I am a Sagittarius. I don’t know what that could mean, except that I was born between November 22 and December 21. That said, for some who are into astrology, it seems to have more meaning and I was curious to know where does that came from. So, I looked into it:
Who created Astrology?
According to Merriam-Webster, “Astrology is the divination of the supposed influences of the stars and planets on human affairs and terrestrial events by their positions and aspects.” Its history spans thousands of years, beginning in ancient Mesopotamia and continuing until the present day. It is not anything new.
The history of astrology can be traced back to the cradle of civilization, Mesopotamia, in the 3rd millennium BC. In these ancient times, astrology was intimately entwined with astronomy, and the distinction between the two disciplines was blurred. The celestial bodies, including stars and planets, were seen as potent forces that could influence earthly affairs and human lives.
I was looking into some lighting for my living room, and I noted that everything is LED now. It’s not new. In fact, it’s been like that for a good minute now, but it still feels like a recent trend. Turns out, this type of “diode” is really far from new.
Who Created the LED?
First, what is an LED, a Light-emitting diode? It is a small device that, when energy flows through it, produces light. Energy-efficient lighting, displays in electronics like TVs and phones, indication lights, auto lights, and other uses are all made possible by it. LEDs are effective, durable, and available in various shapes and sizes.
If you watch the Steven Soderbergh-directed TV show The Knick, you’re probably familiar with how much things changed in the medical field since the early 1900s: a lot! It’s sometimes hard to believe how much progress has been accomplished in a century, but also how long some discoveries were made. I personally was surprised to read that I’m as old as the first implantation of an artificial heart. I would have thought that it was a more recent breakthrough.
Who Created the Artificial Heart?
In 1937, Soviet scientist Vladimir Demikhov who at that time was still a 4th year student implanted an artificial heart into a dog, marking one of the earliest attempts at creating an artificial heart—the apparatus was able to maintain the circulation in a dog with an excised heart for five hours and a half. The device consisted of two adjacent diaphragm pumps working as two cardiac ventricles and its size was almost identical to that of the native dog’s heart.
Since the COVID-19 epidemic, vaccines have become something that needs debating, apparently. For decades, most people just got their shots. In France, we even have a law that says that we have to get vaccinated at a young age for a variety of diseases that recently reemerged in the US because parents decided not to believe in medicine. I don’t understand, and I’m not the only one. It’s been proven that it works.
On the other end, I was an avid watcher of the X-Files, so I kind of understand that there’s a conspiracy theory angle. Anyway, as I recently read about the return of previously eradicated diseases, I dig a little because I was curious to know:
It’s strange how everything can be turned into a T-Shirt nowadays, even the Periodic Table. Some treat it as a pop culture artifact–probably because of Breaking Bad, I suppose. Anyways, I saw someone wearing one the other day and I realized I didn’t even know its origin like it was always here. But it’s definitively not the case.
What is The Periodic Table?
Before exploring its origin story, let’s go back a second to what is the periodic table.
In chemistry, the periodic table of the elements is a logical arrangement of all the chemical elements in ascending order of atomic number–or the total number of protons in an atomic nucleus. When the chemical elements are grouped in this way, a pattern known as the “periodic law” in their properties occurs, wherein elements in the same column (group) exhibit comparable qualities.
When we are talking about the space race, the Moon, and everything else in the sky, artificial satellites are rarely at the top of the list of subjects highly debated among us, common people. That probably shouldn’t be the case. At least, that’s what I thought the other day when I read the astronomical number of satellites that already surround Earth. It’s not healthy if you want my nonconsequential opinion. But how did that start?
Who Created the Satellite?
The Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, on October 4, 1957. The Space Age officially began at this crucial point in history, and it also set the stage for decades of scientific discovery and technical development.
I never heard about Margaret Sanger before reading the book about the creation of Wonder Woman, The Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore. Sanger was the aunt of Olive Byrne who was the “mistress” of William Moulton Marston, inventor of the lie detector and creator of the famous DC Comics superheroine. The book explained why Sanger was shunned from history, in a way. She always was controversial, but her outrages didn’t fit anymore in the feminist narrative, shall we say.
Nevertheless, Sanger was an important figure, one that was certainly complicated, but that didn’t stop her to change a lot of things for the women of America.
As I said in the introduction to my article about the Slinky, I recently rewatched Obit. (2016) a quite interesting documentary about the New York Times journalists who are charged with writing the obituaries. During my watch, I noticed multiple references to articles that might be interesting to read, one was about the inventor of Kevlar.
