1.
Science
–
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
–
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.
Edwin Hubble
–
Edwin Powell Hubble was an American astronomer. He played a role in establishing the fields of extragalactic astronomy. Hubbles Law implies that the universe is expanding, Hubble also discovered that many objects previously thought to be clouds of dust and gas and classified as nebulae were actually galaxies beyond the Milky Way. A decade before, the American astronomer Vesto Slipher had provided the first evidence that the light from many of these nebulae was strongly red-shifted, indicative of high recession velocities. Hubbles name is most widely recognized for the Hubble Space Telescope which was named in his honor, with a prominently displayed in his hometown of Marshfield. Edwin Hubble was born to Virginia Lee Hubble and John Powell Hubble, an executive, in Marshfield, Missouri. In his younger days, he was noted more for his athletic prowess than his intellectual abilities, Edwin was a gifted athlete playing baseball, football, basketball, and he ran track in both high school and college. He played a variety of positions on the court from center to shooting guard. In fact Hubble even led the University of Chicagos basketball team to their first conference title in 1907 and he won seven first places and a third place in a single high school track and field meet in 1906. His studies at the University of Chicago were concentrated on law, Hubble also became a member of the Kappa Sigma Fraternity. In 1909, Hubbles father moved his family from Chicago to Shelbyville, Kentucky, so that the family could live in a small town, the family moved once more to Everett Avenue, in Louisvilles Highlands neighborhood, to accommodate Edwin and William. After the death of his father in 1913, Edwin returned to the Midwest from Oxford, instead, he proceeded to teach Spanish, physics and mathematics at New Albany High School in New Albany, Indiana, where he also coached the boys basketball team. His dissertation was titled Photographic Investigations of Faint Nebulae, after the United States declared war on Germany in 1917, Hubble rushed to complete his PhD dissertation so he could join the military. Hubble volunteered for the United States Army and was assigned to the newly created 86th Division and he rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel, and was found fit for overseas duty on July 9,1918, but the 86th Division never saw combat. After the end of World War I, Hubble spent a year in Cambridge, in 1919, Hubble was offered a staff position at the Carnegie Institutions Mount Wilson Observatory, near Pasadena, California, by George Ellery Hale, the founder and director of the observatory. Hubble remained on staff at Mount Wilson until his death in 1953, shortly before his death, Hubble became the first astronomer to use the newly completed giant 200-inch reflector Hale Telescope at the Palomar Observatory near San Diego, California. Hubble also worked as a civilian for U. S, the results of his studies were credited with greatly improving design, performance, and military effectiveness of bombs and rockets. For his work there, he received the Legion of Merit award, although Hubble was raised as a Christian, he later became an agnostic
4.
Andromeda Galaxy
–
The Andromeda Galaxy, also known as Messier 31, M31, or NGC224, is a spiral galaxy approximately 780 kiloparsecs from Earth. It is the nearest major galaxy to the Milky Way and was referred to as the Great Andromeda Nebula in older texts. It received its name from the area of the sky in which it appears, the constellation of Andromeda, which was named after the mythological princess Andromeda. Andromeda is approximately 220,000 light years across, and it is the largest galaxy of the Local Group, which contains the Milky Way, the Triangulum Galaxy. The mass of the Andromeda Galaxy is estimated to be 1. 5×1012 solar masses, the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies are expected to collide in 4.5 billion years, eventually merging to form a giant elliptical galaxy or perhaps a large disc galaxy. Around the year 964, the Persian astronomer Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi described the Andromeda Galaxy, star charts of that period labeled it as the Little Cloud. In 1612, the German astronomer Simon Marius gave a description of the Andromeda Galaxy based on telescopic observations. In 1764, Charles Messier catalogued Andromeda as object M31 and incorrectly credited Marius as the discoverer despite it being visible to the naked eye, in 1785, the astronomer William Herschel noted a