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� Image used with permission from
Nov 1999 American Heritage magazine.


What's New - Recently added pages

David Attenborough and close up of Panamanian Golden Frog

David Attenborough: The Last Wave

To recognize the 97th birthday (8 May 2023) of acclaimed natural history presenter David Attenborough, a webpage has been added about “The Last Wave” of the Panamanian Golden Frog. It is a brief excerpt, a real-life story, from his book, Life on Air: Memoirs of a Broadcaster. Attenborough tells how, knowing that this interesting amphibian was on the brink of extinction in the wild, a particular effort was made to film the animal in its natural habitat before it no longer existed there. He explains the reason for the decline of the species, and how several zoos have joined in a breeding program to keep the species in existence, protected from harm. The frog is interesting to look at, and the article is an interesting short read.


Graphic of a judge at his court bench

Concerns for Science: Attacks on Science in America for four years from 20 Jan 2017

On 20 Jan 2017, a new adminstration moved into the White House, which immediately began attacking established science on climate change, protection of the environment, reduced federal budgets for science, and much more, by appointing unqualified individuals to several to key scientific and environmental positions who lacked relevant expertise or even were ideologically opposed to the mission of the agencies they were tasked to lead. By 22 Apr 2017, in Washington, D.C., scientists and concerned citizens took to the street to protest in the first March For Science. In the space of the four years of this combative administration there were so many attacks on science that it is worth a memory refresher of what damage was done. Read Concerns for Science 2017 to review the long list of negative actions.


Quote by Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence: Artificial Intelligence: Albert's Pet

A new quotation page features the astonishing ability of Artificial Intelligence to provide original art and an original limerick. The first created was for “Albert’s Pet”. Also read a limerick about Isaac Newton’s inspiration about his law of gravity, and another about reactions to Einstein’s E=mc². More will be added later. Visit the Artificial Intelligence Quotes page to view a larger image of “Albert’s Pet” and more original illustrations made with the help of Artificial Intelligence.


Other pages cover diverse topics that have caught your Webmaster's interest. Recent examples:

Education - Colin Powell - One Minute ReadHumane Leadership - Colin Powell - One Minute ReadForerunner of Copernicus—Forgotten Nicole OresmeThe Myth of the Falling AppleThe First Oil Fountains of Pennsylvania“The Logic of Elfland” by G.K. ChestertonProfessor Croftly’s Crime (1879)What We Owe the Trees (1882)The Indiana Pi Bill, 1897Animal Cruelty? No! Piccard “Defanged” a Rosebush, Not a Dog! (1933)The Mystery of Srinivasa Ramanujan's Illness The “Dancing” Statue Atop the Capitol Dome The Origin of the Word Chemistry Theodore Roosevelt - Naturalist Helium Gas Well in Kansas Origin of the Build a Better Mousetrap Quotation The Truth About the Truth Serum Tobacco and the Diseases it Produces - written in 1878 The English Channel Telegraph Cable The Origin of the Submarine Franklin's Kite Experiment With Modern Apparatus Muir of the Mountains Jefferson as a Man of Science Some Chemistry in the Science of Halloween Last CenturyDid Shakespeare Anticipate Newton on GravitationHow Was It Made a Century Ago - MoneyAstronomic GrandeurThe History of the Propeller Beanie and the Ultimate Propeller-HeadPoets' and Novelists' Anticipations of ScienceWho Invented the Sewing Machine?Richard Feynman on the French Curve - A Reflection on “Thinking Inside the Box.” ...(more)

Florence Nightingale Quotations Page thumbnail

Science Quotes Index by Scientist Name

Albert Einstein: I used to wonder how it comes about that the electron is negative. Negative-positive—these are perfectly symmetric in physics. There is no reason whatever to prefer one to the other. Then why is the electron negative? I thought about this for a long time and at last all I could think was “It won the fight!” ...(more by Einstein)

Richard Feynman: It is the facts that matter, not the proofs. Physics can progress without the proofs, but we can't go on without the facts ... if the facts are right, then the proofs are a matter of playing around with the algebra correctly. ...(more by Feynman)

Marie CurieWinston ChurchillGalileo GalileiSigmund FreudRobert BunsenThomas EdisonLouis PasteurTheodore RooseveltAbraham LincolnRonald ReaganLeonardo DaVinciKarl PopperJohann GoetheBenjamin FranklinRobert OppenheimerCharles Kettering  ... (more people)

