Learn about the history of science by reading about the significant scientific events that took place on this day in history.
2004 - Sune K. Bergström died.
Bergström was a Swedish biochemist who shares the 1982 Nobel Prize in Medicine with Bengt Samuelsson and John R. Vane for their discoveries concerning prostaglandins and related substances. Prostaglandins are biochemical compounds that influence physiological phenomena such as blood pressure, body temperature, and allergic reactions.1982 - Axel Hugo Theodor Theorell died.
Theorell was a Swedish biochemist who was awarded the 1955 Nobel Prize in Medicine for the discovery of oxidation enzymes and determining their effects. He isolated and crystallized the red-colored protein of muscles, myoglobin. He continued his Nobel work on how alcohol is broken down by alcohol dehydrogenase which led to the invention of blood alcohol tests.1953 - Ludwig Prandtl died.
DLR-Archive Göttingen
Prandtl was a German physicist who developed the mathematics involved in the science of aerodynamics. He identified the boundary layer of a fluid where the behavior of the fluid is different between the area up close to a surface and further away from the surface. He later developed the first theories of supersonic shockwaves with his student Theodor Meyer and created the first supersonic wind tunnels.
1896 - Gerty Theresa Cori was born.
National Institutes of Health
Cori was an American biochemist who shares half the 1947 Nobel Prize in Medicine with her husband Carl Ferdinand Cori for their discovery how glycogen is converted in the body. Glycogen is a starch derivative of glucose that is used by the body to store energy.
1892 - Louis-Victor de Broglie was born.
De Broglie was a French physicist who discovered electrons demonstrated behaviors and properties of waves. The wave-particle duality theory would earn him the 1929 Nobel Prize in Physics. His is also known for the de Broglie hypothesis, which states any moving particle or object has an associated wave.
1852 - Johan Gadolin died.
Wikimedia Commons
Gadolin was a Finnish chemist who discovered the element yttrium. Yttrium was the first of the rare earth lanthanide group discovered. He identified yttrium from the mineral from Ytterby, Sweden called yttria. Over the next century, yttria would be a source of nine more rare earth elements where one would be named after Gadolin, gadolinium.
