You are here: Home › 2021 › January

Monthly Archives: January 2021

biology
Joseph Jackson Lister – Perfecting the Optical Microscope

Joseph Jackson Lister – Perfecting the Optical Microscope

Tabea Tietz
On January 11, 1786, British amateur opticist and physicist Joseph Jackson Lister was born. In 1826, Lister designed possibly the most important optical microscope ever made. It used an achromatic objective lens corrected for chromatic and spherical aberrations, the resulting image was at the time the clearest produced by any microscope. Joseph Jackson Lister – Family Background Joseph Jackson Lister was the son of a London wine merchant and Quaker. He attended school until 1800 and was then…
Read more
space
Valentin Glushko and the Space Race

Valentin Glushko and the Space Race

Harald Sack
On January 10, 1989, Soviet engineer Valentin Petrovich Glushko passed away. Glushko was the principal Soviet designer of rocket engines during the Soviet/American Space Race. He worked with renowned rocket designer Sergey Korolyov. In Aug 1957, they successfully launched the first intercontinental ballistic missile and in October of the same year, sent the first artificial satellite, Sputnik I, into orbit. Valentin Glushko – Youth and Education Glushko was born in the Russian…
Read more
literature
Simone de Beauvoir and the Second Sex

Simone de Beauvoir and the Second Sex

Harald Sack
On January 9, 1908, French novelist, philosopher and feminist Simone de Beauvoir was born. The politically active author of numerous novels, short stories, essays and memoirs is considered a representative of existentialism. Her worldwide success The Second Sex (1949) is considered a milestone in feminist literature and made her the most famous intellectual in France. ” On ne naît pas femme, on le devient “. “One is not born a woman, one becomes one”. –…
Read more
literature
Wilkie Collins and the Birth of the Modern Detective Novel

Wilkie Collins and the Birth of the Modern Detective Novel

Harald Sack
On January 8, 1824, British novelist Wilkie Collins was born. Wilkie Collins is best known for his novels The Woman in White (1859) and The Moonstone (1868). The last has been called the first modern English detective novel. “Ask yourself if there is any explanation of the mystery of your own life and death.” – Wilkie Collins, The Haunted Hotel: A Mystery of Modern Venice (1878) Wilkie Collins – Youth and Education William Wilkie Collins…
Read more
history
The Universal Lexicon of Johann Heinrich Zedler

The Universal Lexicon of Johann Heinrich Zedler

Harald Sack
On January 7, 1706, German bookseller and publisher Johann Heinrich Zedler was born. His most important achievement was the creation of a German encyclopedia, the Grosses Universal-Lexicon (Great Universal Lexicon), the largest and most comprehensive German-language encyclopedia developed in the 18th century. Johann Heinrich Zedler – Background and Early Years Johann Heinrich Zedler was born as the son of Johann Zedler, a shoemaker and citizen of Wroclaw, Silesia, today in Poland. Presumably…
Read more
art
The fantastic Illustrations of Gustave Doré

The fantastic Illustrations of Gustave Doré

Tabea Tietz
On January 6, 1832, French artist, printmaker, illustrator and sculptor Gustave Doré was born. Doré is primarily known for his wood engravings and illustrations of literary works such as Dante’s inferno, Milton’s Paradise Lost, Cervantes’ Don Quixote or the Bible. Gustave Dorè – the Boy Genius Gustave Doré was born in Strasbourg, France, the son of Pierre Louis Christophe Doré, engineer of the Ponts et Chaussées, and of Alexandrine Marie Anne Pluchart.…
Read more
literature
Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s ‘The Physicists’

Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s ‘The Physicists’

Harald Sack
On January 5, 1921, Swiss author and dramatist Friedrich Dürrenmatt was born. Dürrenmatt was a proponent of epic theatre whose plays reflected the recent experiences of World War II. The politically active author‘s work included avant-garde dramas, philosophical crime novels, and macabre satire. Especially his play “The Physicists” (1961) deals with questions of scientific ethics and humanity‘s ability to handle its intellectual responsibilities. “A story is not finished, until it has taken…
Read more
communication
Louis Braille and the Braille System of Reading and Writing

Louis Braille and the Braille System of Reading and Writing

Tabea Tietz
On January 4, 1809, French educator Louis Braille was born. He is best known for being the inventor of a system of reading and writing for use by the blind or visually impaired. His system remains known worldwide simply as braille. “Access to communication in the widest sense is access to knowledge, and that is vitally important for us if we [the blind] are not to go on being despised or patronized by condescending sighted people. We do…
Read more
art
August Macke and the Group of the Blue Rider

August Macke and the Group of the Blue Rider

Harald Sack
On January 3, 1887, German expressionist painter August Macke was born. He was one of the leading members of the German Expressionist group Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider). In about ten years Macke created a body of work that initially underwent rapid stylistic changes under the influence of the diverse art movements of the time. Like a true artist of his time, Macke knew how to integrate into his painting the elements of the…
Read more
astronomy
Johann Daniel Titius and the Titius-Bode Law

Johann Daniel Titius and the Titius-Bode Law

Tabea Tietz
On January 2, 1729, German astronomer Johann Daniel Titius was born. He is best known for formulating the Titius–Bode law, a hypothesis that the bodies in some orbital systems, including the Sun’s, orbit at semi-major axes in a function of planetary sequence. The formula suggests that, extending outward, each planet would be approximately twice as far from the Sun as the one before. The hypothesis correctly anticipated the orbits of Ceres and Uranus,…
Read more
Relation Browser
Timeline
0 Recommended Articles:
0 Recommended Articles: