April 3, 2020
by Bill Ashworth | Apr 3, 2020 | Scientist of the Day
George Douglas, the 16th Earl of Morton and a Scottish gentleman scientist, was born Apr. 3, 1761. No doubt because he was wealthy and upper class, Douglas was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London when he was just 24 years old, and he was subsequently... April 1, 2020
by Bill Ashworth | Apr 1, 2020 | Scientist of the Day
Eleazar Root, a British civil engineer, was born Apr. 1, 1805. Root grew up in West Riding, in Yorkshire. In the 1830s, he set up a company specializing in applying waterproof linings to canal beds, which at the time meant mastering the whimsies of puddling clay. ... March 20, 2020
by Eric Ward | Mar 20, 2020 | Scientist of the Day
René Primevére Lesson, a French naval officer, surgeon, and zoologist, was born Mar. 20, 1794. Lesson was the assistant surgeon on the voyage of La Coquille from 1822 to 1825, which meant, in the tradition of the French navy, that he was also the de facto on-board... March 19, 2020
by Bill Ashworth | Mar 19, 2020 | Scientist of the Day
Margaret Harwood, born on Mar. 19, 1885 in Littleton, Massachusetts, became the first woman – and for a long time the only woman – to serve as director of an independent astronomical observatory. She took charge of the Maria Mitchell Observatory on Nantucket Island in... March 18, 2020
by Bill Ashworth | Mar 18, 2020 | Scientist of the Day
Joseph René Bellot, a French naval officer, was born Mar. 18, 1826. Bellot was an up-and-coming young lieutenant when he was asked in 1851 by Lady Jane Franklin to join a privately-funded search for her husband, Sir John Franklin, his two ships, and his crew of 130... March 17, 2020
by Bill Ashworth | Mar 17, 2020 | Scientist of the Day
George Parker, the 2nd Earl of Macclesfield and an English astronomer, died Mar. 17, 1764; his date of birth, surprisingly, was unrecorded. Parker was a member of Parliament for some years, but he was more interested in practicing astronomy in an observatory that he... 