| FEBRUARY 2 - BIRTHS | |
| Frederic Kavaler | |
 Born 2
Feb 1926; died 4 Jan 1998.
American physiologist who was a pioneer in cardiac electrophysiology. His research on the contraction of heart cells was important in developing ways to better treat heart disease. He was one of the first researchers able to devise techniques to investigate the behaviour of individual heart cells. From the 1960's into the 1970's, Kaveler's investigation of the frog heart muscle formed a foundation on which to determine how drugs could counter heart disease. He pioneered in the field and demonstrated that changes in calcium ion concentrations outside the cells could control heart contractions.« |
|
| Charles Manning Child | |
(source) |
Born 2
Feb 1869; died 19 Dec 1954.
American zoologist known for work on sensitivity and reactivity of animal organisms, but especially on reproduction, development, and especially regeneration. In 1911, he formulated the axial gradient theory. He believed that when a simple animal regenerates after an injury, the physiological stages occur along an axis, with each successive process appearing to be connected with the stage immediately preceeding it. He observed a similarity between such regeneration and embryonic development in that the dominant section is formed first, with the lesser ones following. Though present knowledge views his theory as incorrect, in its time, it represented an early approach to understanding functional organization within organisms.«  |
| Havelock Ellis | |
(source) |
Born 2
Feb 1859; died 8 Jul 1939.
(Henry) Havelock Ellis was an English physician and writer on sex. He travelled widely in Australia and South America before studying medicine in London. In 1879 Ellis began studying medicine at St. Thomas's Hospital in London. At this time, Ellis grew intellectually, in the fields of science, philosophy, sociology, anthropology, and literature. His interest in human biology and his personal experiences led him to compile the seven-volume Studies in the Psychology of Sex (1897-1928), the first detached treatment of the subject, which was highly controversial at the time. |
| François-Alphonse Forel | |
| Born 2
Feb 1841; died 7 Aug 1912.
Swiss physician, scientist, and founder of limnology, the study of lakes. Forel is credited with the discovery of density currents, which occur in the Alpine lakes because of the cold temperatures of entering glacier-derived streams. He also explained the mechanism of seiches (1901) and studied earthquakes and glaciers. A seiche is a rhythmic oscillation of water in a lake or a partially enclosed coastal inlet, such as a bay, gulf, or harbour. A seiche may last from a few minutes to several hours or for as long as two days. The phenomenon was first observed and studied in Lake Geneva (Lac Léman), Switzerland, in the 18th century. |
|
| John Glover | |
| Born 2
Feb 1817; died 1 May 1902.
English chemist who developed the Glover Tower in 1859 to reclaim useful chemicals during the manufacture of sulphuric acid, the most important industrial chemical. The previous Lead-Chamber Method (1749) used sulphur dioxide, a nitrate, air and water, but lost the nitrate in the form of nitric oxide to the atmosphere. This was expensive since the replacement nitrate had to be imported from Chile. Glover introduced a mass transfer tower to recover some of this lost nitrate. In his tower, sulphuric acid (still containing nitrates) was trickled downward against upward flowing burner gases. The flowing gas absorbed some of the previously lost nitric oxide. These gases were recycled back into the lead chamber where the nitric oxide could be re-used. |
|
| George Engelmann | |
(source) |
Born 2
Feb 1809; died 4 Feb 1884.
German-American botanist and physician, who varied his career in medical practice with botanical travels. After obtaining his medical degree in Europe, he travelled to the U.S. and eventually settled in St. Louis, Missouri. Among his 100 papers documenting western North American flora, his monograph on the cactus, Monography of North American Cuscutinae (1842), is particularly noteworthy. Engelmann collaborated to incorporate a major botanical collection in the public Shaw's Gardens established by businessman Henry Shaw (1800-89) in St. Louis, which is now the Missouri Botanical Garden. The Engelmann spruce of the Rocky Mountains is named for him.« |
| Jean-Baptiste Boussingault | |
(source) |
Born 2
Feb 1802; died 12 May 1887.
