Science Teachers’ Assocation of NSW inc 2016/17 Calendar
MONDAY
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY
1
1903; birth of English
physicist Cecil Powell,
who won the 1950 Nobel
Prize for Physics for his
development of the
photographic method of
studying nuclear processes
and consequent discovery
of the pion, a heavy
subatomic particle.
5
1888; birth of Libby
Henrietta Hyman, a US
zoologist who wrote two
laboratory manuals and a
comprehensive six-volume
reference work, ‘The
Invertebrates from 1940-67
covering most phyla of its
subject, a fine reference
still in use.
6
DECEMBER
1805; birth of Johann von
Lamont, a Scottish scientist
who discovered that the
magnetic field of Earth
fluctuates with a 10.3-year
activity cycle, but it does
not correlate with the
period of the sunspot cycle.
12
13
2004; Herbert Brown
died; he was an English
chemist who developed
organoboranes, opening
up many new techniques in
synthetic organic chemistry.
For this he shared the 1979
Nobel Prize for Chemistry.
19
Boxing Day
26
20
1910; Ian Donald, an
English physician, was born.
Having become familiar
with sonar in WW2 he
was first to probe organs
with ultrasound when
he investigated tumours
in human organs with
an industrial metal flaw
detector.
1816; Cláudio Villas-Boas,
was born. He was a Brazilian
anthropologist and activist
whose life was dedicated
to finding and protecting
indigenes whose lands were
stolen and developed; with
brother Orlando he helped
create Xingu National Park.
7
1989; Soviet Andrei
Sakharov died. He was a
nuclear scientist; at the
end of WWII he worked on
cosmic rays, but 2 years
later began developing
a hydrogen bomb with
a secret research group.
He became an outspoken
human rights advocate.
14
8
1916; birth of Maurice
Wilkins, a New Zealand
born biophysicist whose
X-ray diffraction studies
of DNA were significant in
the determination of the
molecular structure of DNA
accomplished by James
Watson and Sir Francis
Crick.
15
1988; Dutch ethologist
Nikolaas Tinbergen died.
He studied behaviour of
animals in their natural
habitats, constructing
tests to observe responses
and animal aggression, to
explain human violence as
rooted in an animal instinct
for survival.
21
JANUARY
27
28
1941; birth of Donald
Keck, an American
research physicist, who
with colleagues Robert
Maurer and Peter Schultz
invented fused silica optical
waveguide - optical fibre,
a break-through creating
a telecommunications
revolution.
1932; Johan Vogt died. He
was a Norwegian geologist
and petrologist who
pioneered in the use of
physical-chemical methods
in the study of the origin of
igneous rocks and ores.
2004; ‘Spirit’, a robot rover
landed on Mars to analyse
the planet’s rocks, looking
for evidence of water. It has
taken the only photo of
Earth from another planet.
2
3
4
1950; birth of Sir Alec
Jefferys, the English
geneticist who discovered
the technique of DNA
fingerprinting, used for
unique identification of
humans, animals and other
organisms from their DNA
material on 10 Sep 1984.
1989; Soviet rocket scientist
Valentin Glushko died. He
was a pioneer developer
of rocket engines, working
with Sergey Korolyov . In
Aug 1957, they launched
the first ICBM, and in
October sent the first
artificial satellite into orbit.
9
10
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
SUNDAY
2013; China launched its
Chang’e-3 lunar probe
carrying the Jade Rabbit
rover. The spacecraft went
into orbit, then on to the
Moon. It was hoped to
become China’s initial
extraterrestrial landing
craft to showcase their
technological abilities.
1877; birth of Richard
Pearse, a New Zealand
inventor. At age 21 he
stopped farming, built a
workshop, and had soon
patented a new type of
bicycle. He built a twostroke motor by 1902, then
a plane from tubular steel,
wire, bamboo and canvas.
1798; Luigi Galvani, an
Italian physician and
physicist, died. While he
investigated body organs
and tissues he noticed frogs’
muscles moved if touched
by two wires of distinct
metals, which he believed
incorrectly to be ‘animal
electricity’.
2
3
1996; Mary Leakey, a
British archaeologist who
made several of the most
important fossil finds died.
