| APRIL 1 - BIRTHS | |
| Alain Connes | |
(source) |
 Born 1
Apr 1947
French mathematician who won the 1982 Fields Medal (awarded in 1983) for his work in operator theory. His most remarkable contributions are (1) general classification and a structure theorem for factors of type III, obtained in his thesis (1973); (2) classification of automorphisms of the hyperfinite factor, which served as a preparation for the next contribution; (3) classification of injective factors; and (4) application of the theory of C*-algebras to foliations and differential geometry in general. Connes' recent work has been on noncommutative geometry and he has studied applications to theoretical physics.«  Triangle
of Thought, by Alain Connes, et al. |
| Claude Cohen-Tannoudji | |
(source) |
Born 1
Apr 1933
French physicist who shared the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1997 (with Steven Chu and William D. Phillips) for developing methods using laser light to cool gases to the micro-kelvin temperature range (nearly absolute zero to a fraction of a millionth of a degree.) The motion of the chilled atoms is thereby sufficiently slowed to permit their study with very great accuracy, and their inner structure can be determined. Cohen-Tannoudji created laser traps that operate by a process of what has since been called Sisyphus cooling. Working with helium atoms, using six laser beams, he attained a temperature of 0.18 µK. Under these conditions helium atoms slowed to a speed of only about 2 cm/s.« Atoms
in Electromagnetic Fields, by Claude Cohen-Tannoudji. |
| Norman Abramson | |
(source) |
Born 1
Apr 1932
American computer scientist who created ALOHANET, the first modern data network, which formed the basis of the protocols essential in the Ethernet now in wide use. It opened in 1970, operating at 9600 bits per second, using radio to provide a wireless packet-switched data network between several Hawaii islands. Its innovations included the first packet radio sensors, the first packet radio repeaters, the first satellite packet network and the first radio access to the Internet. Abramson's U.S. patents include the first patent for CRC redundancy checks to provide data error control technique (No. 3,114,130), and the first patent issued for the design of burst errors in digital systems (No. 3,163,848).« Computer
Communications Network, by Norman Abramson, F. Kuo. |
| Joseph E. Murray | |
(source) |
Born 1
Apr 1919
American surgeon who shared (with E. Donnall Thomas) the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1990 for discoveries concerning "organ and cell transplantation in the treatment of human disease." His work concerned how rejection following organ transplantation in man could be mastered. Murray successfully transplanted a kidney between homozygous twins for the first time. He pioneered transplantation of kidneys obtained from deceased persons and could show that patients with terminal renal insufficiency could be cured. The field was then open for transplantation of other organs such as liver, pancreas and heart.« Surgery
of the Soul: Reflections on a Curious Career, by Joseph
E. Murray. |
| John Holter | |
(source) |
Born 1
Apr 1916; died 22 Dec 2003.
American inventor of a pioneering valve used in the treatment of hydrocephalus ("water on the brain"). Shortly after birth (1955), his son suffered from hydrocephalus. Holter learned from surgeons Eugene Spitz and Frank Nulsen that a suitable valve to drain fluid from the brain could maintain normal cranial pressure. To save his son, Holter invented a pressure-sealing valve made from silicone to avoid clogging problems. He subsequently refined and patented the device. Spitz and Holter set up a company to manufacture the shunts using Silastic silicone. The Spitz-Holter valve has helped millions around the world since the late 1950s. Holter later created other medical devices, including dialysis pumps, artificial heart valves and finger tendons.« [Image: Schematic of placement of drainage tube with valve seen placed subcutaneously beside ear.] |
| Abraham H. Maslow | |
(source) |
Born 1
Apr 1908; died 8 Jun 1970.
Abraham Harold Maslow was a U.S. psychologist who believed that man has a natural drive to healthiness, and developed this into his self-actualization theory of psychology. Thus, man knows more than his physical needs to maintain health, but also knows intuitively what he needs to become mentally healthy and happy. In his early career, working with monkeys, he observed that some needs take precedence over others, for example, thirst takes priority over hunger. Later, he created his now famous hierarchy of needs. Beyond the details of air, water, food, and sex, he laid out five broader layers: physiological needs, needs for safety and security, needs for love and belonging, needs for esteem, and the need to actualize the self, in that order.« The
Farther Reaches of Human Nature, by Abraham H. Maslow. |
| Richard Zsigmondy | |
(source) |
Born 1
Apr 1865; died 23 Sep 1929.
