| MARCH 25 - BIRTHS | |
| Kenneth Linn Franklin | |
(source) |
 Born 25
Mar 1923
American astronomer who discovered that the giant planet Jupiter emits radio waves (1955). Dr. Bernard F. Burke and Franklin, astronomers at the Carnegie Institution in Washington, were scanning the sky for radio waves from galaxies. By chance, they found a radio signal that resembled short bursts of static, similar to interference by lightning on home radios. After weeks of study, finding the signals were periodic, four minutes earlier each day, they pin-pointed Jupiter as the source. Never before had radio sounds from a planet in our solar system been detected. Later it was discovered that the radio waves were circularly polarized, so a magnetic field was involved.« |
| Norman Ernest Borlaug | |
(source) |
Born 25
Mar 1914
American agricultural scientist, plant pathologist, and winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1970. He was one of those who laid the groundwork of the so-called Green Revolution, the agricultural technological advance that promised to alleviate world hunger. For decades, he collaborated with Mexican scientists on problems of wheat improvement. Later, he also collaborated with scientists from other parts of the world, especially from India and Pakistan, in adapting the new wheats to new lands and in gaining acceptance for their production. |
| Sir Raymond (William) Firth | |
(source) |
Born 25
Mar 1901; died 22 Feb 2002
New Zealander social anthropologist whose major research was with the Maori and other peoples of Oceania and Southeast Asia. Firth conducted his first research in the British Solomon Islands 1928-29. The economic organization of primitive societies became one of Firth's primary interests as indicated by his works on the Kauri gum industry and the fishing industry of Malaysia. Among his other chief interests were social structure and religion, especially of the Tikopia of the Solomon Islands, and the anthropological treatment of symbols. Firth was also well know for his work concerning sacrifices. In 1963, Raymond began his work on the influence of economics on the ideology of sacrifice. |
| Pierre-Ernest Weiss | |
(source) |
Born 25
Mar 1865; died 24 Oct 1940.
French physicist who investigated magnetism and determined the Weiss magneton unit of magnetic moment. His chief work was on ferromagnetism. Hypothesizing a molecular magnetic field acting on individual atomic magnetic moments, he was able to construct mathematical descriptions of ferromagnetic behaviour, including an explanation of such magnetocaloric phenomena as the Curie point. His theory succeeded also in predicting a discontinuity in the specific heat of a ferromagnetic substance at the Curie point and suggested that spontaneous magnetization could occur in such materials; the latter phenomenon was later found to occur in very small regions known as Weiss domains. |
| Simon Flexner | |
 |
Born 25
Mar 1863; died 2 May 1946.
American pathologist and bacteriologist who isolated (1899) a common strain (Shigella dysenteriae) of dysentery bacillus and developed a curative serum for cerebrospinal meningitis (1907). He directed a research team that identified the poliomyelitis virus. At the Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research, he was director of laboratories (1903-35), and director of the Institute (1920-35). For thirty-five years he cultivated the spirit and guided the work of the institute, while implementing John D. Rockefeller's vision of bringing medicine into the realm of science. |
| Adolf Engler | |
(source) |
Born 25
Mar 1844; died 10 Oct 1930.
(Gustav Heinrich) Adolf Engler was a German botanist famous for his system of plant classification and for his expertise as a plant geographer. He emphasized the importance of geological history in the study of plant geography, and worked out an influential system of plant classification. He wrote several works on plant geography and taxonomy, and collaborated with Karl Prantl on the early volumes of Die natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien (32 vol. in 17, 1887–1909) and edited the early volumes of Das Pflanzenreich. The Engler and Prantl system of flowering plant classification was the principal one in use until the 1970s. |
| (Henry Charles) Fleeming Jenkin | |
(source) |
Born 25
Mar 1833; died 12 Jun 1885.
British engineer noted for his work in establishing units of electrical measurement. After earning an M.A. (1851), he worked for the next 10 years with engineering firms engaged in the design and manufacture of submarine telegraph cables and equipment for laying them. In 1861 his friend William Thomson (later Lord Kelvin) procured Jenkin's appointment as reporter for the Committee of Electrical Standards of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. He helped compile and publish reports that established the ohm as the absolute unit of electrical resistance and described methods for precise resistance measurements.  A
Victorian Scientist and Engineer: Fleeming Jenkin and the Birth of Electrical
Engineering, by Colin Hempstead,
Gillian Cookson |
| Max (Johann Sigismund) Schultze | |
(source) |
Born 25
Mar 1825; died 16 Jan 1874.
German zoologist and cytologist, known especially for his researches in microscopic anatomy. He altered the conception of the cell, emphasizing not the membrane, but the living mass of protoplasm with a nucleus (1861). He pointed out that some cells, for example those of the embryo, do not have bounding membranes. He recognized the protoplasm, with its nucleus, as the fundamental substance found in both plants and animals. Schultze also studied protozoa, and demonstrated minute nerve endings in the ear (1858), nose (1863), and retina (1866). He was an outstanding histologist, introducing several new techniques in histology, including the use of osmic acid for staining fine details of cells. His sudden death in 1874 was caused by a perforated ulcer. |
| Giovanni Amici | |
(source) |
Born 25
Mar 1786; died 10 Apr 1863.
