| JANUARY 14 - BIRTHS | |
| Shannon Lucid | |
(source) |
 Born 14
Jan 1943
American biochemist and astronaut who stayed aboard the Russian space station Mir in 1996 for a record-breaking 188 days. In 1976, when NASA announced that it would begin accepting women into the space program, Lucid immediately applied. Her first shuttle flight was in Jun 1985 on the Discovery, followed by the Atlantis in Oct 1989 and Aug 1991, where she conducted a variety of biomedical experiments. In Oct 1993, she became the first woman to travel into space on four separate occasions on the Columbia, setting a record for the most total flight time accumulated by a female astronaut on the shuttle (838 hours, 54 minutes). On Mir, she performed experiments, mostly on the effects of longterm space flight on the human body.  Shannon
Lucid/Space Ambassador by Carmen Bredeson |
| Alfred Tarski | |
(source) |
Born 14
Jan 1902; died 26 Oct 1983.
Polish-born American mathematician and logician who made important studies of general algebra, measure theory, mathematical logic, set theory, and metamathematics. Formal scientific languages can be subjected to more thorough study by the semantic method that he developed. He worked on model theory, mathematical decision problems and with universal algebra. He produced axioms for "logical consequence", worked on deductive systems, the algebra of logic and the theory of definability. Group theorists study 'Tarski monsters', infinite groups whose existence seems intuitively impossible. Alfred
Tarski: Life and Logic by Anita Burdman Feferman |
| Arthur Holmes | |
(source) |
Born 14
Jan 1890; died 20 Sep 1965
English geologist and petrologist was one of the foremost geologists of the twentieth century, who made major contributions to the geochronology of Africa, the genesis of igneous rocks, and physical geology. He developed a method of determining the age of the earth based on measurement of uranium decay in igneous rocks (which invalidated William Thomson Kelvin's hypothesis that the earth's age can be established on the basis of the planet's cooling from a initial molten state). Holmes' method proved to be remarkably accurate and laid the foundation of isotope geology. This was the first quantitative time scale for geology based on measuring the radioactive constiuents of rocks. The
Dating Game: One Man's Search for the Age of the Earth by
Cherry Lewis |
| Rolla N(eil) Harger | |
(source) |
Born 14 Jan 1890; died 8 Aug 1983.
American toxicologist and biochemist who was at Indiana University when he invented the first successful machine for testing human blood alcohol content, called the Drunkometer (1931). When someone blows into a breath-test bag, any alcohol in his breath is turned into acetic acid (vinegar), changing the color of crystals in the blowing tube. The more crystals that change color, the more alcohol is in the body. The Blood Breath Partition Ratio assumes that 2100mL of breath contains the same amount of alcohol as 1 mL of blood. Harger turned over the patent to the IU Foundation, for whom it became a surprise moneymaker. After Harger persuaded the Indiana legislature to pass laws restricting alcohol use by drivers, alcohol related traffic deaths were decreased. [Image right: Drunkometer] |
| David Wesson | |
 |
Born 14
Jan 1861; died 22 May 1934.
American chemist who created Wesson Oil. He experimented with purifying cotton seed oil, developed a system in 1900 to make the pure oil palatable, and formed the Southern Oil Company to market it. Wesson worked from 1901 to 1911 on a process for hydrogenating cottonseed oil. Cottonseed oil was the first vegetable oil used in the U.S. It is a versatile oil prized by chefs for its ability to allow the flavour of foods to come through. |
| Matthew Fontaine Maury | |
(source) |
Born 14
Jan 1806; died 1 Feb 1873.
As a U.S. naval officer, Maury was a pioneer hydrographer. He was the first person to undertake a systematic and comprehensive study of the ocean. His work on oceanography and navigation led to an international conference (Brussels, 1853) the first ever of its kind in the world. In 1855, during the Western gold rush, Maury’s updated information helped sea captains cut a ship’s average travel time from New York to San Francisco from 180 to 133 days. That same year, Maury prepared a report that proved the practicality — and assured the success — of the first trans-Atlantic cable between the United States and Europe. Maury was director of the U.S. Naval Observatory from 1844 to 1861. Matthew
Fontaine Maury,: Scientist of the sea, by Frances Leigh
Williams. |
| Adolphe-Théodore Brongniart | |
(source) |
Born 14
Jan 1801; died 18 Feb 1876.