French agricultural chemist who identified the biological nitrogen cycle. His first career was as a mining engineer. He wrote variously on such topics as mineralogy, volcanic gases, climate of the Andean region, and earthquakes (which he theorized were a violent elevation of the hardened crust, then subsidence and formation of caves). In 1821, Boussingault discovered that iodine-rich salts could be used to treat goiter, though he did not understand its preventive role. From 1836, he pursued agricultural chemistry. He determined that plants could not assimilate nitrogen directly from the air, but instead from nitrates in the soil. He investigated plant respiration, the function of their leaves, and the value and effect of manures.«  Boussingault,
Chemist and Agriculturist, by F. W. J. McCosh. |
| Lodovico Ferrari | |
| Born 2
Feb 1522; died 5 Oct 1565.
Italian mathematician who was the first to find an algebraic solution to the biquadratic, or quartic, equation (an algebraic equation that contains the fourth power of the unknown quantity but no higher power). |
|
|
Today in Science History Science Store Browse a selection of Bargain Science and Nature Books |
| FEBRUARY 2 - DEATHS | |
| Raymond Cattell | |
(source) |
 Died
2 Feb 1998 (born 20 Mar 1905)
Raymond B(ernard) Cattell was a English-born American psychologist. He conducted research on individual differences in cognitive abilities, personality, and motivation. He applied mathematical techniques to the study of psychology, making the discipline more objective and quantitative. Cattell became one of the world's leading personality theorists, and developed many widely used psychological tests, of which the best known is the 16 Personality Factor (16PF) personality assessment. During his life, he wrote 55 books and over 500 research papers.« |
| Haroun Tazieff | |
| Died
2 Feb 1998 (born 11 May 1914)
Polish-born French volcanologist whose fascination with volcanoes and knowledge of them, often obtained under extremely harrowing conditions, were enthusiastically shared by the French public through books and, especially, in films on television; he was considered one of the six most popular personalities in France... |
|
| Ray McIntire | |
| Died
2 Feb 1996 (born 24 Aug 1918)
U.S. chemical engineer who inadvertently created what became known as Styrofoam while working for the Dow Chemical Co., where he was attempting to develop a rubberlike polymer to be used as a flexible insulator. |
|
| Percy Zell Michener | |
| Died
2 Feb 1996 (born 22 Jan 1904)
U.S. civil engineer who supervised the construction, completed in 1964, of the 28-km (17 1/2-mi) Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel across the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay in eastern Virginia, considered a marvel of modern engineering and one of the most impressive transportation facilities in the world. |
|
| William H.Stein | |
(source) |
Died
2 Feb 1980 (born 25 Jun 1911)
William Howard Stein was an American biochemist who (with Stanford Moore and Christian B. Anfinsen) was a cowinner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1972 for their studies of the pancreatic enzyme ribonuclease. Stein, with Moore, investigated the connection between its chemical structure and the catalytic activity of the active centre of the ribonuclease molecule. Between 1949 and 1963, they developed methods for the analysis of amino acids and peptides obtained from proteins, determined the structure of ribonuclease, and it catalyzes the digestion of food. By 1972, they had also worked out the complete sequence of deoxyribonuclease, a molecule twice as complex as ribonuclease. |
| Bertrand Russell | |
(source) |
Died
2 Feb 1970 (born 18 May 1872)
(3rd earl) Bertrand Arthur William Russell was a Welsh mathematical logician, analytical philosopher and writer. He worked to establish foundations of mathematics and developed contemporary formal logic. He is known for Russell's paradox (concerning the set of all sets that are not members of themselves), his theory of types, and his contributions to the first-order predicate calculus. He believed in logicism, the theory that mathematics was in some important sense reducible to formal logic. With Alfred Whitehead, he co-authored Prinicpia Mathematica (1910). Russell is regarded as one of the most important logicians of the twentieth century. He was active in social and political campaigns, and advocated pacifism and nuclear disarmament. The Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded to Russell in 1950.« |
| Constantin Carathéodory | |
| Died
2 Feb 1950 (born 13 Sep 1873)
German mathematician of Greek origin who made important contributions to the theory of real functions, to the calculus of variations, and to the theory of point-set measure. |
|
| Carl Gustaf Patrik de Laval | |
(source) |
Died
2 Feb 1913 (born 9 May 1845)
