History and Philosophy (often of Science)
jlynch | February 19, 2007February 19th
1473 - Birth of Nicolaus Copernicus, mathematician and astronomer
1526 - Birth of Charles de L'Ecluse, Flemish botanist
1553 - Death of Erasmus Reinhold, German astronomer and mathematician
1660 - Birth of Friedrich Hoffmann, German physician and chemist
1799 - Death of Jean-Charles de Borda, French mathematician, physicist, political scientist, and sailor
1804 - Birth of Carl Freiherr von Rokitansky, German physician
1859 - Birth of Svante Arrhenius, Swedish chemist, Nobel laureate
1897 - Death of Karl Weierstraß, German mathematician
1916 - Death of Ernst Mach, Austrian-…
jlynch | February 18, 2007February 18th
901 - Death of Thabit ibn Qurra, Arab astronomer and mathematician
1745 - Birth of Alessandro Volta, Italian physicist
1788 - Death of John Whitehurst, English clockmaker and scientist
1838 - Birth of Ernst Mach, Austrian physicist
1851 - Death of Carl Gustav Jakob Jacobi, German mathematician
1924 - Birth of Humberto Fernández Morán, Venezuelan scientist
1957 - Death of Henry Norris Russell, American astronomer
1967 - Death of J. Robert Oppenheimer, American physicist
jlynch | February 17, 2007February 17th
1723 - Birth of Tobias Mayer, German astronomer
1792 - Birth of Karl Ernst von Baer, German biologist
1796 - Birth of Philipp Franz von Siebold, German physician
1874 - Death of Lambert Adolphe Jacques Quetelet, Belgian mathematician
1888 - Birth of Otto Stern, German physicist, Nobel Prize Laureate
jlynch | February 16, 2007February 16th
1531 - Death of Johannes Stöffler, German mathematician and astronomer
1698 - Birth of Pierre Bouguer, French mathematician
1727 - Birth of Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin, Austrian scientist
1804 - Birth of Karl Theodor Ernst von Siebold, German physiologist
1822 - Birth of Sir Francis Galton, English explorer. biologist, and eugenicist
1834 - Birth of Ernst Haeckel, German zoologist
1937 - Birth of Yuri Manin, Russian mathematician
1980 - Death of Erich Hückel, German physicist
2001 - Death of William Masters, American gynecologist and sexologist
jlynch | February 15, 2007February 15th
1564 - Birth of Galileo Galilei, Italian astronomer and physicist
1809 Birth of André Dumont, Belgian geologist
1847 - Death of Germinal Pierre Dandelin, Belgian mathematician
1849 - Death of Pierre François Verhulst, Belgian mathematician
1861 - Birth of Charles Edouard Guillaume, French physicist, Nobel Prize Laureate
1873 - Birth of Hans von Euler-Chelpin, German-born chemist, Nobel Prize Laureate
1934 - Birth of Niklaus Wirth, Swiss computer scientist and chief designer of Algol W, Pascal, Modula, Modula-2, and Oberon.
1959 - Death of Owen Willans Richardson, British…
jlynch | February 13, 2007February 14th
1468 - Birth of Johann Werner, German mathematician
1848 - Birth of Benjamin Baillaud, French astronomer
1869 - Birth of Charles Wilson, Scottish physicist and Nobel Prize Laureate
1894 - Death of Eugène Charles Catalan, Belgian mathematician
1898 - Birth of Fritz Zwicky, Swiss-American physicist and astronomer
1917 - Birth of Herbert A. Hauptman, American mathematician and Nobel Prize Laureate
1943 - Death of David Hilbert, German mathematician
1946 - ENIAC ("Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer"), the first general-purpose electronic computer, unveiled at the…
jlynch | February 13, 2007February 13th
1633 - Galileo Galilei arrives in Rome for his trial before the Inquisition.
1672 - Birth of Étienne François Geoffroy, French chemist
1743 - Birth of Joseph Banks, English botanist and naturalist
1787 - Death of RuÄer BoškoviÄ, Croatian scientist
1805 - Birth of Peter Gustav Dirichlet, German mathematician
1880 - Thomas Edison observes the Edison effect.
