Topic: Biography/science and academia (Page 11)

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πŸ”— Thomas Harriot

πŸ”— Biography πŸ”— Mathematics πŸ”— Biography/science and academia πŸ”— Astronomy πŸ”— Linguistics πŸ”— Linguistics/Applied Linguistics πŸ”— Indigenous peoples of North America πŸ”— University of Oxford

Thomas Harriot (Oxford, c. 1560 – London, 2 July 1621), also spelled Harriott, Hariot or Heriot, was an English astronomer, mathematician, ethnographer and translator who made advances within the scientific field. Thomas Harriot was recognized for his contributions in astronomy, mathematics, and navigational techniques. Harriot worked closely with John White to create advanced maps for navigation. While Harriot worked extensively on numerous papers on the subjects of astronomy, mathematics, and navigation the amount of work that was actually published was sparse. So sparse that the only publication that has been produced by Harriot was The Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia. The premise of the book includes descriptions of English settlements and financial issues in Virginia at the time. He is sometimes credited with the introduction of the potato to the British Isles. Harriot was the first person to make a drawing of the Moon through a telescope, on 26 July 1609, over four months before Galileo Galilei.

After graduating from St Mary Hall, Oxford, Harriot travelled to the Americas, accompanying the 1585 expedition to Roanoke island funded by Sir Walter Raleigh and led by Sir Ralph Lane. Harriot was a vital member of the venture, having learned and translating the Carolina Algonquian language from two Native Americans: Wanchese and Manteo. On his return to England, he worked for the 9th Earl of Northumberland. At the Earl's house, he became a prolific mathematician and astronomer to whom the theory of refraction is attributed.

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πŸ”— Religious Views of Isaac Newton

πŸ”— Biography πŸ”— Mathematics πŸ”— Religion πŸ”— Physics πŸ”— London πŸ”— Philosophy πŸ”— England πŸ”— Biography/science and academia πŸ”— Astronomy πŸ”— Philosophy/Philosophy of science πŸ”— History of Science πŸ”— Philosophy/Philosophers πŸ”— Biography/politics and government πŸ”— Philosophy/Metaphysics πŸ”— Physics/Biographies πŸ”— Christianity πŸ”— Christianity/theology πŸ”— Lincolnshire πŸ”— Anglicanism

Isaac Newton (4 January 1643 – 31 March 1727) was considered an insightful and erudite theologian by his Protestant contemporaries. He wrote many works that would now be classified as occult studies, and he wrote religious tracts that dealt with the literal interpretation of the Bible. He kept his heretical beliefs private.

Newton's conception of the physical world provided a model of the natural world that would reinforce stability and harmony in the civic world. Newton saw a monotheistic God as the masterful creator whose existence could not be denied in the face of the grandeur of all creation. Although born into an Anglican family, and a devout but unorthodox Christian, by his thirties Newton held a Christian faith that, had it been made public, would not have been considered orthodox by mainstream Christians. Scholars now consider him a Nontrinitarian Arian.

He may have been influenced by Socinian christology.

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πŸ”— Guthrie's One Trial Theory

πŸ”— Biography πŸ”— Psychology πŸ”— Biography/science and academia

Edwin Ray Guthrie (; January 9, 1886 in Lincoln, Nebraska – April 23, 1959 in Seattle, Washington) was a behavioral psychologist. He first worked as a mathematics teacher, and philosopher, but switched to psychology when he was 33. He spent most of his career at the University of Washington, where he became full professor and then emeritus professor in psychology.

Guthrie is best known for his theory that all learning was based on a stimulus–response association. This was variously described as one trial theory, non-reinforcement, and contiguity learning. The theory was:

"A combination of stimuli which has accompanied a movement will on its recurrence tend to be followed by that movement".

One word that his coworkers and students used to describe Guthrie and his theories was "simple", and perhaps he did prefer to use simple terms to illustrate complex ideas. However, "It is undoubtedly true that many reviews of Guthrie in the literature have mistaken incompleteness for simplicity".

His simple nature carried into his teachings where he took great pride in working with and teaching students.

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πŸ”— Jadi

πŸ”— Biography πŸ”— Iran πŸ”— Biography/science and academia πŸ”— Open Access

Amir Emad Mirmirani (Persian: Ψ§Ω…ΫŒΨ±ΨΉΩ…Ψ§Ψ― Ω…ΫŒΨ±Ω…ΫŒΨ±Ψ§Ω†ΫŒ) known by the nickname Jadi, is a programmer, blogger and internet activist in the field of Free and open-source software and Linux in Iran. He was arrested in October 2022 during the Iranian protests following the death of Mahsa Amini.

