| Jul 18 - BIRTHS | |
| Hartmut Michel | |
(source) |
 Born 18
Jul 1948
German biochemist who, along with Johann Deisenhofer and Robert Huber, received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1988 for their determination of the three-dimensional structure of certain proteins that are essential for photosynthesis. They are the first to succeed in unravelling the full details of how a membrane-bound protein is built up, revealing the structure of the molecule atom by atom. The protein is taken from a bacterium which, like green plants and algae, uses light energy from the sun to build organic substances. All our nourishment has its origin in this process, which is called photosynthesis and which is a condition for all life on earth. |
| Roald Hoffmann | |
(source) |
Born 18
Jul 1937
Polish-born American chemist, corecipient, with Fukui Kenichi of Japan, of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1981 for their independent investigations of the mechanisms of chemical reactions. His work aims at theoretically anticipating the course of chemical reactions. It is based on quantum mechanics (the theory whose starting point is that the smallest building blocks of matter may be regarded both as particles and as waves), which attempts to explain how atoms behave. Orbital interaction and symmetry relations between molecules or parts of molecules are fundamental to this theory of conservation of orbital symmetry in chemical reactions. |
| Thomas S. Kuhn | |
(source) |
Born 18
Jul 1922; died 17 June 1996.
Thomas S(amuel) Kuhn was an American historian of science, MIT professor, noted for The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962), one of the most influential works of history and philosophy written in the 20th century. His thesis was that science was not a steady, cumulative acquisition of knowledge, but it is "a series of peaceful interludes punctuated by intellectually violent revolutions." Then appears a Lavoisier or an Einstein, often a young scientist not indoctrinated in the accepted theories, to sweep the old paradigm away. Such revolutions, he said, came only after long periods of tradition-bound normal science. "Frameworks must be lived with and explored before they can be broken," |
| Charles Palache | |
(source) |
Born 18
Jul 1869; died 5 Dec 1954
One of the most eminent crystallographers and mineralogists of the world, he lived in a period of revolutionary developments in mineralogical science. At the University of California (PhD 1887), he did the field work for the first geologic maps of the San Francisco Peninsula and the Berkley area. In 1895, while at Heidelberg taking courses in petrography, he was introduced to morphological crystallography by Victor Goldschmidt. Palache threw himself with enthusiasm into the study of crystals, and laid the foundation for the work he pursued vigorously for the next fifty-five years. Image: Crystal drawing of usual graphite crystal from Sterling Hill, NJ, from Palache's 1941 paper in American Mineralogist. |
| Hendrik Antoon Lorentz | |
(source) |
Born 18
Jul 1853; died 4 Feb 1928.
Dutch physicist and joint winner (with Pieter Zeeman) of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1902 for his theory of the influence of magnetism upon electromagnetic radiation phenomena. The theory was confirmed by findings of Zeeman and gave rise to Albert Einstein's special theory of relativity. From the start, Lorentz made it his task to extend James Clerk Maxwell's theory of electricity and of light. Already in his doctor's thesis, he treated the reflection and refraction phenomena of light from this new standpoint. His fundamental work in the fields of optics and electricity revolutionized conceptions of the nature of matter. In 1878, he published an essay relating the velocity of light in a medium, to its density and composition.. |
| Jean Robert Argand | |
| Born 18
Jul 1768; died 13 Aug 1822.
Swiss mathematician who was one of the earliest to use complex numbers, which he applied to show that all algebraic equations have roots. He invented the Argand diagram - a geometrical representation of complex numbers as a point with the real portion of the number on the x axis and the imaginary part on the y axis.« |
|
| Gilbert White | |
 |
Born 18
Jul 1720; died 26 Jun 1793
English cleric and pioneering naturalist, known as the "father of English natural history." Over the course of 20 years of his observations and two colleagues' letters, he studied a wide range of flora and fauna seen around his hometown of Selborne, Hampshire. In 1789, he published this studious work. His book The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne contained observations of nature drawn from life. The book has been in print continuously since 1789, and is the fourth most published book in the English language. 
 The
Natural History of Selborne, by Gilbert White |
| Samuel Molyneux | |
| Born 18
Jul 1689; died 13 Apr 1728.
British astronomer (Royal Observatory at Kew) and politician. Together with assistant James Bradley, he made measurements of abberation - the diversion of light from stars. They made observations of the star  Draconis with a vertical telescope. Starting in 1725 they had the proof of the movement of the earth giving support to the Copernican model of the earth revolving around the sun. The star oscillated with an excursion of 39 arcsecs between its lowest declination in May and its the highest point of its oscillation in September. He was unfortunate to fall ill in 1728 and into the care of the Anatomist to the Royal Family, Dr Nathaniel St Andre, whose qualifications were as a dancing master. Molyneux died shortly thereafter. |
|
| Robert Hooke | |
(source) |
Born 18 Jul 1635; died 3 Mar 1703.
