# kb

id: women-in-medicine-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_medicine-3.md
category: reference
title: Women in medicine
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_medicine
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:03:52.958164+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: women-in-medicine-20260505-0
summary:
In 1540, Henry VIII of England granted the charter for the Company of Barber-Surgeons; while this led to the specialization of healthcare professions (i.e. surgeons and barbers), women were barred from professional practice. Women did continue to practice during this time without formal training or recognition in England and eventually North America for the next several centuries. Women's participation in the medical professions was generally limited by legal and social practices during the decades while medicine was professionalizing. Women openly practiced medicine in the allied health professions (nursing, midwifery, etc.), and throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, women made significant gains in access to medical education and medical work through much of the world. These gains were sometimes tempered by setbacks; some have documented a decline in women physicians in the US in the first half of the twentieth century, such that there were fewer women physicians in 1950 than there were in 1900. A 2026 study attributed this decline to closures of schools with traditionally high female enrollments, higher admission standards for female applicants to medical schools than male applicants, and the refusal of some medical schools, such as Harvard Medical School, to admit women at all. Through the


id: women-in-medicine-20260505-4
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_medicine-4.md
category: reference
title: Women in medicine
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_medicine
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:03:52.958164+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: women-in-medicine-20260505-0
summary:
=== Glass ceiling === The "glass ceiling" is a metaphor to convey the undefined obstacles that women and minorities face in the workplace. Female physicians of the late 19th-century faced discrimination in many forms due to the prevailing Victorian era attitude that the ideal woman be demure, display a gentle demeanor, act submissively, and enjoy a perceived form of power that should be exercised over and from within the home. Medical degrees were difficult for women to earn, and once practicing, discrimination from landlords for medical offices, left female physicians to set up their practices on "Scab Row" or "bachelor's apartments." The Journal of Women's Health surveyed physician mothers and their physician daughters to analyze the effect that discrimination and harassment have on the individual and their career. This study included 84% of physician mothers that graduated medical school prior to 1970, with the majority of these physicians graduating in the 1950s and 1960s. The authors of this study stated that discrimination in the medical field persisted after the title VII discrimination legislation was passed in 1965. This was the case until 1970, when the National Organization for Women (NOW) filed a class action lawsuit against all medical schools in


id: women-in-medicine-20260505-5
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_medicine-5.md
category: reference
title: Women in medicine
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_medicine
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:03:52.958164+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: women-in-medicine-20260505-0
summary:
Lovisa Årberg (1801–1881) was the first female doctor and surgeon in Sweden; whereas, Amalia Assur (1803–1889) was the first female dentist in Sweden and possibly Europe. Marie Durocher (1809–1893) was a Brazilian obstetrician, midwife and physician. She is considered the first female doctor in Brazil and the Americas. Ann Preston (1813–1872) was the first female to become the dean of a medical school [Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania (WMCP)] in 1866. Elizabeth Blackwell (1821–1910), who was England-born, was the first woman to graduate from medical school in the United States. She obtained her MD in 1849 from Geneva College, New York City. Rebecca Lee Crumpler, (1831–1895) became the first African American female physician in the United States in 1864 upon being awarded her M.D. by New England Female Medical College in Boston. Lucy Hobbs Taylor (1833–1910) was the first female dentist in the United States. Elizabeth Garrett Anderson (1836–1917) was a pioneering feminist in Britain who became the first female doctor in the United Kingdom in 1865 and a co-founder of London School of Medicine for Women. Madeleine Brès (1839–1925) was the first female medical doctor in France. Sophia Jex-Blake (1840–1912) was an English physician, feminist and teacher who was


id: women-in-medicine-20260505-6
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_medicine-6.md
category: reference
title: Women in medicine
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_medicine
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:03:52.958164+00:00
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parent: women-in-medicine-20260505-0
summary:
Maria Montessori (1870–1952), renowned educator and one of the first female medical doctors in Italy. Milica Šviglin Čavov (b. unknown, circa 1870s) was the first Croatian female doctor. She graduated from the Medical School in Zürich in 1893, but was not allowed to work in Croatia. Florence Sabin (1871–1953) was the first woman elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences. Yoshioka Yayoi (1871–1959), one of the first women to gain a medical degree in Japan; founded a medical school for women in 1900. Hannah Myrick (1871–1973) had helped to introduce the use of X-rays at the New England Hospital for Women and Children. Laura Esther Rodriguez Dulanto (1872–1919) was the first female doctor in Peru upon obtaining her medical degree. Marie Equi (1872–1952) was an American doctor and activist for women's access to birth control and abortion. Fannie Almara Quain (1874–1950) was the first woman born in North Dakota to earn a doctor of medicine degree. Karola Maier Milobar (born 1876) became the first female physician to practice in Croatia in 1906. Bertha De Vriese (1877–1958) was the first Belgian woman to obtain a medical degree from Ghent University. Selma Feldbach (1878–1924) was the first Estonian woman to


id: women-in-medicine-20260505-7
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_medicine-7.md
category: reference
title: Women in medicine
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_medicine
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:03:52.958164+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: women-in-medicine-20260505-0
summary:
Ernestina Paper (b. unknown, circa mid–1800s) was the first Italian woman to receive an advanced degree (in medicine) in 1877. Doctor Ethel Constance Cousins (1882–1944) and nurse Elizabeth Brodie were the first European women admitted to Bhutan in 1918 as part of a missionary effort to curtail a cholera outbreak. Muthulakshmi Reddi (1886–1968) was one of the early female medical doctors in India and a major social reformer. María Elisa Rivera Díaz (1887–1981) (1909), Ana Janer (1909), Palmira Gatell (1910), and Dolores Piñero (1892–1975) (1913) were the first women to earn a medical degree in Puerto Rico. María Elisa Rivera Díaz and Ana Janer graduated in the same medical school class in 1909 and thus could both be considered the first female Puerto Rican physicians. Anna Petronella van Heerden (1887–1975) was the first Afrikaner woman to qualify as a medical doctor in South Africa. Her thesis, which she obtained a doctorate on in 1923, was the first medical thesis written in Afrikaans. Matilde Hidalgo (1889–1974) was the first female doctor in Ecuador. Johanna Hellman (1889–1982) was a German physician who specialized in surgery, and the first woman to be a member of the German Society for Surgery. Sun Chau Lee


id: women-in-medicine-20260505-8
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_medicine-8.md
category: reference
title: Women in medicine
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_medicine
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:03:52.958164+00:00
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parent: women-in-medicine-20260505-0
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Ana Aslan (1897–1988) was a Romanian biologist and physician, specialist in gerontology, academician from 1974 and the director of the National Institute of Geriatrics and Gerontology (1958–1988). Marguerite Champendal (1870–1928) was the first woman from Geneva to earn her M.D. at the University of Geneva in 1900. Emily Siedeberg (1873–1968) became the first female doctor in New Zealand in 1896. Ellen Dougherty (1844–1919) became New Zealand's first registered nurse in 1902 whereas Akenehi Hei (1878–1910) was the first Māori female to qualify as a nurse in 1908 in New Zealand. Yu Meide (1874–1960) became the first Chinese Western medicine female doctor in Macau when she started a medical practice in 1906. Oból Voansnac and Sofie Lyberth were the first Western-educated Greenlandic women to train as midwives in Greenland sometime in the early 20th century. Lilian Grandin (1876–1924) was the first female doctor in Jersey. In 1907, Eleanor Diaper became the first nurse to work as a district nurse in Jersey. Grace Pepe Malemo Haleck (1894–1987), Initia Taveuveu and Feiloa'iga Iosefa became the first qualified female nurses in American Samoa upon completing their training in 1916. Dorothy Pantin (1896–1985) was the first woman doctor and surgeon of the Isle of Man.


id: women-in-medicine-20260505-9
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_medicine-9.md
category: reference
title: Women in medicine
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_medicine
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:03:52.958164+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: women-in-medicine-20260505-0
summary:
Widad Kidanemariam (1935–1988) became the first female doctor in Ethiopia during the 1960s. Xhanfize (Frashëri) Basha returned to Albania to become the country's first female doctor upon completing her studies at the University of Philadelphia in 1937. Edna Adan Ismail (born 1937) became Somaliland's first nurse midwife during the 1950s upon completing her training at the then-named Borough Polytechnic in the United Kingdom. Hajah Habibah Haji Mohd Hussain (born 1937) was among the first women in Brunei to work as a nurse after finishing nursing school in 1955. Marguerite Issembe became the first midwife in Gabon in 1940. Ulai Otobed (born 1941) from Palau became the first female doctor in Micronesia. In 2020, Lara Reklai became the first Palauan female to complete her medical studies in Cuba. María Herminia Yelsi and Digna Maldonado de Candía became the first female professional nurses in Paraguay in 1941. Barbara Ross-Lee (born 1942) was the first African American female dean of a U.S. medical school (1993) (Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine). Kek Galabru (born 1942) became the first female doctor in Cambodia upon obtaining her medical degree in France in 1968. Choua Thao (born 1943), at the age of 14, was one of


id: women-in-medicine-20260505-10
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_medicine-10.md
category: reference
title: Women in medicine
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_medicine
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:03:52.958164+00:00
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parent: women-in-medicine-20260505-0
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== See also == == References == == Bibliography == Abram, Ruth Abram., Send Us a Lady Physician: Women Doctors in America, 1835–1920 Benton, John F. (1985). "Trotula, Women's Problems, and the Professionalization of Medicine in the Middle Ages". Bulletin of the History of Medicine. 59 (1): 30–53. JSTOR 44452036. PMID 3886049. ProQuest 1296295309. Blake, Catriona. The Charge of the Parasols: Women's Entry to the Medical Profession Borst, Charlotte G. Catching Babies: Professionalization of Childbirth, 1870–1920 (1995), Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press Elisabeth Brooke, Women Healers: Portraits of Herbalists, Physicians, and Midwives (biographical encyclopedia) Chenevert, Melodie. STAT: Special Techniques in Assertiveness Training for Women in the Health Profession Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English, Witches, Midwives, and Nurses: A History of Women Healers Deirdre English and Barbara Ehrenreich, For Her Own Good (gendering of history of midwifery and professionalization of medicine) Fette, Julie (2007). "Pride and Prejudice in the Professions: Women Doctors and Lawyers in Third Republic France". Journal of Women's History. 19 (3): 60–86. doi:10.1353/jowh.2007.0055. S2CID 144728859. Project MUSE 221409. Grant, Susan-Mary (June 2012). "On the Field of Mercy: Women Medical Volunteers from the Civil War to the First World War". American Nineteenth Century History. 13 (2): 276–278. doi:10.1080/14664658.2012.720092. S2CID


id: index-of-women-scientists-articles-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Index_of_women_scientists_articles-0.md
category: reference
title: Index of women scientists articles
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Index_of_women_scientists_articles
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:03:54.194801+00:00
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parent: index-of-women-scientists-articles-20260505-0
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== A == == B == == C == == D == == E == == F == == G == == H == == I == == J == == K == == L == == M == == N == == O == == P == == R == == S == == T == == U == == V == == W == == X == == Y == == Z == == Trans man scientists who were scientists before transitioning == == Transmasculine non-binary scientists who were scientists before transitioning == == Transfeminine non-binary scientists == == See also == List of female Fellows of the Royal Society List of female mathematicians List of female scientists before the 21st century List of women geologists Women in chemistry Women in computing Women in geology Women in science Women in STEM fields == References == Herzenberg, Caroline L. 1986. Women Scientists from Antiquity to the Present: An Index. Locust Hill Press. ISBN 0-933951-01-9 Howard S. The Hidden Giants, ch. 2, (Lulu.com; 2006) (accessed 22 August 2007) Howes, Ruth H. and Caroline L. Herzenberg. 1999. Their Day in the Sun: Women of the Manhattan Project. Temple University Press. ISBN


id: women-in-science-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_science-0.md
category: reference
title: Women in science
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_science
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:03:55.623183+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: women-in-science-20260505-0
summary:
The presence of women in science spans the earliest times of the history of science wherein they have made substantial contributions. Historians with an interest in gender and science have researched the scientific endeavors and accomplishments of women, the barriers they have faced, and the strategies implemented to have their work peer-reviewed and accepted in major scientific journals and other publications. The historical, critical, and sociological study of these issues has become an academic discipline in its own right. The involvement of women in medicine occurred in several early Western civilizations, and the study of natural philosophy in ancient Greece was open to women. Women contributed to the proto-science of alchemy in the first or second centuries CE. During the Middle Ages, religious convents were an important place of education for women, and some of these communities provided opportunities for women to contribute to scholarly research. The 11th century saw the emergence of the first universities; women were, for the most part, excluded from university education. Outside academia, botany was the science that benefitted most from women’s contributions in early modern times. The attitude toward educating women in medical fields appears to have been more liberal in Italy than elsewhere.


id: women-in-science-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_science-1.md
category: reference
title: Women in science
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_science
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:03:55.623183+00:00
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parent: women-in-science-20260505-0
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=== Ancient history === The involvement of women in the field of medicine has been recorded in several early civilizations. An ancient Egyptian physician, Peseshet (c. 2600–2500 B.C.E.), described in an inscription as "lady overseer of the female physicians", is the earliest known female physician named in the history of science. Agamede was cited by Homer as a healer in ancient Greece before the Trojan War (c. 1194–1184 BCE). The study of natural philosophy in ancient Greece was open to women. Recorded examples include Aglaonike, who predicted eclipses; and Theano, mathematician and physician, who was a pupil (possibly also wife) of Pythagoras, and one of the school in Crotone founded by Pythagoras, which included many other women. A passage in Pollux speaks about those who invented the process of coining money, mentioning Pheidon and Demodike from Cyme, wife of the Phrygian king, Midas, and daughter of King Agamemnon of Cyme. A daughter of a certain Agamemnon, king of Aeolian Cyme, married a Phrygian king called Midas. This link may have facilitated the Greeks "borrowing" their alphabet from the Phrygians because the Phrygian letter shapes are closest to the inscriptions from Aeolis. During the period of the Babylonian civilization, around 1200


id: women-in-science-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_science-2.md
category: reference
title: Women in science
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_science
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:03:55.623183+00:00
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parent: women-in-science-20260505-0
summary:
Margaret Cavendish, a seventeenth-century aristocrat, took part in some of the most important scientific debates of that time. She was, however, not inducted into the English Royal Society, although she was once allowed to attend a meeting. She wrote a number of works on scientific matters, including Observations upon Experimental Philosophy (1666) and Grounds of Natural Philosophy. In these works she was especially critical of the growing belief that humans, through science, were the masters of nature. The observations provided a critique of the experimental science of Bacon and criticized microscopes as imperfect machines. Isabella Cortese, an Italian alchemist, is best known for her book I secreti della signora Isabella Cortese or The Secrets of Isabella Cortese. Cortese was able to manipulate nature in order to create several medicinal, alchemy and cosmetic "secrets" or experiments. Isabella's book of secrets belongs to a larger book of secrets that became extremely popular among the elite during the 16th century. Despite the low percentage of literate women during Cortese's era, the majority of alchemical and cosmetic "secrets" in the book of secrets were geared towards women. This included but was not limited to pregnancy, fertility, and childbirth. Sophia Brahe, sister of Tycho Brahe,


id: women-in-science-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_science-3.md
category: reference
title: Women in science
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_science
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:03:55.623183+00:00
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parent: women-in-science-20260505-0
summary:
Although women excelled in many scientific areas during the eighteenth century, they were discouraged from learning about plant reproduction. Carl Linnaeus' system of plant classification based on sexual characteristics drew attention to botanical licentiousness, and people feared that women would learn immoral lessons from nature's example. Women were often depicted as both innately emotional and incapable of objective reasoning, or as natural mothers reproducing a natural, moral society. The eighteenth century was characterized by three divergent views towards women: that women were mentally and socially inferior to men, that they were equal but different, and that women were potentially equal in both mental ability and contribution to society. While individuals such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau believed women's roles were confined to motherhood and service to their male partners, the Enlightenment was a period in which women experienced expanded roles in the sciences. The rise of salon culture in Europe brought philosophers and their conversation to an intimate setting where men and women met to discuss contemporary political, social, and scientific topics. While Jean-Jacques Rousseau attacked women-dominated salons as producing 'effeminate men' that stifled serious discourse, salons were characterized in this era by the mixing of the sexes. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu


id: women-in-science-20260505-4
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_science-4.md
category: reference
title: Women in science
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_science
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:03:55.623183+00:00
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parent: women-in-science-20260505-0
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In 1741–42 Charlotta Frölich became the first woman to be published by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences with three books in agricultural science. In 1748 Eva Ekeblad became the first woman inducted into that academy. In 1746 Ekeblad had written to the academy about her discoveries of how to make flour and alcohol out of potatoes. Potatoes had been introduced into Sweden in 1658 but had been cultivated only in the greenhouses of the aristocracy. Ekeblad's work turned potatoes into a staple food in Sweden, and increased the supply of wheat, rye and barley available for making bread, since potatoes could be used instead to make alcohol. This greatly improved the country's eating habits and reduced the frequency of famines. Ekeblad also discovered a method of bleaching cotton textile and yarn with soap in 1751, and of replacing the dangerous ingredients in cosmetics of the time by using potato flour in 1752. Émilie du Châtelet, a close friend of Voltaire, was the first scientist to appreciate the significance of kinetic energy, as opposed to momentum. She repeated and described the importance of an experiment originally devised by Willem 's Gravesande showing the impact of falling objects is proportional not


id: women-in-science-20260505-5
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_science-5.md
category: reference
title: Women in science
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_science
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:03:55.623183+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: women-in-science-20260505-0
summary:
Science remained a largely amateur profession during the early part of the nineteenth century. Botany was considered a popular and fashionable activity, and one particularly suitable to women. In the later eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, it was one of the most accessible areas of science for women in both England and North America. However, as the nineteenth century progressed, botany and other sciences became increasingly professionalized, and women were increasingly excluded. Women's contributions were limited by their exclusion from most formal scientific education, but began to be recognized through their occasional admittance into learned societies during this period. Scottish scientist Mary Fairfax Somerville carried out experiments in magnetism, presenting a paper entitled 'The Magnetic Properties of the Violet Rays of the Solar Spectrum' to the Royal Society in 1826, the second woman to do so. She also wrote several mathematical, astronomical, physical and geographical texts, and was a strong advocate for women's education. In 1835, she and Caroline Herschel were the first two women elected as Honorary Members of the Royal Astronomical Society. English mathematician Ada, Lady Lovelace, a pupil of Somerville, corresponded with Charles Babbage about applications for his analytical engine. In her notes (1842–43) appended to her


id: women-in-science-20260505-6
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_science-6.md
category: reference
title: Women in science
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_science
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:03:55.623183+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: women-in-science-20260505-0
summary:
Among the successful scientists were Nadezhda Suslova (1843–1918), the first woman in the world to obtain a medical doctorate fully equivalent to men's degrees; Maria Bokova-Sechenova (1839–1929), a pioneer of women's medical education who received two doctoral degrees, one in medicine in Zürich and one in physiology in Vienna; Julia Lermontova (1846–1919), the first woman in the world to receive a doctoral degree in chemistry; the marine biologist Sofia Pereiaslavtseva (1849–1903), director of the Sevastopol Biological Station and winner of the Kessler Prize of the Russian Society of Natural Scientists; and the mathematician Sofia Kovalevskaia (1850–1891), the first woman in 19th century Europe to receive a doctorate in mathematics and the first to become a university professor in any field. ==== Late nineteenth century in the United States ==== In the later nineteenth century the rise of the women's college provided jobs for women scientists, and opportunities for education. Women's colleges produced a disproportionate number of women who went on for PhDs in science. Many coeducational colleges and universities also opened or started to admit women during this period; such institutions included just over 3000 women in 1875, by 1900 numbered almost 20,000. An example is Elizabeth Blackwell, who became


id: women-in-science-20260505-7
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_science-7.md
category: reference
title: Women in science
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_science
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:03:55.623183+00:00
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parent: women-in-science-20260505-0
summary:
In 1892, Ellen Swallow Richards called for the "christening of a new science" – "oekology" (ecology) in a Boston lecture. This new science included the study of "consumer nutrition" and environmental education. This interdisciplinary branch of science was later specialized into what is currently known as ecology, while the consumer nutrition focus split off and was eventually relabeled as home economics, which provided another avenue for women to study science. Richards helped to form the American Home Economics Association, which published a journal, the Journal of Home Economics, and hosted conferences. Home economics departments were formed at many colleges, especially at land grant institutions. In her work at MIT, Ellen Richards also introduced the first biology course in its history as well as the focus area of sanitary engineering. Women also found opportunities in botany and embryology. In psychology, women earned doctorates but were encouraged to specialize in educational and child psychology and to take jobs in clinical settings, such as hospitals and social welfare agencies. In 1901, Annie Jump Cannon first noticed that it was a star's temperature that was the principal distinguishing feature among different spectra. This led to re-ordering of the ABC types by temperature instead of


id: women-in-science-20260505-8
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_science-8.md
category: reference
title: Women in science
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_science
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:03:55.623183+00:00
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parent: women-in-science-20260505-0
summary:
Wu would later also confirm Albert Einstein's EPR Paradox in the first experimental corroboration, and prove the first violation of Parity and Charge Conjugate Symmetry, thereby laying the conceptual basis for the future Standard Model of Particle Physics, and the rapid development of the new field. Women in other disciplines looked for ways to apply their expertise to the war effort. Three nutritionists, Lydia J. Roberts, Hazel K. Stiebeling, and Helen S. Mitchell, developed the Recommended Dietary Allowance in 1941 to help military and civilian groups make plans for group feeding situations. The RDAs proved necessary, especially, once foods began to be rationed. Rachel Carson worked for the United States Bureau of Fisheries, writing brochures to encourage Americans to consume a wider variety of fish and seafood. She also contributed to research to assist the Navy in developing techniques and equipment for submarine detection. Women in psychology formed the National Council of Women Psychologists, which organized projects related to the war effort. The NCWP elected Florence Laura Goodenough president. In the social sciences, several women contributed to the Japanese Evacuation and Resettlement Study, based at the University of California. This study was led by sociologist Dorothy Swaine Thomas, who directed


id: women-in-science-20260505-9
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_science-9.md
category: reference
title: Women in science
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_science
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:03:55.623183+00:00
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parent: women-in-science-20260505-0
summary:
==== Europe after World War II ==== South-African born physicist and radiobiologist Tikvah Alper(1909–95), working in the UK, developed many fundamental insights into biological mechanisms, including the (negative) discovery that the infective agent in scrapie could not be a virus or other eukaryotic structure. French virologist Françoise Barré-Sinoussi performed some of the fundamental work in the identification of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) as the cause of AIDS, for which she shared the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. In July 1967, Jocelyn Bell Burnell discovered evidence for the first known radio pulsar, which resulted in the 1974 Nobel Prize in Physics for her supervisor. She was president of the Institute of Physics from October 2008 until October 2010. Astrophysicist Margaret Burbidge was a member of the B2FH group responsible for originating the theory of stellar nucleosynthesis, which explains how elements are formed in stars. She has held a number of prestigious posts, including the directorship of the Royal Greenwich Observatory. Mary Cartwright was a mathematician and student of G. H. Hardy. Her work on nonlinear differential equations was influential in the field of dynamical systems. Rosalind Franklin was a crystallographer, whose work helped to elucidate the fine structures


id: women-in-science-20260505-10
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_science-10.md
category: reference
title: Women in science
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_science
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:03:55.623183+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: women-in-science-20260505-0
summary:
Immediately after the end of World War II, the country saw a "retrenchment of positions for women" as male veterans returned and began filling open job positions. While men benefited from the opportunities of the G.I. Bill, some women had success with programs such as Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES), a women's branch of the US Navy Reserve. The Society of Women Engineers held their first meeting in 1950. Although NASA was established in 1958, women were only admitted to the astronaut program in 1983, 25 years later. Kay McNulty, Betty Jennings, Betty Snyder, Marlyn Wescoff, Fran Bilas and Ruth Lichterman were six of the original programmers for the ENIAC, the first general purpose electronic computer. Linda B. Buck is a neurobiologist who was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine along with Richard Axel for their work on olfactory receptors. Rachel Carson was a marine biologist from the United States. She is credited with being the founder of the environmental movement. The biologist and activist published Silent Spring, a work on the dangers of pesticides, in 1962. The publishing of her environmental science book led to the questioning of usage of harmful pesticides and other


id: women-in-science-20260505-11
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_science-11.md
category: reference
title: Women in science
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_science
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:03:55.623183+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: women-in-science-20260505-0
summary:
==== Australia after World War II ==== Amanda Barnard, an Australia-based theoretical physicist specializing in nanomaterials, winner of the Malcolm McIntosh Prize for Physical Scientist of the Year. Isobel Bennett, was one of the first women to go to Macquarie Island with the Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions (ANARE). She is one of Australia's best known marine biologists. Dorothy Hill, an Australian geologist who became the first female professor at an Australian university. Ruby Payne-Scott, was an Australian who was an early leader in the fields of radio astronomy and radiophysics. She was one of the first radio astronomers and the first woman in the field. Penny Sackett, an astronomer who became the first female chief scientist of Australia in 2008. She is a US-born Australian citizen. Fiona Stanley, winner of the 2003 Australian of the Year award, is an epidemiologist noted for her research into child and maternal health, birth disorders, and her work in the public health field. Michelle Simmons, winner of the 2018 Australian of the Year award, is a quantum physicist known for her research and leadership on atomic-scale silicon quantum devices. ==== Israel after World War II ==== Ada Yonath, the first woman from the


id: women-in-science-20260505-12
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_science-12.md
category: reference
title: Women in science
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_science
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:03:55.623183+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: women-in-science-20260505-0
summary:
=== Situation in the 1990s === Women appear to do less well than men (in terms of degree, rank, and salary) in the fields that have been traditionally dominated by women, such as nursing. In 1991 women attributed 91% of the PhDs in nursing, and men held 4% of full professorships in nursing. In the field of psychology, where women earn the majority of PhDs, women do not fill the majority of high rank positions in that field. Women's lower salaries in the scientific community are also reflected in statistics. According to the data provided in 1993, the median salaries of female scientists and engineers with doctoral degrees were 20% less than men. This data can be explained as there was less participation of women in high rank scientific fields/positions and a female majority in low-paid fields/positions. However, even with men and women in the same scientific community field, women are typically paid 15–17% less than men. In addition to the gender gap, there were also salary differences between ethnicity: African-American women with more years of experiences earn 3.4% less than European-American women with similar skills, while Asian women engineers out-earn both Africans and Europeans. Women are also under-represented in


id: women-in-science-20260505-13
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_science-13.md
category: reference
title: Women in science
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_science
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:03:55.623183+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: women-in-science-20260505-0
summary:
==== In decision-making ==== As of 2015, each step up the ladder of the scientific research system saw a drop in female participation until, at the highest echelons of scientific research and decision-making, there were very few women left. In 2015, the EU Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation Carlos Moedas called attention to this phenomenon, adding that the majority of entrepreneurs in science and engineering tended to be men. In 2013, the German government coalition agreement introduced a 30% quota for women on company boards of directors. In 2010, women made up 14% of university chancellors and vice-chancellors at Brazilian public universities and 17% of those in South Africa in 2011. As of 2015, in Argentina, women made up 16% of directors and vice-directors of national research centres and, in Mexico, 10% of directors of scientific research institutes at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. In the US, numbers are slightly higher at 23%. In the EU, less than 16% of tertiary institutions were headed by a woman in 2010 and just 10% of universities. In 2011, at the main tertiary institution for the English-speaking Caribbean, the University of the West Indies, women represented 51% of lecturers but only


id: women-in-science-20260505-14
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_science-14.md
category: reference
title: Women in science
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_science
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:03:55.623183+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: women-in-science-20260505-0
summary:
==== In engineering and related fields ==== Women are consistently underrepresented in engineering and related fields. In Israel, for instance, where 28% of senior academic staff are women, there are proportionately many fewer in engineering (14%), physical sciences (11%), mathematics and computer sciences (10%) but dominate education (52%) and paramedical occupations (63%). In Japan and the Republic of Korea, women represent just 5% and 10% of engineers. For women who are pursuing STEM major careers, these individuals often face gender disparities in the work field, especially in regards to science and engineering. It has become more common for women to pursue undergraduate degrees in science, but are continuously discredited in salary rates and higher ranking positions. For example, men show a greater likelihood of being selected for an employment position than a woman. In Europe and North America, the number of female graduates in engineering, physics, mathematics and computer science is generally low. Women make up just 19% of engineers in Canada, Germany and the US and 22% in Finland, for example. However, 50% of engineering graduates are women in Cyprus, 38% in Denmark and 36% in the Russian Federation, for instance. In many cases, engineering has lost ground to


id: women-in-science-20260505-15
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_science-15.md
category: reference
title: Women in science
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_science
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:03:55.623183+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: women-in-science-20260505-0
summary:
During the early 1960s, the first American astronauts, nicknamed the Mercury Seven, were training. At the same time, William Randolph Lovelace II was interested to see if women could manage to go through the same training that the Mercury 7 undergoing at the time. Lovelace recruited thirteen female pilots, called the "Mercury 13", and put them through the same tests that the male astronauts took. As a result, the women actually performed better on these tests than the men of the Mercury 7 did. However, this did not convince NASA officials to allow women in space. In response, congressional hearings were held to investigate discrimination against women in the program. One of the women who testified at the hearing was Jerrie Cobb, the first woman to pass Lovelace's tests. During her testimony, Cobb said:I find it a little ridiculous when I read in a newspaper that there is a place called Chimp College in New Mexico where they are training chimpanzees for space flight, one a female named Glenda. I think it would be at least as important to let the women undergo this training for space flight.NASA officials also had representatives present, notably astronauts John Glenn and Scott Carpenter,


id: women-in-science-20260505-16
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_science-16.md
category: reference
title: Women in science
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_science
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:03:55.623183+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: women-in-science-20260505-0
summary:
==== Latin America and the Caribbean ==== Latin America has some of the world's highest rates of women studying scientific fields; it also shares with the Caribbean one of the highest proportions of female researchers: 44%. Of the 12 countries reporting data for the years 2010–2013, seven have achieved gender parity, or even dominate research: Bolivia (63%), Venezuela (56%), Argentina (53%), Paraguay (52%), Uruguay (49%), Brazil (48%) and Guatemala (45%). Costa Rica is on the cusp (43%). Chile has the lowest score among countries for which there are recent data (31%). The Caribbean paints a similar picture, with Cuba having achieved gender parity (47%) and Trinidad and Tobago on 44%. Recent data on women's participation in industrial research are available for those countries with the most developed national innovation systems, with the exception of Brazil and Cuba: Uruguay (47%), Argentina (29%), Colombia and Chile (26%). As in most other regions, the great majority of health graduates are women (60–85%). Women are also strongly represented in science. More than 40% of science graduates are women in each of Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Mexico, Panama and Uruguay. The Caribbean paints a similar picture, with women graduates in science being on a


id: women-in-science-20260505-17
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_science-17.md
category: reference
title: Women in science
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_science
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:03:55.623183+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: women-in-science-20260505-0
summary:
==== European Union ==== Women make up 33% of researchers overall in the European Union (EU), slightly more than their representation in science (32%). Women constitute 40% of researchers in higher education, 40% in government and 19% in the private sector, with the number of female researchers increasing faster than that of male researchers. The proportion of female researchers has been increasing over the last decade, at a faster rate than men (5.1% annually over 2002–2009 compared with 3.3% for men), which is also true for their participation among scientists and engineers (up 5.4% annually between 2002 and 2010, compared with 3.1% for men). Despite these gains, women's academic careers in Europe remain characterized by strong vertical and horizontal segregation. In 2010, although female students (55%) and graduates (59%) outnumbered male students, men outnumbered women at the PhD and graduate levels (albeit by a small margin). Further along in the research career, women represented 44% of grade C academic staff, 37% of grade B academic staff and 20% of grade A academic staff.11 These trends are intensified in science, with women making up 31% of the student population at the tertiary level to 38% of PhD students and 35% of


id: women-in-science-20260505-18
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_science-18.md
category: reference
title: Women in science
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_science
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:03:55.623183+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: women-in-science-20260505-0
summary:
==== Southeast Asia ==== Southeast Asia presents a different picture entirely, with women basically on a par with men in some countries: they make up 52% of researchers in the Philippines and Thailand, for example. Other countries are close to parity, such as Malaysia and Vietnam, whereas Indonesia and Singapore are still around the 30% mark. Cambodia trails its neighbours at 20%. Female researchers in the region are spread fairly equally across the sectors of participation, with the exception of the private sector, where they make up 30% or less of researchers in most countries. The proportion of women tertiary graduates reflects these trends, with high percentages of women in science in Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia, Myanmar and the Philippines (around 60%) and a low of 10% in Cambodia. Women make up the majority of graduates in health sciences, from 60% in Laos to 81% in Myanmar – Vietnam being an exception at 42%. Women graduates are on a par with men in agriculture but less present in engineering: Vietnam (31%), the Philippines (30%) and Malaysia (39%); here, the exception is Myanmar, at 65%. In the Republic of Korea, women make up about 40% of graduates in science and agriculture and


id: women-in-science-20260505-19
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_science-19.md
category: reference
title: Women in science
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_science
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:03:55.623183+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: women-in-science-20260505-0
summary:
==== Sub-Saharan Africa ==== Just under one in three (30%) researchers in sub-Saharan Africa is a woman. Much of sub-Saharan Africa is seeing solid gains in the share of women among tertiary graduates in scientific fields. In two of the top four countries for women's representation in science, women graduates are part of very small cohorts, however: they make up 54% of Lesotho's 47 tertiary graduates in science and 60% of those in Namibia's graduating class of 149. South Africa and Zimbabwe, which have larger graduate populations in science, have achieved parity, with 49% and 47% respectively. The next grouping clusters seven countries poised at around 35–40% (Angola, Burundi, Eritrea, Liberia, Madagascar, Mozambique and Rwanda). The rest are grouped around 30% or below (Benin, Ethiopia, Ghana, Swaziland and Uganda). Burkina Faso ranks lowest, with women making up 18% of its science graduates. Female representation in engineering is fairly high in sub-Saharan Africa in comparison with other regions. In Mozambique and South Africa, for instance, women make up more than 34% and 28% of engineering graduates, respectively. Numbers of female graduates in agricultural science have been increasing steadily across the continent, with eight countries reporting the share of women graduates of


id: women-in-science-20260505-20
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_science-20.md
category: reference
title: Women in science
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_science
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:03:55.623183+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: women-in-science-20260505-0
summary:
=== Underrepresentation of homosexual and bi women, and gender nonconformists in STEM === While there has been a push to encourage more women to participate in science, there is less outreach to lesbian, bi, or gender nonconforming women, and gender nonconforming people more broadly. Due to the lack of data and statistics of LGBTQ members involvement in the STEM field, it is unknown to what exact degree lesbian and bisexual women, gender non-conformers (transgender, nonbinary/agender, or anti-gender gender abolitionists who eschew the system altogether) are potentially even more repressed and underrepresented than their straight peers. But a general lack of out lesbian and bi women in STEM has been noted. Reasons for under-representation of same-sex attracted women and anyone gender nonconforming in STEM fields include lack of role models in K–12, the desire of some transgender girls and women to adopt traditional heteronormative gender roles as gender is a cultural performance and socially-determined subjective internal experience, employment discrimination, and the possibility of sexual harassment in the workplace. Historically, women who have accepted STEM research positions for the government or the military remained in the closet due to lack of federal protections or the fact that homosexual or gender nonconforming expression


id: women-in-science-20260505-21
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_science-21.md
category: reference
title: Women in science
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_science
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:03:55.623183+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: women-in-science-20260505-0
summary:
=== Societal disadvantages === Despite women's tendency to perform better than men academically, there are flaws involving stereotyping, lack of information, and family influence that have been found to affect women's involvement in science. Stereotyping has an effect, because people associate characteristics such as nurturing, kind, and warm or characteristics like strong and powerful with a particular gender. These character associations lead people to stereotype that certain jobs are more suitable to a particular gender. Lack of information is something that many institutions have worked hard over the years to improve by making programs such as the IFAC project (Information for a choice: empowering women through learning for scientific and technological career paths) which investigated low women participation in science and technology fields at high school to university level. However, not all efforts were as successful, "Science: it's a girl thing" campaign, which has since been removed, received backlash for further encouraging women that they must partake in "girly" or "feminine" activities. The idea being that if women are fully informed of their career choices and employability, they will be more inclined to pursue STEM field jobs. Women also struggle in the sense of lacking role models of women in


id: women-in-science-20260505-22
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_science-22.md
category: reference
title: Women in science
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_science
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:03:55.623183+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: women-in-science-20260505-0
summary:
=== Efforts to increase participation === A number of organizations have been set up to combat the stereotyping that may encourage girls away from careers in these areas. In the UK The WISE Campaign (Women into Science, Engineering and Construction) and the UKRC (The UK Resource Centre for Women in SET) are collaborating to ensure industry, academia and education are all aware of the importance of challenging the traditional approaches to careers advice and recruitment that mean some of the best brains in the country are lost to science. The UKRC and other women's networks provide female role models, resources and support for activities that promote science to girls and women. The Women's Engineering Society, a professional association in the UK, has been supporting women in engineering and science since 1919. In computing, the British Computer Society group BCSWomen is active in encouraging girls to consider computing careers, and in supporting women in the computing workforce. In the United States, the Association for Women in Science is one of the most prominent organization for professional women in science. In 2011, the Scientista Foundation was created to empower pre-professional college and graduate women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), to