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  • "Jadi" | 2022-11-01 | 11 Upvotes 1 Comments

πŸ”— Elizabeth Fleischman

πŸ”— Biography πŸ”— California πŸ”— California/San Francisco Bay Area πŸ”— Medicine πŸ”— Physics πŸ”— Women scientists πŸ”— Biography/science and academia πŸ”— Women's History πŸ”— Physics/Biographies πŸ”— Medicine/Radiology

Elizabeth Fleischman-Aschheim (nΓ©e Fleischman 5 March 1867 – 3 August 1905) was an American radiographer who is considered an X-ray pioneer. Fleischman was the first woman to die as a result of X-ray radiation exposure.

πŸ”— David Graeber has passed away

πŸ”— Biography πŸ”— New York City πŸ”— Biography/science and academia πŸ”— Anthropology πŸ”— Anarchism

David Rolfe Graeber (; February 12, 1961 – September 2, 2020) was an American anthropologist, anarchist activist, and author known for his books Debt: The First 5000 Years (2011), The Utopia of Rules (2015) and Bullshit Jobs: A Theory (2018). He was a professor of anthropology at the London School of Economics.

As an assistant professor and associate professor of anthropology at Yale from 1998 to 2007, Graeber specialized in theories of value and social theory. Yale's decision not to rehire him when he would otherwise have become eligible for tenure sparked an academic controversy. He went on to become, from 2007 to 2013, reader in social anthropology at Goldsmiths, University of London.

His activism includes protests against the 3rd Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in 2001, and at the 2002 World Economic Forum in New York City. Graeber was a leading figure in the Occupy Wall Street movement, and is sometimes credited with having coined the slogan "we are the 99%". He accepted credit for the description "the 99%" but said that others had expanded it into the slogan.

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πŸ”— Great Woman of Mathematics: Marie-Sophie Germain, 1776-1831

πŸ”— Biography πŸ”— Mathematics πŸ”— France πŸ”— Women scientists πŸ”— Biography/science and academia πŸ”— Women's History πŸ”— Mathematics/Mathematicians

Marie-Sophie Germain (French:Β [maʁi sΙ”fi ʒɛʁmΙ›Μƒ]; 1 April 1776 – 27 June 1831) was a French mathematician, physicist, and philosopher. Despite initial opposition from her parents and difficulties presented by society, she gained education from books in her father's library, including ones by Leonhard Euler, and from correspondence with famous mathematicians such as Lagrange, Legendre, and Gauss (under the pseudonym of Β«Monsieur LeBlancΒ»). One of the pioneers of elasticity theory, she won the grand prize from the Paris Academy of Sciences for her essay on the subject. Her work on Fermat's Last Theorem provided a foundation for mathematicians exploring the subject for hundreds of years after. Because of prejudice against her sex, she was unable to make a career out of mathematics, but she worked independently throughout her life. Before her death, Gauss had recommended that she be awarded an honorary degree, but that never occurred. On 27 June 1831, she died from breast cancer. At the centenary of her life, a street and a girls’ school were named after her. The Academy of Sciences established the Sophie Germain Prize in her honor.

πŸ”— Taqi ad-Din Muhammad ibn Ma'ruf

πŸ”— Biography πŸ”— Biography/science and academia πŸ”— Egypt

Taqi al-Din Muhammad ibn Ma'ruf ash-Shami al-Asadi (Arabic: ΨͺΩ‚ΩŠ Ψ§Ω„Ψ―ΩŠΩ† Ω…Ψ­Ω…Ψ― Ψ¨Ω† Ω…ΨΉΨ±ΩˆΩ Ψ§Ω„Ψ΄Ψ§Ω…ΩŠβ€Ž, Ottoman Turkish: ΨͺΩ‚ΩŠ Ψ§Ω„Ψ―ΩŠΩ† Ω…Ψ­Ω…Ψ― Ψ¨Ω† Ω…ΨΉΨ±ΩˆΩ Ψ§Ω„Ψ΄Ψ§Ω…ΩŠ Ψ§Ω„Ψ³ΨΉΨ―ΩŠβ€Ž, Turkish: TakiyΓΌddin) (1526-1585) was an Ottoman polymath active in Cairo and Istanbul. He was the author of more than ninety books on a wide variety of subjects, including astronomy, clocks, engineering, mathematics, mechanics, optics and natural philosophy.

In 1574 the Ottoman Sultan Murad III invited TaqΔ« ad-DΔ«n to build the Constantinople observatory. Using his exceptional knowledge in the mechanical arts, TaqΔ« ad-DΔ«n constructed instruments like huge armillary and mechanical clocks that he used in his observations of the Great Comet of 1577. He also used European celestial and terrestrial globes that were delivered to Istanbul in gift-exchange.

