- In 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope sent its first photograph from space, an image of a double star 1,260 light years away.
Saturn Moons
- In 1995, astronomers Amanda S. Bosh and Andrew S. Rivkin found two new moons of Saturn in photos taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.
Wright Brothers Patent
- In 1906, the brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright received a patent for "new and useful improvements in Flying Machines" (U.S. No. 821,393). This was the first airplane patent in the USA.
Spectrophotometer
- In 1935, the first spectrophotometer was sold by General Electric Co., assignee of the patent issued at the beginning of the year to the inventor, Arthur Cobb Harvey (“Photometric Apparatus,” 8 Jan 1935, U.S. No. 1,987,441). This electronic machine was capable of distinguishing and charting two million different shades of colour. The apparatus used a photo-electric device to receive light alternately from a sample and from a standard for comparison. Its important innovation was to eliminate any need for the two beams (from sample and from standard) to travel different optical paths which in previous designs could introduce inaccuracies when one path varied from the other, caused for example by dirt on a lens in one path
Penicillin Test
- In 1940, in one of the most famous animal tests in medical history, eight mice were inoculated with a lethal dose of streptococci and then four of them were injected with penicillin. Next day the four mice given streptococci alone were dead, the four with penicillin were healthy. Oxford scientists Howard Florey, Ernst Chain and Norman Heatley had revived Alexander Fleming's work. They produced enough antibiotic to test by isolating the active ingredient from what Fleming had called "mould juice," Ten years before, Fleming's had interest waned when he found penicillin prduction to be difficult, that it was very unstable, had no effect on certain bacteria (cholera, bubonic plague) and didn't work in animals when given by mouth
Leeuwenhoek's animalcules
- In 1676, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek applied his hobby of making microscopes from his own handmade lenses to observe some water running off a roof during a heavy rainstorm. He finds that it contains, in his words, "very little animalcules." The life he has found in the runoff water is not present in pure rainwater. This was a fundamental discovery, for it showed that the bacteria and one-celled animals did not fall from the sky. When a ball of molten glass is inflated like a balloon, a small droplet of the hot fluid collects at the very bottom the bubble. Leeuwenhoek used these droplets as microscope lenses to view the animalcules. Despite their crude nature, those early lenses enabled Leeuwenhoek to describe an amazing world of microscopic life.
Saturn Moons
- In 1995, astronomers Amanda S. Bosh and Andrew S. Rivkin found two new moons of Saturn in photos taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.
Wright Brothers Patent
- In 1906, the brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright received a patent for "new and useful improvements in Flying Machines" (U.S. No. 821,393). This was the first airplane patent in the USA.
Spectrophotometer
- In 1935, the first spectrophotometer was sold by General Electric Co., assignee of the patent issued at the beginning of the year to the inventor, Arthur Cobb Harvey (“Photometric Apparatus,” 8 Jan 1935, U.S. No. 1,987,441). This electronic machine was capable of distinguishing and charting two million different shades of colour. The apparatus used a photo-electric device to receive light alternately from a sample and from a standard for comparison. Its important innovation was to eliminate any need for the two beams (from sample and from standard) to travel different optical paths which in previous designs could introduce inaccuracies when one path varied from the other, caused for example by dirt on a lens in one path
Penicillin Test
- In 1940, in one of the most famous animal tests in medical history, eight mice were inoculated with a lethal dose of streptococci and then four of them were injected with penicillin. Next day the four mice given streptococci alone were dead, the four with penicillin were healthy. Oxford scientists Howard Florey, Ernst Chain and Norman Heatley had revived Alexander Fleming's work. They produced enough antibiotic to test by isolating the active ingredient from what Fleming had called "mould juice," Ten years before, Fleming's had interest waned when he found penicillin prduction to be difficult, that it was very unstable, had no effect on certain bacteria (cholera, bubonic plague) and didn't work in animals when given by mouth
Leeuwenhoek's animalcules
- In 1676, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek applied his hobby of making microscopes from his own handmade lenses to observe some water running off a roof during a heavy rainstorm. He finds that it contains, in his words, "very little animalcules." The life he has found in the runoff water is not present in pure rainwater. This was a fundamental discovery, for it showed that the bacteria and one-celled animals did not fall from the sky. When a ball of molten glass is inflated like a balloon, a small droplet of the hot fluid collects at the very bottom the bubble. Leeuwenhoek used these droplets as microscope lenses to view the animalcules. Despite their crude nature, those early lenses enabled Leeuwenhoek to describe an amazing world of microscopic life.