id: women-in-science-20260505-23
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_science-23.md
category: reference
title: Women in science
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_science
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:03:55.623183+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: women-in-science-20260505-0
summary:
=== Notable controversies and developments === A study conducted at Lund University in 2010 and 2011 analysed the genders of invited contributors to News & Views in Nature and Perspectives in Science. It found that 3.8% of the Earth and environmental science contributions to News & Views were written by women even while the field was estimated to be 16–20% female in the United States. Nature responded by suggesting that, worldwide, a significantly lower number of Earth scientists were women, but nevertheless committed to address any disparity. In 2012, a journal article published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) reported a gender bias among science faculty. Faculty were asked to review a resume from a hypothetical student and report how likely they would be to hire or mentor that student, as well as what they would offer as starting salary. Two resumes were distributed randomly to the faculty, only differing in the names at the top of the resume (John or Jennifer). The male student was rated as significantly more competent, more likely to be hired, and more likely to be mentored. The median starting salary offered to the male student was greater than $3,000 over the


id: women-in-science-20260505-24
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_science-24.md
category: reference
title: Women in science
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_science
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:03:55.623183+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: women-in-science-20260505-0
summary:
==== Problematic public statements ==== In January 2005, Harvard University President Lawrence Summers sparked controversy at a National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) Conference on Diversifying the Science & Engineering Workforce. Dr. Summers offered his explanation for the shortage of women in senior posts in science and engineering. He made comments suggesting the lower numbers of women in high-level science positions may in part be due to innate differences in abilities or preferences between men and women. Making references to the field and behavioral genetics, he noted the generally greater variability among men (compared to women) on tests of cognitive abilities, leading to proportionally more men than women at both the lower and upper tails of the test score distributions. In his discussion of this, Summers said that "even small differences in the standard deviation [between genders] will translate into very large differences in the available pool substantially out [from the mean]". Summers concluded his discussion by saying:So my best guess, to provoke you, of what's behind all of this is that the largest phenomenon, by far, is the general clash between people's legitimate family desires and employers' current desire for high power and high intensity, that in the special


id: center-for-the-history-of-women-philosophers-and-scientists-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_the_History_of_Women_Philosophers_and_Scientists-0.md
category: reference
title: Center for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_the_History_of_Women_Philosophers_and_Scientists
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:03:56.830179+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: center-for-the-history-of-women-philosophers-and-scientists-20260505-0
summary:
The Center for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists (HWPS) is an interdisciplinary research center at the University of Paderborn, focused on the work of historical women philosophers and scientists. The Center is responsible for the publication of the Journal of the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists. The Center also awards the annual Elizabeth of Bohemia prize, Europe's first prize honoring women philosophers. The Center received a major grant from the Alexander von Humboldt foundation for the study of women philosophers in Ukraine, and also maintains a research network and talk series for researchers working on the history of women philosophers and scientists. == Encyclopedia of Concise Concepts by Women Philosophers == The Encyclopedia of Concise Concepts by Women Philosophers (ECC) is an online encyclopedia that exclusively contains entries on concepts from the work of female philosophers. The ECC is an open access database developed by the Center for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists that went online on June 15, 2018. Each entry is written by an internationally recognized researcher and peer-reviewed before publication. It will contain a brief explanation of a philosophical concept both either developed or significantly advanced by a woman philosopher as well


id: european-platform-of-women-scientists-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Platform_of_Women_Scientists-0.md
category: reference
title: European Platform of Women Scientists
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Platform_of_Women_Scientists
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:22.350149+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: european-platform-of-women-scientists-20260505-0
summary:
The European Platform of Women Scientists EPWS is an umbrella organisation bringing together networks of women scientists and organisations committed to gender equality in research in all disciplines in Europe 27 and the countries associated to the European Union's Framework Programmes for Research and Technological Development. The Platform welcomes researchers working in any discipline and working in science in its widest sense, ranging from natural to social sciences, including, but not restricted to, science, engineering and technology. EPWS currently counts more than 100 member organisations, together working for more than 12.000 women researchers all over Europe active in academia and in industrial research. == Purpose == Legally established as an international non-profit organisation under Belgian law (AISBL) in November 2005 and governed by an international, multidisciplinary Board of Administration of 11 high ranking women scientists, EPWS constitutes a new strategic instrument in European research policy, complementing various initiatives taken at the European level to ensure a better participation of women scientists in research and in the research policy process as well as the inclusion of the gender dimension in research. == Goals == The platform's main goals are to: Network existing networks of women scientists and networks engaged in promoting


id: timeline-of-women-in-science-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_women_in_science-0.md
category: reference
title: Timeline of women in science
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_women_in_science
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:23.558030+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: timeline-of-women-in-science-20260505-0
summary:
This is a timeline of women in science, spanning from ancient history up to the 21st century. While the timeline primarily focuses on women involved with natural sciences such as astronomy, biology, chemistry, and physics, it also includes women from the social sciences (e.g. sociology, psychology), and the formal sciences (e.g. mathematics, computer science), as well as notable science educators and medical scientists. The chronological events listed in the timeline relate to both scientific achievements and gender equality within the sciences. == Ancient history == 1900 BCE: Aganice, also known as Athyrta, was an Egyptian princess during the Middle Kingdom (about 2000–1700 BCE) working on astronomy and natural philosophy. c. 1505–1458 BCE: Hatshepsut, also known as the Queen Doctor, promoted a botanical expedition searching for officinal plants. 1200 BCE: The Mesopotamian perfume-maker Tapputi-Belatekallim was referenced in the text of a cuneiform tablet. She is often considered the world's first recorded chemist. 500 BCE: Theano was a Pythagorean philosopher. c. 150 BCE: Aglaonice became the first female astronomer to be recorded in Ancient Greece. == Early post-classical history == 1st century BCE: A woman known only as Fang became the earliest recorded Chinese female alchemist. She is credited with "the discovery


id: timeline-of-women-in-science-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_women_in_science-1.md
category: reference
title: Timeline of women in science
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_women_in_science
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:23.558030+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: timeline-of-women-in-science-20260505-0
summary:
1561: Italian alchemist Isabella Cortese published her popular book The Secrets of Lady Isabella Cortese. The work included recipes for medicines, distilled oils and cosmetics, and was the only book published by a female alchemist in the 16th century. 1572: Italian botanist Loredana Marcello died from the plague – but not before developing several effective palliative formulas for plague sufferers, which were used by many physicians. 1572: Danish scientist Sophia Brahe (1556–1643) assisted her brother Tycho Brahe with his astronomical observations. 1590: After her husband's death, Caterina Vitale took over his position as chief pharmacist to the Order of St John, becoming the first female chemist and pharmacist in Malta. == 17th century == 1609: French midwife Louise Bourgeois Boursier became the first woman to write a book on childbirth practices. 1636: Anna Maria van Schurman is the first woman ever to attend university lectures. She had to sit behind a screen so that her male fellow students would not see her. 1642: Martine Bertereau, the first recorded female mineralogist, was imprisoned in France on suspicion of witchcraft. Bertereau had published two written works on the science of mining and metallurgy before being arrested. 1650: Silesian astronomer Maria Cunitz published


id: timeline-of-women-in-science-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_women_in_science-2.md
category: reference
title: Timeline of women in science
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_women_in_science
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:23.558030+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: timeline-of-women-in-science-20260505-0
summary:
1702: Pioneering English entomologist Eleanor Glanville captured a butterfly specimen in Lincolnshire, which was subsequently named the Glanville fritillary in her honour. Her extensive butterfly collection impressed fellow entomologist William Vernon, who called Glanville's work "the noblest collection of butterflies, all English, which has sham'd us". Her butterfly specimens became part of early collections in the Natural History Museum. 1702: German astronomer Maria Kirch became the first woman to discover a comet. c. 1702–1744: In Montreal, Canada, French botanist Catherine Jérémie collected plant specimens and studied their properties, sending the specimens and her detailed notes back to scientists in France. 1732: At the age of 20, Italian physicist Laura Bassi became the first female member of the Bologna Academy of Sciences. One month later, she publicly defended her academic theses and received a PhD. Bassi was awarded an honorary position as professor of physics at the University of Bologna. She was the first female physics professor in the world. 1738: French polymath Émilie du Châtelet became the first woman to have a paper published by the Paris Academy, following a contest on the nature of fire. 1740: French polymath Émilie du Châtelet published Institutions de Physique (Foundations of Physics) providing


id: timeline-of-women-in-science-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_women_in_science-3.md
category: reference
title: Timeline of women in science
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_women_in_science
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:23.558030+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: timeline-of-women-in-science-20260505-0
summary:
1808: Anna Sundström began assisting Jacob Berzelius in his laboratory, becoming one of the first Swedish women chemists. 1809: Sabina Baldoncelli earned her university degree in pharmacy but was allowed to work only in the Italian orphanage where she resided. 1815: English archaeologist Lady Hester Stanhope used a medieval Italian manuscript to locate a promising archaeological site in Ashkelon, becoming the first archaeologist to begin an excavation in the Palestinian region. It was one of the earliest examples of the use of textual sources in field archaeology. 1816: French mathematician and physicist Sophie Germain became the first woman to win a prize from the Paris Academy of Sciences for her work on elasticity theory. 1823: English palaeontologist and fossil collector Mary Anning discovered the first complete Plesiosaurus. 1831: Italian botanist Elisabetta Fiorini Mazzanti published her best-known work Specimen Bryologiae Romanae. 1830–1837: Belgian botanist Marie-Anne Libert published her four-volume Plantae cryptogamicae des Ardennes, a collection of 400 species of mosses, ferns, lichen, algae and fungi from the Ardennes region. Her contributions to systemic cryptogamic studies were formally recognized by Prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm III, and Libert received a gold medal of merit. 1832: French marine biologist Jeanne Villepreux-Power invented the first


id: timeline-of-women-in-science-20260505-4
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_women_in_science-4.md
category: reference
title: Timeline of women in science
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_women_in_science
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:23.558030+00:00
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1854: Mary Horner Lyell was a conchologist and geologist. She is most well known for her scientific work in 1854, where she studied her collection of land snails from the Canary Islands. She was married to the notable British geologist Charles Lyell and assisted him in his scientific work. It is believed by historians that she likely made major contributions to her husband's work. 1854–1855: Florence Nightingale organized care for wounded soldiers during the Crimean War. She was an English social reformer and statistician, and the founder of modern nursing. Her pie charts clearly showed that most deaths resulted from disease rather than battle wounds or "other causes," which led the general public to demand improved sanitation at field hospitals. 1855: Working with her father, Welsh astronomer and photographer Thereza Dillwyn Llewelyn produced some of the earliest photographs of the moon. 1856: American atmospheric scientist Eunice Newton Foote presented her paper "Circumstances affecting the heat of the sun's rays" at an annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences. She was an early researcher of the greenhouse effect. 1862: Belgian botanist Marie-Anne Libert became the first woman to join the Royal Botanical Society of Belgium. She was


id: timeline-of-women-in-science-20260505-5
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_women_in_science-5.md
category: reference
title: Timeline of women in science
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_women_in_science
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:23.558030+00:00
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=== 1890s === 1890: Austrian-born chemist Ida Freund became the first woman to work as a university chemistry lecturer in the United Kingdom. She was promoted to full lecturer at Newnham College, Cambridge. 1890: Popular science educator and author Agnes Giberne co-founded the British Astronomical Association. Subsequently, English astronomer Elizabeth Brown was appointed the director of the association's Solar Section, well known for her studies in sunspots and other solar phenomena. 1890: Mathematician Philippa Fawcett became the first woman to obtain the highest score in the Cambridge Mathematical Tripos examinations, a score "above the Senior Wrangler". (At the time, women were ineligible to be named Senior Wrangler.) 1891: American-born astronomer Dorothea Klumpke was appointed as Head of the Bureau of Measurements at the Paris Observatory. For the next decade, in addition to completing her doctorate of science, she worked on the Carte du Ciel mapping project. She was recognized for her work with the first Prix de Dames award from the Société astronomique de France and named an Officier of the Paris Academy of Sciences. 1892: American psychologist Christine Ladd-Franklin presented her evolutionary theory on the development of colour vision to the International Congress of Psychology. Her theory was the


id: timeline-of-women-in-science-20260505-6
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_women_in_science-6.md
category: reference
title: Timeline of women in science
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_women_in_science
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:23.558030+00:00
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parent: timeline-of-women-in-science-20260505-0
summary:
1900: American botanist Anna Murray Vail became the first librarian of the New York Botanical Garden. A key supporter of the institution's establishment, she had earlier donated her entire collection of 3000 botanical specimens to the garden. 1900: Physicists Marie Skłodowska–Curie and Isabelle Stone attended the first International Congress of Physics in Paris, France. They were the only two women out of 836 participants. 1901: American Florence Bascom became the first female geologist to present a paper before the Geological Survey of Washington. 1901: Czech botanist and zoologist Marie Zdeňka Baborová-Čiháková became the first woman in the Czech Republic to receive a PhD. 1901: American astronomer Annie Jump Cannon published her first catalog of stellar spectra, which classified stars by temperature. This method was universally and permanently adopted by other astronomers. 1903: Grace Coleridge Frankland née Toynbee was an English microbiologist. Her most notable work was Bacteria in Daily Life. She was one of the nineteen female scientists who wrote the 1904 petition to the Chemical Society to request that they should create some female fellows of the society. 1903: Polish-born physicist and chemist Marie Skłodowska–Curie became the first woman to receive a Nobel Prize when she received the Nobel


id: timeline-of-women-in-science-20260505-7
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_women_in_science-7.md
category: reference
title: Timeline of women in science
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_women_in_science
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:23.558030+00:00
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parent: timeline-of-women-in-science-20260505-0
summary:
1911: Polish-born physicist and chemist Marie Curie became the first woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, which she received "[for] the discovery of the elements radium and polonium, by the isolation of radium and the study of the nature and compounds of this remarkable element". This made her the first person to win the Nobel Prize twice. As of 2022, she is the only woman to win it twice and the only person to win the Nobel Prize in two scientific fields. 1911: Norwegian biologist Kristine Bonnevie became the first woman member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. 1912: American astronomer Henrietta Swan Leavitt studied the bright-dim cycle periods of Cepheid stars, then found a way to calculate the distance from such stars to Earth. 1912: Canadian botanist and geneticist Carrie Derick was appointed a professor of morphological botany at McGill University. She was the first woman to become a full professor in any department at a Canadian university. 1913: Regina Fleszarowa became the first Polish woman to receive a PhD in natural sciences. 1913: Izabela Textorisová, the first Slovakian female botanist, published "Flora Data from the County of Turiec" in the journal Botanikai Közlemények. Her


id: timeline-of-women-in-science-20260505-8
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_women_in_science-8.md
category: reference
title: Timeline of women in science
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_women_in_science
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:23.558030+00:00
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parent: timeline-of-women-in-science-20260505-0
summary:
1920: Louisa Bolus was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa for her contributions to botany. Over the course of her lifetime, Bolus identified and named more than 1,700 new South African plant species - more species than any other botanist in South Africa. 1921: Edelmira Inés Mórtola (1894–1973), the first woman to become a geologist in Argentina was awarded her PhD at the University of Buenos Aires, the first woman to received her doctorate there. The university named the Mórtola Mineralogy Museum in her honor. 1923: María Teresa Ferrari, an Argentine physician, earned the first diploma awarded to a woman by the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Paris for her studies of the urinary tract. 1924: Florence Bascom became the first woman elected to the Council of the Geological Society of America. 1925: Mexican-American botanist Ynes Mexia embarked on her first botanical expedition into Mexico, collecting over 1500 plant specimens. Over the course of the next thirteen years, Mexia collected more than 145,000 specimens from Mexico, Alaska, and multiple South American countries. She discovered 500 new species. 1925: American medical scientist Florence Sabin became the first woman elected to the National Academy of Sciences.


id: timeline-of-women-in-science-20260505-9
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_women_in_science-9.md
category: reference
title: Timeline of women in science
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_women_in_science
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:23.558030+00:00
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parent: timeline-of-women-in-science-20260505-0
summary:
1940: Turkish Archaeologist, Sumerologist, Assyriologist, and writer Muazzez İlmiye Çığ. Upon receiving her degree in 1940, she began a multi-decade career at Museum of the Ancient Orient, one of three such institutions comprising Istanbul Archaeology Museums, as a resident specialist in the field of cuneiform tablets, thousands of which were being stored untranslated and unclassified in the facility's archives. In the intervening years, due to her efforts in the deciphering and publication of the tablets, the museum became a Middle Eastern languages learning center attended by ancient history researchers from every part of the world. 1941: American scientist Ruth Smith Lloyd became the first African-American woman to receive a PhD in anatomy. 1942: Austrian-American actress and inventor Hedy Lamarr and composer George Antheil developed a radio guidance system for Allied torpedoes that used spread spectrum and frequency hopping technology to defeat the threat of jamming by the Axis powers. Although the US Navy did not adopt the technology until the 1960s, the principles of their work are incorporated into Bluetooth technology and are similar to methods used in legacy versions of CDMA and Wi-Fi. This work led to their induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2014. 1942:


id: timeline-of-women-in-science-20260505-10
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_women_in_science-10.md
category: reference
title: Timeline of women in science
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_women_in_science
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:23.558030+00:00
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parent: timeline-of-women-in-science-20260505-0
summary:
1950s: Chinese-American medical scientist Tsai-Fan Yu co-founded a clinic at Mount Sinai Medical Center for the study and treatment of gout. Working with Alexander B. Gutman, Yu established that levels of uric acid were a factor in the pain experienced by gout patients, and subsequently developed multiple effective drugs for the treatment of gout. 1950: Chinese-American particle physicist Chien-Shiung Wu proved the validity of Quantum entanglement which counters Albert Einstein's EPR Paradox and published her work on the new year of the new decade. She also proved the validity of beta decay around this time. 1950: Ghanaian, Matilda J. Clerk became the first woman in Ghana and West Africa to attend graduate school, earning a postgraduate diploma at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. 1950: Isabella Abbott became the first Native Hawaiian woman to receive a PhD in any science; hers was in botany. 1950: American microbiologist Esther Lederberg became the first to isolate lambda bacteriophage, a DNA virus, from Escherichia coli K-12. 1951: Ghana's Esther Afua Ocloo became the first person of African ancestry to obtain a cooking diploma from the Good Housekeeping Institute in London and to take the post-graduate Food Preservation Course at Long Ashton


id: timeline-of-women-in-science-20260505-11
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_women_in_science-11.md
category: reference
title: Timeline of women in science
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_women_in_science
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:23.558030+00:00
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parent: timeline-of-women-in-science-20260505-0
summary:
1960: British primatologist Jane Goodall began studying chimpanzees in Tanzania; her study of them continued for over 50 years. Her observations challenged previous ideas that only humans made tools and that chimpanzees had a basically vegetarian diet. Early 1960s: German-Canadian metallurgist Ursula Franklin studied levels of radioactive isotope strontium-90 that were appearing in the teeth of children as a side effect of nuclear weapons testing fallout. Her research influenced the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1963. 1960s: American mathematician Katherine Johnson calculated flight paths at NASA for crewed space flights. 1961: Indian chemist Asima Chatterjee became the first female recipient of a Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize. She was recognized in the Chemical Sciences category for her contributions to phytomedicine. 1962: Rachel Louise Carson was an American marine biologist, author, and conservationist whose book Silent Spring and other writings are credited with advancing the global environmental movement. 1962: South African botanist Margaret Levyns became the first female president of the Royal Society of South Africa. 1962: French physicist Marguerite Perey became the first female Fellow elected to the Académie des Sciences. 1963: Elsa G. Vilmundardóttir became the first female Icelandic geologist, completing her studies at Stockholm University. 1963: Maria Goeppert


id: timeline-of-women-in-science-20260505-12
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_women_in_science-12.md
category: reference
title: Timeline of women in science
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_women_in_science
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:23.558030+00:00
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parent: timeline-of-women-in-science-20260505-0
summary:
1980: Japanese geochemist Katsuko Saruhashi became the first woman elected to the Science Council of Japan. 1980: Nigerian geophysicist Deborah Ajakaiye became the first woman in any West African country to be appointed a full professor of physics. Over the course of her scientific career, she became the first female Fellow elected to the Nigerian Academy of Science, and the first female dean of science in Nigeria. 1981: Vera Rubin was the second female astronomer elected to the National Academy of Science. Beginning her academic career as the sole undergraduate in astronomy at Vassar College, Rubin went on to graduate studies at Cornell University and Georgetown University, where she observed deviations from Hubble flow in galaxies and provided evidence for the existence of galactic superclusters. 1982: Nephrologist Leah Lowenstein became the first female dean of a co-educational medical school in the United States. 1982: Janet Vida Watson FRS FGS (1923–1985) was a British geologist. She was a professor of geology at Imperial College, London. A fellow of the Royal Society, she is well known for her contribution to the understanding of the Lewisian complex and as an author and co-author of several books. In 1982 she was elected president of


id: timeline-of-women-in-science-20260505-13
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_women_in_science-13.md
category: reference
title: Timeline of women in science
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_women_in_science
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:23.558030+00:00
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parent: timeline-of-women-in-science-20260505-0
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=== 2000s === 2000: Venezuelan astrophysicist Kathy Vivas presented her discovery of approximately 100 "new and very distant" RR Lyrae stars, providing insight into the structure and history of the Milky Way galaxy. 2003: American geophysicist Claudia Alexander oversaw the final stages of Project Galileo, a space exploration mission that ended at the planet Jupiter. 2004: American biologist Linda B. Buck received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine along with Richard Axel "for their discoveries of odorant receptors and the organization of the olfactory system". 2006: Chilean biochemist Cecilia Hidalgo Tapia became the first woman to receive the Chilean National Prize for Natural Sciences. 2006: Chinese-American biochemist Yizhi Jane Tao led a team of researchers to become the first to map the atomic structure of Influenza A, contributing to antiviral research. 2006: Parasitologist Susan Lim became the first Malaysian scientist elected to the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. 2006: Merieme Chadid became the first Moroccan person and the first female astronomer to travel to Antarctica, leading an international team of scientists in the installation of a major observatory in the South Pole. 2006: American computer scientist Frances E. Allen won the Turing Award for "pioneering contributions to the theory


id: timeline-of-women-in-science-20260505-14
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_women_in_science-14.md
category: reference
title: Timeline of women in science
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_women_in_science
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:23.558030+00:00
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parent: timeline-of-women-in-science-20260505-0
summary:
=== 2010s === 2010: Marcia McNutt became the first female director of the United States Geological Survey. 2011: Kazakhstani neuroscience student and computer hacker Alexandra Elbakyan launched Sci-Hub, a website that provides users with pirated copies of scholarly scientific papers. Within five years, Sci-Hub grew to contain 60 million papers and recorded over 42 million annual downloads by users. Elbakyan was finally sued by major academic publishing company Elsevier, and Sci-Hub was subsequently taken down, but it reappeared under different domain names. 2011: Taiwanese-American astrophysicist Chung-Pei Ma led a team of scientists in discovering two of the largest black holes ever observed. 2012: Computer scientist and cryptographer Shafi Goldwasser won the Turing award for her contributions to cryptography and complexity theory. 2013: Canadian genetic specialist Turi King identified the 500-year-old skeletal remains of King Richard III. 2013: Kenyan ichthyologist Dorothy Wanja Nyingi published the first guide to freshwater fish species of Kenya. 2013: Canadian teenagers Miranda Wang and Jeanny Yao jointly identify a bacteria in British Columbia's Fraser River that breaks down phthalates. 2014: Norwegian psychologist and neuroscientist May-Britt Moser received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, shared with Edvard Moser and John O'Keefe, "for their discoveries of cells


id: timeline-of-women-in-science-20260505-15
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_women_in_science-15.md
category: reference
title: Timeline of women in science
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_women_in_science
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:23.558030+00:00
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parent: timeline-of-women-in-science-20260505-0
summary:
=== 2020s === 2020: The Nigerian Academy of Science elected epidemiologist/parasitologist Ekanem Braide as its first female president. 2020: Brazilian Scientist and Researcher Jaqueline Goes de Jesus, sequenced COVID-19 genome in 12 hours. 2020: Biochemists Jennifer Doudna (American) and Emmanuelle Charpentier (French) received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work on CRISPR genome editing tool. 2020: Andrea M. Ghez received the Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of a supermassive compact object. 2020: German-Turkish scientist Özlem Türeci is the co-founder and chief medical officer of BioNTech. Her team developed BNT162b2 (tozinameran (INN)), commonly known as the Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. 2020: British vaccinologist Sarah Gilbert leads the development and testing of a vaccine which becomes the Oxford–AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. 2021: Catherine Heymans was appointed as the first female Astronomer Royal for Scotland. 2022: American chemist Carolyn R. Bertozzi received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her development of Bioorthogonal chemistry. 2023: Australian geomicrobiologist Jillian Banfield became the first female recipient of the van Leeuwenhoek Medal, which she received for her studies of complex microbial communities and their interaction with the environment. 2025: South African-born physicist and space scientist Michele Dougherty is appointed Astronomer Royal for the United Kingdom, becoming


id: wise-campaign-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WISE_Campaign-0.md
category: reference
title: WISE Campaign
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WISE_Campaign
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:24.777776+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: wise-campaign-20260505-0
summary:
The WISE Campaign (Women into Science and Engineering) is a United Kingdom-based organization that encourages women and girls to value and pursue science, technology, engineering and maths-related courses in school or college and to move on into related careers and progress. Its mission statement aims to facilitate understanding of these disciplines among women and girls and the opportunities which they present at a professional level. It is operated by UKRC trading as WISE (company number 07533934). == Formation == The campaign began on 17 January 1984, headed by The Baroness Platt of Writtle, a qualified mechanical engineer, at which time women made up 7% of graduate engineers and 3% of professional engineers in the UK. It was a collaboration between the Engineering Council and the Equal Opportunities Commission, originally viewed as a one-year campaign "Women into Science and Engineering" WISE'84. == Activities == One of WISE's main objectives is to listen to students and women qualified or working in these sectors, and understand and voice their opinions to academic institutions, policy-makers and employers. It then works creatively with delivery agencies and others, offering models, tools and approaches to support them in challenging traditional approaches, so as to demonstrate equitable involvement.


id: women-in-antarctica-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_Antarctica-0.md
category: reference
title: Women in Antarctica
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_Antarctica
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:25.983025+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: women-in-antarctica-20260505-0
summary:
Women have been exploring the regions around Antarctica for many centuries. The most celebrated "first" for women in Antarctica was in 1935 when Caroline Mikkelsen became the first woman to set foot on one of Antarctica's islands. Early male explorers, such as Richard Byrd, named areas of Antarctica after wives and female heads of state. As Antarctica moved from a place of exploration and conquest to a scientific frontier, women worked to be included in the sciences. The first countries to have female scientists working in Antarctica were the Soviet Union, South Africa and Argentina. Besides exploring and working as scientists, women have also played supportive roles as wives, fund-raisers, publicists, historians, curators and administrators of organizations and services that support Antarctic operations. Many early women on Antarctica were the wives of explorers. Some women worked with Antarctica from afar, crafting policies for a place they had never seen. Women who wished to have larger roles in Antarctica and on the continent itself had to "overcome gendered assumptions about the ice and surmount bureaucratic inertia". As women began to break into fields in Antarctica, they found that it could be difficult to compete against men who already had the "expeditioner


id: women-in-antarctica-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_Antarctica-1.md
category: reference
title: Women in Antarctica
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_Antarctica
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:25.983025+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: women-in-antarctica-20260505-0
summary:
== Early women involved in Antarctica == Oral records from Oceania indicate that women explorers may have traveled to the Antarctic regions like male explorers Ui-te-Rangiora around 650 CE and Te Ara-tanga-nuku in 1000 CE, but this is unconfirmed. The first western woman to visit the Antarctic region was Louise Séguin, who sailed on the Roland with Yves Joseph de Kerguelen in 1773. The oldest known human remains in Antarctica was a skull that belonged to a young Indigenous Chilean woman on Yamana Beach at the South Shetland Islands, which dates back to 1819 to 1825. Her remains were found by the Chilean Antarctic Institute in 1985. In the early twentieth century, women were interested in going to Antarctica. When Ernest Shackleton advertised his 1914 Antarctic expedition, three women wrote to him, requesting to join. The women never became part of the journey. In 1919, newspapers reported that women wanted to go to Antarctica, writing that "several women were anxious to join, but their applications were refused." Later, in 1929, twenty-five women applied to the British, Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition (BANZARE). They were also rejected. When a privately funded British Antarctic Expedition was proposed in 1937, 1,300


id: women-in-antarctica-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_Antarctica-2.md
category: reference
title: Women in Antarctica
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_Antarctica
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:25.983025+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: women-in-antarctica-20260505-0
summary:
Women scientists first began researching Antarctica from ships. The first woman scientist, Maria V. Klenova of the Soviet Union, worked on the ships Ob and Lena just off the Antarctic coastline in 1955 to 1956. Klenova's work helped create the first Antarctic atlas. Women served on Soviet Union ships going to Antarctica after 1963. The first women to visit a US station and the first to fly to Antarctica were Pat Hepinstall and Ruth Kelley, Pan Am flight attendants who spent four hours on the ground at the McMurdo Station on 15 October 1957. Often women going to Antarctica had to be approved in both official and unofficial ways. An early candidate for becoming one of the first women scientists to go to Antarctica was geologist Dawn Rodley. She had been approved of not only by the expedition sponsor, Colin Bull, but also by the wives of the male team-members. Rodley was set to go in 1958, but the United States Navy, who were in charge of Operation Deep Freeze, refused to take her to Antarctica. The Navy decided that sending a four-woman team would be acceptable and Bull began to build a team including Lois Jones, Kay Lindsay, Eileen


id: women-in-antarctica-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_Antarctica-3.md
category: reference
title: Women in Antarctica
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_Antarctica
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:25.983025+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: women-in-antarctica-20260505-0
summary:
The National Science Foundation (NSF) started long-range planning in 1978, looking towards facilities that could accommodate a population made up of 25% women. In the 1979–1980 season, there were only 43 women on the continent. By 1981, there were nearly one woman for every ten men in Antarctica. In 1983, the ratio was back to 20 men for every woman. In the 1980s, Susan Solomon's research in Antarctica on the ozone layer and the "ozone hole" causes her to gain "fame and acclaim." In Spain, Josefina Castellví, helped coordinate and also participated in her country's expedition to Antarctica in 1984. Later, after a Spanish base was constructed in 1988, Castellví was put in charge after the leader, Antoni Ballester, had a stroke. The first female station leader on Antarctica was Australian, Diana Patterson, head of Mawson Station in 1989. The first woman station leader in charge of an American Antarctic station was LT Trina Baldwin, CEC, USN (Civil Engineer Corps, United States Navy). The first all-female overwintering group was from Germany and spent the 1990–1991 winter at Georg von Neumayer. The first German female station leader and medical doctor was Monika Puskeppeleit. In 1991 In-Young Ahn was the first female


id: women-in-antarctica-20260505-4
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_Antarctica-4.md
category: reference
title: Women in Antarctica
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_Antarctica
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:25.983025+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: women-in-antarctica-20260505-0
summary:
== Sexual harassment and sexism == When heavy equipment operator, Julia Uberuaga, first went to Antarctica in the late 70s and early 80s, she recalled that "the men stared at her, or leered at her, or otherwise let her know she was unwelcome on the job." Rita Matthews, who went to Antarctica during the same period, said that the "men were all over the place. There were some that would never stop going after you." In 1983, Marilyn Woody described living at McMurdo station and said, "It makes your head spin, all this attention from all these men." Then she said, "You realize you can put a bag over your head and they'll still fall in love with you." Another scientist, Cynthia McFee, had been completely shut out of the "male camaraderie" at her location and had to deal with loneliness for long periods of time. Martha Kane, the second woman to overwinter at the South Pole, experienced "negative pressure" from men with "some viewing her as an interloper who had insinuated herself into a male domain." In the 1990s, some women experienced stigma in Antarctica. These women were labeled "whores" for interacting with men and those who did not


id: absent-minded-professor-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absent-minded_professor-0.md
category: reference
title: Absent-minded professor
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absent-minded_professor
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:27.636609+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: absent-minded-professor-20260505-0
summary:
The absent-minded professor is a stock character of popular fiction, usually portrayed as a talented scholar whose academic brilliance is accompanied by below-par functioning in other areas, leading to forgetfulness and mistakes. One explanation of this is that highly-talented individuals often have unevenly distributed capabilities, being brilliant in their field of choice but below average on other measures of ability. Alternatively, they are considered to be so engrossed in their field of study that they forget their surroundings. The phrase is also commonly used in English to describe people who are so engrossed in their own world that they fail to keep track of their surroundings. It is a common stereotype that professors get so obsessed with their research that they pay little attention to anything else. The archetype is sometimes mixed with that of the mad scientist, often for comic effect, as in the Jerry Lewis film The Nutty Professor or the Professor Bacterio in the Mortadelo y Filemón comics and movies. However, a distinction is usually made that absent-minded professors are forgetful and careless rather than maliciously causing harm. == Examples of real scholars == The archetype is very old: the ancient Greek biographer Diogenes Laërtius wrote that


id: the-big-bang-theory-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Bang_Theory-0.md
category: reference
title: The Big Bang Theory
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Bang_Theory
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:29.021226+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-big-bang-theory-20260505-0
summary:
The Big Bang Theory is an American television sitcom created by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady for CBS. It aired from September 24, 2007, to May 16, 2019, running for 12 seasons and 279 episodes. The show originally centered on five characters living in Pasadena, California: Leonard Hofstadter (Johnny Galecki) and Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons), both physicists at the California Institute of Technology, who share an apartment; Penny (Kaley Cuoco), a waitress and aspiring actress who lives across the hall; and Leonard and Sheldon's similarly geeky and socially awkward friends and coworkers, aerospace engineer Howard Wolowitz (Simon Helberg) and astrophysicist Raj Koothrappali (Kunal Nayyar). Over time, supporting characters were promoted to starring roles, including neuroscientist Amy Farrah Fowler (Mayim Bialik), microbiologist Bernadette Rostenkowski (Melissa Rauch), and comic book store owner Stuart Bloom (Kevin Sussman). The series was filmed in front of a live audience and produced by Chuck Lorre Productions, with Warner Bros. Television handling distribution. While the first season received mixed reviews, critical reception improved in subsequent seasons. Seven seasons ranked within the top ten of the final-season ratings, and the series reached the No. 1 spot in its eleventh season. It was nominated for the Emmy Award for


id: the-big-bang-theory-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Bang_Theory-1.md
category: reference
title: The Big Bang Theory
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Bang_Theory
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:29.021226+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-big-bang-theory-20260505-0
summary:
Johnny Galecki as Leonard Hofstadter: An experimental physicist with an IQ of 173, who received his Ph.D. when he was 24 years old. Leonard is a nerd who loves video games, comic books, and Dungeons & Dragons. Leonard is the straight man of the series, sharing an apartment in Pasadena, CA, with Sheldon Cooper. Leonard is smitten with his new neighbor, Penny, when they first meet, and they eventually marry. Jim Parsons as Sheldon Cooper: Originally from Galveston, Texas, Sheldon was a child prodigy with an eidetic memory who began college at the age of eleven and earned a Ph.D. at age sixteen. He is a theoretical physicist researching quantum mechanics and string theory, and, despite his IQ of 187, he finds many routine aspects of social situations difficult to grasp. He is determined to have his own way, continually boasts of his intelligence, and has an extremely ritualized way of living. Despite these quirks, he begins a relationship with Amy Farrah Fowler, and they eventually marry. Kaley Cuoco as Penny: An aspiring actress from Omaha, Nebraska. Penny moves in across the hall from Sheldon and Leonard. She waits tables and occasionally tends the bar at The Cheesecake Factory. After


id: the-big-bang-theory-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Bang_Theory-2.md
category: reference
title: The Big Bang Theory
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Bang_Theory
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:29.021226+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-big-bang-theory-20260505-0
summary:
The show's pilot episode premiered on September 24, 2007. This was the second pilot produced for the show. A different pilot was produced for the 2006‍–‍07 television season but never aired. The structure of the original unaired pilot was different from the series' eventual form. The only main characters retained in both pilots were Leonard (Johnny Galecki) and Sheldon (Jim Parsons), who are named after Sheldon Leonard, a longtime figure in episodic television as a producer, director, and actor. A minor character, Althea (Vernee Watson), appeared in the first scene of both pilots that was retained generally as-is. The first pilot included two female lead characters - Katie, "a street-hardened, tough-as-nails woman with a vulnerable interior" (played by Canadian actress Amanda Walsh), and Gilda, a scientist colleague and friend of the male characters (played by Iris Bahr). Sheldon and Leonard meet Katie after she breaks up with a boyfriend, and they invite her to share their apartment. Gilda is threatened by Katie's presence. Test audiences reacted negatively to Katie, but they liked Sheldon and Leonard. The original pilot used Thomas Dolby's hit "She Blinded Me with Science" as its theme song. Although the original pilot was not picked up, its


id: the-big-bang-theory-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Bang_Theory-3.md
category: reference
title: The Big Bang Theory
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Bang_Theory
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:29.021226+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-big-bang-theory-20260505-0
summary:
The Canadian alternative rock band Barenaked Ladies wrote and recorded the show's theme song, which describes the history and formation of the universe and the Earth. Co-lead singer Ed Robertson was asked by Lorre and Prady to write a theme song for the show after the producers attended one of the band's concerts in Los Angeles. Coincidentally, Robertson had recently read Simon Singh's 2004 book Big Bang, and at the concert he improvised a freestyle rap about the origins of the universe. Lorre and Prady phoned him shortly thereafter and asked him to write the theme song. Having been asked to write songs for other films and shows, but ending up being rejected because producers favored songs by other artists, Robertson agreed to write the theme only after learning that Lorre and Prady had not asked anyone else. In October 2007, a full-length (1 minute and 45 seconds) version of the song was released commercially. Although some unofficial pages identify the song title as "History of Everything," the cover art for the single identifies the title as "Big Bang Theory Theme." A music video also was released via special features on The Complete Fourth Season DVD and Blu-ray set. The