French botanist whose classification of fossil plants, which drew surprisingly accurate relations between extinct and existing forms prior to Charles Darwin's principles of organic evolution, earned him distinction as the founder of modern paleobotany. He was an early proponent of evolutionary theory. Brongniart published the first complete account of fossil plants (1828). His interpretations of the fossil record also contributed to our understanding of historical changes in climates and plant geography. He was the son of Alexandre Brogniart. |
| JANUARY 14 - DEATHS | |
| Kurt Gödel | |
(source) |
 Died
14 Jan 1978 (born 28 Apr 1906)
Austrian-born U.S. mathematician, logician, and author of Gödel's proof. He is best known for his proof of Gödel's Incompleteness Theorems (1931) He proved fundamental results about axiomatic systems showing in any axiomatic mathematical system there are propositions that cannot be proved or disproved within the axioms of the system. In particular the consistency of the axioms cannot be proved. This ended a hundred years of attempts to establish axioms to put the whole of mathematics on an axiomatic basis. |
| Sergey Pavlovich Korolev | |
(source) |
Died
14 Jan 1966 (born 12 Jan 1907)
Soviet designer of guided missiles, rockets, and spacecraft. He was one of the founders of Moscow Group for the Study of Reactive Motion. In 1933, he participated in the Soviet Union's first launch of a liquid-propellant rocket. Because he was not a member of the Communist Party, he spent much of his life under house arrest. After demonstrating his expertise in the modification of captured V2 rockets, Korolev directed the design, testing, construction, and launching of the Vostok spacecraft, and most of the U.S.S.R.'s other projects. Around 1958, Korolev argued for the pursuit of manned space flight instead of military reconnaissance satellites. After much debate, the Vostok project was approved provided the launch vehicle could also be useful to the military. |
| S. F. Nadel | |
(source) |
Died
14 Jan 1956 (born 24 Apr 1903)
S(iegfried) F(rederick) Nadel was an Austrian-born British anthropologist whose investigations of African ethnology led him to explore theoretical questions. From 1934-36, he worked with the Nupe and other groups in northern Nigeria. From 1941-46, he joined the Sudan Defense Force in order to have a personal involvement with the destruction of the Nazi forces. He produced outstanding ethnographic writings. Nadel was also a major theoretician who attempted to develop a new synthesis of social science, as in his books, The Foundations of Social Anthropology and A Theory of Social Structure. He wanted to link the "Study of Man with the whole universe of scientific knowledge." |
| Harry Stack Sullivan | |
(source) |
Died
14 Jan 1949 (born 21 Feb 1892)
U.S. psychiatrist who developed a theory of psychiatry based on interpersonal relationships. He believed that anxiety and other psychiatric symptoms arise in fundamental conflicts between the individual and his human environment and that personality development also takes place by a series of interactions with other people. |
| Paul Vieille | |
(source) |
Died
14 Jan 1934 (born 2 Sep 1854)
French scientist, known for his invention of smokeless powder. Military commanders since the Napoleonic Wars had problems giving orders on a battlefield swathed in thick smoke from the gunpowder used by the guns. In 1886 Paul Vieille invented a smokeless gunpowder called Poudre B. Made from gelatinized nitrocellulose mixed with ether and alcohol, it was passed through rollers to form thin sheets, which were cut with a guillotine to flakes of the desired size. It revolutionized the effectiveness of small guns and rifles.It was much more powerful than gun powder, giving an accurate rifle range of up to 1000 yards. |
| Sir Robert Jones | |
(source) |
Died
14 Jan 1933 (born 28 Jun 1857)
English orthopaedic surgeon who has been called the founder of modern orthopaedic surgery.* He was a nephew of Hugh Owen Thomas and became one of his apprentices in Liverpool. On 22 Feb 1896, Jones published the first report of the clinical use of an X-ray to locate a bullet in a wrist, for which equipment was provided by Oliver Lodge. Jones co-founded medical associations, including the British Orthopaedic Society and orthopaedic hospitals. During WWI, he led the orthopaedic section of the British Forces. Jones advocated tendon transplantation, bone grafting, and other conservative, restorative procedures. "Time stood still," it has been said, when Jones operated. He wrote several important books on orthopaedics.« The
Life of Sir Robert Jones, by Frederick Watson. |
| Fernand-Isidore Widal | |
(source) |
Died
14 Jan 1929 (born 9 Mar 1862)
