Science Matters Quarterly Newsletter (2020) Science Matters Newsletter #1 2020 March Term 1 | Page 4

Science Teachers’ Assocation of NSW inc 2020
MONDAY
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
Calendar of science dates compiled by George
Pinniger, STANSW Member and SEN Editor
1913; Georgy Flerov
was born. A scientist in
Russia, in 1941 he found
that uranium will fissure
without neutrons, also
noticing that few articles
were being published on
fission. Seeing research
was now secret, he told
Stalin to make
U-bombs.
2
1847; English fossil
collector, Mary Anning,
died. She made her first
significant discovery in
1810, aged 11, finding a
complete ichthyosaurus
fossil, 10 metres long,
making her famous. In
1823 she found an entire
plesiosaurus fossil.
9
1750; birth date of
German-born astronomer
Caroline Herschel, sister
of Sir William Herschel,
who aided his
astronomical researches
making calculations
associated with his
studies; she also
discovered 3 nebulae
and 8 comets.
16
23
1882; Melanie Klein
was born in Austria, but
moved to Britain. She was
a psychoanalyst known
for her work with young
children. Observations of
their free play gave her
insights into their fantasy,
so she could analyse
those as young as
2 or 3 years.
1990; death of U.S.
astrophysicist Charlotte
Moore Sitterly. For
45 years she had
organised, analysed and
published definitive
books on solar spectra,
she conducting her work
at the National Bureau of
Standards and the
Naval Laboratory.
3
10
1956; Iréne Joliot-Curie,
daughter of Pierre and
Marie Curie, died. She and
Frédéric Joliot, her husband,
continued the radioactivity
work of her parents; from
1946 she was Director of the
Radium Institute, Paris. Like
Marie she died from
α-ray-induced
leukaemia.
17
1840; George Smith, an
English archaeologist
and Assyriologist was
born. He translated some
Babylonian cuneiform
tablets describing a great
deluge (1872), akin to the
one described in Genesis.
He died of fever at age 36
during more
excavation.
24
30 31
1920; Julius Elster, a
German physicist, died.
Hans Geitel and he made
the first photoelectric
cell and photometer
as part of studying the
photoelectric effect and
thermal electron emission.
They did not patent these,
willing to share them
with others. 2000; On 7th April
NASA launched its
‘Mars Odyssey’, space
craft on a Delta-2 rocket.
It traversed 458 million
km before entering orbit
on 24th October, 2001. Its
main task: to seek water
ice under the surface
and to create a
thermal map.
6
7
1904; Russian-U.S.
nuclear physicist George
Gamow was born. He
was also a cosmologist,
a foremost advocate of
the ‘Big Bang’ theory of
creation of the Universe,
as well as investigating
the properties of DNA. He
was also a writer! 1590; Astronomer and
initially opponent of
Galileo’s solar-centred
Universe, Tycho Brahe,
discovered a comet in
Pisces. He had earlier
shown by parallax that
comets are further away
than the Moon, hence
disproving Aristotle.
1950: death of the
English civil engineer,
Sir Ralph Freeman. The
Sydney Harbour Bridge,
with a main arch span
of 500 m and deck 49 m
wide, is the world’s
largest steel arch bridge,
was just one of several
bridges he
constructed. 1864; Birth date of
William Rivers, English
anthropologist who set a
trend for anthropologists
to visit the cultures they
are studying rather than
theorise from home. His
main study was with
Torres Strait Islanders and
Indian hill tribes.
4
11
5
12
1965; Soviet space
vehicle Voskhod-2 was
launched into space with
cosmonauts Leonov and
Belyayev aboard. On
the 2nd orbit Aleksey
Leonov left the craft via
the airlock while still tied
to the vessel – the first to
climb out of a
craft in space.
18
25
1776; Sophie Germain was
born; she was a French
mathematician renowned
for her work in number
theory and its multiple
applications to acoustics
and elasticity. As women
weren’t allowed to attend
university she had to
teach herself from
books.
1
8
19
6
1733; Birth date of
Joseph Priestly, English
chemist and cleric who
discovered the element
oxygen. Firstly interested
in electricity, he became
a chemist, discovering
sulfur dioxide, ammonia,
carbon dioxide & silicon
fluoride.
