| DECEMBER 8 - BIRTHS | |
| Thomas Robert Cech | |
(source) |
 Born 8
Dec 1947
American biochemist and molecular biologist who, with Sidney Altman, was awarded the 1989 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for their discoveries concerning RNA (ribonucleic acid). Prior to Cech's research on RNA, most scientists believed that proteins were the only catalysts in living cells. Discoveries by both Cech and Altman overturned the notion that RNA is merely a genetic messenger - an intermediate in the synthesis of proteins from DNA. Cech showed that RNA could have an independent catalytic function, a "ribozyme", aiding a chemical reaction without being consumed or changed. This discovery had major implications for genetic engineering as well as for understanding how life arose. |
| John Smith | |
(source) |
Born 8
Dec 1924; died 22 Nov 2003.
English microbiologist who was a pioneer in the field of nucleic acid research. He helped to establish the structure of RNA and to discover the methylation of the bases in bacterial DNA. The RNA structure information was crucial to the double-stranded model of DNA proposed by Watson and Crick. He contributed to the methodology involved in the unravelling of the secrets of the genome. In the early 1960s, Smith became involved in unravelling the process whereby the sequence of bases in DNA determines the assembly of the different amino acid sequences of proteins which are responsible for all our bodily functions (structural, enzymatic, hormonal, and so on), a process known as protein synthesis. |
| Jacques-Salomon Hadamard | |
(source) |
Born 8
Dec 1865; died 17 Oct 1963.
French mathematician who proved the prime-number theorem (as n approaches infinity, the limit of the ratio of  (n)
and n/ln n is 1, where (n)
is the number of positive prime numbers not greater than n). Conjectured
in the 18th century, this theorem was not proved until 1896, when Hadamard
and also Charles de la Vallée Poussin, used complex analysis. Hadamard's
work includes the theory of integral functions and singularities of functions
represented by Taylor series. His work on the partial differential equations
of mathematical physics is important. He introduced the concept of a well-posed
initial value and boundary value problem. In considering boundary value
problems he introduced a generalisation of Green's functions (1932). |
| Peter Andreas Hansen | |
(EB) |
Born 8
Dec 1795; died 28 Mar 1874.
Danish astronomer whose most important work was the improvement of the theories and tables of the orbits of the principal bodies in the solar system. At Altona observatory he assisted in measuring the arc of meridian (1821). He became the director (1825) of Seeberg observatory, which was removed to Gotha in a new observatory built for him (1857). He worked on theoretical geodesy, optics, and the theory of probability. The work in celestial mechanics for which he is best known are his theories of motion for comets, minor planets, moon and his lunar tables (1857) which were in use until 1923. He published his lunar theory in Fundamenta ("Foundation") in 1838, and Darlegung ("Explanation") in 1862-64. |
| Johann von Charpentier | |
(source) |
Born 8 Dec 1786; died 12 Dec 1855.
Swiss pioneer glaciologist, one of the first to propose the idea of the extensive movement of glaciers as geologic agencies, who studied the problem of widely scattered and impressively large erratic boulders strewn through the Jura range. He rejected the current theories of their origin, that such boulders were meteorites was unlikely for their composition was identical with other Alpine rocks. The flood theory, supported by Charles Lyell, supposed that they been distributed by boulder- laden icebergs, which raised questions of where the water had come from and where it had gone to.) Instead, Charpentier concluded that glaciation was responsible. He first presented his glacial theory publicly in 1835. He gained little support except from Louis Agassiz (1837). 
Image top right: glacier (source) |
| Eli Whitney | |
(source) |
Born 8
Dec 1765; died 8 Jan 1825.
American inventor, mechanical engineer, and manufacturer, who invented the cotton gin and developed the idea and methods for mass-production of interchangeable parts. The cotton gin is a machine that separates cotton fibre from the seeds. The device, patented in 1793, greatly stimulated cotton growing in the southern USA. Whitney subsequently turned to firearms manufacture, into which he introduced the notion of interchangeable parts. This he applied in his fulfilment of a US government contract (1797) to supply muskets. Whitney manufactured these in standardized parts for reassembly, meaning that for the first time worn parts could be replaced by spares rather than requiring special replacements to be made. |
| Johann Hedwig | |
1793 (EB) |
Born 8
Dec 1730; died 18 Feb 1799.