Giovanni Battista Amici was an Italian microscopist, astronomer, optical instrument designer, and botanist, who is best known for his invention of the achromatic lens. He also introduced the Amici-Bertrand lens, a lens for the inspection of an objective's rear focal plane. The lens system he designed for a new type of microscope in 1837 improved the magnification, capable of up to 6000 times. In 1840, he also introduced an immersion system for microscopes; the lowermost lens was immersed in a drop of oil to reduce improve clarity. He improved the design of mirrors used in reflecting telescopes. As a biologist, he investigated the sexual function of flowers, in particular he clarified the mechanism of the pollination of orchids.« |
|
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| MARCH 25 - DEATHS | |
| James S. Coleman | |
 |
 Died
25 Mar 1995 (died 12 May 1926)
James S(amuel) Coleman was a U.S. sociologist, a pioneer in mathematical sociology whose studies strongly influenced education policy. In the early 1950s, he was as a chemical engineer with Eastman-Kodak Co. in Rochester, N.Y. He then changed direction, fascinated with sociology and social problems. In 1966, he presented a report to the U.S. Congress which concluded that poor black children did better academically in integrated, middle-class schools. His findings provided the sociological underpinnings for widespread busing of students to achieve racial balance in schools. In 1975, Coleman rescinded his support of busing, concluding that it had encouraged the deterioration of public schools by encouraging white flight to avoid integration. |
| Paul Rivet | |
1947 (source) |
Died
25 Mar 1958 (born 7 May 1876)
French ethnologist who was an authority on South American Indian cultures. In his book Les Origènes de l'Homme Americain (1943), he proposed that South American Indians originated from Australia and Melanesia. At the time of the International Exhibition of 1937, he founded in Paris the Musée de l'Homme (Museum of Man) devoted anthropology, not only to house collections, but also as a research centre with a mission to document man's biological anthropology, palaeontology and ethnology. In his early career, starting in 1901, he had participated in the Second French Geodetic Survey in Equador, and remained in South America after its conclusion for another six years, observing the inhabitants of the inter-Andean valleys.« |
| Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge | |
(source) |
Died
25 Mar 1867 (born 8 Feb 1795)
German chemist considered to be the originator of the widely used analytic technique of paper chromatography. In the course of his research on synthetic dyes, he isolated and named several important components of coal-tar oil, among them carbolic acid (1934, now called phenol), pyrrole, rosolic acid (aurin), and cyanol (aniline). He did not analyze any of these compounds, however. In 1850, Runge published the first systematic study of chromatography: concentric circles of different coloured substances diffused through paper. He also noted the ability of belladonna to induce long-lasting dilation of the pupil of the eye (mydriasis), and he developed a process for obtaining sugar from beet juice. He investigated dry distillation and the composition of matter. |
| James Braid | |
(source) |
Died
25 Mar 1860 (born 1795)
Scottish optometrist whose experiments led him to an early theory of hypnosis that dismissed the idea of "animal magnetism." Earlier, Mesmer induced trances with manual manipulations he believed controlled a force field of animal magnetism. Braid discovered such "mesmeric passes were unnecessary. A person fixating on a bright object about 8 to 15 inches above the eyes could easily enter a trance. In his 1841 book, Neurypnology or the Rationale of Nervous Sleep considered in relation with Animal Magnetism, he coined the word "hypnotism" from the Greek word "hypnos" meaning "sleep." Thus hypnotism replaced mesmerism, even though later investigation showed that hypnosis was not, in fact, related to sleep.« |
| Nehemiah Grew | |
(source) |
Died
25 Mar 1712 (baptised 26 Sep 1641)
English botanist, physician, and microscopist, who was one of the founders of the science of plant anatomy. He began observations on the anatomy of plants in 1664, and his first essay on the subject, The Anatomy of Vegetables Begun was presented to the Royal Society of London in 1670 and published in 1672. In 1676, he was the first to used the term "comparative anatomy" in a lecture at the Royal Society. His extensive studies of plant tissues, including roots, trunks, leaves, flowers, fruits and seeds were published in a major workThe Anatomy of Plants (1682). He made a chemical analysis of water from springs at Epsom, Surrey, from which he isolated magnesium sulphate, which compound continues to be known as "Epsom Salts." Nehemiah
Grew: A Study and Bibliography of His Writings, by William
Lefanu. |
| MARCH 25 - EVENTS | |
| Wooly mammoths | |
In 1993, extraordinary findings of wooly mammoth fossils by Russian paleontologists
were published Nature. Remains found on Wrangel Island, northwest
of Alaska, indicated the population of the extinct mammoths existed 6,000
years later than previously known. |
|
| AIDS virus in lymph system | |
|
