| FEBRUARY 12 - BIRTHS | |
| Fang Lizhi | |
(source) |
 Born 12
Feb 1936
Chinese astrophysicist and dissident. He graduating from university in 1956, and was soon expelled from Communist Party for expressing his beliefs in intellectual freedom and reforms. In 1972, he published a paper on the big bang theory, previously a forbidden topic in China, which met condemnation from the Communists; the Marxists claimed that the universe was infinite. As human rights activist in China, he is often compared to Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov. Lizhi was blamed for student unrest and resulting rebellion in Tiananmen Square (1987). Since 1990, Lizhi has lived in exile in England and the U.S. He does theoretical work in cosmology, extracting the history of the universe from the remaining physical evidence, such as the cosmic background radiation, and the existence of antimatter.« |
| Julian Seymour Schwinger | |
(source) |
Born 12
Feb 1918; died 16 Jul 1994.
American physicist who shared the 1965 Nobel Prize in Physics for his contributions to quantum electrodynamics (with Richard Feynman and Shin-Itiro Tomonaga). Schwinger worked on reconciling quantum mechanics with Albert Einstein's special theory of relativity. He published his first physics paper at the age of sixteen. During WW II, he developed important methods in electromagnetic field theory, which advanced the theory of wave guides. His variational techniques were applied in several fields of mathematical physics. In the 1940's he was one of the inventors of the "renormalization" technique. In 1957, he proposed that theoretically there were two different neutrinos: one associated with the electron and one with the muon. Later experimental work provided verification. He invented source theory.« |
| Marcel Gilles Jozef Minnaert | |
| Born 12
Feb 1893; died 26 Oct 1970.
Flemish astronomer and solar physicist who pioneered in solar spectrophotometry and showed how such a technique could reveal much about the structure of the Sun's outer layers. |
|
| Barnum Brown | |
(source) |
Born 12
Feb 1873; died 1963.
American paleontologist who discovered the first Tyrannosaurus rex fossil (1902) and many other types of dinosaurs. His 66-year career in palaeontology began at the American Museum of Natural History (1897). Sinclair Oil Company sponsored some of his digs (1930-40) and used the dinosaur as their company logo at their petrol stations. He did his fieldwork dressed in a full length fur coat, tie and topcoat. By the end of his life, he had excavated more dinosaurs than any other person.*  Bones
for Barnum Brown: Adventures of a Dinosaur Hunter, by
Roland T. Bird |
| Émile Meyerson | |
(source) |
Born 12
Feb 1859; died 4 Dec 1933.
Polish-born French chemist and philosopher who studied of scientific theories, both old and new, to determine the nature of scientific thought. He identified two principles of psychological reasoning by which the scientist understands phenomena: realism and causalism. Applying the first principle, a scientist's mind expects that within diverse physical behaviours, a certain degree of regularity is held to - a lawfulness - such as established by laws of conservation of energy, or the law of inertia. The second principle describes how the scientist seeks to describe a change by the identification of antecedent and consequent of the change. Meyerson's ideas were popular among scientific theorists in the 1930s.« Identity
and Reality, by Emile Meyerson |
| William Morris Davis | |
| Born 12
Feb 1850; died 5 Feb 1934.
U.S. geographer, geologist, and meteorologist who founded the science of geomorphology, the study of landforms. |
|
| Edward Forbes | |
| Born 12
Feb 1815; died 18 Nov 1854.
British naturalist, a pioneer in the field of biogeography, who analyzed the distribution of plant and animal life of the British Isles as related to certain geological changes. Forbes devoted much of his life to an extensive study of mollusks and starfishes, participating in dredgings and expeditions in the Irish Sea (1834), France, Switzerland, Germany, Algeria (1836), Austria (1838), and the Mediterranean (1841-42). During this period, he pursued the study of life in the littoral zones (the ocean from the shore to the continental shelf) and developed an interest in the geographical distribution of animals. |
|
| James Dwight Dana | |
(source) |
Born 12
Feb 1813; died 14 Apr 1895.
American geologist, mineralogist, and naturalist who, in explorations of the South Pacific, the U.S. Northwest, Europe, and elsewhere, made important studies of mountain building, volcanic activity, sea life, and the origin and structure of continents and ocean basins. His contributions to classification systems are still in use today by scientists in these fields of study. He supported a "principle of cephalization" (1864) to order biological diversity, with "cephalized" forms on top. He was one of the American scientists that corresponded with Darwin, and supported Darwin's ideas on the development of coral reefs. He wrote on biological topics, such as the crustacea and fossils in the Wilkes Expedition collections made from Australian coal deposits.  Life
of James Dwight Dana by Daniel Gilman |
| Charles Darwin | |
(source) |
Born 12
Feb 1809; died 19 Apr 1882.