Science Quotes Index by Topic

Atomic Bomb: I have always fancied that the end of the world will be when some enormous boiler, heated to three thousand millions of atmospheric pressure, shall explode and blow up the globe. ... They [the Americans] are great boilermakers. — Jules Verne (1863). ...(more on Atomic Bomb)

Blood: Ancient stars in their death throes spat out atoms like iron which this universe had never known. ... Now the iron of old nova coughings vivifies the redness of our blood. — Howard Bloom ...(more on Blood)

AnatomyAstronomyBacteriaBiochemistryBotanyConservationDinosaurEnvironmentFractalGeneticsGeologyHistory of ScienceInventionJupiterKnowledgeLoveMathematicsMeasurementMedicineNatural ResourceOrganic ChemistryPhysicsPhysicianQuantum TheoryResearchScience and ArtTeacherTechnologyUniverseVolcanoVirusWind PowerWomen ScientistsX-RaysYouthZoology  ... (more topics)

Short Stories of Science and Invention Page thumbnail Short Stories of Science and Invention

Weekly, from September 1942 to July 1945, Charles F. Kettering (who invented the first automobile self-starter) gave five-minute intermission talks about Science and Invention during the radio broadcasts of the General Motors Symphony of the Air. These radio talks are a fascinating legacy from the mind of a prolific inventor.

Research is a State of MindA Veterinarian “Shoes” a Horseless CarriageOrukter AmphibolosLady of the LampAn Idea ExplodesR-A-D-A-RA Man Who Groped in the DarkChristmas LecturerThe Crown JewelsGeorge Washington - Patriot, Statesman and ScientistFrom Cocoon to Test TubePurple Dye, Sun Glasses and Malaria ... (more stories)

Stories Abpout Chemistry Page thumbnail Stories About Chemistry

Henning Brand's “Philosopher's Stone”: There once lived in the Middle Ages in the German town of Hamburg a merchant by the name of Hennig Brand. We do not know how inventive he was in his trade operations, but can assert confidently that he had only a very crude idea of chemistry...
One fine evening the former merchant had a streak of luck. A substance, white as snow, settled at the bottom of his retort. It burned quickly, forming thick asphyxiating fumes. And the strangest thing was that it glowed in the dark. The cold light it gave off was so bright that Brand could read his ancient alchemical treatises by it (for him these treatises had now taken the place of business letters and receipts). (complete story)

How the Inert Gases Stopped Being InertThe Icicle's SecretsMortality and Immortality in the World of ElementsOn the Track of False SunsLittle Stories from ArcheologyA Hymn to Modern AlchemistsElement RegisterLightning and TortoisesHow to Make a Tortoise Go Like "Lightning" and Vice VersaHow Chemistry Made Friends with ElectricityEnemy Number One......And How to Fight ItA Luminous JetThe Sun as Chemist ... (more stories)

Perpetual Motion Page thumbnailPerpetual Motion

Introduction: The history of the search for perpetual motion does not afford a single instance of ascertained success; all that wears any appearance of probability remains secret, and like other secrets, can not be defended in any satisfactory way against the opinions of the skeptical, who have in their favor, in this instance, an appeal to learned authorities against the principle of all such machines, and the total want of operativeness in all known practical results. Published statements afford sorry examples of talents and ingenuity strangely misapplied. Some, but very few, are slightly redeemed from contempt by a glimpse of novelty. Of genius all are deficient, and the reproductions of known fallacies show a remarkable ignorance of first principles on one side and of the most ordinary sources of information on the other. ... (more)


Nature bears long with those who wrong her. She is patient under abuse. But when abuse has gone too far, when the time of reckoning finally comes, she is equally slow to be appeased and to turn away her wrath. (1882) -- Nathaniel Egleston, who was writing then about deforestation, but speaks equally well about the danger of climate change today.
Carl Sagan Thumbnail Carl Sagan: In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion. (1987) ...(more by Sagan)

Albert Einstein: I used to wonder how it comes about that the electron is negative. Negative-positive—these are perfectly symmetric in physics. There is no reason whatever to prefer one to the other. Then why is the electron negative? I thought about this for a long time and at last all I could think was “It won the fight!” ...(more by Einstein)

Richard Feynman: It is the facts that matter, not the proofs. Physics can progress without the proofs, but we can't go on without the facts ... if the facts are right, then the proofs are a matter of playing around with the algebra correctly. ...(more by Feynman)
Quotations by:Albert EinsteinIsaac NewtonLord KelvinCharles DarwinSrinivasa RamanujanCarl SaganFlorence NightingaleThomas EdisonAristotleMarie CurieBenjamin FranklinWinston ChurchillGalileo GalileiSigmund FreudRobert BunsenLouis PasteurTheodore RooseveltAbraham LincolnRonald ReaganLeonardo DaVinciMichio KakuKarl PopperJohann GoetheRobert OppenheimerCharles Kettering  ... (more people)

