| JANUARY 20 - BIRTHS | |
| David M. Lee | |
 Born 20
Jan 1931
American physicist who, with Robert C. Richardson and Douglas D. Osheroff, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1996 for their joint discovery of superfluidity in the isotope helium-3. |
|
| Edwin Eugene Aldrin, Jr. | |
| Born 20
Jan 1930
American astronaut who set a record for extravehicular activity and was the second man to set foot on the Moon. |
|
| Joy Adamson | |
Adamson with Elsa (source) |
Born 20
Jan 1910; died 3 Jan 1980.
Naturalist, conservationalist and author of the best-selling book "Born Free," was killed in Northern Kenya by a servant in a wage dispute. As well as a legacy of water-colour paintings of indigenous plants painted by Adamson during her early years in Kenya, she collected many botanical specimens. Her records include information concerning local uses of plant parts in ritual and medicinal practices, and for insecticides, dyes, fibres and food. On 1 Feb 1956, a completely new period in her life began with the arrival of an orphan lioness cub. With this cub, named Elsa, and later with a cheetah and a leopard, she proved that by skilful and considered action wild animals raised up by man can be taught to manage in nature independently. |
| Vladimir Bekhterev | |
| Born 20
Jan 1857; died 24 Dec 1927.
Russian neurophysiologist and psychiatrist who studied the formations of the brain and investigated conditioned reflexes. |
|
| Alexandre-Emile Beguyer de Chancourtois | |
(source) |
Born 20 Jan 1820; died 14 Nov 1886.
French geologist who was the first to arrange the chemical elements in order of atomic weights (1862). De Chancourtois plotted the atomic weights on the surface of a cylinder with a circumference of 16 units, the approximate atomic weight of oxygen. The resulting helical curve which he called the telluric helix brought closely related elements onto corresponding points above or below one another on the cylinder. Thus, he suggested that "the properties of the elements are the properties of numbers." Although his publication was significant, it was ignored by chemists as it was written in the language of geology, and the editors omitted a crucial explanatory table. It was Dmitry Mendeleyev's table published in 1869 that became most recognized. |
| Edouard Seguin | |
(source) |
Born 20
Jan 1812; died 28 Oct 1880.
French-born American psychiatrist who opened the world's first school for the severely mentally retarded (1839). He was a student of Jean Gaspard Itard, who suggested this speciality. Seguin developed a sensory training method. In 1850, Seguin moved to the U.S. where he set up more teaching centres for the retarded. In his book, Idiocy: and its Treatment by the Physiological Method (1866), he described the approach he used at the Seguin Physiological School in New York City. When the Association of Medical Officers of American Institutions for Idiotic and Feebleminded Persons was formed, Seguin became its first president. This later changed its name to the American Association on Mental Retardation.«  |
| Jean-Jacques Barthélemy | |
(source) |
Born 20
Jan 1716; died 30 Apr 1795.
