1.
Science
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Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. The formal sciences are often excluded as they do not depend on empirical observations, disciplines which use science, like engineering and medicine, may also be considered to be applied sciences. However, during the Islamic Golden Age foundations for the method were laid by Ibn al-Haytham in his Book of Optics. In the 17th and 18th centuries, scientists increasingly sought to formulate knowledge in terms of physical laws, over the course of the 19th century, the word science became increasingly associated with the scientific method itself as a disciplined way to study the natural world. It was during this time that scientific disciplines such as biology, chemistry, Science in a broad sense existed before the modern era and in many historical civilizations. Modern science is distinct in its approach and successful in its results, Science in its original sense was a word for a type of knowledge rather than a specialized word for the pursuit of such knowledge. In particular, it was the type of knowledge which people can communicate to each other, for example, knowledge about the working of natural things was gathered long before recorded history and led to the development of complex abstract thought. This is shown by the construction of calendars, techniques for making poisonous plants edible. For this reason, it is claimed these men were the first philosophers in the strict sense and they were mainly speculators or theorists, particularly interested in astronomy. In contrast, trying to use knowledge of nature to imitate nature was seen by scientists as a more appropriate interest for lower class artisans. A clear-cut distinction between formal and empirical science was made by the pre-Socratic philosopher Parmenides, although his work Peri Physeos is a poem, it may be viewed as an epistemological essay on method in natural science. Parmenides ἐὸν may refer to a system or calculus which can describe nature more precisely than natural languages. Physis may be identical to ἐὸν and he criticized the older type of study of physics as too purely speculative and lacking in self-criticism. He was particularly concerned that some of the early physicists treated nature as if it could be assumed that it had no intelligent order, explaining things merely in terms of motion and matter. The study of things had been the realm of mythology and tradition, however. Aristotle later created a less controversial systematic programme of Socratic philosophy which was teleological and he rejected many of the conclusions of earlier scientists. For example, in his physics, the sun goes around the earth, each thing has a formal cause and final cause and a role in the rational cosmic order. Motion and change is described as the actualization of potentials already in things, while the Socratics insisted that philosophy should be used to consider the practical question of the best way to live for a human being, they did not argue for any other types of applied science
2.
Technology
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Technology is the collection of techniques, skills, methods and processes used in the production of goods or services or in the accomplishment of objectives, such as scientific investigation. Technology can be the knowledge of techniques, processes, and the like, the human species use of technology began with the conversion of natural resources into simple tools. The steady progress of technology has brought weapons of ever-increasing destructive power. It has helped develop more advanced economies and has allowed the rise of a leisure class, many technological processes produce unwanted by-products known as pollution and deplete natural resources to the detriment of Earths environment. Various implementations of technology influence the values of a society and raise new questions of the ethics of technology, examples include the rise of the notion of efficiency in terms of human productivity, and the challenges of bioethics. Philosophical debates have arisen over the use of technology, with disagreements over whether technology improves the condition or worsens it. The use of the technology has changed significantly over the last 200 years. Before the 20th century, the term was uncommon in English, the term was often connected to technical education, as in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The term technology rose to prominence in the 20th century in connection with the Second Industrial Revolution, the terms meanings changed in the early 20th century when American social scientists, beginning with Thorstein Veblen, translated ideas from the German concept of Technik into technology. In German and other European languages, a distinction exists between technik and technologie that is absent in English, which translates both terms as technology. By the 1930s, technology referred not only to the study of the industrial arts, dictionaries and scholars have offered a variety of definitions. Ursula Franklin, in her 1989 Real World of Technology lecture, gave another definition of the concept, it is practice, the way we do things around here. The term is used to imply a specific field of technology, or to refer to high technology or just consumer electronics. Bernard Stiegler, in Technics and Time,1, defines technology in two ways, as the pursuit of life by other than life, and as organized inorganic matter. Technology can be most broadly defined as the entities, both material and immaterial, created by the application of mental and physical effort in order to some value. In this usage, technology refers to tools and machines that may be used to solve real-world problems and it is a far-reaching term that may include simple tools, such as a crowbar or wooden spoon, or more complex machines, such as a space station or particle accelerator. Tools and machines need not be material, virtual technology, such as software and business methods. W. Brian Arthur defines technology in a broad way as a means to fulfill a human purpose
3.
