My Science School

On 1 August 1774 chemist Joseph Priestley isolated a new "air" in its gaseous state. He named the gas "dephlogisticated air", later renamed 'oxygen' by Antoine Lavoisier. Priestley also discovered hydrochloric acid, nitrous oxide (laughing gas), carbon monoxide, and sulfur dioxide.

An English theologian and educator, too, he was appalled at the quality the available English grammar books, so he wrote his own The Rudiments of English Grammar (1761). His innovations in the description of Englishy gran led 20th-century scholar describe him as "one of heat grammarians of his time.

In 1762, he was ordained and married Mary Wilkinson, the daughter of a prominent iron-works owner. She was, he noted, "of an excellent understanding, much improved by reading, of great fortitude and strength of mind, and of a temper in the highest degree affectionate and generous; feeling strongly for others and little for herself."

Priestley traveled regularly to London, and became acquainted with numerous men of science and independent thought, including an ingenious American named Benjamin Franklin, who became a lifelong friend. Franklin encouraged Priestley in his research, one result of which was The History and Present State of Electricity. For that work, and his growing reputation as an experimenter, Priestley was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1766.

The History book was too tough for a popular audience, and Priestley determined to write a more accessible one. But he could find no one to create the necessary illustrations. So, in typical fashion, he taught himself perspective drawing. Along the way, he made many mistakes, and discovered that India rubber would erase lead pencil lines — a fact he mentioned in the preface.

By the age of 34, Priestley was a well-established and respected member of Britain's scientific community. He was still paying a price for his religious nonconformity, however. When the explorer Captain James Cook was preparing for his second voyage, Priestley was offered the position of science adviser. But the offer was rescinded under pressure from Anglican authorities who protested his theology, which was evolving into a strongly Unitarian position that denied the doctrine of the trinity.

In retrospect, the Cook affair may have been all for the best. In 1773, the Earl of Shelburne asked Priestley to serve as a sort of intellectual companion, tutor for the earl's offspring, and librarian for his estate, Bowood House. The position provided access to social and political circles Priestley could never have gained on his own, while leaving ample free time for the research that would earn him a permanent place in scientific history.

He systematically analyzed the properties of different "airs" using the favored apparatus of the day: an inverted container on a raised platform that could capture the gases produced by various experiments below it. The container could also be placed in a pool of water or mercury, effectively sealing it, and a gas tested to see if it would sustain a flame or support life.

In the course of these experiments, Priestley made an enormously important observation. A flame went out when placed in a jar in which a mouse would die due to lack of air. Putting a green plant in the jar and exposing it to sunlight would "refresh" the air, permitting a flame to burn and a mouse to breathe. Perhaps, Priestley wrote, "the injury which is continually done by such a large number of animals is, in part at least, repaired by the vegetable creation." Thus he observed that plants release oxygen into the air — the process known to us as photosynthesis.

Credit : American Chemistry Society

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Since amassing his sizeable fortune, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg has used his millions to fund several philanthropic causes. In 2010, he donated $100 million to save the failing Newark Public School system in New Jersey and signed the Giving Pledge, promising to donate at least 50 per cent of his wealth to charity over the course of his lifetime. He called on other young, wealthy entrepreneurs to follow suit.

"With a generation of younger folks who have thrived on the success of their companies, there is a big opportunity for many of us to give back earlier in our lifetime and see the impact of our philanthropic efforts," he said. He was the second biggest charitable donor in the U.S. in 2012 having donated roughly ($498.8 million) to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.

Mark Zuckerberg (b.14 May 1984), is an American entrepreneur, computer programmer and philanthropist. He is best-known as one of the co-founders of social networking site Facebook. He is the chairman and CEO of Facebook, Inc. His personal wealth is estimated to be US$13.3 billion, making him one of the world's youngest billionaires.

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In 1998, Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, PhD students at Stanford University at the time, approached Yahoo! and suggested a partnership. Yahoo! declined supposedly because they didn't want to concentrate on search. Brin and Page went on to incorporate Google as a privately-held company on 4 September 1998. Yahoo! once again had the opportunity to purchase Google for $5bn in 2002. Although the price was high for Yahoo! in relation to its own value at the time, it would prove to be the last chance it had to acquire Google. It didn't. In January 2013, Google announced it had earned $50 billion in annual revenue for the year 2012.

Following the launch of Google X, the debut of Google Glass, and the unveiling of the company’s self-driving car project, the search giant turned its sights on the sciences. In particular, Page was interested in life extension. So the company, through its Google Ventures investment arm, created Calico, a company effectively aimed at curing death. It’s headed up by Bill Maris, the founding partner of Google Ventures, who recruited former Genentech CEO Art Levinson to be its chief executive.

It was yet another signal that Page’s Google was willing to put down huge sums of money toward problems far outside the realm of online search and mobile operating systems. Calico, however, has so far seemingly failed to yield any meaningful advancements in the life sciences, medicine, or biotechnology industries. It is unclear what, if anything, the company is focused on right now.

By the summer of 2015, Google was a remarkably different company than when Page had reassumed his CEO role four years prior. The company was involved in self-driving cars, wearable technology, the Nexus smartphone line, and numerous other product and experimental research efforts spanning artificial intelligence, cloud and quantum computing, and even fiber internet.

While Page and Brin receded from public view starting around 2015, they were reportedly quite active in Google’s famous weekly TGIY all-hands sessions, in which executives would answer questions from employees and address big-picture topics at the company and in the news. One such session, occurring just after Donald Trump was elected president in 2016, was two years later leaked to conservative news outlet Breitbart.

Credit :  The Verge

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Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was one of India's most influential scholars of comparative religion and philosophy. He was awarded the Bharat Ratna in 1954. The first Vice President (1952-1962) and second President of India (1962 1967), his birth anniversary is celebrated as Teachers' Day.

Radhakrishnan emphasizes that education must be based on the twin principles of Truth & Love. Education will be said to be complete, only if it includes not only training of the intellect but refinement of the heart and discipline of the spirit. The aim of education must be character building, man-making, development of spiritual values & secular attitudes, vocational development and national integration. Dr Radhakrishnan was a true nationalist personality of Indian soil and lifelong defence of Hinduism and Indian culture & civilization against uninformed western critics. Due to his dedication towards Hindu religion, culture & philosophy, the so-called secular forces and western-minded thoughts have been critical to him. But ignoring all critics, he continued his nationalist writings throughout his life and kept burning the light of Indian Philosophy on the world map. He took his last breath on 17th April 1975, but his lamp of understanding of intuition and interpretation of experiences will light our path from age to age.

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Nathan Hale was a schoolteacher when the American Revolution of 1775 broke out. He was commissioned an officer in the Connecticut militia and served in the siege of Boston. In late September 1776, during the Battle of Long Island, 21-year-old Nathan volunteered to cross enemy lines and travel to Long Island to report on British troop movements.

He was given virtually no training for his perilous mission, and was soon discovered and captured by the British. The young spy was interrogated and executed on September 22. On the scaffold he reportedly declared, "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country."

Though Hale was allowed to write letters on the eve of his execution, they were destroyed by his jailer, who felt that "rebels should never know they had a man who could die with so much firmness".

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18 July, also known as Nelson Mandela Day, the U.N. and the Nelson Mandela Foundation encourage people around the world to devote 67 minutes of their time one minute for every year of Mandela's public service towards helping others; a small gesture of solidarity with humanity and a step towards a global movement for good. As the great man himself says, "We can change the world and make it a better place. It is in your hands to make a difference."

Nelson Mandela International Day shines a light every year on the legacy of a man whose monumental achievements changed the 20th century and shaped the 21st. His values and determination — a deep commitment to human rights, freedom, and justice — are reflected on, and are a source of inspiration for others. Mandela advocated for the rightful dignity and equality of every living person, and encouraged engagement and solidarity across all borders. His relentless pursuit for equality was paralleled with his status as the founding father of peace in South Africa. 