faint reddish hue in the core region of Andromeda. In 1850, William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse, saw, in 1864, William Huggins noted that the spectrum of Andromeda differs from a gaseous nebula. The spectra of Andromeda displays a continuum of frequencies, superimposed with dark lines that help identify the chemical composition of an object. Andromedas spectrum is similar to the spectra of individual stars. In 1885, a supernova was seen in Andromeda, the first, at the time Andromeda was considered to be a nearby object, so the cause was thought to be a much less luminous and unrelated event called a nova, and was named accordingly, Nova 1885. In 1887, Isaac Roberts took the first photographs of Andromeda, Roberts actually mistook Andromeda and similar spiral nebulae as solar systems being formed. In 1912, Vesto Slipher used spectroscopy to measure the velocity of Andromeda with respect to our solar system—the largest velocity yet measured. In 1917, Heber Curtis observed a nova within Andromeda, searching the photographic record,11 more novae were discovered. Curtis noticed that these novae were, on average,10 magnitudes fainter than those that occurred elsewhere in the sky, as a result, he was able to come up with a distance estimate of 500,000 light-years. He became a proponent of the island universes hypothesis, which held that spiral nebulae were actually independent galaxies. In 1920, the Great Debate between Harlow Shapley and Curtis took place, concerning the nature of the Milky Way, spiral nebulae, in 1922 Ernst Öpik presented a method to estimate the distance of Andromeda using the measured velocities of its stars
5.
Nebula
–
A nebula is an interstellar cloud of dust, hydrogen, helium and other ionized gases. Originally, nebula was a name for any diffuse astronomical object, the Andromeda Galaxy, for instance, was once referred to as the Andromeda Nebula before the true nature of galaxies was confirmed in the early 20th century by Vesto Slipher, Edwin Hubble and others. Most nebulae are of vast size, even millions of years in diameter. The Orion Nebula, the brightest nebula in the sky that occupies a region twice the diameter of the full Moon, can be viewed with the naked eye but was missed by early astronomers. Many nebulae are visible due to their fluorescence caused by the hot stars, while others are so diffuse they can only be detected with long exposures. Some nebulae are variably illuminated by T Tauri variable stars, Nebulae are often star-forming regions, such as in the Pillars of Creation in the Eagle Nebula. In these regions the formations of gas, dust, and other materials together to form denser regions, which attract further matter. The remaining material is believed to form planets and other planetary system objects. Around 150 AD, Claudius Ptolemaeus recorded, in books VII–VIII of his Almagest and he also noted a region of nebulosity between the constellations Ursa Major and Leo that was not associated with any star. The first true nebula, as distinct from a cluster, was mentioned by the Persian astronomer Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi. He noted a little cloud where the Andromeda Galaxy is located and he also cataloged the Omicron Velorum star cluster as a nebulous star and other nebulous objects, such as Brocchis Cluster. The supernova that created the Crab Nebula, the SN1054, was observed by Arabic, in 1610, Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc discovered the Orion Nebula using a telescope. This nebula was observed by Johann Baptist Cysat in 1618. However, the first detailed study of the Orion Nebula was not performed until 1659 by Christiaan Huygens, in 1715, Edmund Halley published a list of six nebulae. This number steadily increased during the century, with Jean-Philippe de Cheseaux compiling a list of 20 in 1746, from 1751 to 1753, Nicolas Louis de Lacaille cataloged 42 nebulae from the Cape of Good Hope, most of which were previously unknown. Charles Messier then compiled a catalog of 103 nebulae by 1781, his interest was detecting comets, the number of nebulae was then greatly expanded by the efforts of William Herschel and his sister Caroline Herschel. Their Catalogue of One Thousand New Nebulae and Clusters of Stars was published in 1786, a second catalog of a thousand was published in 1789 and the third and final catalog of 510 appeared in 1802. During much of their work, William Herschel believed that these nebulae were merely unresolved clusters of stars, in 1790, however, he discovered a star surrounded by nebulosity and concluded that this was a true nebulosity, rather than a more distant cluster
6.
