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30 December 2010

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Science Timeline Part Nine

 

From complex mathematics, through

medical science to electromagnetism and radiation

 

In mid-Victorian times, mathematicians were making great strides in the development of their science.

 

By now, mathematics had left the average two-plus-two-equals-four person way behind. Concepts such non-Euclidean geometry, in which more than one parallel can be drawn to a given line through a given point not on the line, were making the hearts of mathematicians beat a little faster.

 

In 1854, George Boole (left) in England described an algebraic system that used mathematics to describe logical arguments. However obscure these calculations may seem they became vital to other branches of science. George Boole’s idea came to be called Boolean Algebra, and it’s the basis for a lot of computer programming today.

 

 

Pasteurization Save Lives

and Leads to Modern Medical Practice

In France, Louis Pasteur was asked to help the wine industry find a solution to a problem that was costing millions. Some wine was going sour as it aged.

 

After experimenting, Pasteur found that gentle heating kept wine from spoiling. Microorganisms must be at work, he reasoned, and that the heating killed them. Thus, in 1856, the process of pasteurization came into being; it was soon extended to milk to make it safer to drink.

 

In working on wine, Louis Pasteur became very interested in microorganisms, with enormously important results. In 1862, Pasteur presented his germ theory of disease. This was probably the single most important advance in medicine.

 

Using the theory, Pasteur and others were able locate the microorganisms responsible for particular illnesses. Once the germs were identified logical ways of dealing with them could be worked out. Louis Pasteur went on to develop vaccines against anthrax, cholera, and rabies.

 

The British surgeon Joseph Lister (right) heard of Pasteur’s germ theory. Lister was trying to cut the death rate among patients following surgery, which was running at about 50%.

 

At the time, it was thought post-operative infections were caused by some sort of bad air. Lister thought that germs might be the problem; they could be easily carried from one patient to another on surgical instruments because no particular care was taken to clean them between operations. He began to use carbolic acid to sterilize the tools of his trade and the surgical mortality rate plummeted to 12% in just four years.

 

A few years earlier an English doctor, John Snow, had made another startling discovery. An epidemic of cholera in 1854 in London had him wondering about what might be causing it. He zeroed in on water and found a heavy concentration of cases near one particular public pump. He found the pump was drawing water from a well just a few metres from a sewer pipe. The pump was shut down and the cholera epidemic petered out.

 

So, with pasteurization, vaccination, antiseptic surgery, and public health measures modern medical practice was born.

 

Unlocking the Mystery of Cells

With ever more powerful microscopes becoming available, scientists are able to delve deeper and deeper into cell structures.

 

In 1879, the German physician Walther Flemming discovered that animal cells divide in stages, and he called the process mitosis. At about the same time, another German scientist, Eduard Strasburger, described the same process in plant life.

 

Five years later, August Weismann overturned what was previously believed about how life forms inherited characteristics from their parents. He claimed, correctly, that only germ cells, such as egg and sperm cells, carry the genetic code that determines physical features.

 

By the late 19th century several scientists had a role in the discovery of cell differentiation. This is the process by which a cell turns into one of many other cell types, all of which go to create the complete organism. Before cells differentiate they are known as stem cells (those of a mouse are shown above), which modern researchers are working on as a means to cure many illnesses.

 

During this same period, scientists discovered mitochondria. These are tiny structures within cells that make metabolism possible so that food can be converted into chemicals that cells can use.

 

Heyday for Inventors

The last third of the 19th century was a period when inventors, the people who take scientific discoveries and turn them into a useful technology, ruled.

 

In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell made the world’s first telephone call in Brantford, Ontario. Investors were not impressed with any commercial prospects for the device believing there would always be a plentiful supply of young boys available to run messages.

 

In 1877, the German inventor Nikolaus Otto patented the first effective four-stroke internal combustion engine. There had been earlier efforts, but they were hopelessly inefficient. Eventually, internal combustion engines would power almost every automobile.

