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1654 In Science
The year 1654 in science and technology involved some significant events. Astronomy * Sicilian astronomer Giovanni Battista Hodierna publishes '' De systemate orbis cometici, deque admirandis coeli characteribus'' including a catalog of comets and nebulae. Mathematics * At the prompting of the Chevalier de Méré, Blaise Pascal corresponds with Pierre de Fermat on gambling problems, from which is born the theory of probability. Physics * May 8 – Otto von Guericke demonstrates the effectiveness of his vacuum pump and the power of atmospheric pressure using the Magdeburg hemispheres before Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor, in Regensburg. Births * December 27 – Jakob Bernoulli, Swiss mathematician (died 1705). * John Banister, English missionary and botanist (died 1692). * ''prob. date'' – Eleanor Glanville, English entomologist (died 1709). Deaths * August 31 – Ole Worm, Danish physician, natural historian and antiquary (born 1588) * October 18 – Nicho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Magdeburg Hemispheres
The Magdeburg hemispheres are a pair of large copper hemispheres with mating rims that were used in a famous 1654 experiment to demonstrate the power of atmospheric pressure. When the rims were sealed with grease and the air was pumped out, the sphere contained a vacuum and could not be pulled apart by teams of horses. Once the valve was opened, air rushed in and the hemispheres were easily separated. The Magdeburg hemispheres were invented by German scientist and mayor of Magdeburg, Otto von Guericke, to demonstrate the air pump that he had invented and the concept of atmospheric pressure. Speculation varied about the contents of the sphere. Many thought it was simply empty, while others argued the vacuum contained air or some finer aerial substance. Sound did not transmit through the sphere, indicating that sound needed a medium in order to be heard, while light did not. The first artificial vacuum had been produced a few years earlier by Evangelista Torricelli and inspired Gu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ole Worm
Ole Worm (13 May 1588 – 31 August 1654), who often went by the Latinized form of his name Olaus Wormius, was a Danish physician, natural historian and antiquary. He was a professor at the University of Copenhagen where he taught Greek, Latin, physics and medicine. Biography Worm was the son of Willum Worm, who served as the mayor of Aarhus, and was made a rich man by an inheritance from his father. Ole Worm's grandfather Johan Worm, a magistrate in Aarhus, was a Lutheran who had fled from Arnhem in Gelderland while it was under Catholic rule. Worm married Dorothea Fincke, the daughter of a friend and colleague, Thomas Fincke. Fincke was a Danish mathematician and physicist, who invented the terms 'tangent' and ' secant' and taught at the University of Copenhagen for more than 60 years. Through Fincke, Worm became connected to the powerful Bartholin family of physicians, and later theologians and scientists, that dominated the University of Copenhagen throughout the 17th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1709 In Science
The year 1709 in science and technology involved some significant events. Meteorology * January – Great Frost of 1709, Great Frost in Western Europe. Physics * Francis Hauksbee publishes ''Physico-Mechanical Experiments on Various Subjects'', summarizing the results of his many experiments with electricity and other topics. Technology * January 10 – Industrial Revolution: Abraham Darby I successfully produces cast iron using coke (fuel), coke fuel at his Coalbrookdale blast furnace in Shropshire, England. * February 5 – Dramatist John Dennis (dramatist), John Dennis devises the thundersheet as a new method of producing theatrical thunder for his tragedy ''Appius and Virginia (1709 play), Appius and Virginia'' at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London. * March 28 – Johann Friedrich Böttger reports the first production of hard-paste porcelain in Europe, at Dresden. * July 13 – Johann Maria Farina founds Farina gegenüber, the first Eau de Cologne and perfume factory in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Entomologist
Entomology (from Ancient Greek ἔντομον (''éntomon''), meaning "insect", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study") is the branch of zoology that focuses on insects. Those who study entomology are known as entomologists. In the past, the term ''insect'' was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as arachnids, myriapods, and crustaceans. The field is also referred to as insectology in American English, while in British English insectology implies the study of the relationships between insects and humans. Over 1.3million insect species have been described by entomology. History Entomology is rooted in nearly all human cultures from prehistoric times, primarily in the context of agriculture (especially biological control and beekeeping). The natural Roman philosopher Pliny the Elder (23–79 CE) wrote a book on the kinds of insects, while the scientist of Kufa, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eleanor Glanville
Eleanor Glanville (born Goodricke; first married name Ashfield; 1654–1709) was an English entomologist and naturalist, specializing in the study of butterflies and moths. She inherited family properties across Somersetshire and married twice (once widowed). She had seven children, four of whom survived to adulthood. After separating from her second husband in the late 1690s, Glanville returned to an early passion for butterfly collecting and established herself among the ranks of early insect enthusiasts, corresponding with other entomologists such as James Petiver and John Ray. Glanville sent multiple first-known butterfly specimens to Petiver, contributing to his British insect catalogue ''Gazophylacium naturae et artis'', and her experiments in raising butterflies resulted in some of the earliest detailed descriptions of butterfly rearing. She is known for discovering the Glanville fritillary, the only native British butterfly named after a British naturalist. Three o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1692 In Science