Swedish scientist, engineer, and inventor who pioneered in the development of high-speed turbines. After earning his Ph.D. at age 27, he worked as a technical engineer at a steel mill in his home village. In 1877, he began developing a high-speed centrifugal cream separator, a significant advance in butter-making. He perfected a vacuum milking machine in 1913. About 1882, he began working on steam turbines, and by 1889, he applied for a British patent for an impulse type, with a jet of steam impinging on a set of blades around the periphery of a wheel. His inventive talent was wide, including electric lighting, electrometallurgy, and aerodynamics. During his lifetime, he acquired 92 Swedish patents and founded 37 companies |
| Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev | |
(source) |
Died
2 Feb 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 |
| Samuel Cunliffe Lister Masham (of Swinton) | |
(source) |
Died
2 Feb 1906 (born 2 Feb 1906)
(1st Baron Masham of Swinton) was an English inventor of successful wool-combing and waste-silk spinning machines. The demand for wool that resulted from less expensive products stimulated the Australian wool trade. By 1856, he had several mills in Yorkshire, and abroad. He also created machines to use "chassum," comprising damaged cocoons, remnants or fibres previously rejected as waste in silk-spinning. By 1867, after ten years in development, eventually those machines made him a further fortune. In 1867, he introduced velvet power looms for making piled fabrics. His inventiveness included a 1848 patent for automatic compressed air brakes for railways. The textile manufacturing company he established in 1838 exists today.. |
| Adolf Bastian | |
| Died
2 Feb 1905 (born 26 Jun 1826)
ethnologist who theorized that there is a general psychic unity of humankind that is responsible for certain elementary ideas common to all peoples. Bastian proposed that cultural traits, folklore, myths, and beliefs of various ethnic groups originate within each group according to laws of cultural evolution. |
|
| FEBRUARY 2 - EVENTS | |
| Artistic brain | |
In 1995, news of research linking brain structure and artistic talent was
released by at a press conference in Washington. Dr Gottfried Schlaug
announced the work of his team of researchers at Beth Israel Hospital in
Boston, Mass. Persons with perfect pitch were found to have a region in
the left hemisphere of the brain, the plenum temporale, to be enlarged.
However, it was also necessary that to have perfect pitch, a person must
be exposed to music before age 10 years. Failing that, having an enlarged
plenum
temporale does not of itself normally coincide with having perfect
pitch later. |
|
| Vaccination gun | |
(source) |
In 1962, the USS Diamond Head set sail for Africa from Newport News,
Va. Its passengers were medical workers equipped with the newly invented
vaccination
gun pistola de la paz ("pistol of peace"). Their mission
was to conduct the first field trials of this invention of Robert Hingson.
The "jet" injector, which enabled more efficient mass innoculation without
need of needles and syringes and subsequently improved the health of millions
of people. Hingson thought the most important benefit of the hypospray
was that it did not frighten children undergoing vaccination nearly as
much as did needles. Hingson
was not only a pioneer in anaesthesiology, but also recognized for his
humanitarian
contributions to public health |
| Planets align | |
|
In 1962, eight of the nine planets lined up for the first time in 400 years. |
|
| Non-stop world flight | |
|
In 1949, The airplane Lucky Lady II lands in Texas, completing the first
non-stop flight around the world. The B-50 bomber refueled four times in
mid-air during its 23,452-mile flight, which lasted ninety-four hours. |
|
| Polaroid Land camera demonstrated | |
(source) |
In 1947, Edwin H. Land gave the first demonstration
his invention of instant photography at a meeting of the Optical Society
of America. On 28 Nov 1948, his Polaroid Land Camera first went on sale,
at a Boston department store. The 40 series,
model 95 roll film camera
went on sale for $ 89.75. This first model was sold through 1953, and was
the first commercially successful self- developing camera system. A sepia-coloured
photograph took about one minute to produce. His first commercial success
came in 1939 with his invention of Polaroid filters for lenses in products
such as ski goggles, sunglasses and slip-on sunglasses for optical glasses. |
| Lie detector | |
|
In 1935, the detective Leonard Keeler conducted the first use of his invention,
the Keeler polygraph, or lie detector machine, on this day, in Portage,
WI. Those examined were two criminals Cecil Loniello and Tony Grignano,
who were convicted of assault at their trial where the results were introduced
as evidence. |
|
| Rocket mail | |
|
In 1931, a rocket was first used to deliver mail in Austria. |
|
| Ethyl gasoline | |
(source) |
In 1923, the first sale*
was made of anti-knock gasoline containing a tetra-ethyl lead compound.
