Notices tagged with otd

Ernst Florens Friedrich Chladni, a pioneer of the field of acoustics, was born #OTD in 1756.

He studied the mathematical theory of sound waves, the speed of sound in various materials, and eponymous complex patterns formed by vibrational modes of solid objects.

The Reverend John Michell read a paper before the Royal Society #OTD in 1783 that included the first prediction of what, given the understanding of gravity at the time, you might call a Black Hole.

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rstl.1784.0008

Charles Darwin's "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection" was published #OTD in 1859.

Yesterday I was thankful for his explanation of the process by which certain saurischian dinosaurs became, over millions of years, delicious and small enough to fit on a plate:🦖→🦃.

Chemist Rachel Fuller Brown was born #OTD in 1898.

She discovered the antifungal antibiotic nystatin while doing research for the NY State Department of Health, hence the name.

Image: Smithsonian Institution

David Hilbert sent a postcard to Einstein #OTD in 1915.

He offered congratulations for the previous day’s lecture, in which Einstein presented his final field equations for general relativity and used them to explain the anomalous precession of Mercury.

The postcard read:

"If I could calculate as rapidly as you, in my equations the electron would correspondingly have to capitulate, and simultaneously the hydrogen atom would have to produce its note of apology about why it does not radiate."

NASA astronaut Eileen Collins was born #OTD in 1956.

She was the first woman to pilot the space shuttle (1995) and the first woman to command a shuttle mission (1999).

Mathematician and astronomer August Ferdinand Möbius was born #OTD in 1790. He is best known for having his name attached to a surface that not even the New York Times could find a way to both-sides.

The "Arecibo Message" was beamed towards globular cluster M13 #OTD in 1974, during the dedication of an upgrade to the radio telescope. It was the first message sent with the intention of alerting extraterrestrials to life on earth.

The message was 1679 bits, arrayed into 73 rows and 23 columns. It contained depictions of the numbers 1-10, the solar system, the human form, and info about the elements and biochemical structures associated with life on Earth.

Albert Einstein used my signature move #OTD in 1915. He pretended to be sick so he could skip a seminar by his colleague David Hilbert, then stayed home to work on his own theory.

(From "David Hilbert and the Axiomatization of Physics" by L. Corry)

When Einstein proposed general relativity he laid out three tests: the precession of Mercury's perihelion, deflection of light by the sun, and gravitational redshift.

Irwin Shapiro proposed a fourth test #OTD in 1964: the gravitational time delay of light.

https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.13.789

1) Igor Dmitriyevich Novikov, who introduced the concept of the white hole in 1964, was born #OTD in 1935. He also introduced a self-consistency principle for time-travel...

Marie Curie was born #OTD (7 Nov) in 1867. She coined the term 'radioactivity', discovered two elements, and is still the only person to win a Nobel Prize in two sciences (chemistry and physics) https://wp.me/s4aPLT-curie

Physicist Lise Meitner was born #OTD in 1878. She discovered fission in uranium with Otto Frisch, and was the first person to understand both its mechanics and implications.

Per usual, the Nobel Committee awarded a prize to some of her colleagues, but left her off.

Image: Atomic Heritage Foundation (photographer unknown)

But among non-Nazi scientists, there was little doubt that the results presented #OTD in 1919 marked a turning point in our understanding of the universe.

Deflection of starlight by the Sun’s gravitational field, measured during a solar eclipse and confirming a central prediction of Einstein's general relativity, was announced at a joint meeting of the Royal Society and the Royal Astronomical Society #OTD in 1919.

The very good girl Laika, a scrappy three-year-old stray from Moscow, was sent into space aboard Sputnik II #OTD in 1957.

The first animal to orbit Earth, Laika became a national hero. This was cold comfort, since the mission wasn’t designed to return her to Earth.

Mathematician Karl Weierstrass was born #OTD, Halloween, in 1815.

The fools at The Academy all said he was mad, but in 1872 he announced that he had succeeded in creating a ~monster~.

Image: Smithsonian Institution Libraries

The first message between two computers on ARPANET was sent #OTD in 1969. The “LO” of “LOGIN” was successfully transmitted and then one of the systems crashed.

Charles Kline’s IMP Log: “Talked to SRI host to host.”

Image: UCLA Kleinrock Center for Internet Studies

Physicist and astronaut Ronald McNair was born #OTD in 1950. He spent about 8 days in space aboard Challenger in 1984 during STS-41-B. McNair was one of the seven crew members who lost their lives in the 1986 Challenger disaster.

Image: NASA

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar was born #OTD in 1910. He established an upper limit on the mass of stable white dwarf stars, and made numerous contributions to astrophysics and relativity.

Above the Chandrasekhar Limit – about 1.44 solar masses – stars eventually explode and then collapse into a neutron star or black hole.

Photo: Stephen Lewellyn / AIP