Austrian chemist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1925 for "his demonstration of the heterogenous nature of colloid solutions and for the methods he used, which have since become fundamental in modern colloid chemistry." Colloids are composed of submicroscopic particles dispersed within another substance. To conduct his research on colloids he invented the ultramicroscope (1903), with which he could view particles with a diameter of one 10-millionth of a millimetre not visible in a conventional microscope. It used an intense beam of light oriented in a position perpendicular to the microscope's optical axis. As particles scattered the incident light, their movements could be seen as flashes against a dark background.« Colloids
and the ultramicroscope, by Richard Zsigmondy. |
| Sophie Germain | |
(source) |
Born 1
Apr 1776; died 27 Jun 1831.
French mathematician who is known for her work in number theory and contributions to the applied mathematics of acoustics and elasticity. Germain was self-taught from books, and from lecture notes supplied by male friends attending the Ecole Polytechnique which she, as a woman, was not permitted to attend. Using a male pseudonym, M. LeBlanc, she corresponded with Lagrange who recognised her skill, and subsequently sponsored her work. She accomplished a limited proof of Fermat's last theorem, for any prime under 100 where certain conditions were met. In 1816, she won a prize sponsored by Napoleon for a mathematical explanation of Chladni figures, the vibration of elastic plates. She died at age 55, from breast cancer.« Sophie
Germain: An Essay in the History of the Theory of Elasticity,
by L.L. Bucciarelli, N. Dworsky. |
| William Harvey | |
(source) |
Born 1
Apr 1578; died 3 Jun 1657.
English physician and discoverer of the true nature of the circulation of the blood and of the function of the heart as a pump. Functional knowledge of the heart and the circulation had remained almost at a standstill ever since the time of the Greco-Roman physician Galen - 1,400 years earlier. Harvey's courage, penetrating intelligence, and precise methods were to set the pattern for research in biology and other sciences for succeeding generations, so that he shares with William Gilbert, investigator of the magnet, the credit for initiating accurate experimental research throughout the world. On
the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals, by William
Harvey, Robert Willis (Translator) |
|
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| APRIL 1 - DEATHS | |
| Solly Zuckerman, Zuckerman of Burnham Thorpe | |
(source) |
 Died
1 Apr 1993 (born 30 May 1904)
(Baron) British scientist (born in South Africa). After completing medical studies in England, his first career was teaching anatomy at University College London and doing research at London Zoo on primate behaviour (1928-32). When WW II began, he became a scientific adviser for the British Defense Ministry, beginning with experimental studies of concussion (the effects that bomb blast shock waves have on the body) and became a military strategist and government adviser (1939-46; 1960-66). He remained busy after retirement, as President of the Zoological Society of London, as a campaigner against the nuclear arms race, and as a promoter of environmental research. Solly
Zuckerman, a Scientist Out of the Ordinary, by John Peyton. |
| Dame Kathleen Lonsdale | |
(source) |
Died
1 Apr 1971 (born 28 Jan 1903)
(née Yardley) British crystallographer who developed several X-ray techniques for the study of crystal structure. Her experimental determination of the structure of the benzene ring by x-ray diffraction, which showed that all the ring C-C bonds were of the same length and all the internal C-C-C bond angles were 120 degrees, had an enormous impact on organic chemistry. She was the first woman to be elected (1945) to the Royal Society of London. Kathleen
Lonsdale: A biographical memoir, by Dorothy Crowfoot
Hodgkin. |
| Lev Davidovich Landau | |
(source) |
Died
1 Apr 1968 (born 22 Jan 1908)
Soviet physicist who worked in such fields as low-temperature physics, atomic and nuclear physics, and solid-state, stellar-energy, and plasma physics. Several physics terms bear his name. He was awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize for Physics for his theory to explain the peculiar superfluid behaviour of liquid helium at very low temperature (2.18 K). Landau's further contributions are partly reflected in such terms as Landau diamagnetism and Landau levels in solid-state physics, Landau damping in plasma physics, the Landau energy spectrum in low-temperature physics, or Landau cuts in high-energy physics. What
Is Relativity? by Lev Davidovich Landau. |
| Charles Richard Drew | |
 |
Died
1 Apr 1950 (born 3 Jun 1904)
African-American physician and surgeon who was an authority on the preservation of human blood for transfusion. He organized and directed the blood-plasma programs of the United States and Great Britain in the early years of World War II, while also agitating the authorities to stop excluding the blood of blacks from plasma-supply networks. His death was caused by a car accident. One
Blood: The Death and Resurrection of Charles R. Drew,
by Spencie Love. |
| Seaman Asahel Knapp | |
(source) |
Died
1 Apr 1911 (born 16 Dec 1833)