English physicist, born Freshwater, Isle of Wight, who discovered the law of elasticity, known as Hooke's law, and invented the balance spring for clocks. He was a virtuoso scientist whose scope of research ranged widely, including physics, astronomy, chemistry, biology, geology, architecture and naval technology. On 5 Nov 1662, Hooke was appointed the Curator of Experiments at the Royal Society, London. After the Great Fire of London (1666), he served as Chief Surveyor and helped rebuild the city. He also invented or improved meteorological instruments such as the barometer, anemometer, and hygrometer. Hooke authored the influential Micrographia (1665).« [Image
left: from a recently discovered portrait, believed
(by Lisa Jardine) to be the only authentic picture of Hooke. Image right:
Hooke's compound microscope
(source).]
The
Curious Life of Robert Hooke: The Man Who Measured London, by
Lisa Jardine |
|
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| Jul 18 - DEATHS | |
| Gene Shoemaker | |
(source) |
 Died
18 Jul 1997 (born 28 Apr 1928)
Eugene Merle Shoemaker was an American planetary geologist. Shoemaker initiated and vigorously promoted the intensive geologic training of the astronauts that made them able scientific observers and reporters on moon landings. He was a major investigator of the imaging by unmanned Ranger and Surveyor satellites which, before any Apollo landing, revealed the nature of the Moon's cover of soil and broken rock that he named the regolith. He codiscovered Comet P/Shoemaker-Levy 9 which collided with Jupiter (1994), the first observed collision of two solar system bodies. He died in a car crash. In tribute, a small capsule of his ashes were launched in a memorial capsule aboard Lunar Prospector to the moon. |
| Karl Augustus Menninger | |
| Died
18 Jul 1990 (born 22 Jul 1893)
American physician, who with his father, Charles Frederick Menninger and younger brother, pioneered methods of psychiatric treatment in the 20th century. In group practice, they established facilities that linked two concepts: the psychoanalytic understanding of behaviour as applied to the treatment of hospitalized patients, and the use of the social environment of the hospital as an adjunct to therapy. In 1941, To fulfill their goal to combine medical practice, research, and education, the family formed the Menninger Foundation in 1941 and four years later the Menninger School of Psychiatry. The foundation has been extensively involved in psychiatric education, training, and research. |
|
| Corneille Heymans | |
| Died
18 Jul 1968 (born 28 Mar 1892)
Belgian physiologist who received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1938 for his discovery of the regulatory effect on respiration of sensory organs associated with the carotid artery in the neck and with the aortic arch leading from the heart (1927-29). |
|
| Henri Farman | |
| Died
18 Jul 1958 (born 1874)
French aviator and aircraft constructor who developed ailerons (1908) to solve the enormously difficult and dangerous problems of lateral control. His an innovation subsequently came into general use on all planes. His first steps in aircraft design began in 1907 when he ordered his own aircraft incorporating his design modifications of a dihedral in the wings and the reduction of the tail to a single plane. These intuitive rather than scientific modifications were the beginning of a long career in which Farman diagnosed and solved a myriad of aircraft control and structural problems. The Farman “Goliath” was the first long-distance passenger airliner, beginning regular Paris–London flights on 8 Feb 1919. |
|
| Charles Hubbard Judd | |
 |
Died
18 Jul 1946 (born 20 Feb 1873)
U.S. psychologist who was a leader adopting the scientific method in the study and reform of education. His own research included the nature and development in reading, language, number ideas and their development, writing, and the higher mental processes. He examined the psychological issues of school curriculum and the pedagogical methods used in education. He believed an overarching educational objective was to developing the learner's social consciousness, rather than the expression of an individual's instinct, but to participate in a cooperative social experience. He filed an affidavit at the Scope's trial in strong support of the teaching of evolution in schools.« The
evolution of a democratic school system, by Charles Hubbard
Judd. |
| Oskar Minkowski | |
| Died
18 Jul 1931 (born 13 Jan 1858)
German physiologist and pathologist who introduced the concept that diabetes results from suppression of a pancreatic substance (later found to be the hormone insulin). After studying how fat is metabolized by the body, in 1889, Oskar Minkowski and Joseph von Mering uncovered the role of the pancreas in diabetes. In an experiment in which they removed the pancreas from a dog, it consequently developed diabetes. He was the brother of mathematician Hermann Minkowski (whose idea of a four-dimensional or "Minkowski space", laid the mathematical foundation of Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity). Oskar's son, Rudolf Minkowski was a physicist and astronomer. |
|
| Pierre-Louis Dulong | |
(source) |
Died
18 Jul 1838 (born 12 Feb 1785)
Chemist and physicist who helped formulate the Dulong-Petit law of specific heats (1819), which proved useful in determining atomic weights. |
| Jul 18 - EVENTS | |
| Artificial insemination birth | |
 |
In 1994, Rosanna Della Corte, a 62-year-old Italian woman, gave birth to
a healthy son, Riccardo. Her egg was artificially imseminated by the sperm
of her 63-year-old husband, Mauro, at Dr. Severino Antinori’s fertility
clinic in Rome, Italy. Rosanna Della Corte had earlier lost her only son
at 17 in a terrible car accident. She had often tried to adopt another
son, but in vain. These were the reasons she turned to the procedure. In
reaction, restrictions were introduced in the Italian legislature in the
wake of a papal encyclical, Evangelium Vitae, condemning in vitro fertilization
and many of other high-tech fertility procedures. |
| Mir | |
|
In 1990, the airlock hatch on the Soviet space station Mir could
not be closed by the cosmonauts returning after a seven-hour space walk
making an exterior inspection and repairs. The hatch had been damaged
when it was pushed back on its hinges by residual air escaping when the
cover was opened to begin the spacewalk. Instead, Anatoly Solovyov
and Aleksandr Balandin stayed behind an interior airlock in another part
of the station for eight days. After their next spacewalk to continue repairs
on 26 Jul, they managed to secure the hatch and repressurize as normal.*« |
|
| Titanic explored | |
(source) |
In 1986, videotapes, taken by the deep-sea Alvin submersible, showing Titanic's
remains were released. Looking like huge stalagmites rusticles
("rust icicles"), are a byproduct of the bacteria slowly converting the
iron in the hull. The colony of iron-eating bacteria flourish in the anaerobic
(without oxygen) environment inside the hollow multi-layered rusticles
while on the outside, porous layers support oxygen-dependent bacteria.
