History of Science Trivia

1. The individuality of fingerprints is not doubted, but who, in 1823 was the first person to introduce a system of classification for fingerprints?

From Quiz At The Cutting Edge

Answer: Jan Evangelista Purkynje

Purkynje realised that the papillary ridges on fingers are unique and divided them into nine types, these being arch, tented arch, ulna loop, radial loop, peacock's eye/compound, spiral whorl, elliptical whorl, circular whorl and double loop/composite. His work was largely ignored at the time, partly due to him writing in Latin and partly due to him not promoting his work as he believed that "science is not about names but discoveries". Purkynje is also remembered for the discovery of Purkynje cells, found in the cerebellum, and Purkinje fibres in the heart. Purkynje also experimented with the effects on the human body of substances such as opium, belladonna, turpentine and nutmeg.

From Quiz Fission Commission

Answer: Chicago, Illinois

The Manhattan Project was formed in 1939 in order to defend against Nazi Germany as they were reported to have begun a nuclear weapons project of their own. Scientists of the Manhattan Project constructed the world's first nuclear reactor, named Chicago Pile-1, under Stagg Field, a football stadium owned by the University of Chicago. Italian physicist Enrico Fermi was the scientist in charge of the experiment. Chicago Pile-1, using natural uranium as its fuel source, first reached criticality (the state in which a mass of fissionable material sustains or is able to sustain a nuclear chain reaction) on December 2, 1942.

From Quiz When You're Wrong, You're Right

Answer: 400

Saccharin was discovered in 1878 by Constantine Fahlberg. He was working on an analysis of coal tar at John Hopkins University. At the end of the day, we did not wash his hands before he ate some bread. He noticed that it tasted sweet, so he began tasting all of the chemical compounds that he'd worked with that day (not something recommended in a chemistry lab today!). He discovered the substance resulted from combining o-sulfobenzoic acid with phosphorus chloride and ammonia. He patented the substance. It was discovered that the body cannot metabolize saccharin, so diabetics started using it as a sweetener in 1907. It was also popular as a sweetener during wartime because of sugar rationing.

From Quiz The Hidden Element

Answer: Phosphorus

Hennig Brand (1630-1692/1710) accidentally discovered phosphorus while trying to find the Philosopher's Stone, which was said to turn lead and other elements into gold. He had heated and boiled down urine and named the substance he discovered phosphorus or "light-bearer". Phosphorus has the atomic number 15 and the chemical symbol P. An important use of phosphorus today is in agricultural fertilizers.

From Quiz Not What I Expected

Answer: Archimedes' principle

A Greek scientist hopping out of his bath? Greeks did obviously take baths, but only one of them has become famous because of this scene. Archimedes was so excited about having solved a problem he jumped out of the bath and into the street, where he exulted "Eureka" ("I've found it") while running around stark naked. Bystanders probably thought Archimedes did not find something, but did lose something - his marbles, so to say. Archimedes was born in Syracuse around 287 BC. In 250 BC, King Hiero of Syracuse asked Archimedes to investigate a crown to be presented in a temple. Hiero had asked for a crown of solid gold, but he doubted whether the craftsman had followed his orders. So Archimedes had to determine if the crown was made of solid gold or of inferior material. When Archimedes entered his bathtub, he noticed that an amount of water was displaced, and that this amount was equal to the mass of the object dipped into the water. He used this principle to show that the crown indeed was less heavy than the mass of the solid gold that had to be used for this crown. Archimedes died in 212 BC - killed by a Roman soldier when interrupted in his studies of circles.

From Quiz It Started Where?

Answer: Geelong, Australia

Australian inventor James Harrison used a mechanical compressor to condense gas (originally, ether) into a liquid. The cold liquid ran through pipes, producing ice, and returned to gas in the process. Transportation was a problem, though - he opened a second plant in Sydney in 1860.

From Quiz We Can Make Him Better

Answer: Egyptian

The Egyptians were the earliest known developers of prosthetic limbs. Rudimentary prosthetics go back as far as 2750 B.C., based on the finding of splints in archeological digs from that period. The first recorded uses of artificial limbs come during the New Kingdom circa 1000 B.C. and include the finding of a prosthetic toe made of wood and fiber. The "Cairo toe", as it is called, is remarkably lifelike and functional. Artificial limbs are also mentioned in the Hindu sacred text, the "Rigveda", also believed to have been created circa 1000 B.C. Greek records on the use of prosthetics include references from Herodotus in the fifth century B.C. Herodotus recounts the story of Hegesistratus, who cut off his foot to escape Spartan enslavement and replaced his foot with a wooden replica.