French archaeologist and author. During three years spent in Italy from 1755, he gained a background assisting in archaeological research. Later in his life he wrote Voyage du jeune Anacharsis en Grèce dans le milieu du IVe siècle (Voyage of Young Anacharsis in Greece in the mid-14th century; 1789). The central character in this four-volume novel was a young Scythian in the age of Plato travelling through ancient Greece, meeting famous people, with descriptions of its cities, buildings, institutions, and manners. It was one of the most widely read books in 19th-century France. As an author, his intention was to convey some knowledge of Greek civilization in an interesting form, rather than a work of strict scholarship.« |
|
Today in Science History Science Store Browse a selection of Bargain Science and Nature Books |
| JANUARY 20 - DEATHS | |
| James McKeen Cattell | |
 Died
20 Jan 1944 (born 25 May 1860)
U.S. psychologist who oriented U.S. psychology toward use of objective experimental methods, mental testing, and application of psychology to the fields of education, business, industry, and advertising. He originated two professional directories and published five scientific periodicals. eb |
|
| Camille Jordan | |
(source) |
Died
20 Jan 1922 (born 5 Jan 1838)
French mathematician and engineer who prepared a foundation for group theory and built on the prior work of Évariste Galois (died 1832). As a mathematician, Jordan's interests were diverse, covering topics throughout the aspects of mathematics being studied in his era. The topics in his published works include finite groups, linear and multilinear algebra, the theory of numbers, topology of polyhedra, differential equations, and mechanics. |
| Mary Watson Whitney | |
c.1889 (source) |
Died
20 Jan 1921 (born 11 Sep 1847)
American astronomer who trained with Maria Mitchell and succeeded her as professor and director of the Vassar College Observatory. As Mitchell had before her, Whitney championed science education the advancement of professional opportunities for women. She developed the astronomy department. Four years before her 1910 retirement, there were 160 students and eight different astronomy courses, including some of the first courses anywhere on astrophysics and on variable stars. During her tenure as director, the Observatory staff published 102 papers in major astronomical journals reporting their work on comets, asteroids, and variable stars. From 1896, photographic plates were used to study and measure star clusters. [Image: Whitney leaning on ladder under the equatorial telescope in the Observatory dome of Vassar College, circa 1889]« |
| Karl Heinrich Ferdinand Rosenbusch | |
(source) |
Died
20 Jan 1914 (born 24 Jun 1836)
German geologist who laid the foundations of the science of microscopic petrography (the study of rocks in thin section, based on the optical properties of constituent mineral grains). He was appointed professor (extraordinary) of petrography at Strasbourg in 1873 and ordinary professor of mineralogy at Heidelberg in 1878. |
| Agnes Mary Clerke | |
(source) |
Died
20 Jan 1907 (born 10 Feb 1842)
Irish astronomical writer who was a diligent compiler of facts rather than a practicing scientist. Nevertheless, by 1885, her exhaustive treatise, A Popular History of Astronomy in the Nineteenth Century gained international recognition as an authoritative work. In 1903, with Lady Huggins, she was elected an honorary member of the Royal Astronomical Society, a rank previously held only by two other women, Caroline Herschel and Mary Somerville. Her publications included several books and 55 pieces in the Edinburgh Review. She contributed some astronomer biographies to the Dictionary of National Biography and some astronomical entries in the Encyclopaedia Britannica.«  Agnes
Mary Clerke and the Rise of Astrophysics, by Mary Brück. |
| Zénobe-Théophile Gramme | |
(source) |
Died
20 Jan 1901 (born 4 Apr 1826)
Belgian-born French electrical engineer and inventor (1869) of the Gramme dynamo, a continuous-current electrical generator that gave principal impetus to the development of electric power. In 1870 he invented a continuous-current dynamo with a ring armature (a ring of soft iron around which were placed insulated copper coils). This produced much higher voltages than other dynamos of the time and was the first high-voltage direct-current generator practical for mass production and distribution. Driven by steam-engines, they were immediately successful and were used for a variety of purposes, including factory lighting, electroplating, and lighthouses. With these dynamos, the era of large-scale electrical engineering began. |
| Giovanni Maria Lancisi | |
(source) |
Died
20 Jan 1720 (born 26 Oct 1654)
Italian clinician and anatomist, personal physician to three popes, who is considered the first modern hygienist. He obtained his M.D. in 1672, a month before age 18 years. Having examined the causes of sudden deaths, in 1706 he published De motu cordis mortibus, on the problems of cardiac pathology, and De motu cordis et aneuysmatibus (1728). He carried out extensive anatomical and physiological studies, also epidemiology studies on malaria, influenza and cattle plague. In 1717, contrary to the old conception of "mal' aria " - literally, "bad air" - Lancisi observed that the lethal fever, malaria, disappeared when the swamps near to the city were cleared. He concluded that injurious substances transmitted from flies and mosquitos were the origin of the disease. |
| Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleyev | |
(source) |
Died
20 Jan 1907 (born 8 Feb 1834)
(Also spelled Mendeleyev) Russian chemist who developed the periodic classification of the elements. In his final version of the periodic table (1871) he left gaps, foretelling that they would be filled by elements not then known and predicting the properties of three of those elements. 
"Dmitry
Ivanovich Mendeleyev: His Life and His Work" by O. N.
