Scientist of The Day

William Hopkins

The field of geology is studded with some notable names and one name in particular that deserves a lot of honor and praise is that of William Hopkins. He is mathematician and a geologist from England who is quite well-known for his contributions to the field of geology and for his private tutor role to Cambridge undergraduates who aspired to be mathematicians. It was this private tutor role that earned him the nickname the “Senior-wrangler maker”.

William Hopkins also made a lot of studies that were centered in letting it be known that Earth’s interior is solid and not a liquid. It was because of this model that he was able to explain quite a number of geological phenomena. Despite the fact that his conclusion about the solid interior was correct, his physical and mathematical reasoning were deemed unsound.

His early life

Hopkins was born in February 2, 1793 at Kingston-on-soar which is found in Nottinghamshire. He was the only son born to William Hopkins who was a farmer. He wasn’t a farmer really because he was more of a gentleman farmer and this meant he didn’t so much work the land with his own hands but rather he owned the farms and made money from them. During his early years, he was in Norfolk where he learned the more practical agricultural basics then his father rented a modest-sized farm for him in Suffolk at Bury St Edmunds. He wasn’t very successful at farming and as a farmer so when his first wife died around the year 1821, he grabbed the chance to mitigate whatever losses he had incurred and enroll in St. Peter’s college at the University of Cambridge to study for a B.A. degree in 1827 and was a second wrangler. He obtained his Master’s Degree in 1930.

Wrangler-maker

Before graduating from St. Peter’s college, Hopkins got married to Caroline Frances Boys and this made him ineligible for fellowship from the school. In order for him to make money he became a private tutor to budding mathematicians who were after the Senior Wrangler title which just so happened to be a very prestigious distinction back then. He may have been a failure at farming but he was quite successful as a tutor and earned around £700-£800 per year. By the time 1849 rolled in, he had already tutored around 200 wranglers of which 17 became senior wranglers. Some famous students of his were G.G. Stokes and Arthur Cayley. He also had the honor of being a tutor to Lord Kelvin, Isaac Todhunter, and James Clerk Maxwell. Francis Galton had nothing but praise for William Hopkins’ style of teaching which was informative and entertaining which explained why it was so effective.

William Hopkins was also the coach to Edward Routh who nabbed the prestigious a Senior Wrangler title and also turned into “wrangler-maker”. In the year 1833, Hopkins came out with this Elements of Trigonometry and was then recognized for his prowess as a mathematician.

Geology

Somewhere in the year 1833, William Hopkins met a man named Adam Sedgwick while he was at Barmouth and thus was able to join in several expeditions and this was when he developed a keen interest in geology and the structure of the earth. From that time on, he began to publish papers in the Cambridge Philosophical Society and the Geological Society of London where he talked about the physical geology as a discipline and helped define it. He even made mathematical studies on the effects of an elevator force that was moving below the crust of the earth, would have on the surface of the Earth in the form of faults and fissures. It was through this that he managed to talk about the denudation and elevation of the Waldean area, the Lake District, and Bas Boulonnais.

He had this idea that the Earth was solid but was never fully at rest and was in fact, dynamic and had cavities that contained extremely hot fluids and vapors that could create a local elevator pressure. William Hopkins’ model of the Earth wasn’t quite in sync with scientific theories of Charles Lyell who believed that the Earth was in a “steady state”. Charles Lyell believed that the Earth and a solid crust but was liquid on the inside.

For his part, William Hopkins submitted papers to the Royal Society between the years 1838 and 1842 and these papers talked about the rotation of the Earth and its nutation and precession as well. He used his observations to prove that his theory about what the interior of the Earth was made of and that it was not fluid like Charles Lyell believed. He didn’t stop there though because he also studied volcanoes and Earthquakes by way of the same theory or so it was stated in a report submitted to the British Association in 1847.

Hopkins worked hard figure out what enormous amounts of pressure did to the melting points and the thermal conductivity on a number of substances and with support of the Royal Society in form of a grant, he was able to recruit William Fairbairn and James Prescott Joule to help in the collecting of measurements which he used to support his theory. Hopkins also asserted that even though the Earth was cooling, this really had no effect on the climate.

It was mentioned that while his theory of the Earth’s structure was spot on, Thomson tactfully pointed out that Hopkins’ physical reasoning and his mathematical equations were all wrong.

Glaciology

He made some studies on the movement of glaciers but in doing so, he crossed J.D. Forbes. J.D. believed the subject of glaciers was his specialty and he was not at all impressed and was even contemptuous of Hopkins and believed he was inexperienced in the field.

Personal life

He married his second wife and they had a son and three daughters- one of who was Ellice Hopkins that became the morality campaigner. Hopkins was a smart man who enjoyed landscape painting, music, and poetry so it was too bad that his final years were spent inside a lunatic asylum where he died of exhaustion and chronic mania. Indeed, it was rather a sad end to such an illustrious life.