Nelson Mandela remains a symbol of power by resisting oppression. In times of turbulence, Mandela’s legacy teaches everyone to choose dignity over humiliation, speak up during injustice, and forgive rather than hate. He once said, “To be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.” In 2014, the Nelson Mandela Prize was established by the UN General Assembly — an award recognizing the achievements of those who went far and beyond to serve humanity. 

Credit : National Today

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On 27 July 1921, Canadian scientists Frederick Banting and Charles Best successfully isolated insulin for the first time at the University of Toronto. In 1923, 32-year-old Banting received the Nobel Prize for Medicine and remains the youngest Nobel laureate in Physiology/ Medicine.

A Canadian scientist, Banting's interest in diabetes stemmed from his school days when a classmate had died of the disorder. In 1989 a 'flame of hope' was lit at Sir Fredrick Banting Square in Ontario as a tribute to him and all those who have lost their lives to diabetes. The flame will remain lit until a cure for diabetes is found.

Plans were quickly underway for an insulin treatment for people. Next, they extracted insulin from the pancreases of cattle from slaughterhouses. On January 11, 1922, 14-year-old Leonard Thompson became the first person to receive an insulin injection as treatment for diabetes. The first caused an allergic reaction. A refined process was quickly developed to improve the cow pancreas from which the insulin was derived, and Thompson's second dosage was successfully delivered twelve days later on January 23. The teenager’s condition improved dramatically. Diabetes, which had been regarded as a fatal disease, could finally be managed! 

By 1923, insulin had become widely available in mass production, and Banting and Macleod were awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine. Charles Best, being a graduate student, was not included.  Banting recognized Best's involvement by sharing the award money.

Credit : UMass Memorial Health

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Sir William James Herschel (9 January 1833-24 October 1917) is credited as the first person to use fingerprinting. In 1853 he was posted to Bengal by the East India Company. Following the 1857 Rebellion, he joined the Indian Civil Service and was posted to Jungipoor. In July 1858, to ensure that local businessman Rajyadhar Konai honoured a contract for the supply of road-making materials, Herschel made him put a hand-print on the document. In his experiments with hand-prints, he soon realised that only fingers needed to be used and that a person's fingerprints do not change over time.

In 1877, as Magistrate of Hooghly, he instituted the taking of pensioners' fingerprints J. K. Ro and the fingerprinting of criminals. In 1878, Herschel returned to England, and in 1880, he wrote a letter in ‘Nature’ explaining his fingerprinting experiences. In 1916, the year before he died, he published ‘The Origin of Fingerprinting,’ a description of his work.

Even though he invented fingerprinting, Herschel only ever utilized it for administrative purposes. He had no idea it could be used to arrest criminals; it was Francis Galton and Edward Henry, who built on Herschel’s foundations and converted fingerprinting into a tool for fighting crime.

One of the first Europeans to appreciate the significance of fingerprints for identification purposes was William James Herschel. In the 1850s and 1860s, he began using fingerprints and handprints instead of signatures in his work as a magistrate in colonial India. Later, he worked with scientist Francis Galton, whose research led to the creation of the first fingerprint classification system, which Scotland Yard deployed in 1901. Fingerprints had always attracted Herschel’s interest.

In 1916, he published an account of his work called The Origin of Fingerprinting. Although he developed the fingerprinting technique, he only used it as an administrative tool. It was Francis Galton and Edward Henry, building on his work, who turned fingerprinting into a crime-fighting tool.

Credit : Forensic’s Blog

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Anne Frank (12 June 1929 - early March 1945), a Jewish teenager who had to go into hiding to evade the Nazis during WW II. Subsequently arrested, she died in a concentration camp aged 15, one of more than 1 million Jewish children who died in the Holocaust. She is best known for her diary (published posthumously), which continues to touch people today.

