World Heart Day - September 29

On World Heart Day, say yes to good eating habits and exercise. Have low fat milk, make your plate colourful by opting for different coloured vegetables and fruits and much more, says an expert.

Sonal Raval, nutritionist at Snap Fitness India, shares dietary and health tips to help people have a healthy heart:

- Eat a variety of food items, but not in excess: Different coloured vegetables and fruits, pulses and legumes, low fat dairy products are some of the ways to prevent your food from becoming boring.

- Check your weight: Overweight can be the reason behind high blood pressure or disease like diabetes. To avoid such problems, it is best to keep a check on your weight. Eat slowly and take smaller portion, opt for low calories, but rich in nutrients food.

- Keep away from food rich in fat: Use skimmed or low fat milk and milk products. Bake, roast or boil rather than frying.

- Eat food with adequate fiber: Fruits and vegetables like carrot, cucumber and apple have skin. They should be consumed along with it.

- Avoid sugar in excess: White sugar, soft drinks, candies, chocolates, cakes and cookies should be avoided. Don't eat sweets between meals.

- Sodium should be taken in less quantity: Use small amount of salt to prepare dish, try more natural ways to add flavour to food items. Go with spices, lemon juice, tomatoes and curds, don't munch chips and fried foods constantly.

- Don't encourage exercises such as push-ups and sit-ups. Such exercises involve straining muscles against other muscles or an immovable object.

- Don't exercise outdoors when the temperature becomes extreme. High humidity may cause you to tire more quickly; extreme temperatures can make breathing difficult, and cause chest pain. Indoor activities such as mall walking are better.

- Exercise in hilly areas is a big no. If you are located in such places then slow down when climbing up the hill.

- If your exercise programme has been interrupted for a few days due to illness, vacation, or any other reason, start with a reduced level of activity.

Scientist of the Day

Peter Debye

Physics is a field dominated by some of the most famous names in history. One man that had a lot to contribute to the field of physics is one Peter Debye. He is a Dutch-American physical chemist and physicist who was also a Nobel Laureate for Chemistry. He was a brilliant man with lots of interesting projects and theories to share with the world.

His Early Life

Peter Debye was born on 24 March 1884 in Maastricht, Netherlands. His name was originally Petrus Josephus Wilhelmus Debije but records show that he eventually changed the name. Peter Debye went to school at Aachen University of Technology that was located in Rhenish, Prussia. It was just 30km away from his hometown. In school, he focused on studying mathematics and classical physics. He got an electrical engineering degree in 1905 and just 2 years later, in 1907, he published his very first paper that featured a most elegant solution to be used for solving problems that concerned eddy currents. While he was studying at Aachen, he was taught theoretical physics by Arnold Sommerfeld. Arnold Sommerfeld – who was a theoretical physicist – has stated that it was actually Peter Debye that he considered as one of his most important discoveries.

In 1906, Sommerfeld took Debye with him to Munich, Bavaria where he was given a job. Debye was to be his assistant. It was in 1908 when Debye obtained his doctorate degree and submitted his dissertation paper on the subject of radiation pressure. In the year 1910, he used a method to derive the Planck radiation formula. Mac Planck, who already had a formula for the same problem agreed that Debye’s formula was a lot simpler.

The year 1911 saw Debye moving to Switzerland where he would teach at the University of Zurich. The position opened when Albert Einstein agreed to take on a job as a professor in Prague. After his stint at the University of Zurich, he moved to Utrecht in 1912, and then to Gottingen a year after in 1913. He stayed a bit longer in Gottingen but in 1920 he moved to ETH Zurich. It took another 7 years for him to make the move to Leipzig in 1927 and then to Berlin in 1934. Again, he succeeded Einstein and became the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics director. It was during the era of Debye as director that most of the facilities of the Institute were built. In 1936, Debye was granted the Lorentz Medal and he became the Deutsche Physikalische Gesselschaft president from 1937 to 1939.

Contributions to Science

Indeed, he was a man of many talents and visions and this could be seen in his scientific works. The very first of his many major scientific contributions was in 1912 when he found a way to use the dipole moment to the movement of charges in asymmetric molecules. This was what led him to begin developing equations that related dipole moments to dielectric and temperature constants. It was because of this work that the units for molecular dipole moments are called debyes. In the same year, he went to work to expand on the theory of specific heat to lower temperatures simply by using low-frequency phonons. The theory of specific heat was first put forth by Albert Einstein.

A year after he went to work to extend the specific heat theory put forth by Einstein, he again went to work on the theory of Neils Bohr on atomic structure. It was this time that he introduced elliptical orbits. The concept was not something new, though, since his teacher Arnold Sommerfeld already introduced it before Debye did. From 1914-15, Peter Debye worked with Paul Scherrer on calculating the effect of varying temperatures on crystalline solids and the X-ray diffraction patterns they generated.

In 1923, Debye worked with Erich Huckel, his assistant, to develop and improve the theory of electrical conductivity in electrolyte solutions that were put forth by Svante Arrhenius. They did manage to make some improvements by way of the Debye-Huckel equation and while it is true that Lars Onsager made further improvements to their equation, the original equation is still looked upon as a major step towards gaining a better understanding of solutions that involved electrolytes. That same year, in 1923, Peter Debye went to work on developing a theory to help understand the Compton Effect.

His Later Work

Debye worked as a director of physics from 1934 to 39 at the Kiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin as the director of physics. From 1936 onwards, he also held a job at the Frederick William Institute of Berlin as a Theoretical Physics professor. It is important to note that in the years he held these positions, Hitler was already the ruler of Nazi Germany and also in Austria.

Debye went to the US and went to Cornell University where he delivered the Baker Lectures. He left Germany a year later and became a professor at the same university where he also served as chairman of the Chemistry department. He held the position for a decade and even became a member of the Alpha Chi Sigma fraternity. He was granted US citizenship in 1940 and unlike the Debye of earlier years where he moved around from position to position, he actually stayed at Cornell for the rest of his career. In 1952, he retired from the University but that did not stop him from conducting research until he died.