id: the-big-bang-theory-20260505-4
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Bang_Theory-4.md
category: reference
title: The Big Bang Theory
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Bang_Theory
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:29.021226+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-big-bang-theory-20260505-0
summary:
The four main male characters are all avid fans of nerd culture. Among their shared interests are science fiction, fantasy, comic books, and collecting memorabilia. Star Trek in particular is referred to frequently, and Sheldon identifies strongly with the character of Spock, so much so that when he is given a used napkin signed by Leonard Nimoy as a Christmas gift from Penny, he is overwhelmed with excitement and gratitude ("I possess the DNA of Leonard Nimoy?!"). Star Trek: The Original Series cast members William Shatner and George Takei have made guest appearances, and Leonard Nimoy made a guest appearance as the voice of Sheldon's vintage Mr. Spock action figure. Star Trek: The Next Generation cast members Brent Spiner and LeVar Burton have had guest appearances as themselves, while Wil Wheaton has a recurring role as a fictionalized version of himself. Leonard and Sheldon have had conversations in Klingon. They are also fans of Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, and Doctor Who. James Earl Jones, Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill made guest appearances. In the episode "The Ornithophobia Diffusion", when there is a delay in watching Star Wars on Blu-ray, Howard complains, "If we don't start soon, George Lucas is going


id: the-big-bang-theory-20260505-5
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Bang_Theory-5.md
category: reference
title: The Big Bang Theory
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Bang_Theory
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:29.021226+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-big-bang-theory-20260505-0
summary:
=== Leonard and Penny's relationship === One of the recurring plot lines is the relationship between Leonard and Penny. Leonard becomes attracted to Penny in the pilot episode, and his need to do favors for her is a frequent point of humor in the first season. Meanwhile, Penny dates a series of muscular, stereotypically "attractive," unintelligent, and insensitive jocks. Their first long-term relationship begins when Leonard returns from a three-month expedition to the North Pole in the season 3 premiere. However, when Leonard tells Penny that he loves her, she realizes she cannot say it back, and they break up. Both Leonard and Penny go on to date other people, most notably with Leonard dating Raj's sister Priya for much of season 4. This relationship is jeopardized when Leonard mistakenly comes to believe that Raj has slept with Penny, and it ultimately ends when Priya sleeps with a former boyfriend in "The Good Guy Fluctuation". Penny, who admits to missing Leonard in "The Roommate Transmogrification", accepts his request to renew their relationship in "The Beta Test Initiation". After Penny suggests having sex in "The Launch Acceleration", Leonard breaks the mood by proposing to her. Penny says "no" but does not


id: the-big-bang-theory-20260505-6
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Bang_Theory-6.md
category: reference
title: The Big Bang Theory
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Bang_Theory
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:29.021226+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-big-bang-theory-20260505-0
summary:
=== Sheldon and Amy's relationship === In the third-season finale, Raj and Howard sign Sheldon up for online dating to find a woman compatible with Sheldon, and they discover neurobiologist Amy Farrah Fowler. Like Sheldon, she has a history of social ineptitude and participates in online dating only to fulfill an agreement with her mother. This spawns a story line in which Sheldon and Amy communicate daily while insisting to Leonard and Penny that they are not romantically involved. In "The Agreement Dissection", Sheldon and Amy talk in her apartment after a night of dancing, and she kisses him on the lips. Instead of getting annoyed, Sheldon says "fascinating" and later asks Amy to be his girlfriend in "The Flaming Spittoon Acquisition". The same night he draws up "The Relationship Agreement" to verify the ground rules of him as her boyfriend and vice versa (similar to his "Roommate Agreement" with Leonard). Amy agrees but later regrets not having had a lawyer read through it. In "The Launch Acceleration", Amy tries to use her "neurobiology bag of tricks" to increase the attraction between herself and Sheldon. Her efforts appear to be working because Sheldon is not happy, but he makes no


id: the-big-bang-theory-20260505-7
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Bang_Theory-7.md
category: reference
title: The Big Bang Theory
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Bang_Theory
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:29.021226+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-big-bang-theory-20260505-0
summary:
=== Apartment building elevator === In the apartment building where Sheldon, Leonard, and Penny (and later Amy) live, the elevator has been out of order throughout most of the series, forcing characters to have to use the stairs. Stairway conversations between the characters as they walk up the three flights to their apartments occur in almost every episode, often serving as a transition between longer scenes. The Season 3 episode, "The Staircase Implementation" reveals that the elevator was broken when Leonard was experimenting with rocket fuel. In the penultimate episode of the series, the elevator is returned to an operational state, causing Sheldon some angst, until he realizes that the fixed elevator reverted things to the "status quo". === Vanity cards === Like most shows created by Chuck Lorre, The Big Bang Theory ends by showing for one second a vanity card written by Lorre after the credits, followed by the Warner Bros. Television closing logo. These cards are archived on Lorre's website. The series' final vanity card reads simply "The End". == Release == === Broadcast === The Big Bang Theory premiered in the United States on September 24, 2007, on CBS. The series debuted in Canada on CTV


id: the-big-bang-theory-20260505-8
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Bang_Theory-8.md
category: reference
title: The Big Bang Theory
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Bang_Theory
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:29.021226+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-big-bang-theory-20260505-0
summary:
=== American ratings === The Big Bang Theory started off slowly in the ratings, failing to make the top 50 in its first season (ranking 68th), and ranking 40th in its second season. When the third season premiered on September 21, 2009, however, The Big Bang Theory ranked as CBS's highest-rated show of that evening in the adults 18–49 demographic (4.6/10) along with a then-series-high 12.83 million viewers. After the first three seasons aired at different times on Monday nights, CBS moved the show to Thursdays at 8:00 ET for the 2010‍–‍2011 schedule, to be in direct competition with NBC's Comedy Block and Fox's American Idol (then the longest reigning leading primetime show on American television from 2004 to 2011). During its fourth season, it became television's highest rated comedy, just barely beating out Two and a Half Men (which held the position for the past 8 years). However, in the age 18–49 demographic (the show's target age range), it was the second highest-rated comedy, behind ABC's Modern Family. The fifth season opened with viewing figures of over 14 million. The sixth season boasts some of the highest-rated episodes for the show so far, with a then-new series high set


id: the-big-bang-theory-20260505-9
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Bang_Theory-9.md
category: reference
title: The Big Bang Theory
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Bang_Theory
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:29.021226+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-big-bang-theory-20260505-0
summary:
=== Canadian ratings === The Big Bang Theory initially had moderate success in Canada, but gained wider popularity in later seasons. The series is broadcast on the CTV Television Network, often through simultaneous substitution with cross-border CBS affiliates. It also aired in daily reruns on the Canadian cable channel The Comedy Network. The season 4 premiere garnered an estimated 3.1 million viewers across Canada. This was the largest audience for a sitcom since the series finale of Friends. The show later increased in viewership and became the most-watched entertainment television show in Canada. === Accolades === In August 2009, the sitcom won the best comedy series TCA award and Jim Parsons (Sheldon) won the award for individual achievement in comedy. In 2010, the show won the People's Choice Award for Favorite Comedy, while Parsons won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. On January 16, 2011, Parsons was awarded a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Comedy or Musical, an award that was presented by co-star Kaley Cuoco. On September 18, 2011, Parsons was again awarded an Emmy for Best Actor in a Comedy Series. On January 9,


id: the-big-bang-theory-20260505-10
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Bang_Theory-10.md
category: reference
title: The Big Bang Theory
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Bang_Theory
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:29.021226+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-big-bang-theory-20260505-0
summary:
In January 2024, it was announced that there will be a spin-off series of Young Sheldon focused on Georgie Cooper and Mandy McAllister The series premiered on CBS on October 17, 2024. ==== Stuart Fails to Save the Universe ==== On April 12, 2023, it was announced that a spin-off of the original series was in development. On October 10, 2024, it was announced that the third spin-off would feature Stuart Bloom, Denise, and Bert Kibbler, with Kevin Sussman, Lauren Lapkus, and Brian Posehn reprising their roles. On March 19, 2025, it was announced that the title of the show would be Stuart Fails to Save the Universe. In the premise of the series, Stuart is "tasked with restoring reality after he breaks a device built by Sheldon and Leonard, accidentally bringing about a multiverse Armageddon." John Ross Bowie will reprise his role as Barry Kripke. Filming for the show began in September 2025 and was completed by February 2026. === Television special === On May 16, 2019, a television special titled Unraveling the Mystery: A Big Bang Farewell aired following the series finale of The Big Bang Theory. It is a backstage retrospective featuring Johnny Galecki and Kaley Cuoco.


id: british-scientists-meme-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_scientists_(meme)-0.md
category: reference
title: British scientists (meme)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_scientists_(meme)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:30.272337+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: british-scientists-meme-20260505-0
summary:
In modern Russian culture, "British scientists" (Russian: Британские учёные, Britanskiye uchyonyye) is a running joke used as an ironic reference to absurd news reports about scientific discoveries: "British scientists managed to establish that..." It has also become a Russian internet meme. A similar joke, "British research" (Chinese: 英国研究 yīngguó yánjiū), exists in Chinese-speaking countries. == Description == The crowdsourced Russian internet subculture encyclopedia Lurkmore defined the term as "a synonym for researchers working on pseudoscientific projects that are bonkers, idiotic and have absolutely no practical value". James Harkin wrote: "When they hear the phrase 'British scientists', Russians don't tend to think of Newton, Darwin or Faraday; nor do they think of Stephen Hawking or Peter Higgs. Instead, they are much more likely to think of psychologist Richard Stephens of Keele University, who determined that swearing can help reduce pain, or Olli Loukola of Queen Mary University of London, who has taught bumblebees how to play football". Typical news about "Британские учёные" [Britanskiye uchyonyye, "British scientists"] report that they: found out that people start lying as early as at 6 years old debunked the myth that mice love cheese invented non-stick bubble gum designed an ideal sandwich developed a universal vaccine


id: the-dreamers-novella-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dreamers_(novella)-0.md
category: reference
title: The Dreamers (novella)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dreamers_(novella)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:31.500345+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-dreamers-novella-20260505-0
summary:
The Dreamers is a novella by Stephen King, first published in King's 2024 collection You Like It Darker. == Plot summary == In June 1971, Vietnam War veteran William Davis is discharged from the military; his wartime experiences have left him "empty", with his "emotions scrubbed". After staying with his mother in Skowhegan, Maine, Davis relocates to Portland, Maine and finds work as a stenographer for Temp-O. The following year, Davis responds to a job advertisement posted by Elgin, a self-described gentleman scientist in Castle Rock, Maine. Elgin hires Davis as an assistant for his experiments, which aim to "go under" the "wall of sleep". Elgin and Davis begin their experiments, which entail administering the hypnotic drug Flurazepam to a human test subject who is instructed to study a picture of a red house with a green door in a forest. The subject is then instructed to dream of the house, and then to enter the house and attempt to lift up the living room floor and see what is beneath. Elgin and Davis watch the subject through a one-way mirror, with Davis transcribing the subject's remarks. Davis witnesses the teeth of the first subject, Althea Gibson, grow larger. After


id: frankenstein-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenstein-0.md
category: reference
title: Frankenstein
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenstein
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:32.694815+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: frankenstein-20260505-0
summary:
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is an 1818 Gothic novel written by English author Mary Shelley. Frankenstein tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a sapient creature from different body parts in an unorthodox scientific experiment. Shelley started writing the story when she was 18 and staying in Bath, and the first edition was published anonymously in London on 1 January 1818, when she was 20. Her name first appeared in the second edition, which was published in Paris in 1821. Shelley travelled through Europe in 1815, moving along the river Rhine in Germany, and stopping in Gernsheim, 17 kilometres (11 mi) away from Frankenstein Castle, where, about a century earlier, Johann Konrad Dippel, an alchemist, had engaged in experiments. She then journeyed to the region of Geneva, Switzerland, where much of the story takes place. Galvanism and occult ideas were topics of conversation for her companions, particularly for her lover and future husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley. In 1816—at the suggestion of Lord Byron—Mary, Percy, John Polidori and Byron himself, each agreed to try writing a ghost story. After thinking for days, Shelley was inspired to write Frankenstein after imagining a scientist who created life and


id: frankenstein-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenstein-1.md
category: reference
title: Frankenstein
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenstein
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:32.694815+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: frankenstein-20260505-0
summary:
Mary Shelley's mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, died from infection eleven days after giving birth to her. Shelley grew close to her father, William Godwin. Godwin hired a nurse, who briefly cared for her and her half-sister, before marrying his second wife, Mary Jane Clairmont, who did not like the close bond between Shelley and her father. The resulting friction caused Godwin to favour his other children. Shelley's father was a famous author of the time, and her education was of great importance to him, although it was not formal. Shelley grew up surrounded by her father's friends, writers, and persons of political importance, who often gathered at the family home. This inspired her authorship at an early age. Mary, at the age of sixteen, met Percy Bysshe Shelley (who later became her husband) while he was visiting her father. Godwin disapproved of the relationship between his daughter and an older, married man, so they fled to France along with her stepsister, Claire Clairmont. On 22 February 1815, Shelley gave birth prematurely to her first child, Clara, who died two weeks later. In the summer of 1816, Mary, Percy, and Claire took a trip to visit Claire's lover, Lord Byron, in Geneva.


id: frankenstein-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenstein-2.md
category: reference
title: Frankenstein
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenstein
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:32.694815+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: frankenstein-20260505-0
summary:
During the rainy summer of 1816, the "Year Without a Summer", the world was locked in a long, cold volcanic winter caused by the eruption of Mount Tambora in 1815. Mary Shelley, aged 18, and her lover (and future husband), Percy Bysshe Shelley, visited Lord Byron at the Villa Diodati by Lake Geneva, in the Swiss Alps. The weather was too cold and dreary that summer to enjoy the outdoor holiday activities they had planned, so the group retired indoors until dawn. Sitting around a log fire at Byron's villa, the company amused themselves by reading German ghost stories translated into French from the book Fantasmagoriana. Byron proposed that they "each write a ghost story." Unable to think of a story, Mary Shelley became anxious. She recalled being asked "Have you thought of a story?" each morning, and every time being "forced to reply with a mortifying negative." During one evening in the middle of summer, the discussions turned to the nature of the principle of life. "Perhaps a corpse would be re-animated," Mary noted, "galvanism had given token of such things". It was after midnight before they retired and, unable to sleep, she became possessed by her imagination as


id: frankenstein-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenstein-3.md
category: reference
title: Frankenstein
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenstein
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:32.694815+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: frankenstein-20260505-0
summary:
In the novel, the creature is compared to Adam, the first man in the Garden of Eden. The monster also compares himself with the fallen angel. Speaking to Frankenstein, the monster says "I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel". That angel would be Lucifer (meaning "light-bringer") in Milton's Paradise Lost, which the monster has read. Adam is also referred to in the epigraph of the 1818 edition: Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay To mould Me man? Did I solicit thee From darkness to promote me? Some have posited the creature as a composite of Percy Shelley and Thomas Paine. If the creature's hatred for Victor and his desire to raise a child mirror Percy's filial rebelliousness and his longing to adopt children, his desire to do good and his persecution can be said to echo Paine's utopian visions and fate in England. The Creature has often been mistakenly called Frankenstein. In 1908, one author said "It is strange to note how well-nigh universally the term 'Frankenstein' is misused, even by intelligent people, as describing some hideous monster." Edith Wharton's The Reef (1916) describes an unruly child as an "infant Frankenstein". David


id: frankenstein-20260505-4
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenstein-4.md
category: reference
title: Frankenstein
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenstein
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:32.694815+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: frankenstein-20260505-0
summary:
== Publication == Shelley completed her writing in April/May 1817, and Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus was published on 1 January 1818 by the small London publishing house Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones. It was issued anonymously, with a preface written for Mary by Percy Bysshe Shelley and with a dedication to philosopher William Godwin, her father. It was published in an edition of just 500 copies in three volumes, the standard "triple-decker" format for 19th-century first editions. A French translation (Frankenstein: ou le Prométhée Moderne, translated by Jules Saladin) appeared as early as 1821. The second English edition of Frankenstein was published on 11 August 1823 in two volumes (by G. and W. B. Whittaker) following the success of the stage play Presumption; or, the Fate of Frankenstein by Richard Brinsley Peake. This edition credited Mary Shelley as the book's author on its title page. On 31 October 1831, the first "popular" edition in one volume appeared, published by Henry Colburn & Richard Bentley. This edition was heavily revised by Mary Shelley, partially to make the story less radical. It included a lengthy new introduction by the author, presenting a somewhat embellished version of the genesis of the


id: frankenstein-20260505-5
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenstein-5.md
category: reference
title: Frankenstein
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenstein
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:32.694815+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: frankenstein-20260505-0
summary:
The 1931 film, with Boris Karloff playing the monster, is considered the most well-known portrayal of Frankenstein. The Hammer Horror films focused on the character of Dr Frankenstein (played by Peter Cushing in six films beginning with the 1957 film) rather than his monster. In December 1945, the Gilberton Company issued a comic book version of Frankenstein as No. 26 in its long-running Classics Illustrated series, with illustrations by Robert Hayward Webb and Ann Brewster. The title went through nineteen printings between 1945 and 1971, and has been praised by comics historian Mike Benton as "probably the most faithful adaptation of the original novel -- movies included." Manga artist and writer Junji Ito, best known for his horror work, published a comics adaptation of Frankenstein, which won an Eisner Award in 2019 for “Best Adaptation from Another Medium.” == See also == == Notes == == References == == Sources == == Further reading == Holmes, Richard (21 December 2017). "Out of Control". The New York Review of Books. Archived from the original on 14 December 2017. Retrieved 29 December 2024. After two hundred years, how exactly are we to go back to Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein' itself, as distinct from


id: graf-zeppelin-march-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graf_Zeppelin_(march)-0.md
category: reference
title: Graf Zeppelin (march)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graf_Zeppelin_(march)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:33.892714+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: graf-zeppelin-march-20260505-0
summary:
"Graf Zeppelin-Marsch" is a German military march, written by military music composer Carl Teike. The name refers to Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin. It was originally composed in 1903 under the title "March of the Teutons" (March of the Teutons). Joachim Toeche-Mittler, a German authority on the history of German military music, regarded the march as an "immortal" piece. The march was published by Carl Fischer Music in the United States under the name "The Conqueror" in 1912, arranged by Canadian composer Louis-Philippe Laurendeau. To avoid confusion, the march was often called "Graf Zeppelin (The Conqueror)" (ツェッペリン伯爵（征服者）) in CDs published in Japan. The march was especially popular in the Soviet Union. It was sometimes called "March of the Air Fleet" (Воздушный флот) in Russian. It was once used as the Swedish navy's parade march. == References == == External links == "Graf Zeppelin" (Teike): Scores at the International Music Score Library Project Video on YouTube


id: the-invisible-man-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Invisible_Man-0.md
category: reference
title: The Invisible Man
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Invisible_Man
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:39.100039+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-invisible-man-20260505-0
summary:
The Invisible Man is an 1897 science fiction novel by H. G. Wells. Originally serialised in Pearson's Weekly in 1897, it was published as a novel the same year. The Invisible Man to whom the title refers is Griffin, a scientist who has devoted himself to research into optics and invents a way to change a body's refractive index to that of air so that it neither absorbs nor reflects light. He carries out this procedure on himself and renders himself invisible, but fails in his attempt to reverse it. A practitioner of random and irresponsible violence, Griffin has become an iconic character in horror fiction. While its predecessors, The Time Machine and The Island of Doctor Moreau, were written using first-person narrators, Wells adopts a third-person objective point of view in The Invisible Man. The novel is considered influential, and helped establish Wells as the "father of science fiction". == Plot summary == A man named Griffin arrives at an inn owned by Mr. and Mrs. Hall of the English village of Iping, West Sussex, during a snowstorm. He wears a wide-brimmed hat, a long-sleeved, thick coat and gloves; his face is hidden entirely by bandages except for a


id: the-invisible-man-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Invisible_Man-1.md
category: reference
title: The Invisible Man
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Invisible_Man
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:39.100039+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-invisible-man-20260505-0
summary:
== Background == According to John Sutherland, Wells and his contemporaries such as Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson and Rudyard Kipling "essentially wrote boy's books for grown-ups." Sutherland identifies The Invisible Man as one such book. Wells said that his inspiration for the novella was "The Perils of Invisibility", one of the Bab Ballads by W. S. Gilbert, which includes the couplet "Old Peter vanished like a shot/but then – his suit of clothes did not." Another influence on The Invisible Man was Plato's Republic, a book which had a significant effect on Wells when he read it as an adolescent. In the second book of the Republic, Glaucon recounts the legend of the Ring of Gyges, which posits that, if a man were made invisible and could act with impunity, he would "go about among men with the powers of a god." Wells wrote the original version of the tale between March and June 1896. This version was a 25,000 word short story titled "The Man at the Coach and Horses" with which Wells was dissatisfied, so he extended it. == Scientific accuracy == Russian writer Yakov I. Perelman pointed out in Physics Can Be Fun (1913) that


id: lessons-in-chemistry-miniseries-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lessons_in_Chemistry_(miniseries)-0.md
category: reference
title: Lessons in Chemistry (miniseries)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lessons_in_Chemistry_(miniseries)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:40.372728+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: lessons-in-chemistry-miniseries-20260505-0
summary:
Lessons in Chemistry is an American period drama miniseries created by Lee Eisenberg, based on the novel of the same name by Bonnie Garmus. It stars Brie Larson as chemist Elizabeth Zott who begins hosting her own feminist cooking show in 1950s America. The series began streaming on Apple TV on October 13, 2023 and ended November 22, 2023. It received positive reviews from critics, and received nominations for two Golden Globe Awards, Best Limited or Anthology Series and Best Actress – Miniseries for Larson. In 2024 Sarah Adina Smith won the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Movies for Television and Limited Series for directing the second episode "Her and Him". == Premise == After being fired from her job as a lab tech, chemist Elizabeth Zott uses her new job hosting a 1950s television cooking show titled Supper at Six to educate housewives on scientific topics. == Cast == === Main === Brie Larson as Elizabeth Zott Lewis Pullman as Calvin Evans Aja Naomi King as Harriet Sloane Stephanie Koenig as Fran Frask Patrick Walker as Reverend Curtis Wakely === Recurring === Derek Cecil as Dr. Robert Donatti Thomas Mann as Boryweitz Andy Daly


id: the-lost-world-doyle-novel-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lost_World_(Doyle_novel)-0.md
category: reference
title: The Lost World (Doyle novel)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lost_World_(Doyle_novel)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:41.529856+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-lost-world-doyle-novel-20260505-0
summary:
The Lost World is an adventure and science fiction novel by British writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle recounting an expedition to a remote plateau in the Amazon basin of South America where dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals still survive, along with a tribe of vicious ape-like creatures that are in conflict with a group of indigenous Indians. The work introduces the character of Professor Challenger, who leads the expedition (and who would appear in later Conan Doyle stories), and is narrated in the first person by the journalist member (Edward Malone) of the exploration party. The Lost World appeared in serial form in the Strand Magazine, illustrated by New-Zealand-born artist Harry Rountree, during the months of April through November 1912 and also was serialized in magazines in the United States from March to November 1912. Hodder & Stoughton published the first book edition in October 1912 in Great Britain (London), with printings as well in the United States (New York) and in Canada (Toronto). When he was working on The Lost World, Doyle explained to his editor Herbert Greenhough Smith: "My ambition is to do for the boys' book what Sherlock Holmes did for the detective story". Doyle cast the


id: the-lost-world-doyle-novel-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lost_World_(Doyle_novel)-1.md
category: reference
title: The Lost World (Doyle novel)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lost_World_(Doyle_novel)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:41.529856+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-lost-world-doyle-novel-20260505-0
summary:
Running the gauntlet of hostile tribes, the expedition finally reaches the lost world with the aid of indigenous guides, who are superstitiously scared of the area. Summerlee retains his arrogance and his skepticism, until a pterodactyl flies down and is seen by all at close range, as it steals the companions’ dinner. After this, Summerlee apologises to Challenger. The group explores the entire base of the plateau to find a way to the top and discover that a former route up is now blocked by a rock slide. They also encounter human bones at one spot at the base of the cliff, identified as James Colver, Maple White’s companion, who, it would seem, somehow fell to his death. With the cliffs to the plateau apparently unscalable, an adjacent pinnacle is climbable but separated by a wide gap. Challenger determines that a tall tree on the pinnacle can be cut down and used as a bridge, which allows the four explorers to cross over to the plateau. However, they are almost immediately trapped on the other side, thanks to the treachery of one of their hired porters, Gomez—who, as it turns out, is a former slaver whose brother had previously been


id: the-lost-world-doyle-novel-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lost_World_(Doyle_novel)-2.md
category: reference
title: The Lost World (Doyle novel)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lost_World_(Doyle_novel)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:41.529856+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-lost-world-doyle-novel-20260505-0
summary:
== Characters == Professor George Edward Challenger – An energetic British zoologist with a volatile temper; his hairy, burly body and his thick beard are a source of humor in the story, including a resemblance to the king of the ape-men, who treats him like a brother after he is captured Edward D. Malone – A reporter at the Daily Gazette of Irish background; an athletic rugby player McArdle – Malone's editor at the Daily Gazette Professor Summerlee – An older British zoologist who is skeptical of Challenger’s claims Lord John Roxton – A widely traveled adventurer and skilled big-game hunter, an opponent of slavery Gomez – Brother to an enslaver whom Roxton killed Manuel – Gomez's friend Zambo – South American black man loyal to the explorers Gladys Hungerton – Edward Malone's love interest Jessie Challenger – Challenger's wife, who objects to his belligerent behavior Maple White – Deceased explorer who discovered the lost world The Accala Indians – The native human inhabitants of the lost world plateau == Prehistoric animals encountered == Iguanodon – Large plant-eating dinosaurs: "they looked like monstrous kangaroos, twenty feet in length, and with skins like black crocodiles"; treated like cattle by the tribe


id: the-lost-world-doyle-novel-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lost_World_(Doyle_novel)-3.md
category: reference
title: The Lost World (Doyle novel)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lost_World_(Doyle_novel)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:41.529856+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-lost-world-doyle-novel-20260505-0
summary:
=== Television === Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World (1999–2002; TV series) Dinosaur Island (2002 animated film) Adventures in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World (2002) (Canadian-French-Luxembourger animated series) The Lost World (2001; television film) === Documentary === The Real Lost World (2006) === Audio === The Lost World (1944; radio) John Dickson Carr as Narrator (all characters) The Lost World (1949; BBC Light Programme radio serial) With Abraham Sofaer, Ivor Barnard, Lewis Stringer, Cyril Gardiner Dinosaurs! (1966, an audio dramatic version of The Lost World adapted and directed by Ronald Liss and recorded by permission of the Estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; MGM/Leo the Lion Records C/CH-1016) Basil Rathbone as Professor Challenger Leo Marion as Dr. Summerlee Peter Fernandez as Edward Malone (The character of Lord John Roxton was not included in this adaptation.) The Lost World (1975 BBC Radio 4 Classic Serial) Francis de Wolff as Professor Challenger Gerald Harper as Lord John Roxton Kevin McHugh as Edward Malone Carleton Hobbs as Professor Summerlee The Lost World (2011; BBC Radio 4 Classic Serial) David Robb as Professor Challenger Jamie Glover as Lord John Roxton Jonathan Forbes as Edward Malone Jasmine Hyde as Dr. Diana Summerlee


id: statue-of-marie-victorin-kirouac-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statue_of_Marie-Victorin_Kirouac-0.md
category: reference
title: Statue of Marie-Victorin Kirouac
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statue_of_Marie-Victorin_Kirouac
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:42.757185+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: statue-of-marie-victorin-kirouac-20260505-0
summary:
The Marie-Victorin Statue (French: Monument au Frère Marie-Victorin, pronounced [mɔnymɑ̃ o fʁɛʁ maʁi viktɔʁɛ̃]), created by Sylvia Daoust, is a monument in the Botanical Garden of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The monument to Brother Marie-Victorin (Marie-Victorin Kirouac) was unveiled by Maurice Duplessis and Paul-Émile Léger on September 18, 1954. == References == == External links == Media related to Statue of Brother Marie-Victorin at Wikimedia Commons Inauguration de la statue du frère Marie-Victorin


id: the-martians-scientists-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Martians_(scientists)-0.md
category: reference
title: The Martians (scientists)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Martians_(scientists)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:44.067011+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-martians-scientists-20260505-0
summary:
"The Martians" (Hungarian: "A marslakók") were a group of prominent scientists (mostly, but not exclusively, physicists and mathematicians) of Hungarian Jewish descent who emigrated from Europe to the United States in the early half of the 20th century. Leo Szilard jokingly suggested that Hungary was a front for aliens from Mars. In an answer to the question of why there is no evidence of intelligent life beyond Earth (called the Fermi paradox) despite its high probability of existence, Szilárd responded: "They are already here among us – they just call themselves Hungarians." This account is featured in György Marx's book The Voice of the Martians. == Men included in the description == Individuals considered members of The Martians group include: == Origin of the name == The original story from György Marx's book The Voice of the Martians: The universe is vast, containing myriads of stars ... likely to have planets circling around them. ... The simplest living things will multiply, evolve by natural selection and become more complicated till eventually active, thinking creatures will emerge. ... Yearning for fresh worlds ... they should spread out all over the Galaxy. These highly exceptional and talented people could hardly overlook such


id: the-monstrumologist-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Monstrumologist-0.md
category: reference
title: The Monstrumologist
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Monstrumologist
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:45.202623+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-monstrumologist-20260505-0
summary:
The Monstrumologist is a young adult horror novel written by American author Rick Yancey. It was published on September 22, 2009 by Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing. It is the first book in The Monstrumologist series, followed by The Curse of the Wendigo. The story follows Will Henry, an orphaned assistant to Dr. Pellinore Warthrop, a man who specializes in monstrumology, the study of monsters. The novel received the 2010 Michael L. Printz Honor Award for excellence in young adult literature. == Reception == The review in Publishers Weekly said, "Yancey's elegant depiction of an America plagued with monsters, human and otherwise, spares no grisly detail. ... Horror lovers will be rapt." The reviewer in the School Library Journal wrote "Though the pace sometimes falters beneath the weight of Will's verbose observations, the author folds surprising depth and twists into the plot and cast alike, crafts icky bits that can be regarded as comically over-the-top (or not), and all in all dishes up an escapade fully 'capable,' as Will puts it, 'of fulfilling our curious and baffling need for a marauding horror of malicious intent'". == Sequels == The monstrumologist had three subsequent books in the saga. These books are


id: murder-madness-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_Madness-0.md
category: reference
title: Murder Madness
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_Madness
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:46.433005+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: murder-madness-20260505-0
summary:
Murder Madness is a science fiction novel by American author Murray Leinster. It was first published in book form in 1931 by Brewer and Warren, marking Leinster's debut novel. Prior to its book publication, the story was serialized in four installments in the magazine Astounding SF beginning in May 1930. == Plot summary == The story centers on a brilliant but ruthless scientist who develops a chemical agent capable of inducing madness in anyone who is exposed to it. Seeking to manipulate society and seize global power, he spreads the drug covertly, causing widespread fear and chaos. The narrative follows a group of protagonists, including journalists and law enforcement figures, who gradually uncover his scheme and attempt to stop him before civilization collapses. The novel explores the consequences of scientific hubris, the moral implications of controlling human behavior, and the social instability that arises when fear and irrationality are unleashed on a population. Leinster’s story blends elements of suspense, adventure, and early speculative science fiction. == Characters == **The Villain** – The unnamed scientist who invents the madness-inducing drug and seeks to dominate the world. **Protagonists** – A team of investigators and journalists working to expose and halt the villain's


id: the-nutty-professor-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nutty_Professor-0.md
category: reference
title: The Nutty Professor
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nutty_Professor
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:47.656081+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-nutty-professor-20260505-0
summary:
The Nutty Professor may refer to: The Nutty Professor (1963 film), a comedy directed by and starring Jerry Lewis The Nutty Professor (1996 film), a comedy starring Eddie Murphy The Nutty Professor (soundtrack), soundtrack album for the 1996 film The Nutty Professor (2008 film), animated comedy and sequel to the 1963 film The Nutty Professor (character), the titular character in the above media The Nutty Professor (franchise), encompassing the above media and their sequels


id: the-platonic-permutation-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Platonic_Permutation-0.md
category: reference
title: The Platonic Permutation
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Platonic_Permutation
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:48.950959+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-platonic-permutation-20260505-0
summary:
"The Platonic Permutation" is the ninth episode of the ninth season of The Big Bang Theory. The 192nd episode overall, it first aired on CBS on November 19, 2015. The story follows the characters throughout Thanksgiving. The first storyline explores Sheldon and Amy's relationship as they meet-up, after being broken up. The next subplot follows Bernadette, Raj, Emily and Howard where they volunteer at a soup kitchen and the last follows Leonard and Penny after they have a minor conflict as Penny forgets Leonard's birthday. "The Platonic Permutation" features a guest appearance of South-African American entrepreneur and business magnate, Elon Musk as himself. Critics had mixed reviews of the episode. Critics praised Sheldon and Amy's storyline, but were critical of the other two subplots and Musk's appearance. == Plot == With Sheldon Cooper and Amy Farrah Fowler still broken up and all of his friends busy for Thanksgiving, Sheldon tries to give Amy tickets he bought them to Thanksgiving dinner at the aquarium, but Amy suggests they can still go as friends. Along the way, Sheldon asks Amy questions about her current dating life and plays a game about fish. Despite the initial awkwardness, Amy answers his questions, and the


id: bust-of-spock-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bust_of_Spock-0.md
category: reference
title: Bust of Spock
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bust_of_Spock
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:50.271524+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: bust-of-spock-20260505-0
summary:
The bust of Spock is a bronze sculpture in the town of Vulcan in Alberta, Canada, placed at the corner of Centre Street and 2nd Avenue S. The monument consists of a bust of Spock, a character from science fiction television series Star Trek: The Original Series, portrayed by actor Leonard Nimoy. It also features a plaque with his handprint cast in bronze, performing the Vulcan salute. It was unveiled on April 23, 2010. The sculpture celebrates the coincidental similarity of the town's name to the fictional homeworld of extraterrestrial species of Vulcans, with Spock being its member. == History == The monument dedicated to Spock, the one of main characters from science fiction television series Star Trek: The Original Series, was unveiled in Vulcan, Alberta, on April 23, 2010, by Leonard Nimoy, who portrayed him. The sculpture celebrates the coincidental similarity of the town's name to the fictional homeworld of extra-terrestrial species of Vulcans, with Spock being its member. During the ceremony, Nimoy left a handprint of his right hand, to be cast in bronze and later added to the monument. It was imprinted performing the Vulcan salute, with open hand, and fingers parted between the middle and ring.


