January Science Newsletter

Happy New Year! 
 
All of us here at Capital Microscope hope the new semester has started strong for you.

Now is a good time to explore our expanded product line which includes everything from microscopes, digital cameras, glassware, lab tools, and lab equipment. Contact us to help you find the right products for you laboratory experiments.

And don't forget to schedule a time for us to come service and clean your microscope.

Visit our website at Capital Microscope to find all your laboratory needs. Or email me directly to let me assist you in finding the best items at the best price.

We are proud to be your science equipment source. Contact us when we can assist you in making science exciting and meaningful for your students.

Featured Products

Electrophoresis Classroom Kit 
The new horizontal electrophoresis apparatus by Walter Products was designed with safety and convenience in mind.
The injection-molded  UV transparent chamber is made from thick acrylic, making it durable and leak-proof while the lid fits securely in place and can easily be removed.  All of Walter's electrophoresis units feature adjustable leveling feet, recessed electrical wires, and a safety stop that prevents the gel from running when the cover is not securely fitted.  Each casting tray with embossed gel ruler has rubber end caps and multiple slots for easy and versatile comb placement.
Our Price: $349
List Price: $454

Swift SM102 Stereo Microscope
The New SM102 Series has all these Standard  features. Locked-on eyepieces and one touch stage clips assure that the parts remain on the scope Slip-clutch system protects against over-focusing Unique" C-wrench gives user sole control over focus tension Built-in Handle to encourage proper handling Cord-hanger allows for safe and hassle- free cord storage. Reversible black& white and frosted stage plates are included. Interlocked eyepiece tubes with diopter for increased focus acuity.  Side Magnification Changer  Eyeshields can be used on eyepieces to reduce ambient light.  Swift Optical Limited Lifetime Warranty covers defective parts and workmanship for the life of the instrument. Five Light setting combinations are energy-efficient LEDs which provide bright, white light, with virtually no heat.
Our Price: $327.25
List Price: $385.00

January Science History Tidbits

General Science History
In 1957, the Wham-O Company developed the first frisbee; a representative of the company got the idea for the product when he saw some truck drivers from the Frisbee Pie Co. of Connecticut showing Yale students how to throw pie pans in the air.

Biology History
In 1998, scientists announced the identification for the first time of a key brain chemical related to nicotine addiction, in the journal Nature. The researchers worked at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and the research arm of Glaxo-Wellcome in Geneva. The addictive nature of nicotine is related to release of dopamine, a neurotransmitter chemical in the brain. The scientists had found the first of 11 subunits, or molecules, of the nicotine receptor in the brain of mice. Mutant mice lacking the b2 subunit in their brains did not react to nicotine. Humans have the same so-called b2 subunit. This is a step toward to designing a drug to block the receptor, and produce new smoking-cessation drugs.

Earth Science History
In 1610, Galileo dated his first letter describing telescopic observations in which he saw the moon's cratered surface using his twenty-powered spyglass. He wrote, "... it is seen that the Moon is most evidently not at all of an even, smooth, and regular surface, as a great many people believe of it and of the other heavenly bodies, but on the contrary it is rough and unequal. In short it is shown to be such that sane reasoning cannot conclude otherwise than that it is full of prominences and cavities similar, but much larger, to the mountains and valleys spread over the Earth's surface." Galileo went on to describe the phenomena in considerable detail, rehearsing, as it were, the observations and conclusions he was to publish more elaborately a few months later in Sidereus Nuncius.

Physics History
In 1930, the element Fr (francium) was discovered, the last naturally occurring element to be found. It is the heaviest alkali metal atom, with atomic number 87. Marguerite Perey joined (Oct 1929) the Institut du Radium in Paris in Oct 1929 as a technician for Marie Curie. Perey worked for years on actinium, which was anticpated to produce the new element by alpha decay. Finally, she was able to make the first entry about francium in her lab notebook on 7 Jan 1939, recording its half-life as about 20 minutes. A note in the Comptes Rendus was presented at the Académie des Sciences by Jean Perrin (9 Jan 1939). In his periodic table, Mendeleev anticipated its discovery, and provisionally named it eka-cesium. Perey gave it the name "francium." She first used the symbol Fa, but changed it to Fr.