 

In 1879, working independently of each other, British inventor Joseph Swan and American inventor Thomas Edison developed practical electric lights. However, both were beaten to the first electric light source by Humphry Davy, who connected wires to a battery and a piece of carbon, making the carbon glow. That was in 1800.

 

Edison also invented the phonograph, forerunner of the CD player, during this period. Other developments include: clinical thermometer (1866), dry-cell battery (1867), typewriter (1867), celluloid (1869), electric dynamo (1872), seismograph (1880), alloy steel (1883), steam turbine (1884), Thermos flask (1885), Kodak camera (1888), pneumatic tires (1888), Aspirin (1893), Diesel engine (1893).

 

There is a persistent story that in 1899 the head of the U.S. Patent Office, Charles H. Duell, suggested closing down his operation because “everything that could be invented has been invented.” Even though the yarn was quoted by U.S. President Ronald Reagan (a man who never let the facts get in the way of a good story) it is a myth as explained by The Great Idea Finder.

 

Advances in Electromagnetism and Radiation

Back in the science laboratory, Heinrich Hertz was working on electromagnetism. During his investigations in 1887, he noticed that ultraviolet light had an effect on one of his experiments. It didn’t seem to have anything to do with what he was working on, so he made notes and moved on.

 

But, this was the first observation of the “photoelectric effect,” and it turned out to be very important. A year later, he identified what were at first named Hertzian waves, and what we call radio waves.

 

Hertz was building on the earlier work of James Clerk Maxwell (see part eight). In 1865, the Scottish physicist devised a set of equations that expressed all the varied phenomena of electricity and magnetism.

 

Maxwell’s equations proposed that light is an electromagnetic phenomenon. He concluded that visible light forms only a small part of the entire spectrum of possible electromagnetic radiation. All these waves travel at the speed of light; the longest waves take the form of radio waves. Shorter waves are microwaves, then come infrared, visible light, ultraviolet, X rays, and gamma rays.

 

There was now an enormous burst of discoveries in physics. Wilhelm Roentgen discovered X-rays in 1895. In his experiments he found that radiation of some sort was emerging and penetrating solid matter. He took a picture of his wife’s hand (right) causing great excitement in the scientific community and within the wider public.

 

It’s been said that Wilhelm Roentgen’s discovery triggered a second scientific revolution, just as Nicolaus Copernicus had started the first one in 1543.

 

In France, Marie Curie confirmed the existence of radiation (1897). Working with uranium she proved that the radiation came from the atoms themselves, and she coined the word radioactivity. This marks the beginning of the atomic age. Marie Curie and her husband went on to discover the element radium, which was to be used in the treatment of cancer.

 

 

Got Back to Part Eight

Go to Part Ten

 

© Canada and the World, December 2010

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OLBERS’ PARADOX

 

The German physician and astronomer Wilhelm Olbers, came up with a real head-scratcher in 1826. If the Universe is infinite, every line of sight possible from Earth should end in a star. Therefore, the sky should be completely bright at night. Put another way, with an infinite number of stars, “every element of the sky background should have a star, and the entire heavens should be at least as bright as an average star like the Sun.” Here’s an animation.

 

But, astronomers know from common observation that the sky at night is as dark as the inside of a coal cellar.

 

Arriving at opposite results by using two apparently valid methods of reasoning is called a paradox; this one is known as Olbers’ Paradox.

 

A lot of bright people have puzzled over this. A current explanation comes from American astronomer Edward Harrison. In the 1960s, Harrison showed that the sky is dark at night because we do not see stars infinitely far away.

 

Harrison’s solution depends on the Universe having a finite age. Because light takes time to reach Earth, looking deep into space is like looking back in time. Each line of sight from Earth does not have to end on a star because the light from the farthest stars needed to create Olbers Paradox has not reached Earth.

 

In the time that the Universe has existed, stars have not emitted enough energy to make the night sky bright.