Her goal was to become a writer when the war ended. But she didn’t wait to start developing her craft. She was given a diary on her thirteenth birthday and began to write in it. She credits the writing in her diary with helping retain her sanity while not able to go outside her confined quarters for two years. Anne saw firsthand what oppression and hatred could do to a person’s hopes and dreams. She also understood that one person could make a difference. So Anne did what she could. And though she didn’t live to see her eventual contribution, she really DID start to improve the world in her own quiet way. Her book has been read by countless millions. It’s been translated into 70 languages and published in more than 60 countries. Its impact is beyond measure.

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As former national security adviser JN Dixit wrote, Shastri unexpectedly authorised the Indian armed forces to expand the scope of the war beyond Jammu and Kashmir across the international border with Pakistan and the army was ready to aim at Lahore and Sialkot. This surprised Pakistan and forced them to withdraw their forces from the Chhamb-Akhnoor sector and resist Lahore and Sialkot. This move effectively put Pakistan, which aimed Kashmir, to go on the defensive. Wolpert was also referring to this strategic upper hand India had in the war.

The United Nations suggested a ceasefire and both countries agreed to it. The formalities were later completed with the signing of the Tashkent Declaration. In hindsight, it was just one of the several agreements the two countries had signed. But as Wolpert wrote, Shastri never awoke to help implement that hopeful accord. He was found dead. No post-mortem. No official inquiry. Crisis man Gulzarilal Nanda was readied a second time to swear in as prime minister. End of story.

Current defence minister Manohar Parrikar has been critical of the Indian media that they did not give necessary coverage to the celebrations of the war victory anniversary. But what respect has the nation returned to Shastri? Even after 49 years of his death, Shastri's family has been asking for nothing more than justice to his memory. His family says his body sported blue patches by the time it reached India and that it also had several injury marks on it. As you would expect, our government still keeps classified files about Shastri's death, much like in the case of Subhas Chandra Bose.

Lal Bahadur Shastri, who became the second Prime Minister of India on 9 June 1964, was hailed as a national hero following victory in the Indo-Pak War of 1965. His slogan "Jai Jawan Jai Kisan" became very popular during the war and is remembered even today. The war formally ended in the Tashkent Agreement of 10 January 1966; he died the following day, still in Tashkent, of a heart attack.

Credit : DailyO

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Can a geeky, sixth grade high school English teacher conjure up a world much beyond the four walls of his classroom? A world filled with hyperactive demigods and quests? Well, the answer lies within the 39 books penned by young adults’ writer, Rick Riordan.

If you are anywhere between 11 and 14, chances are you have already devoured the Percy Jackson series. You may have already imagined being the son or a daughter of a Greek god and what super powers you would like to possess.

If all this is true, then of course you know all about Rick Riordan. Even the story of how his son's attention deficit disorder (ADHD and dyslexia) inspired the stories in which all the demigods have ADHD. But did you know that Riordan has mild dyslexia? Or that he loves villains and fast cars, but hated to read till he was 13?

A nerd in school

Like his protagonist. Percy Jackson, Riordan is an unlikely superhero. He never scored straight A's in his school life, neither did he embark on any daredevil adventures to save the earth. In fact, he was a pretty average kid maybe even a bit nerdy. For the longest time he was a lead singer in a folk rock band-not the most hippest of music genres, and later turned to teaching

From Clark Kent to Superman

But it was while telling bedtime stories to his son Haley that Riordon donned his cape. His super power? Ability to breathe life into mythology.

Aged nine, his son refused to read, but loved Greek myths so Riordan used to tell him about the Greek gods and heroes. One night he ran out of myths, and a disappointed Haley insisted that he make something up with his own characters. Thus, Percy Jackson was born.

A reluctant reader

But his own love of mythology came late in life. He didn't like books and avoided reading until he got into junior high school and discovered the Lord of the Rings. That's also when he decided to become a writer. He sent in his first story at age 13. It was promptly rejected, but he kept trying."I have a great deal of sympathy for reluctant readers because I was one," he reportedly said.