Personal Life

In some biographies, it was stated that Debye moved to the US because he refused to accept the citizenship that was foisted on him by the Nazis. Although some records state that Debye was actively participating in cleansing the Wilhelm Kaiser Institute of Jewish people and other non-Aryan people, this truth is still being debated.

Peter Debye got married to Mathilde Alberer in 1913 and they had a son named Peter P. Debye. They also had a daughter which they named Mathilde Maria. Peter, their son, became a physicist and worked with his father on some researches. The younger Peter Debye also had a son who became a chemist.

Scientist of the Day

Joseph John Thomson

Sir Joseph John Thomson, more commonly known as J. J. Thomson, was an English physicist who stormed the world of nuclear physics with his 1897 discovery of the electron, as well as isotopes. He is also credited with the invention of the mass spectrometer. He received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1906 and was knighted two years later in 1908.

Early Life and Education:

Born in 1856 in Cheetham Hill near Manchester, England, J. J. Thomson was the son of a Scottish bookseller. He won a scholarship to Trinity College, Cambridge in 1876. He received his BA in 1880 in mathematics, and MA in 1883.

Contributions and Achievements:

J. J. Thomson was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Society 1865. He was a successor to Lord Rayleigh as Cavendish Professor of Experimental Physics. His favorite student Ernst Rutherford later succeeded him in 1919. The early theoretical work of Thomson broadened the electromagnetic theories of James Clerk Maxwell’s, which revolutionized the study of gaseous conductors of electricity, as well as the nature of cathode rays.

Inspired by Wilhelm Röntgen’s 1895 discovery of X-rays, Thomson demonstrated that cathode rays were actually some speedily moving particles. After measuring their speed and specific charge, he concluded that these “corpuscles” (electrons) were about 2000 times smaller in mass as compared to the hydrogen ion, the lightest-known atomic particle. The discovery, made public during Thomson’s 1897 lecture to the Royal Institution, was labeled as the most influential breakthrough in the history of physics since Sir Isaac Newton.

Thomson also researched on the nature of positive rays in 1911, which significantly helped in the discovery of Isotopes. He proved that isotopes could be broke by deflecting positive rays in electric and magnetic fields, which was later named mass spectrometry.

J. J. Thomson was awarded the Nobel Prize for physics in 1906. He was knighted in 1908. He published his autobiography “Recollections and Reflections” in 1936. Thomson is widely considered to be one of the greatest scientists ever, and the most influential pioneer of nuclear physics.

Later Life and Death:

J. J. Thomson was made the Master of Trinity College, Cambridge in 1918, where he remained until his death. He died on August 30, 1940. He was 83 years old. Thomson was buried close to Isaac Newton in Westminster Abbey.

Scientist of the Day

Pearl Louella Kendrick

Whooping coughs can bring a lot of discomfort to individuals affected by it. Pearl Kendrick, an American bacteriologist, helped in co-developing the vaccine which counters whooping cough. Apart from this breakthrough, she also had contributions for improving the international vaccine standards to better promote health protection. Her name is one of the more prominent names for women who have contributed to science and although she wasn’t the sole inventor of the vaccine, her other contributions have made their own mark for various healthcare concerns.

Early Life and Educational Background

The reason behind inventing a vaccine which can counter whooping cough was that when Pearl Kendrick, born Pearl Louella Kendrick in August 24, 1890 turned three years old, she had been hit with whooping cough. Back then it was known as “pertussis” and it was named after the bacteria called Bordetella pertussis. Around 45 years later she had her revenge by developing the very first anti whooping cough vaccine.

Pearl’s father was a preacher, and in 1908, she graduated from high school. She first attended Greenville College where she stayed for a year before moving to Syracuse University where she received her diploma in the year 1914. In 1934, she graduated from Johns Hopkins University.

Pearl Kendrick’s Quest to Fight Whooping Cough

As a backgrounder, whooping cough during those times was a dreadful disease and during the year where it was most prevailent, it had claimed more than 6000 lives in just the United States alone. In the 1940s, whooping cough had been responsible for infant deaths—even more so than measles, polio, tuberculosis, and it had caused so much more childhood deaths compared to all those infant diseases combined. The effects caused by whooping cough were so alarming that infected children had been quarantined for two weeks while wearing a yellow armband which had the words “whooping cough” in big black letters.

Having been affected by this condition, it was one of Kendrick’s motivation to find a solution to counter whooping cough. She was a native of the Grand Rapids of Michigan, and while she was there, she had an office at the Western Michigan Branch Laboratory of the Michigan Department of Health. During the same period, she began to immerse herself in concerns about public health at the same time she was working her way to have her Ph.D. in microbiology.

While she was at Western Michigan Branch Laboratory, she met Grace Elderling who was going to be her partner in discovering the vaccine which would eventually counter whooping cough. Kendrick had a heart for promoting better children’s health programs and with Elderling, they were the perfect team. However, it was the time of the Great Depression, and because of this, funding for research as well as making programs realities were scarce—a major challenge which the team faced.

This did not, however, stop Kendrick and Elderling from developing the vaccine to counter whooping cough—something which they actually did during their off hours when work in the laboratory was over. It was in 1932 when she began this research, and it began as a fun engagement which later on turned out to be something which could save millions of lives.

Kendrick used the Grand Rapids as her clinical trial area and she was working with a team of local physicians to develop the vaccine along with Elderling. Samples were collected from the physicians in the area, and these same physicians also were the first ones who had their very first test vaccines.

Times were hard because of the lack of funding, but this didn’t stop Kendrick who wasn’t doing this for personal acclaim but really just to help improve the lives of those who were potentially going to be affected by whooping cough. In 1936, Kendrick had the chance to invite the first lady then, Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt to her laboratory. Initially, the first lady thought of using orphans to investigate further how the trial vaccines could work. This idea, however, did not sit well with Kendrick. Kendrick suggested to work based on the ties she has made with the locals of the Grand Rapids area from where she can find willing volunteers who can make finding more conclusive results possible. The first lady spend a total of 13 hours with Kendrick that day, and probably seeing a heart and a spirit for her work, she helped provide funding for the research done by Kendrick and Elderling.