1910 - Birth of William Shockley, American physicist and Nobel Laureate
1992 - Death of Nikolay Bogolyubov, Russian mathematician
2004 - The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics discovers the universe's largest known…
jlynch | February 11, 2007February 12th
1612 - Death of Christopher Clavius, German astronomer
1637 - Birth of Jan Swammerdam, Dutch scientist
1665 - Birth of Rudolf Jakob Camerarius, German botanist and physician
1785 - Birth of Pierre Louis Dulong, French physicist
1788 - Birth of Carl Reichenbach, German chemist and philosopher
1799 - Death of Lazzaro Spallanzani, Italian biologist
1804 - Birth of Heinrich Lenz, German physicist
1809 - Birth of Charles Darwin, English naturalist
1916 - Death of Richard Dedekind, German mathematician
1918 - Birth of Julian Schwinger, American physicist and Nobel Prize Laureate…
jlynch | February 11, 2007 As most readers are no doubt aware, Charles Robert Darwin, the discover of descent with modification by means of natural selection, was born on this day in 1809. It is probably safe to say that the science blogosphere will be jam packed with posts in Darwin and his ideas and meatspace will be hosting various "Darwin Day" activities.
For my part, I will be introducing Darwin's ideas to my Origins, Evolution & Creation class this afternoon before we sit down to watch the PBS documentary "Darwin's Dangerous Idea" from the 2001 Evolution mini-series.
Rather than waxing poetically about…
jlynch | February 11, 2007The prefatory "Historical Sketch" to Darwin's Origin of Species has traditionally been taken as a later addition that sought to deflect claims by individuals such as mathematician Baden Powell that Darwin plagiarized his ideas. Now, a study by Curtis Johnson of Lewis and Clark College argues that Darwin's personal correspondence
shows that the sketch was actually written prior to the first printing of the book and had actually been begun as early as 1856. As Johnson notes, "Darwin was not reacting to hostile criticism" but why he eventually omitted the preface is a mystery.
Johnson's paper is…
jlynch | February 11, 2007February 11th
1626 - Death of Pietro Cataldi, Italian mathematician
1650 - Death of René Descartes, French philosopher
1657 - Birth of Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle, French scientist
1839 - Birth of Josiah Willard Gibbs, American physicist
1847 - Birth of Thomas Alva Edison, American inventor
1868 - Death of Léon Foucault, French astronomer
1898 - Birth of Leó Szilárd, Hungarian-born physicist
1908 - Birth of Vivian Ernest Fuchs, English geologist
1923 - Death of Wilhelm Killing, German mathematician
1973 - Death of Hans D Jensen, German physicist and Nobel Prize Laureate
1976 - Death…
jlynch | February 10, 2007February 10th
1785 - Birth of Claude-Louis Navier, French physicist
1846 - Birth of Ira Remsen, American chemist
1865 - Death of Heinrich Lenz, German physicist
1887 - Birth of John Franklin Enders, Nobel Prize Laureate
1891 - Death of Sofia Kovalevskaya, Russian mathematician
1902 - Birth of Walter Houser Brattain, Nobel Prize Laureate
1912 - Death of Joseph Lister, British surgeon
1923 - Death of Wilhelm Röntgen, German physicist and Nobel Prize Laureate
1996 - The supercomputer Deep Blue defeats Garry Kasparov for the first time.
