“Poyekhali!” (”Let’s Go!”) - Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin
On this day in 1934, Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin was born. Gagarin was the first man in space. He shouted this expression on April 12th, 1961, as the engines fired on the launch-pad to propel him on this historic mission.
“If anybody had that cure out there, like so many people swear they do, you’d be two things. You’d be very rich, and you’d be very famous. Otherwise, shut up.” — Patrick Swayze (1952-2009) to the cancer cure quacks.
Thanks to wastrel on the SGU Forums for this quote.
Stephen Hawking was born on this day in 1942. Hawking is an English theoretical physicist who is one of the world’s leaders in his field. His principal areas of research are theoretical cosmology and quantum gravity. Hawking is the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University (formerly held by Sir Isaac Newton). Afflicted with Lou Gehrig’s disease (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; ALS), Hawking is confined to a wheelchair and is unable to speak without the aid of a computer voice synthesizer. However, despite his challenges, he has utilized his intelligence, knowledge and abilities to make remarkable contributions to the field of cosmology (the study of the universe as a whole).
“We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star. But we can understand the Universe. That makes us something very special.”
-Stephen Hawking
“There is a single light of science, and to brighten it anywhere is to brighten it everywhere.”
-Isaac Asimov, born this day in 1920.
The holiday season was exceptionally busy for me this year. But then, becoming a father a few months ago would do that, as everybody wanted to see the baby at Christmas this year.
(DISCLAIMER: Yes, I am an atheist that celebrates Christmas. Deal with it.)
As a result, I have had little time to keep up with the blog, particularly what I had hoped would be mostly-daily “Quote of the Day” posts. Recently I changed the format of QotD so that the quote would be coming from somebody that was born, died, or did something cool on that particular day sometime in the past. What I’ve discovered is that this is actually a heck of a lot more difficult and time consuming than I thought it would be.
With that in mind, I’m abandoning the Quote of the Day for something better: “Science of Yesteryear”
The new format is that I would present a person that was born, died, or did something cool on the given date. Alternately, I may just simply make mention of something cool that happened on the given day, but not by a particular person (i.e. a particular NASA mission).
There will occasionally be an additional Quote of the Day, but it will not follow any particular format and will no longer be a regular post.
THE FIRST “Science of Yesteryear” WILL BE POSTED VERY SOON!!
“Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things.”
-Sir Isaac Newton, born on this day in 1642. Newton was an English physicist and mathematician, who made seminal discoveries in several areas of science, and was the leading scientist of his era. He was the first to describe the moon as falling (in a circle around the earth) under the same influence of gravity as a falling apple, embodied in his law of universal gravitation.
Hope everyone is having a good break from the daily routine today.
“The way to see by Faith is to shut the Eye of Reason.”
-Benjamin Franklin. On this day in 1750, Benjamin Franklin was severely shocked while electrocuting a turkey.
It is one o’clock in the morning, and I need to shut my Eye of Wakefulness.
“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.”
-Carl Sagan, deceased this day in 1996. Carl Sagan was an astronomer, exobiologist, and writer of popular science books. Sagan was also a skeptic, and his studies were far-ranging.
It is truly sad to me that I was not as enthused by science in my younger years. A person like Carl Sagan could have had a profound effect on my life. Now that I am enthused by science, Sagan does effect my life…he was truly a great person, scientist, and skeptic. I guess it is just one of those things, where I rather wish I could have had the chance to meet him.
Hugo Münsterberg was a German-American psychologist and philosopher who was interested in the applications of psychology to law, business, industry, medicine, teaching, and sociology. He was a forerunner in the field of behaviorism: in theoretical psychology, his “action theory” defined attention in terms of the openness of the nerve paths to the muscles of adjustment. His work in industrial/organizational psychology was extremely experimentally based. He looked at problems with monotony, attention and fatigue, physical and social influences on the working power, the effects of advertising, and the future development of economic psychology. He also looked at the reliability of eye witness testimonies. In reaction to Freud’s theoretical emphasis on unconscious determinants, Münsterberg stated:
“The story of the subconscious mind can be told in three words: there is none.”
-Hugo Münsterberg, deceased on this day in 1916.
“The belief that all things are created solely for the utility of man has stained with many errors that most noble part of physics which deals with the ends of things.”
-Franz Maria Ulrich Theodor Hoch Aepinus, born on this day in 1724. Aepius was a Dutch physicist whose Tentamen theoriae electricitatis et magnetismi (”An Attempt at a Theory of Electricity and Magnetism”) was the first work to apply mathematics to the theory of electricity and magnetism. Aepinus’ experiments led to the design of the parallel-platecapacitor, a device used to store energy in an electric field.