Kalpana Chawla (March 17, 1962 – February 1, 2003) was born in Karnal, India. She was the first Indian-American astronaut^] and first Indian woman in space. She first flew on Space Shuttle Columbia in 1997 as a mission specialist and primary robotic arm operator. In 2003, Chawla was one of the seven crew members killed in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.

Early life

Kalpana Chawla was born in Karnal, India. She completed her earlier schooling at Tagore Baal Niketan Senior Secondary School, Karnal and completed her Bachelor of Engineering degree in Aeronautical Engineering at Punjab Engineering College at Chandigarh in 1982. She moved to the United States in 1982 where she obtained a Master of Science degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington in 1984. Determined to become an astronaut even in the face of the Challenger disaster, Chawla went on to earn a second Masters in 1986 and a PhD in aerospace engineering in 1988 from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Career

In 1988, she began working at the NASA Ames Research Center as Vice President of Overset Methods, Inc. where she did Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) research on Vertical/Short Takeoff and Landing concepts. Chawla held a Certificated Flight Instructor rating for airplanes, gliders and Commercial Pilot licenses for single and multi-engine airplanes, seaplanes and gliders.

Becoming a naturalized U.S. citizen in April 1991, Chawla applied for the NASA Astronaut Corps. She joined the Corps in March 1995 and was selected for her first flight in 1996. She spoke the following words while traveling in the weightlessness of space, "You are just your intelligence". She had traveled 10.67 million km, as many as 252 times around the Earth.

Her first space mission began on November 19, 1997, as part of the six-astronaut crew that flew the Space Shuttle Columbia flight STS-87. Chawla was the first Indian-born woman and the second Indian person to fly in space, following cosmonaut Rakesh Sharma who flew in 1984 on the Soyuz T-11. On her first mission, Chawla traveled over 10.4 million miles in 252 orbits of the earth, logging more than 372 hours in space.^]During STS-87, she was responsible for deploying the Spartan Satellite which malfunctioned, necessitating a spacewalk by Winston Scott and Takao Doi to capture the satellite. A five-month NASA investigation fully exonerated Chawla by identifying errors in software interfaces and the defined procedures of flight crew and ground control.

After the completion of STS-87 post-flight activities, Chawla was assigned to technical positions in the astronaut office to work on the space station, her performance in which was recognized with a special award from her peers.

Chawla in the space shuttle simulator

In 2000 she was selected for her second flight as part of the crew of STS-107. This mission was repeatedly delayed due to scheduling conflicts and technical problems such as the July 2002 discovery of cracks in the shuttle engine flow liners. On January 16, 2003, Chawla finally returned to space aboard Columbia on the ill-fated STS-107 mission. Chawla's responsibilities included the microgravity experiments, for which the crew conducted nearly 80 experiments studying earth and space science, advanced technology development, and astronaut health and safety.

Death

Main article: Space Shuttle Columbia disaster

Chawla died in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster which occurred on February 1, 2003, when the Space Shuttle disintegrated over Texas during re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere, with the loss of all seven crew members, shortly before it was scheduled to conclude its 28th mission, STS-107.

Awards

Posthumously awarded:

• Congressional Space Medal of Honor
• NASA Space Flight Medal
• NASA Distinguished Service Meda

Scientist of the Day

Archimedes

Archimedes was, arguably, the world’s greatest scientist – certainly the greatest scientist of the classical age. He was a mathematician, physicist, astronomer, engineer, inventor, and weapons-designer. As we shall see, he was a man who was both of his time, and far ahead of his time.

Archimedes was born in the Greek city-state of Syracuse on the island of Sicily in approximately 287 BC. His father, Phidias, was an astronomer.

Archimedes may also have been related to Hiero II, King of Syracuse.

Quick Guide – Archimedes’ Greatest Achievements

In the 3rd Century BC, Archimedes:

• invented the sciences of mechanics and hydrostatics.

• discovered the laws of levers and pulleys, which allow us to move heavy objects using small forces.

• invented one of the most fundamental concepts of physics – the center of gravity.

• calculated pi to the most precise value known. His lower limit for pi was the fraction ²²⁄₇. This value was still in use in the late 20th century, until electronic calculators finally laid it to rest.

• discovered and mathematically proved the formulas for the volume and surface area of a sphere.

• showed how exponents could be used to write bigger numbers than had ever been thought of before.

• proved that to multiply numbers written as exponents, the exponents should be added together.

• invented the Archimedean Screw to pull water out of the ground – the device is still used around the world.

• infuriated mathematicians who tried to replicate his discoveries 18 centuries later – they could not understand how Archimedes had achieved his results.

• directly inspired Galileo and Newton when they read his work to begin the modern scientific revolution after the Renaissance. Archimedes’ surviving works (tragically, many have been lost) finally made it into print in 1544. Leonardo da Vinci was lucky enough to have seen some of the hand-copied works of Archimedes before they were eventually printed.