After a few weeks, I found my notes about that and finally took a look at that story. It’s not a long one, but let me share with you what it is about!
I heard about Philo Farnsworth for the first time in the book “The Box: An Oral History of Television, 1920-1961” by Jeff Kisseloff. In it, the author described this American Inventor as the not well-known Television Pioneer who made it all possible. I was intrigued.
Philo Farnsworth, A Young Inventor Who Dreamt of Electronic Television
Philo Taylor Farnsworth II was born on August 19, 1906, in Beaver, Utah, and his interest in science started young. As a teenager, he avidly read science magazines and became captivated by the problem of television.
I was barely a teen when Jurassic Park hit the theater. I just loved it and, like a lot of kids, it was for me the beginning of a passion for dinosaurs. It was not a long one, I must say. Truth is, the movie did more for my passion for cinema. But I read a lot on the subject anyway and I’m still quite intrigued by those creatures from another time. I recently realized though, that there’s one question I never asked myself:
Who Discovered the First Dinosaur Bone?
Like a lot of important discoveries, nobody really knew what it was at first. In fact, it seems that ancient peoples unknowingly stumbled upon dinosaur bones, but it was not until the seventeenth century that the first inklings of their existence began to emerge. Apparently, a reference to “dragon” bones in China dating from over 2,000 years ago could possibly be about dinosaurs!
Is This a Giant Human or What?
In 1677, a curator of an English museum named Robert Plot discovered what would later be recognized as the first dinosaur bone. At the time, Plot’s interpretation was that the bone belonged to a gigantic human. Nevertheless, Plot’s findings opened the door and others would investigate.
1824. Megalosaurus, the First Bones of Dinosaur Discovered by William Buckland
The first professor of geology at Oxford University, the eccentric William Buckland, embarked on his mission to expand the frontiers of knowledge, combining his role as a professor with his unofficial curatorship of the university museum. In 1815, during his travels, he stumbled upon the bones of an animal previously discovered by Plot. Analyzing the teeth, jaw, and limbs, Buckland concluded in 1824 that these remains belonged to an extinct, carnivorous lizard. He named this ancient creature “Megalosaurus,” becoming the first person to assign a name to a dinosaur species.
After Buckland, Mary Ann Mantell, wife of geologist Gideon Mantell, made an interesting discovery during a walk in Sussex, England, in 1822. It was fossilized bones that closely resembled those of an iguana skeleton. This “fossil reptile” was aptly named Iguanodon, becoming the second dinosaur species to be formally identified.
The Birth of “Dinosauria”
In 1842, a British scientist named Sir Richard Owen was examining the fossil collection of William Devonshire Saull when encountered a fossilized chunk of spine thought to belong to the ancient reptile known as “Iguanodon.” Through comparative analysis, Owen made two remarkable conclusions: the fossils represented similar creatures and these creatures were distinct from any living species. That’s when he coined the term “dinosaurs,” meaning “terrible lizards,” forever marking these ancient beings as a distinct group.
Sir Richard Owen coined the term “dinosaurs” in 1842.
While the study of dinosaurs received a significant boost with Owen’s work, it was not until the late 1800s that a wealth of new evidence emerged. A fierce rivalry between American scientists Othniel Marsh and Edward Cope took center stage—it is known as The Bone Wars. These wealthy and competitive researchers ventured into the Rocky Mountains, unearthing a plethora of dinosaur bones from various sites. Their intense competition led to the discovery of 136 new dinosaur species, igniting global fascination and inspiring scientists and prestigious institutions worldwide to delve into the study of dinosaurs.
The dinosaurs were always here, waiting to be discovered. It just took a lot of time and studying them will keep revealing incredible new information for a long while too.
I was on Google Maps, searching for the time needed to go to some grocery store that has some item I can’t find in the ones near my house (the joy of not having a car), and when I did a right-click on my destination I saw weird numbers.
I assumed it is the GPS coordinate, but I don’t even know. Obviously, as you are here, you know I became curious about the topic (It’s the same with every one of my introductions, I need to change things up!).
At the moment, I’m reading a book about the creation of Wonder Woman (The Secret History of Wonder Woman, by Jill Lepore, if you’re interested), and there’s a lot of talk in it about the invention of the lie detector (but also about feminism and more).
It’s quite interesting and it inspired me to search for more information about some of the subjects Lepore wrote about–I will late probably write articles about them. For now, though, let’s talk about lies!
