| JANUARY 30 - BIRTHS | |
| Roger N(ewland) Shepard | |
(source) |
 Born 30
Jan 1929
American psychologist who was awarded the National Medal of Science (1995) for his research work that provided major new insights into the nature of mental processes, previously considered impossible to study. His results caused fundamental changes in both popular and scientific understanding of the nature of mental imagery. His work impacted further research in a wide range of fields, such as psychology, philosophy, computer science, linguistics and neuroscience. His basic research laid the theoretical groundwork for a number of significant applications developed by others, including enhancement of radiologists' ability to diagnose breast cancer, and prediction of the performance of prospective airplane pilots.«  Mind
Sights: Original Visual Illusions, Ambiguities, and Other Anomalies,
by
Roger N. Shepard |
| Max Theiler | |
(source) |
Born 30
Jan 1899; died 11 Aug 1972.
American microbiologist who won the 1951 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his research on yellow fever. Theiler's discovery that mice are susceptible to yellow fever facilitated research and eventual development of a vaccine against the disease in humans. Upon graduation from medical training in tropical medicine in London, he joined the department of tropical medicine at the Harvard Medical School, U.S. and studied infectious diseases. His research on yellow fever led to development of the first attenuated strain of the virus. He moved to the Rockefeller Institute for Medical, N.Y. (1930-64), where with his associates he developed the improved (17-D) vaccine, widely used for human immunization against yellow fever. |
| Oziel Wilkinson | |
| Born 30
Jan 1744; died 22 Oct 1815.
American blacksmith and inventor who began manufacturing farm tools, domestic utensils and cut nails using water power at Pawtucket, Rhode Island, from about 1783. He expanded with an anchor-forging shop the next year, and later added a metal rolling and slitting mill. About 1786, he began making iron screws for clothier's and oil presses. In 1791 he built a reverbatory air furnace. By 1800, Wilkinson and his sons had established themselves as the centre of iron products manufacturing in New England, supplying the machinery parts needed by new industries. Wilkinson joined his son-in-law Samuel Slater in the textile industry. Oziel's son, David furnished the iron forgings and castings for the first carding and spinning machines at Slater's Mill.«. |
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Today in Science History Science Store Browse a selection of Bargain Science and Nature Books |
| JANUARY 30 - DEATHS | |
| Gerald Malcolm Durrell | |
(source) |
 Died
30 Jan 1995 (born 7 Jan 1925)
British conservation biologist and prolific author whose life work was the preservation of endangered animal species. The five years of his youth spent on the sub-tropical Greek island of Corfu yielded much material for his book My Family And Other Animals. After WW II, he joined Whipsnade Zoo in England as a keeper. In 1958, he established a wildlife preserve on the Channel Island of Jersey where he conducted scientific research, implementing new ways of raising and breeding rare animals. From his captive-breeding programs for endangered creatures he wished to return these animals back into the wild.« |
| John Bardeen | |
(source) |
Died
30 Jan 1991 (born 23 May 1908)
American physicist who was cowinner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in both 1956 and 1972. He shared the 1956 prize with William B. Shockley and Walter H. Brattain for their joint invention of the transistor. With Leon N. Cooper and John R. Schrieffer he was awarded the 1972 prize for development of the theory of superconductors, usually called the BCS-theory. True
Genius: The Life And Science Of John Bardeen, by Lillian
Hoddeson. |
| Ernst Heinrich Heinkel | |
(source) |
Died
30 Jan 1958 (born 24 Jan 1888)
German aircraft engineer who built the first rocket-powered aircraft. He was chief designer of the Albatros Aircraft Company in Berlin before World War I. He founded the Heinkel-Flugzeugwerke at Warnemünde (1922), making at first seaplanes, and later bombers and fighters which achieved fame in World War II. He built the first jet plane, the HE-178 (1939), and the first rocket powered aircraft, the HE-176. After Adolf Hitler came to power, Heinkel's designs formed a vital part of the Luffwaffe's growing strength. Heinkel was a critic of Hitler's regime and in 1942 the government took control of his factories. At the end of the war Heinkel was arrested by the Allies but evidence of anti-Hitler activities led to his acquittal. |
| Ferdinand Porsche | |
(source) |
Died
30 Jan 1951 (born 3 Sep 1875)
Austrian automotive engineer who designed the popular Volkswagen car. In 1900, as a young engineer and test driver, Porsche had devised the wheel hub motors on the Lohner-Porsche Electric Car exhibited at the Paris Exposition, making the name Porsche famous worldwide. In 1935, the brainchild of Adolph Hitler - the VW Beetle - was designed by Porsche. Hitler wanted a car built for the masses. By 1938 the first Beetle was completed - just before the outbreak of World War II. The car offered innovative technology, including an air-cooled motor, an atypical shape, no front grill and a rear motor. It was not until 1946 that the Volkswagen (which name means "people’s car") went into series production. His son, Ferdinand, continued the business. |
