TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY
NEWSLETTER • 9 FEBRUARY
On 9 Feb 1871, Howard Ricketts was born. He lived but 39 years, dying of typhus, the disease he was investigating at the time. But in a career so tragically cut short, he had already made valuable contributions to medical science, and his earlier work on the mode of transmission of another disease (you'll name it in a question below) remains a significant reason to know his name. If you don't, or to know more, read a summary of his life in this Memorial Address. Or, read one of his articles on Rocky Mountain spotted fever.
On 9 Feb of a certain year (see quiz below) the U.S. Weather Bureau (later named the Weather Service) was authorized by Congress. Today's book pick is: Storm Watchers: The Turbulent History of Weather Prediction from Franklin's Kite to El Nino, by John D. Cox. One of the chapters describes the contributions of Cleveland Abbe, who was America's first official meteorologist at the newly created U.S. Weather Bureau. But the author also also introduces the pioneering scientists from the age when meteorology was considered one step removed from sorcery to the modern-day wizardry of supercomputers, as he takes the reader on a fascinating journey through time to show the evolution of weather forecasting.
It is available from Amazon, typically about New from $17.27. Used from $1.98. (As of earlier time of writing - subject to change.)
 | Chance alone is at the source of every innovaton, of all creation in the biosphere. Pure chance, only chance, absolute but blind liberty is at the root of the prodigious edifice that is evolution... It today is the sole conceivable hypothesis, the only one that squares with observed and tested fact. Stating life began by the chance collision of particles of nucleic acid in the “prebiotic soup.” — Jacques Monod, French biochemist (born 9 Feb 1910).  |
 | For God’s sake, please give it up. Fear it no less than the sensual passion, because it, too, may take up all your time and deprive you of your health, peace of mind and happiness in life. Having himself spent a lifetime unsuccessfully trying to prove Euclid's postulate that parallel lines do not meet, Farkas discouraged his son János from any further attempt. — Farkas Bolyai, Hungarian mathematician, poet and dramatist (born 9 Feb 1775). |
 | What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention, and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it. — Herbert A. Simon, American social scientist (died 9 Feb 2001). |
| 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 | |
 | Alec Zino, born on 9 Feb 1916, was a Portuguese ornithologist and conservationist who gave his name to Europe's rarest breeding bird, which he studied and protected on his native island of Madeira, south-west of Portugal, where this small black and white seabird breeds. What breed of bird is known by Zeno's name? |
| | Howard T. Ricketts, born 9 Feb 1871, was the American pathologist who discovered that a certain disease is spread by cattle ticks and caused by a blood-borne “bipolar bacillus.” What is the name of this disease that Ricketts studied? |
| Deaths | |
 | Nevil Maskelyne (1732-1811) was a British astronomer who made accurate measurements of the transit of Venus on the island of St Helena in 1761. In 1764 he went on a voyage to Barbados for a different purpose. In 1774, he used a plumb line beside a Scottish mountain to determine the Earth's density. What was the purpose on his voyage to Barbados? |
| Events | |
 | On 9 Feb of a certain year, the U.S. Weather Bureau (later named the Weather Service) was authorized by Congress, and placed under the direction of the Signal Service. Cleveland Abbe, who had inaugurated a private weather reporting and warning service at Cincinnati (issuing weather reports or bulletins since the previous year) subsequently took a major role in the operation of the U.S. Weather Bureau, and was the first U.S. meterologist. In which decade was the Weather Bureau authorized? |
 | On 9 Feb 1875, the first train passed through the nearly 5-mile Hoosac Tunnel on the railroad line between Boston and Albany through the Berkshires. It had taken several failed attempts, 200 lives and 20 years to complete the tunnel. Blasting began in 1851, using gunpowder. By 1866, two new tunnelling tools - the compressed air drill and a different explosive - were used in the Hoosac for the first time. What was the explosive first used in the Hoosac Tunnel in 1866? |
Fast answers for the previous newsletter for February 8: Xerox • lightweight, one-cylinder steam engine • holography • neutrons • Isaac Newton • Gregor Mendel.
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