American agriculturist who originated the method in which an expert demonstrates, farm by farm, new agricultural discoveries and technologies. He introduced improved methods of farming into Louisiana, spurred the development of rice culture in the Southwest, demonstrated methods for curbing the boll weevil in Texas, and inaugurated a federal program of farm demonstrations throughout the South. Knapp's legacy was to bring progressive agricultural methods to the American farmer. An agrarian reformer, to change the pattern of society for the benefit of mankind, he organized a system of county farm and home demonstration agents and boys and girls clubs from which developed the U.S. Cooperative Extension Service. Seaman
A. Knapp: Schoolmaster of American Agriculture, by Joseph
Cannon Bailey. |
| François-Marie Raoult | |
(source) |
Died
1 Apr 1901 (born 10 May 1830)
French chemist who formulated a law on solutions (called Raoult's law) that made it possible to determine the molecular weights of dissolved substances. |
| Saint George Jackson Mivart | |
(source) |
Died
1 Apr 1900 (born 30 Nov 1827)
English biologist who was a leading critic of Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection. Although called to the Bar in 1851, he instead pursued his interests in natural history and comparative anatomy, studying the insectivores and carnivores. He held that variation was predetermined by a higher intelligence, and that evolution proceeded in a step-wise fashion, and not an accumulation of small variations. In Jan 1871 he published Genesis of Species, opposing Darwin's interpretation of evolution. Mivart's liberal position even seemed to conflict with his Roman Catholic religion, for which he was excommunicated by Cardinal Vaughan in Jan 1900, a few months before he died.« |
| Hugo von Mohl | |
(source) |
Died
1 Apr 1872 (born 8 Apr 1805)
German botanist noted for his research on the anatomy and physiology of plant cells. He developed the idea that the nucleus of the cell was within the granular, colloidal material that made up the main substance of the cell. In 1846 he named this substance protoplasm, a word that had been invented by the Czech physiologist Jan Evangelista Purkinje with reference to the embryonic material found in eggs. Von Mohl was also first to propose that new cells are formed by cell division, a process he observed in the alga Conferva glomerata. |
| Charles-Édouard Brown-Séquard | |
(source) |
Died
1 Apr 1894 (born 8 Apr 1817)
French physiologist and neurologist, a pioneer endocrinologist and neurophysiologist who was among the first to work out the physiology of the spinal cord. In 1849, he discovered that the sensory, though not the motor, fibres in the spinal cord are crossed. Thus a cut halfway through the cord from one side produces paralysis in the same side of the body but anesthesia in the side opposite to the cut. He also studied the physiological effects of the injection of genital gland extracts. In 1856 he discovered that the adrenal gland is essential for life. He later showed that "internal secretions" (i.e., hormones) serve the body's cells as a means of communication with each other, secondary to the nervous system (1891). Cours
of Lectures on the Physiology and Pathology of the Central Nervous System,
by Charles Edouard Brown-Sequard. |
| Jakob Steiner | |
(source) |
Died
1 Apr 1863 (born 18 Mar 1796)
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. |
| APRIL 1 - EVENTS | |
| President Carter visits Three Mile Island | |
|
(source) |
In 1979, President Jimmy Carter visited the Three Mile Island nuclear power
plant, three days after the most serious nuclear accident in the U.S. He
toured the control room, which was a deliberate public display of confidence
by Carter that the situation was under control, in order to allay the fears
of the local population of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, as well as the country.
Carter had a good understanding of nuclear reactors. As a Navy officer
in the early 50's, he was selected by Admiral Hyman G. Rickover (then a
captain) to spent some of his service
time with the Naval Reactors Branch assisting in the design and development
of nuclear propulsion plants for naval vessels. He had trained as an engineering
officer for a nuclear power plant.«
Three
Mile Island: A Nuclear Crisis in Historical Perspective,
by J. Samuel Walker. |
| Weather satellite | |
(source) |
In 1960, the first weather observation satellite, Tiros I, was launched
from Cape Kennedy and made the first television picture from space. It
was the first of several launched in the TIROS
program, named from its function: Television Infrared Observation Satellite,
and was NASA's first experimental step to determine if satellites could
be useful in the study of the Earth. At that time, the effectiveness of
satellite observations was still unproven. Thus various design issues for
spacecraft were tested: instruments, data and operational parameters. The
goal was to improve satellite applications for Earth-bound decisions, such
as "should we evacuate the coast because of the hurricane?" TIROS proved
extremely successful for weather forecasting. |
| Alpher, Bethe & Gamow | |
|
In 1948, Alpher, Bethe and Gamow's famous letter
to Physical Review was published. The "Big Bang" theory had previously
been around as a competing theory with "Steady State" for a while. Their
paper gave a "hot Big Bang" mathematical analysis of atomic events during
the creation of the universe, and explained the relative abundances of
the light elements (particularly helium) in the universe. In fact, the
paper was written by Ralph Alpher and George Gamow. The esteemed Hans Bethe
was persuaded to lend his name as a co-author for the amusing
similarity to "alpha, beta, gamma," the first letters of the Greek alphabet.
