Learn about the history of science by reading about the significant scientific events that took place on this day in history.
Keesom was a Dutch physicist who was the first to freeze helium into a solid. He compressed and cooled helium down to -457.6° F (-272° C) to form solid helium. He also produced the first mathematical description of dipole-dipole interactions between molecules. These interactions are known as Keesom interactions in his honor.
Donders was the Dutch physician who pioneered ophthalmology by discovering the cause of near and far sightedness and astigmatisms.
Klaus was a Russian chemist who discovered the element ruthenium. He was researching platinum metals or osmium, palladium, iridium and rhodium and found ruthenium in the waste material from a platinum refinery.
Brownigg was an English physician and scientist who identified platinum as an element. He received samples from a relative in Jamaica and identified the unique nature of the metal.
2002 - César Milstein died.
Milstein was an Argentine biochemist who shares the 1984 Nobel Prize in Medicine with Niels K. Jerne and Georges Köhler for their work on the immune system and the discovery of monoclonal antibodies. Together with Köhler, he developed the hybridoma technique to produce monoclonal antibodies. They fused antibody producing B-lymphocyte cells with tumor cells to produce a hybridoma that continuously produced antibodies. This technique is used in the commercial development of diagnostic tests and new drugs.1956 - Willem Hendrik Keesom died.
Keesom was a Dutch physicist who was the first to freeze helium into a solid. He compressed and cooled helium down to -457.6° F (-272° C) to form solid helium. He also produced the first mathematical description of dipole-dipole interactions between molecules. These interactions are known as Keesom interactions in his honor.
1917 - John Cowdery Kendrew was born.
Kendrew was a British biochemist who shares the 1962 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Max Perutz for their investigations into the structures of globular proteins. He determined the three dimensional structure of myoglobin, the protein that stores oxygen in muscle cells. When a muscle is being used, it requires more oxygen and myoglobin releases any stored oxygen to keep the cell functioning.1903 - Adolf Butenandt was born.
Butenandt was a German biochemist who was awarded half the 1939 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his research of sex hormones. He discovered the hormone estrone from the secretions from ovaries responsible for the sexual development of females. He was also the first to isolate the male hormone androsterone. The Nazi government forced Butenandt to refuse his Nobel Prize, but he would eventually receive his award after the end of the War.
1889 - Frans Cornelis Donders died.
Donders was the Dutch physician who pioneered ophthalmology by discovering the cause of near and far sightedness and astigmatisms.
1884 - Peter Debye was born.
Debye was a Dutch-American physical chemist who was awarded the 1936 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his investigations of the dipole moments and electron spacing of atoms in gases and his improvements in x-ray crystallography. His study of electron spacing greatly increased the understanding of how atoms arrange themselves and their spacing within molecules. He also refined x-ray crystallography by discovering a technique that did not require the growing of a large pure crystal and a powdered form would be sufficient.
1864 - Karl Karlovich Klaus died.
Klaus was a Russian chemist who discovered the element ruthenium. He was researching platinum metals or osmium, palladium, iridium and rhodium and found ruthenium in the waste material from a platinum refinery.
1835 - Josef Stefan was born.
Stefan was a Austrian physicist best known for his contributions to thermodynamics. He related the amount of energy given off by a black body to the fourth power of the body's temperature. This work was later refined with his student, Ludwig Boltzmann to relate the radiant energy of a body to its absolute temperature. He was then able to derive a value for the temperature of the Sun that was only 80 K from the current accepted value of 5780 K.1711 - William Brownrigg was born.
Brownigg was an English physician and scientist who identified platinum as an element. He received samples from a relative in Jamaica and identified the unique nature of the metal.
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1494 - Georg Pawer (Georgius Agricola) was born.
Agricola was a German doctor and natural philosopher who is considered to be the founder of mineralogy as a scientific discipline. He wrote extensively on everything that was currently known about mining techniques, rock formations, fossils and minerals.
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