Charles Robert Darwin was an English naturalist who presented facts to support his theory of the mode of evolution whereby favourable variations would survive which he called "Natural Selection" or "Survival of the Fittest," and has become known as Darwinism. His two most important books were On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection (1859) and The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex.« 
From
So Simple a Beginning: Darwin's Four Great Books, by
Charles Darwin, Edward O. Wilson. |
| Peter Cooper | |
| Born 12
Feb 1791; died 4 Apr 1883.
American inventor, manufacturer, and philanthropist who built the "Tom Thumb" locomotive and founded The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, New York City. eb |
|
| Pierre-Louis Dulong | |
(source) |
Born 12
Feb 1785; died 18 Jul 1838.
chemist and physicist who helped formulate the Dulong-Petit law of specific heats (1819), which proved useful in determining atomic weights. |
| George Hadley | |
| Born 12
Feb 1685; died 28 Jun 1768.
English physicist and meteorologist who first formulated an accurate theory describing the trade winds and the associated meridional circulation pattern now known as the Hadley cell. |
|
| Jan Swammerdam | |
(source) |
Born 12
Feb 1637; died 15 Feb 1680.
Dutch naturalist, known for his skilled biological microscopical observations and accurate illustrations, who was the first to describe the red blood cells (1658). He studied and illustrated the life histories and anatomy of many species of insects, which he classified on the basis of development. He demonstrated the presence of butterfly wings in caterpillars about to undergo pupation. To facilitate the study of human anatomy, he developed better methods for injecting wax and dyes into cadavers. He was one of the first to dissect under water and to remove fat by organic solvents. He demonstrated experimentally that whereas muscles alter in shape during contraction, their volume is not thereby increased, which contradicted beliefs of the time. « |
| Caspar Berthelsen Bartholin | |
(source) |
Born 12
Feb 1585; died 13 Jul 1629
(Latin Bartholinus) Danish physician and theologian who wrote one of the most widely read Renaissance manuals of anatomy. He was first to describe the olfactory nerve (associated with the sense of smell) as the first cranial nerve. In 1619, while Professor of medicine at the University of Copenhagen, along with others of the medical faculty, he published "A Short Instruction" on how one should care for oneself during the plague. Bartholin glands were first described by Caspar Bartholin, a Dutch anatomist, in 1677. They are paired glands present in female mammals. He died at age 44. Image: Olefactory nerve shown in green. |
|
Today in Science History Science Store Browse a selection of Bargain Science and Nature Books |
| FEBRUARY 12 - DEATHS | |
| John Hays Hammond, Jr. | |
(source) |
 Died
12 Feb 1965 (born 13 Apr 1888)
U.S. inventor whose development of radio remote control served as the basis for modern missile guidance systems. Son of the noted U.S. mining engineer John Hays Hammond, he established the Hammond Radio Research Laboratory in 1911. By 1914, he had laid the foundations for all subsequent radio control, able to send an unmanned yacht on a successful 120-mile trip from Gloucester to Boston and back. With WW I just begun, Hammond added an anti-interference feature to prevent jamming. He also invented a target-seeking system that allowed a remote-controlled ship to home in on an enemy ship's searchlights; and he began work on the first radio-guided torpedo. By 1916, he had earned over 100 patents. |
| Moses Gomberg | |
(source) |
Died
12 Feb 1947 (born 8 Feb 1866)
Russian-born American chemist who initiated the study of free radicals in chemistry when in 1900 he prepared the first authentic one, triphenylmethyl. Organic free radicals are essential to body functioning as well as being implicated in aging and diseases. Also, they play a major role in the production of plastics and other widely used synthetic materials. Organic free radicals contain a form of carbon with an unpaired electron which allows the radical to react readily with another molecule. Until Gomberg synthesized triphenylmethyl, free radicals containing carbon had been thought not to exist. Gomberg's discovery led to modern theories of the structure and reactivity of organic molecules, and led to the development of an entire field of research. |
