1.
Topeka, Kansas
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Topeka is the capital city of the U. S. state of Kansas and the seat of Shawnee County. It is situated along the Kansas River in the part of Shawnee County, located in northeast Kansas. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 127,473, the Topeka Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes Shawnee, Jackson, Jefferson, Osage, and Wabaunsee counties, had a population of 233,870 in the 2010 census. The name Topeka is a Kansa-Osage sentence that means place where we dug potatoes, as a placename, Topeka was first recorded in 1826 as the Kansa name for what is now called the Kansas River. Topekas founders chose the name in 1855 because it was novel, of Indian origin, the mixed-blood Kansa Native American, Joseph James, called Jojim, is credited with suggesting the name of Topeka. The city, laid out in 1854, was one of the Free-State towns founded by Eastern antislavery men immediately after the passage of the Kansas–Nebraska Bill, in 1857, Topeka was chartered as a city. Three ships of the U. S. Navy have been named USS Topeka after the city, for many millennia, the Great Plains of North America were inhabited by Native Americans. From the 16th century to 18th century, the Kingdom of France claimed ownership of parts of North America. In 1762, after the French and Indian War, France secretly ceded New France to Spain, in 1802, Spain returned most of the land to France, but keeping title to about 7,500 square miles. In 1803, most of the land for modern day Kansas was acquired by the United States from France as part of the 828,000 square mile Louisiana Purchase for 2.83 cents per acre. In the 1840s, wagon trains made their way west from Independence, Missouri, on a journey of 2,000 miles, during the 1840s and into the 1850s, travelers could reliably find a way across the river, but little else was in the area. In the early 1850s, traffic along the Oregon Trail was supplemented by trade on a new military road stretching from Fort Leavenworth through Topeka to the newly established Fort Riley, in 1854, after completion of the first cabin, nine men established the Topeka Town Association. Included among them was Cyrus K. Holliday, an man who would become mayor of Topeka and founder of the Atchison. Soon, steamboats were regularly docking at the Topeka landing, depositing meat, lumber, and flour and returning eastward with potatoes, corn, by the late 1860s, Topeka had become a commercial hub providing many Victorian era comforts. Topeka was a free-state center during the problems in Kansas Territory between free-staters and southerners, who for a period controlled the legal government of Kansas. After southern forces barricaded Topeka in 1856, Topeka’s leaders took actions to defend the town from invasion. A militia was organized and fortifications were built on Quincy Street, the fortifications seemed to consist of low-lying earthwork levies strengthened by the presence of at least one cannon. There was stone in the fortifications, the militia manned the fortifications until at least September 1856, when the siege around the town was lifted
2.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
3.
University of Virginia
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The University of Virginia, frequently referred to simply as Virginia, is a public research university and the flagship for the Commonwealth of Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Declaration of Independence author Thomas Jefferson, UVA is known for its foundations, student-run honor code. UNESCO designated UVA as Americas first and only collegiate World Heritage Site in 1987, the university was established in 1819, and its original governing Board of Visitors included Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe. Monroe was the sitting President of the United States at the time of its foundation, former Presidents Jefferson and Madison were UVAs first two rectors and the Academical Village and Jefferson conceived and designed the original courses of study. The universitys research endeavors are highly recognized, in 2015, Science honored UVA faculty for discovering two of its top 10 annual scientific breakthroughs, from the fields of Medicine and Psychology. UVA is one of 62 institutions in the Association of American Universities and it is the only AAU member university in Virginia. UVA is classified as a Research University with Very High Research by the Carnegie Foundation, the university was the first non-founding member, and the first university of the American South, to attain AAU membership in 1904. UVAs academic strength is broad, with 121 majors across the eight undergraduate, students compete in 26 collegiate sports and UVA leads the Atlantic Coast Conference in mens NCAA team national championships with 17. UVA is second in womens NCAA titles with 7, UVA was awarded the Capital One Cup in 2015 after fielding the top overall mens athletics programs in the nation. Students come to attend the university in Charlottesville from all 50 states and 147 countries, the historic 1, 682-acre campus is internationally protected by UNESCO and considered one of the most beautiful collegiate grounds in the country. UVA additionally maintains 2,913 acres southeast of the city, the university also manages the College at Wise in Southwest Virginia, and until 1972 operated George Mason University and the University of Mary Washington in Northern Virginia. In 1817, three Presidents and Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court John Marshall joined 24 other dignitaries at a meeting held in the Mountain Top Tavern at Rockfish Gap, after some deliberation, they selected nearby Charlottesville as the site of the new University of Virginia. Farmland just outside Charlottesville was purchased from James Monroe by the Board of Visitors as Central College, the school laid its first buildings cornerstone late in that same year, and the Commonwealth of Virginia chartered the new university on January 25,1819. John Hartwell Cocke collaborated with James Madison, Monroe, and Joseph Carrington Cabell to fulfill Jeffersons dream to establish the university, Cocke and Jefferson were appointed to the building committee to supervise the construction. The universitys first classes met on March 7,1825, another innovation of the new university was that higher education would be separated from religious doctrine. Jefferson opined to philosopher Thomas Cooper that a professorship of theology should have no place in our institution, Jefferson was intimately involved in the university to the end, hosting Sunday dinners at his Monticello home for faculty and students until his death. Thus, he eschewed mention of his accomplishments, such as the Louisiana Purchase. This was a source of frustration for Jefferson, who assembled the students during the schools first year, on October 3,1825, to such behavior
4.