Diamond
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Diamond is a metastable allotrope of carbon, where the carbon atoms are arranged in a variation of the face-centered cubic crystal structure called a diamond lattice. Diamond is less stable than graphite, but the rate from diamond to graphite is negligible at standard conditions. Diamond is renowned as a material with superlative physical qualities, most of which originate from the covalent bonding between its atoms. In particular, diamond has the highest hardness and thermal conductivity of any bulk material and those properties determine the major industrial application of diamond in cutting and polishing tools and the scientific applications in diamond knives and diamond anvil cells. Because of its extremely rigid lattice, it can be contaminated by very few types of impurities, such as boron, small amounts of defects or impurities color diamond blue, yellow, brown, green, purple, pink, orange or red. Diamond also has relatively high optical dispersion, most natural diamonds are formed at high temperature and pressure at depths of 140 to 190 kilometers in the Earths mantle. Carbon-containing minerals provide the source, and the growth occurs over periods from 1 billion to 3.3 billion years. Diamonds are brought close to the Earths surface through deep volcanic eruptions by magma, Diamonds can also be produced synthetically in a HPHT method which approximately simulates the conditions in the Earths mantle. An alternative, and completely different growth technique is chemical vapor deposition, several non-diamond materials, which include cubic zirconia and silicon carbide and are often called diamond simulants, resemble diamond in appearance and many properties. Special gemological techniques have developed to distinguish natural diamonds, synthetic diamonds. The word is from the ancient Greek ἀδάμας – adámas unbreakable, the name diamond is derived from the ancient Greek αδάμας, proper, unalterable, unbreakable, untamed, from ἀ-, un- + δαμάω, I overpower, I tame. Diamonds have been known in India for at least 3,000 years, Diamonds have been treasured as gemstones since their use as religious icons in ancient India. Their usage in engraving tools also dates to early human history, later in 1797, the English chemist Smithson Tennant repeated and expanded that experiment. By demonstrating that burning diamond and graphite releases the same amount of gas, the most familiar uses of diamonds today are as gemstones used for adornment, a use which dates back into antiquity, and as industrial abrasives for cutting hard materials. The dispersion of light into spectral colors is the primary gemological characteristic of gem diamonds. In the 20th century, experts in gemology developed methods of grading diamonds, four characteristics, known informally as the four Cs, are now commonly used as the basic descriptors of diamonds, these are carat, cut, color, and clarity. A large, flawless diamond is known as a paragon and these conditions are met in two places on Earth, in the lithospheric mantle below relatively stable continental plates, and at the site of a meteorite strike. The conditions for diamond formation to happen in the mantle occur at considerable depth corresponding to the requirements of temperature and pressure
4.
Chromium
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Chromium is a chemical element with symbol Cr and atomic number 24. It is the first element in Group 6 and it is a steely-grey, lustrous, hard and brittle metal which takes a high polish, resists tarnishing, and has a high melting point. The name of the element is derived from the Greek word χρῶμα, chrōma, meaning color, Chromium metal is of high value for its high corrosion resistance and hardness. A major development was the discovery that steel could be highly resistant to corrosion and discoloration by adding metallic chromium to form stainless steel. Stainless steel and chrome plating together comprise 85% of the commercial use, trivalent chromium ion is an essential nutrient in trace amounts in humans for insulin, sugar and lipid metabolism, although the issue is debated. While chromium metal and Cr ions are not considered toxic, hexavalent chromium is toxic and carcinogenic, abandoned chromium production sites often require environmental cleanup. Chromium is remarkable for its properties, it is the only elemental solid which shows antiferromagnetic ordering at room temperature. Above 38 °C, it changes to paramagnetic, Chromium metal left standing in air is passivated by oxidation, forming a thin, protective, surface layer. This layer is a structure only a few molecules thick. It is very dense, and prevents the diffusion of oxygen into the underlying metal and this is different from the oxide that forms on iron and carbon steel, through which elemental oxygen continues to migrate, reaching the underlying material to cause incessant rusting. Passivation can be enhanced by short contact with oxidizing acids like nitric acid, passivated chromium is stable against acids. Passivation can be removed with a reducing agent that destroys the protective oxide layer on the metal. Chromium metal treated in this way readily dissolves in weak acids, Chromium, unlike such metals as iron and nickel, does not suffer from hydrogen embrittlement. However, it suffer from nitrogen embrittlement, reacting with nitrogen from air. Chromium is the 22nd most abundant element in Earths crust with a concentration of 100 ppm. Chromium compounds are found in the environment from the erosion of chromium-containing rocks, Chromium is mined as chromite ore. About two-fifths of the ores and concentrates in the world are produced in South Africa, while Kazakhstan, India, Russia. Untapped chromite deposits are plentiful, but geographically concentrated in Kazakhstan, although rare, deposits of native chromium exist
5.