| Kurt Lewin | |
(source) |
Died
12 Feb 1947 (born 9 Sep 1890)
German-born American social psychologist who originated the field theory of behaviour. He was among the first to apply laboratory techniques to everyday behavior. He would always formulate a problem in terms of a theory to be tested in experiments. His approach was to study the forces leading to action. Thus he described behaviour as the outcome of positive and negative forces affecting the individual at a given moment. This needed consideration of two kinds of factors, those of the person and those of his psychological environment. Thus his field theory is an approach to the study of human behavior, rather than a theory which has content which can be used for explanatory, predictive, or control purposes.« The
Complete Social Scientist: A Kurt Lewin Reader, by Kurt
Lewin and Martin Gold. |
| Sir John Arthur Thomson | |
| Died
12 Feb 1933 (born 8 Jul 1861)
Scottish naturalist whose clearly written books on biology and attempts to correlate science and religion led to wider public awareness of progress in the biological sciences. |
|
| Richard Dedekind | |
| Died
12 Feb 1916 (born 6 Oct 1831)
(Julius Wilhelm) Richard Dedekind was a German mathematician who developed a major redefinition of irrational numbers in terms of arithmetic concepts. Although not fully recognized in his lifetime, his treatment of the ideas of the infinite and of what constitutes a real number continues to influence modern mathematics. Essays
on the Theory of Numbers by Richard Dedekind, Wooster
W. Beman (Translator) |
|
| Nikolay Ivanovich Lobachevsky | |
(source) |
Died
12 Feb 1856 (born 20 Nov 1792)
(These dates are as given on the old-style Julian calendar. For full description, see under the new-style Gregorian calendar dates: 1 Dec 1792 - 24 Feb 1856.) Russian mathematician who, with János Bolyai of Hungary, is considered the founder of non-Euclidean geometry. |
| Sir Astley Paston Cooper | |
(source) |
Died
12 Feb 1841 (born 23 Aug 1768)
(1st Baronet) English surgeon who was a pioneer in experimental surgery. He was the first to tie the abdominal aorta in treating an aneurysm (1817), among various other operations he performed successfully at a time before antiseptic procedures. He was devoted to the study and teaching of anatomy, and is said to have dissected daily throughout his career. In 1820, for removing a small tumour from the head of King George IV, he was rewarded with a baronetcy, and later appointed Sergeant-Surgeon to the King (1828). He wrote many medical books, including his major work The Anatomy and Surgical Treatment of Hernia (1804-07), and Dislocations and Fractures (1822). He became president of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1827, and vice-president of the Royal Society in 1830.« |
| FEBRUARY 12 - EVENTS | |
| Metric road signs | |
(source) |
In 1973, four metric distance road
signs, the first in the U.S., were erected along Interstate 71 in Ohio.
They showed the distance in both miles and kilometers between Columbus
and Cincinnati, and Columbus and Cleveland. As early as 1790, Thomas Jefferson
proposed a decimal measurement system, similar to the metric system. In
1968 a study was ordered by Congress. By 1971, a report recommended a switch
to the metric system and established a 10-year target time to accomplish
it. This led to a National Metric Conference in 1973, which prompted Ohio
to display metric highway signs. The Metric Conversion Act (1975) planned
a voluntary conversion to the metric system, which produced little voluntary
action. |
| Borazon | |
(source) |
In 1957, the General Electric Company (U.S.) announced that Borazon, a
material hard enough to scratch diamonds, had been made. Dr. Robert H.
Wentorf, a research scientist at had succeeded
in synthesizing cubic boron nitride (CBN) given the trade name Borazon.
It remains hard at temperatures at which diamond burns readily (about 1600
ºF), whereas Borazon can withstand temperatures of more than 3500
ºF. The hardness of diamond and borazon is approximately equal, each
able to scratch the other. In actual lapping tests, Borazon powder has
polished the surface of a large diamond at the same rate as the surface
was polished by diamond powder. It is now used for abrasive tools for such
industries as metalworking, stone, and mining. |
| Black American patent | |
|
In 1957, the prolific black American inventor, F.M. Jones was issued a
U.S. patent for a "Method of Preserving Perishables."