jlynch | February 9, 2007February 9th
1752 - Death of Fredric Hasselquist, Swedish naturalist
1775 - Birth of Farkas Bolyai, Hungarian mathematician
1880 - Brith of Lipót Fejér, Hungarian mathematician
1910 - Birth of Jacques Monod, French biochemist and Nobel laureate
1925 - Birth of Burkhard Heim, German physicist
1963 - Birth of Brian Greene, American physicist
1979 - Death of Dennis Gabor, Hungarian physicist, Nobel laureate
1994 - Death of Howard Martin Temin, American geneticist and Nobel laureate
jlynch | February 8, 2007February 8th
1677 - Birth of Jacques Cassini, French astronomer
1700 - Birth of Daniel Bernoulli, Dutch-born mathematician
1807 - Birth of Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, English naturalist
1834 - Birth of Dmitri Mendeleyev, Russian chemist
1856 - Death of Agostino Bassi, Italian entomologist
1907 - Death of Hendrik Willem Bakhuis Roozeboom, Dutch chemist
1957 - Death of John von Neumann, Hungarian-born mathematician and physicist
1975 - Death of Robert Robinson, British chemist and Nobel Prize laureate
jlynch | February 7, 2007February 7th
1736 - Death of Stephen Gray, English astronomer
1870 - Birth of Alfred Adler, Austrian psychologist
1877 - Birth of Godfrey Harold Hardy, English mathematician
1889 - Birth of Harry Nyquist, important contributor to information theory
1897 - Death of Galileo Ferraris, Italian physicist
1905 - Birth of Ulf von Euler, Swedish physiologist and Nobel Prize Laureate
jlynch | February 6, 2007February 6th
1617 - Death of Prospero Alpini, Italian scientist
1695 - Birth of Nicolaus II Bernoulli, Swiss mathematician
1744 - Birth of Pierre-Joseph Desault, French anatomist and surgeon
1833 - Death of Pierre André Latreille, French entomologist
1913 - Birth of Mary Leakey, British anthropologist
1950 - Death of Georges Imbert, Alsatian chemist
1959 - Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments filed the first patent for an integrated circuit.
1991 - Death of Salvador Luria, Italian-born biologist and Nobel Prize Laureate
1998 - Death of Haroun Tazieff, French vulcanologist and geologist…
jlynch | February 5, 2007February 5th
1608 - Birth of Gaspar Schott, German mathematician
1790 - Death of William Cullen, Scottish physician and chemist
1795 - Birth of Wilhelm Karl Ritter von Haidinger, Austrian mineralogist
1914 - Birth of Alan Lloyd Hodgkin, Nobel Prize Laureate
1915 - Birth of Robert Hofstadter, Nobel Prize Laureate
1977 - Death of Oskar Klein, Swedish physicist
1992 - Death of Miguel Rolando Covian, Brazilian physiologist
jlynch | February 4, 2007February 4th
1615 - Death of Giovanni Battista della Porta, Italian physicist
1725 - Birth of Dru Drury, English entomologist
1774 - Death of Charles Marie de La Condamine, French mathematician and geographer
1778 - Birth of A. P. de Candolle, Swiss botanist
1846 - Birth of Nikolay Umov, Russian physicist
1875 - Birth of Ludwig Prandtl, German physicist
1896 - Birth of Friedrich Hund, German physicist
1906 - Birth of Clyde Tombaugh, American astronomer
1928 - Death of Hendrik Lorentz, Dutch physicist and Nobel Prize Laureate
1974 - Death of Satyendra Nath Bose, Indian physicist
1987 -…
jlynch | February 3, 2007February 3rd
1737 - Death of Tommaso Ceva, Italian Mathematician
1754 - Birth of George Crabbe, English naturalist
1817 - Birth of Achille Ernest Oscar Joseph Delesse, French geologist
1821 - Birth of Elizabeth Blackwell, American physician
1862 - Death of Jean-Baptiste Biot, French physicist
1893 - Birth of Gaston Julia, French mathematician
1920 - Birth of Henry Heimlich, American physician
1929 - Death of Agner Krarup Erlang, Danish scientist
1956 - Death of Émile Borel, French mathematician
1966 - The unmanned Soviet Luna 9 spacecraft makes the first controlled rocket-assisted…
jlynch | February 2, 2007A short while back I presented a quote by historian Peter Dear regarding Darwin's ideas about species. Of the quote I commented that it was "so wrong it is not even funny". Professor Dear took exception to that comment (especially after John Wilkins waded in with his view) and commented that "[i]f you want to show that I'm wrong about Darwin here,
give me some evidence from Darwin himself, rather than telling us what biologists and philosophers of biology believe nowadays."
Now John has provided the first of a series of posts on the development of Darwin's writings on species. Speaking of the…