Newsletter for Sunday 17 January.

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TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY

NEWSLETTER • 17 JANUARY

Feature for Today

Book of the Day

On 17 Jan 1706, Benjamin Franklin was born, American printer, inventor and scientist. Today's book pick is: Benjamin Franklin's Numbers: An Unsung Mathematical Odyssey, by Paul C. Pasles. So how might the success of the American Revolution depend on magic squares? This is answered in this equation-free book that views the life and times of Benjamin Franklin through a mathematical lens. Franklin's hugely popular Poor Richard's Almanac featured such things as population estimates and a host of mathematical digression. Although you may think you know about this well-known scientist, no doubt this will be a new aspect to you.

It is available from Amazon, typically about New from $14.85. Used from $3.86. (As of earlier time of writing - subject to change.)

Quotations for Today

	Science can never be a closed book. It is like a tree, ever growing, ever reaching new heights. Occasionally the lower branches, no longer giving nourishment to the tree, slough off. We should not be ashamed to change our methods; rather we should be ashamed never to do so. — Charles V. Chapin, American physician, public health officer and epidemiologist (born 17 Jan 1856).
	We do not draw conclusions with our eyes, but with our reasoning powers, and if the whole of the rest of living nature proclaims with one accord from all sides the evolution of the world of organisms, we cannot assume that the process stopped short of Man. But it follows also that the factors which brought about the development of Man from his Simian ancestry must be the same as those which have brought about the whole of evolution. — August Weismann, , German biologist (born 17 Jan 1834).
	It seems to me, that if statesmen had a little more arithmetic, or were accustomed to calculation, wars would be much less frequent. — Benjamin Franklin, American statesman, scientist, inventor, diplomat, author, printer and publisher (born 17 Jan 1706).

Quiz

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
	On 17 Jan 1706, Benjamin Franklin was born, whose varied accomplishments include being an printer and publisher, author, inventor and scientist, and diplomat. He become widely known in European scientific circles for his reports of electrical experiments and theories. He invented a stove, still being manufactured, to give more warmth than open fireplaces. What was Franklin's invention to improve his aging eyesight?
Deaths
	Clyde W. Tombaugh (1906-1997) was an American astronomer who in 1930 made the only discovery of its kind in the twentieth century. Tombaugh was 24 years of age when he made this discovery at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Ariz. What was Tombaugh's most famous discovery?
	Richard Lower (1631-1691) was an English physician and physiologist who made the first direct transfusion of blood from one animal to the veins of another (1665). This idea of injecting blood into a living animal, and of doing this not by syringe or bladder, but from one animal to another, was first mentioned by Lower in a letter to Robert Boyle of Jun 1664. What animals did he use in his blood transfusion investigation?
Events
	On 17 Jan of a certain year, for the first time, full energy was released by the first synchrotron which was installed at the Radiation Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley. It was invented by Edwin Mattison of the same university, and would accelerate electrons by virtue of their negative charges, using a betatron-type magnet that weighed about 8 tons. In which decade did this synchroton first operate at full energy?
	On 17 Jan 1871, a U.S. patent was issued for an “endless wire rope way” subsequently used for the the first cable car public transport in the world powered using moving cables under the street. In which city did Hallidie build the first such public transport?

Answers

When you have your answers ready to all the questions above, you'll find all the information to check them, and more, on the January 17 web page of Today in Science History. Or, try this link first for just the brief answers.

Fast answers for the previous newsletter for January 16: Rwanda • decade including the year 1953 • Robert Jemison Van de Graaff • Saturn • Ernest Shackleton • samples from a comet.

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