In this eerie way, there is still life on the Titanic as the ship lies
deep on the ocean floor. |
| Intel incorporates | |
|
In 1968, the Intel Corporation, inventor of the microchip, was incorporated.
In 1968, a Hungarian immigrant by the name of Andy Grove co-founded Intel
with a collaboration of colleagues with the same interest, to revolutionize
the computer world. In 1971, Intel released its first microprocessor,
the 4004 designed for a calculator. In 1972 came the more powerful 8008.
With the introduction of the 8080 in 1974, the first personal computers
were made possible. |
| Heart Surgery | |
 |
In 1963, the first implantation
of an intrathoracic left artificial ventricle in a human being was made
by Dr. E. Stanley Crawford, at the Baylor University College of Medicine,
Methodist Hospital, Houston Tx. USA. The original prototype is kept and
exhibited at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. Within a few
years, on 4 Apr 1969, the first total artificial heart was implanted, used
as a bridge to heart transplantation by Dr. Denton A. Cooley, at the Texas
Heart Institute, Houston Tx. USA. |
| Messerschmitt Jet | |
(source) |
In 1942, Messerschmitt Me 262 Schwalbe, Germany's first operational
jet fighter, takes first flight. The Me262 surprised the Allies with its
speed advantage - around 100 or more miles per hour. Although it could
still be intercepted by Allied piston-engine fighters, when the Nazi jet
was at speed it could escape an enemy. However, introduced near the end
of World War II, and with limited numbers available, the Me 262 had limited
effect on the progress of the war. Photos
© 1994, Smithsonian Institution. |
| Industrial pollution | |
(source) |
In 1876, a Royal Commission on Noxious Vapours was appointed by the British
government to inquire into the management of chemical works, to determine
the effects of certain gases and vapours emitted, and investigate means
of prevention. The Commission inspected
alkali works, cement works, chemical manure works, copper, glass, lead,
salt and metal works, coke ovens and potteries. In their report,
issued in Aug 1878, they recommended increasing the number of visits by
inspectors, recording any escapes of gases, the publication of inspectors'
reports, and more stringent regulations, despite witnesses arguing that
noxious vapours were the inevitable and unalterable cost of national prosperity.
[*
p.251] |
| First series of photographs of solar eclipse | |
|
In 1860, a series of photographs of a total solar eclipse was made by Warren
De la Rue (1815-1889) in Spain, and by Father A. Secchi at another location
500-km away. The value of photography as a means of investigating the solar
appendages was demonstrated when the images were compared at various stages
of the eclipse. The moon was clearly seen to advance over the "red
protuberances" and settle forever that they belonged to the sun and and
not the moon. |
|
| N. American International Railroad | |
 |
In 1853, trains begin running over the first North American international
railroad between Portland, Maine and Montreal, Quebec. St. Lawrence
& Atlantic Railroad/ Canadian National Railroad was first proposed
in 1843, when John A. Poor of Portland advocated building a railway from
Montreal to Portland in conjunction with a railroad through Maine east
to Saint John, New Brunswick and Halifax, Nova Scotia. This resulted in
the formation of the Atlantic & St. Lawrence Railroad in Maine which
is today known as the St. Lawrence & Atlantic Railroad. The railroad
was opened for ttraffic on Jul 18, 1853 and was taken over by the Grand
Trunk the same year. |
| Oil | |
(source) |
In 1627, French explorers noticed oil seeping out of the ground near Cuba,
New York. The phenomenon was described by the Franciscan Missionary Joseph
DeLa Roch D'Allion, which was the first recorded mention of oil on the
North American Continent. The Seneca Oil Spring is located near the spillway
end of Cuba Lake on the Oil Spring Indian Reservation. |