From Quiz I Used To Think That...

Answer: Rain

The theory was called "Rain Follows the Plow". If man was to inhabit more drier areas, more rain would accompany, making the land able to be used for agriculture. It was in believing this theory that more arid areas like the central United States, and South Australia were migrated too. Several settlements in Australia, backed by this theory, did not last long, brought to an end by drought.

From Quiz Through the Ages: Man's Fight Against Unseen Foes

Answer: G. H. Armauer Hansen

Hansen isolated the bacteria, and helped curb the disease in his home country. Leprosy is now commonly known as 'Hansen's Disease'. Because the disease takes so long to show, and because of the poor medical conditions in Third World countries, leprosy has not yet been eradicated. Schweitzer won the Nobel Peace Prize for his medical work in western Africa, Bäckman was a Swedish chef and Kamprad was the founder of IKEA.

From Quiz Harmony, Order and Chaos

Answer: Babylonian

"The Venus Tablet of Ammisaduqa," named for a post-Hammurabi king and dated in the first millennium BC, is a cuneiform tablet that records observations of the planet Venus, primarily its rising and setting. Some interpretations place these sightings as far back as the 17th and 18th centuries BC. The early Chinese were certainly keen chroniclers of the heavens, but these observations, dated in the 13th to 14th centuries BC, were more generally of stars and constellations. Similarly, the Egyptians extensively studied the stars as far back as the third millennium BC and used their positioning to predict the flooding of the Nile and in the constuction of the pyramids and great temples. All of these studies laid the groundwork for the Ptolemaic Era of astronomy, which synthesized their work into foundational texts on modern astronomy.

From Quiz A Brief History of Science

Answer: Peas

Between 1856 and 1863 Gregor Mendel experimented with peas, studying such traits as seed and pod shape, flower colour and plant height. He used more than 29,000 plants in his observations, and realised that some traits were dominant, others recessive. From this he was able to formulate what became known as Mendel's Laws of Inheritance. Question by invinoveritas.

From Quiz The Celestial Cosmos

Answer: Star and Law

The Greek word "astron" means "star", and the suffix "-nomy" means law or culture. Astronomy is not to be confused with astrophysics, as it usually is. Astronomy tends to focus on measurements and positioning of objects, while astrophysics tries to understand how the universe behaves, based on the laws of physics. Since astronomers use astrophysics to support their research, the two fields are quite connected.

From Quiz Crossed Wires

Answer: Telegraph

American Samuel Morse was the man who first came up with the successful method of electrically transmitting messages over very long distances. This followed on from many years of experimentation in electricity by other great men of the past. Born in 1791, Morse commenced studies at Yale College as a young man in mathematics, horse science and religion. During his time there, he attended several lectures on the newfangled electricity that was setting the scientific world buzzing with excitement. His career however initially diverged into one as a successful painter. In 1825 when he was visiting New York on a painting commission, a note was delivered to him by horse messenger to inform him of his wife's illness. By the time he completed his frantic trip back home to be with her, it was too late. She had died and was buried. Morse was heartbroken at the length of time it had taken for that note to reach him - several days - and the thought that if it had arrived much faster he could have been with her during her last days. It was then that he switched from his successful career as a painter to studying and developing the means to implement rapid long distance communication. The telegraph was the result.

From Quiz Science Gets It Right (Eventually)

Answer: Alchemists

Modern chemistry has shown that elements cannot be changed from one to another but earlier seekers of knowledge did not know this. Alchemy was a whole system of belief and was not just about changing other metals, mainly lead, into gold. Alchemists constantly sought the 'philosopher's stone' which they believed would give them the power not only to transmute metals but would be an 'elixir of life' and would enable them to achieve immortality. Sir Isaac Newton, as well as other prominent scientists of his day, believed in its existence.

