July 1, 1858: Darwin and Wallace Shift the Paradigm
The Linnaean Society of London listens to the reading of a composite paper on how natural selection accounts for the evolution and variety of species. The authors are Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace. Modern biology is born.
Sept. 22, 1791: Faraday Enters a World He Will Change
1791: Michael Faraday is born. In his 76 years on the planet, the chemist-physicist will make fundamental contributions to our understanding of electricity and magnetism, advise governments and establish lasting institutions of scientific education. Faraday came from a working-class family and had to go to work after rudimentary schooling in reading, writing and arithmetic. But […]
Aug. 13, 1913: Great Alloyed Victory for Stainless Steel
English metallurgist Harry Brearley casts a steel alloy that’s resistant to acidity and weathering. Because his sponsor names it “stainless steel,” Brearley will often be credited as the inventor, but there are more metallurgists than metals in this story.
March 4, 1877: The Microphone Sounds Much Better
1877: Emile Berliner invents a new kind of microphone. It assures the future of the telephone, but not fame for Berliner. Alexander Graham Bell had already invented his telephone, but without Berliner’s carbon-disk or carbon-button microphone, telephones would have sounded terrible for decades. And they may not have been capable of surmounting such great distances, […]
Nov. 16, 1904: Vacuum Tube Heralds Birth of Modern Electronics
Like many other patented inventions of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the exact origins of the vacuum tube are a bit murky. But John Ambrose Fleming usually gets the credit, and the advance is a big one -- setting the stage for the age of modern electronics.
Oct. 29, 1675: Leibniz ∫ums It All Up, Seriesly
1675: Gottfried Leibniz writes the integral sign ∫ in an unpublished manuscript, introducing the calculus notation that’s still in use today. Leibniz was a German mathematician and philosopher who readily crossed the lines between academic disciplines. He had a doctorate in law, served as secretary of the Nuremberg alchemical society and fancied himself a poet. He […]
Aug. 18, 1868: Helium Discovered During Total Solar Eclipse
1868: A French astronomer spots an unknown element, now known as helium, in the spectrum of the sun during a much-anticipated total eclipse. The event marks the first discovery of an “extraterrestrial” element, as helium had not yet been found on Earth. Astronomers had been eagerly awaiting a total solar eclipse since 1859, when German […]