• was one of the world’s first mathematical physicists, applying the advanced mathematics he developed to the physical world.

• was the first person to apply lessons from physics – such as the law of the lever – to solve problems in pure mathematics.

• invented war machines such as a highly accurate catapult, which stopped the Romans conquering Syracuse for years. It’s now believed he may have done this by understanding the mathematics of projectile trajectory.

• became famous throughout the ancient world for his brilliant mind – so famous that we cannot be sure that everything he is said to have done is true.

• inspired what we now believe are myths including a mirror system to burn attacking ships using the sun’s rays, and jumping from his bath, and running naked through the streets of Syracuse shouting ‘Eureka’ meaning ‘I’ve found it’ after realizing how to prove whether the king’s gold crown had silver in it.

The United Nations' (UN) International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women is observed on November 25 each year. The General Assembly designated 25 November as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women by resolution 54/134 of 17 December 1999 and invited governments, international organizations and NGOs to organize activities designated to raise public awareness of the problem on that day. The date 25th is not just a date as it was on November 25, 1960, that three sisters, Patria Mercedes Mirabal, María Argentina Minerva Mirabal and Antonia María Teresa Mirabal, were assassinated in the Dominican Republic on the orders of the Dominican ruler Rafael Trujillo. The Mirabel sisters fought hard to end Trujillo's dictatorship. Activists on women's rights have observed a day against violence on the anniversary of the deaths of these three women since 1981.
Each year observances around the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women concentrate on a particular theme, such as “Demanding Implementation, Challenging Obstacles” (2008). It is an occasion for governments, international organizations and non-governmental organizations to raise public awareness of violence against women. Projects to enable women and their children to escape violence and campaigns to educate people about the consequences of violence against women are held. Locally, women's groups may organize rallies, communal meals, fund-raising activities and present research on violence against women in their own communities.

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Scientist of the Day

Stephen Hawking

Stephen Hawking is an English theoretical physicist and cosmologist who is widely considered to be one of the greatest scientists alive today. He is currently the director of research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology, University of Cambridge.

Early Life and Education:

Born on 8 January 1942 to a biologist father, Hawking had two younger sisters. He was an average student at school, deeply interested in science. After winning a scholarship in natural sciences, he acquired a degree in physics from the University College, Oxford. Thereafter, Hawking also studied astronomy and cosmology at Trinity Hall, Cambridge.

Contributions and Achievements:

In his early days at Cambridge, Hawking was diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a motor neuron disease in which the nerves controlling the muscles become inactive while the sensory nerves function normally. Due to this sustained condition, it normally takes him about 40 hours to devise a 45 minute lecture.

Hawking is known for furthering Einstein’s theory of general relativity with quantum theory. He has about twelve honorary degrees. Awarded the CBE in 1982, he became a Companion of Honor in 1989. He received numerous awards, medals and praises. Hawking is also a Fellow of The Royal Society and a Member of the US National Academy of Sciences. He was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009.

Stephen Hawking is working as the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics since 1979, a position once held by Sir Isaac Newton. Arguably the most famous scientist alive today, he is considered a living legend for his amazing contributions to quantum physics.

A highly successful active lecturer and author, Hawking makes use of an adaptive communication system known as Equalizer to combat ALS. It involves a speech synthesizer. Using the Equalizer, he has authored a book and several scientific papers and lectures, though he is capable of speaking at a mere rate of 15 words per minute.

Hawking’s 1988 book “A Brief History of Time” quickly became an instant best-seller and was translated into 30 languages. It has sold over 10 million copies worldwide to date. His 2001 book “The Universe in a Nutshell” is hailed as a masterpiece in the history of modern physics.

Personal Life:

Stephen Hawking got married to Jane Wilde, a language student, in 1965, and together they have three children and one grandchild.

The couple got separated in 1991. As of 2009 Hawking has been almost completely paralyzed.

Scientist of the Day

Leo Szilard

A Hungarian-American physicist, Leo Szilard was the proponent of the nuclear chain reaction back in 1933. He also established the relationship between the transfer of information and entropy which was what lead to being able to develop the means to separate radioactive elements as well as isotopes. He was also one of the first scientists who recognized the significance of nuclear fission which was the key element behind the development of atomic weapons used by the United States.

Early Life and Educational Background

Born in 1989, on the eleventh day of February, he was the son of an engineer and a member of one of the more affluent Jewish families back then. His name had originally been Leo Spitz, but it was changed to Szilard in the year 1900.

As a child, his interest in Physics came at an early age of just 13 years old—considering how advanced his interests were for his age. He was attending the public school of Budapest before he was drafted to become one of the members of the 1917 Austro-Hungarian army.

While he was in the army, he had been sent to the officer’s training school but was spared of having to engage in active duty because he had influenza. When the war ended, he stayed in Budapest but this set up didn’t last long because of political unrest in the area as well as lack of better educational opportunities. Because of these reasons, he went to Berlin in 1919.