| Orville Wright | |
(source) |
Died
30 Jan 1948 (born 19 Aug 1871)
American pioneer aviator, who with his brother, Wilbur, invented the first powered airplane, Flyer, capable of sustained, controlled flight (17 Dec 1903). At Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Orville made the first ever manned powered flight, airborn for 12-sec. By 1905, they had improved the design, built and and made several long flights in Flyer III, which was the first fully practical airplane (1905), able to fly up to 38-min and travel 24 miles (39-km). Their Model A was produced in 1908, capable of flight for over two hours of flight. They sold considerable numbers, but European designers became strong competitors. After Wilbur died of typhoid in 1912, Orville sold his interest in the Wright Company in 1915.« To
Conquer the Air : The Wright Brothers and the Great Race for Flightby
James Tobin |
| Gottlieb Haberlandt | |
(source) |
Died
30 Jan 1945 (born 28 Nov 1854)
Austrian botanist, pioneer in the development of physiological plant anatomy, and the first person to study plant tissue culture (1921). In Physiologische Pflanzenanatomie (1884; "Physiological Plant Anatomy") he distinguished 12 tissue systems based on function (mechanical, absorptive, photosynthetic, etc.) Although his system was not accepted by other botanists, the analysis of the relations between structure and environment has been useful in the study of plant adaptations to different habitats. In 1902, he released the hypothesis of "totipotency" - that even the smallest unit of a cell is capable of forming a complete plant in the future. In 1913, Haberlandt discovered that a compound found in phloem had the ability to stimulate cell division. |
| Johannes Fibiger | |
(source) |
Died
30 Jan 1928 (born 23 Apr 1867)
Johannes Andreas Grib Fibiger was a Danish pathologist who received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1926 for his discovery of the Spiroptera carcinoma, achieving the first controlled induction of cancer in laboratory animals, a development of profound importance to cancer research. |
| Lilian Gibbs | |
(source) |
Died
30 Jan 1925 (born 10 Sep 1870)
Lilian Suzette Gibbs was an independent English botanist who organized botanical expeditions to some of the most remote places on Earth. After her education at Swanley Horticultural College and in botany at the Royal College of Science, she made a botanical trip to Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) in 1905, followed by expeditions in 1907 to Fiji and New Zealand, Queensland and Tasmania. In 1910, she became the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Kinabulu in Borneo. She contributed over 1,000 botanical specimens from that trip to the British Museum. Bambusa gibbsiae (Miss Gibbs's bamboo) was named for her. In 1912 she made a botanical trip to Iceland, and in 1913, to the East Indies and Dutch New Guinea.« |
| Granville Woods | |
(source) |
Died
30 Jan 1910 (born 23 Apr 1856)
American inventor who held numerous patents in diverse fields. As the most prolific black inventor by career of the late 19th and early 20th century in the U.S., he has been called the Black Edison. Wood's first patent (3 Jun 1884) was for a locomotive steam boiler. He started the Woods Electric Company, in Cincinnati, Ohio, to commercially develop a variety of electrical devices. In 1887 he patented his Synchronous Multiplex Railway Telegraph, which enabled moving railway trains to maintain communications links thus avoiding accidents. His other patents included a telephone transmitter, an electric railway, an electric incubator for hatching chickens (1900) and an important safety device - an automatic air-brake for railroad use (10 Jun 1902).« Black
Inventors in the Age of Segregation, by Rayvon Fouche |
| Asa Gray | |
1865 (source) |
Died
30 Jan 1888 (born 18 Nov 1810)
America's leading botanist in the mid-19th century, extensively studying North American flora, he did more work than any other botanist to unify the taxonomic knowledge of plants of this region. He was Darwin's strongest early supporter in the U.S.; in 1857, he was the third scientist to be told of his theory (after Hooker and Lyell). He debated L. Agassiz between 1859 and 1861 on variation and geographic distribution Gray's discovery of close affinities between East Asian and North American floras was a key piece of evidence in favor of evolution. Though not fully comfortable with selection, he argued that evolution was compatible with religious belief and slid towards theistic evolutionism. Gray co-authored Flora of North America. |
| JANUARY 30 - EVENTS | |
| Dermabond | |
(source) |
 In
1998, a new glue, Dermabond, able to replace painful stitches, won
the unanimous vote of a medical advisory panel for the Food and Drug Administration,
which, in Aug 1998, approved it for marketing in the U.S. It is the first
such product in the U.S. The manufacturer,
Closure Medical, said Dermabond can seal off certain wounds quickly, without
the need for painful shots, can hold a wound closed, sterile and flexible
while it is healing. A doctor simply presses the cut's edges together and
paints the glue across the top. Proper medical application takes skill
and practice, so the glue isn't meant for home use. This is medical-grade
glue that is a chemical cousin of Crazy Glue (which is too toxic
