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1729 In Science
The year 1729 in science and technology involved some significant events. Astronomy * January 9 & 16 – James Bradley, in a letter written to Edmond Halley and read before the Royal Society, describes his discovery of aberration of starlight. * August 1 – Fr. Nicolas Sarrabat, a professor of mathematics at Marseille, discovers the Comet of 1729, possibly the largest comet, with the highest apparent magnitude, on record. * English optician Chester Moore Hall (1703–1771) develops an achromatic lens (or achromat) commonly used as the objective of small refracting telescopes. Biology * June 8 – The Botanic Gardens of Pamplemousses on Mauritius are started by Pierre Barmond. * Mark Catesby begins part publication in London of ''The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands, containing the figures of birds, beasts, fishes, serpents, insects, and plants ... together with their descriptions in English and French'', the first published account of the flora and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Refracting Telescope
A refracting telescope (also called a refractor) is a type of optical telescope that uses a lens (optics), lens as its objective (optics), objective to form an image (also referred to a dioptrics, dioptric telescope). The refracting telescope design was originally used in spyglasses and astronomy, astronomical telescopes but is also used for long-focus lens, long-focus camera lenses. Although large refracting telescopes were very popular in the second half of the 19th century, for most research purposes, the refracting telescope has been superseded by the reflecting telescope, which allows larger apertures. A refractor's magnification is calculated by dividing the focal length of the objective lens by that of the eyepiece. Refracting telescopes typically have a lens at the front, then a optical train, long tube, then an eyepiece or instrumentation at the rear, where the telescope view comes to focus. Originally, telescopes had an objective of one element, but a century later, tw ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Centre College
Centre College, formally Centre College of Kentucky, is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Danville, Kentucky, United States. Chartered by the Kentucky General Assembly in 1819, the college is a member of the Associated Colleges of the South and the Association of Presbyterian Colleges and Universities. It has an enrollment of about 1,400 students. History The Kentucky General Assembly established Centre College on January 21, 1819. The college was named for its approximate location in the geographic "centre" of the Commonwealth, using early-nineteenth-century America's contemporaneous spelling of the word. The legislature placed many of Kentucky's most prominent citizens in charge of Centre College's Board of Trustees, including James G. Birney, who represented Danville in the Kentucky House of Representatives, and chairman Isaac Shelby, the Commonwealth's first governor. Classes began in the fall of 1820 in Old Centre, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1687 In Science
{{Science year nav, 1687 The year 1687 in science and technology involved some significant events. Astronomy * The constellation ''Triangulum Minus'' is named by Johannes Hevelius. Biology * Alida Withoos at the house of Agnes Block makes a painting of the first pineapple bred in Europe. Medicine * Dutch physician Willem ten Rhijne publishes ''Verhandelinge van de Asiatise Melaatsheid na een naaukeuriger ondersoek ten dienste van het gemeen'' in Amsterdam, explaining Asian leprosy to the West. Physics * July 5 – Isaac Newton's ''Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica'', known as the ''Principia'', is published by the Royal Society of London. In it, Newton describes his theory of universal gravitation, explains the laws of mechanics (including Newton's laws of motion), gives a formula for the speed of sound and demonstrates that Earth is an oblate spheroid. The concepts in the ''Principia'' become the foundations of modern physics. Births * October 14 – Robert Simso ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica
(English: ''The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy''), often referred to as simply the (), is a book by Isaac Newton that expounds Newton's laws of motion and his law of universal gravitation. The ''Principia'' is written in Latin and comprises three volumes, and was authorized, imprimatur, by Samuel Pepys, then-President of the Royal Society on 5 July 1686 and first published in 1687. The is considered one of the most important works in the history of science. The French mathematical physicist Alexis Clairaut assessed it in 1747: "The famous book of ''Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy'' marked the epoch of a great revolution in physics. The method followed by its illustrious author Sir Newton ... spread the light of mathematics on a science which up to then had remained in the darkness of conjectures and hypotheses." The French scientist Joseph-Louis Lagrange described it as "the greatest production of the human mind". French polymath Pierre-Simon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Isaac Newton
Sir Isaac Newton () was an English polymath active as a mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author. Newton was a key figure in the Scientific Revolution and the Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment that followed. His book (''Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy''), first published in 1687, achieved the Unification of theories in physics#Unification of gravity and astronomy, first great unification in physics and established classical mechanics. Newton also made seminal contributions to optics, and Leibniz–Newton calculus controversy, shares credit with German mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz for formulating calculus, infinitesimal calculus, though he developed calculus years before Leibniz. Newton contributed to and refined the scientific method, and his work is considered the most influential in bringing forth modern science. In the , Newton formulated the Newton's laws of motion, laws of motion and Newton's law of universal g ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Andrew Motte