1875

Whereas today most cutting-edge science is performed in large academic or corporate laboratories, in the Victoria era “amateur” scientists still had a role to play. One such was William Crookes whose many scientific discoveries were made in his private laboratory attached to his home in London, one of these being his identification of the element thallium in 1861. In 1875, he invents a tube that took his name, which made it possible to study cathode rays. This breakthrough would lead to the invention of vacuum tubes and television. Crookes is one of the first scientists to study plasmas and is an early pioneer in radioactivity.

 

1883

During his productive life (1847-1931) Thomas Edison patents more than 1,000 inventions. In 1883, he is fiddling about with his electric light bulb trying to improve the life of the filament. He seals a cold wire near the hot filament of his bulb. To his surprise, electricity flows between the two. He takes meticulous notes of his observations but can’t think of a way to use the effect. It becomes known as the Edison Effect and forms the basis of the science of electronics. It is Edison’s only purely scientific discovery and he never follows it up.

 

1887

Since ancient times, the concept of aether (also spelled ether) is believed to be a chemical compound that permeates the Universe giving it physical and, therefore, measurable qualities. It is imagined as an invisible vapour that fills space and carries heat and light to us. In 1887, the Americans Albert Michelson and Edward Morley conduct an experiment that takes their names. They are trying to find out how light is carried by aether (what Newton called the luminiferous aether wind) and they fail to find evidence of the existence of it. This has been called one of the greatest failed experiments of all time and was confirmed by other researchers. Earl R. Hoover, in his 1977 book Cradle of Greatness: National and World Achievements of Ohio’s Western Reserve, describes the Michelson-Morley Experiment as “the moving-off point for the theoretical aspects of the Second Scientific Revolution.”

 

1890s

Using balloons loaded with scientific instruments, the French meteorologist Leon Teisserenc de Bort discovers that the atmosphere is made up of layers. The air temperature gradually decreases up to a height of about 11 kilometres, beyond that the temperature ceases to fall and sometimes increases slightly. He names the lower level the troposphere and the higher one the stratosphere.

 

1891

Otto Lilienthal in Germany builds the first glider capable of carrying a human being. Five years later, he dies in a crash landing.

 

1895

In yet another example of discovery by accident, the German scientist Wilhelm Roentgen is experimenting with vacuum tubes when he stumbles on X-rays. He takes an X-ray image of his wife’s hand that clearly shows her wedding ring and bones. He doesn’t know what this radiation might be. As mathematicians usually referred to an unknown quantity as x, Roentgen calls his unknown radiation X-rays.

 

1900

Austrian pathologist and immunologist Karl Landsteiner discovers three types of human blood, later named A, B, and O. In 1902, he discovers a fourth type, to be named AB.

 

1901

On December 12, Guglielmo Marconi climbs up Signal Hill outside St. John’s, Newfoundland. He sets up instruments to receive a radio-wave signal sent out from Cornwall, England. This is the first trans-Atlantic radio transmission. Marconi had earlier sent radio messages over shorter distances.

 

1903

Orville Wright makes the first powered flight in an aircraft designed and built by him and his brother Wilbur. The flight, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, lasts almost a minute and covers a distance that is slightly less than the length of a Boeing 747. Only two years before his historic flight Orville Wright had said “Man will not fly for fifty years.”

 

1903
William H. Bayliss and Ernest H. Starling give hormones their name and reveal their role as chemical messengers.

 

1906

Through analyzing earthquakes, the British geologist Richard Oldham advances the theory that Earth has a liquid core.

 

 

 

 

THE CURIES

 

Marie Sklodowska was born in Poland in 1867. She went to Paris to study her passion, science, at the Sorbonne. She had no money and almost died of starvation, but she came top of her class in 1894.

 

She married Pierre Curie and became, probably, the world’s most famous scientist. The two were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1903. They were both so exhausted from malnutrition and overwork that they were unable to travel to Sweden to receive the prize in person.

 

The Curies refused to patent any of their discoveries, wanting them to benefit everyone freely.