His struggle with ADHD

In an interview with a British media, he said, "I'm afraid I'm very ADHD, much like Percy. There are days when I'll write for 15 minutes and have to give up and move around, and I'll write another paragraph and give up again. On other days I get intensely focused on the process, sit down at 8 a.m. and won't get up until 8 p.m.”

Riordan said that writing his own novels was an achievement for him, one that he rates as an "in yer face moment" for all those teachers who ignored him. "Basically, I misspell stuff but that's about as far as the dyslexia hinders me."

A Potterhead

Just like millions all over the world, the bespectacled wizard, Harry Potter, captured Riordan's imagination too. Even today, after writing best selling series equal in fame to the Potter novels, Riordan remains a Potterhead. "As a teacher, I've never seen anything like Harry Potter. That's why I smart when people talk about the next Harry Potter. There is no 'next Harry Potter. There never was a Harry Potter before Harry Potter. It's completely unprecedented in children's literature. I had students who read these books 13, 14 times and I would say, 'Great book, but don't you want to try something else?' And they would say. There's nothing else this good."" he said in one of his interviews.

Loves villains

But unlike everyone else, you might not catch Riordan rooting for Harry. In fact, he is more likely to be on the Dark Side. Surprised? The Percy Jackson writer loves villains! And guess who his favourite is? The mischievous Loki! No wonder he has been able to create pure evil-doers in the form of Lord Kronos or Luke Castellan.

Married his high school sweetheart

Percy Jackson may find it hard to please his father Poseidon, but Riordan's own family life is remarkably stable: the only child of two teachers, he grew up in San Antonio and met his future wife, at the age of 15. "We were high-school sweethearts. We’ve grown up together and it's hard to get away with anything because she knows everything about me," he said in one of his interviews.

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Franklin P. Mall, M.D., was the first professor of anatomy at Johns Hopkins. Sabin attributed much of her early success in medicine to the mentorship provided by Mall, who became Sabin's mentor, advocate, and intellectual role model while she was his student. He encouraged her pursuit of “pure” (rather than applied) science, and suggested projects that would help establish her research reputation.

Much of The Florence R. Sabin Collection consists of correspondence from 1903 to 1941 between Sabin and Mabel (Glover) Mall, Franklin’s wife. The correspondence “reveals the close friendship Sabin enjoyed with the Mall family and provides a glimpse of the early years at Johns Hopkins Hospital and the work of the Anatomical Laboratory.”

While at Johns Hopkins, Sabin did important work on the origins of the lymphatic system, demonstrating that its structures were formed from the embryo’s veins rather than from other tissues (as other researchers believed at the time). She also perfected the technique of supravital staining, allowing her to investigate the origins of blood cells, blood vessels, and connective tissue.

While at the Rockefeller Institute, Sabin established the Department of Cellular Studies. She led research on the pathology of tuberculosis as part of a consortium of researchers working with the Medical Research Committee of the National Tuberculosis Association. During her thirteen years at Rockefeller, Sabin made major contributions to the understanding of tuberculosis, most notably for her discovery of the origin and processes of immune system responses to various chemical fractions isolated from the tuberculosis bacteria. Sabin remained at the Rockefeller Institute until her retirement in 1938.

Credit : WIMLF 

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Florence Rena Sabin, American anatomist and investigator of the lymphatic system who was considered to be one of the leading women scientists of the United States.

Sabin was educated in Denver, Colorado, and in Vermont and graduated from Smith College in Massachusetts, in 1893. After teaching in Denver and at Smith to earn tuition money, she entered the Johns Hopkins University Medical School in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1896. While a student she demonstrated a particular gift for laboratory work; her model of the brain stem of a newborn infant was widely reproduced for use as a teaching model in medical schools. After graduation in 1900 she interned at Johns Hopkins Hospital for a year and then returned to the medical school to conduct research under a fellowship awarded by the Baltimore Association for the Advancement of University Education of Women. In 1901 she published An Atlas of the Medulla and Midbrain, which became a popular medical text. In 1902, when Johns Hopkins finally abandoned its policy of not appointing women to its medical faculty, Sabin was named an assistant in anatomy, and she became in 1917 the school’s first female full professor.

