Newsletter for Saturday 6 February.

Click to open this Newsletter in your browser

TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY

NEWSLETTER • 6 FEBRUARY

Feature for Today

On 6 Feb 1886, the German chemist Clemens Winkler first isolated the new element germanium. Yet a single sentence like that does not do justice to the months of dogged work needed to release the elusive element from a mineral sample. Then its chemical behaviour needs to be documented, and its physical characteristics measured. To have a better idea about what's involved in the discovery of a new element, read Winkler and the Discovery of Germanium.

Book of the Day

On 6 Feb 1913, Mary Leakey was born (née Nicol), who became a member of a single family that is one of the most important and effective forces in the age-old effort to trace the human family to its origins. Today's book pick is: Ancestral Passions: The Leakey Family and the Quest for Humankind's Beginnings, by Virginia Morell. This book reveals the competing bands of modern anthropologists competing over limited paleontological and conceptual resources of publication, prestige, and power, much like ancient hominid bands competing for caves, copulations, and carcasses.

It is available from Amazon, typically about New from $15.00. Used from $1.54. (As of earlier time of writing - subject to change.)

Quotations for Today

	Life became a science when interest shifted from the dissection of dead bodies to the study of action in living beings and the nature of the environment they live in. — George A. Dorsey, American anthropologist and ethnographer (born 6 Feb 1868).
	I rarely plan my research; it plans me. — Max Ferdinand Perutz, Austrian-British biochemist (died 6 Feb 2002).
	There were details like clothing, hair styles and the fragile objects that hardly ever survive for the archaeologist—musical instruments, bows and arrows, and body ornaments depicted as they were worn. … No amounts of stone and bone could yield the kinds of information that the paintings gave so freely — Mary Douglas Leakey, English archaeologist and paleoanthropologist (born 6 Feb 1913).

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
	Mary Leakey, an English paleoanthropologist, born 6 Feb 1913, made several of the most important fossil finds concerning the origins of man, subsequently interpreted and publicized by her husband. After his death, she continued making discoveries, including three trails of fossilised hominid footprints 3.6 million years old, which she discovered at Laetoli in Tanzania (1978-9) showing man's ancestors were walking upright at a much earlier period than previously believed. Can you name her husband?
	Sir Charles Wheatstone, born 6 Feb 1802, though he did not invent the Wheatstone Bridge circuit, has been remembered for popularizing its use. Samuel Hunter Christie, came up with the idea of the bridge circuit, but Wheatstone set the precedent for using it in the way in which it has been most commonly used. What is commonly and accurately measured with a Wheatstone Bridge?
Deaths
	Joseph Priestley (1733-1804) was an English clergyman, political theorist, and physical scientist whose work contributed to advances in liberal political and religious thought. He also conducted experimental science whose discoveries included sulphur dioxide, silicon fluoride and ammonia and among his inventions was the pneumatic trough. For the discovery of which element is he most remembered?
	Frederic Tudor (1783-1864) was an American businessman who overcame initial huge losses to eventually make a profit from exporting water from New England ponds. His first delivery went from Boston to Martinique (1806). By 1833, he was shipping to Calcutta, India. What was special about the water he exported?
Events
	On 6 Feb of a certain year, swine flu claimed the life of 19-year-old Pvt. David Lewis. This influenza had not seen since the Spanish flu of 1918-19. The next month, following advice from medical experts, the President called for the mass inoculation of the entire U.S. population. No comparable vaccination effort had ever been attempted in the U.S. before. In which decade did this swine flu mass inoculation take place?
	On 6 Feb 1971, near the end of the second moonwalk, and just before entering the lunar module for the last time, Alan Shepard engaged in a recreational activity common on the Earth, but was the first time on the moon. What was this recreational activity by Shepard on the Moon?

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 February 6 web page of Today in Science History. Or, try this link first for just the brief answers.

Fast answers for the previous newsletter for February 5: his 9-yr-old son's tricycle • Maxim machine gun • study of landforms • decade including the year 1901 • Mariner 10 • decade including the year 1897 • the decade including the year 1974.

Feedback

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.

Copyright

To find citations for quotations go to the corresponding webpage by clicking on the “quotes” balloon icon. Sources for the thumbnails appear on today’s webpage with the corresponding item.

© 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