Venturi effect
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The Venturi effect is the reduction in fluid pressure that results when a fluid flows through a constricted section of a pipe. The Venturi effect is named after Giovanni Battista Venturi, an Italian physicist, thus any gain in kinetic energy a fluid may accrue due to its increased velocity through a constriction is balanced by a drop in pressure. By measuring the change in pressure, the rate can be determined, as in various flow measurement devices such as venturi meters, venturi nozzles. The limiting case of the Venturi effect is when a fluid reaches the state of choked flow, when a fluid system is in a state of choked flow, a further decrease in the downstream pressure environment will not lead to an increase in the mass flow rate. However, mass flow rate for a fluid can increase with increased upstream pressure. This is the principle of operation of a de Laval nozzle, the simplest apparatus, as shown in the photograph and diagram, is a tubular setup known as a Venturi tube or simply a venturi. Fluid flows through a length of pipe of varying diameter, to avoid undue aerodynamic drag, a Venturi tube typically has an entry cone of 30 degrees and an exit cone of 5 degrees. Venturi tubes are used in processes where permanent pressure loss is not tolerable, Venturi tubes are more expensive to construct than a simple orifice plate which uses the same principle as a tubular scheme, but the orifice plate causes significantly more permanent energy loss. Venturis are used in applications and in scientific laboratories for measuring the flow rate of liquids. A venturi can be used to measure the flow rate. At the end of the system, a mixture of liquid, see aspirator and pressure head for discussion of this type of siphon. As fluid flows through a venturi, the expansion and compression of the cause the pressure inside the venturi to change. This principle can be used in metrology for gauges calibrated for differential pressures and this type of pressure measurement may be more convenient, for example, to measure fuel or combustion pressures in jet or rocket engines. In fact, some gusts were so high that travel had to be aided by ropes. Venturi tubes are used to measure the speed of a fluid. Placing a liquid in a U-shaped tube and connecting the ends of the tubes to both ends of a Venturi is all that is needed. When the fluid flows though the Venturi the pressure in the two ends of the tube will differ, forcing the liquid to the low pressure side, the amount of that move can be calibrated to the speed of the fluid flow
6.
Balloon (aeronautics)
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In aeronautics, a balloon is an unpowered aerostat, which remains aloft or floats due to its buoyancy. A balloon may be free, moving with the wind, or tethered to a fixed point and it is distinct from an airship, which is a powered aerostat that can propel itself through the air in a controlled manner. Many balloons have a basket, gondola or capsule suspended beneath the envelope for carrying people or equipment. A balloon is conceptually the simplest of all flying machines, the balloon is a fabric envelope filled with a gas that is lighter than the surrounding atmosphere. As the entire balloon is less dense than its surroundings, it rises, taking along with it a basket, attached underneath, which carries passengers or payload. Although a balloon has no propulsion system, a degree of control is possible through making the balloon rise or sink in altitude to find favorable wind directions. There are three types of balloon, The hot air balloon or Montgolfière obtains its buoyancy by heating the air inside the balloon. The Rozière type has both heated and unheated lifting gases in separate gasbags and this type of balloon is sometimes used for long-distance record flights, such as the recent circumnavigations, but is not otherwise in use. Both the hot air, or Montgolfière, balloon and the gas balloon are still in common use, Montgolfière balloons are relatively inexpensive, as they do not require high-grade materials for their envelopes, and they are popular for balloonist sport activity. The first tethered manned balloon flight was by a larger Montgolfier balloon, the first free balloon flight was by the same Montgolfier balloon on 21 November 1783. When heated, air expands, so a given volume of space contains less air and this makes it lighter and, if its lifting power is greater than the weight of the balloon containing it, it will lift the balloon upwards. A hot air balloon can stay up while it has fuel for its burner. The Montgolfiers early hot air balloons used a solid-fuel brazier which proved less practical than the balloons that had followed almost immediately. In the 1950s, the convenience and low cost of bottled gas burners led to a revival of hot air ballooning for sport and leisure. A man-carrying balloon using the gas hydrogen for buoyancy was made by Professor Jacques Charles and flown less than a month after the Montgolfier flight. In the 19th century, it was common to use gas to fill balloons, this was not as light as pure hydrogen gas, having about half the lifting power. Light gas balloons are predominant in scientific applications, as they are capable of reaching much higher altitudes for longer periods of time. They are generally filled with helium, although hydrogen has more lifting power, it is explosive in an atmosphere rich in oxygen
7.