Botany
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Botany, also called plant science, plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who specialises in this field, the term botany comes from the Ancient Greek word βοτάνη meaning pasture, grass, or fodder, βοτάνη is in turn derived from βόσκειν, to feed or to graze. Nowadays, botanists study approximately 410,000 species of plants of which some 391,000 species are vascular plants. Medieval physic gardens, often attached to monasteries, contained plants of medical importance and they were forerunners of the first botanical gardens attached to universities, founded from the 1540s onwards. One of the earliest was the Padua botanical garden and these gardens facilitated the academic study of plants. Efforts to catalogue and describe their collections were the beginnings of plant taxonomy, in the last two decades of the 20th century, botanists exploited the techniques of molecular genetic analysis, including genomics and proteomics and DNA sequences to classify plants more accurately. Modern botany is a broad, multidisciplinary subject with inputs from most other areas of science, dominant themes in 21st century plant science are molecular genetics and epigenetics, which are the mechanisms and control of gene expression during differentiation of plant cells and tissues. Botany originated as herbalism, the study and use of plants for their medicinal properties, many records of the Holocene period date early botanical knowledge as far back as 10,000 years ago. This early unrecorded knowledge of plants was discovered in ancient sites of human occupation within Tennessee, the early recorded history of botany includes many ancient writings and plant classifications. Examples of early works have been found in ancient texts from India dating back to before 1100 BC, in archaic Avestan writings. His major works, Enquiry into Plants and On the Causes of Plants, constitute the most important contributions to science until the Middle Ages. De Materia Medica was widely read for more than 1,500 years, important contributions from the medieval Muslim world include Ibn Wahshiyyas Nabatean Agriculture, Abū Ḥanīfa Dīnawarīs the Book of Plants, and Ibn Bassals The Classification of Soils. In the early 13th century, Abu al-Abbas al-Nabati, and Ibn al-Baitar wrote on botany in a systematic and scientific manner and these gardens continued the practical value of earlier physic gardens, often associated with monasteries, in which plants were cultivated for medical use. They supported the growth of botany as an academic subject, lectures were given about the plants grown in the gardens and their medical uses demonstrated. Botanical gardens came much later to northern Europe, the first in England was the University of Oxford Botanic Garden in 1621, throughout this period, botany remained firmly subordinate to medicine. German physician Leonhart Fuchs was one of the three German fathers of botany, along with theologian Otto Brunfels and physician Hieronymus Bock, Fuchs and Brunfels broke away from the tradition of copying earlier works to make original observations of their own. Bock created his own system of plant classification, physician Valerius Cordus authored a botanically and pharmacologically important herbal Historia Plantarum in 1544 and a pharmacopoeia of lasting importance, the Dispensatorium in 1546. Naturalist Conrad von Gesner and herbalist John Gerard published herbals covering the medicinal uses of plants, naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi was considered the father of natural history, which included the study of plants
5.
Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University
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The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, formerly the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, is the oldest natural science research institution and museum in the New World. It was founded in 1812, by many of the naturalists of the young American republic with an expressed mission of the encouragement. The Academy also has a tradition of public exhibits and educational programs for both schools and the general public. During the first decades of the United States, Philadelphia was the cultural capital, two of the citys institutions, the Library Company and the American Philosophical Society, were centers of enlightened thought and scientific inquiry. The academy was meant to foster a gathering of fellow naturalists and they frequently looked to their European counterparts for inspiration and expertise and longed to be regarded as equals. On 25 April 1817 they were incorporated into the society under the title of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia by the legislature of Pennsylvania, by 1 January 1818, eight members were published. Within a decade of its founding, the Academy became the center of natural sciences in the United States. Academy members were enlisted to participate in national surveys of the western territories. Corresponding members included such luminaries as Charles Darwin, Asa Gray, for much of its history, new members had to be nominated by two current members and then elected by the remaining members. These requirements were dropped in 1924, notable 20th-century scientists include James Böhlke, James Bond, Henry Weed Fowler, Ruth Patrick, Henry Pilsbry, and Witmer Stone. In 2011, the Academy became affiliated with nearby Drexel University, collections are the hallmark of museums and those at The Academy of Natural Sciences are among the more important of their kind. The size and scope of its collections have grown substantially since the early years, currently, there are over 17 million biological specimens, and hundreds of thousands of volumes, journals, illustrations, photographs, and archival items in its library. Sometimes the Academy is also enlisted to house and care for collections originally gathered by other institutions, for example, a number of the natural history collections at the American Philosophical Society were relocated to the Academy by the end of the 19th century. But these collections are not maintained just to collect dust and they provide a library of biodiversity. In recent decades, research has shifted in emphasis to the science of systematics, either way, the collections are invaluable. They provide the type specimens, the material that helps establish a species identity. They also provide raw materials with which scientists can investigate the nature of species, their relationships with other species, their evolutionary history. New questions and new technology illustrate the importance of these collections, titian Peale may not have been interested in the conservation biology of the butterflies he collected while Henry Pilsbry probably did not consider comparing the DNA of his snails
6.
Diatom
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Diatoms are a major group of algae, and are among the most common types of phytoplankton. Diatoms are unicellular, although they can form colonies in the shape of filaments or ribbons, fans, zigzags, the first diatom formally described in scientific literature, the colonial Bacillaria paradoxa, was found in 1783 by Danish naturalist Otto Friedrich Müller. Diatoms are producers within the food chain, a unique feature of diatom cells is that they are enclosed within a cell wall made of silica called a frustule. These frustules show a diversity in form, but are usually almost bilaterally symmetrical. The symmetry is not perfect since one of the valves is slightly larger than the other, fossil evidence suggests that they originated during, or before, the early Jurassic period. Only male gametes of centric diatoms are capable of movement by means of flagella, diatom communities are a popular tool for monitoring environmental conditions, past and present, and are commonly used in studies of water quality. More than 200 genera of living diatoms are known, with an estimated 100,000 extant species, diatoms are a widespread group and can be found in the oceans, in fresh water, in soils, and on damp surfaces. They dominate over phytoplankton in nutrient-rich coastal waters and during oceanic spring blooms since they can more rapidly than phytoplankton. Most live pelagically in open water, although some live as surface films at the water-sediment interface and they are especially important in oceans, where they contribute an estimated 45% of the total oceanic primary production of organic material. Spatial distribution of phytoplankton species is restricted both horizontally and vertically. Though most are microscopic, some species of diatoms can reach up to 2 mm in length, diatoms belong to a large group called the heterokonts, including both autotrophs and heterotrophs. Their yellowish-brown chloroplasts are typical of heterokonts, having four membranes, individuals usually lack flagella, but they are present in male gametes of the centric diatoms and have the usual heterokont structure, except they lack the hairs characteristic in other groups. Most diatoms are nonmotile, as their relatively dense cell walls cause them to readily sink, planktonic forms in open water usually rely on turbulent mixing of the upper layers by the wind to keep them suspended in sunlit surface waters. Some species actively regulate their buoyancy with intracellular lipids to counter sinking, a feature of diatoms is the urea cycle, which links them evolutionarily to animals. This was discovered in research carried out by Andrew Allen, Chris Bowler and their study showed that while diatoms and animals use the urea cycle for different ends, they are seen to be evolutionally linked in such a way that animals and plants are not. Diatom cells are contained within a unique cell wall known as a frustule made up of two valves called thecae, that typically overlap one another. The biogenic silica composing the wall is synthesised intracellularly by the polymerisation of silicic acid monomers. This material is extruded to the cell exterior and added to the wall
Scientific Pioneer Ruth Patrick, 4:53, Philadelphia:The Great Experiment[3]