During his time in Berlin, he took engineering courses in the Technische Hochschule or the Institute of Technology. His main interest had still been physics and he had been drawn to the works of the great minds of physics such as Albert Einstein, Erwin Schroedinger, Max Von Laue, Fritz Haber, Walter Nernst, and Max Planck. Most of these physicists had also been teaching in Berlin during those days.

Szilard later on gave up his courses in engineering in the year 1921, and studied physics in the University of Berlin where he was one of the students of renowned physicist Max von Laue. A year later, Szilard earned his cum laude doctorate after his submission of his dissertation called “Uber die thermodynamischen Schwankungserscheinungen” where he discussed the Second Law of Thermodynamics and how it affected not just mean values but the fluctuating values as well. The ideas from his dissertation are now the bases of modern theories.

Career

After he completed his doctorate, he worked at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin along with Hermann Mark, a chemist who is well known for his contributions for the progress of polymer science. During this time, the studies conducted by Szilard focused on how X-rays scattered in crystals as well as the polarization of the same rays when reflected by crystals.

During the years 1925-1933, he had been working with none other than Albert Einstein and together they applied for numerous patents for their collaborative work. One of their more famous patents had been the refrigeration system which they based on pumping metals through a moving magnetic field. Their interest during that time was to catch the attention of A.E.G.—a company which is also known as the German General Electric company, and they hoped that the company would produce a refrigerator to be based on the patent they had. While this refrigerator was never really produced the same refrigeration system they created was used in 1942 to come up with an atomic reactor.

Szilard transferred to England in 1933—the same time when Adolf Hitler also rose to power. There, he had his collaborations with T.A. Chalmers where they came up with the Szilard-Chalmers process. This is the technique where stable isotopes and radioactive elements were separated. Most of his activities during his stay in London had been to have patents for his inventions, as these patents help improve his income through the help of the firm named Claremont, Haynes, and Company. During that time, he was able to influence Sir William Beveridge to establish the Academic Assistance Council, which aimed to help the prosecuted scientists to leave then Nazi Germany. From 1935 to 1937, Szilard had been one of the research physicists of the Clarendon Laboratory in the Oxford University.

The Nuclear Chain Reaction

During his time in London, he first attempted to create the nuclear chain reaction by using indium and beryllium which did not achieve the desired effects. The patent for his nuclear chain reaction was assigned to the British Admiralty with the idea of keeping it secret in mind. Along with Enrico Fermi, Szilard also co-held the patent for the nuclear reactor.

After that time, he moved to Manhattan for research to be done at the Columbia University and shortly after, Fermi went to join him in 1938. In 1939, Szilard along with other scientists namely Fermi, Otto Frisch, Lise Meitner, Fritz Strassman, and Otto Hahn, they were able to conclude how uranium can sustain the chemical reaction they were looking for. With Fermi, Szilard was able to deduce how uranium can be used to sustain chain reactions and that it can be used for nuclear weapons. When they realized this, Szilard also understood what their discovery implied—that it could cause much grief for the world when used in the wrong ways.

Szilard’s Ideas and Views Concerning Nuclear Weapons

He read H.G. Wells’ The World Set Free—a novel which had made a great impact on his thoughts. As a man of science, it was also Szilard who first conceived the possibility of having a device which uses the nuclear chain reaction to come up with a bomb. However, since he was a survivor of economic and political strife in Hungary, he had developed an unending passion for preserving the human life as well as maintaining freedom—even for communicating ideas.

He had advocated not using atomic bombs, knowing how it would also affect not just those considered as “enemies” but civilians and innocents. He had hoped that the mere thought of such a weapon could make Japan and Germany surrender. However, the atomic bombs used in Nagasaki and Hiroshima were still used despite the protests from Szilard as well as other scientists who grasped the complete idea of how it would affect the people in the area where the bombs eventually fell.

National Education Day

Maulana Abul Kalam Azad

11th NovemberThis day is celebrated as National Education Day to pay respect to India's first Education Minister Maulana Abul Kalam Azad.
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad's real name was Abul Kalam Ghulam Muhiyuddin. He was popularly known as Maulana Azad. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad was one of the foremost leaders of Indian freedom struggle. He was also a renowned scholar, and poet. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad was well versed in many languages viz. Arabic, English, Urdu, Hindi, Persian and Bengali. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad was a brilliand debater, as indicated by his name, Abul Kalam, which literally means "Lord of dialogue" He adopted the pen name Azad as a mark of his mental emancipation from a narrow view of religion and life.

Maulana Abul Kalam Azad was born on November 11, 1888 in Mecca. His forefathers came from Herat (a city Afghanistan) in Babar's days. Azad was a descendent of a lineage of learned Muslim scholars, or maulanas. His mother was an Arab and the daughter of Sheikh Mohammad Zaher Watri and his father, Maulana Khairuddin, was a Bengali Muslim of Afghan origins. Khairuddin left India during tile Sepoy Mutiny and proceeded to Mecca and settled there. He came back to Calcutta with his family in 1890.

