History and Philosophy (often of Science)
jlynch | February 9, 2008Births
1785- Claude-Louis Navier, French physicist
1846 - Ira Remsen, American chemist
1897 - John Franklin Enders, American virologist and Nobel Prize laureate
1902 - Walter Houser Brattain, American physicist and Nobel Prize laureate
Deaths
1865 - Heinrich Lenz, German physicist
1923 - Wilhelm Röntgen, German physicist and Nobel Prize laureate
1944 - Eugène Michel Antoniadi, Greek astronomer
1952 - Henry Drysdale Dakin, British-American biochemist
jlynch | February 8, 2008
Births
1781 - Johann Baptist von Spix, German scientist
1865 - Erich von Drygalski, German geographer, geophysicist, and polar scientist
1910 - Jacques Monod, French biochemist and Nobel Prize laureate
1925 - Burkhard Heim, German physicist
1963 - Brian Greene, American physicist
Deaths
1752 - Fredric Hasselquist, Swedish naturalist
1940 - Eugene Bleuler, Swiss psychiatrist
1979 - Dennis Gabor, Hungarian physicist and Nobel Prize laureate
1994 - Howard Martin Temin, American geneticist and Nobel Prize laureate
jlynch | February 7, 2008Births
1677 - Jacques Cassini, French astronomer
1807 - Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, English sculptor and naturalist
1834 - Dmitri Mendeleev, Russian chemist
1930 - James Deetz, American anthropologist
Deaths
1856 - Agostino Bassi, Italian entomologist
1957 - Walther Bothe, German physicist and Nobel Prize laureate
1957 - John von Neumann, Hungarian-born mathematician and physicist
1975 - Robert Robinson, British chemist and Nobel Prize laureate
jlynch | February 6, 2008Births
1870 - Alfred Adler, Austrian psychologist
1905 - Ulf von Euler, Swedish physiologist and Nobel Prize laureate
Deaths
1736 - Stephen Gray, English astronomer and scientist
1897 - Galileo Ferraris, Italian physicist
1960 - Igor Kurchatov, Russian physicist
jlynch | February 6, 2008James Hrynyshyn highlights an editorial in Nature that offers luke-warm support for Science Debate 2008. Frankly, the criticisms are paltry and misconceived.
Well meant though it may be, the idea of Tim Russert or some other journalist-interrogator looking Republican hopeful John McCain in the eye and asking "What balance will you seek in federal science funding between major-programme project research and investigator-initiated basic-research grants?" is somewhat fantastical. It is also slightly disturbing.
But who is advocating "Tim Russert or some other journalist-interrogator" asking…
jlynch | February 6, 2008
This coming Sunday I will be giving a public lecture for the Humanist Society of Greater Phoenix. All are welcome, whether humanist or not. Details are:
Was There A Darwinian Revolution?
HomeTown Buffet, 1312 N. Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale
February 10th, 2008 9:00 am
[There is breakfast at 9, the talk will begin at 10]
As usual, I will probably post the slides here after the talk.
jlynch | February 6, 2008Births
1744 - Pierre-Joseph Desault, French anatomist and surgeon
1853 - Ignacij KlemenÄiÄ, Slovenian physicist
1892 - William Parry Murphy, American physician and Nobel Prize laureate
1913 - Mary Leakey, British anthropologist
Deaths
1617 - Prospero Alpini, Italian scientist
1833 - Pierre André Latreille, French entomologist
1950 - Georges Imbert, Alsatian chemist
1991 - Salvador Luria, Italian-born biologist and Nobel Prize laureate
1998 - Haroun Tazieff, French vulcanologist and geologist
2002 - Max Perutz, Austrian-born molecular biologist and Nobel Prize laureate
jlynch | February 5, 2008Births
1795 - Wilhelm Karl Ritter von Haidinger, Austrian mineralogist
1910 - Charles Leblond, Canadian cell biologist
1914 - Alan Lloyd Hodgkin, British physiologist and Nobel Prize laureate
1915 - Robert Hofstadter, American physicist and Nobel Prize laureate
Deaths
1790 - William Cullen, Scottish physician and chemist
1977 - Oskar Klein, Swedish physicist
1992 - Miguel Rolando Covian, Brazilian physiologist
jlynch | February 3, 2008Events
1936 - Radium E becomes the first radioactive element to be made synthetically.