id: stanis-aw-staszic-memorial-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanisław_Staszic_Memorial-0.md
category: reference
title: Stanisław Staszic Memorial
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanisław_Staszic_Memorial
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:55.218873+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: stanis-aw-staszic-memorial-20260505-0
summary:
The Stanisław Staszic Memorial (Polish: Pomnik Stanisława Staszica) is a memorial in Warsaw, Poland, placed at the campus of the Warsaw University of Life Sciences, at 159 Nowoursynowska Street, in the neighbourhood of Stary Służew within the district of Ursynów. It is dedicated to Stanisław Staszic, a leading figure of the Polish Enlightenment in the 18th century, a writer, activist, geologist and geographer. The monument consists of a bust carved into a side of a large rock. It was made by sculptor Stanisław Lipski and unveiled in 1976 in front of the Primate Palace at 13/15 Senatorska Street, before being moved to its current location in 2007. == History == The monument, made by Stanisław Lipski, was erected in 1976, on the 150th anniversary of Stanisław Staszic's death. It was placed next to the Primate Palace at 13/15 Senatorska Street, owned by the Warsaw University of Life Sciences. The monument was proposed by the Society of the Friends of Warsaw, and financed, among other donors, by the association of school's alumni. The monument has the form of a large glacial erratic rock, donated by the Museum of the Earth of the Polish Academy of Sciences, with a bust of Staszic


id: nikola-tesla-in-popular-culture-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla_in_popular_culture-0.md
category: reference
title: Nikola Tesla in popular culture
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla_in_popular_culture
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:56.506096+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: nikola-tesla-in-popular-culture-20260505-0
summary:
Nikola Tesla (10 July 1856 – 7 January 1943) is portrayed in many forms of popular culture. The Serbian-American engineer has particularly been depicted in science fiction, a genre which is well suited to address his inventions; while often exaggerated, the fictionalized variants build mostly upon his own alleged claims or ideas. A popular, growing fixation among science fiction, comic book, and speculative history storytellers is to portray Tesla as a member of a secret society, along with other luminaries of science. The impacts of the technologies invented by Nikola Tesla are a recurring theme in the steampunk genre of alternate technology science-fiction. == Board games == In the alternate World War I setting in the board game Tannhäuser, Nikola Tesla is a major figure in the Russian Matriarchy faction, where his inventions have not only been used to create deadly weaponry but also harness the power of otherworldly forces. == Books == === Appearances === Weldon J. Cobb's novel To Mars With Tesla; or, the Mystery of the Hidden World (1901) is an adventure where Tesla, aided by Young Edison (Thomas Edison's fictional nephew) and a couple of scientists, seeks to communicate with Mars. An adaptation of this "lost


id: nikola-tesla-in-popular-culture-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla_in_popular_culture-1.md
category: reference
title: Nikola Tesla in popular culture
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla_in_popular_culture
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:56.506096+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: nikola-tesla-in-popular-culture-20260505-0
summary:
=== Appearances === In The Light and Darkness War (1988–89) by Tom Veitch and Cam Kennedy, Tesla appears as a supporting character who has been transported, upon death, to another dimension where other deceased human warriors and scientists, such as Leonardo da Vinci, are engaged in a never-ending battle against the forces of Outer Darkness. A biography of Tesla featured in the second issue in order to introduce Tesla to contemporary readers unfamiliar with the scientist. In the eight-issue Serbian comic book series Generation Tesla (1995), created by writer Milan Konjević, and artists Siniša Radović and Zdravko Zupan, Tesla evades his own death by transferring himself to another plane of existence. In 2020, he resurrects a number of humans slain by the evil Kobalt, transforming them into superhumans who can counter the threats of such villains. He is founder and mentor of super-hero team Generation Tesla. In Matt Fraction and Steven Sanders' graphic novel The Five Fists of Science (2006), Tesla teams up with Mark Twain to battle Thomas Edison. The Inventor: The Story of Tesla (2012) written by Ravé Mehta with art by Erik Williams, is a graphic novel based on the story of Nikola Tesla. It begins with


id: nikola-tesla-in-popular-culture-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla_in_popular_culture-2.md
category: reference
title: Nikola Tesla in popular culture
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla_in_popular_culture
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:56.506096+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: nikola-tesla-in-popular-culture-20260505-0
summary:
In 1941, the first of Max Fleischer's Superman cartoons (titled The Mad Scientist or just Superman) depicted Superman fighting a character named "Mad Scientist", which is very similar to Tesla (a 1999 VHS release of the movie was titled Superman vs. Tesla). The Secret of Nikola Tesla (1980; Serbo-Croatian: Tajna Nikole Tesle), a Yugoslav film directed by Krsto Papić and notable for its inclusion of Orson Welles as banking baron J.P. Morgan, touches on Tesla's psychic powers and lost vision of the future. David Bowie portrayed Tesla in the movie The Prestige (2006), in which one of the main characters gets Tesla to develop a remarkable electro-replicating device for him. An independent Tesla film, Fragments from Olympus-The Vision of Nikola Tesla, producers of the film made news by using part of their budget to make a $33,333 donation to help save Tesla's Wardenclyffe lab during a crowd-funding campaign started by the popular internet comic known as The Oatmeal. The story of Wardenclyffe and the effort to save it was the subject of a documentary from the same filmmakers called Tower to the People – Tesla's Dream at Wardenclyffe Continues in 2014. Red Giant Entertainment's Benny Powell was working on a


id: nikola-tesla-in-popular-culture-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla_in_popular_culture-3.md
category: reference
title: Nikola Tesla in popular culture
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla_in_popular_culture
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:56.506096+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: nikola-tesla-in-popular-culture-20260505-0
summary:
== Stage productions == A number of live theatrical plays based on Tesla's life have been produced and staged worldwide. === Opera === Australian composer Constantine Koukias's two-act opera Tesla - Lightning in His Hand, about the life and times of Nikola Tesla, premiered at the 10 Days on the Island Festival in Hobart, Tasmania, in 2003. Violet Fire is an opera centered on Tesla, with score by Jon Gibson and libretto by Miriam Seidel. It premiered on July 9-15, 2006 at the National Theater in Belgrade, as part of the celebration of Tesla's 150th birthday. The 2021 opera Les Éclairs, by Philippe Hersant, is based on a fictionalized version of Tesla's biography; the Tesla figure is named 'Gregor'. == Television == === Appearances === Nikola Tesla was a Yugoslav TV series in 1977 which featured Rade Šerbedžija as Tesla, as well as Mustafa Nadarević, Špiro Guberina, Izet Hajdarhodžić, Ljuba Tadić, Ivo Serdar, and a number of other nationally renowned actors. Tesla: Master of Lightning, a 2003 documentary by Robert Uth, featuring Stacy Keach as the voice of Tesla. Tesla was a crucial character in the pilot episode, "Power" (January 20, 2008), of Canadian television period drama Murdoch Mysteries, in


id: nikola-tesla-in-popular-culture-20260505-4
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla_in_popular_culture-4.md
category: reference
title: Nikola Tesla in popular culture
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla_in_popular_culture
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:56.506096+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: nikola-tesla-in-popular-culture-20260505-0
summary:
=== Appearances === In the Command & Conquer Red Alert series of video games, Nikola Tesla is a scientist working for the USSR, and "Tesla" is the name of the technology the Soviets use to generate power and for their lightning-based weapons. Perhaps the most widely known example is the Tesla Coil defense structure, capable of sending short electric arcs towards oncoming units, also in their arsenal are Tesla troopers, who carry portable tesla coil-based weaponry and tesla tanks, which have a large glowing blue sphere that ejects great bolts of electricity (the Red Alert 2 version is a small tracked vehicle with a pair of forward-facing, miniature Tesla coils mounted on a turret). Nikola Tesla is also one of the characters in the game Martian Dreams, by Origin, which is part of the Worlds of Ultima series. In Frostpunk, an alternate history Nikola Tesla is the founder and leader of Tesla City, a possible location to discover in-game. It appears that Tesla became an authoritarian dictator of his city, exiling many unfit individuals and attempting to shield his city from a perpetual winter using electricity, which ends up killing everyone inside Tesla City. Later, a group of exiles finds


id: trouble-with-lichen-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trouble_with_Lichen-0.md
category: reference
title: Trouble with Lichen
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trouble_with_Lichen
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:57.744008+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: trouble-with-lichen-20260505-0
summary:
Trouble with Lichen (published 1960) is a science fiction novel by British writer John Wyndham. The plot concerns a young female biochemist who discovers that a chemical extracted from an unusual strain of lichen can be used to slow down the ageing process, enabling people to live to around 200–300 years. Wyndham speculates how society would deal with this prospect. == Plot summary == The two central characters are Diana Brackley and Francis Saxover, two biochemists who run parallel investigations into the properties of a specific species of lichen after Diana notices that a trace of the specimen prevents some milk turning sour. She and Francis separately manage to extract from the lichen a new drug, dubbed Antigerone, which slows down the body's ageing process. While Francis uses it only on himself and his immediate family (without their knowledge), Diana founds a cosmetic spa, and builds up a clientele of some of the most powerful women in England, giving them low doses of Antigerone, preserving their beauty and youth. When Francis finds out about the spas, he erroneously assumes that Diana's motive is profit. Diana's aim, however, is actually female empowerment, intending to gain the support of these influential women,


id: portrait-of-thomas-young-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portrait_of_Thomas_Young-0.md
category: reference
title: Portrait of Thomas Young
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portrait_of_Thomas_Young
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:04:58.904308+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: portrait-of-thomas-young-20260505-0
summary:
Thomas Young is an 1822–6 oil painting of the polymathic scientist Thomas Young (1773–1829) by the English painter Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769–1830). A number of portraits of Thomas Young, based on the original Lawrence painting, have been made in various media, such as oil paintings, engravings, and mezzotints, including for illustrations in books and magazines. == Paintings == The original painting is in a private collection. The antiquarian Hudson Gurney (1775–1864), who had been educated by Young, among others, and was a close friend, owned the original Lawrence portrait; it hung in his home, Keswick Hall, southwest of Norwich in Norfolk. There are several other portrait paintings of Thomas Young, largely based on the Lawrence portrait. Henry Perronet Briggs (1791–1844) painted a copy of the original portrait by Lawrence. Thomas Young was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1794. This portrait was commissioned by Hudson Gurney (the owner of the original Lawrence portrait), and presented to the Royal Society in 1842, after Young's death. This version of the portrait was used for the cover of the 2006 1st UK edition and the 2023 2nd UK edition of the Thomas Young biography The Last Man Who Knew Everything


id: billy-barr-naturalist-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Barr_(naturalist)-0.md
category: reference
title: Billy Barr (naturalist)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Barr_(naturalist)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:00.637727+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: billy-barr-naturalist-20260505-0
summary:
Billy Barr, stylized as billy barr, is an American amateur scientist known for his collection of over 50 years of data on snow levels, temperatures and animal migration in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. Barr's data collection is recognized as critical evidence of the effects of climate change. == Life and work == Barr grew up in Trenton, New Jersey. In 1972, as a student researcher from Rutgers University, he took a short-term job at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory measuring water quality near Crested Butte in the West Elk Mountains, Colorado. After some time, he featured in a local newspaper as an eccentric mountain hermit. In the mid 1970s, with the initial intention of escaping the boredom of living in the remote location of Gothic, Barr began meticulously collecting environmental data by measuring the snow depth, temperatures and noting the arrival of different species in the spring. Around the same time, he became "an unofficial caretaker" of the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory. In late 1990s, the lab's resident ecologist David Inouye recognized the significance of Barr's data and began sharing it with other scientists. Since then, Barr's records have been used in numerous scientific articles on climate change. The 2016


id: karl-bleyl-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Bleyl-0.md
category: reference
title: Karl Bleyl
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Bleyl
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:01.794670+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: karl-bleyl-20260505-0
summary:
Karl Bleyl (4 December 1908 – 28 April 1995) was an amateur German entomologist who specialised in Hymenoptera. His collection of Hymenoptera (Apoidea) is held by the German Entomological Institute. His Lepidoptera are in the collection of Thomas Lehmann in Oranienbaum. Bleyl was born on Gut Seeben near Halle, Germany. He began collecting insects at the age of 6. Bleyl was influenced by entomologist and Hymenoptera researcher Ernst Heidenreich. He died in Oranienbaum, Germany on 28 April 1995. == References == == Further reading == Lehmann, T. 1995: [Bleyl, K.] Naturwiss. Beitr. Mus. Dessau 1995 5-6, Portr.


id: tim-friede-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Friede-0.md
category: reference
title: Tim Friede
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Friede
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:02.900619+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: tim-friede-20260505-0
summary:
Timothy Friede (born c. 1968) is an American mechanic and snake collector who intentionally exposed himself to various forms of snake venom in order to acquire immunity. A lifelong enthusiast of snakes, he began injecting himself with snake venom in 2000 after taking a venom extraction class. After being bitten by two cobras on the same night in 2001 and being left comatose for four days, he resolved to develop an advanced immunity to a variety of snakebites, amassing a collection of over sixty snakes and teaching himself immunology. He injected himself with snake venom over 800 times, and was bitten around 200. After receiving perennial media attention over the 2000s and 2010s, he was contacted by immunologist and biotechnology researcher Jacob Glanville, who saw his acquired resistance as crucial to the development of a broad-spectrum snake antivenom. In a 2025 study published in Cell, two of these antibodies, combined with the anti-inflammatory agent varespladib, proved effective in countering thirteen out of nineteen venoms in a sample of nineteen snake venoms, and was partially effective against the remaining six. He works as the director of herpetology at Glanville's biotechnology company, Centivax. == Biography == Timothy Friede was born around 1968.


id: alan-leishman-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Leishman-0.md
category: reference
title: Alan Leishman
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Leishman
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:04.047935+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: alan-leishman-20260505-0
summary:
Alan Leishman is a now retired Australian garden administrator and amateur ornithologist. He previously worked for the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney. He is a bird-bander and has had a long association with the Australian Bird Study Association, serving as foundation editor of its journal Corella 1977–1983, and production editor 1984–1989. In 1998 he was awarded the RAOU's John Hobbs Medal for outstanding contributions to Australian ornithology as an amateur. == See also == List of ornithologists == References == Robin, Libby. (2001). The Flight of the Emu: a hundred years of Australian ornithology 1901–2001. Carlton, Vic. Melbourne University Press. ISBN 0-522-84987-3


id: william-garrow-lettsom-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Garrow_Lettsom-0.md
category: reference
title: William Garrow Lettsom
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Garrow_Lettsom
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:05.311039+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: william-garrow-lettsom-20260505-0
summary:
William Garrow Lettsom (1805 – 14 December 1887) was a British diplomat and scientist. He was instrumental in revealing the text of the secret Treaty of the Triple Alliance between Argentina, the Empire of Brazil and Uruguay. == Early life == Lettsom was born into a Quaker family at Fulham in March 1805. His paternal grandfather John Coakley Lettsom was a famous physician, philanthropist and abolitionist who held that sea-bathing was good for public health. His maternal grandfather − with whom he lived in his youth − was Sir William Garrow the celebrated criminal defender, afterwards a judge, who introduced the phrase "presumed innocent until proven guilty" into the common law and whose life inspired the television drama series Garrow's Law. Lettsom was educated at Westminster School and Cambridge University. == Literary acquaintance == As an undergraduate at Cambridge University Lettsom befriended the author William Makepeace Thackeray and was the (or an) editor of The Snob in which some of Thackeray's earliest work appeared; Lettsom has been identified as the character Tapeworm in Thackeray's novel Vanity Fair, a diplomat who fancies himself as a ladies' man. Lettsom was well acquainted with the cartoonist George Cruikshank, illustrator of the early works


id: william-garrow-lettsom-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Garrow_Lettsom-1.md
category: reference
title: William Garrow Lettsom
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Garrow_Lettsom
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:05.311039+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: william-garrow-lettsom-20260505-0
summary:
In 1864 and early 1865 Paraguayan forces under the orders of Francisco Solano López seized Brazilian and Argentine shipping and invaded the provinces of the Mato Grosso and Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil) and Corrientes (Argentina). On 1 May 1865 Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay signed the Treaty of the Triple Alliance against Paraguay. By Article XVIII of the Treaty its provisions were to be kept secret until its "principal object" should be obtained. One of its provisions concerned the acquisition by Argentina of large tracts of territory then in dispute between it and Paraguay. Lettsom was not satisfied about this and surreptitiously obtained a copy of the Treaty from the Uruguayan diplomat Dr Carlos de Castro. He forwarded it to London and the British government ordered it to be translated into English and published to Parliament. When the text became available in South America there was outrage in several quarters, some because of the Treaty's content, others because it had been published at all. Lettsom has been cited as an exemplar of the nuance with which a substantial part of the British diplomatic corps saw the Paraguayan War. == Later == Lettsom retired from the diplomatic service in 1869. He


id: fellows-of-the-network-science-society-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fellows_of_the_Network_Science_Society-0.md
category: reference
title: Fellows of the Network Science Society
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fellows_of_the_Network_Science_Society
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:06.842110+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: fellows-of-the-network-science-society-20260505-0
summary:
Each year since 2018, the Network Science Society (NetSci Society) selects up to 7 members of the network science community to be Fellows based on their enduring contributions to network science research and to the community of network scientists. Fellows are chosen from nominations received by the Network Science Society Fellowship Committee and are announced at the NetSci Conference hosted every year. == 2025 Fellows of the Network Science Society == Francesco Bullo Guanrong Chen Hawoong Jeong János Kertész Renaud Lambiotte Philippa E. Pattison Mason A. Porter Eckehard Schöll Sara A. Solla == 2024 Fellows of the Network Science Society == Katy Börner Albert Díaz-Guilera Sergey Dorogovtsev Shlomo Havlin Petter Holme Cristopher Moore M. Ángeles Serrano == 2023 Fellows of the Network Science Society == Nicholas Christakis Aaron Clauset Tina Eliassi-Rad Ernesto Estrada Marta González Stanley Wasserman == 2022 Fellows of the Network Science Society == Fan Chung Vittoria Colizza Noshir Contractor Santo Fortunato Byungnam Kahng Yamir Moreno Olaf Sporns == 2021 Fellows of the Network Science Society == Lada Adamic Albert-László Barabási Peter Sheridan Dodds Jürgen Kurths Vito Latora Marta Sales-Pardo == 2020 Fellows of the Network Science Society == Alex Arenas Alain Barrat Ginestra Bianconi Jennifer A. Dunne


id: g-nther-laukien-prize-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Günther_Laukien_Prize-0.md
category: reference
title: Günther Laukien Prize
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Günther_Laukien_Prize
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:11.414232+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: g-nther-laukien-prize-20260505-0
summary:
The Günther Laukien Prize is a prize presented at the Experimental Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Conference "to recognize recent cutting-edge experimental NMR research with a high probability of enabling beneficial new applications". The prize was established in 1999 in memoriam to Günther Laukien, who was a pioneer in NMR research. The prize money of $20,000 is financed by Bruker, the company founded by Laukien. == Winners == The recipients of the Günther Laukien Prize have been: 2026: Ago Samoson and Guido Pintacuda 2025: Zhehong Gan 2024: Hashim Al-Hashimi 2023 Lyndon Emsley and Anne Lesage 2022 Michael Garwood 2021 Gareth Morris 2020 Simon Duckett, Konstantin Ivanov, and Warren S. Warren 2019 Geoffrey Bodenhausen, and Christian Griesinger 2018 Gerhard Wagner 2017 Kurt Zilm and Bernd Reif 2016 Robert S. Balaban and Peter van Zijl 2015 Arthur Palmer III 2014 Marc Baldus, Mei Hong, Ann McDermott, Beat H. Meier, Hartmut Oschkinat, and Robert Tycko 2013 Clare Grey 2012 Klaes Golman and Jan Henrik Ardenkjaer-Larsen 2011 Daniel Rugar, John Mamin, and John Sidles 2010 Paul Callaghan 2009 Daniel Weitekamp 2008 Malcolm Levitt 2007 Robert G. Griffin 2006 Thomas Szyperski, Eriks Kupce, Ray Freeman, and Rafael Bruschweiler 2005 Stephan Grzesiek 2004 Lewis E. Kay 2003 Jacob


id: killam-prize-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killam_Prize-0.md
category: reference
title: Killam Prize
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killam_Prize
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:13.882131+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: killam-prize-20260505-0
summary:
The Killam Prize (previously the Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Prize) was established according to the will of Dorothy J. Killam to honour the memory of her husband Izaak Walton Killam. Five Killam Prizes, each having a value of $100,000, were awarded annually by the Canada Council for the Arts to eminent Canadian researchers who distinguish themselves in the fields of social sciences, humanities, natural sciences, health sciences, or engineering. In August 2021, the Canada Council announced it would transition the administration of the Killam program to the National Research Council Canada (NRC) by March 2022. The restructured Killam Program was officially launched under the administration of the NRC in April 2022. It is now called the National Killam Program and consists of the Killam Prizes, the Dorothy Killam Fellowships and the Killam NRC Paul Corkum Fellowships. == Recipients == == See also == List of medicine awards List of social sciences awards == References == == External links == Killam Laureates website Canada Council for the Arts Killam Prizes webpage Transition to the National Research Council of Canada from the Canada Council for the Arts


id: list-of-ig-nobel-prize-winners-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ig_Nobel_Prize_winners-0.md
category: reference
title: List of Ig Nobel Prize winners
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ig_Nobel_Prize_winners
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:15.055148+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: list-of-ig-nobel-prize-winners-20260505-0
summary:
A parody of the Nobel Prizes, the Ig Nobel Prizes are awarded each year in mid-September, around the time the recipients of the genuine Nobel Prizes are announced, for ten achievements that "first make people laugh, and then make them think". Commenting on the 2006 awards, Marc Abrahams, editor of Annals of Improbable Research and co-sponsor of the awards, said that "[t]he prizes are intended to celebrate the unusual, honor the imaginative, and spur people's interest in science, medicine, and technology". All prizes are awarded for real achievements, except for three in 1991 and one in 1994, due to an erroneous press release. == 1991 == The awards were presented on October 3. Each winner received a medal shaped like a frying pan that made a screaming noise when shaken and Cambridge parking passes that were valid from 3 a.m. – 4 a.m. the day after Christmas. Biology: Robert Klark Graham for his development of the Repository for Germinal Choice, a sperm bank that accepts donations only from Nobel laureates and Olympians. Chemistry: Jacques Benveniste, prolific proselytizer and dedicated correspondent of Nature, for his persistent "discovery" that water, H2O, is an intelligent liquid, and for demonstrating to his satisfaction that


id: list-of-ig-nobel-prize-winners-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ig_Nobel_Prize_winners-1.md
category: reference
title: List of Ig Nobel Prize winners
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ig_Nobel_Prize_winners
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:15.055148+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: list-of-ig-nobel-prize-winners-20260505-0
summary:
== 1993 == Biology: Presented jointly to Paul Williams Jr. of the Oregon State Health Division and Kenneth W. Newel of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, "bold biological detectives", for their pioneering study, "Salmonella Excretion in Joy-Riding Pigs". Chemistry: Presented jointly to James and Gaines Campbell of Lookout Mountain, Tennessee, "dedicated deliverers of fragrance", for inventing scent strips, the odious method by which perfume is applied to magazine pages. Consumer Engineering: Presented to Ron Popeil, incessant inventor and perpetual pitchman of late night television, for redefining the industrial revolution with such devices as the Veg-O-Matic, the Pocket Fisherman, Mr. Microphone, and the Inside-the-Shell Egg Scrambler. Economics: Presented to Ravi Batra of Southern Methodist University, shrewd economist and best-selling author of The Great Depression of 1990 (ISBN 978-0-440-20168-7) and Surviving the Great Depression of 1990, (ISBN 978-0-671-66324-7) for selling enough copies of his books to single-handedly prevent worldwide economic collapse. Literature: Presented to T. Morrison, E. Topol, R. Califf, F. Van de Werf, P. W. Armstrong, and their 972 co-authors, for publishing a medical research paper which has one hundred times as many authors as pages. The authors are from the following countries: Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel,


id: list-of-ig-nobel-prize-winners-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ig_Nobel_Prize_winners-2.md
category: reference
title: List of Ig Nobel Prize winners
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ig_Nobel_Prize_winners
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:15.055148+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: list-of-ig-nobel-prize-winners-20260505-0
summary:
Chemistry: Presented to Bijan Pakzad of Beverly Hills, for creating DNA Cologne and DNA Perfume, neither of which contain deoxyribonucleic acid, and both of which come in a triple helix bottle. Dentistry: Presented to Robert H. Beaumont, of Shoreview, Minnesota, for his incisive study "Patient Preference for Waxed or Unwaxed Dental Floss". Economics: Presented jointly to Nick Leeson and his superiors at Barings Bank and to Robert Citron of Orange County, California for using the calculus of derivatives to demonstrate that every financial institution has its limits. Literature: Presented to David B. Busch and James R. Starling, of Madison, Wisconsin, for their research report, "Rectal Foreign Bodies: Case Reports and a Comprehensive Review of the World's Literature." The citations include reports of, among other items: seven light bulbs; a knife sharpener; two flashlights; a wire spring; a snuff box; an oil can with potato stopper; eleven different forms of fruits, vegetables and other foodstuffs; a jeweler's saw; a frozen pig's tail; a tin cup; a beer glass; and one patient's remarkable ensemble collection consisting of spectacles, a suitcase key, a tobacco pouch and a magazine. Medicine: Presented to Marcia E. Buebel, David S. Shannahoff-Khalsa, and Michael R. Boyle, for their


id: list-of-ig-nobel-prize-winners-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ig_Nobel_Prize_winners-3.md
category: reference
title: List of Ig Nobel Prize winners
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ig_Nobel_Prize_winners
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:15.055148+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: list-of-ig-nobel-prize-winners-20260505-0
summary:
Astronomy: Presented to Richard C. Hoagland of New Jersey, for identifying artificial features on the Moon and on Mars, including a human face on Mars and ten-mile high buildings on the far side of the Moon. Biology: Presented to T. Yagyu and his colleagues from the University Hospital of Zürich, Switzerland, the Kansai Medical University in Osaka, Japan, and the Neuroscience Technology Research in Prague, Czech Republic, for measuring people's brainwave patterns while they chewed different flavors of gum. Communications: Presented to Sanford Wallace, president of Cyber Promotions of Philadelphia. Nothing has stopped this self-appointed courier from delivering electronic junk mail to all the world. Economics: Presented to Akihiro Yokoi of Wiz Company in Chiba, Japan, and Aki Maita of Bandai Company in Tokyo, for diverting millions of man-hours of work into the husbandry of virtual pets. Entomology: Presented to Mark Hostetler of the University of Florida, for his book, That Gunk on Your Car, (ISBN 978-0-89815-961-5) which identifies the insect splats that appear on automobile windows. Literature: Presented to Doron Witztum, Eliyahu Rips, and Yoav Rosenberg of Israel, and to Michael Drosnin of the United States, for their claimed statistical discovery of a hidden code in the Bible. Medicine:


id: list-of-ig-nobel-prize-winners-20260505-4
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ig_Nobel_Prize_winners-4.md
category: reference
title: List of Ig Nobel Prize winners
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ig_Nobel_Prize_winners
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:15.055148+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: list-of-ig-nobel-prize-winners-20260505-0
summary:
Biology: Presented to Richard Wassersug of Dalhousie University, for his firsthand report, "On the Comparative Palatability of Some Dry-Season Tadpoles from Costa Rica". Chemistry: Presented to Donatella Marazziti, Alessandra Rossi, and Giovanni B. Cassano of the University of Pisa, Italy, and Hagop S. Akiskal of the University of California, San Diego, for their discovery that, biochemically, romantic love may be indistinguishable from having severe obsessive-compulsive disorder. Computer Science: Presented to Chris Niswander of Tucson, Arizona, for inventing PawSense, software that detects when a cat is walking across your computer keyboard. Economics: Presented to The Reverend Sun Myung Moon, for bringing efficiency and steady growth to the mass marriage industry, with, according to his reports, a 36-couple wedding in 1960, a 430-couple wedding in 1968, an 1,800-couple wedding in 1975, a 6,000-couple wedding in 1982, a 30,000-couple wedding in 1992, a 360,000-couple wedding in 1995, and a 36,000,000-couple wedding in 1997. Literature: Presented to Jasmuheen (formerly known as Ellen Greve) of Australia, first lady of Breatharianism, for her book Living on Light, (ISBN 978-3-929512-35-9) which explains that although some people do eat food, they don't ever really need to. Medicine: Presented to Willibrord Weijmar Schultz, Pek van Andel, and Eduard Mooyaart


id: list-of-recipients-of-the-pour-le-m-rite-for-sciences-and-arts-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_recipients_of_the_Pour_le_Mérite_for_Sciences_and_Arts-0.md
category: reference
title: List of recipients of the Pour le Mérite for Sciences and Arts
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_recipients_of_the_Pour_le_Mérite_for_Sciences_and_Arts
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:16.312103+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: list-of-recipients-of-the-pour-le-m-rite-for-sciences-and-arts-20260505-0
summary:
This is a list of recipients of the Pour le Mérite for Sciences and Arts (German: Pour le Mérite für Wissenschaften und Künste), a German and formerly Prussian honor given since 1842 for achievement in the humanities, sciences, or arts. == Bibliography == Lehmann, Gustaf (1913). "VII Friedensklasse 1842–1913". Die Ritter des Ordens pour le mérite 1812–1913 (in German). Vol. 2. Berlin: Ernst Siegfried Mittler & Sohn. pp. 575–598. == References == == External links == Official website (in German)


id: becquerel-family-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Becquerel_family-0.md
category: reference
title: Becquerel family
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Becquerel_family
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:18.478954+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: becquerel-family-20260505-0
summary:
The Becquerel family is a family of French scientists. The most notable members of them include: Antoine César Becquerel (1788–1878), pioneer in the study of electric and luminescent phenomena, father of Edmond Louis Alfred Becquerel (1814-1862), French physician and medical researcher, son of Antoine Cesar, brother of Edmond Alexandre-Edmond Becquerel (known as Edmond, 1820-1891), studied the solar spectrum, magnetism, electricity, and optics. Discovered photovoltaic effect. Son of Antoine Cesar, father of Henri. Henri Becquerel (1852-1908), discoverer of radioactivity, son of Edmond, father of Jean Jean Becquerel (1878-1953), worked on the optical and magnetic properties of crystals, son of Henri == See also == Becquerel (disambiguation) == References ==


id: bernoulli-family-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernoulli_family-0.md
category: reference
title: Bernoulli family
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernoulli_family
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:19.585318+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: bernoulli-family-20260505-0
summary:
The Bernoulli family ( bur-NOO-lee; German: [bɛʁˈnʊli]; Swiss Standard German: [bɛrˈnʊli]) of Basel was a patrician family, notable for having produced eight mathematically gifted academics who, among them, contributed substantially to the development of mathematics and physics during the early modern period. == History == Originally from Antwerp, a branch of the family relocated to Basel in 1620. While their origin in Antwerp is certain, proposed earlier connections with the Dutch family of Italian ancestry called Bornouilla (Bernoullie), or with the Castilian family de Bernuy (Bernoille, Bernouille), are uncertain. The first known member of the family was Leon Bernoulli (d. 1561), a doctor in Antwerp, at that time part of the Spanish Netherlands. His son, Jacob, emigrated to Frankfurt am Main in 1570 to escape from the Spanish persecution of the Protestants. Jacob's grandson, a spice trader, also named Jacob, moved to Basel, Switzerland in 1620, and was granted citizenship in 1622. His son, Niklaus Bernoulli (Nicolaus, 1623–1708), Leon's great-great-grandson, married Margarethe Schönauer. === Notable academic members === Margarethe and Niklaus had four sons, of whom Johann and Hieronymus became the progenitors of the "greater" and the "lesser" branches of the family, respectively. The four sons of Margarethe and Niklaus


id: chandrasekhar-family-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandrasekhar_family-0.md
category: reference
title: Chandrasekhar family
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandrasekhar_family
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:20.694991+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: chandrasekhar-family-20260505-0
summary:
The Chandrasekhar family is a distinguished Indian intellectual family, several of whose members achieved eminence, notably in the field of physics. Two members of the family, Sir C. V. Raman and his nephew, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, were Nobel laureates in physics. For many members of the Chandrasekhar family there are multiple possible spellings in use for names. This includes R. Chandrasekhara Iyer; he was named Chandrasekharan (with an "n") but later became known as Chandrasekhara Aiyar (without the "n"). Furthermore, the family caste name "Aiyar" is sometimes spelled "Iyer" or "Ayyar". == Family tree == == First generation == Chandrasekhara Venkata (C. V.) Raman FNA, FASc, FRS, was a distinguished physicist whose achievements in the field of light scattering earned him the 1930 Nobel Prize for Physics. He discovered that when light traverses a transparent material, the wavelengths of some of the deflected light change. This phenomenon, now known as Raman scattering, results from the eponymous effect. Chandrasekhara Ramaswamy FASc (brother of C. V. Raman) was a noted meteorologist who served as Director-General of the Indian Meteorological Department (1965–1967). He conducted research into the regional and global effects of Indian monsoonal patterns. == Second generation == Venkatraman Radhakrishnan FASc (son of


id: conant-family-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conant_family-0.md
category: reference
title: Conant family
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conant_family
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:21.992963+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: conant-family-20260505-0
summary:
The Conant family is a distinguished aristocratic family of English origin. == History == The Conant surname is thought to be of Celtic, possibly Breton origin. The earliest known member of the most prominent line of the family was John Conant, a yeoman of East Budleigh, Devon. His son Richard (1548–1630), had eight children including his second son Robert (c. 1583–1638) and his youngest child Roger (c. 1592–1679). Robert Conant's eldest son the Rev. John Conant (1608–1694) was a noted theologian who was Regius Professor of Divinity and Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University. John Conant's great-grandson Nathaniel (1745–1822) served as Chief Magistrate of the Bow Street Magistrates' Court and was knighted in 1813, when he was granted official sanction to use his claimed ancestral arms by virtue of a new grant, as the College of Arms had been unable to establish the family's right to them through its records. In 1862, Nathaniel's grandson Edward Nathaniel Conant (1820–1901) inherited his maternal uncle's estate and family seat at Lyndon Hall in the county of Rutland, where the family continues to reside. Edward's grandson Sir Roger Conant, 1st Baronet (1899–1973) was a Conservative Party Member of Parliament (MP) who served as Comptroller of the


id: curie-family-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curie_family-0.md
category: reference
title: Curie family
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curie_family
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:23.324570+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: curie-family-20260505-0
summary:
The Curie family is a French family from which hailed a number of distinguished scientists. Polish-born Marie Skłodowska-Curie, her French husband Pierre Curie, their daughter, Irène Joliot-Curie, and son-in-law, Frédéric Joliot-Curie, are its most prominent members. Five members of the family in total were awarded a Nobel Prize, with Marie winning twice. Marie and Pierre shared a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 and Marie was awarded a second one in chemistry in 1911, making her the first person in history to win a Nobel Prize in two scientific disciplines. To date, only Linus Pauling has followed her in winning prizes in multiple categories, in chemistry and peace. Irène and Frédéric Joliot-Curie won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935. Henry Richardson Labouisse, Jr., the spouse of Irène's younger sister, Ève Curie, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1965. The chemical element curium (number 96) is named after Marie and Pierre. While Pierre Curie died at age 46 from an accident, Marie, Irène and Frédéric died from diseases likely caused by their exposure to radiation during their scientific experiments. == Family tree == == See also == Skłodowski family Bernoulli family Langevin family List of second-generation physicists == References


id: darwin-wedgwood-family-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin–Wedgwood_family-0.md
category: reference
title: Darwin–Wedgwood family
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin–Wedgwood_family
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:28.334677+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: darwin-wedgwood-family-20260505-0
summary:
The Darwin–Wedgwood family are members of two connected families, each noted for particular prominent 18th-century figures: Erasmus Darwin FRS, a physician and natural philosopher, and Josiah Wedgwood FRS, a noted potter and founder of the eponymous Josiah Wedgwood & Sons pottery company. The Darwin and Wedgwood families were on friendly terms for much of their history and members intermarried, notably Charles Darwin, who married Emma Wedgwood. The most notable member of the family was Charles Darwin, a grandson of both Erasmus Darwin and Josiah Wedgwood. The family also included at least ten Fellows of the Royal Society, and several artists and poets (among whom was the 20th-century composer Ralph Vaughan Williams). Presented below are brief biographical descriptions and genealogical information, and mentions of some notable descendants. (The individuals are listed by year of birth and grouped into generations.) The relationship to Francis Galton, and to his immediate ancestors, is also given. (Note, however, that the data tree below is not intended to include all descendants, nor is it intended to include all prominent descendants. Also note that Ursula Wood died in 2007, Richard Darwin Keynes died in 2010, and Horace Basil Barlow died in 2020.) == The first generation ==


id: darwin-wedgwood-family-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin–Wedgwood_family-1.md
category: reference
title: Darwin–Wedgwood family
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin–Wedgwood_family
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:28.334677+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: darwin-wedgwood-family-20260505-0
summary:
Sarah Elizabeth Wedgwood (1793–1880). Josiah Wedgwood (1795–1880) married Caroline Darwin, daughter of Robert Darwin and Susannah Wedgwood. They are grandparents of composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. Mary Ann Wedgwood (1796–1798). Charlotte Wedgwood (1797–1862) was Charles Langton's first wife. After her death he married her cousin, Emily Catherine Darwin; she is the ancestor of Hugh Massingberd, see below. Henry Allen Wedgwood (1799–1885). Francis Wedgwood (1800–1888); married, on 26 April 1832 at Rolleston on Dove, Staffordshire, Frances Mosley, daughter of Rev. John Peploe Mosley and Sarah Maria Paget and granddaughter of Sir John Parker Mosley and Elizabeth Bayley; and was the grandfather of Josiah Wedgwood, 1st Baron Wedgwood and great-grandfather of C. V. Wedgwood and Camilla Wedgwood. Hensleigh Wedgwood (1803–1891), etymologist, philologist and barrister, author of A Dictionary of English Etymology father of Frances Julia Wedgwood (1833–1913), and grandfather of Bishop J. I. Wedgwood. His wife, his first cousin on his mother's side, Frances "Fanny" Wedgwood (née Mackintosh; 1800–1889, daughter of James Mackintosh), was a good friend and correspondent of Harriet Martineau. Frances (Fanny) Wedgwood (1806–1832). Emma Wedgwood (1808–1896); married Charles Darwin, son of Robert Darwin and Susannah Wedgwood. === Thomas Wedgwood === Thomas Wedgwood (1771–1805). Pioneer in developing photography, friend and patron


id: darwin-wedgwood-family-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin–Wedgwood_family-2.md
category: reference
title: Darwin–Wedgwood family
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin–Wedgwood_family
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:28.334677+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: darwin-wedgwood-family-20260505-0
summary:
=== Francis Darwin === Francis Darwin (1848–1925) was the botanist son of Charles Darwin and Emma Darwin (née Wedgwood). Francis Darwin married Amy Ruck during 1874, who died during 1876 after the birth of their son Bernard Darwin, an author on golf – see below. Francis married Ellen Crofts during September 1883 and they had a daughter Frances Crofts, who married and became known as the poet Frances Cornford (see below). During 1913 he married his third wife Florence Henrietta Darwin (née Fisher); there were no children of this marriage, but he became step-father to Fredegond Shove née Maitland and Ermengard Maitland. He is buried at the Parish of the Ascension Burial Ground in Cambridge, where he is interred in the same grave as his daughter Frances Cornford. His third wife and his brother Sir Horace Darwin and his wife Lady 'Ida' are interred in the same graveyard, as well as his step-daughter Fredegond Shove but not her sister Ermengard Maitland. === Leonard Darwin === Leonard Darwin (1850–1943) was variously an army officer, Member of Parliament and eugenicist who corresponded with Ronald Fisher, thus being the link between the two great evolutionary biologists. === Horace Darwin === Horace Darwin (1851–1928)


