A Brief History The 17th century French physicist and mathematician, Blaise Pascal, is known for many important contributions to both fields, which is particularly impressive considering the fact that he died at the really quite young age of 39. Among his proudest achievements were inventing the early mechanical calculator, creating the mathematical theory now known as Pascal’s triangle, and major studies and research into fluids, with one particularly important experiment into hydraulics remembered today as Pascal’s barrel. But there was one other exceptional contribution he made to society as a whole, and one that he bizarrely isn’t remembered nearly as much for.…
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A Brief History On October 27, 1553, a Spanish scientist versed in many disciplines, Michael Servetus, was burned at the stake for heresy. The first researcher to correctly identify pulmonary circulation as the aeration of the blood through the lungs, his mind was a valuable tool for the Renaissance world that was snuffed out because of religious bigotry, a problem history has seen again and again over the years. Does religion continue to suppress the advance of science? Are religion and science incompatible? Today, we look at some of the ways religion and science have crossed swords over the years,…
A Brief History On October 25, 1999, American golfing professional Payne Stewart was on a Learjet chartered to fly from Florida to Texas, when the jet apparently lost pressurization (air rapidly leaked out of the plane) causing all on board, including the pilots, to pass out. Or the jet failed to ever properly pressurize in the first place. The pilot-less jet continued on a 1500 mile flight with no one on board regaining consciousness. When the jet ran out of fuel over South Dakota, it fell uncontrolled out of the sky and crashed. All aboard the Learjet were dead, probably…
A Brief History On October 16, 1916, Margaret Sanger (nee Higgins), nurse, writer, and sexual educator opened the first family planning (birth control) clinic in the United States. While Sanger did not invent the idea of birth control or the methods, she was an activist for preventing unwanted pregnancy and was the first person to coin the phrase, “birth control.” Humans, unlike any other known animal, have been trying to prevent unwanted pregnancies for thousands of years and have tried a variety of methods. Digging Deeper Probably the most simple methods of birth control came after it was realized that…
A Brief History On October 1, 1946, Dr. Lancelot Ware and Roland Berrill established an organization in Caythorpe (Lincolnshire), England called Mensa International. Intended as a non-profit social club for people among the highest 2% intellect in the human population, the founders expected a sort of aristocratic gathering of intelligentsia and were somewhat disappointed to find members meeting the membership criteria were mostly from humble origins. Mensa International is the umbrella organization for national chapters found in 100 countries covering 51 national groups. With about 134,000 members world-wide, the United States has the most members at 57,000, nearly triple runner-up…