German botanist who did more than any other scientist to advance the knowledge of mosses (bryology). He dealt with the anatomy, fertilization, and reproduction of mosses and introduced a new method of classification based on the distribution of spores (reproductive bodies). Hedwig was the first to recognize the true organs of reproduction in mosses. Skilled in the use of the microscope, he identified more mosses than any other botanist of his time and produced a series of well-illustrated, informative books on them. His Species Muscorum (1801) published posthumouslywas a landmark in moss taxonomy and has been adopted as the starting point of moss nomenclature. The moss genus Hedwigia is named for him. |
| Jan Ingenhousz | |
(source) |
Born 8
Dec 1730; died 7 Sep 1799.
Dutch-born British physician and scientist who discovered photosynthesis by identifying that sunlight gave green plants the ability to take in carbon dioxide, fix the carbon, and purified the air (returned oxygen) to the benefit of respiration of animals. Earlier, as a physician, he promoted Edward Jenner's use of inoculation with live smallpox vaccine to induce protection against the disease. Ingenhousz was a diligent experimenter, who studied soils and plant nutrition. He introduced the use of cover slips on microscope slides. He improved phosphorus matches and an apparatus for generating static electricity; investigated Brownian motion and heat conduction in metals, invented a hydrogen-fueled lighter, and mixed an explosive propellant for firing pistols.« |
|
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| DECEMBER 8 - DEATHS | |
| Harrison Brown | |
 |
 Died
8 Dec 1986 (born 26 Sep 1917)
Harrison (Scott) Brown was an American geochemist known for his role in isolating plutonium for its use in the first atomic bombs and for his studies regarding meteorites and the Earth's origin. He was one of 67 concerned Manhattan Project scientists at Oak Ridge to sign a July 1945 petition to the President, which said, in part, "...Therefore we recommend that before this weapon be used without restriction in the present conflict, its powers should be adequately described and demonstrated, and the Japanese nation should be given the opportunity to consider the consequences of further refusal to surrender." |
| Philip Edward Smith | |
(source) |
Died
8 Dec 1970 (born 1 Jan 1884)
American endocrinologist who demonstrated the importance of the pituitary. Beginning in 1916, often collaborating with his wife, Smith set out to study the embryonic frog pituitary. He painstakingly made the microinstruments needed to operate on the pituitary anlage (bud) of the 4-mm tadpole. In 1926, he fashioned a minute pipette to remove the rat pituitary by suction without damage to the brain. He showed that such "hypophysectomy" resulted in the cessation of growth and atrophy of the other adrenal glands, such as the thyroid, the adrenal cortex, and the reproductive glands. Smith was thus able to study "pure" hypopituitarism and hormone replacement therapy and to publish a paper immediately recognized as classic. |
| Hermann Weyl | |
(source) |
Died
8 Dec 1955 (9 Nov 1885)
German-American mathematician whose widely varied contributions in mathematics linked pure mathematics and theoretical physics. He made significant contributions to quantum mechanics and the theory of relativity. He attempted to incorporate electromagnetism into the geometric formalism of general relativity. Weyl published Die Idee der Riemannschen Fläche (1913) which united analysis, geometry and topology. He produced the first guage theory in which the Maxwell electromagnetic field and the gravitational field appear as geometrical properties of space-time. He evolved (1923-38) the concept of continuous groups using matrix representations. Applying group theory to quantum mechanics he set up the modern subject.« |
| Albert Kahn | |
(source) |
Died
8 Dec 1942 (born 21 Mar 1869)
German-American industrial architect and planner, considered the world's foremost in his time: "father of modern factory design." His rise coincided with the growth of U.S. industry, particularly for the auto industry in Detroit. Shortly after founding Albert Kahn Associates in 1895, he designed Detroit’s first large auto plants for the Packard Motor Car Company. Kahn's design for Packard’s tenth building was the first concrete- reinforced auto factory. The building was strong, fireproof, and with large areas free of columns, an advance over the dangerous, inefficient, timber-framed plants of the era. Kahn designed Ford Motor Company’s famous Highland Park plant, where Ford produced of the Model T and perfected the assembly line process. |
| John Joly | |
(source) |
Died
8 Dec 1933 (born 1 Nov 1857)