In 1993, two articles in Nature solved a mystery in the development
of AIDS: why do many patients having shown an outbreak of virus particles
in the blood then go up to ten years without their presence in the blood,
only to show them again years later. The published reports point to the
lymph tissue throughout the whole body that acts as a reservoir hiding
the virus during the latent period. The significance of the finding is
that to be effective, any vaccine must act to block the virus before it
takes hold in the lymph system. |
|
| Largest perfect number | |
|
In 1992, British scientists found new largest perfect number (2 756839
-1 * 2 756839). |
|
| Concorde | |
(source) |
In 1970, the prototype British-built airplane Concorde 002 made its
first supersonic flight
(700 mph; 1,127 kph). A few months earlier, the French prototype, Concorde
001, had broken the sound barrier on 1 Oct 1969. Mach 2 was achieved by
Concorde 001 on 4 Nov 1970, and by Concorde 002, a few days later on 12
Nov 1970. The combined number of supersonic flights by the two aircraft
reached 100 by January of the following year, 1971. |
| Color TV | |
|
In 1954, RCA announced the production of color television sets. |
|
| 21cm radiation | |
|
In 1951, Edward Mills Purcell and H.I. Ewen at the Harvard physics lab
detected 21-cm radiation in outer space. |
|
| TV demonstration | |
(source) |
In 1925, the first public demonstration
of his television system was held by John Logie Baird at the Selfridges
department store, Oxford Street, London. It would be ten years before the
introduction in Britain of televisions with higher definition on 2 Nov
1936.« [Image: an early
television picture exhibited for viewing by the public.] |
| Radium | |
|
In 1903, The Times newspaper reported
that the French physicist, Pierre Curie assisted by Mme Curie, communicated
to the Academy of Sciences that the recently discovered Radium "possesses
the extraordinary property of continuously emitting heat, without combustion,
without chemical change of any kind, and without any change to its molecular
structure, which remains spectroscopically identical after many months
of continuous emission of heat ... such that the pure Radium salt would
melt more than its own weight of ice every hour ... A small tube containing
Radium, if kept in contact with the skin for some hours ... produces an
open sore, by destroying the epidermis and the true skin beneath ... and
cause the death of living things whose nerve centres do not lie deep enough
to be shielded from their influence." |
|
| Sheet glass | |
|
In 1902, Irving W. Colburn patented the sheet glass drawing machine. |
|
| First eclipse photograph | |
|
In 1857, Frederick Laggenheim took the first photograph of a solar eclipse. |
|
| Thames Tunnel | |
(source) |
In 1843, the Thames Tunnel in London, the world's first tunnel under a
navigable river, was opened for pedestrians between Rotherhithe and Wapping.
Work had started on 2 Mar 1825. Excavation
was engineered by Marc Brunel, for
which he used a tunneling shield to reduce the danger of collapse while
digging through soft sediments. Beginning his own engineering career, his
son Isambad K. Brunel assisted.
Together they persevered through 18 years, dealing with floods, human disasters,
and delays caused by financing difficulties. Planned ramps for use by carts
and freight traffic were never added due to cost. A railway line through
the tunnel opened on 7 Dec 1869,
and it remains in use as the oldest part of the London Underground.« |
| World's first passenger railway | |
(source) |
In 1807, the world's first railway passenger
service began in Wales on the Oystermouth Railway (later known as the Swansea
and Mumbles Railway). It had been built in 1804, originally to transport
coal, iron-ore and limestone from Oystermouth to the seaport of Swansea.
The rails were
"L" shaped tramplates mounted on rough stone blocks. At first, passengers
travelled in a four-wheeled horse-drawn "dandy." Use of steam engines began
in 1877. By 1898, the line had been extended to Mumbles. Double-decker
electric
cars powered by overhead cables were used from 2 Mar 1929. The line
was closed on 5 Jan 1960, and dismantled.« |
| Titan | |
(source) |
In 1655, Christiaan Huygens
(1629-95) discovered Titan,
Saturn's largest satellite and the easiest to observe. He determined its
period of revolution. (However, the moon wasn’t named
until almost two centuries later when Sir
John Herschel, discoverer of Uranus, assigned names to the seven moons
of Saturn that were known at that time. Saturn's largest moon was named
simply "Titan," since the word means "one that is great in size, importance,
or achievement.") Huygens also discovered the rings of Saturn through a
telescope of his own design. (In his lifetime he also invented the pendulum
clock and the first accurate time-keeping device, his contributions to
mathematics, astronomy, time measurement and the theory of light are considered
fundamental). [Image: Titan
imaged by NASA space probe Cassini on 26 Oct 2004.]
 Unrolling
Time : Christian Huygens and the Mathematization of Nature by
Joella G. Yoder. |
| U.S. canal | |
|
In 1639, America's first canal to provide industrial water power was began.
The canal, dug by colonists in Dedham, Mass., ran from the Charles River
to the Neponset River at Mill Creek. |
|