Because of the funding which came after the first lady’s visit, Kendrick and Elderling were able to continue working on a larger scale trial come 1934. This trial later on involved more than 5,800 children from which they were able to gain positive and conclusive results from. The results were astounding. The children who first received the vaccine demonstrated having a stronger immune system—indicative of the positive effects of the vaccine.

During that large-scale trial, Kendrick also addressed the situation concerning quarantine times. According to Kendrick, affected children can be infectious from up to a period of 3 weeks, but after 5 weeks, more than 90 percent of them were no longer infectious. Because of these findings, Michigan adapted a 35-day quarantine period.

In the year 1934, the vaccine which Kendrick and Elderling created was used all over the United States as a routine vaccine. In the early years of 1960, incidences of whooping cough had decreased to less than 5% compared to the rate in 1934. This success in coming up with a vaccine to counter whooping cough did not stop Kendrick and Elderling in coming up with better solutions for child health concerns. In 1942, they were able to combine 3 vaccines into a single shot which fought diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus. This is now known as the DPT shot which is now a standard vaccine nationwide. Of note is that although whooping cough incidences have been reduced all over the United States, it still continues to cause deaths in some other developing countries of the world.

Kendrick retired from her work as a member of the Michigan Department of Public Health in 1951. She then became one of the faculty members of the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Michigan. On October 8, 1980, she died at the age of 90 in the Grand Rapids.

Scientist of the Day

Carl Linnaeus

Carl Linnaeus (Latinized: Carolus Linnaeus; originally Carl Nilsson Linnæus) was a Swedish botanist, naturalist, physician and zoologist. He was the first person to lay down the principles to determine the natural genera and species of organisms, and to form a uniform system for naming them (also known as binomial nomenclature). Linnaeus is considered to be the founding father of modern taxonomy as well as ecology.

Early Life and Education:

Born in Roeshult, Sweden to a Lutheran minister, Carolus Linnaeus frustrated his father by showing no interest in the priesthood. When he entered the University of Lund in 1727 to study medicine, his parents were quite excited, but within a year, he was transferred to the University of Uppsala, where he took botany. Linnaeus acquired his medical degree from the University of Harderwijk, Netherlands. He received further education at the University of Leiden.

Contributions and Achievements:

Carolus Linnaeus put out his work “Systema Naturae” in 1735, the first edition of his classification of living things. He came back to Sweden in 1738 and practised medicine. In 1740, he took a teaching position at the University of Uppsala.

Linnaeus, primarily known as a naturalist and botanist, was a leading figure in the history of entomology. He laid down the binomial system of nomenclature, which became the basis for the moderm classification of living organisms. Widely known as the “father of biological systematics and nomenclature”, Linnaeus also devised the wing vein-based system for separation of orders, and set up the chronological starting point for the naming of insects.

Later Life and Death:

Carolus Linnaeus used to travel extensively in Europe. He collected and named several specimens from different countries of the world. His 1758 work “Systema Naturae 10th edition” is known to be the starting point for naming of insects. All names prior to it are considered outdated. Linnaeus was ennobled in 1761, and was later known as “Carl von Linne”.

He died of stroke in Uppsala, Sweden, on June 10, 1778.

World Ozone Day (16 September)

Happy Engineers Day (15 September)

 

 

Scientist of the Day

Lee De Forest

The American inventor and electrical engineer, Lee De Forest is credited for inventing the Audion, a vacuum tube that takes moderately weak electrical signals and amplifies them. The device helped AT&T establish coast-to-coast phone service, and it was also used in everything from radios to televisions to the first computers.

Early Life, Education and Career:

Lee De Forest was born on August 26, 1873 in Council Bluffs, IA, the son of Henry Swift DeForest and Anna Robbins. His father was a Congregational Church minister and the President of Talladega College, an all-black school in Alabama. He had always hoped that his son would choose the same career path but De Forest had other plans. De Forest completed his schooling from the Mount Hermon School, and then enrolled at the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale University in Connecticut in 1893. Here he completed his graduation and earned his Ph.D. degree in 1899 with a dissertation on radio waves.

After completing his graduation he got employed at Western Electric, where he devised dynamos, telephone equipment, and early radio gear. In 1902 he started his own business, the De Forest Wireless Telegraph Company, selling radio equipment and demonstrating the new technology by broadcasting Morse code signals. Within a span of four years De Forest had been squeezed out of the management of his own company.

De Forest was highly creative and active, but many a times did not see the potential of his inventions or grasp their theoretical implications. While working on improving wireless telegraph equipment, he modified the vacuum tube invented by John Ambrose Fleming and designed the Audion (a vacuum tube containing some gas) in 1906. It was a triode, including a filament and a plate, like regular vacuum tubes, but also a grid between the filament and plate. This reinforced the current through the tube, amplifying weak telegraph and even radio signals. De Forest thought the gas was an essential part of the system; however in 1912 others showed that a triode in a complete vacuum would function much better.

In 1913 the United States Attorney General sued De Forest for deceit on behalf of his shareholders, stating that his declaration of rebirth was an “absurd” promise (he was later acquitted).In 1916 the American inventor made two triumphs: the first radio advertisement (for his own products) and the first presidential election reported by radio.

In 1919, De Forest filed the first patent on his sound-on-film process, which enhanced the work of Finnish inventor Eric Tigerstedt and the German partnership Tri-Ergon, and named it the De Forest Phonofilm process. This process involved recording sound directly onto film as parallel lines of variable shades of gray, and later became known as a “variable density” system as opposed to “variable area” systems such as RCA Photophone.

Death:

Lee De Forest died in Hollywood on July 1, 1961, and was interred in San Fernando Mission Cemetery in Los Angeles, California. He died as a poor man with just $1,250 in his bank account at the time of his death.