Chemistry History
In 1941, the commercial production of magnesium first began in the U.S. at Freeport, Texas. Magnesium, the lightest of all structural elements, was extracted from seawater through an electrolytic process. Herbert H. Dow first extracted the metal from brine in Midland, Michigan, in 1916. Dow's Freeport magnesium plant played a key role during WW II when the lightweight metal became a critical alloy for airplanes. U.S. military aircraft production escalated, and as much as 2,000 pounds of magnesium was needed per plane. Today, magnesium alloys are die cast into a variety of automotive components. On 20 Nov 1998, Dow Chemical Co. announced it would shut down production at Freeport due to crippling damage during severe Gulf Coast storms.

Quote
Only the curious will learn and only the resolute overcome the obstacles to learning. The quest quotient has always excited me more than the intelligence quotient.
- Eugene S. Wilson

General

In 1994, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) issued a press release that physicists there recently cooled atoms to 700 nanokelvins, the coldest temperature ever recorded for matter. NIST scientists chilled a cloud of cesium atoms very close to absolute zero using lasers to catch the atoms in an optical lattice. The atoms reached 700 nanokelvins, or 700 billionths of a degree above absolute zero. Zero kelvin (-273ºC), or absolute zero, is the temperature at which atomic thermal motion would cease. Since the late 1970s, physicists have sought to use lasers to cool atoms closer to absolute zero, primarily for improving atomic timekeeping, certain experimental measurements and lithography processes for the semiconductor industry.

Earth Science

In 1990, the space probe Magellan arrived at its planned polar orbit around Venus. As the planet rotated slowly beneath it, Magellan circled once every 3-hr 15-min, collecting radar images of the surface in strips about 17-28 km (10-17 mi) wide and radioed back the information. Magellan was carried into space in the shuttle cargo bay of STS-30 Atlantis, launched 4 May 1989, and was the first planetary spacecraft to be released from a shuttle in Earth orbit. The Magellan mission also provided gravity, atmospheric and other measurements. On 11 Oct 1994, it was directed towards the surface, collecting data until it broke up and partially vaporized in the atmosphere.

Physics

In 1831, Michael Faraday wound a thick iron ring on one side with insulated wire that was connected to a battery. He then wound the opposite side with wire connected to a galvanometer. He found that upon closing the battery circuit, there was a deflection of the galvanometer in the second circuit. Then he was astonished to see the galvanometer needle jump in the opposite direction when the battery circuit was opened. He had discovered that a current was induced in the secondary when a current in the primary was connected and an induced current in the opposite direction when the primary current was disconnected.

Biology

In 1947, the first full synthesis route for vitamin A was found by Dutch chemists, Jozef Ferdinand Arens and David Adriaan van Dorp. Later in 1947, a team headed by O. Isler also synthesized vitamin A using a method more suitable to produce commerical quantities. In 1913, Thomas B. Osborne and Lafayette Mendel had shown experimentally with rats that butter contained a factor responsible for growth development. Their work was confirmed (1913) by Elmer McCullum and Marguerite Davis who also identified a fat-soluble nutrient in butterfat and cod liver oil. It became known as vitamin A, and its chemical structure was determined in 1931 by Paul Karrer.

Chemistry

In 1903, the journal Nature reported that helium gas is produced by the radioactive decay of the radium. This key discovery by William Ramsay and Frederick Soddy helped to reveal the structure of atoms. In 1908, Ernest Rutherford confirmed that alpha rays and these radium emanations were one and the same: the nuclei of helium atoms, bearing a positive electrical charge. Each were future Nobel laureates in Chemistry. Ramsey won the Nobel Prize in 1904 for his discovery of the noble gases. Rutherford was recognized in 1908 for his investigations into the disintegration of the elements. Soddy was honored in 1921 for his pioneering contributions to understanding the chemical properties of radioactive elements such as radium and uranium.

And here is a quote for you and your students to consider.

A science is not mere knowledge; it is knowledge which has undergone a process of intellectual digestion. It is the grasp of many things brought together in one, and hence is its power; for, properly speaking, it is Science that is power, not Knowledge.., — John Henry Newman

General

Leap Years are needed to keep our calendar in alignment with the Earth's revolutions around the sun. It takes the Earth approximately 365.242199 days (a tropical year) to circle once around the Sun. If we didn't add a day on February 29 nearly every 4 years, we would lose almost six hours every year. After only 100 years, our calendar would be off by approximately 24 days!

