| JANUARY 9 - BIRTHS | |
| Sir Alec Jefferys | |
(source) |
 Born 9
Jan 1950
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. This came about unexpectedly while Jeffreys was working on another project concerning genes for another purpose - to trace genetic markers through families to understand inheritance patterns of illness. DNA fingerprinting has become important for forensic science investigations, paternity issues, and detection of hereditary disease. He was knighted in 1994 for his research in genetics.«  DNA
Fingerprinting: An Introduction, by Lorne T. Kirby. |
| Har Gobind Khorana | |
(source) |
Born 9
Jan 1922
Indian-born American biochemist who (with Marshall W. Nirenberg and Robert W. Holley) shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1968 "for their interpretation of the genetic code and its function in protein synthesis." He systematically devised methods for investigating structure of the nucleic acids and he developed techniques to decipher the genetic code and show how ribonucleic acid (RNA) can specify the structure of proteins. In 1972, he synthesized the first wholly artificial gene. In the 1980s Khorana synthesized the gene for rhodopsin, a protein involved in vision.« Chemical
Biology: Selected Papers of H. Gobind Khorana, by Har
Gobind Khorana. |
| Edwin Ray Guthrie | |
(source) |
Born 9
Jan 1886; died 23 Apr 1959.
American psychologist whose work dealt with the psychology of learning and the role association plays. In his Law of Contiguity, he held that "a combination of stimuli which has accompanied a movement, will on its recurrence tend to be followed by that movement." He said that all learning is based on a stimulus- response association. Movements are small stimulus- response combinations. These movements make up an act. A learned behavior is a series of movements. It takes time for the movements to develop into an act. He believed that learning is incremental. Some behavior involves repetition of movements and what is learned are movements, not behaviors. The
Psychology of Learning, by Edwin Ray Guthrie. |
| John B. Watson | |
(source) |
Born 9
Jan 1878; died 25 Sep 1958.
John B(roadus) Watson was an American psychologist whose ideas initiated behaviorism as a branch of psychology. Inspired by the recent work of Ivan Pavlov, he studied the biology, physiology, and behavior of animals. Watson viewed animals as extremely complex machines that responded to situations according to their "wiring," or nerve pathways that were conditioned by experience. When he continued with studies of the behavior of children, his conclusion was that humans, while more complicated than animals, operated on the same principles. Watson's behaviourism dominated psychology in the U.S. in the 1920s and '30s. Behaviorism,
by John B Watson. |
| Amadeus William Grabau | |
(source) |
Born 9
Jan 1870; died 20 Mar 1946.
American geologist and paleontologist, known for his work on world stratigraphic deposits and the deciphering of Earth history. In 1899, he published an early work that studied the environment of old sedimentary rocks in light of knowledge of the conditions of life among modern organisms, The Relations of Marine Bionomy to Stratigraphy*, which was a step toward the development of paleoecology. For more than a quarter of a century, he worked on the geologic survey of China. In 1940, he developed a theory of rhythms in the growth of the Earth's crust, and of repetitions in mountain building. He died in China and was buried there. *Ref.: Bulletin of Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences, 6 no. 4 (September 1899): 319-356. Principles
of stratigraphy, by Amadeus W Grabau. |
| Joseph B. Strauss | |
(source) |
Born 9
Jan 1870; died 16 May 1938.
Joseph B(aermann) Strauss was an American civil engineer who was chief engineer for the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco. His career began as a draftsman. A few years later had become a principal assistant engineer. By 1904 he had his own Strauss Bascule Bridge Company which constructed hundreds of drawbridges around the U.S. From 1919, he spent a decade campaigning for the idea of the Golden Gate Bridge, which was eventually funded by a vote on 4 Nov 1930 to issue bonds. It was his first suspension bridge, and was assisted by engineers Charles Ellis and Leon Moissieff. The bridge opened to the public 27 May 1937. He was exhausted by the major task, and died within a year afterwards.« 
The
Gate: The True Story of the Design and Construction of the Golden Gate
Bridge, by John Van Der Zee. |
| Richard Wilhelm Heinrich Abegg | |
(source) |
Born 9
Jan 1869; died 3 Apr 1910.
German physical chemist who, with Boländer proposed a theory of valency (1899) to explain the capacity of an atom to combine with another atom in light of the newly discovered presence of electrons within the atom. He saw that the configurations of electrons in the noble gas elements are particularly stable. Thus, a halide element, such as chlorine, with one electron less than a noble gas element, would easily tend to accept one electron. An alkali metal element, such as sodium, having one electron more than a noble gas element, would tend to give it up. Thus a sodium atom could transfer an electron to a chlorine atom, forming a positively charged sodium ion bound electrostatically to a negatively charged chloride ion. He died in a balloon crash. |
| Friedrich von Esmarch | |
(source) |
Born 9
Jan 1823; died 23 Feb 1908.