Scientist of the Day

Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky

Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky is a renowned Russian crystallographer, mineralogist, geochemist and geologist. He is best known today for his research on the noosphere and the way it affects the biosphere. He was also responsible for laying out the foundation for the study of geochemistry.

Early Life and Education

Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky was born on March 12, 1863 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Coming from a line of Ukrainian Cossacks, his father was a professor in Kiev at the Moscow University, teaching political economy before deciding to move to Saint Petersburg. He was also the editor of the journal entitled “Economic Index”. His mother, on the other hand, was a noblewoman and the daughter of a general and was born and raised in Russia. His childhood was spent in Ukraine and he studied in Kharkov for a brief period of time. When they moved to Saint Petersburg, he continued his studies at the Saint Petersburg Grammar School. This is where he started developing an interest in science, specifically in natural sciences.

Vernadksy acknowledged being both a Ukrainian and a Russian and even learned a little of the Ukrainian language despite having lived longer in Russia. He did not believe in the independence that Ukraine had however, and remained loyal to the Russian state.

In 1885, Vernadsky earned his degree from Saint Petersburg University’s Department of Natural, Physical and Mathematical Faculty. He chose to specialize in mineralogy because he found great potential for more discoveries in this field. He trained under the famous V.V. Dokuchaev, who was known as the founder of soil science.

He pondered on the topic he was going to pursue for his doctorate study for some time. While he was doing this, he travelled to Naples and studied under Scacchi, a crystallographer. Scacchi’s senility hindered Vernadsky from gaining valuable knowledge, so he decided to go to Germany instead to train under Paul Groth. Groth had developed a piece of equipment that helped analyze the thermal, optical, electrical and magnetic properties of crystals and Vernadsky enjoyed learning using modern machinery. He was also able to use the physics lab of Professor Zonke, another expert who was working on crystallization. He defended his Doctorate study in 1885 and became a fellow in research at the mineralogy laboratory.

Notable Contributions

Vladimir Vernadsky presented his report on the “Paragenesis of Chemical Elements in the Earth’s Crust” in front of the 12th Congress of Medics and Natural Scientists. This study laid the foundation for what was later known as geochemistry. He pushed researchers to try using radioactive phenomenon in studying the history of chemical elements and in seeing the genetic relationships between these elements.

In 1909, Vernadsky established the Radium Commission. This was caused by his theory that radioactive substances are, in fact, important sources of energy. This means that they can also be used in creating a new set of chemical elements. He started collecting rock samples and mapped where deposits of radioactive substances can be found in great detail. After a year, the first geochemical laboratory was opened in Saint Petesrburg.

Vernadsky was the first person to make the concept of the noosphere more familiar. He also contributed to the idea of the biosphere as it is known today although it was Eduard Suess, an Austrian geologist whom Verdansky got the chance of meeting in 1911, who coined the term.

Basically, Vernadsky reasons that there is a certain succession by which the earth develops. Geosphere or inanimate matter comes first, followed by the biosphere or biological life. Then comes noosphere which comprises human consciousness and mental activity. Each of these relate to each other, with the emergence of biological life transforming the geosphere and the emergence of human consciousness transforming biological life. Both biological life and human cognition are seen as having a large impact on the evolution of the earth, a concept that is somehow parallel to Darwin’s theory of natural selection. But as with any discovery of the same nature, gaining acceptance for his concept was hard to achieve, especially in the West.

Other Contributions and Achievements

Vernadsky was among the first scientists who realized that the presence of nitrogen, oxygen and carbon dioxide is a direct product of biological processes. He also published some of his research in the 1920’s, stating that living organisms also have a big impact on how the planet evolves. This made him one of the pioneers that shaped environmental sciences.

In 1912, he was elected as an ordinary academician in the Saint Petersburg Academy of Science. In 1914, he headed the Museum of Mineralogy and Geology. He was among those who coordinated in developing the metal mining industry. In 1917, he started visualizing a new branch of science called biogeochemistry. He envisioned this branch of science to deal with living matter as an integral part of the biosphere.

Vernadsky founded the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences in 1918 and became its first president. He also founded the National Library of the Ukrainian State and contributed greatly by sharing his knowledge to the Tavrida University in Crimea. Because of his great contribution, a main avenue in Tavrida National University was named after him. An avenue in Moscow also bears his name.

He moved to Simpheropol upon leaving Kiev and there worked as a mineralogy professor. He also became the head of Simperopol University until his dismissal in 1921 because of the unstable political situation.

Among Vernadsky’s notable published works is Geochemistry which was published in 1924 and released in Russia in 1927 as Essays on Geochemistry. He also worked with Marie Curie and published two of their works together, the Living Matter in Biosphere and Human Autotrophy.

Vladimir Vernadsky was one of the advisers for the Soviet atomic bomb project. He was among those who fought hard to make their voices heard, discussing how atomic energy can be exploited and how further research should be done about nuclear fission at his Radium Institute. However, Vernadsky died on January 6, 1945 even before his proposals for further research projects were pursued.

Scientist of the Day

Gustav Robert Kirchoff

There are a lot of great names in the world of science and one of the most notable ones is Gustav Robert Kirchoff. This German physicist has made massive contributions to the fundamental understanding of black-body radiation emitted by heated objects, spectroscopy, and electrical circuits. He also worked with other famous names in science and came up with other profound breakthroughs and theories. Indeed, he is a man who made great leaps and bounds in the world of physics and chemistry and there are things worth finding out about this scientist.

Gustav Kirchoff was born in Konigsberg, East Prussia where his father, Friedrich Kirchoff, worked as a law councilor. Friedrich Kirchoff had a very strong sense of duty to the state of Prussia and Johanna Henriette Wittke was his wife. The Kirchoff family belonged to an intellectual community of Konigsberg that was flourishing and being the most promising of his parents’ children, Gustav was raised with the mindset that serving the state was really the only open course for him. In the state of Prussia, University staff and professors were considered civil servants and so his parents believed that it was the best place for him since it was where he could put his brains to work to serve his state.

