June 1 Science History

Learn about the history of science by reading about the significant scientific events that took place on this day in history.

1979 - Werner Forssmann died.

Forssmann was a German physician who developed the technique of running a catheter into the heart to introduce drugs instead of directly medicating the heart. After practicing on cadavers, he thread the 65 centimeter catheter from his lower arm to his right ventricle. He then climbed flights of stairs to get an x-ray to prove he was successful. This new method would earn him a third of the 1956 Nobel Prize in Medicine.

1941 - Hans Berger died.

Berger was a German psychologist who recorded the first electroencephalogram (EEG). He connected a series of electrodes to a patient's head to a recorder where he found two dominant wave patterns he called alpha and beta waves.

1917 - William Standish Knowles was born.

Knowles is an American chemist who shares the 2001 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Ryoji Noyori and K. Barry Sharpless for the development of catalytic asymmetric synthesis of hydrogenation reactions. These reactions prepare many pharmaceutical compounds.

1905 - Max Sterne was born.

Sterne was an Italian veterinarian who developed an effective vaccine against anthrax which effectively eliminated the disease. Anthrax was a serious disease that is lethal to humans and animals. It is caused by the bacteria Bacillus anthracis and was one of the first diseases to receive a vaccine based on Louis Pasteur's techniques. Sterne's vaccine greatly increased the effectiveness of the treatment.

1796 - Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot was born.

Carnot was a French physicist who developed a theorem to describe the maximum possible efficiency of a steam or heat engine. The Carnot cycle is one of the principles that led to the second law of thermodynamics.