German surgeon who was the first to introduce a first-aid kit and triage on the battlefield. He introduced first aid training for both military and civilian personnel. His handbooks of military surgical techniques were used extensively as the best on the topic. The Esmarch bandage is a triangular piece of linen or cotton, with a long side about 4 ft. It can be used folded or open, and applied in 32 different ways. Esmarch insisted that every soldier carry one in battle for temporary dressing and field-work. Esmarch also invented an apparatus, using a narrow hard rubber tourniquet with a chain fastener to control bleeding in tying off an extremity in such a way that it is made bloodless. When used during amputation, being bloodless made it easier to operate on a limb. |
|
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| JANUARY 9 - DEATHS | |
| Fukui Kenichi | |
(source) |
 Died
9 Jan 1998 (born 4 Oct 1918)
Japanese chemist who shared the 1981 Nobel Prize for Chemistry with Roald Hoffmann for investigation of the mechanisms of chemical reactions. In 1952, at Kyoto University, Fukui introduced his "frontier orbital theory of reactions." He proposed that the course of a reaction is determined by geometry and relative energies of molecular orbitals of reactants. The theory explains electrophilic attack, for example, occurs at the carbon atom having the greatest density of frontier (highest energy) electrons. In the mid-1960s, Fukui and Hoffmann discovered - almost simultaneously and independently of each other - that symmetry properties of frontier orbitals could explain certain reaction courses that had previously been difficult to understand. |
| Hans Jenny | |
(source) |
Died
9 Jan 1992 (born 7 Feb 1899)
Swiss agricultural chemist and pedologist (soil scientist) who developed numerical functions to describe soil in terms of five interacting factors in his classic book Factors of Soil Formation (1941). These related Climate (temperature and moisture); Organisms (those living on the soil and in the soil, vegetation and animals, fungi algae and bacteria, decay of organic matter, humus); Relief (topography, and geomorphic landscape); Parent Material (bedrock or sediment type); and Time (ranging from 100's to 1000's of years while maturity or equilibrium of soil development is attained). He moved to the U.S. in 1926. After retirement, he studied the soil relationships in the unusual ecological community of the Pygmy Forest in California, known for its stunted and twisted confers.« Factors
of Soil Formation: A System of Quantitative Pedology,
by Hans Jenny. |
| Pier Luigi Nervi | |
(source) |
Died
9 Jan 1979 (born 21 Jun 1891)
Italian engineer and architect who gained international recognition for his dramatic designs for large-span structures made possible with the use of reinforced concrete. In the 1940s he developed ideas for a reinforced concrete which allowed him to create structures of "strength, simplicity and grace". His services as an engineering consultant were highly sought as a result of his experimentation with structural concrete. His important works include a prefabricated 309-foot-span arch for the Turin Exhibition Building consisting of a single undulating large-span roof, the UNESCO building in Paris, the cathedral at New Norcia, near Perth, Australia, and as structural engineer for the first skyscraper in Italy, the Pirelli Building in Milan. Pier
Luigi Nervi, by Ada Louise Huxtable. |
| Rupert Wildt | |
(source) |
Died
9 Jan 1976 (born 25 Jun 1905)
German-American astronomer who studied atmospheres of planets. He identified (1932) certain absorption bands (observed by Slipher) in the spectra of Jupiter and the outer planets as indicative of ammonia and methane as minor components of these planets which are primarily composed of hydrogen and helium. He speculated (1937) that droplets of formaldehyde formed the clouds of Venus, since water was not detected. (In fact, surface water is absent on Venus, but the clouds do contain water with sulphur and sulphuric acid.) In 1939, he realized the importance of the negative hydrogen ion for stellar opacity. By the 1940s, he proposed the greenhouse theory to explain how atmospheric gases produced unexpectedly high temperatures of Venus. |
| Willis Rodney Whitney | |
(source) |
Died
9 Jan 1958 (born 22 Aug 1868)
American chemist and research director who founded the General Electric Company's research laboratory and directed pioneering work there. He is known as the "father of basic research in industry" because it became a model for industrial scientific laboratories elsewherein the U.S. In Oct 1900 he was offered a research position at the General Electric (GE) Co., Schenectady, N.Y. His self-directed research program there began on a basis of three days a week. He quickly proved that chemical research techniques (such as use of an electric furnace) could be highly useful in the electrical industry. By 1904 he was directing 41 staff. His own 40 patents included the GEM lamp filament (1904), but contributed indirectly to many inventions. Willis
R. Whitney, General Electric and the Origins of U.S. Industrial Research,
by George Wise. |
| Aaron Lufkin Dennison | |
(source) |
Died
9 Jan 1895 (born 6 Mar 1812)