Potsdam
–
Potsdam is the capital and largest city of the German federal state of Brandenburg. It directly borders the German capital Berlin and is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region and it is situated on the River Havel,24 kilometres southwest of Berlins city centre. Potsdam was a residence of the Prussian kings and the German Kaiser, around the city there are a series of interconnected lakes and cultural landmarks, in particular the parks and palaces of Sanssouci, the largest World Heritage Site in Germany. The Potsdam Conference in 1945 was held at the palace Cecilienhof, the Filmstudio Babelsberg is the oldest large-scale film studio in the world. Potsdam developed into a centre of science in Germany in the 19th century, today, there are three public colleges, the University of Potsdam, and more than 30 research institutes in the city. The area was formed from a series of large moraines left after the last glacial period, today, the city is three-quarters green space, with just a quarter as urban area. There are about 20 lakes and rivers in and around Potsdam, such as the Havel, the Griebnitzsee, Templiner See, Tiefer See, Jungfernsee, Teltowkanal, Heiliger See, the highest point is the 114-metre high Kleiner Ravensberg. Potsdam is divided into seven city districts and nine new Ortsteile. The appearances of the city districts are quite different, the districts in the north and in the centre consist mainly of historical buildings, the south of the city is dominated by larger areas of newer buildings. Potsdam has an Oceanic climate, with cool, snowy winters, the average winter high temperature is 3.5 °C, with a low of −1.7 °C. Snow is common in the winter, summers are mild, with a high of 23.6 °C and a low of 12.7 °C. The name Potsdam originally seems to have been Poztupimi, a common theory is that it derives from an old West Slavonic term meaning beneath the oaks, i. e. the corrupted pod dubmi/dubimi. The area around Potsdam shows occupancy since the Bronze Age and was part of Magna Germania as described by Tacitus. After the great migrations of the Germanic peoples, Slavs moved in and it was first mentioned in a document in 993 AD as Poztupimi, when Emperor Otto III gifted the territory to the Quedlinburg Abbey, then led by his aunt Matilda. By 1317, it was mentioned as a small town and it gained its town charter in 1345. In 1573, it was still a market town of 2,000 inhabitants. Potsdam lost nearly half of its due to the Thirty Years War. After the Edict of Potsdam in 1685, Potsdam became a centre of European immigration and its religious freedom attracted people from France, Russia, the Netherlands and Bohemia
7.
Germany
–
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres, with about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular destination in the world. Germanys capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while its largest conurbation is the Ruhr, other major cities include Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Leipzig. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity, a region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period the Germanic tribes expanded southward, beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation, in 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic, the establishment of the national socialist dictatorship in 1933 led to World War II and the Holocaust. After a period of Allied occupation, two German states were founded, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, in 1990, the country was reunified. In the 21st century, Germany is a power and has the worlds fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP. As a global leader in industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds third-largest exporter and importer of goods. Germany is a country with a very high standard of living sustained by a skilled. It upholds a social security and universal health system, environmental protection. Germany was a member of the European Economic Community in 1957. It is part of the Schengen Area, and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999, Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G20, and the OECD. The national military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world, the English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz popular, derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- people, the discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a mine in Schöningen where three 380, 000-year-old wooden javelins were unearthed
8.