id: darwin-wedgwood-family-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin–Wedgwood_family-3.md
category: reference
title: Darwin–Wedgwood family
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin–Wedgwood_family
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:28.334677+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: darwin-wedgwood-family-20260505-0
summary:
=== Horace Barlow === Horace Barlow (1921–2020) was Professor of Physiological Optics and Physiology, Berkeley, California, US (1964–73); Royal Society Research Professor, Physiological Laboratory, Cambridge (1973–87). === John Cornford === John Cornford (1915–1936), was a poet and member of the International Brigades died during the Spanish Civil War. Son of Francis and Frances Cornford, see above. === Christopher Cornford === Christopher Cornford (1917–1993), was an artist and writer. Son of Francis and Frances Cornford, see above. === Henry Galton Darwin === Henry Galton Darwin (1929–1992) was a lawyer and diplomat. Son of Charles Galton Darwin. === Robin Darwin === Robert Vere "Robin" Darwin (1910–1974) was an artist. He is the son of Bernard Darwin, see above. === Quentin Keynes === Quentin Keynes (1921–2003) was a bibliophile and explorer. Son of Margaret Keynes, née Darwin, see above. === Richard Keynes === Professor Richard Darwin Keynes FRS (1919–2010) was a British physiologist. Son of Margaret Keynes, née Darwin, see above. === Ursula Mommens === Ursula Mommens (née Darwin, first married name Trevelyan) (1908–2010) was a well-known potter. Daughter of Bernard Darwin, see above. Her son by Julian Trevelyan is the movie-maker Philip Trevelyan. === Geoffrey Tindal-Carill-Worsley === Air Commodore Geoffrey Tindal-Carill-Worsley (1908–1996)


id: darwin-wedgwood-family-20260505-4
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin–Wedgwood_family-4.md
category: reference
title: Darwin–Wedgwood family
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin–Wedgwood_family
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:28.334677+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: darwin-wedgwood-family-20260505-0
summary:
== Coat of arms == These arms were granted to Reginald Darwin, of Fern, Derbyshire, for himself and certain descendants of his father, Sir Francis Sacheverel Darwin, and his uncle Robert Waring Darwin (Father of Charles), on 6 March 1890. As Charles Darwin was part of the destination, they have been used in association with him, despite being granted after his death. Something similar is used by Darwin College, Cambridge. A variant without mullets was being used by the Darwin family long before 1890. Erasmus Darwin used it with the motto E conchis omnia (All things out of shells), reflecting his belief that all life descended from one simple form. Charles' father Robert adopted the same motto, displaying it on his bookplate. Stephen Glover described in 1829 the older variant quartered with the Waring coat of arms (sable, a chevron between three storks' heads erased, argent). == See also == Keynes family Huxley family == Notes == == References == Milner, Richard (1994). Charles Darwin: Evolution of a Naturalist. Makers of Modern Science. New York City: Facts on File, Inc. ISBN 978-0-8160-2557-2. Freeman, Richard Broke (1982). "The Darwin family". Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. 17 (1): 9–21. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8312.1982.tb02010.x. Berra,


id: de-saussure-family-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Saussure_family-0.md
category: reference
title: De Saussure family
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Saussure_family
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:29.464230+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: de-saussure-family-20260505-0
summary:
The De Saussure family is a family from the Geneva patriciate of Huguenot origins hailing from Lorraine, France but being settled in Switzerland since 1556. An American branch was established in South Carolina in the 18th century by Henri de Saussure; among his descendants were Chancellor Henry William de Saussure and US Senator William F. De Saussure. == History == The family originally hails from Saulxures in the Lorraine region of France. During their service as falconers to the duke he ennobled them in 1506. Due to religious persecution for being Huguenot they emigrated to Lausanne and Geneva, where they became citizens in 1556 respectively 1636. == Swiss branch == In Switzerland, as well as in the Republic of Geneva, they soon became politically and socio-economically active holding a variety of public offices. Théodore de Saussure became the mayor of Geneva, his son Nicolas de Saussure (1709-1791), a politician and agronomist. Horace-Bénédict de Saussure (1740 – 1799), an 18th century naturalist, was probably the most notable, his portrait was on the 20 Swiss Francs bill series which were in circulation from 1979 to 1995. His daughter Albertine Necker de Saussure (1766-1841) became an advocate for women s education and his


id: einstein-family-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein_family-0.md
category: reference
title: Einstein family
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein_family
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:30.588947+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: einstein-family-20260505-0
summary:
The Einstein family is the family of physicist Albert Einstein (1879–1955). Einstein's fourth-great-grandfather, Jakob Weil, was his oldest recorded relative, born in the late 17th century, and the family continues to this day. Albert Einstein's second-great-grandfather, Löb Moses Sontheimer (1745–1831), was also the grandfather of the tenor Heinrich Sontheim (1820–1912) of Stuttgart. Albert's three children were from his relationship with his first wife, Mileva Marić, his daughter Lieserl being born a year before they married. Albert Einstein's second wife was Elsa Einstein, whose mother Fanny Koch was the sister of Albert's mother, and whose father, Rudolf Einstein, was the son of Raphael Einstein, a brother of Albert's paternal grandfather. Albert and Elsa were thus first cousins through their mothers and second cousins through their fathers. == Etymology == Einstein (English: EYEN-styne, German: [ˈaɪnʃtaɪn] ) is either a German habitational surname from various places named with a Middle High German derivative of the verb einsteinen 'to enclose, surround with stone'; or a Jewish (Ashkenazic) adaptation of the German name, or else an ornamental name using the ending -stein 'stone'. == Pauline Einstein (Albert's mother) == Pauline Einstein (née Koch; 8 February 1858 – 20 February 1920) was the mother of the


id: einstein-family-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein_family-1.md
category: reference
title: Einstein family
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein_family
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:30.588947+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: einstein-family-20260505-0
summary:
=== Work === Albert Einstein’s father, Hermann Einstein, was an engineer and entrepreneur who co-founded an electrical engineering company, Elektrotechnische Fabrik J. Einstein & Cie. Based initially in Munich, the company manufactured electrical devices such as arc lamps and dynamos, and was involved in the installation of lighting systems throughout southern Germany and parts of northern Italy. Though the business saw early success, it struggled to compete with larger firms like AEG and Siemens. These difficulties eventually forced the company to close, prompting the Einstein family to move to Milan and later to Pavia in the 1890s. Hermann played a significant role in encouraging Albert’s early interest in science and engineering. He often took Albert on factory visits and supported his education despite the family’s financial instability. After the closure of the company, Hermann continued to seek work in the electrical industry but did not achieve the same level of business success again. He died in Milan in 1902, while Albert was still a student in Zürich. Pauline Einstein, Albert’s mother, came from a cultured and middle-class Jewish family. Although she did not pursue formal employment, she was an accomplished pianist and had a strong appreciation for music, literature, and


id: einstein-family-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein_family-2.md
category: reference
title: Einstein family
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein_family
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:30.588947+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: einstein-family-20260505-0
summary:
Lieserl Einstein (27 January 1902 – September 1903) was the first child of Mileva Marić and Albert Einstein. According to the correspondence between her parents, Lieserl was born on 27 January 1902, a year before her parents married, in Újvidék, Austria-Hungary, present-day Novi Sad, Serbia, and was cared for by her mother for a short time while Einstein worked in Switzerland before Marić joined him there without the child. Lieserl's existence was unknown to biographers until 1986, when a batch of letters between Albert and Mileva Marić was discovered by Hans Albert Einstein's daughter Evelyn. Marić had hoped for a girl, while Einstein would have preferred a boy. In their letters, they called the unborn child "Lieserl", when referring to a girl, or "Hanserl", if a boy. Both "Lieserl" and "Hanserl" were diminutives of the common German names Liese (short for Elizabeth) and Hans. The first reference to Marić's pregnancy was found in a letter Einstein wrote to her from Winterthur, probably on 28 May 1901 (letter 36), asking twice about "the boy" and "our little son", whereas Marić's first reference was found in her letter of 13 November 1901 (letter 43) from Stein am Rhein, in which she referred


id: einstein-family-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein_family-3.md
category: reference
title: Einstein family
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein_family
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:30.588947+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: einstein-family-20260505-0
summary:
Eduard Einstein (28 July 1910 – 25 October 1965) was born in Zürich, Switzerland, the second son of physicist Albert Einstein from his first wife Mileva Marić. Albert Einstein and his family moved to Berlin in 1914. Shortly thereafter the parents separated, and Marić returned to Zürich, taking Eduard and his older brother Hans Albert with her. His father remarried in 1919 and in 1933 immigrated to the United States under the threat of Germany's rising Nazi regime. Eduard was a good student and had musical talent. Some of Eduard's poems, which refer to the same teachers as the biographical sketches in the autobiography of Nobel laureate Elias Canetti, were published in the school newspaper of the gymnasium (grammar school). After gymnasium, he started to study medicine to become a psychiatrist, but by the age of 21 he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. He was institutionalized two years later for the first of several times. Biographers of his father have speculated that the drugs and "cures" of the time damaged rather than aided the young Einstein. His brother Hans Albert Einstein believed that his memory and cognitive abilities had been deeply affected by electroconvulsive therapy treatments Eduard received while institutionalized. After


id: freud-family-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freud_family-0.md
category: reference
title: Freud family
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freud_family
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:31.798248+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: freud-family-20260505-0
summary:
The family of Sigmund Freud, the pioneer of psychoanalysis, lived in Austria and Germany until the 1930s before emigrating to England, Canada, and the United States. Several of Freud's descendants and relatives have become well known in different fields. == Freud's parents and siblings == Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) was born to Jewish Galician parents in the Moravian town of Freiberg in Mähren, in what then was the Austrian Empire (now called Příbor and in the Czech Republic). He was the eldest child of Jacob Freud (1815–1896), a wool merchant, and his third wife, Amalia Nathansohn (1835–1930). Jacob Freud was born in Tysmenitz, then part of the Austrian Partition of Poland called the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria (now called Tysmenytsia and in Ukraine), the eldest child of Schlomo and Peppi (Pessel), née Hoffmann, Freud. His two brothers, Abae (c. 1815–c. 1885) and Josef (1825–1897), had difficulties that concerned the family, the former because of his mentally incapacitated children, the latter because his business dealings came under criminal investigation. Jacob Freud had two surviving children from his first marriage to Sally Kanner (1829–1852): Emanuel (1832–1914) Philipp (1836–1911) Jacob's second marriage (1852–1855) to Rebecca (family of origin uncertain) was childless. Amalia Freud


id: freud-family-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freud_family-1.md
category: reference
title: Freud family
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freud_family
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:31.798248+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: freud-family-20260505-0
summary:
The systematic persecution of Jews by Nazi Germany and the ensuing Holocaust had a profound effect on the family. Four of Freud's five sisters were murdered in concentration camps: in 1942 Mitzi Freud (eighty-one) and Paula Winternitz (seventy-eight) were transported to Theresienstadt and taken from there to the Maly Trostinets extermination camp, near Minsk, where they were murdered. In 1943 Dolfi Freud died in Theresienstadt of internal bleeding, probably due to advanced starvation and Rosa Graf (eighty-two) was deported to Treblinka, where she was murdered. Freud's brother, Alexander, escaped with his family to Switzerland shortly before the Anschluss and they subsequently emigrated to Canada. Freud's sons Oliver, a civil engineer, and Ernst Ludwig, an architect, lived and worked in Berlin until Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933 after which they fled with their families to France and England respectively. Oliver Freud and his wife later emigrated to the United States. Their daughter Eva Freud had remained in France and died there of an infection contracted during an abortion. Freud and his remaining family left Nazi-occupied Vienna in 1938 after Ernest Jones, the then President of the International Psychoanalytic Association, secured immigration permits for them to move to Britain.


id: freud-family-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freud_family-2.md
category: reference
title: Freud family
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freud_family
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:31.798248+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: freud-family-20260505-0
summary:
After Sigmund Freud's death in 1939, Martha and Anna Freud made their home available to relatives and friends fleeing the Nazi occupation of Europe. In 1941, following the death of Martha's sister, Minna, Dorothy Burlingham (1891–1979) became a permanent member of the household. From their first meeting in Vienna in 1925, Anna and Dorothy developed "intimate relations that closely resembled those of lesbians", although Anna "categorically denied the existence of a sexual relationship". Dorothy had been a patient of Freud's and her four children, Bob, Mary (Mabbie), Katrina, and Michael, were among the first of Anna's after she had begun her own psychoanalytic practice. During and after the war they collaborated in establishing the Hampstead War Nursery that provided therapy and residential care for children whose lives had been disrupted by the war. Their work laid the foundations for the post-war Hampstead Child Therapy Course and Clinic, founded in 1952 (later renamed the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families). Martin and Walter Freud were both interned in 1940 as enemy aliens. Following a change in government policy on internment, both were subsequently recruited to the Pioneer Corps. After the war, denied recognition as a (Vienna-trained) lawyer by the


id: freud-family-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freud_family-3.md
category: reference
title: Freud family
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freud_family
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:31.798248+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: freud-family-20260505-0
summary:
Mathilde Freud (1887–1978) married Robert Hollitscher (1875–1959), and had no children Jean-Martin Freud (1889–1967, known as Martin Freud) married Ernestine (Esti) Drucker (1896–1980), and had two children: Anton Walter Freud (1921–2004) married Annette Krarup (1925–2000) and had three children David Freud (born 1950, later Lord Freud), married Cilla Dickinson and had three children: Andrew Freud Emily Freud Juliet Freud Ida Freud (born 1952), married M. Fairbairn Caroline Freud (born 1955), married L. Penney Sophie Freud (1924–2022), married Paul Loewenstein (1921–1992) and had three children: Andrea Freud Loewenstein Dania Loewenstein, married S. Jekel George Loewenstein Oliver Freud (1891–1969), married (i) Ella Haim; (ii) Henny Fuchs (1892–1971). From his marriage to Henny Fuchs, he had one child: Eva Freud (1924–1944) Ernst L. Freud (1892–1970), married Lucie Brasch (1896–1989), and had three children: Stephan Gabriel Freud (1921–2015, known as Stephen Freud) married (i) Lois Blake (born 1924); (ii) Christine Ann Potter (born 1927). From his marriage to Lois Blake, he had one child: Dorothy Freud Lucian Michael Freud (1922–2011), married (i) Kathleen Garman (1926–2011), two children; (ii) Lady Caroline Blackwood (1931–1996). He also had four children by Suzy Boyt, four by Katherine McAdam (died 1998), two by Bernardine Coverley (died 2011), one by


id: herschel-family-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herschel_family-0.md
category: reference
title: Herschel family
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herschel_family
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:33.023232+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: herschel-family-20260505-0
summary:
The Herschel family is a famous Anglo-German family of astronomers who lived from the 18th to the 20th century. The family originated from Pirna in Saxony which lies near Dresden. == Notable members == William Herschel (1738–1822), astronomer and composer, discoverer of Uranus Caroline Herschel (1750–1848), astronomer and singer, sister of Sir William Herschel John Herschel (1792–1871), mathematician and astronomer, son of Sir William Herschel Alexander Stewart Herschel (1836–1907), astronomer, grandson of Sir William Herschel William James Herschel (1833–1917), Pioneer of fingerprinting, grandson of Sir William Herschel John Herschel the Younger (1837–1921), grandson of Sir William Herschel == References ==


id: langevin-family-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langevin_family-0.md
category: reference
title: Langevin family
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langevin_family
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:34.265443+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: langevin-family-20260505-0
summary:
The Langevin family is a French family with some prominent scientists. The French physicist Paul Langevin, member of the French Academy of Sciences and teacher at Collège de France, is the most prominent member. == Genealogy == == See also == Curie family Koechlin family == Photographs == == External links == Paty, Michel (2012). "Relativity in France". In Glick, T. F. (ed.). The Comparative Reception of Relativity. Springer Science & Business Media. pp. 113–168. ISBN 9789400938755. Retrieved 13 December 2017. Langevin, P. (1911), "The Evolution of Space and Time", Scientia, X: 31–54 (translated by J. B. Sykes, 1973 from the original French: "L'évolution de l'espace et du temps"). Wolfram research biographical entry by Michel Barran. Julien Bok and Catherine Kounelis (2007). "Paul Langevin (1872–1946) – From Montmartre to the Panthéon: The Paris journey of an exceptional physicist" (PDF). Europhysics News. Vol. 38, no. 1. Adrienne R. Weill-Brunschvicg (2008). "Langevin, Paul - Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography, 2008". Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Charles Coulston Gillispie, Dictionary of scientific biography, Vol. 8, biography written by Francis Perrin, New York, Scribner's sons, 1973. Family of Paul Langevin, during the funeral, listening to Education minister Marcel Naegelen's talk, 21 December 1946 in


id: linn-family-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linné_family-0.md
category: reference
title: Linné family
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linné_family
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:35.523666+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: linn-family-20260505-0
summary:
The von Linné family and Linnaeus family was the family of the renowned botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, physician and formalizer of the binomial nomenclature, Carl Linnaeus, and a Swedish noble family (No. 2044), ennobled on 20 April 1757 by the Swedish King Adolf Frederick, introduced at the House of Nobility in 1776. The von Linné family is predominantly famous for its contributions in the fields of science. The von Linné family descends from generations of priests and peasants in the historical province of Småland. The noble family's coat of arms prominently features a twinflower, one of Linnaeus's favourite plants. == Family tree == == References ==


id: noether-family-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noether_family-0.md
category: reference
title: Noether family
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noether_family
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:36.746063+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: noether-family-20260505-0
summary:
The Noether family is a family of German mathematicians, whose family name has been given to some of their mathematical contributions: Max Noether (1844–1921), father of Emmy and Fritz Noether, Emmy Noether (1882–1935), professor at the University of Göttingen and at Bryn Mawr College Fritz Noether (1884–1941), professor at the University of Tomsk Gottfried E. Noether (1915–1991), son of Fritz Noether == References == == See also == Noether's theorem (disambiguation) List of things named after Emmy Noether


id: piccard-family-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piccard_family-0.md
category: reference
title: Piccard family
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piccard_family
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:37.827606+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: piccard-family-20260505-0
summary:
The Piccard family are a Swiss family of adventurers, explorers and scientists. They collectively have broken several world records in exploration, particularly with balloons. The Star Trek character Jean-Luc Picard was named in honour of this family. Members include: Jules Piccard, a chemist and professor of chemistry Auguste Piccard, a physicist, aeronaut, balloonist, hydronaut Jacques Piccard, a hydronaut Bertrand Piccard, an aeronaut, psychiatrist and balloonist Jean Felix Piccard, an organic chemist, aeronaut, and balloonist Jeannette Piccard, wife of Jean Felix, an aeronaut and balloonist Don Piccard, a balloonist == References ==


id: sowerby-family-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sowerby_family-0.md
category: reference
title: Sowerby family
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sowerby_family
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:38.931032+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: sowerby-family-20260505-0
summary:
The Sowerby family () was a British family of several generations of naturalists, illustrators, botanists, and zoologists active from the late 18th century to the mid twentieth century. James Sowerby (1757–1822) James De Carle Sowerby (1787–1871) James Sowerby (1815–1834) William Sowerby (1827–1906) Joseph Sowerby (1829–ca.1871) Rev. Arthur Sowerby (1857–?) Arthur de Carle Sowerby (1885–1954) George Brettingham Sowerby I (1788–1854) George Brettingham Sowerby II (1812–1884) Charlotte Caroline Sowerby (1820–1865) George Brettingham Sowerby III (1843–1921) Charles Edward Sowerby (1795–1842) John Edward Sowerby (1825-1870) The three George Sowerbys produced major works on molluscs and their systematics. Together, they introduced numerous (sometimes the number 5000 is mentioned) taxonomic names. Because all three of the G.B Sowerbys published extensively on the subject of conchology, it is not easy even for professional taxonomists to unravel which of the three "G.B. Sowerbys" is meant in a particular citation when the numbering system G.B. Sowerby I, II, or III is not used. Even when a date is provided, this kind of attribution is not obvious: e.g. "Sowerby, 1870" can refer to either G.B. Sowerby II or G.B. Sowerby III. The scientific and artistic contributions of the family extended well into the 20th century. Arthur de Carle Sowerby (1885–1954),


id: struve-family-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Struve_family-0.md
category: reference
title: Struve family
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Struve_family
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:44.011306+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: struve-family-20260505-0
summary:
The Struve family (pronounced [ˈʃtʁuvə] in German, [ˈstruvɪ] in Russian) were a Baltic German noble family of Eastphalian origin and originated in Magdeburg, the family produced five generations of astronomers from the 18th to 20th centuries. Members of the family were also prominent in chemistry, government and diplomacy. == Origins == The first branch of the family that produced five generations of astronomers originated in Altona, then part of both Denmark and Germany The first scientist member of the family was mathematician Jacob Struve (1755–1841); his forebears included Johann Struve (1700–1778) and Abel Struve (1719–1762). In 1783, Jacob Struve married Maria Emerentia Wiese (1764–1847). Their children were: Carl Ludwig Struve (1785–1838) Ernst Heinrich Struve (1786–1822) Gustav Philipp Christoph Struve (1788–1829) Christiane Regine Elisabeth Struve (1791–1853) Friedrich Georg Wilhelm (von) Struve (1793–1864) Ludwig August Struve (1795–1828) Johanna Marie Struve (1797–1871) In the beginning of the 19th century, Jacob Struve sent his sons to Dorpat (now Tartu, Estonia) in the Russian Empire to avoid conscription in the Napoleonic armies. His fourth son, Friedrich Georg Wilhelm, taught at the University of Dorpat from 1813 and was full professor and director of Dorpat Observatory from 1820. Ennobled by Tsar Nicholas I, at whose request


id: struve-family-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Struve_family-1.md
category: reference
title: Struve family
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Struve_family
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:44.011306+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: struve-family-20260505-0
summary:
Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve's cousin, Johann Christoph Gustav von Struve, son of diplomat Anton Sebastian von Struve. "After finishing his studies and several extensive journeyings (sic), Anton started his career as private secretary to Count Schonberg, Minister in Dresden. In 1755 he entered the services of the Duke of Holstein-Gottrop, who later as Peter III became emperor of Russia, and thus became a Russian subject, along with his 2 brothers who were also induced to accompany Peter to Russia. One of these was the celebrated astronomer, Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve, and the third, the scientist. Anton Sebastian, after several diplomatic missions in Russian services, ended as Resident Minister at the German Reichstag at Regensburg. He died April 7, 1802. Hi biography is to be found in Schlichtegroll's "Nekrolog der Deutschen für das 19th. Jahrhundert". He had 12 children, but only five sons and four daughters attained maturity. Of these, only the eldest (Gustav von Struve, Sept. 26,1763 – 1828), and the youngest (Henry, 1772–1851), and Phillipine (She married President von Grün), the youngest daughter, had issue." (incorrect – see below) (1729–1802), became a diplomat in the Russian service primarily in Regensburg, Bavaria. Johann Christoph and his wife, née


id: andr-marie-amp-re-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/André-Marie_Ampère-0.md
category: reference
title: André-Marie Ampère
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/André-Marie_Ampère
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:46.698183+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: andr-marie-amp-re-20260505-0
summary:
André-Marie Ampère (20 January 1775 – 10 June 1836) was a French physicist and mathematician who was one of the founders of the science of classical electromagnetism, which he referred to as electrodynamics. He made also important contributions in chemistry and philosophy. He is also the inventor of numerous applications, such as the solenoid (a term coined by him) and the electrical telegraph. As an autodidact, Ampère was a member of the French Academy of Sciences and professor at the École polytechnique and the Collège de France. The SI unit of electric current, the ampere (A), is named after him. His name is also one of the 72 names inscribed on the Eiffel Tower. The term kinematic is the English version of his cinématique, which he constructed from the Greek κίνημα kinema ("movement, motion"), itself derived from κινεῖν kinein ("to move"). == Biography == === Early life === André-Marie Ampère was born on 20 January 1775 in Lyon to Jean-Jacques Ampère, a prosperous businessman, and Jeanne Antoinette Desutières-Sarcey Ampère, during the height of the French Enlightenment. He spent his childhood and adolescence at the family property at Poleymieux-au-Mont-d'Or near Lyon, a house that today hosts the Ampère Museum, dedicated to


id: andr-marie-amp-re-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/André-Marie_Ampère-1.md
category: reference
title: André-Marie Ampère
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/André-Marie_Ampère
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:46.698183+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: andr-marie-amp-re-20260505-0
summary:
=== Work in electromagnetism === In September 1820, Ampère's friend and eventual eulogist François Arago showed the members of the French Academy of Sciences the surprising discovery by Danish physicist Hans Christian Ørsted that a magnetic needle is deflected by an adjacent electric current. Ampère began developing a mathematical and physical theory to understand the relationship between electricity and magnetism. Furthering Ørsted's experimental work, Ampère showed that two parallel wires carrying electric currents attract or repel each other, depending on whether the currents flow in the same or opposite directions, respectively - this laid the foundation of electrodynamics. He also applied mathematics in generalizing physical laws from these experimental results. The most important of these was the principle that came to be called Ampère's law, which states that the mutual action of two lengths of current-carrying wire is proportional to their lengths and to the intensities of their currents. Ampère also applied this same principle to magnetism, showing the harmony between his law and French physicist Charles Augustin de Coulomb's law of electric action. Ampère's devotion to, and skill with, experimental techniques anchored his science within the emerging fields of experimental physics. Ampère also provided a physical understanding of the


id: mary-anning-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Anning-0.md
category: reference
title: Mary Anning
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Anning
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:48.037973+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: mary-anning-20260505-0
summary:
Mary Anning ( 21 May 1799 – 9 March 1847) was an English fossil collector, dealer, and palaeontologist. She became known internationally for her discoveries in Jurassic marine fossil beds in the cliffs along the English Channel at Lyme Regis in the county of Dorset, South West England. Anning's findings contributed to changes in scientific thinking about prehistoric life and the history of the Earth. Anning searched for fossils in the area's Blue Lias and Charmouth Mudstone cliffs, particularly during the winter months when landslides exposed new fossils that had to be collected quickly before they were lost to the sea. Her discoveries included the first correctly identified ichthyosaur skeleton when she was twelve years old; the first two nearly complete plesiosaur skeletons; the first pterosaur skeleton located outside Germany; and fish fossils. Her observations played a key role in the discovery that coprolites, known as bezoar stones at the time, were fossilised faeces, and she also discovered that belemnite fossils contained fossilised ink sacs like those of modern cephalopods. Anning struggled financially for much of her life. As a woman, she was not eligible to join the Geological Society of London, and she did not always receive full credit


id: mary-anning-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Anning-1.md
category: reference
title: Mary Anning
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Anning
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:48.037973+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: mary-anning-20260505-0
summary:
By the late 18th century, Lyme Regis had become a popular seaside resort, especially after 1792 when the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars made travel to the European mainland dangerous for the English gentry, and increasing numbers of wealthy and middle-class tourists were arriving there. Even before Anning's time, locals supplemented their income by selling what were called "curios" to visitors. These were fossils with colourful local names such as "snake-stones" (ammonites), "devil's fingers" (belemnites), and "verteberries" (vertebrae), to which were sometimes attributed medicinal and mystical properties. Fossil collecting was in vogue in the late 18th and early 19th century, at first as a pastime, but gradually transforming into a science as the importance of fossils to geology and biology was understood. The source of most of these fossils were the coastal cliffs around Lyme Regis, part of a geological formation known as the Blue Lias. This consists of alternating layers of limestone and shale, laid down as sediment on a shallow seabed early in the Jurassic period (about 210–195 million years ago). It is one of the richest fossil locations in Britain. The cliffs could be dangerously unstable, however, especially in winter when rain weakened them, causing landslides.


id: mary-anning-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Anning-2.md
category: reference
title: Mary Anning
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Anning
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:48.037973+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: mary-anning-20260505-0
summary:
=== Fossil shop and growing expertise in a risky occupation === Anning continued to support herself selling fossils. Her primary stock in trade consisted of invertebrate fossils such as ammonite and belemnite shells, which were common in the area and sold for a few shillings. Vertebrate fossils, such as ichthyosaur skeletons, sold for more, but were much rarer. Collecting them was dangerous winter work. In 1823, an article in The Bristol Mirror said of her: This persevering female has for years gone daily in search of fossil remains of importance at every tide, for many miles under the hanging cliffs at Lyme, whose fallen masses are her immediate object, as they alone contain these valuable relics of a former world, which must be snatched at the moment of their fall, at the continual risk of being crushed by the half suspended fragments they leave behind, or be left to be destroyed by the returning tide: – to her exertions we owe nearly all the fine specimens of Ichthyosauri of the great collections ... The risks of Anning's profession were illustrated when in October 1833 she barely avoided being killed by a landslide that buried her black-and-white terrier, Tray, her constant


id: mary-anning-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Anning-3.md
category: reference
title: Mary Anning
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Anning
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:48.037973+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: mary-anning-20260505-0
summary:
=== Interactions with the scientific community === As a woman, Anning was treated as an outsider to the scientific community. At the time in Britain, women were not allowed to vote, hold public office, or attend university. The newly formed, but increasingly influential Geological Society of London did not allow women to become members, or even to attend meetings as guests. The only occupations generally open to working-class women were farm labour, domestic service, and work in the newly opened factories. Although Anning knew more about fossils and geology than many of the wealthy fossilists to whom she sold, it was always the gentlemen geologists who published the scientific descriptions of the specimens she found, often neglecting to mention Anning's name. She became resentful of this. Anna Pinney, a young woman who sometimes accompanied Anning while she collected, wrote: "She says the world has used her ill ... these men of learning have sucked her brains, and made a great deal of publishing works, of which she furnished the contents, while she derived none of the advantages." Anning herself wrote in a letter: "The world has used me so unkindly, I fear it has made me suspicious of everyone". Hugh


id: mary-anning-20260505-4
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Anning-4.md
category: reference
title: Mary Anning
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Anning
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:48.037973+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: mary-anning-20260505-0
summary:
By 1830, because of difficult economic conditions in Britain that reduced the demand for fossils, coupled with long gaps between major finds, Anning was having financial problems again. Her friend, the geologist Henry De la Beche, assisted her by commissioning Georg Scharf to make a lithographic print based on De la Beche's watercolour painting, Duria Antiquior, portraying life in prehistoric Dorset that was based largely on fossils Anning had found. De la Beche sold copies of the print to his fellow geologists and other wealthy friends and donated the proceeds to Anning. It became the first such scene from what later became known as deep time to be widely circulated. In December 1830, Anning finally made another major find, a skeleton of a new type of plesiosaur, which sold for £200. It was around this time that Anning switched from attending the local Congregational church, where she had been baptised and in which she and her family had always been active members, to the Anglican church. The change was prompted in part by a decline in Congregational attendance that began in 1828 when its popular pastor, John Gleed, a fellow fossil collector, left for the United States to campaign against


id: mary-anning-20260505-5
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Anning-5.md
category: reference
title: Mary Anning
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Anning
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:48.037973+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: mary-anning-20260505-0
summary:
Anning's first famous discovery was made shortly after her father's death when she was still a child of about 12. In 1811 (some sources say 1810 or 1809) her brother Joseph found a 4 ft (1.2 m) skull, but failed to locate the rest of the animal. After Joseph told Anning to look between the cliffs at Lyme Regis and Charmouth, she found the skeleton—17 ft (5.2 m) long in all—a few months later. The family hired workmen to dig it out in November that year, an event covered by the local press on 9 November, who identified the fossil as a crocodile. Other ichthyosaur remains had been discovered in years past at Lyme and elsewhere, but the specimen found by the Annings was the first to come to the attention of scientific circles in London. It was purchased by the lord of a local manor, who passed it to William Bullock for public display in London where it created a sensation. At a time when most people in Britain still believed in a literal interpretation of Genesis, that the Earth was only a few thousand years old and that species did not evolve or become extinct, the find raised


id: mary-anning-20260505-6
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Anning-6.md
category: reference
title: Mary Anning
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Anning
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:48.037973+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: mary-anning-20260505-0
summary:
In 1823, Anning discovered a second, much more complete plesiosaur skeleton, specimen NHMUK OR 22656 (formerly BMNH 22656). When Conybeare presented his analysis of plesiosaur anatomy to a meeting of the Geological Society in 1824, he again failed to mention Anning by name, even though she had possibly collected both skeletons and had made the sketch of the second skeleton he used in his presentation. Conybeare's presentation was made at the same meeting at which William Buckland described the dinosaur Megalosaurus and the combination created a sensation in scientific circles. Conybeare's presentation followed the resolution of a controversy over the legitimacy of one of the fossils. The fact that the plesiosaur's long neck had an unprecedented 35 vertebrae raised the suspicions of the eminent French anatomist Georges Cuvier when he reviewed Anning's drawings of the second skeleton, and he wrote to Conybeare suggesting the possibility that the find was a fake produced by combining fossil bones from different kinds of animals. Fraud was far from unknown among early 19th-century fossil collectors, and if the controversy had not been resolved promptly, the accusation could have seriously damaged Anning's ability to sell fossils to other geologists. Cuvier's accusation had resulted in a


id: mary-anning-20260505-7
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Anning-7.md
category: reference
title: Mary Anning
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Anning
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:48.037973+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: mary-anning-20260505-0
summary:
Anning's discoveries became key pieces of evidence for extinction. Georges Cuvier had argued for the reality of extinction in the late 1790s based on his analysis of fossils of mammals such as mammoths. Nevertheless, until the early 1820s it was still believed by many scientifically literate people that just as new species did not appear, so existing ones did not become extinct—in part because they felt that extinction would imply that God's creation had been imperfect; any oddities found were explained away as belonging to animals still living somewhere in an unexplored region of the Earth. The bizarre nature of the fossils found by Anning—some, such as the plesiosaur, so unlike any known living creature—struck a major blow against this idea. The ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, and pterosaur she found, along with the first dinosaur fossils, which were discovered by Gideon Mantell and William Buckland during the same period, showed that during previous eras the Earth was inhabited by creatures different from those living today, and provided important support for another controversial suggestion of Cuvier's: that there had been an "age of reptiles" in which they rather than mammals had been the dominant form of animal life. This phrase became popular after


id: mary-anning-20260505-8
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Anning-8.md
category: reference
title: Mary Anning
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Anning
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:48.037973+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: mary-anning-20260505-0
summary:
In 2009, Tracy Chevalier wrote a historical novel entitled Remarkable Creatures, in which Anning and Elizabeth Philpot were the main characters. Another historical novel about Anning, Curiosity by Joan Thomas, was published in March 2010. In 2010, 163 years after her death, the Royal Society included Anning in a list of the ten British women who have most influenced the history of science. In 1902, the Lyme Regis Museum was built on the site of her former home. It was commissioned by Thomas Philpot, a relative of the Philpot sisters. The area where she collected fossils is now part of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site. In 2021, the Royal Mint issued sets of commemorative fifty pence coins called The Mary Anning Collection, designed by the palaeoartist Bob Nicholls and minted in acknowledgement of her lack of recognition as "one of Britain's greatest fossil hunters". The coins have images of Temnodontosaurus, Plesiosaurus and Dimorphodon, which she discovered, and her discoveries were "often overlooked at a time when the scientific world was dominated by men", and as "a working-class woman". In March 2024, the Royal Mail issued a set of four stamps celebrating Mary Anning and her discoveries. In May 2024,


id: manfred-von-ardenne-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manfred_von_Ardenne-0.md
category: reference
title: Manfred von Ardenne
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manfred_von_Ardenne
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:49.289092+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: manfred-von-ardenne-20260505-0
summary:
Manfred Baron von Ardenne (German pronunciation: [ˈmanfʁeːt fɔn aʁˈdɛn]; 20 January 1907 – 26 May 1997) was a German researcher, autodidact in applied physics, and an inventor. He took out approximately 600 patents in fields including electron microscopy, medical technology, nuclear technology, plasma physics, and radio and television technology. From 1928 to 1945, he directed his self-funded and private research laboratory Forschungslaboratorium für Elektronenphysik, where he developed and invented many techniques used in modern physics. After World War II, von Ardenne was held in Soviet custody and was one of many of the German nuclear physicists in the Soviet program of nuclear weapons, and later honored with the Stalin Prize. Upon his return to the then East Germany, he started another private engineering firm, Forschungsinstitut Manfred von Ardenne. Ardenne is seen as one of the main inventors of the television. == Career == === Early years === The stormy life of von Ardenne's grandmother, Elisabeth von Ardenne (1853–1952), is said to have been the inspiration for Effi Briest by Theodor Fontane, one of the most famous German realist novels. Born in 1907 in Hamburg to a wealthy aristocratic family, Ardenne was the oldest of five children. In 1913, Ardenne's father,


id: manfred-von-ardenne-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manfred_von_Ardenne-1.md
category: reference
title: Manfred von Ardenne
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manfred_von_Ardenne
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:49.289092+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: manfred-von-ardenne-20260505-0
summary:
=== In the Soviet Union === Von Ardenne, Gustav Hertz, Nobel laureate and director of Research Laboratory II at Siemens, Peter Adolf Thiessen, ordinarius professor at the Humboldt University of Berlin and director of the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institut für physikalische Chemie und Elektrochemie (KWIPC) in Berlin-Dahlem, and Max Volmer, ordinarius professor and director of the Physical Chemistry Institute at the Berlin Technische Hochschule, had made a pact. The pact was a pledge that whoever first made contact with the Soviets would speak for the rest. The objectives of their pact were threefold: (1) Prevent plunder of their institutes, (2) Continue their work with minimal interruption, and (3) Protect themselves from prosecution for any political acts of the past. Before the end of World War II, Thiessen, a member of the NSDAP, had Communist contacts. On 27 April 1945, Thiessen arrived at von Ardenne's institute in an armored vehicle with a major of the Soviet Army, who was also a leading Soviet chemist, and they issued Ardenne a protective letter (Schutzbrief). All four of the pact members were taken to the Soviet Union. Von Ardenne was made head of Institute A, in Sinop, a suburb of Sukhumi. In his first meeting with