Gustav Kirchoff excelled in school and given his academic aptitude, his career flowed naturally. He went to school in Konigsberg at the Albertus University of Konigsberg. It was founded by the first duke of Prussia, Albert back in 1544. Jacobi and Franz Neumann set up a mathematics-physics seminar as a joint project in Konigsberg. In this seminar, Jacobi and Neumann used to teach their students different research methods. The seminar started in 1833 and Kirchoff attended it from 1843 to 1846. It was very unfortunate that Jacobi fell ill during the year 1843 and so it turned out to be Neumann who had had the bigger influence on Kirchoff.

At that time, Neumann was interested in mathematical physics most of all and it was at the same time that Kirchhoff began his studies at Konigsberg. Neumann was then working on electrical inductions. Neumann had, in fact, just submitted the first of two major papers he wrote on the subject of electrical induction. This happened in the year 1845 while Kirchoff was his student. At the University of Konigsberg, Kirchoff was taught by Friedrich Jules Richelot.

During the time he was studying under Neumann, he made the first of many outstanding research contributions that were related to electrical current. In 1845, he announced Kirchoff’s laws and they allowed the calculation of currents, voltages and resistances in electrical circuits that had multiple loops. This further extended German mathematician Georg Ohm’s work.

A couple of years later, Gustav Kirchoff’s work would lead to recognize this error and prod him to come up with a better and keener understanding of how the theory of electrostatics and electric currents could be and should be combined.

He graduated from university in the year 1847 and made the move to Berlin. The conditions were rather poor in the German Confederation at that time and it proved to be a difficult time. Emotions and tensions from the citizens were running high and trouble always seemed to be around the corner. Crop failures and high rates of unemployment also led to disturbances and discontent within the people. Trouble was also sparked when news came out that Louis-Philippe had been overthrown by an 1848 uprising in Paris. Not only was there revolution in several German states but people also took up arms in Berlin. The monarchy was in trouble with the socialists and the republicans. Fortunately, Kirchoff was in a privileged position and was unaffected by the events of the state so he pressed on with his chosen career. Bunsen moved to take a teaching spot in Breslau and this was where he met Robert Bunsen who also became his lifelong friend. Bunsen moved to teach at the University of Heidelberg in 1852 and he made it a point to make arrangements for Kirchoff to move to Heidelberg to teach as well.

Aside from working with electricity and currents, he also made major discoveries in the field of chemistry. In the year 1869, Gustav Kirchoff and Robert Bunsen (developer of the Bunsen burner with help from his assistant) discovered cesium and rubidium. With the use of a spectroscope they had invented together, they managed to spot these two alkali metals that the world had no previous knowledge of. Their discoveries marked the beginning of a new era, that is, they introduced a new way to look for new elements. They found that the first 50 elements found – not counting the ones known since ancient eras – were released by electrolysis or products of chemical reactions.

Gustav Kirchoff got married to one Clara Richelot who was the daughter of Friedrich Jules Richelot, his mathematics professor in Konigsberg. Together, he and Clara had two daughters and three sons but Clara died in 1869 and he was left to raise his children. This was made all the more challenging since he had a disability that forced him to use crutches or a wheelchair most of the time. In 1872, he got married to Luise Brommel who hailed from Heidelberg.

He had numerous offers from other universities but he was quite happy and contented with Heidelberg so he turned down all offers. However, his health continued to fail him and he realized that the experimental side of the subject that he so loved was becoming impossible for him to accomplish. In 1875, he made the move to Berlin where he became chair of mathematical physics. The spot allowed him to teach and do research without having to carry out any experiments. After he took the position in Berlin, he came out with his best known treatise which is the Vorlesungen über mathematische Physik.

He died in 1887 and his final resting place could now be found in St. Matthaus Kirchoff Cemetary in Berlin. His grave is just a few meters away from those of the Brothers Grimm.

Scientist of the Day

The great German physicist, Heinrich Hertz made possible the development of radio, television, and radar by proving that electricity can be transmitted in electromagnetic waves. He explained and expanded the electromagnetic theory of light that had been put forth by Maxwell. He was the first person who successfully demonstrated the presence of electromagnetic waves, by building an apparatus that produced and detected the VHF/UHF radio waves. His undertakings earned him the honor of having his surname assigned to the international unit of frequency (one cycle per second).

Born on February 22, 1857 in Hamburg, Germany, Hertz came from a wealthy, educated and incredibly successful family. His father, Gustav Ferdinand Hertz, was a lawyer and later a senator. He developed interest for science and mathematics as a child while studying at the Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums of Hamburg. He studied sciences and engineering in the German cities of Dresden, Munich and Berlin under two eminent physicists, Gustav R. Kirchhoff and Hermann von Helmholtz.

Hertz earned his PhD from the University of Berlin in 1880 and worked as an assistant to Helmhotz. Though he devoted his thesis to the nature of electromagnetic induction in rotating conductors, his research as Helmholtz’s assistant focused on mechanical hardness and stress, a field in which he wrote a number of influential papers. In 1883, Hertz took up the chance to move up a step on the academic ladder. He moved to the University of Kiel as a Lecturer, where he continued his research on electromagnetism. From 1885 to 1889 he served as a professor of physics at the technical school in Karlsruhe and after 1889 held the same post at the University in Bonn.

During 1886, he married Elizabeth Doll, daughter of his colleague Dr. Max Doll. They had two daughters, Joanna and Mathilde.

When Hertz began conducting experiments at the University of Bonn, he was aware of the revolutionary work that was left behind by British scientist James Clerk Maxwell, who had produced a series of mathematical equations that predicted the existence of electromagnetic waves. This challenged experimentalists to produce and detect electromagnetic radiation using some form of electrical apparatus.

Hertz took up that challenge and in 1887 confirmed Maxwell’s theories about the existence of electromagnetic radiation. He proved that electricity can be transmitted in electromagnetic waves, which travel at the speed of light and possess many other properties of light.