Pisarzhevsky |
| JANUARY 20 - EVENTS | |
| Cloning | |
(source) |
 In
1998, American researchers announced
they have cloned
calves that may produce medicinal milk. Dr James Robl at the University
of Massachusetts and Dr Steven Stice of Advanced Cell Technology were the
first to clone cows from fetal cells in which human genes were spliced
into cattle DNA. Creating two identical, genetically engineered calves
is a step towards the mass production
of human drugs in animals. Their goal was to turn cows into drug factories,
mass producing milk that contains human proteins important for treating
human diseases. The scientists used a variation on the techniques previously
used in Edinburgh, Scotland, to create the cloned sheep Dolly. Cows would
be better producers of the proteins than sheep because they make more milk.
Image:
Clones George (left) and Charlie. |
| Osteoporosis | |
|
In 1994, a gene test was reported in Nature which could predict
at an early age the likelihood of osteoporosis in later life. This is a
disease which weakens bones, but according to the Austrlian researchers,
preventative measures could be taken long before the onset of the disease
if the genetic defect is diagnosed early. The disease leads to broken bones
that have lost strength from the loss of excessive amount of bone tissue. |
|
| Channel Tunnel announced | |
|
In 1986, Britain and France announced plans to build rail tunnels
underneath the English Channel, the Chunnel. |
|
| Pulsar | |
|
In 1969, astronomers at the University of Arizona established the first
optical identification of a pulsar. |
|
| Movie | |
|
In 1929, the first full-length motion picture in the U.S. to be taken outdoors
was released, titled Old Arizona. |
|
| X-rays | |
|
In 1896, X-rays were first used in a clinical setting, both in America
and in Gemany. |
|
| Roller coaster | |
(source) |
In 1885, the first U.S. patent for a roller coasting structure was issued
to
La Marcus Thompson
of Coney Island, NY. (No. 332,762). Coney Island, at the terminus of New
York City's extensive trolley line, was already a popular amusement park
in 1884, when Thompson opened a new attraction - the Gravity Pleasure Switchback
Railway. For a five-cent ticket, passengers sat sideways in cars that by
gravity descended the gentle waves of the 600-foot wooden mini-railway,
reaching a top speed of six miles per hour. The enormously popular ride
earned back Thompson's original $1,600 investment within three weeks. Within
four years, he had built about 50 more across the nation and in Europe.
On 22 Dec 1885, he patented the gravity switch-back railway. |
| Black American patent | |
|
In 1874, a U.S. patent for a "Steam Lubricator" was issued to the prolific
Black American inventor, Elijah J.
McCoy (No. 146,697).
The
Inventive Spirit of African Americans: Patented Ingenuity,
by Patricia Carter Sluby. |
|
| Travelling Post Office | |
|
In 1838, the first Travelling Post Office in Britain, a converted horsebox
on the Grand Junction Railway in which the mail could be sorted, left
London for Birmingham. Its success
led to a rapidly expanded system
with specially-designed railway wagons added to passenger trains. In the
late 19th century the TPOs were specially timed to coincide with the ships
which carried foreign mail. In 1855, trains solely devoted to the carriage
and sorting of mail were introduced. During the 1990s, railway service
became less reliable than by road or inland air network. The last
TPO trains ran on 9/10 Jan 2004. |
|
| U.S. geology book | |
(source) |
In 1809, the first U.S. geology book of importance was read by William
Maclure before the American Philosophical Society at Philadelphia,
Pa. It was Observations on the Geology of the United States, which
was published in revised form in 1817 in Philadelphia, PA, and contained
the first chart of United States territory that divided the land into rock
types. It was the first true geological map
of any part of North America and one of the world's earliest geological
maps. Maclure was a wealthy businessman and amateur geologist who emigrated
from Scotland and became a citizen in 1796. He is considered the first
American geologist of note. |
| Galileo | |
|
In 1633, Galileo, at age 68, left his home in Florence, Italy, to face
the Inquisition in Rome. By 22 Jun 1633, he buckled under the threats and
interrogation by the Inquisition, and renounced his belief that the Earth
revolved around the Sun. |
|