id: robert-bakewell-agriculturalist-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Bakewell_(agriculturalist)-0.md
category: reference
title: Robert Bakewell (agriculturalist)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Bakewell_(agriculturalist)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:50.386801+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: robert-bakewell-agriculturalist-20260505-0
summary:
Robert Bakewell (23 May 1725 – 1 October 1795) was an English agriculturalist, now recognized as one of the most important figures in the British Agricultural Revolution. In addition to work in agronomy, Bakewell is particularly notable as the first to implement systematic selective breeding of livestock. His advancements not only led to specific improvements in sheep, cattle and horses, but contributed to general knowledge of artificial selection. == Early life == Robert Bakewell, the second eldest son, was born on 23 May 1725 at Dishley Grange, near Loughborough in Leicestershire. As a young man he travelled extensively in Europe and Britain, learning about other farming methods. Others interested in his work included Prince Grigory Potemkin and François de la Rochefoucauld (1765–1848). He supported his revolutionary new breeding techniques with grassland irrigation, flooding and fertilizing pasturelands to improve grazing. He taught these practices to many farmers, and in 1783 formed The Dishley Society to promote them and to advance the interests of livestock breeders. His apprentices and contemporaries, especially Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester, used his methods to continue improvements to British livestock long after his death in October 1795. === Sheep === Arguably the most influential of Bakewell's


id: robert-bakewell-agriculturalist-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Bakewell_(agriculturalist)-1.md
category: reference
title: Robert Bakewell (agriculturalist)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Bakewell_(agriculturalist)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:50.386801+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: robert-bakewell-agriculturalist-20260505-0
summary:
== Bibliography == Young 1771, "Letter II", in The Farmer's Tour through the East of England, vol. I (London, 1771 ), p. 124 Young, A., 1776-1791 (1932): Tours in England and Wales. (Selected from the Annals of Agriculture), London School of Economics Marshall 1790, The rural economy of the Midland counties (2 vols, London, 1790; vol1/vol2) W. Redhead, R. Laing and W. Marshall jun., Observations on the different breeds of sheep, and the state of sheep farming in some of the principal counties of England (Edinburgh, 1792), pp. 33–39 John Lawrence, "Robert Bakewell", The Annual Necrology for 1797-8; including, also, various articles of neglected biography (London, 1800/1805) (note: final 2-3 pages omitted from Google Books scan of the 1800 edition) Pitt 1809, A General View of the Agriculture of the County of Leicester. Richard Phillips, London. J. Hunt, Agricultural memoirs; or history of the Dishley System. In answer to Sir John Saunders Sebright, Bart., M.P. (Nottingham, 1812), p. 119 Youatt 1834, Cattle: Their breeds, management, and diseases George Culley & Robert Heaton 1804, Observations on live stock: containing hints for choosing and improving the best breeds of the most useful kinds of domestic animals Darwin, Charles, 1842, "Sketch on Natural


id: julian-barbour-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Barbour-0.md
category: reference
title: Julian Barbour
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Barbour
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:51.694802+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: julian-barbour-20260505-0
summary:
Julian Barbour (; born 1937) is a British physicist with research interests in quantum gravity and the history of science. Since receiving his PhD degree on the foundations of Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity at the University of Cologne in 1968, Barbour has supported himself and his family without an academic position, working part-time as a translator (although he has an Oxford University email address and his research has been funded, for example by a FQXi grant). He resides near Banbury, England. == Timeless physics == His 1999 book The End of Time advances timeless physics: the controversial view that time, as we perceive it, does not exist as anything other than an illusion, and that a number of problems in physical theory arise from assuming that it does exist. He argues that we have no evidence of the past other than our memory of it, and no evidence of the future other than our belief in it. "Difference merely creates an illusion of time, with each individual moment existing in its own right, complete and whole." He calls these moments "Nows". It is all an illusion: there is no motion and no change. He argues that the illusion


id: james-bowdoin-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Bowdoin-0.md
category: reference
title: James Bowdoin
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Bowdoin
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:53.054160+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: james-bowdoin-20260505-0
summary:
James Bowdoin II ( BOH-din; August 7, 1726 – November 6, 1790) was an American politician from Boston, Massachusetts who was active during the American Revolution and the following decade. He initially gained fame and influence as a wealthy merchant. He served in both branches of the Massachusetts General Court from the 1750s to the 1770s. Although he was initially supportive of the royal governors, he opposed British colonial policy and eventually became an influential advocate of independence. He authored a highly political report on the 1770 Boston Massacre that has been described by historian Francis Walett as one of the most influential pieces of writing that shaped public opinion in the colonies. From 1775 to 1777, he served as president of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress's executive council, the de facto head of the Massachusetts government. He was elected president of the constitutional convention that drafted the state's constitution in 1779, and ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1780, losing to John Hancock. In 1785, following Hancock's resignation, he was elected governor. Due to the large debts of Massachusetts, incurred from the Revolutionary War, Bowdoin ran on a platform of fiscal responsibility. During his two years in office, the combination of


id: james-bowdoin-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Bowdoin-1.md
category: reference
title: James Bowdoin
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Bowdoin
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:53.054160+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: james-bowdoin-20260505-0
summary:
Bowdoin was elected to the provincial assembly in 1753 and served there until named to the governor's council in 1756. Although at first supportive of the royal governor, his politics became more radical as British colonial policy became increasingly unpopular, and Bowdoin believed those policies would have a negative effect on the New England economy. Personal factors may also have played a role in Bowdoin's shift in views: John Temple, the local customs commissioner and Bowdoin's son in law, was embroiled in nasty disputes with Governor Francis Bernard in the 1760s. By 1769 Bowdoin was one of the principal spokesmen of the opposition to the governor on the council. In that year Bernard rejected Bowdoin's renewed election to the council. Bowdoin, however, was instrumental in causing Bernard's downfall from office. Private letters critical of the provincial government that Bernard had written were published in 1769 to great outrage. Bowdoin rebutted the charges and claims made in Bernard's letters, and published a highly polemic pamphlet arguing for Bernard's removal that was sent to the colonial secretary, Lord Hillsborough. Bowdoin won reelection to the assembly in 1770, and was promptly reelected to the council the same year, soon after Bernard left the


id: james-bowdoin-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Bowdoin-2.md
category: reference
title: James Bowdoin
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Bowdoin
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:53.054160+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: james-bowdoin-20260505-0
summary:
Bowdoin ran against Hancock in subsequent elections, but was never able to overcome Hancock's enormous popularity. The contest between the two men was just one element of a long-running rivalry that encompassed business, politics, and religion, and was apparently deeply personal. The two men were both involved in the administration of Harvard, where their feud sometimes became ugly. For example, in 1776, while Hancock was simultaneously treasurer of Harvard and president of the Second Continental Congress, a committee headed by Bowdoin decided that securities physically held by Hancock were at risk because of the war, and a delegation was sent to Philadelphia to receive an accounting of them and physical custody of the papers. Hancock's dilatory responses and refusal to produce an accounting of the college books dragged on for several years, as a result of which Bowdoin orchestrated his censure by the Harvard board of overseers. The matter reached a peak of sorts in 1783 when the college's issues with Hancock were read and discussed in an open meeting at which Hancock was the presiding officer. Both Bowdoin and Hancock attended the Brattle Street Church, where they competed with each other over the size and quality of the improvements


id: james-bowdoin-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Bowdoin-3.md
category: reference
title: James Bowdoin
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Bowdoin
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:53.054160+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: james-bowdoin-20260505-0
summary:
After the legislature adjourned on July 18, 1786, without substantively addressing these complaints, rural Massachusetts protestors organized direct action, and began protest marches that shut down the state's court system, which enforced tax and civil forfeiture judgments and had become a focus of the discontent. Bowdoin issued a proclamation in early September denouncing these actions, but took no overt steps to immediately organize a militia response (unlike governors in neighboring Connecticut and New Hampshire). When the foreclosure court in Worcester was shut down by similar action on September 5, the county militia (composed mainly of men sympathetic to the protestors) refused to turn out, much to Bowdoin's chagrin. The closure of the Worcester court was followed by closings in Concord and Taunton, and when the militia marched into Great Barrington to force court open there, one of the Judges, William Whiting asked the militiamen to take sides. 800 of the 1,000 men took the people's side of the road. By October, one correspondent wrote, "We are now in a state of Anarchy and Confusion bordering on Civil War". These court closings mirrored closings in 1774, when colonists had shut down the King's business everywhere west of Boston. Fearing a new


id: robert-boyle-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Boyle-0.md
category: reference
title: Robert Boyle
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Boyle
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:54.217837+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: robert-boyle-20260505-0
summary:
Robert Boyle (; 25 January 1627 – 31 December 1691) was an Anglo-Irish natural philosopher, chemist, physicist, alchemist and inventor. Boyle is largely regarded today as the first modern chemist, and therefore one of the founders of modern chemistry, and one of the pioneers of modern experimental scientific method. He is best known for Boyle's law, which describes the inversely proportional relationship between the absolute pressure and volume of a gas, if the temperature is kept constant within a closed system. Among his works, The Sceptical Chymist is seen as a cornerstone book in the field of chemistry. He was a devout and pious Anglican and is noted for his works in theology. == Biography == === Early years === Boyle was born at Lismore Castle in County Waterford, in the far south of Ireland, the seventh son and fourteenth child of the 1st Earl of Cork ("the Great Earl of Cork") and Catherine Fenton. Lord Cork, then known simply as Richard Boyle, had arrived in Dublin from England in 1588 during the Tudor plantations of Ireland and obtained an appointment as a deputy escheator. He had amassed enormous wealth and landholdings by the time Robert was born and had


id: robert-boyle-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Boyle-1.md
category: reference
title: Robert Boyle
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Boyle
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:54.217837+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: robert-boyle-20260505-0
summary:
In 1668 he left Oxford for London where he resided at the house of his elder sister Katherine Jones, Lady Ranelagh, in Pall Mall. He experimented in the laboratory she had in her home and attended her salon of intellectuals interested in the sciences. The siblings maintained "a lifelong intellectual partnership, where brother and sister shared medical remedies, promoted each other's scientific ideas, and edited each other's manuscripts." His contemporaries widely acknowledged Katherine's influence on his work, but later historiographers dropped discussion of her accomplishments and relationship to her brother from their histories. === Later years === In 1669 his health, never very strong, began to fail seriously and he gradually withdrew from his public engagements, ceasing his communications to the Royal Society, and advertising his desire to be excused from receiving guests, "unless upon occasions very extraordinary", on Tuesday and Friday forenoon, and Wednesday and Saturday afternoon. In the leisure thus gained he wished to "recruit his spirits, range his papers", and prepare some important chemical investigations which he proposed to leave "as a kind of Hermetic legacy to the studious disciples of that art", but of which he did not make known the nature. His health became still


id: robert-boyle-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Boyle-2.md
category: reference
title: Robert Boyle
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Boyle
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:54.217837+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: robert-boyle-20260505-0
summary:
==== Other contributions ==== Among his major work in and contributions to physics were Boyle's law, the discovery of the role played by air in the propagation of sound, and investigations of the expansive force of freezing water, specific gravities, refractive powers, crystals, electricity, colour, and hydrostatics. == Theological interests == In addition to philosophy, Boyle devoted much time to theology, showing a very decided leaning to the practical side and an indifference to controversial polemics. At the Restoration of Charles II of England in 1660, he was favourably received at court and in 1665 would have received the provostship of Eton College had he agreed to take holy orders, but this he refused to do on the ground that his writings on religious subjects would have greater weight coming from a layman than a paid minister of the Church. Moreover, Boyle incorporated his scientific interests into his theology, believing that natural philosophy could provide powerful evidence for the existence of God. In works such as Disquisition about the Final Causes of Natural Things (1688), for instance, he criticised contemporary philosophers – such as René Descartes – who denied that the study of nature could reveal much about God. Instead,


id: robert-boyle-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Boyle-3.md
category: reference
title: Robert Boyle
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Boyle
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:54.217837+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: robert-boyle-20260505-0
summary:
1660 – New Experiments Physico-Mechanical: Touching the Spring of the Air and their Effects 1661 – The Sceptical Chymist 1662 – Whereunto is Added a Defence of the Authors Explication of the Experiments, Against the Obiections of Franciscus Linus and Thomas Hobbes (a book-length addendum to the second edition of New Experiments Physico-Mechanical) 1663 – Considerations touching the Usefulness of Experimental Natural Philosophy (followed by a second part in 1671) 1664 – Experiments and Considerations Touching Colours, with Observations on a Diamond that Shines in the Dark 1665 – New Experiments and Observations Touching Cold 1666 – Hydrostatical Paradoxes 1666 – Origin of Forms and Qualities according to the Corpuscular Philosophy. (A continuation of his work on the spring of air demonstrated that a reduction in ambient pressure could lead to bubble formation in living tissue. This description of a viper in a vacuum was the first recorded description of decompression sickness.) 1669 – A Continuation of New Experiments Physico-mechanical, Touching the Spring and Weight of the Air, and Their Effects 1670 – Tracts about the Cosmical Qualities of Things, the Temperature of the Subterraneal and Submarine Regions, the Bottom of the Sea, &tc. with an Introduction to the History


id: james-braid-surgeon-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Braid_(surgeon)-0.md
category: reference
title: James Braid (surgeon)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Braid_(surgeon)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:56.562119+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: james-braid-surgeon-20260505-0
summary:
James Braid (19 June 1795 – 25 March 1860) was a Scottish surgeon, natural philosopher, and "gentleman scientist". He was a significant innovator in the treatment of clubfoot, spinal curvature, knock-knees, bandy legs, and squint; a significant pioneer of hypnotism and hypnotherapy, and an important and influential pioneer in the adoption of both hypnotic anaesthesia and chemical anaesthesia. He is regarded by some, such as William S. Kroger (2008, p. 3), as the "Father of Modern Hypnotism". However, in relation to the issue of there being significant connections between Braid's "hypnotism" and "modern hypnotism" (as it is practised), let alone "identity" between the two, André Muller Weitzenhoffer (2000) urges the utmost caution in making any such assumption: "It has been a basic assumption of modern (i.e., twentieth century) hypnotism that it is founded on the same phenomenology it historically evolved from. Such differences as exist between older versions of hypnotism and newer ones being reduced largely to a matter of interpretation of the facts. That there are common elements is not in question, but that there is full identity in questionable and basically untestable." – André Muller Weitzenhoffer (p. 3; emphasis added). Also, in relation to the clinical application of


id: james-braid-surgeon-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Braid_(surgeon)-1.md
category: reference
title: James Braid (surgeon)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Braid_(surgeon)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:56.562119+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: james-braid-surgeon-20260505-0
summary:
[all of which] determined me to consider the whole as a system of collusion or illusion, or of excited imagination, sympathy, or imitation. I therefore abandoned the subject as unworthy of farther investigation, until I attended the conversazioni of Lafontaine, where I saw one fact, the inability of a patient to open his eyelids, which arrested my attention; I felt convinced it was not to be attributed to any of the causes referred to, and I therefore instituted experiments to determine the question; and exhibited the results to the public in a few days after. – (Braid, Neurypnology (1843), p. 35; emphasis added). Braid always maintained that he had gone to Lafontaine's demonstration as an open-minded sceptic, eager to examine the presented evidence at first hand – that is, rather than "entirely [depending] on reading or hearsay evidence for his knowledge of it" – and, then, from that evidence, form a considered opinion of Lafontaine's work. He was neither a closed-minded cynic intent on destroying Lafontaine, nor a deluded and naïvely credulous believer seeking authorization of his already formed belief. Braid was amongst the medical men who were invited onto the platform by Lafontaine. Braid examined the physical condition of


id: james-braid-surgeon-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Braid_(surgeon)-2.md
category: reference
title: James Braid (surgeon)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Braid_(surgeon)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:56.562119+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: james-braid-surgeon-20260505-0
summary:
On the evening of Sunday, 10 April 1842, at St Jude's Church, Liverpool, the controversial cleric Hugh Boyd M'Neile preached a sermon against Mesmerism for more than ninety minutes to a capacity congregation; and, according to most critics, it was a poorly argued and unimpressive performance. M'Neile's core argument was that scripture asserts the existence of "satanic agency"; and, in the process of delivering his sermon, he provided examples of the various instantiations that "satanic agency" might manifest (observing times, divination, necromancy, etc.), and claimed that these were all forms of "witchcraft"; and, further, he asserted that, because scripture asserts that, as "latter times" approach, more and more evidence of "satanic agency" will appear, it was, M'Neile asserted, ipso facto, transparently obvious that the exhibitions of Lafontaine and Braid, in Liverpool, at that very moment, were concrete examples of those particular instantiations. He then moved into a confusing admixture of philippic (against Braid and Lafontaine), and polemic (against animal magnetism), wherein he concluded that all mesmeric phenomena were due to "satanic agency". In particular, he attacked Braid as a man, a scientist, a philosopher, and a medical professional. He claimed that Braid and Lafontaine were one and the same kind.


id: james-braid-surgeon-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Braid_(surgeon)-3.md
category: reference
title: James Braid (surgeon)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Braid_(surgeon)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:56.562119+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: james-braid-surgeon-20260505-0
summary:
"I adopted the term "hypnotism" to prevent my being confounded with those who entertain those extreme notions [sc. that a mesmeriser's will has an "irresistible power… over his subjects" and that clairvoyance and other "higher phenomena" are routinely manifested by those in the mesmeric state], as well as to get rid of the erroneous theory about a magnetic fluid, or exoteric influence of any description being the cause of the sleep. I distinctly avowed that hypnotism laid no claim to produce any phenomena which were not "quite reconcilable with well-established physiological and psychological principles"; pointed out the various sources of fallacy which might have misled the mesmerists; [and] was the first to give a public explanation of the trick [by which a fraudulent subject had been able to deceive his mesmeriser]… [Further, I have never been] a supporter of the imagination theory – i.e., that the induction of [hypnosis] in the first instance is merely the result of imagination. My belief is quite the contrary. I attribute it to the induction of a habit of intense abstraction, or concentration of attention, and maintain that it is most readily induced by causing the patient to fix his thoughts and sight on


id: james-braid-surgeon-20260505-4
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Braid_(surgeon)-4.md
category: reference
title: James Braid (surgeon)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Braid_(surgeon)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:56.562119+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: james-braid-surgeon-20260505-0
summary:
In his presentation Braid stressed that, because he had clearly demonstrated that the effects of hypnotism were "quite reconcilable with well-established physiological and psychological principles" (viz., they were well connected to the prevailing canonical knowledge), it was highly significant that none of the extraordinary effects that the mesmerists and animal magnetists routinely claimed for their operations – such as clairvoyance, direct mental suggestion, and mesmeric intuition – could be produced with hypnotism. So, he argued, it was clear that their claims were entirely without foundation.However, he also stressed to his audience that, whilst it was, indeed, entirely true that these effects could not be produced with hypnotism – and whilst the claims of the mesmerists and animal magnetists were, ipso facto, entirely false – one must not make the mistake of concluding that this was unequivocal evidence of deception, dishonesty, or outright fraud on the part of those making these erroneous claims.In Braid’s view (given that many of the proponents of such views were decent men, and that their experiences had been honestly recounted), the only possible explanation was that their observations were seriously flawed.To Braid, these faults in their investigatory processes were "the chief source of error". He urged


id: james-braid-surgeon-20260505-5
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Braid_(surgeon)-5.md
category: reference
title: James Braid (surgeon)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Braid_(surgeon)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:56.562119+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: james-braid-surgeon-20260505-0
summary:
"[The explanation for] the power that serpents have to fascinate birds … is simply this – that when the attention of man or animal is deeply engrossed or absorbed by a given idea associated with movement, a current of nervous force is sent into the muscles which produces a corresponding motion, not only without any conscious effort of volition, but even in opposition to volition, in many instances; and hence they seem to be irresistibly drawn, or spell-bound, according to the purport of the dominant idea or impression in the mind of each at the time.The volition is prostrate; the individual is so completely monoideised, or under the influence of the dominant idea, as to be incapable of exerting an efficient restraining or opposing power to the dominant idea; and in the case of the bird and serpent, it is first wonder which arrests the creature's attention, and then fear causes that mono-ideo-dynamic action of the muscles which involuntarily issues in the advance and capture of the unhappy bird …It is this very principle of involuntary muscular action from a dominant idea which has got possession of the mind, and the suggestions conveyed to the mind by the muscular action


id: james-braid-surgeon-20260505-6
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Braid_(surgeon)-6.md
category: reference
title: James Braid (surgeon)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Braid_(surgeon)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:05:56.562119+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: james-braid-surgeon-20260505-0
summary:
== Influence == Braid's work had a strong influence on a number of important French medical figures, especially Étienne Eugène Azam (1822–1899) of Bordeaux (Braid's principal French "disciple"), the anatomist Pierre Paul Broca (1824–1880), the physiologist Joseph Pierre Durand de Gros (1826–1901), and (per medium of Azam) the eminent hypnotherapist, and one of the founders of the Nancy School, Ambroise-Auguste Liébeault (1823–1904). Braid hypnotised the English Swedenborgian writer J.J.G. Wilkinson, who observed him hypnotising others several times, and began using hypnotism himself. Wilkinson soon became a passionate advocate of Braid's work and his published remarks on hypnotism were quoted enthusiastically by Braid several times in his later writings. However, Braid's legacy was maintained in Great Britain largely by John Milne Bramwell who collected all of his available works and published a biography and account of Braid's theory and practice as well as several books on hypnotism of his own (see below). == Works == Braid published many letters and articles in journals and newspapers; he also published several pamphlets, and a number of books (many of which were compendiums of his previously published works). His first major publication was Neurypnology, or the Rationale of Nervous Sleep (1843), written less than


id: william-brownrigg-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Brownrigg-0.md
category: reference
title: William Brownrigg
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Brownrigg
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:01.835858+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: william-brownrigg-20260505-0
summary:
William Brownrigg (24 March 1712 [O.S. 13 March 1711] – 6 January 1800) was an English physician and scientist who practised at Whitehaven in Cumberland. While there, Brownrigg carried out experiments that earned him the Copley Medal in 1766 for his work on carbonic acid gas. He was the first person to recognise platinum as a new element. He was created a Fellow of the Royal Society. == Early life and education == He was born at High Close Hall near Plumbland, the son of local gentry, George Brownrigg. William's mother, Mary Brownrigg, was from Ireland. William was educated in Latin and Greek by a local clergyman from the age of 13 and by the age of 15 was an apprentice to an apothecary in Carlisle. Then followed two years studying under a surgeon in London before going to Leiden where he studied under Boerhaave, 's Gravesande, van Royen and Albinus. He graduated in 1737 with his thesis "De Praxi Medica Ineunda" – about the environment where the clinician practises medicine. He gained the degree of Doctor of Medicine (MD). == Medical career == Brownrigg returned to Britain and took up medicine with an established doctor called Richard Senhouse in


id: george-cayley-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Cayley-0.md
category: reference
title: George Cayley
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Cayley
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:03.078841+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: george-cayley-20260505-0
summary:
Sir George Cayley, 6th Baronet (27 December 1773 – 15 December 1857) was an English engineer, inventor, and aviator. He was a pioneer of aeronautical engineering and is sometimes referred to as "the father of aviation", designing the first glider reliably reported to carry a human aloft. He is commonly credited as the first person to understand the underlying principles and forces of heavier-than-air flight: weight, lift, drag and thrust. He was also the inventor of the wire wheel. In 1799, he set forth the concept of the modern aeroplane as a fixed-wing flying machine with separate systems for lift, propulsion, and control. Modern aeroplane design is based on those discoveries and on the cambered wings he proposed. He constructed the first flying model aeroplane and also diagrammed the elements of vertical flight. He correctly predicted that sustained flight would not occur until a lightweight engine was developed to provide adequate thrust and lift. The Wright brothers acknowledged his importance to the development of aviation. Cayley represented the Whig party as Member of Parliament for Scarborough from 1832 to 1835, and in 1838, helped found the UK's first Polytechnic Institute, the Royal Polytechnic Institution (now University of Westminster) and served


id: george-cayley-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Cayley-1.md
category: reference
title: George Cayley
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Cayley
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:03.078841+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: george-cayley-20260505-0
summary:
The model glider successfully flown by Cayley in 1804 had the layout of a modern aircraft, with a kite-shaped wing towards the front and an adjustable tailplane at the back consisting of horizontal stabilisers and a vertical fin. A movable weight allowed adjustment of the model's centre of gravity. In 1843 he was the first to suggest the idea of a convertiplane. At some time before 1849 he designed and built a biplane in which an unknown ten-year-old boy flew. Later, with the continued assistance of his grandson George John Cayley and his resident engineer Thomas Vick, he developed a larger scale glider (also probably fitted with "flappers") which flew across Brompton Dale in front of Wydale Hall in 1853. The first adult aviator has been claimed to be either Cayley's coachman, footman or butler. One source (Gibbs-Smith) has suggested that it was John Appleby, a Cayley employee; however, there is no definitive evidence to fully identify the pilot. An entry in volume IX of the 8th Encyclopædia Britannica of 1855 is the most contemporaneous authoritative account regarding the event. A 2007 biography of Cayley (Richard Dee's The Man Who Discovered Flight: George Cayley and the First Airplane) claims the


id: andrew-crosse-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Crosse-0.md
category: reference
title: Andrew Crosse
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Crosse
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:04.246897+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: andrew-crosse-20260505-0
summary:
Andrew Crosse (17 June 1784 – 6 July 1855) was a British scientist who was born and died at Fyne Court, Broomfield, Somerset. Crosse was an early pioneer and experimenter in the use of electricity. He became known after press reports of an electrocrystallization experiment he conducted in 1836, during which insects "appeared". == Early life == Crosse was the first son of Richard Crosse and Susannah Porter. In 1788 he accompanied them on a trip to France, where he went to school for a time in Orléans. From the age of six until he was eight he stayed with a tutor, the Reverend Mr White, in Dorchester, where he learned Greek. On 1 February 1792 he was sent to boarding school in Bristol. Around the age of 12, Crosse persuaded one of his teachers to let him attend a series of lectures on the natural sciences, the second of which was on the subject of electricity. This was the cause of his lifelong interest in the subject. Crosse first began experimenting with electricity during his time in the sixth form, when he built a Leyden jar. After leaving school, he studied at Brasenose College, Oxford. == Scientific research ==


id: andrew-crosse-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Crosse-1.md
category: reference
title: Andrew Crosse
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Crosse
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:04.246897+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: andrew-crosse-20260505-0
summary:
A few months after the meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science Crosse was conducting another electrocrystallization experiment when, on the 26th day of the experiment, he saw what he described as "the perfect insect, standing erect on a few bristles which formed its tail". More creatures appeared and two days later they began moving their legs. Over the next few weeks hundreds more appeared. They crawled around the table and hid themselves wherever they could find shelter. Crosse identified them as being members of the genus Acarus. Puzzled, Crosse mentioned the incident to a couple of friends. A local newspaper learned of the incident and published an article about the "extraordinary experiment," naming the insects Acarus crossii. The article was subsequently picked up by other newspapers across the country and elsewhere in Europe. Some readers apparently gained the impression that Crosse had somehow "created" the insects, or at least claimed to have done so. He received angry letters in which he was accused of blasphemy and trying to take God's place as a creator. Some of them included death threats. Other scientists tried to repeat the experiment. W. H. Weeks took extensive measures to assure a


id: charles-darwin-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin-0.md
category: reference
title: Charles Darwin
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:05.516999+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: charles-darwin-20260505-0
summary:
Charles Robert Darwin ( DAR-win; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended from a common ancestor is now generally accepted and considered a fundamental scientific concept. In a joint presentation with Alfred Russel Wallace, he introduced his scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process he called natural selection, in which the struggle for existence has a similar effect to the artificial selection involved in selective breeding. Darwin has been described as one of the most influential figures in human history and was honoured by burial in Westminster Abbey. Darwin's early interest in nature led him to neglect his medical education at the University of Edinburgh; instead, he helped Robert Edmond Grant to investigate marine invertebrates. His studies at the University of Cambridge's Christ's College from 1828 to 1831 encouraged his passion for natural science. However, it was his five-year voyage on HMS Beagle from 1831 to 1836 that truly established Darwin as an eminent geologist. The observations and theories he developed during his voyage supported Charles Lyell's concept of gradual geological


id: charles-darwin-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin-1.md
category: reference
title: Charles Darwin
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:05.516999+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: charles-darwin-20260505-0
summary:
Both families were largely Unitarian, though the Wedgwoods were adopting Anglicanism. Robert Darwin, a freethinker, had baby Charles baptised in November 1809 in the Anglican St Chad's Church, Shrewsbury, but Charles and his siblings attended the local Unitarian Church with their mother. The eight-year-old Charles already had a taste for natural history and collecting when he joined the day school run by its preacher in 1817. That July, his mother died. From September 1818, he joined his older brother Erasmus in attending the nearby Anglican Shrewsbury School as a boarder. Darwin spent the summer of 1825 as an apprentice doctor, helping his father treat impoverished people in Shropshire, before going to the well-regarded University of Edinburgh Medical School with his brother Erasmus in October 1825. Darwin found lectures dull and surgery distressing, so he neglected his studies. He learned taxidermy in around 40 daily hour-long sessions from John Edmonstone, a Black Briton from Demerara in the South American rainforest, who had been taught there by Charles Waterton, and when brought to Scotland was freed from slavery. In Darwin's second year at the university, he joined the Plinian Society, a student natural-history group featuring lively debates in which radical democratic students


id: charles-darwin-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin-2.md
category: reference
title: Charles Darwin
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:05.516999+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: charles-darwin-20260505-0
summary:
On their first stop ashore at St Jago in Cape Verde, Darwin found that a white band high in the volcanic rock cliffs included seashells. FitzRoy had given him the first volume of Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology, which set out uniformitarian concepts of land slowly rising or falling over immense periods,[II] and Darwin saw things Lyell's way, theorising and thinking of writing a book on geology. When they reached Brazil, Darwin was delighted by the tropical forest, but detested the sight of slavery there, and disputed this issue with FitzRoy. The survey continued to the south in Patagonia. They stopped at Bahía Blanca, and in cliffs near Punta Alta, Darwin made a significant find of fossil bones of huge extinct mammals beside modern seashells, indicating recent extinction with no signs of change in climate or catastrophe. He found bony plates like a giant version of the armour on local armadillos. From a jaw and tooth, he identified the gigantic Megatherium, then from Cuvier's description thought the armour was from this animal. The finds were shipped to England, and scientists found the fossils of great interest. On rides with gauchos into the interior to explore geology and collect more fossils,


id: charles-darwin-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin-3.md
category: reference
title: Charles Darwin
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:05.516999+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: charles-darwin-20260505-0
summary:
On 2 October 1836, Beagle anchored at Falmouth, Cornwall. Darwin promptly made the long coach journey to Shrewsbury to visit his home and see relatives. He then hurried to Cambridge to see Henslow, who advised him on finding available naturalists to catalogue Darwin's animal collections and to take on the botanical specimens. Darwin's father organised investments, enabling his son to be a self-funded gentleman scientist, and an excited Darwin went around the London institutions being fêted and seeking experts to describe the collections. British zoologists at the time had a huge backlog of work, due to the encouragement of natural history collecting throughout the British Empire, and there was a danger of specimens being left in storage. Charles Lyell eagerly met Darwin for the first time on 29 October and soon introduced him to the up-and-coming anatomist Richard Owen, who had the facilities of the Royal College of Surgeons to work on the fossil bones collected by Darwin. Owen's surprising results included other gigantic extinct ground sloths as well as the Megatherium Darwin had identified, a near complete skeleton of the unknown Scelidotherium and a hippopotamus-sized rodent-like skull named Toxodon resembling a giant capybara. The armour fragments were actually from


id: charles-darwin-20260505-4
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin-4.md
category: reference
title: Charles Darwin
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:05.516999+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: charles-darwin-20260505-0
summary:
While developing this intensive study of transmutation, Darwin became mired in more work. Still rewriting his Journal, he took on editing and publishing the expert reports on his collections, and with Henslow's help obtained a Treasury grant of £1,000 to sponsor this multi-volume Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, a sum equivalent to about £115,000 in 2021. He stretched the funding to include his planned books on geology, and agreed to unrealistic dates with the publisher. As the Victorian era began, Darwin pressed on with writing his Journal, and in August 1837 began correcting printer's proofs. As Darwin worked under pressure, his health suffered. On 20 September, he had "an uncomfortable palpitation of the heart", so his doctors urged him to "knock off all work" and live in the country for a few weeks. After visiting Shrewsbury, he joined his Wedgwood relatives at Maer Hall, Staffordshire, but found them too eager for tales of his travels to give him much rest. His charming, intelligent, and cultured cousin Emma Wedgwood, nine months older than Darwin, was nursing his invalid aunt. His uncle Josiah pointed out an area of ground where cinders had disappeared under loam. Darwin suggested that this might


id: charles-darwin-20260505-5
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin-5.md
category: reference
title: Charles Darwin
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:05.516999+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: charles-darwin-20260505-0
summary:
In October 1838, that is, fifteen months after I had begun my systematic enquiry, I happened to read for amusement Malthus on Population, and being well prepared to appreciate the struggle for existence which everywhere goes on from long-continued observation of the habits of animals and plants, it at once struck me that under these circumstances favourable variations would tend to be preserved, and unfavourable ones to be destroyed. The result of this would be the formation of new species. Here, then, I had at last got a theory by which to work... By mid-December, Darwin saw a similarity between farmers picking the best stock in selective breeding, and a Malthusian Nature selecting from chance variants so that "every part of newly acquired structure is fully practical and perfected", thinking this comparison "a beautiful part of my theory". He later called his theory natural selection, an analogy with what he termed the "artificial selection" of selective breeding. On 11 November, he returned to Maer and proposed to Emma, once more telling her his ideas. She accepted, then, in exchanges of loving letters, showed how she valued his openness in sharing their differences, while expressing her strong Unitarian beliefs and concerns


id: charles-darwin-20260505-6
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin-6.md
category: reference
title: Charles Darwin
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:05.516999+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: charles-darwin-20260505-0
summary:
=== Publication of the theory of natural selection === By the start of 1856, Darwin was investigating whether eggs and seeds could survive travel across seawater to spread species across oceans. Hooker increasingly doubted the traditional view that species were fixed, but their young friend Thomas Henry Huxley was still firmly against the transmutation of species. Lyell was intrigued by Darwin's speculations without realising their extent. When he read a paper by Alfred Russel Wallace, "On the Law which has Regulated the Introduction of New Species", he saw similarities with Darwin's thoughts. He urged him to publish to establish precedence. Though Darwin saw no threat, on 14 May 1856, he began writing a short paper. Finding answers to difficult questions held him up repeatedly, and he expanded his plans to a "big book on species" titled Natural Selection, which was to include his "note on Man". He continued his research, obtaining information and specimens from naturalists worldwide, including Wallace, who was working in Borneo. In mid-1857, he added a section heading, "Theory applied to Races of Man", but did not add text on this topic. On 5 September 1857, Darwin sent the American botanist Asa Gray a detailed outline of


id: charles-darwin-20260505-7
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin-7.md
category: reference
title: Charles Darwin
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:05.516999+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: charles-darwin-20260505-0
summary:
The book aroused international interest, with less controversy than had greeted the popular and less scientific Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation. Though Darwin's illness kept him away from the public debates, he eagerly scrutinised the scientific response, commenting on press cuttings, reviews, articles, satires and caricatures, and corresponded on it with colleagues worldwide. The book did not explicitly discuss human origins,[IV] but included a number of hints about the animal ancestry of humans from which the inference could be made. Upon reading it, Huxley remarked "How extremely stupid not to have thought of that!" The first review asked, "If a monkey has become a man – what may not a man become?" It said this should be left to theologians as being too dangerous for ordinary readers. Among early favourable responses, Huxley's reviews swiped at Richard Owen, leader of the scientific establishment which Huxley was trying to overthrow. In April, Owen's review attacked Darwin's friends and condescendingly dismissed his ideas, angering Darwin, but Owen and others began to promote ideas of supernaturally guided evolution. Patrick Matthew drew attention to his 1831 book, which had a brief appendix suggesting a concept of natural selection leading to new species, but


id: charles-darwin-20260505-8
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin-8.md
category: reference
title: Charles Darwin
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:05.516999+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: charles-darwin-20260505-0
summary:
Despite repeated bouts of illness during the last twenty-two years of his life, Darwin's work continued. Having published On the Origin of Species as an abstract of his theory, he pressed on with experiments, research, and writing of his "big book". He covered human descent from earlier animals, including the evolution of society and of mental abilities, as well as explaining decorative beauty in wildlife and diversifying into innovative plant studies. Enquiries about insect pollination led in 1861 to novel studies of wild orchids, showing adaptation of their flowers to attract specific moths to each species and ensure cross-fertilisation. In 1862, Fertilisation of Orchids gave his first detailed demonstration of the power of natural selection to explain complex ecological relationships, making testable predictions. Explorers in Madagascar had discovered an orchid, Angraecum sesquipedale, with a sixteen-inch-long nectary. Darwin predicted the existence of a moth with a proboscis long enough to pollinate it; the pollen "would not be withdrawn until some huge moth, with a wonderfully long proboscis, tried to drain the last drop." Explorers in Madagascar discovered Xanthopan in 1903. As his health declined, he lay on his sickbed in a room filled with inventive experiments to trace the movements of


id: charles-darwin-20260505-9
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin-9.md
category: reference
title: Charles Darwin
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:05.516999+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: charles-darwin-20260505-0
summary:
Charles Waring Darwin, born in December 1856, was the tenth and last of the children. Emma Darwin was aged 48 at the time of the birth, and the child was mentally subnormal and never learnt to walk or talk. He probably had Down syndrome, which had not then been medically described. The evidence is a photograph by William Erasmus Darwin of the infant and his mother, showing a characteristic head shape, and the family's observations of the child. Charles Waring died of scarlet fever on 28 June 1858, when Darwin wrote in his journal: "Poor dear Baby died." Of his surviving children, George, Francis and Horace became Fellows of the Royal Society, distinguished as an astronomer, botanist and civil engineer, respectively. All three were knighted. Another son, Leonard, went on to be a soldier, politician, economist, eugenicist, and mentor of the statistician and evolutionary biologist Ronald Fisher. == Views and opinions == === Religious views === Darwin's family tradition was nonconformist Unitarianism, while his father and grandfather were freethinkers, and his baptism and boarding school were Church of England. When going to Cambridge to become an Anglican clergyman, he did not "in the least doubt the strict and literal truth