Because of his orthodox family background Azad had to pursue traditional Islamic education. He was taught at home, first by his father and later by appointed teachers who were eminent in their respective fields. Azad learned Arabic and Persian first and then philosophy, geometry, mathematics and algebra. He also learnt (English, world history, and politics through self study.

Azad was trained and educated to become a clergyman, He wrote many works, reinterpreting the holy Quran. His erudition let him to repudiate Taqliq or the tradition of conformity and accept the principle of Tajdid or innovation. He developed interest in the pan¬ Islamic doctrines of Jamaluddin Afghani and the Aligarh thought of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan. Imbued with the pan-Islamic spirit, he visited Afghanistan, Iraq, Egypt, Syria and Turkey. In Iraq he met the exiled revolutionaries who were fighting to establish a constitutional government in Iran. In Egypt he met Shaikh Muhammad Abduh and Saeed Pasha and other revolutionary activists of the Arab world. He had a first hand knowledge of the ideals and spirit of the young Turks in Constantinople. All these contacts metamorphosed him into a nationalist revolutionary.

On his return from abroad; Azad met two leading revolutionaries of Bengal- Aurobinto Ghosh and Sri Shyam Shundar Chakravarty,-and joined the revolutionary movement against British rule. Azad found that the revolutionary activities were restricted to Bengal and Bihar. Within two years, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad helped set up secret revolutionary centers all over north India and Bombay. During that time most of his revolutionaries were anti-Muslim because they felt that the British government was using the Muslim community against India's freedom struggle. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad tried to convince his colleagues to shed their hostility towards Muslims.

In 1912, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad started a weekly journal in Urdu called Al-Hilal to increase the revolutionary recruits amongst the Muslims. Al-Hilal played an important role in forging Hindu-Muslim unity after the bad blood created between the two communities in the aftermath of Morley-Minto reforms. Al-Hilal became a revolutionary mouthpiece ventilating extremist views. 'The government regarded Al- Hilal as propagator of secessionist views and banned it in 1914. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad then started another weekly called Al-Balagh with the same mission of propagating Indian nationalism and revolutionary ideas based on Hindu-Muslim unity. In 1916, the government banned this paper too and expelled Maulana Abul Kalam Azad from Calcutta and internet him at Ranchi from where he was released after the First World War 1920.

After his release, Azad roused the Muslim community through the Khilafat Movement. The aim of the movement was to re-instate the Khalifa as the head of British captured Turkey. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad supporded Non-Cooperation Movement started by Gandhiji and entered Indian National Congress in 1920. He was elected as the president of the special session of the Congress in Delhi (1923). Maulana Azad was again arrested in 1930 for violation of the salt laws as part of Gandhiji's Salt Satyagraha. He was put in Meerut jail for a year and a half. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad became the president of Congress in 1940 (Ramgarh) and remained in the post till 1946. He was a staunch opponent of partition and supported a confederation of autonomous provinces with their own constitutions but common defense and economy. Partition hurt him great(y ant shattered his dream of an unified nation where Hindus and Muslims can co-exist and prosper together.

Maulana Abul Kalam Azad served as the Minister of Education (the first education minister in independent India) in Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru's cabinet from 1947 to 1958. He died of a stroke on February 22, 1958. For his invaluable contribution to the nation, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad was posthumously awarded India's highest civilian honour, Bharat Ratna in 1992.

World Science Day for Peace and Development

The field of Science has provided powerful means for solving many of the challenges facing humanity, from food security to diseases such as AIDS, from pollution to the proliferation of weapons. Scientific research and technology drive today’s economies and serve as twin pillars of progress for advances in knowledge for all humankind. World Science Day for Peace and Development provides an opportunity for scientific organizations, scientists, governments and civil society to join together in reaffirming - in the words of the UN Charter - the crucial contribution of science to the promotion of “social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom”, including freedom from the scourge of war and conflict. The World Science Day for Peace and Development (WSDPD) is annually held on November 10 to raise awareness of the benefits of science worldwide. The WSDPD is also known as World Science Day.

History - It was recommended at the World Conference on Science in Budapest in 1999 recognition was required for the need for a new compact between science and society. It was discussed at the conference that a World Science Day would help strengthen commitments to attain the Declaration on Science and the Use of Scientific Knowledge’s goals and to pursue the Science Agenda: Framework for Action’s recommendations. Following the World Conference on Science, UNESCO established the WSDPD through a proclamation at a general conference in 2001. The WSDPD was to be served a reminder of the organization’s mandate and commitment to science. The day was first celebrated on November 10, 2002 and has been held annually on November 10 since then.

