| MARCH 18 - BIRTHS | |
| Charles Davis Hollister | |
(source) |
 Born 18
Mar 1936; died 23 Aug 1999.
American marine geologist whose pioneering studies of the deep-sea floor revealed not tranquil depths but that strong currents and storms occur there. He started the development of the giant piston coring system and in the 1970's, documented the longest continuous record of ocean basin history in a single 100-ft core sample that contained a continuous 65 million-year-long record of ocean-basin history. He also made significant discoveries concerning ocean sediment transport and directed the High Energy Benthic Boundary Layer Experiment (HEBBLE). Also, he initiated the sub-seabed concept and led the international team that studied the scientific feasibility of isolating high-level radioactive material into sediments below the sea floor. |
| Wesley F. Buchele | |
(source) |
Born 18 Mar 1920.
American agricultural engineer whose 25 patents include the farm forage-handling machine that produces the familiar large round hay bales in US fields since the1960's, and developed rollover protective devices for tractors. He grew up on a Kansas farm, went on to do his doctoral thesis on conservation tillage, became a junior engineer at the John Deere Waterloo Works (1946-48) then joined academia, eventually becoming a professor at Iowa State University (1963-89). There he originated many courses including one on Agricultural Safety, the first course of its kind in the U.S. Throughout his life, he worked to prevent soil erosion, encouraging widespread adoption of ridge-till farming to slow erosion and reduce pesticide use.« [Image right: Iowa hay bale]  The
Grain Harvesters, by Graeme Quick and Wesley Buchele. |
| Kurt Koffka | |
(EB) |
Born 18
Mar 1886; died 22 Nov 1941.
German-American psychologist who cofounded, with Wolfgang Köhler and Max Wertheimer, the Gestalt school of psychology. Koffka became in time their most influential spokesman of Gestalt psychology. He applied it to child development, learning, memory and emotion. The name Gestalt, meaning form or configuration, emphasizes that the whole is more than the sum of its parts. Gestalt psychology grew as reaction against the traditional atomistic approach to the human being where behaviour was analyzed into constituent elements called sensations. He made an influential distinction between the behavioural and the geographical environments - the perceived world of common sense and the world studied by scientists. |
| Rudolf Diesel | |
(source) |
Born 18
Mar 1858; died 29 Sep 1913.
Rudolf (Christian Karl) Diesel was a German thermal engineer who invented the internal-combustion engine that bears his name. After studying the four-stroke internal combustion engines developed by Nikolaus Otto, Diesel conceived of an engine that would approach the thermodynamic limit established by Sadi Carnot in 1824. If the fuel in a cylinder could be expanded at constant pressure, it could get closer to Carnot's limit. He patented the concept in 1892, while working at the firm of the refrigeration engineer Carl von Linde in Berlin. He threw himself over the rail of an English Channel steamer in 1913 after having lost control over his invention and after receiving a great deal of criticism in the German engineering journals for his theories. |
| Jakob Steiner | |
(source) |
Born 18
Mar 1796; died 1 Apr 1863.
Swiss mathematician, who was one of the greatest contributors to projective geometry. He discovered the Steiner surface which has a double infinity of conic sections on it. The Steiner theorem states that the two pencils by which a conic is projected from two of its points are projectively related. He is also known for the Poncelet-Steiner theorem which shows that only one given circle and a straight edge are required for Euclidean constructions. His work included conic sections and surfaces, the theory of second-degree surfaces and centre-of-gravity problems. He developed the principle of symmetrization (1840-41). In 1848 he ws the first to define various polar curves with respect to a given curve, and introduced the "Steiner Curves."« Geometrical
constructions with a ruler, by Jakob Steiner. |
| Christian Goldbach | |
(source) |
Born 18
Mar 1690; died 20 Nov 1764.