Thomas Bewick
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Thomas Bewick was an English engraver and natural history author. Early in his career he took on all kinds of such as engraving cutlery, making the wood blocks for advertisements. He gradually turned to illustrating, writing and publishing his own books and his career began when he was apprenticed to engraver Ralph Beilby in Newcastle upon Tyne. He became a partner in the business and eventually took it over, Apprentices whom Bewick trained include John Anderson, Luke Clennell, and William Harvey, who in their turn became well known as painters and engravers. The book was the forerunner of all modern field guides and he notably illustrated editions of Aesops Fables throughout his life. He is credited with popularising a technical innovation in the printing of illustrations using wood and he adopted metal-engraving tools to cut hard boxwood across the grain, producing printing blocks that could be integrated with metal type, but were much more durable than traditional woodcuts. The result was high-quality illustration at a low price, Bewick was born at Cherryburn, a house in the village of Mickley, Northumberland, near Newcastle upon Tyne on 10 or 11 August 1753, although his birthday was always celebrated on the 12th. His parents were tenant farmers, his father John had been married before his union with Jane, and was in his forties when Thomas, John rented a small colliery at Mickley Bank, which employed perhaps six men. Bewick attended school in the village of Ovingham. Bewick did not flourish at schoolwork, but at an early age showed a talent for drawing. He had no lessons in art, in Beilbys workshop Bewick engraved a series of diagrams on wood for Charles Hutton, illustrating a treatise on measurement. In 1776 Bewick became a partner in Beilbys workshop, the joint business prospered, becoming Newcastles leading engraving service with an enviable reputation for high quality work and good service. In September 1776 he went to London for eight months, finding the city rude, deceitful and cruel, and much disliking the unfairness of extreme wealth and poverty side by side. He returned to his beloved Newcastle as soon as he could, but his time in the capital gave him a reputation, business experience. In 1786, when he was secure, he married Isabella Elliott from Ovingham. They had four children, Robert, Jane, Isabella, and Elizabeth, at that period in his life he was described by the Newcastle artist Thomas Sword Good as a man of athletic make, nearly 6 feet high and proportionally stout. He possessed great courage and in his younger years was not slow to repay an insult with personal chastisement. On one occasion, being assaulted by two pitmen on returning from a visit to Cherryburn, he turned upon the aggressors
8.
