Scientist of the Day

On Dec. 4, 1998, the Space Shuttle Endeavour was launched from the Kennedy Space center on a mission known as STS-88. In its cargo bay was ...

James Challis, an English astronomer, died Dec. 3, 1882, just shy of his 79th birthday. Challis was clearly a bright fellow, for he attended...

When the 100-inch Hooker telescope went into operation in 1917 on Mount Wilson in Pasadena, California, it was the largest light-gathering...

Martin Heinrich Klaproth, a German apothecary and chemist, was born on Dec. 1, 1743, in Wernigerode, a small town in central Germany.

The Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, carrying the Llangollen Canal over the River Dee in northeastern Wales, opened to its first canal boat on Nov. 26, 1805.

Daniel Sennert, a German physician and chemist, was born Nov. 25, 1572, in Breslau (now Wrocław, Poland).  He studied at the University of...

Just before 2:00 PM, on Nov. 21, 1783, the first untethered manned balloon ascended from the Jardin de la Muette near the Seine in Paris and headed...

Eduard Rüppell, a German naturalist and explorer, was born on Nov. 20, 1794, in Frankfurt am Main.

Bruno Bearzi, a Florentine foundryman, was born on Nov. 19, 1894, in Palmanova in northeast Italy.  Bearzi was one of those responsible for...

The first Westminster Bridge across the Thames in London opened on Nov. 18, 1750. It took 13 years to build, and was opposed by many interests...

Frans Post, a Dutch landscape painter, was born Nov. 17, 1612, in Haarlem.

Alexandre-Émile Béguyer de Chancourtois, a French geologist with an interest in chemistry, died Nov. 14, 1886, at age 66.