First sold
in Dayton, Ohio, this new formulation of ethyl gasoline was the the result
of seven years of testing at least 33,000 compounds as additives to influence
the combustion rate of the fuel. Previously, on hard acceleration, an engine
sometimes made knocking, popping or crackling sounds. Knocking sapped power
and could damage the engine. The suitability of tetra-ethyl lead, made
from alcohol and lead, was the discovery
of Thomas Midgely, Jr., of the General Motors
Research Laboratories, located in Dayton. Decades later, the toxicity of
the lead present in automobile emissions was recognized, and leaded gasoline
is no longer sold.
From
the Periodic Table to Production: The Life of Thomas Midgley, Jr.by
Thomas Midgley. |
| Ice-cream mold | |
(source) |
In 1897, a patent was issued for an ice-cream scoop invented by black American
inventor, Alfred L. Cralle of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (No. 576,395). His
design
of an "Ice-cream Mold and Disher" was made to be strong and durable, effective,
inexpensive, able to keep ice cream and other foods from sticking and easy
to operate with one hand. It could be constructed in almost any desired
shape, such as a cone or a mound, with no delicate parts that could break
or malfunction. The basic design is so efficient that it is seen still
in use today.
The
Inventive Spirit of African Americans: Patented Ingenuity,
by Patricia Carter Sluby. |
| Movie close-up | |
 |
In 1893, the first-ever movie close-up was filmed at Edison's studio in
West Orange, NJ. The film shows comedian Fred Ott sneezing. |
| Crown cork | |
(source) |
In 1892, the bottle cap with cork seal was patented by William Painter,
Baltimore (U.S. No. 468,226). This replaced the time-consuming cork and
wire bale way of sealing bottles, and represented a major saving for the
bottlers. The cap was used until the 1970s, when cork in soft drink and
beer bottle caps was considered unhealthy, so, manufacturers switched to
cans and plastic, instead. Currently, caps used on bottles use plastic
cap "liners", instead of cork. |
| Frozen meat cargo | |
(source) |
In 1880, the steamship SS Strathleven arrived in London with first
successful shipment
of frozen mutton from Australia. It had been chartered, fitted with Bell
and Coleman (of Glasgow) air compression/expansion refrigeration equipment,
and sent to Australia for a trial shipment of frozen carcases. The meat,
and some experimental kegs of butter, were loaded from chill rooms in Sydney
and Melbourne and, freezing the consignment on board, Strathleven
left Melbourne on 6 Dec 1879. Technical men travelled on the ship to oversee
the trials. The meat was in excellent condition on arrival and sold well.
In all ways this first shipment of frozen meat from Australia was a success,
since exports of meat had previously been in tins. |
| The Cardiff Giant | |
|
In 1870, the "Cardiff Giant", supposedly the petrified remains of a human
being discovered on a farm in Cardiff, New York, was revealed to be nothing
but carved gypsum. |
|
| Removable steel plow blade | |
|
In 1869, James Oliver invented the removable tempered steel plow blade. |
|
| First U.S. leopard | |
|
In 1802, the first leopard to be exhibited in the United States was shown
by Othello Pollard in Boston, Mass. It cost 25 cents to see the 'import
from Bengal'. |
|
| Canning food | |
(source) |
In 1795, a prize of 12,000 francs was offered by the French government
for a method of preserving food and transporting it to its armies. The
winner was Nicholas Appert, a French chef who invents
a way to can food. He developed the method of heating food in airtight
glass jars, not very different from the home-bottling method now uses Mason
jars. He published The art of preserving animal and vegetable substances
for several years, in Paris, 1801. He was also the inventor of the
bouillon cube. |
| Little Ice Age | |
|
In 1046, The weather turns especially cold throughout Europe. Monks note
in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle that "no man alive...could remember
so severe a winter." It is the first known record of the beginning of the
200 year period of exceptional cold, known as the "Little Ice Age." |
|