to repair cuts) using proprietary cyanoacrylate technology. |
| Sickle-cell treatment | |
(source) |
In 1995, the drughydroxyurea,
the first effective treatment
for sickle-cell anemia, was announced
by the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute in Washington. (This
was not a new drug, but it was a new application for a drug previously
approved by the FDA for other medical conditions.) Trials had been so successful
that scientists felt early announcement was preferable to a longer testing
period. In sickle-cell anemia, red blood cells contain defective hemoglobin
causing the erythrocytes to take on the "sickle" shape. The abnormal, rigid
cells clog the blood vessels, resulting in painful episodes. Hydroxyurea,
acts to increase the production of fetal hemoglobin, which researchers
believe prevents erythrocytes from becoming rigid, |
| Hydrogen bomb | |
 |
In 1950, development of the hydrogen fusion bomb (H-bomb) was ordered by
U.S. President Truman. The codename of "Super" for the project reflected
the far greater power of this thermonuclear device over the earlier fission
bombs used to end WW II. |
| Moving sidewalk | |
 |
In 1958, the first two-way, moving sidewalk, 1,425 feet long, was put in
service at Love Field Air Terminal in Dallas, TX. It consisted of three
loops. In each loop a continuous rubber carpet was attached to a continuous
train of wheeled pallets, flexibly interconnected so they could follow
vertical or horizontal curves as required. It was known not only as a moving
sidewalk, but also as a passenger conveyor. |
| Heart pacemaker | |
 |
In 1957, an external artificial pacemaker with internal heart electrode
is first used. To maintain a patient's heartbeat rhythm an electrode was
sewn to the wall of the heart and connected through the chest to an external
desk-top pulse generator. A team of scientists at the University of Minnesota,
led by Dr C. Walton Lillehei,
made this medical advance. However, such bulky equipment was not a good
long-term solution since infection often occurred along the electrode wires,
and the device required no interruption in the house electricity. So Dr.
Lillehei also initiated
research on the use of a small portable external pacemaker for these patients
with heart block. This ultimately led to the development of the billion-dollar
pacemaker industry. |
| Tallest geyser | |
(source) |
In 1901, the world's tallest geyser was discovered by Dr Humphrey Haines
on the North Island of New Zealand. He was following up reports of great
clouds of steam, and found the Waimangu Geyser near Rotorua. It appeared
after an enormous eruption of Mt. Tarawera in 1886. The Waimangu Geyser
was the largest geyser in the world and erupted on a 36 hour cycle for
four years, hurling black mud and rocks in the air. Waimangu is Maori for
"black water." It stopped in 1904 when a landslide changed the local water
table. Eruptions would typically reach 600 feet. Some superbursts are known
to have reached 1,600 feet (10 times as high as Yellowstone's famous Old
Faithful, and which would be higher than the Empire State Building.) |
| Pneumatic hammer | |
(source) |
In 1894, Charles
B. King of Detroit, Mich., received a patent for the pneumatic
hammer (No. 513,941).
Pneumatic tools had been developed and manufactured
as early as 1883. King exhibited his hammer at the World's Columbian Exhibition
in Chicago, Illinois in 1893, (along with another of his inventions, a
steel brake beam for railroad road cars). Inside the hammer, a piston in
a cylinder was driven by air pressure to hit a striker and tool. The air
was routed internally through ports alternately covered and uncovered by
the piston at opposite ends of its oscillating travel. King became an automotive
pioneer, involved in design and manufacturing of car, marine and aircraft
engines. In his lifetime, he held some 70 patents, 40 of them in the automotive
category. |
| Darwin book | |
(source) |
In 1868, Charles Darwin's book
- Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication - was published.
He was 58. It is probably the second in importance of all his works. This
was a follow-up work, written in response to criticisms that his theory
of evolution was unsubstantiated. Darwin here supports his views via analysis
of various aspects of plant and animal life, including an inventory of
varieties and their physical and behavioral characteristics, and an investigation
of the impact of a species' surrounding environment and the effect of both
natural and forced changes in this environment. 
From
So Simple a Beginning: Darwin's Four Great Books, by
Charles Darwin, Edward O. Wilson. |
| Lifeboat | |
(source) |
In 1790, the first lifeboat
- built specially to rescue people from stormy seas - the "Original", was
first tested at sea by its English builder, Henry Greathead of South Shields.
The "Original" was 30ft long, twelve oars, self-righting, and had seven
hundredweight of cork for buoyancy. She went out to wrecks for forty years,
saving hundreds of lives. It was built based on the design of William Wouldhave,
parish clerk of South Shields, who won the prize offered by Newcastle businessmen
following a local tragedy
on Mar 1789. At the mouth of the river Tyne, the ship Adventure
ran ashore in a violent storm. Though in sight of help, the crew of eight
all perished. Spectators offered local boatmen rewards to save the crew,
but none would venture out to face certain death. |