Erich Mendelsohn
–
Mendelsohn is a pioneer of the Art Deco and Streamline Moderne architecture, notably with his 1921 Mossehaus design. Erich Mendelsohn was born in Allenstein, East Prussia and his birthplace was at the former Oberstrasse 21, now no.10 Staromiejska street. A plaque embedded on the wall on the side of Barbara street commemorates his place of birth and he was the fifth of six children, his mother was Emma Esther, a hatmaker and his father David was a shopkeeper. He attended a humanist Gymnasium in Allenstein and continued with commercial training in Berlin, in 1906 he took up the study of national economics at the University of Munich. In 1908 he began studying architecture at the Technical University of Berlin, from 1912 to 1914 he worked as an independent architect in Munich. In 1915 he married the cellist Luise Maas, through his wife, he met the cello-playing astrophysicist Erwin Finlay Freundlich. Freundlich was the brother of Herbert Freundlich, the deputy director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institut für Physikalische Chemie und Elektrochemie, Freundlich wished to build a suitable astronomical observatory to experimentally confirm Einsteins Theory of Relativity. Through his relationship with Freundlich, Mendelsohn had the opportunity to design and this relationship and also the family friendship with the Luckenwalde hat manufacturers Salomon and Gustav Herrmann helped Mendelsohn to an early success. The 2011 documentary film by Duki Dror titled Incessant Visions is about Erich Mendelsohn and his wife, in which Dror animates the memoirs of Louise, at the end of 1918, upon his return from World War I, he settled his practice in Berlin. The Einsteinturm and the hat factory in Luckenwalde established his reputation, the Hat Factory was commissioned in 1921, Mendelsohns design included four production halls, a boiler, a turbine house, two gatehouses and a dyeing hall. The dyeing hall became a feature of the factory, the building was shaped with a modern. The structure even ironically resembled a hat, as early as 1924 Wasmuths Monatshefte für Baukunst produced a booklet about his work. In that same year, along with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Walter Gropius and his practice employed as many as forty people, among them, as a trainee, Julius Posener, later an architectural historian. Mendelsohns work encapsulated the consumerism of the Weimar Republic, most particularly in his shops, nonetheless he was also interested in the socialist experiments being made in the USSR, where he designed the Red Banner Textile Factory in 1926. His Mossehaus newspaper offices and Universum cinema were also influential on art deco. In 1926, he bought an old villa, and in 1928, he designed Rupenhorn, nearly 4000 m², with an expensive publication about his new home, illustrated by Amédée Ozenfant among others, Mendelsohn became the subject of envy. In the spring of 1933, in the wake of growing antisemitism and his fortune was seized by the Nazis, his name struck from the list of the German Architects Union, and he was excluded from the Prussian Academy of Arts. In England he began a partnership with Serge Chermayeff, which continued until the end of 1936
9.
Canberra
–
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of 381,488, it is Australias largest inland city, the city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory,280 km south-west of Sydney, and 660 km north-east of Melbourne. A resident of Canberra is known as a Canberran, the site of Canberra was selected for the location of the nations capital in 1908 as a compromise between rivals Sydney and Melbourne, Australias two largest cities. It is unusual among Australian cities, being a planned city outside of any state, similar to Washington, D. C. in the United States. Following an international contest for the design, a blueprint by American architects Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin was selected. The Griffins plan featured geometric motifs such as circles, hexagons and triangles, the citys design was influenced by the garden city movement and incorporates significant areas of natural vegetation that have earned Canberra the title of the bush capital. Although the Australian Capital Territory is now self-governing, the Commonwealth Government retains some influence through the National Capital Authority, the Australian Armys officer corps is trained at the Royal Military College, Duntroon and the Australian Defence Force Academy is also located in the capital. The ACT is independent of any state to prevent any one state from gaining an advantage by hosting the seat of Commonwealth power, the ACT has voting representation in the Commonwealth Parliament, and has its own independent Legislative Assembly and government, similar to the states. Compared to the averages, the unemployment rate is lower. Property prices are high, in part due to comparatively restrictive development regulations. An 1830s map of the region by Major Mitchell indeed does mark the Sullivans Creek floodplain between two mountains as Nganbra. Nganbra or Nganbira could readily have been anglicised to the name Canberry, survey plans of the district dated 1837 refer to the area as the Canberry Plain. Although popularly pronounced /ˈkænbərə/ or /ˈkænbɛrə/, the pronunciation at its official naming in 1913 was /ˈkæn. brə/. Before white settlement, the area in which Canberra would eventually be constructed was seasonally inhabited by Indigenous Australians, archaeological evidence of settlement in the region includes inhabited rock shelters, rock paintings and engravings, burial places, camps and quarry sites, and stone tools and arrangements. Artefacts suggests early human activity occurred at some point in the area 21,000 years previously, European exploration and settlement started in the Canberra area as early as the 1820s. There were four expeditions between 1820 and 1824, white settlement of the area probably dates from 1823, when a homestead or station was built on what is now the Acton peninsula by stockmen employed by Joshua John Moore. He formally applied to purchase the site on 16 December 1826, on 30 April 1827, Moore was told by letter that he could retain possession of 1,000 acres at Canberry. The European population in the Canberra area continued to grow throughout the 19th century
10.
