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Monthly Archives: December 2017

mathematics
Edmund Gunter and his Measuring Devices

Edmund Gunter and his Measuring Devices

Harald Sack
On December 10, 1626, English clergyman, mathematician, geometer and astronomer Edmund Gunter passed away. Gunther is best remembered for his mathematical contributions which include the invention of the Gunter’s chain, the Gunter’s quadrant, and the Gunter’s scale. In 1620, he invented the first successful analog device which he developed to calculate logarithmic tangents. Edmund Gunter – Early Life Edmund Gunter was born in Hertfordshire in 1581. Edmund attended Westminster School as a…
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history
Joseph Needham and the History of China

Joseph Needham and the History of China

Tabea Tietz
On December 9, 1900, British historian and sinologist Joseph Needham was born. Needham is best known for his scientific research and writing on the history of Chinese science and technology. He wrote and edited the landmark history Science and Civilisation in China, a remarkable multivolume study of nearly every branch of Chinese medicine, science, and technology over some 25 centuries. Education Joseph Needham was the only child of a London family. His father was…
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botany
Johann Hedwig – the Father of Bryology

Johann Hedwig – the Father of Bryology

Harald Sack
On December 8, 1730, German botanist Johann Hedwig was born. Hedwig is notable for his studies of mosses for which he is sometimes called the father of bryology, in particular the observation of sexual reproduction in the cryptogams. He dealt with the anatomy, fertilization, and reproduction of mosses and introduced a new method of classification based on the distribution of spores (reproductive bodies). Hedwig was the first to recognize the true organs…
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psychology
Eleanor J. Gibson and the Visual Cliff Phenomenon

Eleanor J. Gibson and the Visual Cliff Phenomenon

Tabea Tietz
On December 7, 1910, American psychologist Eleanor Jack Gibson was born. Gibson focused on reading development and perceptual learning in infants and toddlers. In the 1960s and 1970s Gibson, with her husband James J. Gibson, created the Gibsonian ecological theory of development which emphasized how important perception was because it allows humans to adapt to their environments. Perhaps her most well-known contribution to psychology was the “visual cliff“, which studied depth perception and…
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zoology
Libbie Hyman and her Passion for the Invertebrates

Libbie Hyman and her Passion for the Invertebrates

Harald Sack
On December 6, 1888, U.S. zoologist Libbie Henrietta Hyman was born. Hyman wrote two laboratory manuals and a comprehensive six-volume reference work, The Invertebrates, (1940-67) covering most phyla of its subject. This work, important for its organization, description and classification of invertebrates, is a reference still used today. Early Years Libbie Hyman was born in Des Moines, Iowa, USA, the third of four children and the only daughter of Joseph Hyman, a…
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physics
C. F. Powell and the Discovery of the Pion

C. F. Powell and the Discovery of the Pion

Tabea Tietz
On December 5, 1903, English physicist and nobel Laureate Cecil Frank Powell, was born. Powell was awarded the 1950 Nobel Prize in Physics for his development of the photographic method of studying nuclear processes and for the resulting discovery of the pion. The pion proved to be the hypothetical particle proposed in 1935 by Yukawa Hideki of Japan in his theory.[4] “Any device in science is a window on to nature, and each new…
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social science
Robert Redfield and the Folk-Urban Continuum

Robert Redfield and the Folk-Urban Continuum

Harald Sack
On December 4, 1897, American anthropologist and ethnolinguist Robert Redfield was born. Redfield‘s ethnographic work in Tepoztlán, Mexico is considered a landmark Latin American ethnography. From his studies of Mexican communities, Redfield developed a theory (1956) of a folk-urban continuum, to account for the differences between folk society and urban society. Early Years Robert Redfield was the son-in-law of University of Chicago sociologist Robert E. Park. In 1923 he and his wife…
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biology
Richard Kuhn and his Work on Carotinoids and Vitamins

Richard Kuhn and his Work on Carotinoids and Vitamins

Tabea Tietz
On December 3, 1900, Austrian-German biochemist Richard Johann Kuhn was born. Kuhn was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1938 “for his work on carotenoids and vitamins“. Kuhn is also credited with the discovery of the deadly nerve agent Soman in 1944. Early Years Richard Kuhn was born in Vienna, Austria, where he also attended elementary school and the Döblinger Gymnasium. From 1910 to 1918 he attended the same classes as the…
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medical science
Dominic Corrigan and Heart Diseases

Dominic Corrigan and Heart Diseases

Harald Sack
On December 2, 1802, Irish physician Sir Dominic John Corrigan was born. Corrigan is known for his original observations in heart disease. The abnormal “collapsing” pulse of aortic valve insufficiency is named Corrigan’s pulse after him. Early Years Dominic John Corrigan was born in Thomas Street, Dublin, the son of John Corrigan, a dealer in agricultural tools. He was educated in St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth, near Dublin, which then had a department…
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chemistry
Martin Heinrich Klaproth and the Analytical Chemistry

Martin Heinrich Klaproth and the Analytical Chemistry

Tabea Tietz
On December 1, 1743, German chemist Martin Heinrich Klaproth was born. Klaproth, one of the well known founders of analytical chemistry discovered uranium (1789), zirconium (1789), cerium (1803), and contributed to the identification of others. Although he did not isolate them as pure metal samples, he was able to recognize them as new elements. Youth and Education Martin Heinrich Klaproth was born in Wernigerode as the child of a poor tailor. After attending…
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