A History of British Birds
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A History of British Birds is a natural history book by Thomas Bewick, published in two volumes. Volume 1, Land Birds, appeared in 1797, Volume 2, Water Birds, appeared in 1804. A supplement was published in 1821, the text in Land Birds was written by Ralph Beilby, while Bewick took over the text for the second volume. The book is admired mainly for the beauty and clarity of Bewicks wood engravings, which are considered his finest work. British Birds has been compared to works of poetry and literature and it plays a recurring role in Charlotte Brontës novel Jane Eyre. William Wordsworth praised Bewick in the first lines of his poem The Two Thieves, Oh now that the genius of Bewick were mine, the book was effectively the first field guide for non-specialists. Bewick provides an illustration of each species, from life if possible. The common and scientific name are listed, citing the naming authorities, the bird is described, with its distribution and behaviour, often with extensive quotations from printed sources or correspondents. Those who provided skins or information are acknowledged, the species are grouped into families such as Of the Falcon, using the limited and conflicting scientific sources of the time. Each species entry begins on a new page, any spaces at the ends of entries are filled with tail-pieces, small, British Birds remains in print, and has attracted the attention of authors such as Jenny Uglow. Critics note Bewicks skill as a naturalist as well as an engraver, the preface states that while one of the editors of this work was engaged in preparing the cuts, which are faithfully drawn from Nature, and engraved upon wood, the compilation of the descriptions. Bewicks friend Thomas Hornby heard of this, and informed Bewick, an informal trade panel met to judge the matter, and the preface was the result, and Beilbys name did not appear on the title page. Each species of bird is presented in a few pages, Bewick then presents the name, with variations, and the Latin and French equivalents. The text begins by stating the size of the bird, Bewick then describes the bird, typically in one paragraph, naming any notable features such as the colour of the eyes, the bill, the legs, and plumage on each part of the body. Next, the origin and distribution of the species are discussed, with notes or quotations from such as John Ray, Gilbert White. Bewick then mentions any other facts of interest about the bird, in the case of the duck, this concerns its musky smell. If the bird hybridizes with other species, this is described, finally, Bewick acknowledges anyone who helped. Losh, one of Bewicks many collaborators, was a partner in Losh, Wilson and Bell, manufacturers of chemicals
9.
Copley Medal
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The Copley Medal is a scientific award given by the Royal Society, London, for outstanding achievements in research in any branch of science. It alternates between the physical and the biological sciences, the medal was created following a donation of £100 to be used for carrying out experiments by Sir Godfrey Copley, for which the interest on the amount was used for several years. A second donation of £1666 13s, 4d. was made by Sir Joseph William Copley in 1881, and the interest from that amount is used to pay for the medal. The medal in its current format is made of silver gilt, since its inception, it has been awarded to many notable scientists, including 52 winners of the Nobel Prize,17 in Physics,21 in Physiology or Medicine, and 14 in Chemistry. John Theophilus Desaguliers has won the medal the most often, winning in 1734,1736 and 1741, in 1976, Dorothy Hodgkin became the first and as of 2015 the only female recipient
10.
Charles Lyell
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Sir Charles Lyell, 1st Baronet, FRS was a British lawyer and the foremost geologist of his day. Principles of Geology also challenged theories popularized by Georges Cuvier, which were the most accepted and circulated ideas about geology in England at the time and he also coined the currently-used names for geological eras, Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic. He incorrectly conjectured that icebergs may be the emphasis behind the transport of glacial erratics, Lyell was one of the first to believe that the world is older than 300 million years, on the basis of its geological anomalies. He was a friend of Charles Darwin, and contributed significantly to Darwins thinking on the processes involved in evolution. He helped to arrange the publication in 1858 of papers by Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace on natural selection. He later published evidence from geology of the man had existed on Earth. Lyell was born 14 November 1797 in Scotland about 15 miles north of Dundee in Kinnordy and he was the eldest of ten children. Lyells father, also named Charles Lyell, was a lawyer and botanist of minor repute, the house/place of his birth is located in the north-west of the Central Lowlands in the valley of the Highland Boundary Fault. Round the house, in the valley, is farmland. His familys second home was in a different geological and ecological area, he spent much of his childhood at Bartley Lodge in the New Forest. Lyell entered Exeter College, Oxford, in 1816, and attended William Bucklands lectures and he graduated BA second class in classics, December 1819, and M. A.1821. After graduation he took up law as a profession, entering Lincolns Inn in 1820 and he completed a circuit through rural England, where he could observe geological phenomena. In 1821 he attended Robert Jamesons lectures in Edinburgh, and visited Gideon Mantell at Lewes, in 1823 he was elected joint secretary of the Geological Society. As his eyesight began to deteriorate, he turned to geology as a full-time profession and his first paper, On a recent formation of freshwater limestone in Forfarshire, was presented in 1822. In 1832, Lyell married Mary Horner in Bonn, daughter of Leonard Horner, the new couple spent their honeymoon in Switzerland and Italy on a geological tour of the area. During the 1840s, Lyell travelled to the United States and Canada, after the Great Chicago Fire, Lyell was one of the first to donate books to help found the Chicago Public Library. In 1866, he was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Lyells wife died in 1873, and two years later Lyell himself died as he was revising the twelfth edition of Principles and he is buried in Westminster Abbey