Irish geologist, physicist and inventor whose interests spanned several fields. Using Edmond Halley's method of measuring the degree of salinity of the oceans, and then by examining radioactive decay in rocks, he estimated Earth's age at 80-90 million years (1898). Later, he revised this figure to 100 million years. He published Radioactivity and Geology (1909) in which he demonstrated that the rate of radioactive decay has been more or less constant through time. He also developed a method for extracting radium (1914) and pioneered its use for cancer treatment, and invented a constant- volume gas thermometer, a photometer, and a differential steam calorimeter for measuring the specific heat capacity of gases at constant volume.  Radioactivity
and Geology: ...Terrestrial History, by John Joly. |
| Herbert Spencer | |
(source) |
Died
8 Dec 1903 (born 27 Apr 1820)
English sociologist and philosopher who was an early adherent of evolutionary theory. He regarded society as an organism which was evolving from a simple primitive state to a complex heterogeneous form according to the designs of an unknown and unknowable absolute force. Similarly, knowledge developed from an undifferentiated mass into the various separate sciences. Formulating his ideas independently of Darwin, Spencer coined the phrase "survival of the fittest" as early as 1852. He applied Darwin's theory of natural selection (proposed four years later) to social development and in A System of Synthetic Philosophy (1862-96) presented a philosophical system to the natural and social sciences, synthesizing metaphysics, biology, psychology, sociology, and ethics. |
| Ernst Engel | |
(source) |
Died
8 Dec 1896 (born 26 Mar 1821)
German statistician, the head of the Prussian Statistical Bureau (1860-82), known for the "Engel curve," or Engel's law, which states that the proportion of expenditure on food will fall as income rises, i.e. food is a necessary good. Engel's law applies to goods as a whole. Demand for food, clothing and shelter - and for most manufactured products - doesn't keep pace with increases in incomes. Engel curves are useful for separating the effect of income on demand from the effects of changes in relative prices. Engel also examined the relationship between the size of the Prussian rye harvest and the average price of rye over a number of years prior to 1860, probably the first empirical study of the relationship between price and supply. |
| Pafnuty Lvovich Chebyshev | |
(source) |
Died
8 Dec 1894 (born 4 May 1821)
Russian mathematician who founded the St. Petersburg mathematical school (sometimes called the Chebyshev school), who is remembered primarily for his work on the theory of prime numbers, including the determination of the number of primes not exceeding a given number. He wrote about many subjects, including the theory of congruences in 1849, probability theory, quadratic forms, orthogonal functions, the theory of integrals, the construction of maps, and the calculation of geometric volumes. Chebyshev was also interested in mechanics and studied the problems involved in converting rotary motion into rectilinear motion by mechanical coupling. The Chebyshev parallel motion is three linked bars approximating rectilinear motion. |
| George Boole | |
(source) |
Died
8 Dec 1864 (born 2 Nov 1815)
English mathematician who helped establish modern symbolic logic and an algebra of logic, now called Boolean algebra. By replacing logical operations by symbols, Boole showed that the operations could be manipulated to give logically consistent results. Boole's logical algebra is essentially an algebra of classes, being based on such concepts as complement and union of classes. The study of mathematical or symbolic logic developed mainly from his ideas, and is basic to the design of digital computer circuits. Boolean also algebras find important applications in such diverse fields as topology, measure theory, probability and statistics. Boole also wrote important works on differential equations and other branches of mathematics. An
Investigation of the Laws of Thought, by George Boole. |
| Johan Gottlieb Gahn | |
(source) |
Died
8 Dec 1818 (born 19 Aug 1745)
Johan Gottlieb Gahn was a Swedish mineralogist and crystallographer, born in an iron-ming town, who followed mining as a career. At the copper mine in Falun, he improved smelting methods and the use of by-products. He discovered manganese (1774), and also selenium. Gahn assisted his friend Carl Wilhelm Scheele (discoverer of chlorine) in finding phosphoric acid in bones. His limited published work included essays on the balance and use of the blowpipe as a convenient analytical tool. During the American Revolutionary War, one of his companies supplied copper for sheathing ships. Gahnite, a dark green to brown or black mineral, (ZnAl2O4), also called zinc spinel was named after Gahn. |
| DECEMBER 8 - EVENTS | |
| Element 111 | |