J. B. S. Haldane
–
His article on abiogenesis in 1929 introduced the Primordial Soup Theory, and it became the foundation to build physical models for the chemical origin of life. Haldane established human gene maps for haemophilia and colour blindness on the X chromosome and he correctly proposed that sickle-cell disease confers some immunity to malaria. In 1957 he articulated Haldanes dilemma, a limit on the speed of evolution which subsequently proved incorrect. He willed his body for medical studies, as he wanted to remain even in death. Arthur C. Clarke credited him as perhaps the most brilliant science populariser of his generation, nobel laureate Peter Medawar called Haldane the cleverest man I ever knew. Haldane was born in Oxford to John Scott Haldane, a physiologist, scientist, a philosopher and a Liberal, and Louisa Kathleen Trotter and his younger sister, Naomi Mitchison, became a writer, and his uncle was Viscount Haldane and his aunt the author Elizabeth Haldane. Descended from an aristocratic and secular family of the Clan Haldane and he grew up at 11 Crick Road, North Oxford. He learnt to read at the age of three, and at four, after injuring his forehead he asked the doctor, Is this oxyhaemoglobin or carboxyhaemoglobin. From age eight he worked with his father in their home laboratory where he experienced his first self-experimentation and he and his father became their own human guinea pigs, such as in their investigation on the effects of poison gases. In 1899 his family moved to Cherwell, a late Victorian house at the outskirts of Oxford having its private laboratory and his formal education began in 1897 at Oxford Preparatory School, where he gained a First Scholarship in 1904 to Eton. In 1905 he joined Eton, where he experienced severe abuse from senior students for allegedly being arrogant, the indifference of authority left him with a lasting hatred for the English education system. However, the ordeal did not stop him from becoming Captain of the school and he studied mathematics and classics at New College at the University of Oxford and obtained first-class honours in mathematical moderations in 1912 and a first-class honours in 1914. With his father he published his first scientific paper, age 20 and he became engrossed in genetics and presented a paper on gene linkage in vertebrates in the summer of 1912. His first technical paper, a 30-page long article on function, was published. He was promoted to lieutenant on 18 February 1915 and to temporary captain on 18 October. He served in France and Iraq, where he was wounded and he relinquished his commission on 1 April 1920, retaining his rank of captain. For his ferocity and aggressiveness in battles, his commander called him the bravest and dirtiest officer in my Army, between 1919 and 1922 he was a Fellow of New College, Oxford, where he researched physiology and genetics. He then moved to the University of Cambridge, where he accepted a readership in Biochemistry, from 1927 until 1937 he was also Head of Genetical Research at the John Innes Horticultural Institution
11.
