| MAY 7 - BIRTHS | |
| Sidney Altman | |
 Born 7
May 1939
Canadian-American molecular biologist who, with Thomas R. Cech, received the 1989 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for their discoveries concerning RNA, or ribonucleic acid. |
|
| Simon Ramo | |
| Born 7
May 1913
American engineer who made notable contributions to electronics and was chief scientist (1954-58) of the U.S. intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) program. |
|
| Raymond Arthur Lyttleton | |
(source) |
Born 7
May 1911; died 16 May 1995.
English mathematician and theoretical astronomer who researched stellar evolution and composition. In 1939, with Fred Hoyle, he demonstrated the large scale existance of interstellar hydrogen, refuting the existing belief of that space was devoid of interstellar gas. Together, in the early 1940's, they applied nuclear physics to explain how energy is generated by stars. In his own mongraph (1953) Lyttleton described stability of rotating liquid masses, which he extended later to explain that the Earth had a liquid core resulting from a phase change associated with a combination of intense pressure and temperature. With Hermann Bondi, in 1959, he proposed the electrostatic theory of the expanding universe. He authored various astronomy books.  Mysteries
of the solar system, by Raymond Arthur Lyttleton. |
| Edwin Herbert Land | |
1947 (source) |
Born 7
May 1909; died 1 Mar 1991.
American inventor and physicist whose one-step process for developing and printing photographs was the greatest innovation in photography since the introduction of roll film. He first demonstrated the Polaroid Land Camera in 1947, which gave fully developed prints in 60 seconds. Land also applied the name Polaroid to the light-polarizing filter he had previously invented by embedding suitable crystals in a plastic sheet, which was widely known for its use in the lenses of sunglasses. |
| Alton A. Lindsey | |
(source) |
Born 7 May 1907; died 19 Dec 1999
Alton A(nthony) Lindsey, an American biologist, was a pioneer ecologist and conservationist who mobilized support from scientists, educators and in Congress to preserve the Indiana shore of Lake Michigan. In Oct 1966, the 5,800 acre Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore was established. In his early career, he travelled to Antarctica as vertebrate zoologist for Adm. Richard E. Byrd's second expedition (1933-35). Lindsey studied the continent's animal life: seals and penguins. Throughout his life he observed the planetary ecosystem in many lands, on the seas, in plains and prairies, the deserts and mountains, forests, the tropics, and both polar regions. At his death, he was believed to be the last living scientist from the Antarctica expeditions.« |
| Paul Rivet | |
1947 (source) |
Born 7
May 1876; died 25 Mar 1958.
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.« |
| Oskar von Miller | |
(source) |
Born 7
May 1855; died 9 Apr 1934.
Electrical engineer who fostered the electric-power industry in Germany and founded the Deutsches Museum of science and technology in Munich. He made fundamental initial experiments on long-distance energy transmission such as (in 1882) over 57 km from Miesbach to Munich with 1400 volts direct current. In 1891, he organized a 20,000-volt power transmission line over 175 km from Lauffen to Frankfurt, an important advance in the transmission of alternating current. From 1918-24, he was project manager building the power station on Lake Walchen, at that time the largest hydroelectric power station in the world. With an average of 300 million kWh a year, the Lake Walchen power plant is still one of Germany's largest peak load power stations. |
| Gustave Le Bon | |
| Born 7
May 1841; died 13 Dec 1931.
French social psychologist best known for his study of the psychological characteristics of crowds. |
|
| Karl Mauch | |
(source) |
Born 7
May 1837; died 4 Apr 1875.
Karl (Gottlieb) Mauch was a German explorer who made geological and archaeological discoveries in southern Africa, notably the Tati goldfields in Hartley Hills (1867) and the Great Zimbabwe ruins of an ancient city (1871), both in modern Zimbabwe. He was the first European to investigate the massive and extensive walls of the Great Zimbabe ruins, the biggest and most significant structures erected before the modern era. He wrongly held that they could not have been constructed by black Africans. He thought it was the palace of Queen Sheeba and he called it "the city of gold." However, he did make a detailed floor plan of monuments, describe building techniques and the religious acitivies conducted around the monument. [Image: aerial view of the Great Zimbabwe ruins.] Karl
Mauch: African explorer, by Karl Mauch. |
| Alexis Claude Clairaut | |
| Born 7
May 1713; died 17 May 1765.
