Latest Posts & Updates

The first National Periodic Table Day was founded on February 7, 2016. The day serves to promote…

The first National Periodic Table Day was founded on February 7, 2016. The day serves to promote the challenges overcome to develop the modern periodic table. Mr. David T. Steineker, #author, #inventor, and #chemistry #teacher at Jefferson County Public Schools in Kentucky is inspired by those challenges. He took the initiative to celebrate National Periodic Table Day based upon John Newlands’ first table of the elements published on February 7, 1863. National Periodic Table Day recognizes the publication of the first table of elements and how it has changed over the years. To understand the development of the periodic table, we first must understand the discovery of elements and their effect on science. Ancient man knew of few elements. By the 1st century A.D., mankind knew about the elements of #gold, #silver, #copper, #iron, #lead, #tin, #mercury, #sulfur, and #carbon. Over time, we added #arsenic, #antimony, #phosphorus, and #zinc to our discoveries. By 1809, there were 47 discovered elements. Johann Döbereiner made one of the earliest attempts to organize the elements in 1817. He organized elements into groups of three, or #triads, based on similar qualities.

Born 7 Feb 1918; died 29 Mar 1997 at age 79.

American #cellular #geneticist whose research (1950's - 60's) altered the prevailing view about where genetic material was within the #cell. In particular, she recognized that a second set of genes were found outside of the cell's #nucleus. Even though they were #nonchrosomomal, these genes also influenced inherited characteristics. Previously, only the #chromosomal #genes had been considered to control genetic behaviour. Her research in later life turned to the study of genetic mechanisms involved in #cancer. She was among the first to study the role of #mutations in suppressor genes that neutralized their restraint on cell #reproduction

Business update

Business update

Born 7 Feb 1871; died 25 Jan 1957 at age 85.

Japanese #bacteriologist who discovered (1897) the #dysentery #bacillus #Shigella, named after him. Shigellosis is the infectious disease caused by this group of #bacteria leading to #diarrhea, #fever, #stomach #cramps and possible #hospitalization. He also developed #dysentery #antiserum (1900). After appointment (1899) and serving a short time as director of the Institute of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo, he spent until 1903 working in Germany on the #chemotherapy of #trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness) with Paul Ehrlich. He returned to Japan and continued his earlier association in research with Kitasato. In 1912, he moved to work again with Ehrlich in Frankfurt, this time focussing on #tuberculosis. In his later life he also investigated #leprosy and #beriberi.

Born 7 Feb 1905; died 9 Mar 1983 at age 78.

Swedish #physiologist who shared the 1970 #NobelPrize for Physiology or #Medicine (with Sir Bernard Katz and Julius Axelrod) for their independent study of #transmitter mechanisms of nerve cells. Since 1906, when Thomas Elliott first proposed that nerve cells communicate with each other and the muscles they control by the release of chemicals, there had been efforts to identify these substances. Euler's recognition was for his discovery (1946) of #noradrenaline which serves as #neurotransmitter at the nerve terminals of the #sympathetic #nervoussystem. He further showed how noradrenaline is stored in small nerve granules within the nerve fibres of this system. Euler had earlier, in 1935, discovered the substance he named #prostaglandin.

Business update

Born 6 Feb 1834; died 23 Oct 1913 at age 79.

Theodor Albrecht Edwin Klebs was a German physician and bacteriologist who was noted for his work on the bacterial theory of infection. Klebs' first success was the invention of the paraffin wax embedding of sections of tissue for histological investigation With Friedrich August Johannes Löffler in 1884, he discovered the diphtheria bacillus, known as the Klebs-Löffler bacillus. He died, as so many physicians

Born 6 Feb 1892; died 9 Oct 1987 at age 95.

American #physician who with George R. #Minot in 1926 reported success in the treatment of #perniciousanemia with a #liver diet. The two men shared the #NobePrize for Physiology or Medicine in 1934 with George H. #Whipple, whose research they had built upon. #Anaemia is seen as a loss of red #blood corpuscles, effectively a dilution of the blood. With the liver diet, it became clear that anemia was not (as then supposed) due to the presence of a supposed poisonous substance, but rather to the absence of a substance needed to produce red blood corpuscles. Such a substance must be present in liver, since the patient's condition became normal when liver was supplied as a food. Thus these researchers had discovered a new function of the liver.

People who #workout often look younger than their friends and research has now found that #exerci…

People who #workout often look younger than their friends and research has now found that #exercisers truly are #younger, on a cellular level, than their same aged peers. #Telomeres, the caps at the ends of #DNA, are longer at birth and gradually shorten as we #age. A new study showed that the endurance #athletes have longer Telomeres.

Born 5 Feb 1914; died 20 Dec 1998 at age 84.   

Alan Lloyd #Hodgkin was an English physiologist and biophysicist who shared (with his countryman Sir Andrew Huxley and Australian scientist Sir John Eccles) the #NobelPrize for Physiology or Medicine in 1963, for the discovery of the chemical processes involved in #nerveconduction, more specifically, discoveries concerning the ionic mechanisms involved in excitation and inhibition in the peripheral and central portions of the nerve cell membrane. Hodgkin and Huxley performed their work on the so-called giant axon of Atlantic squid, Loligo pealei, which enabled them to record ionic currents, which would otherwise have not been possible in almost any other #neuron, such cells being too small to study by the techniques of the time.

Born 4 Feb 1862; died 28 Aug 1942 at age 80.

German physician and #bacteriologist who discovered the #tetanus bacterium in 1884. Though he was unable to obtain it as a pure culture, it was isolated within a few years by Shibasaburo Kitsato. He discovered it lived in #soil, with which he innoculated mice. Because of its presence in earth, it is responsible for #infection from dirty #wounds, which was particularly significant in the cases of wounded soldiers during WW I. The #toxin secreted by this bacterium, #Clostridium tetani, causing fatal #musclespasms. It was later found to travel along #nerves to the spinal chord, causing increasingly severe spasms of the head and neck and jaw, from which came the common name of #lockjaw. Fortunately for the injured soldiers, every soldier  received an anti-toxin, used from 1915. #Nicolaier died, aged 80, in 1942, pending wartime internment as a Jew, likely by suicide.