While carrying out his experiment on electromagnetic waves, Hertz also accidentally discovered the photoelectric effect in which light falling on special surfaces can generate electricity.

Apart from the electromagnetic or electric waves (“Hertzian waves”), Hertz also showed that their velocity and length could be measured and that light and heat are electromagnetic waves.

During 1892, Hertz was diagnosed with first a head cold and then an allergy. Since then his health remained poor. He died of blood poisoning at the age of 36 in Bonn, Germany on January 1, 1894, and was buried in Ohlsdorf, Hamburg.

Scientist of the Day

Dmitri Mendeleev

Dmitri Mendeleev was passionate about chemistry. His deepest wish was to find a better way of organizing the subject.

Mendeleev’s wish led to his discovery of the periodic law and his creation of the periodic table – one of the most iconic symbols ever seen in science: almost everyone recognizes it instantly: science has few other creations as well-known as the periodic table.

Using his periodic table, Mendeleev predicted the existence and properties of new chemical elements. When these elements were discovered, his place in the history of science was assured.

Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev was born February 8, 1834 in Verkhnie Aremzyani, in the Russian province of Siberia. His family was unusually large: he may have had as many as 16 brothers and sisters, although the exact number is uncertain.

His father was a teacher who had graduated at Saint Petersburg’s Main Pedalogical Institute – a teacher training institution.

When his father went blind, his mother re-opened a glass factory which had originally been started by his father and then closed. His father died when Mendeleev was just 13 and the glass factory burned down when he was 15.

Aged 16, he moved to Saint Petersburg, which was then Russia’s capital city. He won a place at his father’s old college, in part because the head of the college had known his father. There, Mendeleev trained to be a teacher.

By the time he was 20, Mendeleev was showing his promise and publishing original research papers. Suffering from tuberculosis, he often had to work from bed. He graduated as the top student in his year, despite the fact that his uncontrollable temper had made him unpopular with some of his teachers and fellow students.

In 1855, aged 21, he got a job teaching science in Simferopol, Crimea, but soon returned to St. Petersburg. There he studied for a master’s degree in chemistry at the University of St. Petersburg. He was awarded his degree in 1856.

Mendeleev had trained as both a teacher and an academic chemist. He spent time doing both before he won an award to go to Western Europe to pursue chemical research.

He spent most of the years 1859 and 1860 in Heidelberg, Germany, where he had the good fortune to work for a short time with Robert Bunsen at Heidelberg University. In 1860 Bunsen and his colleague Gustav Kirchhoff discovered the element cesium using chemical spectroscopy – a new method they had developed, which Bunsen introduced Mendeleev to.

In 1860, Mendeleev attended the first ever international chemistry conference, which took place in Karlsruhe, Germany. Much of the conference’s time was spent discussing the need to standardize chemistry.

This conference played a key role in Mendeleev’s eventual development of the periodic table. Mendeleev’s periodic table was based on atomic weights and he watched as the conference produced an agreed, standardized method for determining these weights.

At the conference, he also learned about Avogardo’s Law which states that:

All gases, at the same volume, temperature and pressure, contain the same number of molecules.

By the time he returned to Saint Petersburg in 1861 to teach at the Technical Institute, Mendeleev had become even more passionate about the science of chemistry. He was also worried that chemistry in Russia was trailing behind the science he had experienced in Germany.

He believed that improved Russian language chemistry textbooks were a necessity, and he was determined to do something about it. Working like a demon, in just 61 days the 27 year old chemist poured out his knowledge in a 500 page textbook: Organic Chemistry. This book won the Domidov Prize and put Mendeleev at the forefront of Russian chemical education.

Mendeleev was a charismatic teacher and lecturer, and held a number of academic positions until, in 1867, aged just 33, he was awarded the Chair of General Chemistry at the University of Saint Petersburg.

In this prestigious position, he decided to make another push to improve chemistry in Russia, publishing The Principles of Chemistry in 1869. Not only did this textbook prove popular in Russia, it was popular elsewhere too, appearing in English, French and German translations.

The Periodic Table

At this time, chemistry was a patchwork of observations and discoveries.

Mendeleev was certain that better, more fundamental principles could be found; this was his mindset when, in 1869, he began writing a second volume of his book The Principles of Chemistry.

At the heart of chemistry were its elements. What, wondered Mendeleev, could they reveal to him if he could find some way of organizing them logically?

He wrote the names of the 65 known elements on cards – much like playing cards – one element on each card. He then wrote the fundamental properties of every element on its own card, including atomic weight. He saw that atomic weight was important in some way – the behavior of the elements seemed to repeat as their atomic weights increased – but he could not see the pattern.

Convinced that he was close to discovering something significant, Mendeleev moved the cards about for hour after hour until finally he fell asleep at his desk.

Why was Mendeleev’s Periodic Table Successful?

As with many discoveries in science, there is a time when a concept becomes ripe for discovery, and this was the case with the periodic table in 1869.

Lothar Meyer, for example, had proposed a rough periodic table in 1864 and by 1868 had devised one that was very similar to Mendeleev’s, but he did not publish it until 1870.

John Newlands published a periodic table in 1865. Newlands wrote his own law of periodic behavior:

“Any given element will exhibit analogous [similar] behavior to the eighth element following it in the table”

Newlands also predicted the existence of a new element (germanium) based on a gap in his table. Unfortunately for Newlands, his work was largely ignored.

The reason Mendeleev became the leader of the pack was probably because he not only showed how the elements could be organized, but he used his periodic table to:

• Propose that some of the elements, whose behavior did not agree with his predictions, must have had their atomic weights measured incorrectly.
• Predict the existence of eight new elements. Mendeleev even predicted the properties these elements would have.

It turned out that chemists had measured some atomic weights incorrectly. Mendeleev was right! Now scientists everywhere sat up and paid attention to his periodic table.

And, as new elements that he had predicted were discovered, Mendeleev’s fame and scientific reputation were enhanced further. In 1905, the British Royal Society gave him its highest honor, the Copley Medal, and in the same year he was elected to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

Element 101 is named Mendelevium in his honor.