American watchmaker who was the first person to apply the interchangeable system to the manufacture of watches, and has been called the "father of the American watch factories." He began work as a journeyman watchmaker in Boston in 1833. Having observed the precision manufacturing of firearms, around 1840 he invented the Dennison Standard Gauge, and then began to develop the "Interchangeable System" (the American System of Watch Manufacturing). In 1849, Dennison partnered with the clockmaker Edward Howard to manufacture interchangeable movement parts, from 1950, o enhance quality and lower the price of watches. He moved to pursue business in Switzerland in 1865 after the American Civil War.« |
| Caroline Lucretia Herschel | |
(source) |
Died
9 Jan 1848 (born 16 Mar 1750)
German-born British astronomer, sister of Sir William Herschel, who assisted in his astronomical researches making calculations associated with his studies. In her own telescope observations, she found three nebulae (1783) and eight comets (1786-97). In 1787, King George III gave Caroline a salary of 50 pounds per year as assistant to William. She published the Index to Flamsteed's Observations of the Fixed Stars and a list of his mistakes in 1797. At the age of 10 she had been struck with typhus, which subsequently stunted her growth. She never grew taller than 4' 3" and remained frail throughout her life. Sweeper
of the skies: A story of the life of Caroline Herschel,
by Frances Lowry Higgins. |
| William Hedley | |
(source) |
Died
9 Jan 1843 (born 13 July 1779)
English coal-mine manager who was a pioneer in the building and design of steam locomotives successfully using a simple friction adhesion between wheels and rails instead of geared track. He tested this method by experimenting with a test carriage loaded with weights and moved by men turning handles. Once satisfied that a friction-driven design was feasible, he began building and improving a satisfactory locomotive. He patented a design on 13 Mar 1813. The same year, the locomotivePuffing Billy began to pull coal trucks on a five mile line from a mine at Wylam, Northumberland, to dockside at Lemington-on-Tyne. It remained in service until 1864. |
| Maria Gaetana Agnesi | |
(source) |
Died
9 Jan 1799 (born 16 May 1718)
Italian mathematician and philosopher who was the first woman in the Western world considered to be a mathematician. In Propositiones Philosophicae (1738) she presented a series of essays on philosophy and natural science that she had defended in discourses with invited intellectuals who were invited her father's home. In 1748, her two volumes of Analytical Institutions, were acclaimed by the academic world as one of the first and complete publications that brought together the works of various mathematicians on finite and infinitesimal analysis. After the death of her father in 1752, Agnesi entirely devoted herself and spent her money to do charitable work. She died in total poverty in the poorhouse of which she had been the director. |
| Bernard Le Bovier, sieur de Fontenelle | |
(source) |
Died
9 Jan 1757 (born 11 Feb 1657)
(sire of) French scientist and author, whose Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds (1686), was one of the first works to present science for the lay reader. He popularized the astronomical theories of Descartes. Many of the characteristic ideas of the Enlightenment are found in embryonic form in his works. From 1697 he became permanent secretary to the Académie des Sciences. He held the office for 42 years, and in this official capacity, he wrote the Histoire du renouvellement del Académie des Sciences (Paris, 3 vols., 1708, 1717, 1722) containing extracts and analyses of the proceedings, written with great simplicity and delicacy. Fontenelle presented many obituary notices to the Académie, including those of Newton and Leibniz. |
| JANUARY 9 - EVENTS | |
| Accelerating galaxies | |
(source) |
In 1998, two teams of international collaborations of scientists announced
the discovery
that galaxies are accelerating,
flying apart at ever faster speeds, by observing distant, ancient exploding
stars. This observation - named as Science magazine's "Breakthrough
of the Year for 1998" - implies the existence
of a mysterious, self-repelling property of space first proposed by Albert
Einstein, which he called the cosmological constant. Researchers in England,
France, Germany, and Sweden are among the members of the Supernova Cosmology
Project based at Berkeley National Laboratory (headed by Saul Perlmutter)
and the High-z Supernova Search Team based
in Australia (led by Brian Schmidt). Image:
Supernova 1998ba explosion images made 3 weeks apart |
| Concorde | |
(source) |
In 1969, the supersonic Concorde jetliner made its first test flight at
Bristol, England. |
| Moon probe | |
(source) |
In 1968, the Surveyor
7 space probe made a soft landing on the moon, the fifth and final
spacecraft of the Surveyor series to do so. It marked the end of
the American series of unmanned explorations of the lunar surface, and
was to be followed by the landing of an Apollo crew. Its mission
including taking TV pictures after landing, determine relative chemical
element abundance and manipulate the lunar material. It was the only Surveyor
craft of the series to land in a lunar highland region. In addition to
touchdown dynamics data, it obtained thermal and radar reflectivity data.