In 1994, approximately one month after announcing the creation of element
110, a team of German scientists led by Peter Armbruster at the Gesellschaft
für schwerionenforschung (GSI) facility at Darmstadt, Germany, claimed
to have created
element 111. Its atom has 111 protons and 161 neutrons in its nucleus,
giving it a mass number of 272. As a new element it was named unununium,
symbol Uuu, according to an internationally adopted system for naming new
elements. Only three atoms of the element were made by accelerating nickel
atoms to high speed and bombarding them into bismuth. When an atom of each
fused to make the new nucleus, it lasted for about four-thousandths of
a second before decaying into smaller nuclei. |
|
| GPS | |
|
In 1993, the U.S. Secretary of Defense declared
that the Global Positioning System, accurate within 100 meters, had 24
GPS
satellites operating in their assigned orbits, available for navigation
use at Standard Positioning Service (SPS) levels for civil users. This
Initial Operational Capability was followed on 27 Apr 1995 with a formal
declaration
by the U.S. Air Force Space Command that the GPS satellite constellation
had met the requirement for Full Operational Capability after successful
testing for military functionality. This worldwide, satellite-based radionavigation
system used as the DoD's primary radionavigation system provided authorized
users encrypted Precise Positioning Service accurate to at least 22 meters. |
|
| Atoms for Peace Speech | |
|
In 1953, President Dwight Eisenhower gave his "Atoms for Peace" speech
in an address before the General Assembly of the United Nations. He proposed
the establishment of the International Atomic Energy Agency to devise "methods
whereby this fissionable material would be allocated to serve the peaceful
pursuits of mankind ... to apply atomic energy to the needs of agriculture,
medicine and other peaceful activities. A special purpose would be to provide
abundant electrical energy in the power-starved areas of the world." This
initiated commercial nuclear power. Shortly thereafter, the U.S. Congress
passed the 1954 Atomic Energy Act which permitted, for the first time,
the wide use of atomic energy for peaceful purposes. |
|
| Snow-melting apparatus | |
|
In 1946, the first test in the U.S. of a snow-melting apparatus embedded
in a sidewalk was made in New York City. The department store, Best &
Co. installed 15 coils made up from 4,530 feet of pipe. A mixture of about
67% water with 33% Zerex was circulated, effective to prevent freezing
to as low as -5 deg.F. It was first put to use shortly thereafter, on 26
Dec 1946, during a blizzard. This was not the first method to melt snow
devised in the U.S. On 27 May 1890, black American inventor F.J. Farrell
was issued a patent for an "Apparatus for melting snow" (No. 428,670),
which was a cast-iron box laid beneath the street gutter and heated with
steam.
The
Inventive Spirit of African Americans: Patented Ingenuity,
by Patricia Carter Sluby. |
|
| Coaxial cable | |
(source) |
In 1931, the invention of coaxial cable was issued a U.S. patent for the
first time in the U.S., described as a "concentric conducting system".
The inventors were Lloyd Espenschied of Kew Gardens, N.Y. and Herman A.
Affel of Ridgewood, N.J. The patent was assigned to the American Telegraph
and Telephone Co. of New York City. (No. 1,835,031).
The application was television, for which a wide range of transmision frequencies
is required. Whereas individual channel requirements for telegraphy are
of the order of a few hundred cycles at most, and telephony perhaps a few
thousand cycles, television requires bands of hundreds of thousands of
cycles in width to ensure a reasonable degree of picture detail. A single
pair concentric conductor arrangement is used. |
| Lemon Squeezer | |
(source) |
In 1896, a patent for an improvement in a Lemon Squeezer was issued to
the Black-American inventor J.T. White (U.S. No. 572,849).
It made squeezing lemons and straining the juice easy and also kept hands
clean while juicing. |
| Steamship | |
|
In 1866, the first transpacific side-wheeler steamship launched in the
U.S. was the Celestial Empire (later named China)
with capacity for 1,300 passengers. The keel was laid on 13 Jan 1866, and
built
in less than a year by William H. Webb of New York with a wooden hull and
three masts, for the Pacific Mail SS Co.. Webb introduced many features
of naval architecture in this liner, since in common use. On 1 Jul 1867,
the steamer set off for Panama, picked up passengers and continued to San
Francisco, arriving 20 Sep 1867. The boilers burned 45 tons of coal per
day. It was 370-ft x beam 47.49-ft, 3,386 tons. After transpacific service,
China
was sold (1883) to Henry Villard, became a receiving ship for smallpox
patients (1884) and was scrapped in 1886. |
|