The major work that resulted from his work in the observatory is titled "The tree of ultimate knowledge [in the end of time or the world] in the Kingdom of the Revolving Spheres: The astronomical tables of the King of Kings [Murād III]" (Sidrat al-muntah al-afkar fi malkΕ«t al-falak al-dawār– al-zij al-Shāhinshāhi). The work was prepared according to the results of the observations carried out in Egypt and Istanbul in order to correct and complete Ulugh Beg's Zij as-Sultani. The first 40 pages of the work deal with calculations, followed by discussions of astronomical clocks, heavenly circles, and information about three eclipses which he observed at Cairo and Istanbul. For corroborating data of other observations of eclipses in other locales like Daud ar-Riyyadi (David the Mathematician), David Ben-Shushan of Salonika.

As a polymath, TaqΔ« al-DΔ«n wrote numerous books on astronomy, mathematics, mechanics, and theology. His method of finding coordinates of stars were reportedly so precise that he got better measurements than his contemporaries, Tycho Brahe and Nicolas Copernicus. Brahe is also thought to have been aware of al-DΔ«n's work.

TaqΔ« Ad-DΔ«n also described a steam turbine with the practical application of rotating a spit in 1551. He worked on and created astronomical clocks for his observatory. TaqΔ« Ad-DΔ«n also wrote a book on optics, in which he determined the light emitted from objects, proved the Law of Reflection observationally, and worked on refraction.

πŸ”— Jon Postel

πŸ”— Biography πŸ”— Internet πŸ”— Computing πŸ”— Computer science πŸ”— Biography/science and academia πŸ”— Computing/Computer science πŸ”— Computing/Early computers πŸ”— Computing/Networking

Jonathan Bruce Postel (; August 6, 1943 – October 16, 1998) was an American computer scientist who made many significant contributions to the development of the Internet, particularly with respect to standards. He is known principally for being the Editor of the Request for Comment (RFC) document series, for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), and for administering the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) until his death. In his lifetime he was known as the "god of the Internet" for his comprehensive influence on the medium.

The Internet Society's Postel Award is named in his honor, as is the Postel Center at Information Sciences Institute, University of Southern California. His obituary was written by Vint Cerf and published as RFC 2468 in remembrance of Postel and his work. In 2012, Postel was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame by the Internet Society. The Channel Islands' Domain Registry building was named after him in early 2016.

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πŸ”— Ignaz Semmelweis

πŸ”— Biography πŸ”— Medicine πŸ”— Biography/science and academia πŸ”— History of Science πŸ”— Hungary πŸ”— Medicine/Society and Medicine

Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis (German: [ˈΙͺΙ‘naːts ˈzΙ›mlΜ©vaΙͺs]; Hungarian: Semmelweis IgnΓ‘c FΓΌlΓΆp [ˈsΙ›mmΙ›lvΙ›js ˈiΙ‘naːts ˈfylΓΈp]; 1 July 1818 – 13 August 1865) was a Hungarian physician and scientist of German descent who was an early pioneer of antiseptic procedures and was described as the "saviour of mothers". Postpartum infection, also known as puerperal fever or childbed fever, consists of any bacterial infection of the reproductive tract following birth and in the 19th century was common and often fatal. Semmelweis discovered that the incidence of infection could be drastically reduced by requiring healthcare workers in obstetrical clinics to disinfect their hands. In 1847, he proposed hand washing with chlorinated lime solutions at Vienna General Hospital's First Obstetrical Clinic, where doctors' wards had thrice the mortality of midwives' wards. The maternal mortality rate dropped from 18% to less than 2%, and he published a book of his findings, Etiology, Concept and Prophylaxis of Childbed Fever, in 1861.

Despite his research, Semmelweis's observations conflicted with the established scientific and medical opinions of the time and his ideas were rejected by the medical community. He could offer no theoretical explanation for his findings of reduced mortality due to hand-washing, and some doctors were offended at the suggestion that they should wash their hands and mocked him for it. In 1865, the increasingly outspoken Semmelweis allegedly suffered a nervous breakdown and was committed to an asylum by his colleagues. In the asylum, he was beaten by the guards. He died 14 days later from a gangrenous wound on his right hand that may have been caused by the beating.

His findings earned widespread acceptance only years after his death, when Louis Pasteur confirmed the germ theory, giving Semmelweis' observations a theoretical explanation, and Joseph Lister, acting on Pasteur's research, practised and operated using hygienic methods with great success.

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