Events - The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) works with people, government agencies and organizations to promote the WSDPD each year.

The WSDPD celebrations include:

• Open days to highlight science’s important role in peace and development.
• Classroom discussions to emphasize how science and technology affect daily life.
• Distributing the WSDPD posters throughout tertiary institutions, school campuses, and public venues.
• Arranged science museum visits to commemorate the day.
• Visits to local schools on careers in science or scientific presentations.

Some governments have, in the past, used World Science Day to publicly affirm their commitment to increased support for scientific initiatives that help society, as well as launch new science policy programs together with scientific institutions, civil society, universities and schools.

Symbols - Various images promoting science and technology are seen in World Science Day posters. The UNESCO logo is also seen on promotional material associated with the day. The logo features the words “UNESCO” pictured as part of a temple building or structure. The words “United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization” are presented underneath this image.

Scientist of the Day

Mario Molina

When it comes to discovering the Antarctic ozone hole, Mario Molina was one of the most notable proponents along with F. Sherwood Rowland and Paul J. Crutzen who received the Novel Prize in Chemistry in 1995. He noted how chlorofluorocarbon gases or the ones called CFCs cause threats to the ozone layer and he is also the first ever Mexican-born individual to receive a Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Early Life and Education

On the 19^th of March in 1943, Mario Molina was born to parents Leonor Henríquez de Molina and Roberto Molina Pasquel who was a lawyer as well as a diplomat who served in countries such as Ethiopia, Australia, and also the Philippines. Mario had shown interest in science at a very early age and he made his own chemistry lab in their home by turning the bathroom into his laboratory and experiment area. He had been fascinated by his toy microscope and this was where he first viewed amoeba and paramecia. For hours on a daily basis, he would play with his chemistry set in the seldom‑used bathroom in their house. Esther Molina, one of his aunts, helped foster his interest by helping him out with more challenging chemical experiments.

It had been a tradition in their family to study abroad for a time, and for Mario Molina and his awareness for his love for chemistry, he went to study at the Institut auf dem Rosenberg which is in Switzerland when he was only eleven years old after having completed his basic education in Mexico.

During his years in Europe however, he was disappointed that his classmates had little interest in chemistry. Because he had already made up his mind to be a chemist, he took his bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México or the National Autonomous University of Mexico in the year 1965.

When he finished his undergraduate studies at UNAM, Mario Molina went on to pursue his Ph.D. in physical chemistry. He had a challenging time because although his degree had given him training, subjects like quantum mechanics was something completely Greek to him those days. He attended the University of Freiburg in Germany and had a postgraduate degree there in 1967, and he got his doctoral degree from the University of California in 1972 when he decided that he needed to study more and not just the kinetics of polymerizations to broaden his knowledge.

He was part of the research group led by Professor George C. Pimentel who was a pioneer in developing matrix isolation techniques. Their goal had been to study the molecular dynamics with the use of chemical lasers. For his graduate work, he had investigated on internal energy distribution in photochemical and chemical reaction products where he had the chance to work using infrared optics, vacuum lines, and other advanced equipment he had not been able to use before.

Career

After he completed his Ph.D., he had stayed for another year in Berkeley where he continued his research concerning chemical dynamics. He then joined Professor F. Sherwood’s group as one of the postdoctoral fellows and moved to Irvine, California. It was Professor Sherwood who had inspired Molina to find out about the fate of the environment considering the presence of CFCs which have been accumulating in the earth’s atmosphere. With that project, Molina learned about a new field in chemistry which was atmospheric chemistry.

Since Molina and Sherwood had already studied similar compounds before, they were able to come up with the CFC ozone depletion theory together. Initially, the research was not as interesting as it should have been since Molina knew that as the CFCs drift up to higher altitudes, they will be destroyed. What held his interest was what the consequences of these accumulated compounds would be. They realized how the chlorine atoms which are produced as CFCs decompose and damage the ozone layer. Because of their findings, they were alarmed at how CFCs in the atmosphere would continue to deplete the ozone layer.

Their findings concerning their ozone depletion theory were published on June 1974 in Nature, and they had made efforts to inform the scientific community of work as well as policy makers so that laws to protect the earth’s ozone layer through regulation of CFC use.

A year later, Molina was appointed as one of the faculty members of the University of California, Irvine. While he still had collaborations with Sherwood, he also began working on his own research. He setup his own program for the investigation of spectroscopic and chemical properties of different compounds which have an important role in the atmosphere. Some of the compounds he had focused on included hypochlorous acid, chlorine nitrate, and chlorine nitrite among others.

While Molina had enjoyed his years in Irvine, it limited his time for doing experiments and after 7 years with an academic position, he decided to join the Molecular Physics and Chemistry Section which was at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory back in 1982. He was part of a small group but had the time and resources to conduct experiments of his own especially those concerning new atmospheric problems.