(Georges-) Fernand-Isidore Widal was a French physician and bacteriologist who made important contributions to the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of many diseases. In 1896, he developed the Widal reaction, a procedure for diagnosing typhoid fever based on the fact that antibodies in the blood of an infected individual cause the bacteria to bind together into clumps. In 1906, he recognized that the retention of sodium chloride was a feature found in cases of nephritis and cardiac edema, and he recommended salt deprivation as part of the treatment for both diseases. During WW I, Widal prepared a vaccine that appreciably reduced typhoid contagion among the allied armies. |
| Ernst Abbe | |
(source) |
Died
14 Jan 1905 (born 23 Jan 1840)
German physicist who made theoretical and technical innovations in optical theory. He improved microscope design, such as the use of a condenser lens to provide strong, even illumination (1870). His optical formula, now called the Abbe sine condition, applies to a lens to form a sharp, distortion-free image He invented the Abbe refractometer for determining the refractive index of substances. In 1866, he joined Carl Zeiss' optical works, later became his partner in the company, and in 1888 became the owner of the company upon Zeiss' death. Concurrently, he was appointed professor at the Univ. of Jena in 1870 and director of its astronomical and meteorological observatories in 1878. |
| Cato Maximilian Guldberg | |
(source) |
Died
14 Jan 1902 (born 11 Aug 1836)
Norwegian chemist who, with his brother-in-law Peter Waage, formulated the law of mass action (1864), which details the effects of concentration, mass, and temperature on chemical reaction rates. The law states that the rate of a chemical change depends on the concentrations of the reactants. Thus for a reaction: A + B -> C the rate of reaction is proportional to [A][B], where [A] and [B] are concentrations. In 1870 Guldberg investigated the way in which the freezing point and vapor pressure of a pure liquid are lowered by a dissolved component. In 1890 he formulated Guldberg's law which relates boiling point and critical temperature. |
| Charles Hermite | |
(source) |
Died
14 Jan 1901 (born 24 Dec 1822)
French mathematician whose work in the theory of functions includes the application of elliptic functions to provide the first solution to the general equation of the fifth degree, the quintic equation. In 1873 he published the first proof that e is a transcendental number. Hermite is known also for a number of mathematical entities that bear his name, Hermite polynomials, Hermite's differential equation, Hermite's formula of interpolation and Hermitian matrices. Poincaré is the best known of Hermite's students. |
| Benjamin Silliman, Jr. | |
(source) |
Died
14 Jan 1885 (born 4 Dec 1816)
American chemist whose report on the potential uses of crude-oil products gave impetus to plans for drilling the first producing oil well, near Titusville, Pa. Silliman separated the crude oil into its component parts, or its fractions, and observed the characteristics of each fraction. He determined by use of a photometer that distilled petroleum burned much brighter than all but the most expensive and least efficient fuels. He also noted its potential use as a lubricant; he found it capable of withstanding extremely high and low temperatures and able to keep its form after long use. Silliman concluded petroleum was "a raw material from which...they may manufacture a very valuable product. His report marked petroleum as the answer to the illumination fuel crisis. |
| Johann Philipp Reis | |
(source) |
Died 14 Jan 1874 (born 7 Jan 1834)
German physicist whose invention of an early telephone preceded Bell's work. At the age of 27, he constructed a rudimentary transmitter by placing an animal ear membrane in front of an electrical contact. A galvanic inductor oscillated in the receiver in the same manner as the transmitted signal. Reis's instrument conveyed certain sounds, poorly, but no more than that; intelligible speech could not be reproduced.. The professors to whom this invention was presented were not very impressed and this version of the "telephone" never received any financial support and no patent ensued. Reis' devices were fragile and clumsy laboratory models, never put to public use. |
| Lewis Carroll | |
(source) |
Died
14 Jan 1898 (born 27 Jan 1832)
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, pen-name Lewis Carroll, was an English logician, mathematician, photographer, and novelist, remembered for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and its sequel. After graduating from Christ Church College, Oxford in 1854, Dodgson remained there, lecturing on mathematics and writing treatises until 1881. As a mathematician, Dodgson was conservative. He was the author of a fair number of mathematics books, for instance A syllabus of plane algebraical geometry (1860). His mathematics books have not proved of enduring importance except Euclid and his modern rivals (1879) which is of historical interest. As a logician, he was more interested in logic as a game than as an instrument for testing reason. |
