Gerd Binnig
Born 20 Jul 1947
German-born physicist who co-invented the scanning tunneling microscope with Heinrich Rohrer. They shared the 1986 Nobel Prize for Physics with Ernst Ruska, who designed the first electron microscope. This instrument is not a true microscope ( i.e. an instrument that gives a direct image of an object) since it is based on the principle that the structure of a surface can be studied using a stylus that scans the surface at a fixed distance from it. Vertical adjustment of the stylus is controlled by means of what is termed the tunnel effect - hence the name of the instrument.
Robert D. Maurer
Born 20 Jul 1924
American research physicist, who with his colleagues at Corning Glass Works, Dr. Donald B. Keck and Dr. Peter Schultz invented fused silica optical waveguide - optical fiber. This was a breakthrough creating a revolution in telecommunications, capable of carrying 65,000 times more information than conventional copper wire. In 1970, Maurer, Keck, and Schultz solved a problem that had previously stumped scientists around the world. They designed and produced the first optical fiber with optical losses low enough for wide use in telecommunications. The light loss was limited to 20 decibels per kilometer (at least one percent of the light entering a fiber remains after traveling one kilometer). He retired in 1989.
Tadeus Reichstein Born 20 Jul 1897; died 1 Aug 1996.
Polish-born Swiss chemist who identified the steroid hormones of the adrenal cortex and studied their structure and biological effects. For his role in this discovery, he shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1950 with Philip S. Hench and Edward C. Kendall.
John Reith
Born 20 Jul 1889
John Charles Walsham Reith, 1st Baron Reith, first Director-General of BBC (1927-38) died in Stonehaven, Grampian. As the BBC's founding father, he looked westwards in the 1920s to America's unregulated, commercial radio, and then east to the fledgling Soviet Union's rigidly controlled state system. Reith's vision was of an independent British broadcaster able to educate, inform and entertain. the whole nation, free from political interference and commercial pressure. In doing that he believed it would enrich the intellectual and cultural life of the nation. It is in this spirit that the BBC annually invites a leading figure to deliver a series of Reith lectures in his memory using the medium of radio to advance greater public understanding of their field.
Tadeus Reichstein
Born 20 July 1897
Swiss chemist who, with Philip S. Hench and Edward C. Kendall, received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1950 for his discoveries concerning hormones of the adrenal cortex, their structure and biological effects. With his co-workers, Reichstein accomplished the first isolation of four active hormones from the adrenal cortex, the first synthesis of one of them, the proof of the steroid nature of said hormones, and numerous details on the structure and properties of these important bodies. This made synthesis possible, leading to the creation of new medications.
Errett Lobban Cord
Born 20 Jul 1894; died 1974.
Alberto Santos-Dumont
Born 20 Jul 1873; died 23 Jul 1932.
Alberto Santos-Dumont was a Brazilian aviation pioneer, deemed the Father of Aviation by his countrymen. At the age of 18, Santos-Dumont was sent by his father to
J. J. Sederholm
Born 20 Jul 1863; died 26 June 1934
Jakob Johannes Sederholm was a pioneering geologist who studied the Precambrian rocks of
Georg Elias Müller
Born 20 Jul 1850; died Dec 1934.
Georg Elias Nathanael Müller was a German psychologist whose research work encompassed four principal areas: psychophysical method, memory, thought psychology, and color perception theory. The psychophysics anticipated the color theory, which was founded on Hering. The memory work led into the thought psychology, which was founded on Herbart and Külpe. Whereas earlier in his career his published works lacked original data, he sharpened his approach and became known as the methodologist of psychological experimentation. The experiments carried out in his lab were the gold standard of experimental results. He was directed one of the major centres of psychological research at the
Julius Cohnheim
Born 20 July 1839; died 1884
Julius Friedrich Cohnheim was a pioneer of experimental pathology who helped determine the morbid changes that occur in animal tissue affected by inflammation, tuberculosis, and other disease states. He demonstrated that inflammation was an active dynamic process. He was the first to scientifically classify tumors the way we still do today (ex. carcinomas, fibroma, sarcoma). Cohnheim proposed the first great theory of cancer's origin, the theory of embryonal rests. He thought more germ cells are produced with a developing embryo than are needed to form any given part and that cancer's development involves this excess material.
Born 20 July 1836; died 22 Feb 1925.
English physician, the inventor of the short clinical thermometer. The need for suitable equipment to measure the progress of a fever by temperature at the bedside was solved in 1866 when Allbutt invented the conveniently portable six-inch clinical thermometer, able to take a temperature in five minutes. It replaced a foot-long model that required 20 minutes to determine a patient's temperature. His investigations also led to the improved treatment of arterial diseases when he proved than angina is caused by the narrowing of the coronary artery. Image: Allbutt, detail of a portrait by Sir William Orpen (EB) Sir William
Bowman
Born 20 Jul 1816; died 1892.
(1st Baronet) was an English surgeon and histologist who obtained a European reputation for medical research long before he was thirty years of age. He described (1842) the histologic structure of the nephron, the functional unit of the kidney, where the process of of urine takes place as a by-product of blood filtration that is carried on in the kidney. The "Bowman's capsule" of the kidney carries his name. The kidney contains millions of very tiny sacs called Bowman's capsules that filter blood to produce urine. He also made important discoveries concerning the structure and function of the eye and of striated muscle. He collaborated with Todd in writing The Physiological Anatomy.
Sir Richard Owen
Born 20 Jul 1804; died 18 Dec 1892.
English anatomist and paleontologist who is remembered for his contributions to the study of fossil animals and for his strong opposition to the views of Charles Darwin. He created the word "Dinosaur" meaning "terrible reptile" (1842). Owen synthesized French anatomical work, especially from Cuvier and Geoffroy, with German transcendental anatomy. He gave us many of the terms still used today in anatomy and evolutionary biology, including "homology". In 1856, he was appointed Superintendent of the
Shuttleworth
Born 20 Jul 1804
(1st Baronet, original surname Kay) was a physician, public-health reformer, and chief founder of the English system of publicly financed elementary education. A medical graduate of Edinburgh University, he was also a cholera doctor in Manchester, a pioneer social scientist and town planner, an assistant Poor Law commissioner, the manager of a large landed estate (Gawthorpe Hall), a would-be politician and a novelist. His surname, Kay, changed in 1842 upon marriage to Janet Shuttleworth. His turbulent political, personal and family life is fascinating in itself and, in addition, sheds light on many aspects of nineteenth century social history.
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