On December 12, 1900, biophysicist and solar power pioneer Mária Telkes was born in Hungary. She built her first laboratory at ten years of age. Visiting the U.S.A., she worked with surgeon George Crile, co-founder of the Cleveland Clinic, to investigate the energy produced…
On December 9, 1962, Petrified Forest National Park was established in Arizona. Erosion- and weather-sculpted badlands, buttes, and mesas add their own surprising layers of colour from sedimentary iron and sulfate minerals in painting the desert biomes at the north end of this national…
On December 8, 1730, Dutch physician and scientist Jan Ingen-Housz was born. A talented, successful, and pro-active doctor who moved to England to learn smallpox inoculation. Ingen-Housz worked on English patients and was so skilled, he was invited to inoculate the Hapsburgs in Austria…
On December 5, 1952, a blanket of smog built up over the City of London, England. Smog, a word combination of smoke + fog, is a regrettable feature in modern cities. Although London had a history of famous fogs and smogs, these were especially…
On December 3, 1842, environmental chemist Ellen Swallow Richards was born. Attracted to chemistry at Vassar, she applied for job as a professional chemist but was persuaded to apply to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she became the first woman accepted at this…
On November 25, 1913, American physician, researcher, and essayist Lewis Thomas was born. A man of intriguing insights, he added to his wisdom from views, opinions, and related experiences in science and medicine at Princeton, Harvard, and Tulane. He served as Dean of Yale…
On November 23, 1898, American biochemist Rachel Fuller Brown was born. Most famously, she worked through research and production projects with microbiologist and bacteriologist Elizabeth Lee Hazen for the New York State Department of Health; Brown in Albany and Hazen in New York City.…
On November 15, 1738, musician, composer, optics pioneer, and astronomer Frederick William Herschel was born. An oboe (cello, violin, harpsichord, organ…) player so passionate about astronomy when he discovered the discipline that he hooked his sister and brother into a suite of activities that…
On October 17, 1936, Japanese geophysicist Hiroo Kanamori was born. Recipient of many prizes and awards, he has spent his life investigating the magnitude and energy releases of great earthquakes. Like Charles Richter, Kanamori has taught at the California Institute of Technology. The original…
On October 13, 1820, geologist and paleontologist Sir John William Dawson was born in Nova Scotia. His interest in geology involved him in a life of fossil hunting. As a youngster he built up an assortment of shale layer fossils and traded with others…