Quotations about:Atomic  BombBiologyChemistryDeforestationEngineeringAnatomyAstronomyBacteriaBiochemistryBotanyConservationDinosaurEnvironmentFractalGeneticsGeologyHistory of ScienceInventionJupiterKnowledgeLoveMathematicsMeasurementMedicineNatural ResourceOrganic ChemistryPhysicsPhysicianQuantum TheoryResearchScience and ArtTeacherTechnologyUniverseVolcanoVirusWind PowerWomen ScientistsX-RaysYouthZoology  ... (more topics)

Quiz thumbnail Today in Science History Quiz

In the margin of most pages, there is a multiple-choice quiz. Each page has a question served randomly from the database. Although there are some easy questions, others are designed to be challenging — to make you think. If you pick the right answer, congratulations. Three times in a row you can be very proud. Some questions should leave you feeling you found out something you hadn't thought about very much before. Enjoy! ... (quiz on this page)

Quiz thumbnail Today in Science Newsletter

Sign up for the email newsletter, and you will receive a daily dose of the science events and people for that day. Each newsletter may include a description and link to a feature article, some quotations from the scientists born or died on the day, and some quiz questions. Some days the scientist names or events are very familiar, and the questions are easier. Other days, the questions should raise your interest in knowing about the lesser known scientists. There is a link to instant answers online, or they also come in the next day's newsletter. ... (sign up)

Wall Calendar thumbnail Today in Science Wall Calendar

You can print out a calendar page for each month of the year which has a thumbnail picture related to a science anniversary on each day. Usually it will be on the person's birth day, some are on the date of death, and a few are for an event. ... (more)




Philo T. Farnsworth George Washington Carver Jonas Salk Henry Ford Orville Wright Wilbur Wright Albert Einstein Charles H. Townes Charles Steinmetz J. C. R. Licklider John Von Neumann William H. Gates III Robert Goddard James Dewey Watson Wallace Hume Carothers Rachel Carson Willis Carrier Gertrude Elion Edwin H. Armstrong Robert Noyce Thomas Edison Click to go to Page for TODAY
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- 100 -
Sophie Germain
Gertrude Elion
Ernest Rutherford
James Chadwick
Marcel Proust
William Harvey
Johann Goethe
John Keynes
Carl Gauss
Paul Feyerabend
- 90 -
Antoine Lavoisier
Lise Meitner
Charles Babbage
Ibn Khaldun
Euclid
Ralph Emerson
Robert Bunsen
Frederick Banting
Andre Ampere
Winston Churchill
- 80 -
John Locke
Bronislaw Malinowski
Bible
Thomas Huxley
Alessandro Volta
Erwin Schrodinger
Wilhelm Roentgen
Louis Pasteur
Bertrand Russell
Jean Lamarck
- 70 -
Samuel Morse
John Wheeler
Nicolaus Copernicus
Robert Fulton
Pierre Laplace
Humphry Davy
Thomas Edison
Lord Kelvin
Theodore Roosevelt
Carolus Linnaeus
- 60 -
Francis Galton
Linus Pauling
Immanuel Kant
Martin Fischer
Robert Boyle
Karl Popper
Paul Dirac
Avicenna
James Watson
William Shakespeare
- 50 -
Stephen Hawking
Niels Bohr
Nikola Tesla
Rachel Carson
Max Planck
Henry Adams
Richard Dawkins
Werner Heisenberg
Alfred Wegener
John Dalton
- 40 -
Pierre Fermat
Edward Wilson
Johannes Kepler
Gustave Eiffel
Giordano Bruno
JJ Thomson
Thomas Kuhn
Leonardo DaVinci
Archimedes
David Hume
- 30 -
Andreas Vesalius
Rudolf Virchow
Richard Feynman
James Hutton
Alexander Fleming
Emile Durkheim
Benjamin Franklin
Robert Oppenheimer
Robert Hooke
Charles Kettering
- 20 -
Carl Sagan
James Maxwell
Marie Curie
Rene Descartes
Francis Crick
Hippocrates
Michael Faraday
Srinivasa Ramanujan
Francis Bacon
Galileo Galilei
- 10 -
Aristotle
John Watson
Rosalind Franklin
Michio Kaku
Isaac Asimov
Charles Darwin
Sigmund Freud
Albert Einstein
Florence Nightingale
Isaac Newton


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