Russian mathematician whose contributions to number theory include Goldbach's conjecture, formulated in a letter to Leonhard Euler dated 7 Jul 1742. Stated in modern terms it proposes that: "Every even natural number greater than 2 is equal to the sum of two prime numbers." It has been checked by computer for vast numbers - up to at least 4 x 1014 - but still remains unproved. Goldbach made another conjecture that every odd number is the sum of three primes, on which Vinogradov made progress in 1937. (It has been checked by computer for vast numbers, but remains unproved.) Goldbach also studied infinite sums, the theory of curves and the theory of equations.« [Image: Letter to Euler, in which Goldbach presented his conjecture.] |
| MARCH 18 - DEATHS | |
| Hideo Shima | |
(source) |
 Died
18 Mar 1998 (born 20 May 1901)
Japanese engineer, who designed and supervised the construction of the world's first high-speed "bullet" train, linking Tokyo and Osaka. It began service at 138 mph in Oct 1964. The rail line opened a new era in land transport. (The current generation reaches 169 mph). Shima led Japan's space development programme until 1977 at Japan's National Space Development Agency. In his early career, Shima worked hard to further develop powerful steam locomotives, culminating in the wartime 2-8-2 D51 and D52 for freight and the post-war 4-6-4 C62 for passenger trains. He next developed electrical motive power distributed along the whole train length yielding higher power output on a multiple-unit train without damaging tracks and structures. |
| Sir Harold Jeffreys | |
(source) |
Died
18 Mar 1989 (born 22 Apr 1891)
English geophysicist, astronomer, and mathematician with diverse scientific interests. In astronomy he proposed models for the structures of the outer planets, and studied the origin of the solar system. He calculated the surface temperatures of gas at less than -100°C, contradicting then accepted views of red-hot temperatures, but Jeffreys was shown to be correct when direct observations were made. In geophysics he researched the circulation of the atmosphere and earthquakes. Analyzing earthquake waves (1926), he became the first to claim that the core of the Earth is molten fluid. Jeffreys also contributed to the general theory of dynamics, aerodynamics, relativity theory and plant ecology.« The
earth: Its origin, history and physical constitution,
by Harold Jeffreys. |
| Erich Fromm | |
(source) |
Died
18 Mar 1980 (born 23 Mar 1900)
German-American psychologist who investigated the connections between psychology and society. He was born in Germany, but fled from the Nazis, and worked in many fields of the humanities. Although influenced by Freud's theories, Fromm diverged in thinking that beyond the unconscious alone, conditions of the society and economy affect human behaviour. Fromm believed psychoanalytic principles could be applied to remedy cultural ills. He wished to see the creation of a sane society meeting human needs with harmony between men and nations in a nuclear age, and helped organize the National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy (SANE) in 1957.« The
Sane Society, by Erich Fromm. |
| Norbert Wiener | |
(source) |
Died
18 Mar 1964 (born 26 Nov 1894)
U.S. mathematician, who established the science of cybernetics, a term he coined, which is concerned with the common factors of control and communication in living organisms, automatic machines, and organizations. He attained international renown by formulating some of the most important contributions to mathematics in the 20th century. His work on generalised harmonic analysis and Tauberian theorems won the Bôcher Prize in 1933 when he received the prize from the American Mathematical Society for his memoir Tauberian theorems published in Annals of Mathematics in the previous year. His extraordinarily wide range of interests included stochastic processes, quantum theory and during WW II he worked on gunfire control. Cybernetics,
by Norbert Wiener. |
| Warder Clyde Allee | |
| Died
18 Mar 1955 (born 5 Jun 1885)
American zoologist and ecologist who researched the social behaviour, aggregations, and distribution of both land and sea animals. He demonstrated that an unconscious drive existed among many species of animals for their fellow individuals, such that undercrowding was detrimental to some animals. He noted what he called "protocooperation" among animals, unconscious cooperation instead of competition. Allee believed this evolved in the higher animals to become both unconscious and conscious cooperation creating levels of community organization. He investigated the role and function of social hierarchies in nature, and the capacity of animals to maintain internal equilibrium by making physiological adaptations.« Principles
of Animal Ecology, by Warder Clyde Allee. |
|
| Adolph Bandelier | |
(source) |
Died
18 Mar 1914 (born 6 Aug 1840)
Swiss-American anthropologist, historian, and archaeologist who was among the first to study the American Indian cultures of the southwestern United States, Mexico, and Peru-Bolivia. He was one of the first to use the methodology of participant observation, by living with the Indians and studying their culture, artifacts and the ruins on their land. He followed their ancestors' migration from northern Mexico, down the Rio Grande Valley, to central Mexico. Even though Bandelier was criticized for being untrained and forming premature conclusions, he proved that working and training in the field was just as effective as going to school. With many archaeological sites, the Bandelier National Monument in New Mexico was named after him. Bandelier:
The Life and Adventures of Adolph Bandelier, by Lange
and Riley |