For a number of years Sabin’s research centred on the lymphatic system, and her demonstration that lymphatic vessels develop from a special layer of cells in certain fetal veins, rather than, as prevailing theory held, from intercellular spaces, established her as a researcher of the first rank. She then turned to the study of blood, blood vessels, and blood cells and made numerous discoveries regarding their origin and development. In 1924 she was elected president of the American Association of Anatomists, and in 1925 she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences; in both cases she was the first woman to be so honoured.

Credit :  Britannica 

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Florence Rena Sabin was an American anatomist who contributed to research in the lymphatic system, blood vessels and cells, and tuberculosis. She was the first woman to be elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences; to become a full professor at Johns Hopkins Medical School and the president of the American Association of Anatomists. She was considered to be one of the leading women scientists of her time. Florence Rena Sabin was born in 1871 in Colorado. Florence's mother died from puerperal fever (sepsis), when she was just seven. She was brought up by her grandparents and uncle, who instilled a love for Nature in Florence.

Throughout her childhood, Florence wanted to become a pianist but her experience at Vermont Academy made her shift her focus to science. She began her career as a teacher in Denver and at Smith College, in Massachusetts. This helped her save for the tuition money to enter the Johns Hopkins University Medical School in Baltimore.

In 1896, she became one of 14 women in a class of 45 students at Johns Hopkins Medical School. At Hopkins, Sabin studied anatomy under mentor Franklin Paine Mall.

On brain structure

Following graduation, Sabin obtained an internship at Hopkins. Sabin worked on mapping the anatomical presentation of neonatal brain structure. In 1901, she published An Atlas of the Medulla and Midbrain, which became a popular medical text. In 1917, she became the school's first female full professor, teaching embryology and histology in the Department of Anatomy.

For many years, Sabin's research focussed on the lymphatic system. She disproved a prevailing theory by demonstrating that lymphatic vessels develop from a special layer of cells in certain fetal veins, rather than from intercellular spaces. She then turned to the study of blood, blood vessels, and blood cells and made numerous discoveries regarding their origin and development.

In 1925, she joined the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research and conducted research on the pathology and immunology of tuberculosis. She played a key role in legislating Colorado's public health program after the end of World War II and also fought for the rights of women scientists and doctors.

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Santosh Yadav was the first woman to climb Mount Everest twice. The first time she scaled the peak was in 1992, and she was also the youngest woman in the world to climb the Everest then. She became interested in mountaineering after a chance encounter with a group of climbers in the Aravalli Hills, near Jaipur where she was studying. She enrolled for a course in rock climbing, and then there was no looking back. Climbing became a passion, and the mountains beckoned her.

She enrolled at the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering, in Uttarkashi without informing her parents, knowing that they would never give her permission if she asked. She had done her early schooling in the village of Joniyawas in Haryana, where she was born, and afterwards had had a hard time persuading her parents to send her to Jaipur for further studies. She came from an affluent family that was firmly rooted in tradition-girls had to be married off once they turned 14, and that was it. As it turned out her father was furious when he learnt that she was studying mountaineering. He was getting ready to go to Uttarkashi to bring her back when fate intervened he slipped on the stairs and broke an ankle.

Santosh was an avid student, and learnt quickly in 1986 she topped her class. A few years later, an iron-willed determination to succeed and a great capacity for physical endurance enabled her to set foot on the top of the world's highest peak.

"It was such an incredible feeling" she said, later. I felt a wave of pride rushing through my veins." She hoisted the Tricolour, and sank to her knees to pay homage to Sagarmata, the goddess of the mountain.

The following year she scaled Mount Everest again.

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