Friday, February 29, 2008

SciTech Spotlight

Today is the anniversary of the birth of the godfather of the modern computer industry, Herman Hollerith.

Thursday, February 28, 2008

SciTech Spotlight

On this day in 2007, the New Horizons spacecraft, bound for Pluto, had a close encouter with the Jovian system.

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

SciTech Spotlight

Today is the 66th birthday of Southern gentleman and Nobel laureate Robert Grubbs.

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

SciTech Spotlight

Today we salute a man whose jeans were the natural selection. Levi Strauss was born 179 years ago today.

Monday, February 25, 2008

SciTech Spotlight

Today is the anniversary of the birth of molecular biologist William Astbury.

Sunday, February 24, 2008

SciTech Spotlight

On this day in 1969, the Mariner 6 spacecraft was launched to Mars.

Saturday, February 23, 2008

SciTech Spotlight

Today is the 43rd birthday of Michael Dell, founder of Dell Computer.

Friday, February 22, 2008

SciTech Spotlight

This date is certainly a banner one for radio. On February 22, 1857 physicist Heinrich Hertz, the first person to produce and detect radio waves, was born. Then sixty-seven years later on February 22, 1924, Calvin Coolidge became the first president to deliver a radio address from the White House.

Thursday, February 21, 2008

SciTech Spotlight

Today is the 31st birthday of Internet entrepreneur Kevin Rose, founder of Digg.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

SciTech Spotlight

On this day in 1962 John Glen became the first American to orbit the earth.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

SciTech Spotlight

Groundbreaking astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus was born on this day in 1473.

Monday, February 18, 2008

SciTech Spotlight

Get your vroom on! Enzo Ferrari was born on this day in 1898.

Sunday, February 17, 2008

SciTech Spotlight

Thomas Watson, the man responsible for laying the foundation that allowed IBM to become one of the great technology companies of the world, was born on this day in 1874.

Saturday, February 16, 2008

SciTech Spotlight

Today is the 31st birthday of Ian Clarke, the creator of Freenet.

Friday, February 15, 2008

SciTech Spotlight

Physicist, astronomer and mathematician Galileo Gallilei was born on this day in 1564.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

SciTech Spotlight

Christopher Sholes, the inventor of the first practical typewriter, was born on this day in 1819.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

SciTech Spotlight

Today is the 85th birthday of Chuck Yeager, the first pilot to break the sound barrier.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

SciTech Spotlight

On this day in 1935 patent number 1,991,236 was issued to Robert Jemison Van de Graaff for his electrostatic generator design which was able to produce direct-current voltages much higher than the 700,000 volt limit of other such generators of that time.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

SciTech Spotlight

It was shades of Frankenstein as on this day in 1996, the IBM supercomputer named Deep Blue became the first machine to defeat a chess grandmaster.

Saturday, February 9, 2008

SciTech Spotlight

Howard T. Ricketts, the pathologist who found the causative organisms and mode of transmission of Rocky Mountain spotted fever and epidemic typhus, was born on this day in 1871.

Friday, February 8, 2008

SciTech Spotlight

On this day in 1916 Charles Kettering received a patent for a self-starting automobile engine.

Thursday, February 7, 2008

SciTech Spotlight

Today is the anniversary of the birth of blacksmith turned American agricultural equipment inventor and pioneer manufacturer, John Deere.

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

SciTech Spotlight

Today is the anniversary of the birth of physicist and space visionary Gerard O'Neill.

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

SciTech Spotlight

On this day in 1971, the Apollo 14 lunar module successfully landed on the moon and mankind began its third expedition on our nearest neighbor in space.

Monday, February 4, 2008

SciTech Spotlight

The man who discovered Pluto, Clyde W. Tombaugh, was born on this day in 1906.

Sunday, February 3, 2008

SciTech Spotlight

Today is the anniversary of the birth of Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman to receive an MD degree from an American medical school. She was rejected by all the major medical schools in the nation because of her gender. However, her application to Geneva Medical School (now Hobart & William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York) was referred to the student body. They accepted thinking it was a joke from a rival school. Working with grit and determination, she overcame the hostility of her fellow students, professors and townspeople and earned her medical degree in 1849.

Saturday, February 2, 2008

SciTech Spotlight

Jean-Baptiste Boussingault, the chemist who identified the biological nitrogen cycle, was born on this day in 1802.

Friday, February 1, 2008

SciTech Spolight

Nobel laureate and codiscoverer of the anti-proton Emilio Segrè was born on this day in 1905.