The spacecraft was about 3-m tall. A solar cell array produced up to 85-watts
of electrical power, stored in batteries and used for communications.« |
| Meccano patent | |
UKPO |
In 1901, the first application for a patent
for Meccano
was submitted, as "Improvements in toy or educational devices for children
and young people. Known at first as "Mechanics Made Easy," this invention
of Frank Hornby became a worldwide success.
The British patent (No. 587) showed the familiar perforated strips, pulleys,
axles, brackets and clips assembled as a model railway crane with tracks
that had operating points. The patent was published on 30 Nov 1901.«
Frank
Hornby: The boy who made $1,000,000 with a toy, by Maurice
Philip Gould. |
| Daguerrotype | |
(source) |
In 1839, the daguerreotype photo process was announced at the French Academy
of Science. Previous photographic processes required hours of exposure,
but the daguerrotype (named after its inventor Louis
Daguerre) needed only a few seconds. The plate was prepared with a
layer of photo-sensitive silver halide, was exposed, developed using mercury
vapour, and fixed in a solution of sodium hyposulphite. The image remains
delicate, and must be protected under glass against damage by touching.
The daguerreotype was produced with a direct positive image, needing no
intermediate negative, but thus could not yield multiple reproductions
made possible by later photographic processes.« [Image:
first daguerrotype portrait in the Library of Congress collection. It shows
a self-portrait of Robert Cornelius (1809-1893).]
The
Daguerreotype: Nineteenth-Century Technology and Modern Science,
by Barger and White. |
| Stellar parallax | |
 |
In 1839, the Scottish Astronomer Royal, Thomas
Henderson, published the results of his measurement, the first made
of a stellar parallax. He observed the star Alpha Centauri from
the Cape of Good Hope, South America. (It is not visible from Britain.)
His measurements were made in 1831-33. After that time, but before Henderson
completed his calculations and published his results, both Friedrich
Bessel and Friedrich Struve
had been recognized as the first to make measurements of stellar parallax.«
[Image:
The effect of parallax for a nearby star S is to observe it apparently
in line with star A when viewed from Earth in July, but apparently in line
with star B in January. (The diagram is not drawn to scale.)]
Parallax
: The Race to Measure the Cosmos, by Alan W. Hirshfeld. |
| Safety lamp | |
 |
In 1816, Sir Humphry Davy's safety lamp
was first used in a coal mine. Deadly explosions had been a continual hazard
caused by the flammable gas, methane, leaking out of the coal seams ignited
by the flame of a miner's lamp. There had been previous attempts by others
to make a safety lantern. Davy applied a scientific approach to determine
the suitable fineness of wire gauze placed around the flame which would
avoid ignition of flammable gas outside. He determined that the holes in
the gauze should be less than 1/22 inch in diameter, and that the wire
itself should be between 1/40 to 1/60 inch thick. Since the flame changed
colour in the presence of methane, it also served as a warning to the miner
to take protective action.« [Image:
Davy safety lamp,
circa 1816.]
Humphry
Davy: Life Beyond the Lamp, by Raymond Lamont-Brown. |
| U.S. balloon flight | |
(source) |
In 1793, Jean Pierre Blanchard made
the first successful balloon flight in the United States. Blanchard's balloon,
filled with hydrogen, took off from Philadelphia, PA, soared to 5,800 feet
and eventually wound up some 15 miles away, in Woodbury, New Jersey. His
only passenger was a small, black dog. President George Washington was
in Philadelphia for the event, along with Thomas Jefferson, Henry Clay,
Paul Revere, John Adams and other dignitaries. Blanchard had pioneered
in various experiements to control his flights with sails and rudders.
First
Air Voyage in America, by Jean-Pierre Blanchard. |
| Ashen light of Venus | |
|
In 1643, Giovanni Riccioli
first reported the phenomenon
known as the Ashen Light of Venus. It is said to be a faint luminescence
on the night side of the planet, similar in appearance to "earthshine"
on the Moon, although not so bright. Ashen Light has been most often sighted
when Venus was in the evening sky, when the evening terminator of the planet
is toward the Earth. Studies have been attempted by several space missions,
including Pioneer and the Russian Venera 11 and 12 landers. Still, the
phenomenon remains sporadic and the explanation
elusive. |
|