Biology

In 1947, the first closed-circuit broadcast of a surgical operation showed procedures to observers in classrooms. Dr. Alfred Blalock, at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Md., demonstrated two operations on the heart. Two more heart operations were also seen and one on nerves of the spine.

Earth Science

In 1924, Harlow Shapley wrote back in reply to the letter from Edwin Hubble which presented the measurement of 300,000 parsecs as the distance to the Andromeda nebula. That was the first proof that the nebula was far outside the Milky, in fact, a separate galaxy. When Shapley had debated Heber Curtis on 26 Apr 1920, he presented his firm, life-long conviction that all the Milky Way represented the known universe (and, for instance, the Andromeda nebula was part of the Milky Way.)  On receipt of the letter, Shapley told Payne-Gaposchkin and said “Here is the letter that has destroyed my universe.” In his reply, Shapley said sarcastically that Hubble's letter was “the most entertaining piece of literature I have seen for a long time.” Hubble sent more data in a paper to the AAS meeting, read on 1 Jan 1925.

Physics

In 1932, the neutron was discovered by Dr. James Chadwick.

Chemistry

In 1900, German chemist Felix Hoffmann was issued a U.S. patent for “Acetyl Salicylic Acid” (No. 644,077). It was assigned to the Farben-Fabriken of Elberfeld Company, of New York. Hoffmann had discovered the chemical compound on 10 Aug 1897 while a researcher at the Bayer Company. It was marketed as Apirin, the familiar pain reliever, which at the time was a trademarked name. It was first sold in Germany in powder form, from 1 May 1899, and later in the more convenient tablet form, from 1 Jan 1915.

Quote

Here is a quote for you and your students to consider.

If you don't have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over? - John Wooden

Thank you for your continued support and please don't hesitate to contact me when I can be of assistance. If you know of any your colleagues who would also like to receive our "Science Newsletter" just have them contact me by email and I will be glad to add their name to our distribution list.

General

Leap Years are needed to keep our calendar in alignment with the Earth's revolutions around the sun. It takes the Earth approximately 365.242199 days (a tropical year) to circle once around the Sun. If we didn't add a day on February 29 nearly every 4 years, we would lose almost six hours every year. After only 100 years, our calendar would be off by approximately 24 days!

Biology

In 1947, the first closed-circuit broadcast of a surgical operation showed procedures to observers in classrooms. Dr. Alfred Blalock, at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Md., demonstrated two operations on the heart. Two more heart operations were also seen and one on nerves of the spine.

Earth Science

In 1924, Harlow Shapley wrote back in reply to the letter from Edwin Hubble which presented the measurement of 300,000 parsecs as the distance to the Andromeda nebula. That was the first proof that the nebula was far outside the Milky, in fact, a separate galaxy. When Shapley had debated Heber Curtis on 26 Apr 1920, he presented his firm, life-long conviction that all the Milky Way represented the known universe (and, for instance, the Andromeda nebula was part of the Milky Way.)  On receipt of the letter, Shapley told Payne-Gaposchkin and said “Here is the letter that has destroyed my universe.” In his reply, Shapley said sarcastically that Hubble's letter was “the most entertaining piece of literature I have seen for a long time.” Hubble sent more data in a paper to the AAS meeting, read on 1 Jan 1925.

Physics

In 1932, the neutron was discovered by Dr. James Chadwick.

Chemistry

In 1900, German chemist Felix Hoffmann was issued a U.S. patent for “Acetyl Salicylic Acid” (No. 644,077). It was assigned to the Farben-Fabriken of Elberfeld Company, of New York. Hoffmann had discovered the chemical compound on 10 Aug 1897 while a researcher at the Bayer Company. It was marketed as Apirin, the familiar pain reliever, which at the time was a trademarked name. It was first sold in Germany in powder form, from 1 May 1899, and later in the more convenient tablet form, from 1 Jan 1915.

Quote

Here is a quote for you and your students to consider.

If you don't have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over? - John Wooden

Thank you for your continued support and please don't hesitate to contact me when I can be of assistance. If you know of any your colleagues who would also like to receive our "Science Newsletter" just have them contact me by email and I will be glad to add their name to our distribution list.