Awards and Recognitions

Other than the esteemed Nobel Prize award, he also won the Esselen Award of the Northeast section of the American Chemical Society in 1987, the Newcomb-Cleveland awards from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the United Nations Environmental Programme Global 500 Award in 1989. The Pew Charitable Trusts Scholars Program in Conservation and the Environment gave Molina a $150,000 grant in 1990. In 1998, Molina received the Willard Gibbs Medal given by the Chicago Section of the American Chemical Society as well as the American Chemical Society Prize for Creative Advances in Environment Technology and Science in the same year.

He has several honorary degrees from esteemed bodies of education such as Yale, Duke, and Harvard Universities among others. Molina is also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom on the 8^th of August in 2013 from President Barack Obama.

Scientist of the Day

C.V. Raman

One of the most prominent Indian scientists in history, C.V. Raman was the first Indian person to win the Nobel Prize in science for his illustrious 1930 discovery, now commonly known as the “Raman Effect”. It is immensely surprising that Raman used an equipment worth merely Rs.200 to make this discovery. The Raman Effect is now examined with the help of equipment worth almost millions of rupees.

Early Life:

Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman was born at Tiruchirapalli in Tamil Nadu on 7th November 1888 to a physics teacher. Raman was a very sharp student. After doing his matriculation at 12, he was supposed to go abroad for higher studies, but after medical examination, a British surgeon suggested against it. Raman instead attended Presidency College, Madras. After completing his graduation in 1904, and M.Sc. in Physics in 1907, Raman put through various significant researches in the field of physics. He studied the diffraction of light and his thesis on the subject was published in 1906.

Raman was made the Deputy Accountant General in Calcutta in 1907, after a successful Civil Service competitive examination. Very much occupied due to the job, he still managed to spare his evenings for scientific research at the laboratory of the Indian Association for Cultivation of Sciences. On certain occasions, he even spent the entire nights. Such was his passion that in 1917, he resigned from the position to become the Professor of Physics at Calcutta University.

Contributions and Achievements:

On a sea voyage to Europe in 1921, Raman curiously noticed the blue color of the glaciers and the Mediterranean. He was passionate to discover the reason of the blue color. Once Raman returned to India, he performed many experiments regarding the scattering of light from water and transparent blocks of ice. According to the results, he established the scientific explanation for the blue color of sea-water and sky.

There is a captivating event that served as the inspiration for the discovery of the Raman Effect. Raman was busy doing some work on a December evening in 1927, when his student, K.S. Krishnan (who later became the Director of the National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi), gave him the news that Professor Compton has won the Nobel Prize on scattering of X-rays. This led Raman to have some thoughts. He commented that if the Compton Effect is applicable for X-rays, it must also be true for light. He carried out some experiments to establish his opinion.

Raman employed monochromatic light from a mercury arc which penetrated transparent materials and was allowed to fall on a spectrograph to record its spectrum. During this, Raman detected some new lines in the spectrum which were later called ‘Raman Lines’. After a few months, Raman put forward his discovery of ‘Raman Effect’ in a meeting of scientists at Bangalore on March 16, 1928, for which he won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930.

The ‘Raman Effect’ is considered very significant in analyzing the molecular structure of chemical compounds. After a decade of its discovery, the structure of about 2000 compounds was studied. Thanks to the invention of the laser, the ‘Raman Effect’ has proved to be a very useful tool for scientists.

Some of Raman’s other interests were the physiology of human vision, the optics of colloids and the electrical and magnetic anisotropy.

Later Life and Death:

Sir C.V. Raman became the Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1924. A year later, he set up Raman Research Institute near Bangalore, where he continued the scientific research until his death which was caused by a strong heart attack on November 21, 1970. His sincere advice to aspiring scientists was that “scientific research needed independent thinking and hard work, not equipment.”

Scientist of the Day

Heinrich Hertz

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).

Early Life and Career:

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.

Contribution:

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.

Early Death:

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

Jonas Salk

“Life is an error-making and an error-correcting process, and nature in marking man’s papers will grade him for wisdom as measured both by survival and by the quality of life of those who survive.”

This famous saying is by Jonas Salk, born in New York City on October 28, 1914, who is among the most respected medical scientists of the century. Though his first words were reported to be dirt, his early thoughts were not on studying germs but on going into law. He became interested in biology and chemistry, however, and decided to go into research. He went to New York University medical school for training.

Contributions and Achievements:

While attending medical school at New York University, Salk was invited to spend a year researching influenza. The virus that causes flu had only recently been discovered and the young Salk was eager to learn if the virus could be deprived of its ability to infect, while still giving immunity to the illness. Salk succeeded in this attempt, which became the basis of his later work on polio.

His actual work to cure polio started when in America in the 1950s, summertime was a time of concern and worry for many parents as this was the season when children by the thousands became infected with the crippling disease, polio. This burden of fear was lifted forever when it was announced that Dr. Jonas Salk had developed a vaccine against the disease. The vaccine proved successful as everybody who received the test vaccine started producing anti-bodies against the virus so that nobody else became inflicted with polio and no side effect was observed.