James Watt
–
While working as an instrument maker at the University of Glasgow, Watt became interested in the technology of steam engines. He realised that contemporary engine designs wasted a great deal of energy by repeatedly cooling and reheating the cylinder, Watt introduced a design enhancement, the separate condenser, which avoided this waste of energy and radically improved the power, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness of steam engines. Eventually he adapted his engine to produce rotary motion, greatly broadening its use beyond pumping water, Watt attempted to commercialise his invention, but experienced great financial difficulties until he entered a partnership with Matthew Boulton in 1775. The new firm of Boulton and Watt was eventually highly successful, in his retirement, Watt continued to develop new inventions though none was as significant as his steam engine work. He developed the concept of horsepower, and the SI unit of power, James Watt was born on 19 January 1736 in Greenock, Renfrewshire, a seaport on the Firth of Clyde. His father was a shipwright, ship owner and contractor, and served as the towns chief baillie, while his mother, Agnes Muirhead, both were Presbyterians and strong Covenanters. Watts grandfather, Thomas Watt, was a teacher and baillie to the Baron of Cartsburn. Despite being raised by parents, he later on became a deist. Watt did not attend regularly, initially he was mostly schooled at home by his mother but later he attended Greenock Grammar School. He exhibited great manual dexterity, engineering skills and an aptitude for mathematics, while Latin, when he was eighteen, his mother died and his fathers health began to fail. Watt travelled to London to study instrument-making for a year, then returned to Scotland and he made and repaired brass reflecting quadrants, parallel rulers, scales, parts for telescopes, and barometers, among other things. Because he had not served at least seven years as an apprentice, Watt was saved from this impasse by the arrival from Jamaica of astronomical instruments bequeathed by Alexander Macfarlane to the University of Glasgow, instruments that required expert attention. Watt restored them to working order and was remunerated and these instruments were eventually installed in the Macfarlane Observatory. Subsequently three professors offered him the opportunity to set up a workshop within the university. It was initiated in 1757 and two of the professors, the physicist and chemist Joseph Black as well as the famed Adam Smith, at first he worked on maintaining and repairing scientific instruments used in the university, helping with demonstrations, and expanding the production of quadrants. In 1759 he formed a partnership with John Craig, an architect and businessman, to manufacture and sell a line of products including musical instruments and this partnership lasted for the next six years, and employed up to sixteen workers. One employee, Alex Gardner, eventually took over the business, in 1764, Watt married his cousin Margaret Miller, with whom he had five children, two of whom lived to adulthood, James Jr. and Margaret. His wife died in childbirth in 1772, in 1777 he was married again, to Ann MacGregor, daughter of a Glasgow dye-maker, with whom he had two children, Gregory, who became a geologist and mineralogist, and Janet
12.
Science Museum, London
–
The Science Museum is a major museum on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, London. It was founded in 1857 and today is one of the major tourist attractions. Like other publicly funded museums in the United Kingdom, the Science Museum does not charge visitors for admission. Temporary exhibitions, however, may incur an admission fee and it is part of the Science Museum Group, having merged with the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester in 2012. It included a collection of machinery which became the Museum of Patents in 1858, and this collection contained many of the most famous exhibits of what is now the Science Museum. In 1883, the contents of the Patent Office Museum were transferred to the South Kensington Museum, in 1885, the Science Collections were renamed the Science Museum and in 1893 a separate director was appointed. The Art Collections were renamed the Art Museum, which became the Victoria. When Queen Victoria laid the stone for the new building for the Art Museum, she stipulated that the museum be renamed after herself. On 26 June 1909 the Science Museum, as an independent entity, the Science Museums present quarters, designed by Sir Richard Allison, were opened to the public in stages over the period 1919–28. This building was known as the East Block, construction of which began in 1913, as the name suggests it was intended to be the first building of a much larger project, which was never realized. It also contains hundreds of interactive exhibits, a recent addition is the IMAX 3D Cinema showing science and nature documentaries, most of them in 3-D, and the Wellcome Wing which focuses on digital technology. Entrance has been free since 1 December 2001, the museum houses some of the many objects collected by Henry Wellcome around a medical theme. The fourth floor exhibit is called Glimpses of Medical History, with reconstructions, the fifth floor gallery is called Science and the Art of Medicine, with exhibits of medical instruments and practices from ancient days and from many countries. The collection is strong in clinical medicine, biosciences and public health, the museum is a member of the London Museums of Health & Medicine. The Science Museum has a library, and until the 1960s was Britains National Library for Science, Medicine. It holds runs of periodicals, early books and manuscripts, and is used by scholars worldwide and it was, for a number of years, run in conjunction with the Library of Imperial College, but in 2007 the Library was divided over two sites. The Imperial College library catalogue search system now informs searchers that volumes formerly held there are Available at Science Museum Library Swindon Currently unavailable, a new Research Centre with library facilities is promised for late 2015 but is unlikely to have book stacks nearby. The Science Museums medical collections have a scope and coverage
.jpg)
. PMID 12486257.