id: charles-darwin-20260505-10
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin-10.md
category: reference
title: Charles Darwin
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:05.516999+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: charles-darwin-20260505-0
summary:
=== Human society === Darwin's views on social and political issues reflected his time and social position. He grew up in a family of Whig reformers who, like his uncle Josiah Wedgwood, supported electoral reform and the emancipation of slaves. Darwin was passionately opposed to slavery. Taking taxidermy lessons in 1826 from the freed slave John Edmonstone, whom Darwin long recalled as "a very pleasant and intelligent man", reinforced his belief that black people shared the same feelings, and could be as intelligent as people of other races. He took the same attitude to native people he met on the Beagle voyage. Though commonplace in Britain at the time, Silliman and Bachman noticed the contrast with slave-owning America. Around twenty years later, racism became a feature of British society, but Darwin remained strongly against slavery, against "ranking the so-called races of man as distinct species", and against ill-treatment of native people.[VII] Darwin's interaction with Yaghans (Fuegians) such as Jemmy Button during the second voyage of HMS Beagle had a profound impact on his view of indigenous peoples. At his arrival in Tierra del Fuego, he made a colourful description of "Fuegian savages". This view changed as he came to know


id: charles-darwin-20260505-11
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin-11.md
category: reference
title: Charles Darwin
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:05.516999+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: charles-darwin-20260505-0
summary:
Darwin was a prolific writer. Even without the publication of his works on evolution, he would have had a considerable reputation as the author of The Voyage of the Beagle, as a geologist who had published extensively on South America and had solved the puzzle of the formation of coral atolls, and as a biologist who had published the definitive work on barnacles. While On the Origin of Species dominates perceptions of his work, The Descent of Man and The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals had considerable impact, and his books on plants including The Power of Movement in Plants were innovative studies of great importance, as was his final work on The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms. == Legacy and commemoration == As Alfred Russel Wallace put it, Darwin had "wrought a greater revolution in human thought within a quarter of a century than any man of our time – or perhaps any time", having "given us a new conception of the world of life, and a theory which is itself a powerful instrument of research; has shown us how to combine into one consistent whole the facts accumulated by all the


id: edward-digges-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Digges-0.md
category: reference
title: Edward Digges
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Digges
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:06.815126+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: edward-digges-20260505-0
summary:
Edward Digges (14 February 1620 – 15 March 1674/75) was an English barrister and colonist who became a premium tobacco planter and official in the Virginia colony. The son of the English politician Dudley Digges represented the colony before the Virginia Company of London and the royal government, as well as served for two decades on the colony's Council of State. Digges served as interim Colonial Governor of Virginia from March 1655 to December 1656, and for longer periods as the colony's receiver general and auditor-general. He is also known for planting mulberry trees and promoting the silk industry in the colony. == Early life and education == Born in Chilham Castle, Kent, England, and christened in Chilham parish on 29 March 1620, Edward Digges was the fourth son of Sir Dudley Digges (1583–1638) and his wife Mary Kempe (1583–?). Sir Dudley was the Master of the Rolls for King Charles I and an investor in the Virginia Company of London. On 13 June 1621, that company gave Sir Dudley a patent, and on 10 June 1622 he was identified as holding the patent for a particular plantation in Virginia, but this son would not arrive in Virginia for another


id: edward-digges-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Digges-1.md
category: reference
title: Edward Digges
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Digges
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:06.815126+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: edward-digges-20260505-0
summary:
William Digges (c. 1651 – 24 July 1697) served in the House of Burgesses as well as in local offices. He married Elizabeth Wharton, step-daughter of Lord Baltimore, and had ten children. Dudley Digges (burgess) (1664 – 18 Jan 1710) served in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly. He married Susannah Cole (1674 – 1708), daughter of Col. William Cole of Bolthorpe by his first wife, and produced four children: Cole Digges (burgess) (1691-1744) Edward Digges (who died in Woodford, England in 1711) Dudley Digges Jr. (1694-1768) A daughter, Elizabeth Mary (– 1690/91); she married her first cousin Francis Page, and had a daughter Elizabeth, who in turn married a first cousin (John Page) and died in 1702, aged 19, leaving two children (John and Elizabeth), both of whom died without issue. Anne (– 1686); she became the second wife of Col. William Cole (member of the Governor's Council) of Bolthorpe in Warwick County, Virginia. They had two sons, both of whom died in childhood, although her husband remarried and the son of his third wife, the former Martha Lear, was William Cole who represented Warwick County alongside Cole Digges mentioned above. Edward; he shared in the 1692 division


id: carlo-fornasini-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlo_Fornasini-0.md
category: reference
title: Carlo Fornasini
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlo_Fornasini
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:09.307260+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: carlo-fornasini-20260505-0
summary:
Cavaliere dottore Carlo Fornasini (3 November 1854 – 24 December 1931) was an Italian micropalaeontologist who specialised in Foraminifera ('forams'). He was a pioneer in using fossil forams to sequence marine sedimentary deposits by their relative dates; a technique called biostratigraphy. == Biography == He was the third son of Francesco Fornasini, a medical doctor, and his wife Carlotta (née Ferraresi). He studied natural sciences at the University of Bologna, under the guidance of Giovanni Capellini (1833-1922), the Professor of Geology there. In 1877, he graduated with honours as dottore (in effect, PhD), on the basis of a thesis which argued from the sequence of the fossil record that certain chalks, marls and clays in the Savena valley near Bologna dated from the Pliocene (5.3-2.6 Ma) rather than, as had previously been thought (including by Capellini), from the Miocene (23.0-5.3 Ma). That same year, Capellini published a paper about this discovery which relegated Fornasini's contribution to that of an assistant and which passed off Fornasini's conclusions as his own. That sort of behaviour has become unacceptable. In 1928, Michele Gortani (1883-1966), who had succeeded Capellini as Professor of Geology, wrote that "the Master had deprived his most promising student, Carlo


id: benjamin-franklin-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin-0.md
category: reference
title: Benjamin Franklin
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:16.447701+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: benjamin-franklin-20260505-0
summary:
Benjamin Franklin (January 17, 1706 [O.S. January 6, 1705] – April 17, 1790) was an American polymath: a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher and political philosopher. Among the most influential intellectuals of his time, Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States; a drafter and signer of the Declaration of Independence; and the first postmaster general. Born in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, Franklin became a successful newspaper editor and printer in Philadelphia, the leading city in the colonies, publishing The Pennsylvania Gazette at age 23. He became wealthy publishing this and Poor Richard's Almanack, which he wrote under the pseudonym "Richard Saunders". After 1767, he was associated with the Pennsylvania Chronicle, a newspaper known for its revolutionary sentiments and criticisms of the policies of the British Parliament and the Crown. He pioneered and was the first president of the Academy and College of Philadelphia, which opened in 1751 and later became the University of Pennsylvania. He organized and was the first secretary of the American Philosophical Society and was elected its president in 1769. He was appointed deputy postmaster-general for the British colonies in 1753, which enabled him to set up the first national


id: benjamin-franklin-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin-1.md
category: reference
title: Benjamin Franklin
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:16.447701+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: benjamin-franklin-20260505-0
summary:
Franklin was born on Milk Street in Boston, Province of Massachusetts Bay, on January 17, 1706, and baptized at the Old South Meeting House in Boston. As a child growing up along the Charles River, Franklin recalled that he was "generally the leader among the boys." Franklin's father wanted him to attend school with the clergy but only had enough money to send him to school for two years. He attended Boston Latin School but did not graduate; he continued his education through voracious reading. Although "his parents talked of the church as a career" for Franklin, his schooling ended when he was ten. He worked for his father for a time, and at 12 he became an apprentice to his brother James, a printer, who taught him the printing trade. When Benjamin was 15, James founded The New-England Courant, which was the third newspaper founded in Boston. When denied the chance to write a letter to the paper for publication, Franklin adopted the pseudonym of "Silence Dogood", a middle-aged widow. Mrs. Dogood's letters were published and became a subject of conversation around town. Neither James nor the Courant's readers were aware of the ruse, and James was unhappy with


id: benjamin-franklin-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin-2.md
category: reference
title: Benjamin Franklin
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:16.447701+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: benjamin-franklin-20260505-0
summary:
Upon Denham's death, Franklin returned to his former trade. In 1728, he set up a printing house in partnership with Hugh Meredith; the following year he became the publisher of The Pennsylvania Gazette, a newspaper in Philadelphia. The Gazette gave Franklin a forum for agitation about a variety of local reforms and initiatives through printed essays and observations. Over time, his commentary, and his adroit cultivation of a positive image as an industrious and intellectual young man, earned him a great deal of social respect. But even after he achieved fame as a scientist and statesman, he habitually signed his letters with the unpretentious 'B. Franklin, Printer'. In 1732, he published the first German-language newspaper in America – Die Philadelphische Zeitung – although it failed after only one year because four other newly founded German papers quickly dominated the newspaper market. Franklin also printed Moravian religious books in German. He often visited Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, staying at the Moravian Sun Inn. In a 1751 pamphlet on demographic growth and its implications for the Thirteen Colonies, he called the Pennsylvania Germans "Palatine Boors" who could never acquire the "Complexion" of Anglo-American settlers and referred to "Blacks and Tawneys" as weakening the social


id: benjamin-franklin-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin-3.md
category: reference
title: Benjamin Franklin
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:16.447701+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: benjamin-franklin-20260505-0
summary:
At age 17 in 1723, Franklin proposed to 15-year-old Deborah Read while a boarder in the Read home. At that time, Deborah's mother was wary of allowing her young daughter to marry Franklin, who was on his way to London at Governor Keith's request, and also because of his financial instability. Her own husband had recently died, and she declined Franklin's request to marry her daughter. Franklin travelled to London, and after he failed to communicate as expected with Deborah and her family, they interpreted his long silence as a breaking of his promises. At the urging of her mother, Deborah married a potter named John Rogers on August 5, 1725. John soon fled to Barbados with her dowry in order to avoid debts and prosecution. Since Rogers's fate was unknown, bigamy laws prevented Deborah from remarrying. Franklin returned in 1726 and resumed his courtship of Deborah. They established a common-law marriage on September 1, 1730. They took in his recently acknowledged illegitimate young son and raised him in their household. They had two children together. Their son, Francis Folger Franklin, was born in October 1732 and died of smallpox in 1736. Their daughter, Sarah "Sally" Franklin, was born in


id: benjamin-franklin-20260505-4
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin-4.md
category: reference
title: Benjamin Franklin
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:16.447701+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: benjamin-franklin-20260505-0
summary:
In 1736, Franklin created the Union Fire Company, one of the first volunteer firefighting companies in America. In the same year, he printed a new currency for New Jersey based on innovative anti-counterfeiting techniques he had devised. His political career also commenced, particularly as the Chief Clerk of the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly, a capacity wherein he served until 1751. Throughout his career, he was an advocate for paper money, publishing A Modest Enquiry into the Nature and Necessity of a Paper Currency in 1729, and his printer printed money. He was influential in the more restrained and thus successful monetary experiments in the Middle Colonies, which stopped deflation without causing excessive inflation. In 1766, he made a case for paper money to the British House of Commons. As he matured, Franklin began to concern himself more with public affairs. In 1743, he first devised a scheme for the Academy, Charity School, and College of Philadelphia; however, the person he had in mind to run the academy, Rev. Richard Peters, refused and Franklin put his ideas away until 1749 when he printed his own pamphlet, Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth in Pensilvania. He was appointed president of the Academy


id: benjamin-franklin-20260505-5
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin-5.md
category: reference
title: Benjamin Franklin
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:16.447701+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: benjamin-franklin-20260505-0
summary:
Well known as a printer and publisher, Franklin was appointed postmaster of Philadelphia in 1737, holding the office until 1753, when he and publisher William Hunter were named deputy postmasters–general of British North America, the first to hold the office. (Joint appointments were standard at the time, for political reasons.) He was responsible for the British colonies from Pennsylvania north and east, as far as the island of Newfoundland. A post office for local and outgoing mail had been established in Halifax, Nova Scotia, by local stationer Benjamin Leigh, on April 23, 1754, but service was irregular. Franklin opened the first post office to offer regular, monthly mail in Halifax on December 9, 1755. Meantime, Hunter became postal administrator in Williamsburg, Virginia, and oversaw areas south of Annapolis, Maryland. Franklin reorganized the service's accounting system and improved speed of delivery between Philadelphia, New York, and Boston. By 1761, efficiencies led to the first profits for the colonial post office. When the lands of New France were ceded to the British under the Treaty of Paris in 1763, the British province of Quebec was created among them, and Franklin saw mail service expanded between Montreal, Trois-Rivières, Quebec City, and New York.


id: benjamin-franklin-20260505-6
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin-6.md
category: reference
title: Benjamin Franklin
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:16.447701+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: benjamin-franklin-20260505-0
summary:
==== Scientific work ==== In 1756, Franklin had become a member of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce (now the Royal Society of Arts), which had been founded in 1754. After his return to the United States in 1775, he became the Society's Corresponding Member, continuing a close connection. The Royal Society of Arts instituted a Benjamin Franklin Medal in 1956 to commemorate the 250th anniversary of his birth and the 200th anniversary of his membership of the RSA. The study of natural philosophy (referred today as science in general) drew him into overlapping circles of acquaintance. Franklin was, for example, a corresponding member of the Lunar Society of Birmingham. In 1759, the University of St Andrews awarded him an honorary doctorate in recognition of his accomplishments. In October 1759, he was granted Freedom of the Borough of St Andrews. He was also awarded an honorary doctorate by Oxford University in 1762. Because of these honors, he was often addressed as "Dr. Franklin." While living in London in 1768, he developed a phonetic alphabet in A Scheme for a new Alphabet and a Reformed Mode of Spelling. This reformed alphabet discarded six letters he regarded as


id: benjamin-franklin-20260505-7
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin-7.md
category: reference
title: Benjamin Franklin
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:16.447701+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: benjamin-franklin-20260505-0
summary:
=== Coming of revolution === In 1763, soon after Franklin returned to Pennsylvania from England for the first time, the western frontier was engulfed in a bitter war known as Pontiac's Rebellion. The Paxton Boys, a group of settlers convinced that the Pennsylvania government was not doing enough to protect them from American Indian raids, murdered a group of peaceful Susquehannock Indians and marched on Philadelphia. Franklin helped to organize a local militia to defend the capital against the mob. He met with the Paxton leaders and persuaded them to disperse. Franklin wrote a scathing attack against the racial prejudice of the Paxton Boys. "If an Indian injures me", he asked, "does it follow that I may revenge that injury on all Indians?" He provided an early response to British surveillance through his own network of counter-surveillance and manipulation. "He waged a public relations campaign, secured secret aid, played a role in privateering expeditions, and churned out effective and inflammatory propaganda." === Declaration of Independence === By the time Franklin arrived in Philadelphia on May 5, 1775, after his second mission to Great Britain, the American Revolution had begun at the Battles of Lexington and Concord the previous month, on


id: benjamin-franklin-20260505-8
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin-8.md
category: reference
title: Benjamin Franklin
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:16.447701+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: benjamin-franklin-20260505-0
summary:
When he returned home in 1785, Franklin occupied a position second only to that of George Washington as the champion of American independence. Le Ray honored him with a commissioned portrait painted by Joseph Duplessis, which now hangs in the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. After his return, Franklin became an abolitionist and freed his two slaves. He eventually became president of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society. ==== President of Pennsylvania and Delegate to the Constitutional convention ==== Special balloting conducted October 18, 1785, unanimously elected him the sixth president of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, replacing John Dickinson. The office was practically that of the governor. He held that office for slightly over three years, longer than any other, and served the constitutional limit of three full terms. Shortly after his initial election, he was re-elected to a full term on October 29, 1785, and again in the fall of 1786 and on October 31, 1787. In that capacity, he served as host to the Constitutional Convention of 1787 in Philadelphia. He also served as a delegate to the Convention. It was primarily an honorary position and he seldom engaged in debate. According to


id: benjamin-franklin-20260505-9
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin-9.md
category: reference
title: Benjamin Franklin
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:16.447701+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: benjamin-franklin-20260505-0
summary:
Franklin was, along with his contemporary Leonhard Euler, the only major scientist who supported Christiaan Huygens's wave theory of light, which was basically ignored by the rest of the scientific community. In the 18th century, Isaac Newton's corpuscular theory was held to be true; it took Thomas Young's well-known slit experiment in 1803 to persuade most scientists to believe Huygens's theory. Franklin started exploring the phenomenon of electricity in the 1740s, after he met the itinerant lecturer Archibald Spencer, who used static electricity in his demonstrations. He proposed that "vitreous" and "resinous" electricity were not different types of "electrical fluid" (as electricity was called then), but the same "fluid" under different pressures. (The same proposal was made independently that same year by William Watson.) He was the first to label them as positive and negative respectively, which replaced the then current distinction made between 'vitreous' and 'resinous' electricity, and he was the first to discover the principle of conservation of charge. In 1748, he constructed a multiple plate capacitor, that he called an "electrical battery" (not a true battery like Volta's pile) by placing eleven panes of glass sandwiched between lead plates, suspended with silk cords and connected by wires.


id: benjamin-franklin-20260505-10
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin-10.md
category: reference
title: Benjamin Franklin
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:16.447701+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: benjamin-franklin-20260505-0
summary:
When rain has wet the kite twine so that it can conduct the electric fire freely, you will find it streams out plentifully from the key at the approach of your knuckle, and with this key a phial, or Leyden jar, may be charged: and from electric fire thus obtained spirits may be kindled, and all other electric experiments [may be] performed which are usually done by the help of a rubber glass globe or tube; and therefore the sameness of the electrical matter with that of lightening [sic] completely demonstrated. Franklin's electrical experiments led to his invention of the lightning rod. He said that conductors with a sharp rather than a smooth point could discharge silently and at a far greater distance. He surmised that this could help protect buildings from lightning by attaching "upright Rods of Iron, made sharp as a Needle and gilt to prevent Rusting, and from the Foot of those Rods a Wire down the outside of the Building into the Ground; ... Would not these pointed Rods probably draw the Electrical Fire silently out of a Cloud before it came nigh enough to strike, and thereby secure us from that most sudden and terrible


id: benjamin-franklin-20260505-11
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin-11.md
category: reference
title: Benjamin Franklin
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:16.447701+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: benjamin-franklin-20260505-0
summary:
An aging Franklin accumulated all his oceanographic findings in Maritime Observations, published by the Philosophical Society's transactions in 1786. It contained ideas for sea anchors, catamaran hulls, watertight compartments, shipboard lightning rods and a soup bowl designed to stay stable in stormy weather. While traveling on a ship, Franklin had observed that the wake of a ship was diminished when the cooks scuttled their greasy water. He studied the effects on a large pond in Clapham Common, London. "I fetched out a cruet of oil and dropt a little of it on the water ... though not more than a teaspoon full, produced an instant calm over a space of several yards square." He later used the trick to "calm the waters" by carrying "a little oil in the hollow joint of [his] cane." === Meteorology === On October 21, 1743, according to the popular myth, a storm moving from the southwest denied Franklin the opportunity of witnessing a lunar eclipse. He was said to have noted that the prevailing winds were actually from the northeast, contrary to what he had expected. In correspondence with his brother, he learned that the same storm had not reached Boston until after the


id: benjamin-franklin-20260505-12
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin-12.md
category: reference
title: Benjamin Franklin
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:16.447701+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: benjamin-franklin-20260505-0
summary:
Like the other advocates of republicanism, Franklin emphasized that the new republic could survive only if the people were virtuous. All his life, he explored the role of civic and personal virtue, as expressed in Poor Richard's aphorisms. He felt that organized religion was necessary to keep men good to their fellow men, but rarely attended religious services himself. When he met Voltaire in Paris and asked his fellow member of the Enlightenment vanguard to bless his grandson, Voltaire said in English, "God and Liberty", and added, "this is the only appropriate benediction for the grandson of Monsieur Franklin." Franklin's parents were both pious Puritans. The family attended the Old South Church, the most liberal Puritan congregation in Boston, where Benjamin Franklin was baptized in 1706. Franklin's father, a poor chandler, owned a copy of a book, Bonifacius: Essays to Do Good, by the Puritan preacher and family friend Cotton Mather, which Franklin often cited as a key influence on his life. "If I have been a useful citizen," Franklin wrote to Cotton Mather's son seventy years later, "the public owes the advantage of it to that book." His first pen name, Silence Dogood, paid homage both to the book


id: benjamin-franklin-20260505-13
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin-13.md
category: reference
title: Benjamin Franklin
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:16.447701+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: benjamin-franklin-20260505-0
summary:
... Sunday being my studying day, I never was without some religious principles. I never doubted, for instance, the existence of the Deity; that He made the world, and governed it by His providence; that the most acceptable service of God was the doing good to man; that our souls are immortal; and that all crime will be punished, and virtue rewarded, either here or hereafter. Franklin retained a lifelong commitment to the non-religious Puritan virtues and political values he had grown up with, and through his civic work and publishing, he succeeded in passing these values into the American culture permanently. He had a "passion for virtue." These Puritan values included his devotion to egalitarianism, education, industry, thrift, honesty, temperance, charity and community spirit. Thomas Kidd states, "As an adult, Franklin touted ethical responsibility, industriousness, and benevolence, even as he jettisoned Christian orthodoxy." The classical authors read in the Enlightenment period taught an abstract ideal of republican government based on hierarchical social orders of king, aristocracy and commoners. It was widely believed that English liberties relied on their balance of power, but also hierarchal deference to the privileged class. "Puritanism ... and the epidemic evangelism of the mid-eighteenth century,


id: benjamin-franklin-20260505-14
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin-14.md
category: reference
title: Benjamin Franklin
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:16.447701+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: benjamin-franklin-20260505-0
summary:
As to Jesus of Nazareth, my Opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the System of Morals and his Religion, as he left them to us, the best the world ever saw or is likely to see; but I apprehend it has received various corrupt changes, and I have, with most of the present Dissenters in England, some Doubts as to his divinity; tho' it is a question I do not dogmatize upon, having never studied it, and I think it needless to busy myself with it now, when I expect soon an Opportunity of knowing the Truth with less Trouble. I see no harm, however, in its being believed, if that belief has the good consequence, as it probably has, of making his doctrines more respected and better observed; especially as I do not perceive that the Supreme takes it amiss, by distinguishing the unbelievers in his government of the world with any particular marks of his displeasure. On July 4, 1776, Congress appointed a three-member committee composed of Franklin, Jefferson, and Adams to design the Great Seal of the United States. Franklin's proposal (which was not adopted) featured the motto: "Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God"


id: benjamin-franklin-20260505-15
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin-15.md
category: reference
title: Benjamin Franklin
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:16.447701+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: benjamin-franklin-20260505-0
summary:
O Pharisaical Britain! to pride thyself in setting free a single Slave that happens to land on thy coasts, while thy Merchants in all thy ports are encouraged by thy laws to continue a commerce whereby so many hundreds of thousands are dragged into a slavery that can scarce be said to end with their lives, since it is entailed on their posterity! Franklin refused to publicly debate the issue of slavery at the 1787 Constitutional Convention. At the time of the American founding, there were about half a million slaves in the United States, mostly in the five southernmost states, where they made up 40% of the population. Many of the leading American founders – such as Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and James Madison – owned slaves, but many others did not. Benjamin Franklin thought that slavery was "an atrocious debasement of human nature" and "a source of serious evils." In 1787, Franklin and Benjamin Rush helped write a new constitution for the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, and that same year Franklin became president of the organization. In 1790, Quakers from New York and Pennsylvania presented their petition for abolition to Congress. Their argument against


id: benjamin-franklin-20260505-16
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin-16.md
category: reference
title: Benjamin Franklin
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:16.447701+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: benjamin-franklin-20260505-0
summary:
The rapid progress true science now makes, occasions my regretting sometimes that I was born so soon: it is impossible to imagine the height to which may be carried, in a thousand years, the power of man over matter; we may perhaps learn to deprive large masses of their gravity, and give them absolute levity for the sake of easy transport. Agriculture may diminish its labour and double its produce... In 1773, Franklin imagined a technology similar to cryonics: I wish it were possible to invent a method of embalming drowned persons in such a manner that they might be recalled to life at any period, however distant; for having a very ardent desire to see and observe the state of America a hundred years hence... == Interests and activities == === Musical endeavors === Franklin is known to have played the violin, the harp, and the guitar. He also composed music, which included a string quartet in early classical style. While he was in London, he developed a much-improved version of the glass harmonica, in which the glasses rotate on a shaft, with the player's fingers held steady, instead of the other way around. He worked with the London


id: benjamin-franklin-20260505-17
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin-17.md
category: reference
title: Benjamin Franklin
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:16.447701+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: benjamin-franklin-20260505-0
summary:
On April 12, 1976, as part of a bicentennial celebration, Congress dedicated a 20-foot (6 m) tall marble statue in Philadelphia's Franklin Institute as the Benjamin Franklin National Memorial. Vice President Nelson Rockefeller presided over the dedication ceremony. Many of Franklin's personal possessions are on display at the institute. In London, his house at 36 Craven Street, which is the only surviving former residence of Franklin, was first marked with a blue plaque and has since been opened to the public as the Benjamin Franklin House. In 1998, workmen restoring the building dug up the remains of six children and four adults hidden below the home. A total of 15 bodies have been recovered. The Friends of Benjamin Franklin House (the organization responsible for the restoration) note that the bones were likely placed there by William Hewson, who lived in the house for two years and who had built a small anatomy school at the back of the house. They note that while Franklin likely knew what Hewson was doing, he probably did not participate in any dissections because he was much more of a physicist than a medical man. He has been honored on U.S. postage stamps many times.


id: francis-galton-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Galton-0.md
category: reference
title: Francis Galton
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Galton
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:17.894886+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: francis-galton-20260505-0
summary:
Sir Francis Galton (; 16 February 1822 – 17 January 1911) was an English polymath and the originator of eugenics during the Victorian era; his ideas later became the basis of behavioural genetics. Galton produced over 340 papers and books. He also developed the statistical concept of correlation and widely promoted regression toward the mean. He was the first to apply statistical methods to the study of human differences and inheritance of intelligence, and introduced the use of questionnaires and surveys for collecting data on human communities, which he needed for genealogical and biographical works and for his anthropometric studies. He popularised the phrase "nature versus nurture". His book Hereditary Genius (1869) was the first social scientific attempt to study genius and greatness. As an investigator of the human mind, he founded psychometrics and differential psychology, as well as the lexical hypothesis of personality. He devised a method for classifying fingerprints that proved useful in forensic science. He also conducted research on the power of prayer, concluding it had none due to its null effects on the longevity of those prayed for. His quest for the scientific principles of diverse phenomena extended even to the optimal method for making tea.


id: francis-galton-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Galton-1.md
category: reference
title: Francis Galton
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Galton
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:17.894886+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: francis-galton-20260505-0
summary:
=== Early scientific career === Galton was a polymath who made important contributions in many fields, including meteorology (the anticyclone and the first popular weather maps), statistics (regression and correlation), psychology (synaesthesia), biology (the nature and mechanism of heredity), and criminology (fingerprints). Much of this was influenced by his penchant for counting and measuring. Galton prepared the first weather map published in The Times (1 April 1875, showing the weather from the previous day, 31 March), now a standard feature in newspapers worldwide. He became very active in the British Association for the Advancement of Science, presenting many papers on a wide variety of topics at its meetings from 1858 to 1899. He was the general secretary from 1863 to 1867, president of the Geographical section in 1867 and 1872, and president of the Anthropological Section in 1877 and 1885. He was active on the council of the Royal Geographical Society for over forty years, in various committees of the Royal Society, and on the Meteorological Council. James McKeen Cattell, a student of Wilhelm Wundt who had been reading Galton's articles, decided he wanted to study under him. He eventually built a professional relationship with Galton, measuring subjects and working


id: francis-galton-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Galton-2.md
category: reference
title: Francis Galton
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Galton
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:17.894886+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: francis-galton-20260505-0
summary:
Galton invented the term eugenics in 1883 and set down many of his observations and conclusions in a book, Inquiries into Human Faculty and Its Development. In the book's introduction, he wrote: [This book's] intention is to touch on various topics more or less connected with that of the cultivation of race, or, as we might call it, with "eugenic"1 questions, and to present the results of several of my own separate investigations.1 This is, with questions bearing on what is termed in Greek, eugenes, namely, good in stock, hereditarily endowed with noble qualities. This, and the allied words, eugeneia, etc., are equally applicable to men, brutes, and plants. We greatly want a brief word to express the science of improving stock, which is by no means confined to questions of judicious mating, but which, especially in the case of man, takes cognizance of all influences that tend in however remote a degree to give the more suitable races or strains of blood a better chance of prevailing speedily over the less suitable than they otherwise would have had. The word eugenics would sufficiently express the idea; it is at least a neater word and a more generalized one than


id: francis-galton-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Galton-3.md
category: reference
title: Francis Galton
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Galton
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:17.894886+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: francis-galton-20260505-0
summary:
Galton's formulation of regression and its link to the bivariate normal distribution can be traced to his attempts at developing a mathematical model for population stability. Although Galton's first attempt to study Darwinian questions, Hereditary Genius, generated little enthusiasm at the time, the text led to his further studies in the 1870s concerning the inheritance of physical traits. This text contains some crude notions of the concept of regression, described in a qualitative matter. For example, he wrote of dogs: "If a man breeds from strong, well-shaped dogs, but of mixed pedigree, the puppies will be sometimes, but rarely, the equals of their parents. They will commonly be of a mongrel, nondescript type, because ancestral peculiarities are apt to crop out in the offspring." This notion created a problem for Galton, as he could not reconcile the tendency of a population to maintain a normal distribution of traits from generation to generation with the notion of inheritance. It seemed that a large number of factors operated independently on offspring, leading to the normal distribution of a trait in each generation. However, this provided no explanation as to how a parent can have a significant impact on his offspring, which was


id: francis-galton-20260505-4
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Galton-4.md
category: reference
title: Francis Galton
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Galton
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:17.894886+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: francis-galton-20260505-0
summary:
Now, in the chapter on Pangenesis in my Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication I have not said one word about the blood, or about any fluid proper to any circulating system. It is, indeed, obvious that the presence of gemmules in the blood can form no necessary part of my hypothesis; for I refer in illustration of it to the lowest animals, such as the Protozoa, which do not possess blood or any vessels; and I refer to plants in which the fluid, when present in the vessels, cannot be considered as true blood. The fundamental laws of growth, reproduction, inheritance, &c., are so closely similar throughout the whole organic kingdom, that the means by which the gemmules (assuming for the moment their existence) are diffused through the body, would probably be the same in all beings; therefore the means can hardly be diffusion through the blood. Nevertheless, when I first heard of Mr. Galton's experiments, I did not sufficiently reflect on the subject, and saw not the difficulty of believing in the presence of gemmules in the blood. Galton explicitly rejected the idea of the inheritance of acquired characteristics (Lamarckism), and was an early proponent of "hard


id: francis-galton-20260505-5
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Galton-5.md
category: reference
title: Francis Galton
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Galton
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:17.894886+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: francis-galton-20260505-0
summary:
=== Anthropometric Laboratory === In 1884, London hosted the International Health Exhibition. This exhibition placed much emphasis on highlighting Victorian developments in sanitation and public health, and allowed the nation to display its advanced public health outreach, compared to other countries at the time. Francis Galton took advantage of this opportunity to set up his anthropometric laboratory. He stated that the purpose of this laboratory was to "show the public the simplicity of the instruments and methods by which the chief physical characteristics of man may be measured and recorded." The laboratory was an interactive walk-through in which physical characteristics such as height, weight, and eyesight, would be measured for each subject after payment of an admission fee. Upon entering the laboratory, a subject would visit the following stations in order. First, they would fill in a form with personal and family history (age, birthplace, marital status, residence, and occupation), then visit stations that recorded hair and eye colour, followed by the keenness, colour-sense, and depth perception of sight. Next, they would examine the keenness, or relative acuteness, of hearing and highest audible note of their hearing followed by an examination of their sense of touch. However, because the surrounding


id: francis-galton-20260505-6
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Galton-6.md
category: reference
title: Francis Galton
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Galton
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:17.894886+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: francis-galton-20260505-0
summary:
=== The questionnaire === Galton's inquiries into the mind involved detailed recording of people's subjective accounts of whether and how their minds dealt with phenomena such as mental imagery. To better elicit this information, he pioneered the use of the questionnaire. In one study, he asked his fellow members of the Royal Society of London to describe mental images that they experienced. In another, he collected in-depth surveys from eminent scientists for a work examining the effects of nature and nurture on the propensity toward scientific thinking. === Variance and standard deviation === Core to any statistical analysis is the concept that measurements vary: they have both a central tendency, or mean, and a spread around this central value, or variance. In the late 1860s, Galton conceived of a measure to quantify normal variation: the standard deviation. Galton was a keen observer. In 1906, visiting a livestock fair, he stumbled upon an intriguing contest. An ox was on display, and the villagers were invited to guess the animal's weight after it was slaughtered and dressed. Nearly 800 participated, and Galton was able to study their individual entries after the event. Galton stated that "the middlemost estimate expresses the vox populi,


id: francis-galton-20260505-7
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Galton-7.md
category: reference
title: Francis Galton
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Galton
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:17.894886+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: francis-galton-20260505-0
summary:
=== Composite photography === Galton also devised a technique called "composite portraiture" (produced by superimposing multiple photographic portraits of individuals' faces registered on their eyes) to create an average face (see averageness). In the 1990s, a hundred years after his discovery, much psychological research has examined the attractiveness of these faces, an aspect that Galton had remarked on in his original lecture. Others, including Sigmund Freud in his work on dreams, picked up Galton's suggestion that these composites might represent a useful metaphor for an Ideal type or a concept of a "natural kind" (see Eleanor Rosch)—such as Jewish men, criminals, patients with tuberculosis, etc.—onto the same photographic plate, thereby yielding a blended whole, or "composite", that he hoped could generalise the facial appearance of his subject into an "average" or "central type". (See also entry Modern physiognomy under Physiognomy). This work began in the 1880s while the Jewish scholar Joseph Jacobs studied anthropology and statistics with Francis Galton. Jacobs asked Galton to create a composite photograph of a Jewish type. One of Jacobs' first publications that used Galton's composite imagery was "The Jewish Type, and Galton's Composite Photographs", Photographic News, 29, (24 April 1885): 268–269. Galton hoped his technique


id: francis-galton-20260505-8
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Galton-8.md
category: reference
title: Francis Galton
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Galton
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:17.894886+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: francis-galton-20260505-0
summary:
The KING has also been pleased, by Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, bearing date the 26th June, 1909, to confer the dignity of a Knight of the said United Kingdom upon: Francis Galton, Esq., Sc.D., F.R.S., Honorary Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge His statistical heir Karl Pearson, first holder of the Galton Chair of Eugenics at University College, London (now Galton Chair of Genetics), wrote a three-volume biography of Galton, in four parts, after his death. The flowering plant genus Galtonia was named after Galton. University College London has in the twenty-first century been involved in a historical inquiry into its role as the institutional birthplace of eugenics. Galton established a laboratory at UCL in 1904. Some students and staff have called on the university to rename its Galton lecture theatre, with journalist Angela Saini stating, "Galton's seductive promise was of a bold new world filled only with beautiful, intelligent, productive people. The scientists in its thrall claimed this could be achieved by controlling reproduction, policing borders to prevent certain types of immigrants, and locking away "undesirables", including disabled people." In June 2020, University College London (UCL) announced the renaming


id: thomas-godfrey-inventor-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Godfrey_(inventor)-0.md
category: reference
title: Thomas Godfrey (inventor)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Godfrey_(inventor)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:19.582567+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: thomas-godfrey-inventor-20260505-0
summary:
Thomas Godfrey (January 10, 1704 – December 1749) was a glazier and self-taught mathematician and astronomer in the Pennsylvania Colony, who invented the octant in 1730. A similar octant was also independently invented about the same time by John Hadley in London with Hadley receiving the greater share of the credit for development. He published almanacs and contributed essays on mathematics, astronomy and general topics to the Pennsylvania Gazette and Pennsylvania Journal. He assisted the Welsh surveyor Lewis Evans in conducting astronomical observations to correct the longitude of Philadelphia on maps published by Evans. He was friends with Benjamin Franklin and a founding member of the Junto club, which was the precursor of the American Philosophical Society. He served as a director of the Library Company of Philadelphia and was a member of American Philosophical Society with the title "mathematician". == Early life == Godfrey was born January 10, 1704, to Joseph and Catherine Godfrey on the family farm in Bristol Township, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania. His father died when he was 1 years old and he inherited the family farm at age 21. He moved to Philadelphia and worked as a plumber and a glazier. He installed the glass in