From Quiz Fueling the Fire

Answer: Plants colonising the land

According to the idea of the fire triangle, three components are necessary - a fuel, heat and oxygen. It was only when land plants began to give out oxygen as a waste product of photosynthesis that there was sufficient (above 13%) in the atmosphere to sustain burning. The fuel was the plants themselves. Lightning strikes. volcanic eruptions and meteorite impacts are possible natural ignition sources.

From Quiz Cell Phones

Answer: A nearby base station

A cellular, or mobile, phone is basically a small portable radio phone. It operates by communicating with a "cell" (nearby base station) which connects it to a large phone network. A cell phone offers us convenient conversation over long distances because it operates without wires. Is this a curse or a blessing? I'm not sure.

From Quiz Light - Particle vs Wave

Answer: Isaac Newton

Isaac Newton is one of the world's most familiar and influential scientists. He had his finger in many pies, including calculus, the theories of gravity, optics and mechanics. One of Newton's biggest claims to fame was his three laws of motion as outlined in his "Philosophae Naturalis Principia Mathematica", which was published in 1687. These laws are still taught internationally in schools and are the base of many physical principals. Indeed science itself was greatly influenced by Newton.

From Quiz Oh, That Hertz!

Answer: Coulomb

Charles Augustin de Coulomb was born in Angouleme, France, on the 14th of June, 1736. He was a qualified engineer whose work took him as far afield as Martinique in the West Indies. In the 1770s he began to devote most of his time to writing treatises on applied mechanics, which were highly thought-of by the French Academie de Sciences. Coulomb continued his research in this field, winning several prizes for his papers, which eventually saw him elected to a position in the mechanics section of the Academie de Sciences. From this point, Coulomb devoted all his time to the study of physics, in particular electricity and magnetism. He developed a theory of attraction and repulsion between bodies bearing the same and opposite electric charge; the theory for which he is best known today and remembered in the unit of electrical charge bearing his name.

From Quiz Obsolete Science Terms

Answer: Pneuma

Anaximenes' 'pneuma' was very much similar to the later idea of 'ether' (see below), in that it was a substance which was essentially everywhere around us. The idea of 'pneuma' could have been the first attempt to grasp the concept of oxygen.

From Quiz Modern Science History

Answer: Giordano Bruno

Bruno was given the option to retract his 'heretic views' publicly, but unlike Galileo in 1633, chose not to, and was burned at the stake.

From Quiz Instrumental Outcomes

Answer: Properties of cathode tube radiation

In the 1860s it was discovered light would emit from a partial vacuum tube when a voltage was applied to an electron stream within the tube. More modern scientists have come to realize the light is the result of the electrons hitting atoms within the tube. As the 1890s technology for creating a greater vacuum increased, it was noticed the light did not start appearing at the emission end but rather closer to the other end or even the glass itself. Roentgen, not fully understanding why the light appeared where it did, was trying to see if he could have the light show up outside the tube. He designed an experiment where he completely covered the tube with opaque cardboard in the hope he could detect light beyond the cardboard. What Wilhelm did not expect is for a nearby fluorescent screen (for other experiments!) to light up despite the visible light from the cathode not being able to reach it. Intrigued, he discovered some solids blocked the fluorescent screen and was amazed when the newly discovered rays would go through his flesh but not his bones! Within a year of his discovery, doctors were already using this new tool to see inside the human body.

From Quiz At The Cutting Edge

Answer: Toxicology

Orfila was well versed in asphyxiation, the decomposition of bodies, and exhumation but it was in the field of toxicology that he really made his mark. The poison of choice during Orfila's lifetime was arsenic and there were no reliable tests to determine the presence of the poison in the human body, until he created new procedures, as outlined in his work, "Traité des poisons" (Treatise on Poisons) published in 1814. Orfila is also credited with being one of the first people to use a microscope to assess blood and semen stains.

