TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY
NEWSLETTER • 15 FEBRUARY
On 15 Feb 1845, Robert Wood Johnson was born, who co-founded the well-known Johnson & Johnson Corporation. In this short profile you can read how this now huge company started with a young man who was an apothecaries' apprentice that started a business making “Benzine” plasters with sleeves rolled up, spreading mush from a pail with a brush!
By adopting the antiseptic ideas of Lister, his company expanded greatly by producing packaged, sterilized wound treatments valuable to country doctors and city surgeons alike. This article comes from the Western Druggist (1893).
On 15 Feb 1564, Galileo Galilei was born. Today's book pick is: Galileo: A Life, by James Jr. Reston. We've all heard about him, but how many of us have read about and have a real knowledge of Galileo? Quoting Galileo's journals and letters, Heston gives the character a presence in a suspenseful narrative as you read about his stormy career, colliding with the church authorities in Rome, the tragic tale of an egotistical scientific genius and his persecution. Travel back to the time of Galileo and feel the shock and wonder as he felt it when he looked through his first perfected telescope and saw the mountains and craters of the Moon, the dance of the moons of Jupiter, and the surprising movements of sunspots. Rather than an extensive study of the scientific discoveries, the author's focus is on Galileo's struggles with the church, loyal supporters and vicious enemies while illuminating the political turmoil of his times.
It is available from Amazon, typically about New from $17.56. Used from $5.69. (As of earlier time of writing - subject to change.)
 | In questions of science the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual. — Galileo Galilei, Italian natural philosopher (born 15 Feb 1564).  |
 | All things are made of atoms—little particles that move around in perpetual motion, attracting each other when they are a little distance apart, but repelling upon being squeezed into one another. In that one sentence ... there is an enormous amount of information about the world. His suggestion that the most valuable information on scientific knowledge in a single sentence using the fewest words is to state the atomic hypothesis. — Richard P. Feynman, American theoretical physicist (died 15 Feb 1988). |
 | Familiar things happen, and mankind does not bother about them. It requires a very unusual mind to undertake the analysis of the obvious. — Alfred North Whitehead, English mathematician and philosopher (born 15 Feb 1861). |
| 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 | |
 | William Henry Pickering, born 15 Feb 1858, was an American astronomer who discovered a new moon of Saturn, Phoebe, in 1899. This was the first planetary satellite with retrograde motion to be detected, i.e., with orbital motion directed in an opposite sense to that of the planets. How many moons of Saturn were known with this discovery? |
 | An American industrialist and inventor, born 15 Feb 1809, is generally credited with the development (from 1831) of the mechanical reaper. Can you name this inventor? |
| | Galileo Galilei, born 15 Feb 1564, was an Italian natural philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician, who applied the new techniques of the scientific method to make significant discoveries in physics and astronomy. His great accomplishments include perfecting (though not inventing) the telescope and consequent contributions to astronomy. He studied the science of motion, inertia, the law of falling bodies, and parabolic trajectories. How many moons of Jupiter did Galileo discover with his telescope? How many can you name? |
| Deaths | |
| | Richard P. Feynman (1918-1988) was an an American theoretical physicist who was probably the most brilliant, influential, and iconoclastic figure in his field in the post-WW II era. He participated in the Manhattan Project as a group leader in the theoretical division, working on estimating how much uranium would be needed to achieve critical mass for the atomic bomb. His name is remembered in a simple notation he developed, now known as Feynman Diagrams What is the subject of Feynman Diagrams? |
 | James Frank Duryea (1869-1967) and his brother Charles Duryea built the first of a certain invention that operated in the United States. What was the invention built by the Duryeas? |
| Events | |
 | On 15 Feb 1942, operation ceased at the landmark eastern terminus of the original San Francisco street cars, first in the world to be propelled by cable. It had been first established by its English inventor, Andrew Smith Halladie (1836-1900), a pioneer manufacturer of wire cables. Since which decade had this cable car terminus been operating? |
Fast answers for the previous newsletter for February 14: supernovae • rendering visible the tracks (as from a radiactive source) of electrically charged particles, which also cause small droplet condensation • radio waves • Captain James Cook • Dolly • Earth's wobble on its axis, from the Latin “nutare” = to nod..
If you enjoy this newsletter, the website, or wish to offer encouragement or ideas, please send feedback by using your mail reader Reply button. Your click on a Facebook, StumbleUpon, or other social button on the site webpages is also a welcome sign of appreciation. Thank you for using them.
© This newsletter is copyright 2020 by todayinsci.com. Please respect the Webmaster's wishes and do not put copies online of the Newsletter — or any Today in Science History webpage. (If you already have done so, please remove them. Thank you.) Offline use in education is encouraged such as a printout on a bulletin board, or projected for classroom viewing. Online, descriptive links to our pages are welcomed, as these will provide a reader with the most recent revisions, additions and/or corrections of a webpage. For any other copyright questions, please contact the Webmaster by using your mail reader Reply button.
--
If you do not want to receive any more newsletters, Unsubscribe
To update your preferences and to unsubscribe visit this link
Social Profiles
0 comments:
Post a Comment