The year 1692 in science and technology: Events * In the American colonies, the Salem witch trials develop, following 250 years of witch-hunts in Europe. Mathematics * The tractrix, sometimes called a tractory or equitangential curve, is first studied by Christiaan Huygens Christiaan Huygens, Halen, Lord of Zeelhem, ( , ; ; also spelled Huyghens; ; 14 April 1629 – 8 July 1695) was a Dutch mathematician, physicist, engineer, astronomer, and inventor who is regarded as a key figure in the Scientific Revolution ..., who gives it its name. * John Arbuthnot publishes ''Of the Laws of Chance'' (translated from Huygens' ''De ratiociniis in ludo aleae''), the first work on probability theory in English language, English. Medicine * Thomas Sydenham's ''Processus integri'' ("The Process of Healing") is published posthumously. Births * April 22 – James Stirling (mathematician), James Stirling, Scottish people, Scottish mathematician (died 1770 in science, 1770) Deaths * Ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Botanist
Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who specialises in this field. "Plant" and "botany" may be defined more narrowly to include only land plants and their study, which is also known as phytology. Phytologists or botanists (in the strict sense) study approximately 410,000 species of Embryophyte, land plants, including some 391,000 species of vascular plants (of which approximately 369,000 are flowering plants) and approximately 20,000 bryophytes. Botany originated as history of herbalism#Prehistory, prehistoric herbalism to identify and later cultivate plants that were edible, poisonous, and medicinal, making it one of the first endeavours of human investigation. Medieval physic gardens, often attached to Monastery, monasteries, contained plants possibly having medicinal benefit. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Banister (naturalist)
John Baptist Banister (1649 or 1650 – May 1692) was an English clergyman and one of the first university-trained naturalists in North America. His primary focus was botany but he also studied insects and molluscs. He was sent out as a missionary chaplain by the garden-loving Bishop Henry Compton, with whom he soon established a correspondence. Banister was first in Barbados in the West Indies and then by April 1679 in Virginia, where, while serving a rector of the parish of Charles City he became one of Bishop Compton's most energetic plant collectors, "the first Virginia botanist of any note". Banister matriculated at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he could see and study the American plants grown from seed in the Oxford Physic Garden under the care of Dr. Robert Morison. From Virginia, his first letter to Dr Morison at the Oxford Physic Garden was dated 1679: in it he listed the bounty of American oaks that would supplement Britain's impoverished flora: dwarf, black, white, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1705 In Science
The year 1705 in science and technology involved some significant events. Astronomy * Edmond Halley, in his ''Synopsis Astronomia Cometicae'', states that comets seen in 1456, 1531, 1607, and 1682 were actually a single comet and correctly predicts that it will return in 1758. Life sciences * Dutch lepidopterist Maria Merian publishes ''Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium''. * French anatomist Raymond Vieussens publishes ''Novum vasorum corporis humani systema'', considered an early classic work on cardiology. * French surgeon Jean Louis Petit publishes ''L'Art de guerir les maladies des os'', the first significant work on bone disease. Other events * April 16 – Isaac Newton is knighted by Anne, Queen of Great Britain, at Trinity College, Cambridge. Births * February 22 – Peter Artedi, Swedish naturalist (died 1735) * April 11 – William Cookworthy, English chemist (died 1780) * June 21 – David Hartley, English physician and psychologist (died 1757) * ''un ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mathematician
A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematical model, models, and mathematics#Calculus and analysis, change. History One of the earliest known mathematicians was Thales of Miletus (); he has been hailed as the first true mathematician and the first known individual to whom a mathematical discovery has been attributed. He is credited with the first use of deductive reasoning applied to geometry, by deriving four corollaries to Thales's theorem. The number of known mathematicians grew when Pythagoras of Samos () established the Pythagorean school, whose doctrine it was that mathematics ruled the universe and whose motto was "All is number". It was the Pythagoreans who coined the term "mathematics", and with whom the study of mathematics for its own sake begins. The first woman math ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jakob Bernoulli
Jacob Bernoulli (also known as James in English or Jacques in French; – 16 August 1705) was a Swiss mathematician. He sided with Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz during the Leibniz–Newton calculus controversy and was an early proponent of Leibnizian calculus, to which he made numerous contributions. A member of the Bernoulli family, he, along with his brother Johann, was one of the founders of the calculus of variations. He also discovered the fundamental mathematical constant . However, his most important contribution was in the field of probability, where he derived the first version of the law of large numbers in his work '' Ars Conjectandi''.Jacob (Jacques) Bernoulli [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