From Quiz Fission Commission

Answer: Oak Ridge, Tennessee

Following the success with Chicago Pile-1, the Manhattan Project team decided to construct a nuclear reactor in the town of Oak Ridge, Tennessee as part of the Y-12 National Security Complex. Workers who were brought in to the town to work on the project found themselves in a town shrouded in secrecy. The X-10 Graphite Reactor, which was then known as the Clinton Pile, reached criticality on November 4, 1943. The purpose of the reactor was to convert natural uranium into plutonium that would be used in atomic weapons. The reactor can be visited as part of tours of what is now the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

From Quiz When You're Wrong, You're Right

Answer: Play-Doh

"Play-Doh" didn't start out as a kids' toy. Instead, it was created by Noah McVicker, owner of a soap factory, as a wallpaper cleaner. In the days when coal was used for heating and cooking in many homes, walls became coated with soot. One way to remove it was to use a layer of clay - push it on the wall and pull it off complete with the soot. Unfortunately for Mr. McVicker, vinyl wallpaper was invented at around the same time as his wall clay, and it could be washed with water. A relative was a teacher and she gave some to her students. Apparently, they loved it, so the detergents were removed and colouring was added before the original name was changed to what we know today.

From Quiz The Hidden Element

Answer: Nickel

Nickel was discovered by chemist Axel Frederik Cronstedt (1722-1765) in 1751. Nickel has the chemical symbol Ni and the atomic number 28. Beginning in the mid-1800s, nickel was be used as a component of an increasing number of world coins. The US five-cent piece is commonly known as a "nickel" because of the presence of this metal in its composition. The metal described as fake copper today is known as nickeline or niccolite and is about 44% nickel and 56% arsenic.

From Quiz It Started Where?

Answer: La Porte, Indiana

By the late 1870s, commercial exchanges brought together multiple lines, but the connections were made manually by operators. The small town of La Porte, Indiana inaugurated the first automatic telephone exchange in 1892. The dialing device was invented by Almon Strowger, a former undertaker. Legend has it that Strowger's funeral business was hurt by a competitor, whose wife was the local telephone operator - she intercepted calls to Strowger's funeral home and sent them to her husband's telephone line.

From Quiz Eloquent Experiments

Answer: Scurvy

Scurvy is a disease of malnutrition. Unlike many other animals, human beings can't synthesize Vitamin C, but we do need it in order to make collagen, which is a critical protein in our connective tissues. Without Vitamin C, scurvy slowly develops, beginning with lethargy and continuing on through even worse symptoms, including bleeding gums, jaundice, convulsions, and death. Over time, greens and citrus fruits -- rich in Vitamin C -- gained a reputation as folk remedies for scurvy, but huge numbers of sailors and travelers still died of the disease. Lind (1716-1794) was the ship's doctor on the Salisbury when he took six pairs of sailors who were dying of scurvy, and added a different supplement to the diet of each pair -- a clinical trial of different remedies, and thus the forebear of modern medical research. The citrus fruits were the clear winner, although problems with cost and availability meant it would be decades more before citrus was routinely available to sailors.

From Quiz When all that's left is Serendipity

Answer: Microwave oven

While working at Raytheon in the 1940s, Percy stood near a magnatron (used for radar defense) for too long and noticed the chocolate bar in his pocket melted. He realized this technology would be useful when he successfully made popcorn. Eventually the home microwave was introduced in 1967 by Amana.

From Quiz We Can Make Him Better

Answer: Microprocessors

In 1997, the pioneering German prosthetic company Ottobock introduced the revolutionary C-Leg, a knee prosthesis that uses computers to vary pressure and resistance to mimic the movement of a patients' natural walk. The computer implanted in the artificial knee requires the use of a microprocessor to fit in the small space. The microprocessor in the unit analyses data from sensors designed to recognize knee angle in order to determine the type of motion desired by the patient. The microprocessor interprets the sensory signals to control the hydraulic cylinders in the knee-joint. Small changes in the levels of hydraulic fluid in the cylinder regulate the extension and compression of the piston connected to the tip of the knee. The microprocessor controlled prosthesis provides a more accurate approximation of the individual patients natural walking pattern. Improvements in the processors and knee-joints allow many patients to vary the speed of their movements and even to run. Similarly, the fast processing time can permit many patients to walk down stairs with a natural step-over-step approach without the need to stop and approach each step individually.

From Quiz That's Right, It's Prosthetic

Answer: Wood leg

The Dark Ages saw the development of the wooden peg leg and the hand hook. Most commonly, prosthetics in the Dark Ages were used by knights who were injured in battle or by people with physical deformities. Knights often had prosthetics made and used for a specific task, such as holding a shield or riding a horse. Only the wealthiest people could afford peg legs or hook hands for everyday use. (Question by kaddarsgirl.)

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