervision of research into determining the presence of arsenic in beer and how to make pottery glazes without lead. As well as textbooks in chemistry, he wrote about chemistry history. As an example, look at the lecture he delivered in the Hulme Town Hall, Manchester (24 Nov 1875) about Henry Cavendish, as published later in his Essays in Historical Chemistry (1894).
When John Glenn died on 8 Dec 2016 at the age of 95, he left his name in the history books as the first American astronaut to orbit Earth (20 Feb 1962). Fortunately, he left the world a fine biography. Today's book pick is: John Glenn: A Memoir, by John Glenn, Nick Taylor, which begins with his childhood in Ohio, and spans the seminal events of the twentieth century. The narrative covers his service as a marine fighter pilot in World War II, and through the conflict in Korea, after which he had a continuing interest in the frontiers of aviation. His flying experience was an asset when he joined NASA to become an astronaut. Later in life, he spent 24 years as a U.S. Senator, and even made a remarkable return to space at the age of 77 on the Discover mission. Glenn has left us his own plain-spoken, breezy memoir, which is enormously compelling. He writes his heartfelt observations with the grace of modesty which belies his record as a true hero. The reader will appreciate how patriotism shines throughout his iconic American life.
It is available from Amazon, typically about New from $4.65. Used from $0.10. (As of earlier time of writing - subject to change.)
 | I observed that plants not only have a faculty to correct bad air in six to ten days, by growing in it…but that they perform this important office in a complete manner in a few hours; that this wonderful operation is by no means owing to the vegetation of the plant, but to the influence of light of the sun upon the plant. — Jan Ingenhousz, Dutch-English physician (born 8 Dec 1730).  |
 | The Greeks made Space the subject-matter of a science of supreme simplicity and certainty. Out of it grew, in the mind of classical antiquity, the idea of pure science. Geometry became one of the most powerful expressions of that sovereignty of the intellect that inspired the thought of those times. At a later epoch, when the intellectual despotism of the Church, which had been maintained through the Middle Ages, had crumbled, and a wave of scepticism threatened to sweep away all that had seemed most fixed, those who believed in Truth clung to Geometry as to a rock, and it was the highest ideal of every scientist to carry on his science “more geometrico.” — Hermann Weyl, German-American mathematician (died 8 Dec 1955). |
| | [Henry Cavendish] fixed the weight of the earth; he established the proportions of the constituents of the air; he occupied himself with the quantitative study of the laws of heat; and lastly, he demonstrated the nature of water and determined its volumetric composition. Earth, air, fire, and water—each and all came within the range of his observations. — Sir Thomas Edward Thorpe, English chemist and author (born 8 Dec 1845). |
| 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 | |
 | Eli Whitney, born 8 Dec 1765, was an American inventor, mechanical engineer, and manufacturer, best remembered as the inventor of the cotton gin¬a machine that separates cotton fibre from the seeds. His most important development was the concept of mass-production using interchangeable parts, which won him a US government contract in 1797. Worn parts could be simply replaced with identical spare parts. What product did he supply to the US government using standardized parts? |
| | Jan Ingenhousz, born 8 Dec 1730, was a Dutch-born British physician and scientist whose early work was in medicine, and he popularized Edward Jenner's method using the inoculation of live smallpox vaccine as a protection against the disease. Yet he is best known for his discovery that sunlit green plants take in carbon dioxide, fix the carbon, and “restore” the air (oxygen) required by animals for respiration. What is this process called? |
| Deaths | |
 | An English mathematician (1815-1864) helped establish modern symbolic logic and an algebra of logic, now named after him. By replacing logical operations by symbols, He showed that the operations could be manipulated to give logically consistent results, based on such concepts as complement and union of classes. The study of mathematical or symbolic logic developed mainly from his ideas, and is basic to the design of digital computer circuits. Who was this mathematician, or the name of his logical algebra? |
| Events | |
 | On 8 Dec 1994, the nuclei of three atoms of element 111 existed for about four-thousands of a second before decaying into smaller nuclei. The creation was announced by a team of German scientists. The atoms of the element were made by accelerating nickel atoms to high speed and bombarding them into bismuth, fusing to make the new nucleus. The symbol proposed for the element was Rg. What was the proposed name of element 111? |
| | On 8 Dec 1953, the U.S. President gave the “Atoms for Peace” speech in an address before the General Assembly of the United Nations. He proposed the establishment of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Which President gave the “Atoms for Peace” speech? |
Fast answers for the previous newsletter for December 7: uranium fission does not release all the neutrons it produces at one time, but some come off at measurably later times, some seconds or minutes later • Uranus • rhenium • decade containing the year 1982 • Bakelite • John Dunlop.
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