| Edmond Halley | |
 |
Died 14 Jan 1742 (born 8 Nov 1656)
English astronomer and mathematician, born in London, who is best known for recognizing that a bright comet (later named after him) had appeared several times, calculating its orbit (1682) and for successfully predicting its return. Halley became an influential Fellow of the Royal Society and friend of Newton, the publication of whose Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica was due largely to him. He became professor of geometry at Oxford and was later appointed Astronomer Royal. He realized that nebulae were clouds of luminous gas among the stars, and that the aurora was a phenomenon connected with the earth's magnetism. Edmond
Halley: Charting the Heavens and the Seas, by Alan Cook. |
| JANUARY 14 - EVENTS | |
| Huygens probe lands on Titan | |
(source) |
In 2005, the Huygens space probe landed
on Titan,
Saturn's largest moon. It had been released
from the Cassini spacecraft when its orbit around Saturn converged with
the path of Titan on 24 Dec 2004. In the first three photographs received
from Huygens on the surface of Titan, scientists saw what resembled drainage
channels, a shoreline, flooded regions surrounded by elevated terrain and
a plain covered with large boulders, possibly of ice. The probe was named
after Christiaan Huygens,
the Dutch astronomer who first viewed Titan on 25
Mar 1655, the first of Saturn's moon to be discovered.« |
| Aristotle's lyceum found | |
(source) |
In 1997, the discovery in Athens of the lyceum where the philosopher Aristotle
taught 2,500 years ago was confirmed
by Greece's Minister of Culture. In 335 BC, Aristotle
opened a lyceum to rival the academy. For the next 12 years he organised
his lyceum as a centre for philosophical speculation and scientific research,
particularly in biology and history. He died in 324 BC, but 47 of his many
works remain, mostly notes used in lyceum lectures. When the discovery
was made by archaeologist Ephi Ligouri, the site satisfied all known facts
concerning the long-lost location of the lyceum: to the east of the city
walls and on the banks of the river Iliso. The excavation was made urgently
before building began for a planned museum of modern art. |
| L-Dopa | |
(source) |
In 1970, L-dopa (levo-dihydroxyphenylalanine) was reported to benefit about
5% of the patients in reversing the progress of Parkinson's
disease. The results of the first widescale experimental use of the drug
were announced at a symposium on L-dopa at Georgetown University School
of Medicine by Dr. Robert Keen, director of clinical pharmacology for Eaton
Laboratories. The work also showed partial improvement in 56% of the 601
patients in this testing, which preceded approval by the U.S. Food and
Drug Agency. However, side effects were found to be widespread, ranging
from nausea, vomiting or appetite loss to confusion, nervousness or hallucinations.
Preliminary investigations three years earlier showed the potential for
the drug, when no other effective drug existed.*
L-dopa entered national distribution
in Sep 1970.« [Image:
L-dopa molecule.] |
| Ford's assembly line | |
(source) |
In 1914, Henry Ford announced the newest advance in assembly line production
of 'modern' cars. The new continuous motion method reduced assembly time
of a car from over 12 hours to 93 minutes. |
| Telephone | |
(source) |
In 1878, the first demonstration of Alexander Graham Bell's telephone to
Queen Victoria at her Osborne House estate on the Isle of Wight. Bell had
patented the telephone in 1876, and in 1877, Bell had come to England for
his honeymoon, and spent time on business.
He had demonstrated his device to telegraph engineers and given lectures
to scientists. When the Queen saw his telephone, she was much impressed,
and ordered a private line to be laid between Osborne House, on the Isle
of Wight, and Buckingham Palace. |
| Cesarean section | |
woodcut date 1506 (source) |
In 1794, Elizabeth Hog Bennett became the first woman in the U.S. to successfully
give birth to a child by a Cesarean section. Her husband, Dr. Jessee
Bennett of Edom, Va., performed the operation, though he had no anesthetic
to give her. Another local doctor who he asked for assistance declined,
citing excessive risk. In his place, he enlisted the help of two field
hands to hold the mother on a wooden table. Whereas this operation was
the first of its kind in the U.S., the history of the Cesarean operation
has been traced as far back as ancient Chinese etchings that depict the
procedure on apparently living women. Roman law under Julius Caesar decreed
that all women who were dead or dying must be cut open to save the child. |