Bethe did actually make later contributions to discussions of the theory. |
| Death of panda Su Lin | |
(source) |
In 1938, the first panda to live in captivity outside China, died
after a twig lodged in its throat. Keepers at Brookfield Zoo, Chicago,
U.S. had added oak twigs to the panda's usual diet of bamboo, but the oak
fodder proved to be too tough. Despite removal of the twig, use of an oxygen
tent and efforts by artificial respiration, the panda died. Ruth Harkness,
a remarkable young Manhattan socialite had captured
Su Lin on an expedition
in Tibet on 9 Nov 1936, and returned
with the baby panda to New York on 18 Dec 1936. The zoo acquired Su Lin
on 8 Feb 1837. Earlier in 1938, she brought back another baby panda, Mei-Mei,
to be Su Lin's companion. A post-mortem revealed Su-Lin was a male, not
a female as had been thought.« [Image:
Ruth Harkness with Su Lin]
The
Lady and the Panda: The True Adventures of Ruth Harkness...,
by Vicki Constantine Croke. |
| Electric trolley car | |
(USPTO) |
In 1890, an electric trolley car was patented
by Belgian inventor, Charles Van Depoele (No. 424,695). He had designed
the first commercial
electric railway in the US (maybe the world) for the Scranton Suburban
Electric Railway (30 Nov 1886), an intra-city line running a few miles
between downtown Scranton, Pa. and Green Ridge. The line ran continuously
(except for repairs and strikes) until 1954. Van Depoele received patents
an electric railway (1883), an electric generator (1880), a carbon commutator
brush (1888), an alternating-current electric reciprocating engine (1889),
a telpher system for a car running suspended from cables (1890), a coal-mining
machine (1891) and a gearless electric locomotive (1894). |
| First commercial dishwashing machine | |
(USPTO) |
In 1889, the first commercial dishwashing machine
was marketed in Chicago, designed over a number of years by Josephine Cochrane.
She was granted U.S. patent No.355,139
on 28 Dec 1886 (when she spelled her last name Cochran). She received an
award
for her invention at the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago. The company she
founded to sell the dishwasher to hotels, restaurants and other commercial
groups was purchased in the 1920's by the Hobart Corporation. They introduced
(1949) the "KitchenAid" brand name that is known today. Other dishwashing
machine patents had been issued, starting with a hand-cranked device patented
by Joel Houghton on 14 May 1850,
but Cochrane marketed her design successfully.«  |
| First newspaper weather map | |
(source) |
In 1875, Sir Francis Galton published
the first newspaper
weather map - in The Times, London, England - now a standard
feature in newspapers worldwide. He was the first to identify the anticyclone
(as opposed to the cyclone), and introduced the use of charts showing areas
of similar air pressure, as used on the modern weather map. Galton also
devised several novel and ingenious mechanical instruments for recording
information about the weather, while working at the Kew Observatory. He
was also active as an explorer, anthropologist, statistician
and criminologist. Galton was the first to place the study of fingerprints
for identification on a scientific basis and so lay the groundwork for
their use in criminal cases. [Image:
Earlier work by Galton: a synchronous weather map of England drawn for
16 Jan 1861] |
| First steamship on U.S. stamp | |
(source) |
In 1869, a pictorial green 5-cent stamp was first used*, the first in the
U.S. showing a steamship, a symbol of fast ocean navigation. The public,
accustomed to traditional head vignettes, praised James Smillie’s depiction
of the S.S. Adriatic. Another innovative design, a locomotive design
issued a few days earlier 27 Mar 1869 brought unexpected scorn. Some critics
surmised the locomotive design was "to represent how Congressmen make money."
Their theme of fast communication was accompanied by a 2-cent stamp showing
postal carrier on horseback. (*With no formal date of issue
in early years, a stamp is dated by its earliest known use.)« |
| Antiseptic surgery | |
 |
In 1867, using the antiseptic methods
he introduced, English physician Dr. Joseph
Lister completed a series of 11 compound fractures. His reports of
these treatments in The Lancet
forever changed surgical techniques. |