The
Inventive Spirit of African Americans: Patented Ingenuity,
by Patricia Carter Sluby. |
|
| First penicillin test | |
(source) |
In 1941, the first injection of penicillin
into a human test subject was conducted by Ernst Chain and Howard Walter
Florey, who developed this antibiotic. The patient, Albert Alexander, 43,
an Oxford policeman had scratched his face on a rose bush. When the scratches
turned septic, there followed blood poisoning and numerous abscesses. Because
he was "in great pain, desperately and pathetically ill", he was happy
to be treated
with the new drug. According to the attending doctor, the result was that
"within four days, there was a striking improvement... he was vastly better...
with obvious resolution of the abscesses." Due to limited available penicillin,
treatment stopped, the infection returned, and he died four weeks later. |
| Electrostatic generator patent | |
(USPTO) |
In 1935, a patent
was issued to Robert Jemison Van
de Graaff for his Electrostatic Generator design (U.S. No. 1,991,236),
able to generate direct-current voltages much higher than the 700,000-V
which was the state of the art at the time using other methods. It consisted
of two large, hollow approximately spherical metal domes on insulated columns.
A silk belt ran on rollers between the base of the column to the interior
of the dome. Charges from a 5000-V source are transferred to the belt near
the lower roller, carried upward and are collected by a metal comb connected
to the dome interior. By nature, rather than accumulating on the interior,
the charges move to the exterior of the dome. Two such domes with opposite
charges could generate a potential difference of 1,500,000-V between them.  |
| Bridge patent | |
|
In 1935, a U.S. patent for a bridge with open-mesh steel flooring was issued
to Walter E. Irving of the Irving Subway Grating Co. (No. 1,991,154). His
bridge deck design was non-skid, self-cleaning, self-draining and remained
free from snow accumulation. Being relatively light in weight and offering
little resistance to wind pressure made it suitable for a bridge of the
bascule (drawbridge) or vertical lift type, and resulted in a saving of
power needed to operate the opening of the bridge. The first bridge in
the U.S. to use such open-mesh steel flooring was the University
Bridge in Seattle, Washington, which was rebuilt and re-opened on 7
Apr 1933. A previous patent for a design of continuous metal grating (No.
1,629,134) was issued on 17 May 1917, and assigned to Irving Iron Works
Co.« |
|
| Packard patent | |
|
In 1900, J.W. Packard received his first automotive patent - a year after
forming his company with partner George Weiss. Packard became interested
in building cars after purchasing a Winton horseless carriage. The Winton
proved unreliable and after nearly a year of fixing up his horseless carriage,
Packard decided he would manufacture his own automobile. Among Packard’s
necessary automotive innovations were the "H" gear-slot pattern and the
gas pedal. |
|
| First GB car crash fatality | |
|
In 1898, the first car crash resulting in a fatality
happened to Henry Lindfield whose electric car's steering gear failed,
and he crashed at the bottom of a hill at Purley Corner, Surrey. He was
a Brighton business agent for International Cars, on his way to London.
The car eventually turned
completely round, ran through a wire fence and hit an iron post. The main
artery in his leg was cut. Surgeons at Croydon hospital amputated the limb,
but he died of shock from the operation the following day. A verdict of
accidental death was returned. His passenger, 18 or 19 year-old son Bernard,
was thrown clear of the vehicle and escaped almost unhurt. The first pedestrian
fatally struck by a car died on 17 Aug 1896. The first petrol-fuelled fatal
car crash happened on 25 Feb1899.« |
|
| Edison patents | |
|
In 1895, Thomas A. Edison was issued several U.S. patents: "Filament for
Incandescent Lamps," "Induction Converter" and an "Incandescent Electric
Lamp." |
|
| Edison patents | |
|
In 1889, Thomas A. Edison was issued two U.S. patents: "Method of Winding
Field Magnets," and a "Phonograph." |
|
| Edison patents | |
|
In 1884, Thomas A. Edison was issued several U.S. patents: "An Electric
Generator or Motor," "Insulation of Railroad tracks Used for Electrical
Circuits," "Incandescent Electric Lamp," and an "Electrical Meter." |
|
| Baseball catcher's mask | |
|
In 1878, Frederick W. Thayer, the captain of the Harvard University Baseball
Club, patented the now familiar, baseball catcher's mask. |
|
| Telephone demonstration | |
|
In 1877, a news dispatch was sent using Alexander Graham Bell's new invention,
the telephone, for the first time in the U.S. It was sent from Salem, Mass.
to the Boston Globe in Boston, Mass., a distance of sixteen miles. |
|
| Black American patent | |
|
In 1867, black American inventor, H. Lee, was issued a U.S. patent for
an "Animal Trap."
Great
Discoveries and Inventions by African-Americans, by David
M. Foy |
|
| Rubber galoshes | |
|
In 1831, rubber galoshes first went on sale,
in Boston, Massachusetts, US. |
|
