| AUGUST 30 - BIRTHS | |
| Sylvia A. Earle | |
(source) |
 Born 30
Aug 1935
American oceanographer who is a devout advocate of public education regarding the importance of the oceans as an essential environmental habitat. In 1990, Earle was named the first woman to serve as chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the agency that conducts underwater research, manages fisheries, and monitors marine spills. She was among the first underwater explorers to make use of modern self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (SCUBA) gear, and identified many new species of marine life. With her former husband, Graham Hawkes, Earle designed and built a submersible craft that could dive to unprecedented depths of 3,000 feet.  Atlas
of the Ocean: The Deep Frontier by Sylvia Earle |
| E.M. Purcell | |
| Born 30
Aug 1912; died 7 Mar 1997.
American physicist who shared, with Felix Bloch of the United States, the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1952 for his independent discovery (1946) of nuclear magnetic resonance in liquids and in solids. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) has become widely used to study the molecular structure of pure materials and the composition of mixtures. The method detects and measures the magnetic fields of atomic nuclei. |
|
| John W. Mauchly | |
(source) |
Born 30
Aug 1907; died 8 Jan 1980.
American physicist and engineer, who with John P. Eckert invented (1946) the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC), the first general-purpose electronic computer. Mauchly initially conceived of the computer's architecture, and Eckert possessed the engineering skills to bring the idea to life. ENIAC was developed (1946) for the US Army Ordnance Department as what was probably the first general-purpose electronic computer. It was a vast machine, consuming 100 kW of electric power and containing 18,000 electronic valves. Their successful UNIVAC computer (1951) was the first commercial computer, and introduced magnetic tape for programming. |
| Theodor H.E. Svedberg | |
(source) |
Born 30
Aug 1884; died 25 Feb 1971.
Swedish chemist who won the 1926 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his study of the chemistry of colloids and his invention of an ultracentrifuge (1923) as a technique for investigating the molecular weights of very large molecules. He showed that the molecular weights of proteins were much higher than originally thought (haemoglobin, for example, has a molecular weight of about 68,000). Since weight measurements repeatedly gave the same values, which implies that the particles had a definite size and composition, Svedberg thus disproved Wilhelm Ostwald's model of irregular assemblies of smaller molecules. Svedberg also contributed to development of the cyclotron and the the electrophoresis process of chemical analysis.«  |
| Sir Ernest Rutherford | |
(source) |
Born 30
Aug 1871; died 19 Oct 1937.
(baron) New Zealand-born British physicist who laid the groundwork for the development of nuclear physics. He worked under Sir J. J. Thomson at Cambridge University (1895-98). Then he collaborated with Frederick Soddy in studying radioactivity. In 1899 he discovered alpha particles and beta particles, followed by the discovery of gamma radiation the following year. In 1905, with Soddy, he announced that radioactive decay involves a series of transformations. In 1907, with Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden, he devised the alpha-particle scattering experiment that led in 1911 to the discovery of the atomic nucleus. In 1919 he achieved the artificial splitting of light atoms. In 1908 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry.  A
Force of Nature: The Frontier Genius of Ernest Rutherford,
by Richard Reeves. |
| Jacobus Henricus van't Hoff | |
| Born 30
Aug 1852; died 1 Mar 1911.
physical chemist and first winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry (1901) for work on rates of reaction, chemical equilibrium, and osmotic pressure. |
|
| AUGUST 30 - DEATHS | |
| Fred Whipple | |
(source) |
 Died
30 Aug 2004 (born 5 Nov 1906)
Fred Lawrence Whipple was an American astronomer who proposed the "dirty snowball" model for comet nuclei. In the 1930s, using a new, two-station method of photography, he determined meteor trajectories and found that nearly all visible meteors are made up of fragile material from comets, and that none come from beyond the solar system. Whipple suggested (1950) that comets have icy cores inside thin insulating layers of dirt, and that jets of material ejected as a result of solar heating were the cause of orbital changes. This model was confirmed in 1986 when spacecraft flew past comet Halley. Whipple’s work on tracking artificial satellites led to improved knowledge of the shape of the earth and greatly improved positions on earth. |
| Albert F. Frey-Wyssling | |
(source) |
Died 30 Aug 1988 (born 8 Nov 1900)
Albert F(riedrich) Frey-Wyssling was a Swiss botanist and pioneer of submicroscopic morphology who helped to initiate the study later known as molecular biology. This scientific discipline deals with the molecular basis of living processes. Molecular biology now involves both biochemistry and biophysics. Its growth since the 1930s has been made possible by the development of such techniques as chromatography, electron microscopy, and X-ray diffraction, which have revealed the structures of biologically important molecules, such as DNA, RNA, and enzymes. Heredity, and the development, organization, and function of living cells, all depend on the physical and chemical properties of the molecules involved. |
| Sir J.J. Thomson | |
(source) |
Died
30 Aug 1940 (born 18 Dec 1856)
Sir J(oseph) J(ohn) Thomson was an English physicist who helped revolutionize the knowledge of atomic structure by his discovery of the electron (1897). He received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1906 and was knighted in 1908. Thomson experimented with currents of electricity inside empty glass tubes, investigating a long-standing puzzle known as "cathode rays." His experiments prompted him to make a bold proposal: these mysterious rays are streams of particles much smaller than atoms. He called these particles "corpuscles," and suggested that they might make up all of the matter in atoms. It was startling to imagine a particles inside the atom at a time when most people thought that the atom was indivisible, the most fundamental unit of matter. |