Every vivid claim made
by husband Louis about
the origins of man, the
supporting evidence came
from Mary’s scrupulous
scientific approach.
9
10
1968; Dorothy Garrod
died. She was an English
archaeologist who arranged
a series of pioneering
excavations from 1929-34,
notably the 22-month
excavation at Mt. Carmel,
Palestine, spanning 200,000
years of human occupation.
16
17
18
1901; Sir Henry Gilbert died.
He was an English chemist
who for 50 years researched
chemistry, meteorology,
botany, animal and
vegetable physiology and
geology to determine
practical improvements for
agricultural methods.
1856; Hugh Miller, a Scottish
geologist and theologian,
died. He was self-taught, no
college education, gaining
his experience from time
spent in the field, taking
an interest in the local
Devonian rocks and the
fossil fish within them.
22
23
1954; Rodney Brooks
was born, an Australian
engineer and inventor, a
pioneer in building robots
with artificial intelligence.
Director of MIT’s AI Lab
from 1997-2007, he has
also made robots for Mars
(NASA), drones for Iraq and
to clean floors.
30
31
1906: birth of Dame
Kathleen Mary Kenyon.
an English archaeologist
who excavated Jericho to
its Stone Age foundation,
proving it to be the oldest
known continuously
o ccupied human
settlement.
1990; Russian physicist
Pavel Cherenkov died. He
discovered Cherenkov
radiation in 1934, a faint
blue light emitted by
electrons passing at speeds
faster than light through a
transparent medium.
1745; Danish entomologist
Johann Fabricius was
born. After studying with
the Swede Linnaeus,
he travelled widely in
Europe to observe insect
collections, and wrote
describing all the new
species he saw.
5
1729; Lazzaro Spallanzani,
an Italian physiologist,
was born. He showed
microorganisms arise
not by spontaneous
generation but from
spores in the air. He also
studied regeneration and
spermatozoa.
11
12
—4—
11
1778; birth of English
chemist Sir Humphry
Davy who invented the
miner’s safety lamp. He
epitomised the scientific
method, isolating several
compounds and elements
(Na, K, Ca, B, Sr, Ba and Mg)
by electrolysis of their salts.
1989; Austro-German rocket
pioneer Hermann Oberth
died. Injured in WWI, he
drafted a plan for a longrange, liquid-propelled
rocket the War Ministry
dismissed as fanciful, yet
Werner von Braun chose
him to help build the V1
and V2 rockets.
29
4
1863; birth of Annie
Jump Cannon, a deaf
US astronomer hired by
the Harvard Observatory
to classify stars by their
spectra. She organised the
classification of stars into
spectral classes O, B, A, F,
G, K, M in terms of surface
temperature,
6
1404; The ‘Act of Multipliers’
was passed in English
Parliament to forbid
alchemists from creating
the precious metals gold
and silver by transmutation.
It had fascinated the
imagination of many in
England, but was made to
be felony.
13
24
Christmas Day
Sir Isaac Newton was born
on Christmas Day, 1642. He
made major discoveries in
most scientific fields, such
as gravity, motion, force,
light and calculus and was
the leading scientist of
his era.
25
New Year’s Eve
New Year’s Day
1934; Cornelia Maria Clapp,
a US zoologist and educator,
died. Her influence as a
teacher was great and
enduring at a time when
the world of science was
just opening to women.
1894; birth of Indian
physicist Satyendra Bose,
who collaborated with
Einstein to develop a theory
of statistical quantum
mechanics, now called
Bose-Einstein statistics.
7
1898; English
mathematician and
novelist Charles Dodgson
(pen-name Lewis Carroll)
died. He was a lecturer
at Christ Church College
at Oxford but was better
remembered for writing
“Alice in Wonderland” and
its sequel.
14
1
1823; birth of Alfred
Wallace, English naturalist
who studied the
distribution of organisms,
best known for his theory
of the origin of species
through natural selection
made independently of
Darwin.
8
1850; birth of Sofia
Kovalevskaya the first
Russian female educated
in mathematics; while just
aged 11, her nursery walls
were covered with pages of
calculus lecture notes. She
became the first female full
professor in Europe.
15