Dmitri Mendeleev died in Saint Petersburg, February 2, 1907, six days before his 73rd birthday. He was killed by influenza. 

  Literacy is a key lever of change and a practical tool of empowerment on each of the three main pillars of sustainable development: economic development, social development and environmental protection.    

Former UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan

- See more at: http://www.unesco.org/new/en/unesco/events/prizes-and-celebrations/celebrations/international-days/literacy-day/#sthash.OhncLJGd.dpuf

The theme of International Literacy Day 2014 is “Literacy and Sustainable Development”.  Literacy is one of the key elements needed to promote sustainable development, as it empowers people so that they can make the right decisions in the areas of economic growth, social development and environmental integration. Literacy is a basis for lifelong learning and plays a crucial foundational role in the creation of sustainable, prosperous and peaceful societies. 

Literacy skills developed from a basic to advanced level throughout life are part of broader competencies required for critical thinking, the sense of responsibility, participatory governance, sustainable consumption and lifestyles, ecological behaviours, biodiversity protection, poverty reduction, and disaster risk reduction.  

This year’s International Literacy Day will be celebrated worldwide. A main global celebration will take place in Dhaka, where the Government of Bangladesh in cooperation with UNESCO will organize the International Conference on “Girls’ and women’s literacy and education: Foundations for sustainable development and the awarding of UNESCO Literacy Prizes” in support for the UN Secretary General’s Global Education First Initiative (GEFI).

- See more at: http://www.unesco.org/new/en/unesco/events/prizes-and-celebrations/celebrations/international-days/literacy-day/#sthash.OhncLJGd.dpuf

The theme of International Literacy Day 2014 is “Literacy and Sustainable Development”.  Literacy is one of the key elements needed to promote sustainable development, as it empowers people so that they can make the right decisions in the areas of economic growth, social development and environmental integration. Literacy is a basis for lifelong learning and plays a crucial foundational role in the creation of sustainable, prosperous and peaceful societies. 

Literacy skills developed from a basic to advanced level throughout life are part of broader competencies required for critical thinking, the sense of responsibility, participatory governance, sustainable consumption and lifestyles, ecological behaviours, biodiversity protection, poverty reduction, and disaster risk reduction.  

This year’s International Literacy Day will be celebrated worldwide. A main global celebration will take place in Dhaka, where the Government of Bangladesh in cooperation with UNESCO will organize the International Conference on “Girls’ and women’s literacy and education: Foundations for sustainable development and the awarding of UNESCO Literacy Prizes” in support for the UN Secretary General’s Global Education First Initiative (GEFI).

- See more at: http://www.unesco.org/new/en/unesco/events/prizes-and-celebrations/celebrations/international-days/literacy-day/#sthash.OhncLJGd.dpuf

  Literacy is a key lever of change and a practical tool of empowerment on each of the three main pillars of sustainable development: economic development, social development and environmental protection.    

Former UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan

- See more at: http://www.unesco.org/new/en/unesco/events/prizes-and-celebrations/celebrations/international-days/literacy-day/#sthash.OhncLJGd.dpuf

  Literacy is a key lever of change and a practical tool of empowerment on each of the three main pillars of sustainable development: economic development, social development and environmental protection.    

Former UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan

- See more at: http://www.unesco.org/new/en/unesco/events/prizes-and-celebrations/celebrations/international-days/literacy-day/#sthash.OhncLJGd.dpuf

  Literacy is a key lever of change and a practical tool of empowerment on each of the three main pillars of sustainable development: economic development, social development and environmental protection.    

Former UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan

- See more at: http://www.unesco.org/new/en/unesco/events/prizes-and-celebrations/celebrations/international-days/literacy-day/#sthash.OhncLJGd.dpuf

Onam (7th September) wishes to all our Kerala students

John Dalton

The scientific field has witnessed the emergence of many great physicists and chemists; but it is incomplete without the mention of the great British chemist, meteorologist and physicist John Dalton. His tremendous efforts led to the evolution of modern atomic theory. He was the first person to record color blindness. He also carried out his research to explain the shortage of color perception.

Dalton was born into a modest Quaker family in Cumberland, England around 5th September 1766. He got his early education from his father and his teacher, John Fletcher of the Quakers’ school at Eaglesfield, on whose retirement in 1778 he himself began teaching. He spent most of his life teaching and giving public lectures. After serving ten years at a Quaker boarding school in Kendal, in 1793 he took another teaching position in the rapidly increasing city of Manchester. There he taught math and natural philosophy at the “New College” until 1800, when he resigned due to worsening financial condition of the college. Afterwards he gave private tuitions for mathematics and natural philosophy.

Most of the credit of Dalton’s interests in mathematics and meteorology goes to Elihu Robinson, an experienced meteorologist and instrument maker who greatly influenced his initial years of life. At Kendal, Dalton proposed solutions of problems and questions on various subjects to the Gentlemen’s and Ladies’ Diaries, and starting in 1787 he maintained a meteorological diary in which during the succeeding fifty-seven years he entered over 200,000 observations.

His first separate publication was Meteorological Observations and Essays (1793), which explained many of his later discoveries; but in spite of the originality of its content, the book met with only a limited attention. Another work by him was published in 1801 as Elements of English Grammar.

In 1794 John joined the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, which provided him with an exciting academic environment and laboratory services. After few weeks he presented his first paper on “Extraordinary facts relating to the vision of colors” before the society. In this paper he explained that the shortage in color perception was caused by discoloration of the liquid medium of the eyeball. He himself was a victim of color blindness and was the first one to discover the concept. As a result ‘Daltonism’ became synonymous with color blindness.

Dalton’s greatest interest was in meteorology and he maintained daily records of local temperature, wind, humidity and atmospheric pressure using instruments that he devised himself. By 1800 he was appointed the secretary of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society and published a series of papers entitled “Experimental Essays on the constitution of mixed gases; on the force of steam or vapor of water and other liquids in different temperatures, both in Torricellian vacuum and in air; on evaporation; and on the expansion of gases by heat.”