| (Pierre-Eugène-) Marcellin Berthelot | |
(source) |
Died
18 Mar 1907 (born 27 Oct 1827)
French organic and physical chemist, science historian, and government official whose creative thought and work significantly influenced the development of chemistry in the late 19th century. He helped to found the study of thermochemistry, introduced a standard method for determining the latent heat of steam, measured hundreds of heats of reactions and coined the words exothermic and endothermic. Berthelot systematically synthesized organic compounds, including some not found in nature. His syntheses of many fundamental organic compounds helped to destroy the classical division between organic and inorganic compounds. |
| Othniel Marsh | |
(source) |
Died
18 Mar 1899 (born 29 Oct 1831)
Othniel Charles Marsh was a U.S. scientist and paleontologist who discovered over 1000 fossils. He made extensive scientific explorations of the western U.S. and contributed greatly to knowledge of extinct North American vertebrates. Marsh spent only four seasons in the field, between 1870 and 1873. "The Great Bone Wars," were the result of rivalry with Edward Drinker Cope, America's other great vertebrate paleontologist of the period. Each scientist hired field crews to unearth and ship back fossils as fast as possible. The rival crews were known to spy on each other, dynamite their own and each other's secret localities (to keep their opponents from digging there), and occasionally steal each other's fossils.  |
| Charles Joseph Van Depoele | |
(source) |
Died
18 Mar 1892 (born 27 Apr 1846)
Belgian-born American inventor who was a pioneer in railway, electric lighting, and mining work, with more than 100 patents on electrical inventions. He emigrated to the U.S. in 1869. While experimenting with electric motors in Detroit (1874) he established the practicality of railway cars running on electricity. He invented an electric generator (1880), and exhibited an operating electric streetcar at the Chicago Exposition of Railway Appliances (1883). He designed electric streetcar systems for several cities. In 1888, he sold his electric railway patents to Thomson-Houston Electric Company of Lynn, Mass. He died four years later, at age 46. His other patents include: arc lamp (1870), coal-mining machine (1891), gearless electric locomotive (1894).« |
| Augustus De Morgan | |
(source) |
Died
18 Mar 1871 (born 27 Jun 1806)
Indian-born English mathematician and logician who did important work in abstract symbolic logic, the theory of relations, and formulated De Morgan's laws: one is "NOT (A AND B) = (NOT A) or (NOT B)" and the other is "NOT (A OR B) = (NOT A) AND (NOT B)". These laws continue to be applied in modern proof theory and for software programming. When he defined and introduced the term "mathematical induction" (1838), he gave the process a rigorous basis and clarity that it had previously lacked. He originated the use of the slash to represent fractions, as in 1/5 or 3/7. In Trigonometry and Double Algebra (1849) he gave a geometric interpretation of complex numbers.« 
Memoir
of Augustus De Morgan, by Sophia Elizabeth (Frend) De
Morgan. |
| MARCH 18 - EVENTS | |
| Nipah virus | |
(source) |
In 1999, the Nipah virus was isolated,
by Dr Chua Kaw Ping, of the University Malaya. This caused a previously
unrecorded viral disease,
and was implicated by laboratory testing in many of cases of febrile encephalitic
and respiratory
illnesses
among workers who had exposure to pigs in Malaysia and Singapore. The virus,
which is transmissible from pigs to humans, had caused approximately 100
human deaths in the preceding six months. On 10 Apr 1999, it was officially
called the Nipah virus, after one of the villages affected by the outbreak
- Sungai Nipah in the Malaysian state of Negeri Sembilan. The virus was
discovered More than 900,000 pigs in the affected areas were destroyed
to contain the outbreak.« [Image:
Nipah virus shown budding from a cell under an electron microscope.] |
| Superconductivity | |
|
In 1987, the discovery of "high-temperature" superconductivity was announced
to thousands of scientists at a packed meeting
of the American Physical Society in New York City. The phenomenon, discovered
1911, was at first known to occur at only 4 degrees above absolute zero,
when all electrical resistance in a metal sample disappeared. In 1986,
researchers
discovered a ceramic material that was a superconductor at a temperature
of more than 30 degrees above absolute zero. When published in September
of that year, that news stirred the wider scientific community into action.
By the time of the APS meeting, further discoveries had been made. The
scene of excitement at the meeting was dubbed
the "Woodstock of Physics." |
|
| First spacewalk | |
|
In 1965, Voskhod 2 was launched into space carrying Aleksey Leonov
and Pavel Belyayev aboard. On the second orbit Leonov left the spacecraft
through the air lock while still tethered to the vessel. He was the first
man to climb out of a spacecraft in space. While outside, he took motion
pictures and practiced moving outside of the spacecraft for 10 minutes.
Voskhod
2 made 17 orbits at about 110 miles (177 km) above earth. |
|
| Railroad tunnel | |
(source) 
(source) |
In 1834, the first U.S. railroad tunnel was completed between Hollidaysburg
and Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Driven through slate, the Staple Bend Tunnel
was 901 feet long, 25 feet wide and 21 feet high and lined throughout with
masonry 18 inches thick. It was for the Allegheny Portage Railroad, the
first railroad to go west of the Alleghany Mountains. The project engineer
was Solomon White Roberts. The tunnel was started 12
Apr 1831. The restored
tunnel is now a National
Historic Site |
