TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY
NEWSLETTER • 11 FEBRUARY
On 11 Feb 1809, Robert Fulton patented his steamboat for the first time in the U.S., although he had already made his first successful steamboat trip on the Clermont between New York City and Albany in 1807. Others had harnessed the power of steam on land, but he applied it for propulsion of water transport of passengers. He opened up American rivers for two-way trips.
Fulton's steamboat was one of the most important inventions of his era. To learn more about what was involved in the way of financing, politics and patent litigation, read The First Steamboat.
On 11 Feb 1898, Leo Szilard was born. Today's book pick is: Genius in the Shadows : A Biography of Leo Szilard : The Man Behind the Bomb, by William Lanouette. Szilard is known as a key contributor to the Manhattan project. The author delves into the intriguing details of the ambitions, obsessions, and fears of an intensely adventurous life, and yet an enigmatic personality. The title refers to the shadows that obscured this curious physicist that have been cast by the monuments of the atomic age his work catalyzed: the Cold War, nuclear power and such icons as Robert Oppenheimer. Szilard was at the epicenter of the Manhattan Project, yet remained isolated from celebrity. This book casts light on the physicist's career and character that you may barely have known before, yet feel you must know, since his work and its consequences was so profound.
It is available from Amazon, typically about New from $23.20. Used from $4.18. (As of earlier time of writing - subject to change.)
 | It is better to do the right problem the wrong way than the wrong problem the right way. — Richard Hamming, American computer scientist and mathematician (born 11 Feb 1915).  |
 | Nature is never so admired as when she is understood. — Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle, French science writer (born 11 Feb 1657). |
 | A mathematician may say anything he pleases, but a physicist must be at least partially sane. — J. Willard Gibbs, American mathematical physicist and chemist (born 11 Feb 1839). |
| 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 | |
 | Leo Szilard, born 11 Feb 1898, was a naturalised American physicist who, with Enrico Fermi, designed the first nuclear reactor that sustained nuclear chain reaction (2 Dec 1942). What was his nationality at birth? |
 | An American inventor was born 11 Feb 1847, who, singly or jointly, held a world record 1,093 patents. In addition, he created the world's first industrial research laboratory. He showed an early curiosity for explanations of how everything worked and was especially interested in chemistry. He began selling newspapers on the railroad at age 12, and learned how to operate a telegraph. In 1868, his first invention was an electric vote-recorder. Can you name this inventor? |
| Deaths | |
 | Jean-Bernard-Léon Foucault (1819-1868) was a French physicist who introduced and helped develop a technique of measuring the absolute velocity of light with extreme accuracy. Also, a certain pendulum experiment is still known by his name What did his pendulum experiment prove? |
 | René Descartes (1596-1650) was a French philosopher, who was the first to oppose scholastic Aristotelianism, which he began by methodically doubting knowledge based on authority, the senses, and reason. Hence, his most famous quote in “I think, therefore I am.” In what field is Descartes also remembered as a scientist? |
| Events | |
 | On 11 Feb 1939, the journal Nature published a theoretical paper by Lise Meitner and Otto Fritsch, her nephew, explaining how, when a uranium nucleus was struck by neutrons, barium was produced. What term was coined in their paper for this phenomenon? |
Fast answers for the previous newsletter for February 10: John Bardeen and William B. Shockley • saccharin • Nobel Prize for Physics • Lord Joseph Lister • Niagara Falls, U.S. • haemophilia.
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