Benjamin Motte (; November 1693 – 12 March 1738J. J. Caudle ''Dictionary of National Biography'') was a London publisher and son of Benjamin Motte, Sr. Motte published many works and is well known for his publishing of Jonathan Swift's ''Gulliver's Travels''. Background Benjamin Motte was born in the parish of St Botolph (Aldersgate), London to Benjamin Motte Sr. and Anne Clarke. He was born in early November 1693 and baptised soon after on 14 November. Some of his first mentions are of his early publications and when he took over Benjamin Tooke's publishing business.Ehrenpreis p. 739 It was not under 7 February 1715 that Motte was free from his publishing patrimony, and he took off as a bookseller in 1719. Motte's place of business in Fleet Street (London) was located in Middle Temple Gate. This space was passed to Motte by his predecessor, Benjamin Tooke, and then passed to Motte's replacement, Charles Bathurst, in 1738 upon his death. Motte was then asked to become partne ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oxford Dictionary Of National Biography
The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from History of the British Isles, British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September 2004 in 60 volumes and online, with 50,113 biographical articles covering 54,922 lives. First series Hoping to emulate national biography, biographical collections published elsewhere in Europe, such as the (1875), in 1882 the publisher George Murray Smith, George Smith (1824–1901), of Smith, Elder & Co., planned a universal dictionary that would include biographical entries on individuals from world history. He approached Leslie Stephen, then editor of the ''Cornhill Magazine'', owned by Smith, to become the editor. Stephen persuaded Smith that the work should focus only on subjects from the United Kingdom and its present and former colonies. An early working title was the ''Biographia Britannica'', the na ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Folio
The term "folio" () has three interconnected but distinct meanings in the world of books and printing: first, it is a term for a common method of arranging Paper size, sheets of paper into book form, folding the sheet only once, and a term for a book made in this way; second, it is a general term for a sheet, leaf or page in (especially) manuscripts and old books; and third, it is an approximate term for the Book size, size of a book, and for a book of this size. First, a folio (abbreviated fo or 2o) is a book or pamphlet made up of one or more full sheets of paper, on each of which four pages of text are printed, two on each side; each sheet is then folded once to produce two leaf (books), leaves. Each leaf of a folio book thus is one half the size of the original sheet. Ordinarily, additional printed folio sheets would be inserted inside one another to form a group or "gathering" of leaves prior to binding the book. Second, folio is used in terms of page numbering for some bo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Natural History
Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is called a naturalist or natural historian. Natural history encompasses scientific research but is not limited to it. It involves the systematic study of any category of natural objects or organisms, so while it dates from studies in the ancient Greco-Roman world and the mediaeval Arabic world, through to European Renaissance naturalists working in near isolation, today's natural history is a cross-discipline umbrella of many specialty sciences; e.g., geobiology has a strong multidisciplinary nature. Definitions Before 1900 The meaning of the English term "natural history" (a calque of the Latin ''historia naturalis'') has narrowed progressively with time, while, by contrast, the meaning of the related term "nature" has widened (see also ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fauna (animals)
Fauna (: faunae or faunas) is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding terms for plants and fungi are ''flora'' and '' funga'', respectively. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively referred to as '' biota''. Zoologists and paleontologists use ''fauna'' to refer to a typical collection of animals found in a specific time or place, e.g. the " Sonoran Desert fauna" or the " Burgess Shale fauna". Paleontologists sometimes refer to a sequence of faunal stages, which is a series of rocks all containing similar fossils. The study of animals of a particular region is called faunistics. Etymology ''Fauna'' comes from the name Fauna, a Roman goddess of earth and fertility, the Roman god Faunus, and the related forest spirits called Fauns. All three words are cognates of the name of the Greek god Pan, and ''panis'' is the Modern Greek equivalent of fauna (πανίς or rather πανίδα). ''Fauna'' is also the word for a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flora (plants)
Flora (: floras or florae) is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring ( indigenous) native plants. The corresponding term for animals is ''fauna'', and for fungi, it is '' funga''. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora as in the terms '' gut flora'' or '' skin flora'' for purposes of specificity. Etymology The word "flora" comes from the Latin name of Flora, the goddess of plants, flowers, and fertility in Roman mythology. The technical term "flora" is then derived from a metonymy of this goddess at the end of the sixteenth century. It was first used in poetry to denote the natural vegetation of an area, but soon also assumed the meaning of a work cataloguing such vegetation. Moreover, "Flora" was used to refer to the flowers of an artificial garden in the seventeenth century. The distinction between vegetation (the general appearance of a community) and flora (the taxonomic composition of a community) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
