SciHi Blog

mathematics
Abu al-Wafa Buzjani – Negative Numbers and Trigonometry

Abu al-Wafa Buzjani – Negative Numbers and Trigonometry

Harald Sack
On June 10, 940, Persian mathematician and astronomer Abū al-Wafāʾ, Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā ibn Ismāʿīl ibn al-ʿAbbās al-Būzjānī was born. Abu l-Wafa wrote several books on applied mathematics, made several important trigonometric discoveries, and wrote now-lost commentaries on the works of Euclid, Diophantus of Alexandria, and al-Chwarizmi. His work on arithmetics for businessmen contains the first instance of using negative numbers in a medieval Islamic text. Abu al-Wafa – Biographical Background…
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medical science
Patrick Steptoe and the Test Tube Baby

Patrick Steptoe and the Test Tube Baby

Tabea Tietz
On June 9, 1913, British obstetrician, gynaecologist, and Nobel Laureate Patrick Steptoe was born. A pioneer of fertility treatment, Steptoe was responsible with biologist and physiologist Robert Edwards for developing in vitro fertilization. Louise Joy Brown, the first test-tube baby, was born on 25 July 1978. Patrick Steptoe – Obstetrics and Laparoscopy Patrick Steptoe attended King’s College London and graduated from St George’s Hospital Medical School, London in 1939. He studied obstetrics…
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engineering
John Smeaton – the Father of Civil Engineering

John Smeaton – the Father of Civil Engineering

Harald Sack
On June 8, 1729, English civil engineer John Smeaton was born. Smeaton actually is referred to having coined the term “civil engineering” to distinguish from military engineers. He was esponsible for the design of bridges, canals, harbours and lighthouses. He was also a capable mechanical engineer and an eminent physicist. John Smeaton’s Way to Civil Engineering John Smeaton was born at Austhorpe Lodge in the parish of Whitkirk, four miles east of…
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anthropology
Knud Rasmussen – the Father of Eskimonology

Knud Rasmussen – the Father of Eskimonology

Harald Sack
On June 7, 1879, Danish polar explorer and anthropologist Knud Johan Victor Rasmussen was born. He has been called the “father of Eskimology” and was the first European to cross the Northwest Passage by dog sled. He remains well known in Greenland, Denmark and among Canadian Inuit. Knud Rasmussen – Early Life Rasmussen was born in Ilulissat, Greenland, as one of three children of a Danish missionary, the vicar Christian Rasmussen, who had been…
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literature
Thomas Mann and the illustrious Mann Family

Thomas Mann and the illustrious Mann Family

Harald Sack
On June 6, 1875, German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, and Nobel Laureate Thomas Mann was born. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novellas, are noted for their insight into the psychology of the artist and the intellectual. His older brother was the radical writer Heinrich Mann and three of his six children, Erika Mann, Klaus Mann and Golo Mann, also became important German writers. “Space, like time, engenders…
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engineering
The Holographic World of Dennis Gabor

The Holographic World of Dennis Gabor

Tabea Tietz
On June 5, 1900, Hungarian-British electrical engineer and physicist Dennis Gabor was born. He is probably best known for inventing holography, for which he later received the 1971 Nobel Prize in Physics. Holography is a system of lensless, three-dimensional photography that has many applications today. Gabor also did research on high-speed oscilloscopes, communication theory, physical optics, and television. Overall, he held more than 100 patents. “Incomplete knowledge of the future, and also of…
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space
The Ariane 5 Flight 501

The Ariane 5 Flight 501

Tabea Tietz
On June 4, 1996, European heavy lift launch vehicle Ariane 5‘s first test flight failed with the rocket self-destructing 37 seconds after launch because of a malfunction in the control software. A data conversion from 64-bit floating point value to 16-bit signed integer value to be stored in a variable representing horizontal bias caused a processor trap (operand error) because the floating point value was too large to be represented by a…
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biology
Raymond Pearl and Biometry – Applying Statistics for Medicine and Biology

Raymond Pearl and Biometry – Applying Statistics for Medicine and Biology

Tabea Tietz
On June 3, 1879, American biologist Raymond Pearl was born. Pearl is regarded as one of the founders of biogerontology. Moreover, he is one of the founders of biometry, the application of statistics to biology and medicine. He also pioneered studies in longevity, changes in world population, and genetics. Raymond Pearl – Early Years Raymond Pearl was born into an upper-middle class family in Farmington, New Hampshire, the son of Ida May (McDuffee)…
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art
The Phantastic Micrography of Matthias Buchinger

The Phantastic Micrography of Matthias Buchinger

Tabea Tietz
On June 2, 1674, German artist, magician, calligrapher, and performer Matthias Buchinger, sometimes called Matthew Buckinger in English, was born. Buchinger was born without hands or feet and was only 74 cm (29 inches) tall. He was especially noted for his micrography, in which illustrations consist of infinitesimal text, which was presented in an exhibition early 2016 in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Greatest Living German Matthias Buchinger was born as…
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biology
Henry Faulds and the Forensic Use of Fingerprints

Henry Faulds and the Forensic Use of Fingerprints

Tabea Tietz
On June 1, 1843, Scottish physician and missionary Henry Faulds was born. Faulds became a missionary in Japan, where he worked as a surgeon superintendent at a Tokyo hospital, taught at the local univeristy, and founded the Tokyo Institute for the Blind. He is probably best known for his study of fingerprints, where he became convinced that each individual had a unique pattern. Historic Use of Fingerprints It is believed that fingerprints…
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