Jonas Salk published the results in the Journal of the American Medical Association the following year and a nationwide testing was made.

It was during this time that worst polio eruption happened. It was Salk’s former mentor Thomas Francis Jr. that helped and directed the mass vaccination of schoolchildren. Salk became world-famous overnight, but his discovery was the result of many years of painstaking research. In 1947 Salk accepted an appointment to the University of Pittsburgh Medical School. While working there with the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, Salk saw an opportunity to develop a vaccine against polio, and devoted himself to this work for the next eight years.

The March of Dimes, hoping to boost publicity and donations to fund vaccination programs, praised Salk to the point of offending his colleagues. He had applied the findings of others in a successful made the public blind to that. bid to prevent disease. Other researchers and doctors grumbled that he hadn’t found anything new; he had just applied what was there. But the timing of his successful vaccine at the peak of polio’s devastation

In the years after his discovery, many supporters, in particular the National Foundation “helped him build his dream of a research complex for the investigation of biological phenomena. It was called the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and opened in 1963 at California. Salk believed that the institution would help new and upcoming scientists along their careers as he said himself, “I thought how nice it would be if a place like this existed and I was invited to work there.” This was something that Salk was deprived of early in his life, but due to his achievements, was able to provide for future scientists.

Under Salk’s direction, the Institute began research activities in and gradually expanded its faculty and the areas of their research interests. Salk’s personal research activities included multiple sclerosis and autoimmune diseases, cancer immunology, improved manufacture and standardization of killed poliovirus vaccine, and another development in which Salk also engaged in research to develop a vaccine for more recent plague, AIDS. To further this research, he co-founded The Immune Response Corporation, to search for a vaccine, and patented Remune, an immune-based therapy.

In 1966, Salk described his ambitious plan for the creation of a kind of Socratic academy where the supposedly alienated two cultures of science and humanism will have a favorable atmosphere for cross-fertilization. President Ronald Reagan proclaimed that day to be Jonas Salk Day making people realize that Salk always had a passion for science. It was because of this that he finally chose medicine over law as his career goal. Even after his great discovery, he continued to undertake vital studies and medical research to benefit his fellowman. Under his vision and leadership, the Salk Institute for Biological Studies has been in the forefront of basic biological research, reaping further benefits for mankind and medical science.

The New York Times referred to him as the “Father of Biophilosophy”. As a biologist, he believes that his science is on the frontier of tremendous new discoveries and as a philosopher, he is of the view that humanists and artists have joined the scientists to achieve an understanding of man in all his physical, mental and spiritual complexity. Such interchanges might lead, he would hope, to a new and important school of thinkers he would designate as biophilosopher.

His definition of a “bio-philosopher” is “Someone who draws upon the scriptures of nature, recognizing that we are the product of the process of evolution, and understands that we have become the process itself, through the emergence and evolution of our consciousness, our awareness, our capacity to imagine and anticipate the future, and to choose from among alternatives.

Death:

Salk died at age 80 on June 23, 1995. A monument at the Institute with a statement from Salk captures his vision, “Hope lies in dreams, in imagination and in the courage of those who dare to make dreams into reality.”

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.

His Early Life

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.

His Work

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.

Personal and Later Life

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

Edward Teller

Edward Teller was a Hungarian-born American nuclear physicist who was instrumental in the production of the first atomic bomb as well the world’s first thermonuclear weapon, Hydrogen bomb. He is also known for his extraordinary contributions to nuclear and molecular physics, surface physics and spectroscopy (particularly the Jahn–Teller and Renner–Teller effects).

Early Life and Education:

Born in Budapest in a rich Hungarian Jewish family, Edward Teller earned a degree in chemical engineering at the Institute of Technology in Karlsruhe. He received his Ph.D. in particle chemistry from the University of Leipzig in 1930.

Contributions and Achievements:

Teller accepted a teaching position at the University of London in 1934. After joining George Washington University as a professor, he became a naturalized U.S. citizen after a few years in 1941. He became a part of the the Manhattan Project duting World War II. A few of his brilliant contributions included work on the first nuclear reactor, analysis of the effects of a fission explosion and research on a potential fusion reaction.

Teller was a recipient of the the Enrico Fermi Award, Albert Einstein Award, the National Medal of Science and the Harvey Prize from Technion-Israel Institute.

He was an active campaigner for civil defense since the 1950’s. Teller also worked as a senior research fellow at the Hoover Institute, where he studied the international and national policies of energy and defense. A few of the notable books he has written include “Conversations on the Dark Secrets of Physics Better a Shield Than a Sword”, “Pursuit of Simplicity” and “Energy from Heaven and Earth”.

Later Life and Death:

Edward Teller died in Stanford, California on September 9, 2003. He was 95 years old. The same year he was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.