| Wilhelm Wien | |
(source) |
Died
30 Aug 1928 (born 13 Jan 1864)
German physicist who received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1911 for his displacement law concerning the radiation emitted by the perfectly efficient blackbody (a surface that absorbs all radiant energy falling on it). While studying streams of ionized gas Wien, in 1898, identified a positive particle equal in mass to the hydrogen atom. Wien, with this work, laid the foundation of mass spectroscopy. J J Thomson refined Wien's apparatus and conducted further experiments in 1913 then, after work by E Rutherford in 1919, Wien's particle was accepted and named the proton. Wien also made important contributions to the study of cathode rays, X-rays and canal rays. |
| Charles-Bernard Desormes | |
(source) |
Died
30 Aug 1862 (born 3 June 1771)
French chemist who collaborated with Nicolas Clément (later to become his son-in-law) in scientific investigations including the exact determination of the composition of carbon monoxide and carbon disulphide. They also experimentally determined the ratio of the specific heats of gases (1819). In independent work, following up on Volta's pile, Desormes devised dry electric piles composed of metallic disks separated by a layer of salt paste (1801-04). In the period c.1812-19, with Clement, Desormes studied heat and crudely estimated absolute zero. Later in life he turned to politics, with election losses at first, but after some years leading to becoming a member of the Constituent Assembly on 23 Apr 1848.« [Image: Apparatus used by Clement and Desormes to determine the density of air.] |
| Simon Willard | |
| Died
30 Aug 1848 (born 3 Apr 1753)
U.S. clockmaker, creator of the timepiece that came to be known as the banjo clock, and a member of a Massachusetts family of clockmakers designing and producing brass-movement clocks from 1765 to 1850. |
|
| Francis Baily | |
(EB) |
Died
30 Aug 1844 (born 28 Apr 1774)
English astronomer who detected the phenomenon called "Baily's beads" during an annular eclipse of the Sun on 15 May 1836. His vivid description aroused new interest in the study of eclipses. After retiring in 1825 from a successful business career, Baily turned to science. Baily revised several star catalogs, repeated Henry Cavendish's experiments to determine the density of the Earth, and measured its elliptical shape. His protests regarding the British Nautical Almanac, then notorious for its errors, were instrumental in bringing about its reform. |
| AUGUST 30 - EVENTS | |
| First black astronaut | |
(source) |
In 1983, Guion S. Bluford Jr. became the first black American astronaut
to travel in space, aboard the third flight of the shuttle Challenger
on the eighth Space Shuttle Mission. This was the first mission to launch
and land at night. During 98 orbits of the Earth in 145 hours, the crew
deployed the Indian National Satellite (INSAT-1B); operated the Canadian-built
Remote Manipulator System with the Payload Flight Test Article; operated
the Continuous Flow Electrophoresis System with live cell samples; conducted
medical measurements to understand biophysiological effects on space flight.
STS-8 landed on 5 Sep 1983. By 1992, Bluford had spent 688 hours on four
space shuttle flights.« |
| Comet strikes Sun | |
(source) |
In 1979, Comet
Howard-Koomen-Michels (SOLWIND I) collided
with the Sun, the first
recorded comet to collide with Sun and the first discovered by a spacecraft.
The coronographs taken on 30 and 31 Aug 1979 from the satellite P78-1 used
to monitor solar corona activity were not inspected until Sep 1981, by
Russ Howard. The recording instruments were designed and operated by Martin
Koomen and Don Michels. The remarkable series of images showed the comet
heading around the Sun. Its perihelion distance was too small, and the
head did not reappear from behind the Sun, presumably disintegrated by
the heat of the sun. The decapitated comet's tail continued, becoming fan-like,
brightening the corona, until dissipated and blown away from the Sun.«
[Image:
comet approaching sun and later the remaining tail dissipates in the corona.] |
| Hot line | |
(source) |
In 1963, the "Hot
Line" communications link
between the White House, Washington D.C. and the Kremlin, Moscow, went
into operation to provide a direct two-way communications
channel between the American and Soviet governments in the event of an
international crisis. This was one year after the Cuban Missile Crisis.
It consisted
of one full-time duplex wire telegraph circuit, routed Washington- London-
Copenhagen- Stockholm- Helsinki- Moscow, used for the transmission of messages
and one full-time duplex radiotelegraph circuit, routed Washington- Tangier-
Moscow used for service communications and for coordination of operations
between the two terminal points. Note, this was not a telephone voice link. |
| Gas electric automobile | |
|
In 1929, Colonel E. H. Green took delivery of a new combination gas and
electric automobile, built by the General Electric Company. |
|
| First motorcycle patent | |
|
In 1885, the first motorcycle was patented by Gottlieb
Daimler in Germany.* |
|
| Darwin wishes to be Beagle naturalist | |
(source) |
In 1831, Charles Darwin replied
to the letter from Revd. Henslow telling him of the offer to sail on the
H.M.S.
Beagle. Darwin's had learned natural history from Henslow, who had
recommended him for the unpaid position as a naturalist. Darwin told Henslow
that his father would not permit him to leave on such a the voyage. Meanwhile,
his father had written to his brother-in-law, Josiah Wedgwood II, about
his concerns regarding the proposed two-year jaunt. This afternoon Darwin
prepared to join the Wedgwoods for the next day's beginning of the shooting
season by riding to Maer Hall, the Wedgwood home. The Darwin family was
related to the Wedgwood family through the marriage of Darwin's father
to the daughter of the first Josiah Wedgwood, the famous potter.« 
From
So Simple a Beginning: Darwin's Four Great Books, by
Charles Darwin, Edward O. Wilson. |
| Faraday demonstrates transformer | |
|
In 1831, Michael Faraday demonstrated the first electrical transformer.* |
|
