Science Teachers’ Assocation of NSW inc 2017 Calendar
MONDAY
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
1898, Ernest Rutherford
coined the terms alpha
and beta “for two distinct
types of radiation: one
that is readily absorbed,
which will be termed α
radiation, and the other
of a more penetrative
character, which will be
termed the β radiation.”
1
1917; death of Irving W
Colburn, US inventor and
manufacturer whose
process for fabricating
continuous sheets of
flat glass made the mass
production of glass for
windows possible.
4
11
1948; death of Richard
C Tolman, an American
physicist and chemist
who demonstrated
that electrons are
the charge-carrying
entities in the flow of
electricity, and also made
a measurement of their
mass.
5
12
1936; the last known
Tasmanian Tiger
(Thylacine) died at the
Hobart Zoo. This dog-like
marsupial, named from
its striped hind-quarters,
had been systematically
exterminated by
European settlers.
6
1922; the world’s highest
shade temperature of
58°C was recorded at
the African village of Al
Aziziyah in Libya. Later
the reading was declared
invalid. The accepted
record is now 56.7ºC on
10 July 1913 in Death
Valley, California.
13
1761; death of Pieter van
Musschenbroek, Dutch
inventor of the Leyden
jar, the first effective
device for storing static
electricity and named for
University of Leiden.
18
25
19
26
20
14
1907; birth of Edward
Bullard, English marine
geophysicist noted for
work in geomagnetism
and measurements of
geothermal heat-flow
through the oceanic
crust. He helped to
develop the theory of
continental drift.
21
1925; birth of Robert G.
Edwards, British medical
researcher. With Patrick
Steptoe he perfected
in-vitro fertilization (IVF)
of the human egg and
made possible the birth
of Louise Brown, the
world’s first “test-tube
baby,” on 25 July
1978.
15
22
28
29
2
3
4
5
1896; birth of Lester H
Germer, US physicist.
In 1927 he and his
colleague, Clinton J
Davisson, conducted
an experiment that
first demonstrated the
wave properties of the
electron.
10
6
1985; at the Fermi
National Accelerator
Laboratory in Illinois,
the first observation
was made of proton-
antiproton collisions. 23
collisions were detected
in Oct 1985.
11
12
— 4 —
13
3
1985; death of Paul
J. Flory, US physical
chemist, recipient
of a Nobel Prize for
his investigations of
synthetic and natural
macromolecules,
including many
commercially successful
polymers. 1956; death of
Benjamin M Duggar,
American botanist who
discovered the antibiotic
Aureomycin.
1804; birth of Squire
Whipple, U.S. engineer
who provided the first
scientifically based rules
for bridge construction,
was considered one of
the top engineers of the
19th Century, and was
known as the “father of
iron bridges.” 1683, the Dutch
scientist Antonie van
Leeuwenhoek wrote
to the Royal Society
reporting his discovery
of microscopic living
animalcules (live
bacteria) from the plaque
between his own teeth.
16 17
1863; birth of Alexandre
Yersin, Swiss-French
bacteriologist who
co-discovered the plague
bacillus, Pasteurella pestis. 1541; death of Paracelsus,
German-Swiss physician
and alchemist who
condemned medical
teaching that was not
based on observation
and experience. He
established the use of
chemistry in medicine.
23 24
9
10
1891; birth of Otto
Yulyevich Shmidt, Soviet
scientist responsible
for the Soviet program
of exploration and
exploitation of Arctic
resources.
30
1911; birth of Pierre
Dansereau, French-
Canadian plant ecologist,
a pioneer in the study of
the dynamics of forests
and who attempted
to extend ecological
concepts to the modern
human environment.
2
9
8
1913; death of Rudolf
Diesel, German engineer
who invented the
internal-combustion
engine that bears his
name.
27
1836, Charles Darwin
returned to England from
his voyage on the HMS
Beagle in the Pacific. It
would be 23 years before
he published Origin of
Species.
1879; birth of Max von
Laue, German physicist
who received a Nobel
Prize for his discovery of
the diffraction of X-rays
in crystals enabling
scientists to study the
structure of crystals
and starting solid-state
physics, important for
modern electronics.
7
SUNDAY
1767; birth of John
Macarthur, Aust.
agriculturist who helped
found the wool industry,
one of the first to obtain
Spanish Merino sheep from
the Cape of Good Hope
(1797). He spent years back
in England, leaving his
wife, Elizabeth, to run
the farm.
7
1
1940; death of Robert
Emden, Swiss
astrophysicist and
mathematician who
developed a mathematical
model of stellar structure
as expansion and
compression of gas
spheres, wherein the forces
of gravity and gas pressure
are in equilibrium.
8
1940; death of Heinrich
Kayser, German physicist
who discovered the
presence of helium in the
Earth’s atmosphere.
14
15