Learn about the history of science by reading about the significant scientific events that took place on this day in history.
1936 - J. Michael Bishop was born.
Bishop shared the 1989 Nobel Prize in Medicine with Harold Varmus for the discovery of retroviral oncogenes, or how cancerous tumors form from normal cell genetic information. They discovered and identified the oncogene c-Src.
1914 - Renato Dulbecco was born.
Dulbecco was an Italian virologist who was awarded the 1975 Nobel Prize in Medicine with David Baltimore and Howard Temin for discoveries concerning the relationships and interactions between cell genetic material and tumor viruses.
1949 - Félix d'Herelle died.
Wikipedia Commons
d'Hérelle was a French Canadian microbiologist who was one of the discoverers of bacteriophages, or viruses that infect bacteria.
1902 - Fritz Strassmann was born.
Strassman was a German analytical chemist who with Otto Hahn identified the smaller element barium when uranium was bombarded by neutrons leading to the discovery of the process of nuclear fission.1901 - George Francis FitzGerald died
Oliver Heaviside/Sage in Solitude
FitzGerald was an Irish physicist who independently of Lorentz, proposed that moving bodies contract in the direction of motion. This would be called the Lorentz-FitzGerald contraction and lead to Einstein's theory of general relativity.
1879 - Johannes Nicolaus Brønsted was born.
Brønsted was a Danish chemist best known for his proton theories of acids and bases. He developed his theory at the same time as a similar theory proposed by English chemist Thomas Lowry so the theory is generally known as Bronsted-Lowry acids. It suggests acids are solutions that donate protons to bases in acid/base reactions. He also made several contributions to the understanding of the catalytic action of acids and bases.1857 - Heinrich Hertz was born.
Hertz was a German physicist who first demonstrated a device to transmit and receive radio waves. The unit of frequency, Hertz was named after him. He also showed charged bodies slowly lose their charge when exposed to ultraviolet light which was later explained by the photoelectric effect.
1815 - Smithson Tennant died.
Tennant was an English chemist who discovered the elements iridium and osmium. He discovered these elements while investigating platinum ores. He also showed that diamonds are made of pure carbon.1785 - Jean-Charles-Athanase Peltier was born.
Antoine Maurin
Peltier was a French scientist who discovered the heating or cooling effect of a junction of two metals in a circuit is related to the electric current passing through the junction. This became known as the Peltier effect.