13
1546; Syrian-Iranian
mathematician, theologian
and astronomer, Baha
addin Muhammad ibn
Husayn alAmili was
born, a learned Muslim
whose genius touched all
fields of knowledge, e.g.
mathematics, philosophy
and architecture
in Iran.
20
1949; Albert Stevens
died. He was a U.S. Army
officer, balloonist, and
early aerial photographer,
who in 1930 took the first
photograph of the Earth’s
curvature, and in 1932
the first photos of the
Moon’s shadow on the
Earth during an
eclipse. 1997; Sir Malcolm
Brown, died. He was
an English geologist
who won a reputation
for his contributions to
petrology. He was one of
very few scientists to be
invited by NASA to work
on lunar rocks brought to
Earth by the
Apollo 11 mission.
1931; Jacques Miller was
born, an Australian-
French physician. In
1962 he proved that the
thymus gland organises
immunity in animals.
Whilst it withers away in
adults if removed earlier
young animals develop
no antibody resistance. 1845; William Farrer
was born, a British-born
Australian agricultural
researcher who developed
several varieties of rust-
and drought-resistant
wheat, making possible
a great expansion of the
wheatbelt of Australia (in
1900, so called
Federation)
1929; Birth of Fred
Hollows in New Zealand;
he studied medicine in
Sydney; in 1961 he went
to England to become an
eye specialist, returning
to work as a leader in the
campaign to prevent eye
diseases among children,
especially aboriginals. 2013; Death of Sir
Robert Edwards, a British
medical researcher who,
with Patrick Steptoe,
perfected IVF of human
eggs. After 100 failures,
Louise Brown was the
first ‘test-tube baby’ to a
couple who had waited
9 years to start
a family.
26
2
9
— 4 —
SUNDAY
1611; John Pell, an
English mathematician,
was born on this day. He
was the first to use the ÷
symbol in England, after
he had convinced Johann
Rahn, a contemporary
in Germany, to include it
in ‘Teutsche Algebra’, the
book Rahn was
writing.
27
3
10
Norman de Bruyne, a
Dutch inventor, died. He
joined Rutherford at the
Cavendish Laboratory in
atomic research in1928,
but set up a company in
1934, Aero Space, when
he had discovered a new,
far stronger casein glue
for aeroplane bodies.
7
2018; the renowned
British physicist Stephen
Hawking died. He was
Cambridge University’s
Mathematics Professor,
a leader in theoretical
cosmology and quantum
gravity, who, despite his
affliction (Lou Gehrig’s
disease), was
a genius.
14
21
1979; The first very
serious nuclear accident
occurred at Unit 2 of the
Three-mile Island power
plant outside Harrisburg,
Pennsylvania. Caused by
both human and system
errors, a partial meltdown
occurred. Several days
were needed to
control it.
28
4
1798; Macedonio Melloni
was born. This Italian
physicist was the first
to investigate infrared
radiation. Herschel
discovered I-R in 1800 but
research stalled till the
thermopile was invented
so Melloni improved it
and tested it
thoroughly.
11
1
1879, Otto Hahn was
born. He was a German
physicist who, together
with Fritz Strassmann, is
credited with
discovering nuclear
fission in 1939, shortly
before the start of WW2.
He received the Nobel
Prize for Chemistry in
1944.
8
15
1394; Ulugh Beg, a
Mongolian astronomer
and mathematician, the
greatest astronomer of
his time, who built an
observatory at Samarkand
(begun in 1428), from
which he discovered a
number of errors in the
calculations of
Ptolemy.
22
1941; James Hanson
born; he is an American
atmospheric physicist who
advocates for actions to
protect the future of Earth
from climate-change. He
reports that the probability
that its cause is build-up of
atmospheric
CO 2 is 99% certain.
29
1866; English surgeon
Thomas Hodgkin died.
In 1832 he described the
malignant disease of the
lymph tissue, now called
Hodgkin’s disease. He
was the most prominent
British pathologist of
his time, a pioneer in
preventative
medicine.
5
1872; Birth of Georges
Urbain, a French chemist.
He isolated the element
lutetium, last of the
stable ‘rare earths’, in
1907. From 1895 to 1912
he did over 200,000
fractional distillations,
thus isolating the
elements Sm, Eu, Gd,
Tb, Dy, Ho & Lu.
12