In 1803, he published his gas law which is now known as ‘Dalton’s law.’ In this law he basically stated that the total pressure exerted by a gaseous mixture is equal to the sum of the partial pressures of each individual component in a gas mixture.

He calculated atomic weights of elements and assembled them in a table which consisted of six elements namely hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, sulfur, and phosphorus. He calculated these weights from percentage compositions of compounds using an arbitrary system to determine the probable atomic structure of each compound.

John Dalton’s Atomic theory has three principles that remain relatively unchanged. First, Elements are made of the smallest particles called atoms. Second, all atoms for a particular element are identical. Third, atoms of different elements can be told apart by their atomic weight. Fourth, atoms of different elements can combine in a chemical reaction to form chemical compounds in fixed ratios. Finally, atoms can not be created, destroyed, or divided as they are the smallest particles of matter. Even though some of its postulates were opposed by many scholars and scientists, Dalton’s Atomic Theory stills holds a lot of significance as it created a basis for current science.

Dalton died of a stroke on 27 July, 1844 and was buried in Manchester in Ardwick cemetery.

గురు దేవో భవ . . . (5 సెప్టెంబర్)

Angel Alcala

A scientist from the Philippines, Angel Alcala has found his passion and love for marine life especially those in the tropical waters of his country. With more than thirty years of experience as a marine biologist, he has given major contributions to his country’s marine development and ecology concerns. Apart from being a well-respected marine biologist, Angel Alcala is also involved in other biological science fields such as herpetology, marine biogeography, and marine conservation biology.

Early Life and Personal Background

Angel Alcala was born on the first of March in 1929. He and his family were from Cauayan, Negros Occidental. His mother Crescenciana Chua and his father Porfirio Alcala were residing in Caliling, a coastal village in Negros Occidental. Because of his exposure to a coastal setup, it is no wonder where Angel Alacala’s awareness and love for marine life came from. While they lived in a humble and rural setup, their simple living had always been supported by the bounty of the sea.

Porfirio Alcala, Angel’s father, was a fish farmer. He had made his living and supported his family by being one of the fish farmers who took care of fish ponds that head steady supplies of milkfish for sale in the local and neighboring markets. The life-long love for marine creatures began when Angel Alcala was young. This was because as the eldest child, he had helped his father take care of the fish ponds where he worked.

When he wasn’t helping his father he along with his brothers would spend most of their time catching crabs, shellfish, and shrimps which would then be served as their meals at home. Fostering a love for the marine life surrounding him wasn’t hard. Having spent a lot of time near the coral reefs and shallow waters, it is evident how the beauty of the sea had captured the heart of Angel Alcala right from the beginning.

Academic Background

His early years in school had been indicative of his thirst for knowledge and desire to excel. He finished his high school years in Kabankalan Academy where he was one of the scholars. He had also been an active member of the academy’s debate team, and had taken part in their Boy Scout troop as well as other extra-curricular activities.

It was in 1948 when Angel Alcala took his pre-medicine course. He had his courses which made him earn his undergraduate degree in Silliman University, the oldest American building and institution in the Philippines, and the oldest university in Asia that was founded by the Americans. Because of his promising potential and evident intelligence, he was later on accepted to be a student of the University of the Philippines’s College of Medicine.

However, Alcala decided not to let the opportunity go due to the financial circumstances that his family faced. In 1951, he had finished the biological studies he started at the Silliman University and he graduated as the magna cum laude of his batch. Despite having given up the opportunity at the University of the Philippines, Angel Alcala was marked to make a change in history after his graduation from the Silliman University.

Careers and Achievements

Shortly after Angel Alcala graduated, he already had a career waiting for him. He was invited to become one of the teachers in Silliman University’s Biology Department, and he had accepted. It was 4 years later when the turning point in his career had arrived.

Walter C. Brown who happened to be one of the Fulbright professors of Stanford University arrived at Silliman University. He had then taken Alcala as one of his protégés and their partnership paved the way for numerous scientific researches concerning biology in the Philippines. They worked together on several publications and went on numerous field trips to come up with data for their researches and publications.

It was Walter Brown who had helped Angel Alcala to get started on his herpetology-related works. Together, they became the authors of “Observations on the Amphibians of the Mount Halcon and Mount Canlaon Areas,” a paper which was published in the 1955 edition of the Silliman Journal.

Another 4 years later, Alcala was on his way to Stanford University. Through the support of Walter Brown, Alcala was granted a well-deserved Fulbright/Smith-Mundt Fellowship which was what had helped him earn his master’s degree. In 1964, Alacala went back to Stanford to finish his doctorate and two years later, he became one of the associate professors of Silliman University. Around that time, he had already gained recognition for his works related to herpetology.

In 1988, he resigned from his post in Silliman University, but he had already been their vice president for research then. Three years later, he returned to the university but was then given the honor to be their president. In the interval, he had served as the Philippine Council for Aquatic and Marine Research and Development or PCARMD executive director.

Research and Legacy

His 30 years of experience in the field wasn’t just a long 3-decade period in his life. During his time, he had made major contributions to marine biology research efforts in the Philippines and had authored over 160 scientific papers as well as books on the subjects he was involved in. Angel Alcala was the first Filipino scientist to have come up with several comprehensive studies concerning the Philippine reptiles and amphibians. He had also made minor contributions for mammals and aves.

From the 400 already known species of reptiles and amphibians, 50 more were added due to the efforts and works of Angel Alcala. Because of his works concerning marine life and herpetology, even foreign researchers now have reliable bases for the establishment of conservation programs in the country.

In 1994, he was given the Field Museum Founders’ Council Award of Merit for contributions to environmental biology. He is also a recipient of the Magsaysay Award for Public Service. He is currently the director of the Silliman University-Angelo King Center for Research and Environmental Management, concurrently the director of the Commission on Higher Education Zonal Research Center, and Professor Emeritus of Biological Sciences of the university as well.