TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY
NEWSLETTER • 19 MARCH
On 19 Mar 1800, Alexander von Humboldt was on a five-year expedition in the jungles of South America and captured specimen animals from the Calabozo swamps. (See the quiz below)
It was with the help of the local Indians that Humboldt collected his specimens of this interesting animal with a defense mechanism that killed horses. He wrote extensively on his experiments on these animals.
A shorter account is given in Lives of the Brothers Humboldt (1852), and you can read some of the startling details of the collection method, in which two horses died, here.
On 19 Mar 1886, Giuseppe Mario Bellanca was born, an Italian-American aviation pioneer. He was a gifted aircraft designer and manufacturer of airplanes, including the first U.S. monoplane with an enclosed cabin. Fortunately for aeronautics buffs, good historical coverage of his work in available in print. Today's book pick is: Bellanca's Golden Age: The Golden Age of Aviation Series, by Alan Abel, Drina Welch Abel. The authors outline the reasons why the young Sicilian moved to the U.S. in 1910. This book contains numerous period photographs and a rich narrative covering Bellanca innovations such as Columbia, which flew non-stop from New York to Germany just two weeks after Lindbergh’s flight; Miss Veedol, the aircraft that made the first non-stop transpacific flight; the Cruisemaster; Bellanca racers and others. Details are also provided of the first 10 flights over the Atlantic and the first one over the Pacific. It includes never-before-told stories of Charles Lindbergh, Clarence Chamberlin and several other Golden Age personalities.
It is available from Amazon, typically about New from $23.50. Used from $16.99. (As of earlier time of writing - subject to change.)
 | Vulnerable, like all men, to the temptations of arrogance, of which intellectual pride is the worst, he [the scientist] must nevertheless remain sincere and modest, if only because his studies constantly bring home to him that, compared with the gigantic aims of science, his own contribution, no matter how important, is only a drop in the ocean of truth. — Prince Louis-Victor de Broglie, French physicist (died 19 Mar 1987).  |
 | I have always attached great importance to the manner in which an experiment is set up and conducted ... the experiment should be set up to open as many windows as possible on the unforeseen. — Frederic Joliot-Curie, French physicist and physical chemist (born 19 Mar 1900). |
 | Mathematics, as much as music or any other art, is one of the means by which we rise to a complete self-consciousness. The significance of mathematics resides precisely in the fact that it is an art; by informing us of the nature of our own minds it informs us of much that depends on our minds. — Antoine-Thomson d’ Abbadie, French geographer (died 19 Mar 1897). |
| 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 19 Mar 1900, a French physical chemist was born who was jointly awarded the 1935 Nobel Prize for Chemistry with his wife, who was the daughter of another married couple that were earlier Nobel Prize winners. For what accomplishment was he and his wife awarded the 1935 Nobel Prize? |
 | On 19 Mar 1943, Mario Molina was born, a Mexican-American chemist, who was awarded a share of the 1995 Nobel Prize for Chemistry. He contributed to the the discovery that certain industrially manufactured gases deplete the ozone layer. This led to an international movement in the late 20th century to limit their further use. Which gases did Molina help identify as damaging to the ozone layer in the Earth’s atmosphere. |
| Deaths | |
| | Louis Victor Pierre Raymond duc de Broglie was a French physicist (1892-1987) best known for his research in quantum theory and for his demonstration that electrons behaved as possessing both particle and wave properties. He was awarded a Nobel Prize in Physics for that discovery. In which decade did de Broglie receive his Nobel Prize? |
| Events | |
 | On 19 Mar 1958, Britain’s first planetarium, one of the world s largest, was opened in a wing of another established attraction on London. What was the attraction that opened London’s first planetarium? |
 | On 19 Mar 1956, a rocket-powered rail-mounted sled reached a speed of 421 mph carrying John Paul Stapp at Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico. By year’s end, tests increased the record speed to 632 mph. Yet, the purpose was not the pursuit of any speed record. What was the purpose of Stapp’s test? |
| | On 19 Mar 1800, Alexander von Humoldt was on a five-year expedition in the jungles of South America and captured specimen animals at the Calabozo swamps. During his investigation of them, he experienced their defense mechanism, and the result was a severe lack of feeling in his joints for the better part of a day. He was fortunate, because the same experience had been known to kill horses. What were the animals he discovered there? |
Fast answers for the previous newsletter for March 18: dead in sea on a voyage, believed likely suicide from depression, murder not ruled out • cybernetics • Adolph Bandelier • pigs • the Woodstock of physics • tethered space-walk.
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