Births
1725 - Dru Drury, English entomologist
1778 - A. P. de Candolle, Swiss botanist
1846 - Nikolay Umov, Russian physicist
1875 - Ludwig Prandtl, German physicist
1896 - Friedrich Hund, German physicist
1906 - Clyde Tombaugh, American astronomer
Deaths
1615 - Giovanni Battista della Porta, Italian physicist
1928 - Hendrik Lorentz, Dutch physicist and Nobel Prize laureate
1974 - Satyendra Nath Bose, Indian physicist
1987 - Carl Rogers, American psychologist
jlynch | February 2, 2008Births
1754 - George Crabbe, English naturalist
1817 - Achille Ernest Oscar Joseph Delesse, French geologist
1821 - Elizabeth Blackwell, American physician
1912 - Jacques Soustelle, French anthropologist
1920 - Henry Heimlich, American physician
Deaths
1862 - Jean-Baptiste Biot, French physicist
1929 - Agner Krarup Erlang, Danish scientist
2005 - Ernst Mayr, German-born evolutionary biologist
jlynch | February 2, 2008Births
1695 - William Borlase, English naturalist
1802 - Jean Baptiste Boussingault, French chemist
1829 - Alfred Brehm, German zoologist
1841 - François-Alphonse Forel, Swiss hydrologist
Deaths
1712 - Martin Lister, English naturalist and physician
1907 - Dmitri Mendeleev, Russian chemist
1957 - Grigory Landsberg, Russian physicist
1970 - Bertrand Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, English mathematician, writer and philosopher
jlynch | January 31, 2008Births
1635 - Marquard Gude, German archaeologist
1761 - Christian Hendrik Persoon, South African mycologist
1844 - G. Stanley Hall, American psychologist
Deaths
1897 - Constantin von Ettingshausen, Austrian geologist
1903 - George Gabriel Stokes, Irish physicist
1958 - Clinton Davisson, American physicist and Nobel Prize laureate
1976 - Werner Heisenberg, German physicist and Nobel Prize laureate
1976 - George Whipple, American scientist and Nobel Prize laureate
jlynch | January 30, 2008Events
1958 - Explorer program: Explorer I - The first successful launch of an American satellite into orbit.
1958 - James Van Allen discovers the Van Allen radiation belt.
1961 - Project Mercury: Mercury-Redstone 2 - Ham the Chimp becomes the first hominid in outer space.
Births
1868 - Theodore William Richards, American chemist and Nobel Prize laureate
1881 - Irving Langmuir, American chemist and Nobel Prize laureate
1929 - Rudolf Mössbauer, German physicist and Nobel Prize laureate
jlynch | January 30, 2008Razib notes "I’m sure you know that Marx was a keen follower of Darwin’s theory." Eh, no. Not so much.
While Marx in 1860 described Origin as containing "the natural-historical basis of our outlook," by 1861 he was noting that "[i]t is remarkable how Darwin recognises among beasts and plants his English society with its labour, competition, opening up of new markets, 'inventions’, and the Malthusian 'struggle for existence’". Indeed he would view Darwinism as a bourgeois ideology which mirrored the bourgeois competitive struggle in capitalist society. Marx’s use of Darwin is underwhelming…
jlynch | January 29, 2008
Events
1996 - Comet Hyakutake is discovered by Japanese amateur astronomer Yuji Hyakutake.
Births
1720 - Charles De Geer, Swedish industrialist and entomologist
1822 - Franz Ritter von Hauer, Austrian geologist
1899 - Max Theiler, South African virologist and Nobel Prize laureate
1949 - Peter Agre, American biologist and Nobel Prize laureate
Deaths
1858 - Coenraad Jacob Temminck, Dutch zoologist
1928 - Johannes Andreas Grib Fibiger, Danish scientist and Nobel Prize laureate
1962 - Manuel de Abreu, Brazilian physician
1991 - John Bardeen, American physicist
1995 - Gerald Durrell, British…
jlynch | January 28, 2008Births
1688 - Emanuel Swedenborg, Swedish scientist and philosopher
1846 - Karol Olszewski, Polish scientist
1901 - Allen B. DuMont, American scientist and inventor
1926 - Abdus Salam, Pakistani physicist and Nobel Prize laureate
1947 - Linda B. Buck, American scientist and Nobel Prize laureate
Deaths
1934 - Fritz Haber, German chemist and Nobel Prize laureate
jlynch | January 28, 2008 Razib is reading Stephen Jay Gould’s monumental The Structure of Evolutionary Theory. I have to admit that I bought it when it appeared nearly six years ago and, as yet, have not managed to get beyond the first ninety-odd pages. What I liked about Gould when I was an undergraduate over twenty years ago now just seems annoying. What worked in small doses turns into a nightmare when presented in a five pound package. In short, Gould clearly needed an editor. That said, Razib has inspired me to try again. Who knows, I might even finish it this time.
So, have any readers started (or finished!)…
jlynch | January 27, 2008Events
1986 - Space Shuttle Challenger breaks apart 73 seconds after liftoff killing all seven astronauts onboard
Births
1608 - Giovanni Alfonso Borelli, Italian physiologist and physicist
1611 - Johannes Hevelius, astronomer
1622 - Adrien Auzout, French astronomer
1755 - Samuel Thomas von Sömmering, German physician
1884 - Auguste Piccard, Swiss physicist
1922 - Robert W. Holley, American biochemist and Nobel Prize laureate
Deaths
1687 - Johannes Hevelius, Polish astronomer
1864 - Ãmile Clapeyron, French engineer and physicist
1915 - Nikolay Umov, Russian physicist
1988 - Klaus Fuchs,…
jlynch | January 26, 2008
Births
1621 - Thomas Willis, English physician
1903 - John Carew Eccles, Australian neuropsychologist and Nobel Prize laureate
1936 - Samuel C. C. Ting, American physicist and Nobel Prize laureate
Deaths
1851 - John James Audubon, French-American naturalist, ornithologist, and painter
1967 - Apollo 1 astronauts Gus Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee (above) were killed in a fire during a test of the spacecraft at the Kennedy Space Center.