French mathematician who as child prodigy was studying calculus at age 10. He was the first person to estimate the mass of Venus to a close value. |
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| MAY 7 - DEATHS | |
| Allan MacLeod Cormack | |
(source) |
 Died
7 May 1998 (born 23 Feb 1924)
South African-born American physicist who formulated the mathematical algorithms that made possible the development of a powerful new diagnostic technique, the cross-sectional X-ray imaging process known as computerized axial tomography (CAT) scanning. He first described this in two papers in 1963 and 1964. X-ray tomography is a process by which a picture of an imaginary slice through an object (or the human body) is built up from information from detectors rotating around the body. For this work, he was awarded a share of the 1979 Nobel Prize. Cormack was unusual in the field of Nobel laureates because he never earned a doctorate degree in medicine or any other field of science. |
| Wilhelm Filchner | |
| Died
7 May 1957 (born 13 Sep 1877)
scientist and explorer who led the German Antarctic expedition of 1911-12. |
|
| Sir James George Frazer | |
(source) |
Died
7 May 1941 (born 1 Jan 1854)
Scottish anthropologist , folklorist, classical scholar, and author of The Golden Bough, a study in Comparative Religion, which traced the evolution of human behavior. This vast collection of savage and civilized beliefs and customs, myth, magic, religion, ritual, and taboo is considered among the greatest works of anthropology. It was named after the golden bough in the sacred grove at Nemi, near Rome. It began as two volumes in 1890 and became 12 volumes by 1915. He did no field work; his research was library-based. Although still considered a storehouse of ethnographic information, his theories belong in history rather than current ideas of anthropology. His notions of totemism were subsequenty destroyed by Lévi-Stauss. |
| William Lever | |
(source) |
Died
7 May 1925 (born 19 Sep 1851)
(1st Viscount Leverhulme) British soap manufacturer and philanthropist. In 1886, the Lever Brothers soap manufacturing company was formed by William and his brother James (though James was not an active participant in running the business). It was one of the first companies to manufacture soap from vegetable oils instead of tallow. From 1888, Lever established Port Sunlight, a model community providing housing and support for the company's workers, who enjoyed conditions, pay, hours, and benefits far better than found in similar industries. By 1900 the factory was producing other brands such as Lifebuoy, Lux Flakes, Monkey Brand, Vim scouring powder and Rinso. In 1914, soap production reached 60,000 tonnes.« The
King of Sunlight: How William Lever Cleaned Up the World,
by Adam Macqueen. |
| James Nasmyth | |
(source) |
Died
7 May 1890 (born 19 Aug 1808)
Scottish engineer who invented the steam-hammer (24 Nov 1839) which was patented in Britain on 9 Jun 1842 (No. 9382). In his early career, Naysmth improved the design of machine tools. Power hammers that had previously been driven by steam, but Nasmyth designed his steam-hammer with more precision and control. The steam functioned to lift the hammer which then dropped by gravity, and continued to repeat the cycle. Nasmyth adapted the idea to make a steam pile-driver. With later improvements, the steam-hammer enabled forging very large guns for the British navy. He became wealthy and in 1856 was able to retire at the age of 48. After retirement, Nasmyth pursued his hobby of astronomy, in which he published minor works.« |
| David Fabricius | |
 |
Died
7 May 1617 (born 9 Mar 1564)
A German astronomer, friend of Tycho Brahe and Kepler, and one of the first to follow Galileo in telescope observation of the skies. He is best known for a naked-eye observation of a star in Aug 1596, subsequently named Omicron Ceti, the first variable star to be discovered, and now known as Mira. Its existence with variable brightness contradicted the Aristotelian dogma that the heavens were both perfect and constant. With his son, Johannes Fabricius, he observed the sun and noted sunspots. For further observations they invented the use of a camera obscura and recorded sun-spot motion indicating the rotation of the Sun. David Fabricius, a Protestant minister, was killed by a parishioner angered upon being accused by him as a thief. |
| MAY 7 - EVENTS | |
| Space Shuttle Endeavour | |
In 1992, the space shuttle Endeavour blasted off on its maiden voyage.
The Endeavour launch, as the $2 billion replacement for the Challenger,
was the 47th shuttle mission. While capturing and correcting the orbit
of a satellite, the astronauts set new U.S. records for duration of spacewalk
and the number of astronauts outside the craft. |
|
| Telestar II | |
|
In 1963, the United States launched the Telstar II communications
satellite on behalf of its private owner, AT&T.On its tenth orbit,
it transmitted the first transatlantic TV program seen in colour. It orbited
with an apogee of 6,700 miles (10,800 km). This superceded AT&T's original
Telstar
satellite, which had ceased operating in 1962, due to transistor damage
caused by radiation from a high-altitude nuclear test. Telstar II
was built with shielding against such radiation. |
|
| Salk vaccine troubles | |
|
In 1955, polio vaccinations with the Salk vaccine were suspended by the
U.S. Surgeon General. Several children had acquired the disease from the
vaccine. The trouble was traced to faulty production at an independent
laboratory, but it is the inventor's name, Jonas Salk, which is unjustly
most remembered for the vaccine's shortcomings. |
|
| Integrated circuit | |
|
In 1952, the concept of the integrated circuit chip was first presented,
at a Symposium on Progress in Quality Electronic Components in Washington
DC., by radar scientist Geoffrey W.A. Dummer. His small team of researchers
at the Royal Radar Establishment of the British Ministry of Defence, based
at Malvern, Worcestershire, was working on the task of improving the reliability
of the Royal Air Force's radar equipment.. He believed that it would be
possible to fabricate multiple circuit elements on and into a block of
silicon half an inch square. In 1956, his initial attempts to build such
a circuit failed, and thereafter could get no further support for his idea.
Britain lost
the commercial lead. A few years later, in America, Jack
Kilby of Texas Instruments was awarded a U.S. patent for essentially
the same idea.« |
|
| Fire escape ladder | |
|
In 1878, Joseph.R. Winters, a black American inventor, received a patent
for a fire escape ladder.
The
Inventive Spirit of African Americans: Patented Ingenuity,
by Patricia Carter Sluby. |
|
| American Medical Association | |
(source) |
In 1847, delegates to a national medical convention in Philadelphia, Pennylvania,
approved a resolution to establish
the American Medical Association. Dr. Nathaniel Chapman was elected as
its first president. The goals of the association were scientific advancement,
standards for medical education, launching a program of medical ethics
and improved public health. From 28 states, 250 delegates attended this
founding meeting, seated among exhibit cases in the hall of The Academy
of Natural Sciences. Dr. Nathan S. Davis is known as the founder of the
AMA because of his 1845 resolution to the New York Medical Association
that called for the national medical convention that led to the forming
of the AMA. At its founding, he was just 30 years old. |
| Macaroni | |
|
In 1660, Isaack B Fubine of Savoy, in The Hague, patents macaroni. |
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