id: goldsworthy-gurney-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldsworthy_Gurney-0.md
category: reference
title: Goldsworthy Gurney
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldsworthy_Gurney
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:20.803004+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: goldsworthy-gurney-20260505-0
summary:
Sir Goldsworthy Gurney (14 February 1793 – 28 February 1875) was a British surgeon, chemist, architect, builder, lecturer and consultant. He was a prototypical British gentleman scientist and inventor of the Victorian era. Amongst many accomplishments, he developed the oxy-hydrogen blowpipe, and later applied its principles to a novel form of illumination, the Bude-Light; developed a series of early steam-powered road vehicles; and laid claim—still discussed and disputed today—to the blastpipe, a key component in the success of steam locomotives, engines, and other coal-fired systems. Events surrounding the failure of his steam vehicle enterprise gave rise to controversy in his time, with considerable polarisation of opinion. His daughter Anna Jane Gurney (1816–1895) was devoted to him. During her lifetime, she engaged in a campaign to ensure the blastpipe was seen as his invention. == Biography == Gurney was born in St Merryn, Cornwall, England on 14 February 1793. His unusual Christian name was his grandmother's surname but taken from his godmother who was a Maid of Honour to Queen Charlotte. Gurney's grandfather married into money, allowing his father, and to an extent himself, to live as gentlemen. He was schooled at the Grammar School at Truro, where he showed an


id: goldsworthy-gurney-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldsworthy_Gurney-1.md
category: reference
title: Goldsworthy Gurney
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldsworthy_Gurney
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:20.803004+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: goldsworthy-gurney-20260505-0
summary:
Perhaps arising out of the Boyton farming connection he took a second wife, being married at St. Giles in the Field to Jane Betty, the 24-year-old daughter of a farmer from Sheepwash, Devon; Gurney was 61. The marriage appears to have been unsuccessful; there was perhaps some contention between Anna Jane (39) and her much younger stepmother. Jane Betty was removed from Gurney's will, although they were never divorced. Gurney continued to divide his time between London and Cornwall, variously engaged in work with clients; experimenting and innovating in diverse fields such as heating (the Gurney Stove) or electrical conduction; and in improving his Hornacott estate. He was appointed president of the Launceston Agricultural Society. In 1863, Gurney was knighted by Queen Victoria, but later that year suffered a paralytic stroke; he sold Hornacott and retired back to Reeds in Cornwall, where he lived with his devoted Anna Jane, ultimately dying on 28 February 1875. He is buried at Launcells parish church. == Gurney's steam coach == In the period 1824–31, Gurney designed and built a number of steam-powered road vehicles. He established a business, the Gurney Steam Carriage Company, to develop and promote steam-powered road transport. He obtained patents


id: goldsworthy-gurney-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldsworthy_Gurney-2.md
category: reference
title: Goldsworthy Gurney
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldsworthy_Gurney
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:20.803004+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: goldsworthy-gurney-20260505-0
summary:
Gurney later said that his first prototype weighed four tons and that he worked to reduce this to 2 tons for his steam coach, the vehicle for which he is best known. This took the form of a large stage coach with 6 passengers inside and 12 (he later claimed 15) outside, plus the guide, who doubled as the engine-man/stoker. The body of the vehicle was 15' long, or 20' including the front pole and a pair of steered pilot wheels. The print "The New Steam Carriage" at the top of this section is an 1828 reprint of an earlier print by George Morton. It shows the coach in front of a pub with propellers in front of the rear wheels. The caption states "It has been constructed..." and "The rate of travelling is intended to be from 8 to 10 miles per hour". This dates it to mid-1827. The "London and Bath" livery was perhaps an inducement to get Major Dobbyn to invest: in September 1827 he paid Gurney £6,000 for the franchise for the London, Bath and Bristol road, for which Gurney would build him eight coaches. In tests, Gurney found that the propellers didn't work well and


id: goldsworthy-gurney-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldsworthy_Gurney-3.md
category: reference
title: Goldsworthy Gurney
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldsworthy_Gurney
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:20.803004+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: goldsworthy-gurney-20260505-0
summary:
== Gurney's steam drags == During 1828, Gurney switched from developing his steam coach to producing a steam drag, a small road-going steam locomotive which could pull a carriage, an omnibus or any other wheeled vehicle. A key figure in this was Sir Charles Dance, a retired colonel of the Life Guards (one of the regiments based at Regent Park Barracks). Five years later he told a meeting in Westminster of 40 MPs, peers and others that: ... several years ago he had been induced to consider the application of Steam to locomotive purposes as important to the military operations of the country, and had subsequently embarked capital in Mr Gurney's experiments ... On 22 July 1829 Gurney's new steam drag was on view at Dance's home at Bushey in Hertfordshire. Present was General Sir James Willoughby Gordon FRS, Quartermaster-General of the Army. His responsibilities included equipping and moving the army and its materiel. The next day, General Gordon wrote a highly favourable report of what he had seen at Bushey. The vehicle had performed for half an hour at up to 10 mph, uphill and around corners, with a barouche in tow. Five days later, on 27 July 1829,


id: goldsworthy-gurney-20260505-4
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldsworthy_Gurney-4.md
category: reference
title: Goldsworthy Gurney
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldsworthy_Gurney
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:20.803004+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: goldsworthy-gurney-20260505-0
summary:
The remains of the Lord of the Isles (which exploded) rests in Glasgow Riverside Museum. This vehicle confirms a detail reported by Gordon. The rear axle, just inboard of where the wheel would sit, has flats which form a hexagon. Gordon's plan shows what Gurney called a carrier, an iron bar forming a diameter of the wheel which transfers torque from the axle to the felloes of the wheel, thereby allowing lighter spokes to be used. In his evidence to the 1831 Select Committee, Gurney was asked about the drive to the wheels: In general, were the wheels connected together, or had they an independent motion? Always one was attached to the axle; they had no independent motion; this will be seen by reference to No. 5 on the arm or carrier of the wheel (which is a part of the axle,) and can be attached to the wheel at pleasure by a bolt, making the wheel also in that case part of the axle. Gordon describes it differently:[the carrier,] being pressed up by the engine against the bolt which is shown above it, must force the wheel in that direction, and thus propel the carriageGordon's mechanism would allow the


id: goldsworthy-gurney-20260505-5
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldsworthy_Gurney-5.md
category: reference
title: Goldsworthy Gurney
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldsworthy_Gurney
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:20.803004+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: goldsworthy-gurney-20260505-0
summary:
In addition to this flagrant outrage against justice and utility, the worthy squires and magistrates of the Cheltenham district, suddenly, without any necessity, covered a long tract of the road with a layer of loose gravel, a foot deep, which, adding to the above-mentioned difficulties and impediments, put an entire stop to the undertaking. At the same time, press coverage of an accident befalling a Glasgow steam drag adversely affected the reputation of the vehicles. Gurney was bankrupted with debts of £232,000. Sufficient was the concern about Gurney's bankruptcy, and sufficient were his contacts, that a further select committee was convened from 1831 to 1835, on Mr.Goldsworthy Gurney's Case. Its final report stated: Mr Goldsworthy Gurney was the first person to successfully operate steam carriages on common roads, and he took out patents for his invention in 1825 and 1826–27. In 1830 Mr Gurney entered into contracts with various individuals for the commercial exploitation of his invention, carrying passengers at a lower fare than horse carriages. In 1831 more than 50 private bills were passed by Parliament imposing prohibitive tolls on steam carriages (two pounds or more, while horse carriages might pay six shillings or less), and the contractors suspended


id: goldsworthy-gurney-20260505-6
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldsworthy_Gurney-6.md
category: reference
title: Goldsworthy Gurney
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldsworthy_Gurney
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:20.803004+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: goldsworthy-gurney-20260505-0
summary:
A key development of his time at the Surrey Institute was use of the oxy-hydrogen blowpipe, normally credited to Robert Hare, in which an intensely hot flame was created by burning a jet of oxygen and hydrogen together. The blowpipe was the underpinning of limelight, and Gurney was its first exponent. According to A History of The Growth of The Steam-Engine by Robert H. Thurston, Gurney was a proponent of the ammonia engine. "In 1822… Mr. Goldsworthy Gurney, who subsequently took an active part in their introduction, stated, in his lectures, that "elementary power is capable of being applied to propel carriages along common roads with great political advantage, and the floating knowledge of the day places the object within reach." He made an ammonia engine—probably the first ever made—and worked it so successfully, that he made use of it in driving a little locomotive." Arising from his successes with mine ventilation he was commissioned in 1852 to improve the gas lighting, heating, and especially the ventilation systems for the new Houses of Parliament at Westminster. Although he had some success in moving air around the palace buildings, ridding the legislature of the foul smell of the Thames was beyond


id: goldsworthy-gurney-20260505-7
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldsworthy_Gurney-7.md
category: reference
title: Goldsworthy Gurney
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldsworthy_Gurney
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:20.803004+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: goldsworthy-gurney-20260505-0
summary:
To his inventive genius the world is indebted for the high speed of the locomotive, without which railways could not have succeeded and would never have been made. In her copy of the Dictionary of National Biography, all references to the blowpipe were amended by hand to his blowpipe. In 1880 she donated £500 to memorialise "his" Steam Jet, at the stone-laying ceremony for Truro Cathedral, somehow managing to rope the children of the then Prince of Wales to present the money. (The Prince of Wales, HRH Prince Albert Edward was timidly asked whether he minded, and replied "Oh, why not? The boys would stand on their heads if she wished."). Anna Jane's subscription read: In memory of her father Sir Goldsworthy Gurney, inventor of the steam-jet, as a thank offering to almighty God for the benefit of high speed locomotion whereby His good gifts are conveyed from one nation to another and the word of the Lord is sent unto all parts of the world. A chiming clock presented by her in 1889 to St Olaf's Church, Poughill, in Bude, was inscribed "His inventions and discoveries in steam and electricity rendered transport by land and sea so rapid that


id: john-d-hamaker-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_D._Hamaker-0.md
category: reference
title: John D. Hamaker
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_D._Hamaker
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:25.991451+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: john-d-hamaker-20260505-0
summary:
John D. Hamaker (1914–1994), was an American mechanical engineer, ecologist, agronomist and science writer in the fields of soil regeneration, rock dusting, mineral cycles, climate cycles and glaciology. == Biography == === Background === Hamaker was born in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, and graduated from Purdue University in Mechanical Engineering. Concerned for the environment, he became a student of ecology and agriculture and was influenced by books such as Bread From Stones, which showed that plants grow better in soils generated by mimicking natural soil-forming processes that take millennia, such as the advance and retreat of glaciers scouring the Earth's crust, or rock weathering of volcanic lava. In the 1960s, Hamaker cultivated an interest in soil and climate issues, and began publishing articles about how the health of an individual, society and planetary ecology thrive only as an interdependent whole. For 30 years, he wrote and campaigned for organic agriculture based on soil remineralization, and was the first to call for the remineralization of the Earth to forestall the next glacial period within the current ice age cycle. He produced a book, The Survival Of Civilization, in 1982, republished in 2002 as Remineralize The Earth. === Early developments ===


id: john-d-hamaker-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_D._Hamaker-1.md
category: reference
title: John D. Hamaker
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_D._Hamaker
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:25.991451+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: john-d-hamaker-20260505-0
summary:
=== Rock grinders === Hamaker invented an autogenous rock grinder, designed to grind rock upon rock with minimal wear of metal parts, and a macro version, both for creating rock dust. The full design for the rock grinder was described in The Survival Of Civilization and Donald Weaver's To Love And Regenerate The Earth. On 19 October 1984, China's Research Institute of Forests accepted a copy of Hamaker's rock grinder patent papers, since at the time, China was taking the lead in reforestation programs. == Scientific basis == === Climate cycles === The Earth's soil is demineralized during every interglacial period, the short 10,000-year warm period between every 90,000-year glacial period which is within the current Ice Age or Quaternary Period encompassing the Pleistocene and Holocene, or current interglacial. This causes a decline in the world's forests and other vegetation which are carbon dioxide sinks, and so more carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide levels in Earth's atmosphere rose throughout the 20th century and continue to do so. Excessive heat from the sun is trapped by CO2 and other greenhouse gases, affecting global climate. Hamaker explained the 100,000-year cycle of major ice ages by postulating that the


id: john-d-hamaker-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_D._Hamaker-2.md
category: reference
title: John D. Hamaker
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_D._Hamaker
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:25.991451+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: john-d-hamaker-20260505-0
summary:
== Influence == John D. Hamaker's work inspired a growing movement of people to become involved in remineralization, including permaculturists, organic farmers, biodynamic farmers, gardeners, vegetarians, environmentalists, scientists, climatologists, journalists, religious groups, political groups, community organizations and ordinary citizens. === Remineralize the Earth === In the 1980s, Hamaker became a catalyst for the formation of Remineralize the Earth (RTE), set up by Joanna Campe, its president and Executive Director who produced the Soil Remineralization Newsletter in the 1980s and Remineralize the Earth magazine in the 1990s, before the non-profit organization's incorporation in 1994. Remineralize the Earth began promoting the regeneration of soils and forests worldwide with finely ground rock dust as a sustainable alternative to chemical fertilizers and pesticides. As well as recycling and returning organic matter to the soil, the organization asserted that returning all of the mineral nutrients which create fertile soils and healthy crops and forests, was equally important. For RTE, remineralization was essential to restoring ecological balance and stabilizing the climate. In 1994, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), U.S. Bureau of Mines, National Stone Association and National Aggregates Association co-sponsored a symposium "Soil Remineralization and Sustainable Agriculture" at USDA headquarters in Washington DC. In 1995,


id: john-d-hamaker-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_D._Hamaker-3.md
category: reference
title: John D. Hamaker
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_D._Hamaker
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:25.991451+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: john-d-hamaker-20260505-0
summary:
=== Institute For A Future === In the mid-1980s, author, and Harvard clinical psychologist, Larry Ephron, set up the U.S. based Institute For A Future and wrote The End: The Coming Ice Age & How We Can Stop It, which examined the theory and themes raised in Hamaker's book citing climatologist Reid Bryson, of the University of Wisconsin: "Breakthrought never come from within the establishment." The book specifically examined man's influence on nature and climate change. Topics covered included astrophysics, climatology, geology, glaciology, microbiology, paleobotany, paleontology, palynology, plate tectonics, soil remineralization, seismology, soil science, solar physics and human survival. Ephron showed how climatologists such as John Gribbin and Stephen Schneider who recognized the connection between global warming and the buildup of snow and ice, saw ice buildup only as a side effect of continued overall warming, rather than linking CO2 increase, global warming, ice buildup, glaciation and ice ages, together. An exception was Pierre Lehman, a Swiss atmospheric physicist who noted the important link between soil and climate. NASA climatologist James Hansen was also noted as saying "it is not certain whether CO2 warming will cause the ice sheets to shrink or grow. For example, if the ocean warms but


id: john-d-hamaker-20260505-4
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_D._Hamaker-4.md
category: reference
title: John D. Hamaker
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_D._Hamaker
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:25.991451+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: john-d-hamaker-20260505-0
summary:
== Rocks for Crops == In 2007, the research organization Rocks for Crops was initiated by soil scientist, Jairo Restrepo Rivera of the University of Pelotas, Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil), who translated Bread From Stones into Spanish and gave conferences on remineralization in Colombia, Brazil and Mexico; Peter Von Straaten from the University of Guelph (Canada); and Suzi Teodoro from the University of Brasília (Brazil). The group confirmed that a branch of geology called agrogeology, originating at the University of Guelph, was evolving, since Von Straaten published the book Agrogeology: The Use of Rocks for Crops and Rivera produced the book and video, Manual Práctico ABC de la Agricultura Orgánica y Harina de Rocas, which described how to regenerate overcultivated soils with rock dust. The science was developing in Germany, Canada and USA, and being researched in Brazil, Tanzania and the Canary Islands. Other university researchers included professors William Fyfe and Ward Chesworth. The science of agrogeology is the study of natural geological materials suitable for restoring soils as an alternative to chemical fertilizers, particularly for worn out tropical soils. Due to intense tropical rainfall, chemical fertilizers are washed away from laterite soils within weeks, and cannot be stored


id: oliver-heaviside-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Heaviside-0.md
category: reference
title: Oliver Heaviside
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Heaviside
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:27.222356+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: oliver-heaviside-20260505-0
summary:
Oliver Heaviside ( HEV-ee-syde; 18 May 1850 – 3 February 1925) was a British mathematician and electrical engineer who invented a new technique for solving differential equations (equivalent to the Laplace transform), independently developed vector calculus, and rewrote Maxwell's equations in the form commonly used today. He significantly shaped the way Maxwell's equations were understood and applied in the decades following Maxwell's death. Also, in 1893, he extended them to gravitoelectromagnetism, which was confirmed by Gravity Probe B in 2005. His formulation of the telegrapher's equations became commercially important during his own lifetime, after their significance went unremarked for a long while, as few others were versed at the time in his novel methodology. Although at odds with the scientific establishment for most of his life, Heaviside changed the face of telecommunications, mathematics, and science. == Early years == Oliver Heaviside was born on 18 May 1850 at 55 Kings Street (now Plender Street) in Camden Town, England, the youngest of three children of Thomas Heaviside, a draughtsman and wood engraver, and Rachel Elizabeth West. He was a short and red-headed child, and suffered from scarlet fever when young, which left him with a hearing impairment that he felt hindered


id: oliver-heaviside-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Heaviside-1.md
category: reference
title: Oliver Heaviside
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Heaviside
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:27.222356+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: oliver-heaviside-20260505-0
summary:
== Middle years == From 1882 to 1902, except for three years, Heaviside contributed regular articles to the trade paper The Electrician, which wished to improve its standing, for which he was paid £40 per year. This was hardly enough to live on, but his demands were very small and he was doing what he most wanted. Between 1883 and 1887 he averaged 2–3 articles per month and these articles later formed the bulk of his Electromagnetic Theory and Electrical Papers. In 1880, Heaviside researched the skin effect in telegraph transmission lines. That same year he patented, in England, the coaxial cable. In 1884 he recast Maxwell's mathematical analysis from its original cumbersome form (they had already been recast as quaternions) to its modern vector terminology, thereby reducing twelve of the original twenty equations in twenty unknowns down to the four differential equations in two unknowns we now know as Maxwell's equations. These four re-formulated equations describe the nature of electric charges (both static and moving), magnetic fields, and the relationship between the two, namely electromagnetic fields. Between 1880 and 1887, Heaviside developed the operational calculus using p {\displaystyle p} for the differential operator, (which Boole had previously denoted by


id: oliver-heaviside-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Heaviside-2.md
category: reference
title: Oliver Heaviside
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Heaviside
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:27.222356+00:00
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parent: oliver-heaviside-20260505-0
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In 1896, FitzGerald and John Perry obtained a civil list pension of £120 per year for Heaviside, who was now living in Devon, and persuaded him to accept it, after he had rejected other charitable offers from the Royal Society. In 1902, Heaviside proposed the existence of what is now known as the Kennelly–Heaviside layer of the ionosphere. Heaviside's proposal included means by which radio signals are transmitted around the Earth's curvature. The existence of the ionosphere was confirmed in 1923. The predictions by Heaviside, combined with Planck's radiation theory, probably discouraged further attempts to detect radio waves from the Sun and other astronomical objects. For whatever reason, there seem to have been no attempts for 30 years, until Jansky's development of radio astronomy in 1932. Heaviside was an opponent of Albert Einstein's theory of relativity. Mathematician Howard Eves has commented that Heaviside "was the only first-rate physicist at the time to impugn Einstein, and his invectives against relativity theory often bordered on the absurd". In later years his behavior became quite eccentric. According to associate B.A. Behrend, he became a recluse who was so averse to meeting people that he delivered the manuscripts of his Electrician papers to a


id: oliver-heaviside-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Heaviside-3.md
category: reference
title: Oliver Heaviside
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Heaviside
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:27.222356+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: oliver-heaviside-20260505-0
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== Innovations and discoveries == Heaviside did much to develop and advocate vector methods and vector calculus. Maxwell's formulation of electromagnetism consisted of 20 equations in 20 variables. Heaviside employed the curl and divergence operators of the vector calculus to reformulate 12 of these 20 equations into four equations in four variables ( B , E , J and ρ {\displaystyle {\textbf {B}},{\textbf {E}},{\textbf {J}}~{\text{and}}~\rho } ), the form by which they have been known ever since (see Maxwell's equations). Less well known is that Heaviside's equations and Maxwell's are not exactly the same, and in fact it is easier to modify the former to make them compatible with quantum physics. The possibility of gravitational waves was also discussed by Heaviside using the analogy between the inverse-square law in gravitation and electricity. With quaternion multiplication, the square of a vector is a negative quantity, much to Heaviside's displeasure. As he advocated abolishing this negativity, he has been credited by C. J. Joly with developing hyperbolic quaternions, though in fact that mathematical structure was largely the work of Alexander Macfarlane. He invented the Heaviside step function, using it to calculate the current when an electric circuit is switched on. He was


id: hirohito-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hirohito-0.md
category: reference
title: Hirohito
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hirohito
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:28.660739+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: hirohito-20260505-0
summary:
Emperor Shōwa (born Hirohito; 29 April 1901 – 7 January 1989) was the 124th emperor of Japan according to the traditional order of succession, reigning from 1926 until his death in 1989. He remains the longest-reigning emperor in Japanese history and one of the longest-reigning monarchs in the world. As emperor during the Shōwa era, Hirohito presided over the rise of Japanese militarism, the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Asia-Pacific theater of World War II, and the nation's postwar economic miracle. Hirohito was born during the reign of his paternal grandfather, Emperor Meiji, as the first child of Crown Prince Yoshihito and Crown Princess Sadako (later Emperor Taishō and Empress Teimei). When Emperor Meiji died in 1912, Hirohito's father ascended the Chrysanthemum Throne, and Hirohito was proclaimed Crown Prince of Japan in 1916, making him the heir apparent. In 1921, he made an official visit to six European countries, marking the first time a Japanese crown prince had traveled abroad. Due to his father's ill health, Hirohito became Sesshō of Japan (regent) that same year. In 1924, he married Princess Nagako Kuni, with whom he later had seven children: Shigeko, Sachiko, Kazuko, Atsuko, Akihito, Masahito and Takako. He became emperor upon


id: hirohito-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hirohito-1.md
category: reference
title: Hirohito
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hirohito
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:28.660739+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: hirohito-20260505-0
summary:
From 3 March to 3 September 1921 (Taisho 10), the Crown Prince made official visits to the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Vatican City and Malta (then a protectorate of the British Empire). This was the first visit to Europe by the Crown Prince. Despite strong opposition in Japan, this was realized by the efforts of elder Japanese statesmen (Genrō) such as Yamagata Aritomo and Saionji Kinmochi. The departure of Prince Hirohito was widely reported in newspapers. The Japanese battleship Katori was used, and departed from Yokohama, sailed to Naha, Hong Kong, Singapore, Colombo, Suez, Cairo, and Gibraltar. In April, Hirohito was present in Malta for the opening of the Maltese Parliament. After sailing for two months, the Katori arrived in Portsmouth on 9 May, on the same day reaching the British capital, London. Hirohito was welcomed in the UK as a partner of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance and met with King George V and Prime Minister David Lloyd George. That evening, a banquet was held at Buckingham Palace, where Hirohito met with George V and Prince Arthur of Connaught. George V said that he treated his father like Hirohito, who was nervous in an unfamiliar foreign country, and


id: hirohito-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hirohito-2.md
category: reference
title: Hirohito
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hirohito
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:28.660739+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: hirohito-20260505-0
summary:
Prince Hirohito married his distant cousin Princess Nagako Kuni, the eldest daughter of Prince Kuniyoshi Kuni, on 26 January 1924. They had seven children (two sons and five daughters) (see Issue). The daughters who lived to adulthood left the imperial family as a result of the American reforms of the Japanese imperial household in October 1947 (in the case of Princess Shigeko) or under the terms of the Imperial Household Law at the moment of their subsequent marriages (in the cases of Princesses Kazuko, Atsuko, and Takako). == Early reign and World War II == === Accession === On 25 December 1926, Yoshihito died and Hirohito became emperor. The Crown Prince was said to have received the succession (senso). The Taishō era's end and the Shōwa era's beginning were proclaimed. The deceased Emperor was posthumously renamed Emperor Taishō within days. Following Japanese custom, the new Emperor was never referred to by his given name, but rather was referred to simply as "His Majesty the Emperor" which may be shortened to "His Majesty". In writing, the Emperor was also referred to formally as "The Reigning Emperor." In November 1928, Hirohito's accession was confirmed in ceremonies (sokui), which are conventionally identified as


id: hirohito-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hirohito-3.md
category: reference
title: Hirohito
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hirohito
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:28.660739+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: hirohito-20260505-0
summary:
Nonetheless, according to Herbert Bix, Hirohito's main concern seems to have been the possibility of an attack by the Soviet Union given his questions to his chief of staff, Prince Kan'in Kotohito, and army minister, Hajime Sugiyama, about the time it could take to crush Chinese resistance and how could they prepare for the eventuality of a Soviet incursion. Based on Bix's findings, Hirohito was displeased by Prince Kan'in's evasive responses about the substance of such contingency plans but nevertheless still approved the decision to move troops to North China. According to Akira Fujiwara, Hirohito endorsed the policy of qualifying the invasion of China as an "incident" instead of a "war"; therefore, he did not issue any notice to observe international law in this conflict (unlike what his predecessors did in previous conflicts officially recognized by Japan as wars), and the Deputy Minister of the Japanese Army instructed the chief of staff of Japanese China Garrison Army on 5 August not to use the term "prisoners of war" for Chinese captives. This instruction led to the removal of the constraints of international law on the treatment of Chinese prisoners. The works of Yoshiaki Yoshimi and Seiya Matsuno show that Hirohito


id: hirohito-20260505-4
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hirohito-4.md
category: reference
title: Hirohito
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hirohito
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:28.660739+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: hirohito-20260505-0
summary:
Of course His Majesty is a pacifist, and there is no doubt he wished to avoid war. When I told him that to initiate war was a mistake, he agreed. But the next day, he would tell me: "You were worried about it yesterday, but you do not have to worry so much." Thus, gradually, he began to lean toward war. And the next time I met him, he leaned even more toward. In short, I felt the Emperor was telling me: my prime minister does not understand military matters, I know much more. In short, the Emperor had absorbed the view of the army and navy high commands. The army and the navy recommended the appointment of Prince Naruhiko Higashikuni, one of Hirohito's uncles, as prime minister. According to the Shōwa "Monologue", written after the war, Hirohito then said that if the war were to begin while a member of the imperial house was prime minister, the imperial house would have to carry the responsibility and he was opposed to this. Instead, Hirohito chose the hard-line General Hideki Tōjō, who was known for his devotion to the imperial institution, and asked him to make a policy review of what


id: hirohito-20260505-5
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hirohito-5.md
category: reference
title: Hirohito
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hirohito
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:28.660739+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: hirohito-20260505-0
summary:
There has never been a cabinet in which the prime minister, and all the ministers, reported so often to the throne. In order to effect the essence of genuine direct imperial rule and to relieve the concerns of the Emperor, the ministers reported to the throne matters within the scope of their responsibilities as per the prime minister's directives ... In times of intense activities, typed drafts were presented to the Emperor with corrections in red. First draft, second draft, final draft and so forth, came as deliberations progressed one after the other and were sanctioned accordingly by the Emperor. In the first six months of war, all the major engagements had been victories. Japanese advances were stopped in the summer of 1942 with the Battle of Midway and the landing of the American forces on Guadalcanal and Tulagi in August. Hirohito played an increasingly influential role in the war; in eleven major episodes he was deeply involved in supervising the actual conduct of war operations. Hirohito pressured the High Command to order an early attack on the Philippines in 1941–42, including the fortified Bataan peninsula. He secured the deployment of army air power in the Guadalcanal campaign. Following Japan's


id: hirohito-20260505-6
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hirohito-6.md
category: reference
title: Hirohito
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hirohito
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:28.660739+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: hirohito-20260505-0
summary:
In early 1945, in the wake of the losses in the Battle of Leyte, Emperor Hirohito began a series of individual meetings with senior government officials to consider the progress of the war. All but ex-Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe advised continuing the war. Konoe feared a communist revolution even more than defeat in war and urged a negotiated surrender. In February 1945, during the first private audience with Hirohito he had been allowed in three years, Konoe advised Hirohito to begin negotiations to end the war. According to Grand Chamberlain Hisanori Fujita, Hirohito, still looking for a tennozan (a great victory) in order to provide a stronger bargaining position, firmly rejected Konoe's recommendation. With each passing week victory became less likely. In April, the Soviet Union issued notice that it would not renew its neutrality agreement. Japan's ally Germany surrendered in early May 1945. In June, the cabinet reassessed the war strategy, only to decide more firmly than ever on a fight to the last man. This strategy was officially affirmed at a brief Imperial Council meeting, at which, as was normal, Hirohito did not speak. The following day, Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal Kōichi Kido prepared a draft


id: hirohito-20260505-7
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hirohito-7.md
category: reference
title: Hirohito
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hirohito
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:28.660739+00:00
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parent: hirohito-20260505-0
summary:
After the Japanese surrender in August 1945, there was a large amount of pressure that came from both Allied countries and Japanese leftists that demanded Hirohito step down and be indicted as a war criminal. Australia, Britain and 70 percent of the American public wanted Hirohito tried as a Class-A war criminal. General Douglas MacArthur did not like the idea, as he thought that an ostensibly cooperating emperor would help establish a peaceful allied occupation regime in Japan. MacArthur saw Hirohito as a symbol of the continuity and cohesion of the Japanese people. To avoid the possibility of civil unrest in Japan, any possible evidence that would incriminate Hirohito and his family were excluded from the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. MacArthur created a plan that separated Hirohito from the militarists, retained Hirohito as a constitutional monarch but only as a figurehead, and used Hirohito to retain control over Japan to help achieve American postwar objectives in Japan. As Hirohito appointed his uncle and daughter's father-in-law, Prince Naruhiko Higashikuni as the Prime Minister to replace Kantarō Suzuki, who resigned owing to responsibility for the surrender, to assist the American occupation, there were attempts by numerous leaders to have


id: hirohito-20260505-8
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hirohito-8.md
category: reference
title: Hirohito
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hirohito
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:28.660739+00:00
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parent: hirohito-20260505-0
summary:
Nevertheless, Hirohito's status as a limited constitutional monarch was formalized with the enactment of the 1947 constitution–officially, an amendment to the Meiji Constitution, but in truth an entirely new document written by the United States. It defined the Emperor as "the symbol of the state and the unity of the people." His role was redefined as entirely ceremonial and representative, without even nominal governmental powers. He was limited to performing matters of state as delineated in the Constitution, and in most cases his actions in that realm were carried out in accordance with the binding instructions of the Cabinet. Following the Iranian Revolution and the end of the short-lived Central African Empire, both in 1979, Hirohito found himself the last monarch in the world to bear any variation of the highest royal title "emperor." === Public figure === He was not only the first reigning Japanese emperor to visit foreign countries, but also the first to meet an American president. His status and image became strongly positive in the United States. ==== Visit to Europe ==== The talks between Emperor Hirohito and President Nixon were not planned at the outset, because initially the stop in the United States was only


id: hirohito-20260505-9
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hirohito-9.md
category: reference
title: Hirohito
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hirohito
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:28.660739+00:00
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parent: hirohito-20260505-0
summary:
=== Yasukuni Shrine === Hirohito maintained an official boycott of the Yasukuni Shrine after it was revealed to him that Class-A war criminals had secretly been enshrined after its post-war rededication. This boycott lasted from 1978 until his death and has been continued by his successors, Akihito and Naruhito. On 20 July 2006, Nihon Keizai Shimbun published a front-page article about the discovery of a memorandum detailing the reason that Hirohito stopped visiting Yasukuni. The memorandum, kept by former chief of Imperial Household Agency Tomohiko Tomita, confirms for the first time that the enshrinement of 14 Class-A war criminals in Yasukuni was the reason for the boycott. Tomita recorded in detail the contents of his conversations with Hirohito in his diaries and notebooks. According to the memorandum, in 1988, Hirohito expressed his strong displeasure at the decision made by Yasukuni Shrine to include Class-A war criminals in the list of war dead honored there by saying, "At some point, Class-A criminals became enshrined, including Matsuoka and Shiratori. I heard Tsukuba acted cautiously." Tsukuba is believed to refer to Fujimaro Tsukuba, the former chief Yasukuni priest at the time, who decided not to enshrine the war criminals despite having received in


id: hirohito-20260505-10
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hirohito-10.md
category: reference
title: Hirohito
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hirohito
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:28.660739+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: hirohito-20260505-0
summary:
Historians who point to a higher degree of the Emperor's involvement in the war have stated that Hirohito was directly responsible for the atrocities committed by the imperial forces in the Second Sino-Japanese War and in World War II. They have said that he and some members of the imperial family, such as his brother Prince Chichibu, his cousins the princes Takeda and Fushimi, and his uncles the princes Kan'in, Asaka, and Higashikuni, should have been tried for war crimes. In a study published in 1996, historian Mitsuyoshi Himeta said that the Three Alls policy (Sankō Sakusen), a Japanese scorched earth policy adopted in China and sanctioned by Emperor Hirohito himself, was both directly and indirectly responsible for the deaths of "more than 2.7 million" Chinese civilians. In Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan, Herbert P. Bix said the Sankō Sakusen far surpassed Nanking Massacre not only in terms of numbers, but in brutality. According to Bix, "[t]hese military operations caused death and suffering on a scale incomparably greater than the totally unplanned orgy of killing in Nanking, which later came to symbolize the war". While the Nanking Massacre was unplanned, Bix said "Hirohito knew of and approved annihilation


id: hirohito-20260505-11
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hirohito-11.md
category: reference
title: Hirohito
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hirohito
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:28.660739+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: hirohito-20260505-0
summary:
...as a matter of course, [Hirohito] wanted to keep what his generals conquered -- though he was less greedy than some of them. None of this should surprise us. Hirohito would no more have granted Korea independence or returned Manchuria to China than Roosevelt would have granted Hawaii independence or returned Texas to Mexico. Historians such as Herbert Bix, Akira Fujiwara, Peter Wetzler, and Akira Yamada assert that post-war arguments favoring the view that Hirohito was a mere figurehead overlook the importance of numerous "behind the chrysanthemum curtain" meetings where the real decisions were made between the Emperor, his chiefs of staff, and the cabinet. Using primary sources and the monumental work of Shirō Hara as a basis, Fujiwara and Wetzler have produced evidence suggesting that the Emperor actively participated in making political and military decisions and was neither bellicose nor a pacifist but an opportunist who governed in a pluralistic decision-making process. Historian Peter Wetzler states that the emperor was thoroughly informed of military matters, and comensurate with his position and Japanese methods of forming policies, he participated in making political and military decisions as the constitutional emperor of Imperial Japan and head of the imperial house. For his


id: hirohito-20260505-12
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hirohito-12.md
category: reference
title: Hirohito
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hirohito
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:28.660739+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: hirohito-20260505-0
summary:
In Hirohito's monologue: It doesn't matter much if an incident occurs in Manchuria, as it is rural; however, if something were to happen in the Tientsin-Peking area, Anglo-American intervention would likely worsen and could lead to a clash. While he could justify the aggression of his military in China's northeastern provinces, he lacked confidence in Japan's capacity to win a war against the United States and Britain. He was also more aware than his military commanders of Japan's vulnerability to an economic blockade by Western powers. Japan signed the Tripartite Pact in 1940 and another agreement in December 1941 that forbade Japan from signing a separate peace treaty with the United States. In the Dokuhaku roku, Hirohito said: (In 1941,) we thought we could achieve a draw with the US, or at best win by a six to four margin; but total victory was nearly impossible ... When the war actually began, however, we gained a miraculous victory at Pearl Harbor and our invasions of Malaya and Burma succeeded far quicker than expected. So, if not for this (agreement), we might have achieved peace when we were in an advantageous position. The passage in the Dokuhaku roku refutes the theory


id: hirohito-20260505-13
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hirohito-13.md
category: reference
title: Hirohito
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hirohito
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:28.660739+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: hirohito-20260505-0
summary:
"The Emperor appears to have been prepared for war in the face of the tense times." (13 October 1941) Likewise, Koichi Kido, Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal, is quoted as saying: "I occasionally have to try to stop him from going too far." (13 October 1941) "The Emperor's resolve appears to be going too far." (20 November 1941) "I requested the Emperor to say things to give the impression that Japan will exhaust all measures to pursue peace when the Foreign Minister is present." (20 November 1941) Seiichi Chadani, professor of modern Japanese history with Shigakukan University who has studied Hirohito's actions before and during the war said on the discovery of Hyakutake's diary: "The archives available so far, including his biography compiled by the Imperial Household Agency, contained no detailed descriptions that his aides expressed concerns about Hirohito leaning toward Japan's entry into the war." "(Hyakutake's diary) is a significant record penned by one of the close aides to the Emperor documenting the process of how Japan's leaders led to the war." ==== Vice Interior Minister Yuzawa's account on Hirohito's role in Pearl Harbor raid ==== In late July 2018, the bookseller Takeo Hatano, an acquaintance of the


id: hirohito-20260505-14
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hirohito-14.md
category: reference
title: Hirohito
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hirohito
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:06:28.660739+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: hirohito-20260505-0
summary:
"By personality and temperament, Hirohito was ill-suited to the role assigned to him by destiny. The successors of the men who had led the Meiji Restoration yearned for a charismatic warrior king. Instead, they were given an introspective prince who grew up to be more at home in the science laboratory than on the military parade ground. But in his early years, every effort was made to cast him in a different mould." "A man of stronger personality than Hirohito might have tried more strenuously to check the growing influence of the military in Japanese politics and the drift of Japan toward war with the western powers." "The contemporary diary evidence suggests that Hirohito was uncomfortable with the direction of Japanese policy." "The consensus of those who have studied the documents of the period is that Hirohito was consistent in attempting to use his personal influence to induce caution and to moderate and even obstruct the growing impetus toward war." Whitehead concludes that ultimately Hirohito was "powerless" and comparisons with Hitler are "ridiculously wide off the mark." If Hirohito acted too insistently with his views he could have been isolated or replaced with a more pliant member of the royal


