Every month, Pacific Science Center publishes a Calendar of Science, a compendium of science facts to add a little knowledge to your daily routine. So, read on and discover a few things you may not have known. If you would like to receive a daily dose of science, subscribe to →Calendar of Science on Twitter. We've also set up a →Google Calendar to which you may subscribe. Have a comment or question? Please →drop us a line. Remember, life's boring without discovery!
Jan. 1, 1801- The Italian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi discovered the first asteroid, which he named Ceres after the Roman goddess of agriculture.
Jan. 2, 1822- Birthday of the German physicist Rudolf Clausius, who discovered the first and second laws of thermodynamics.
Jan. 4, 1809- Birthday of the French teacher Louis Braille, who invented a reading system for the blind.
Jan. 5, 2005- A team led by the American astronomer Mike Brown discovered Eris, which used to be considered the tenth planet.
Jan. 6, 1822- Birthday of the German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann, who discovered and excavated the site of ancient Troy.
Jan. 7, 1610- The Italian astronomer Galileo discovered Io, Callisto, and Europa, three of the moons of Jupiter. Four days later he discovered a fourth moon, Ganymede. They are now called the Galilean moons.
Jan. 8, 1823- Birthday of the English biologist Alfred Russel Wallace, who along with Charles Darwin formulated the theory of evolution by natural selection.
Jan. 9, 1793 - Jean-Pierre Blanchard becomes the first to fly in a balloon in the United States.
Jan. 10, 1638- Birthday of the Danish geologist Nicolaus Steno, who discovered the law of superposition, that in a series of undisturbed sedimentary rocks the upper layers are younger and the lower layers are older.
Jan. 11, 1787- The English astronomer William Herschel discovered Uranus's moons Titania and Oberon.
Jan. 12, 1907- Birthday of the Russian engineer Sergei Korolev, who led the team which launched Sputnik, the first artificial earth satellite.
Jan. 13, 1864- Birthday of the German physicist Wilhelm Wien, who discovered how to measure the surface temperature of stars by observing their spectra. This law of blackbody radiation is now called Wien's Law.
Jan. 14, 2005- The European Space Agency's Huygens probe landed on Saturn's moon Titan and sent back many photographs of its surface.
Jan. 15, 1907- The American inventor Lee de Forest patented the Audion vacuum tube, which made live radio broadcasting possible.
Jan. 16, 1932- Birthday of the American zoologist Dian Fossey, who studied the mountain gorillas of central Africa and wrote Gorillas in the Mist.
Jan. 17, 1560- Birthday of the Swiss botanist Gaspard Bauhin, who introduced the practice of using binomial names, one for the genus and one for the species.
Jan. 18, 1825- Birthday of the English chemist Edward Frankland, who discovered the principle of valency, that each type of atom has a fixed capacity for combination with other atoms.
Jan. 19, 2006- NASA launched the New Horizons spacecraft, which is expected to reach Pluto in July, 2015.
Jan. 20, 1910- Birthday of the Austrian biologist Joy Adamson, who wrote the book Born Free and advocated better protection of wild animals.
Jan. 21, 1912- Birthday of the American biochemist Konrad Bloch, who discovered how the human body produces cholesterol.
Jan. 22, 1561- Birthday of the English philosopher Francis Bacon, who formulated the principles of the scientific method.
Jan. 23, 1857- Birthday of the Croatian geologist Andrija Mohorovicic, who discovered the boundary between the Earth's crust and mantle (now called the Mohorovicic or Moho discontinuity).
Jan. 24, 1986- The Voyager 2 spacecraft made its closest approach to Uranus, taking dozens of photographs and finding ten new moons.
Jan. 25, 1627- Birthday of the Irish chemist Robert Boyle, who invented the litmus test for acids and bases.
Jan. 26, 1884- Birthday of the American explorer Roy Chapman Andrews, who discovered many important fossils including Velociraptor and the first dinosaur eggs (of Oviraptor).
Jan. 27, 1888- The National Geographic Society was founded. Its magazine National Geographic began publication in October of the same year.
Jan. 28, 1858- Birthday of the Dutch geologist Eugene Dubois, who discovered the remains of Java man, the first known fossil of Homo erectus.
Jan. 29, 1901- Birthday of the American engineer Allen DuMont, who invented the first cathode ray tube which would not burn out after about 24 hours. This made it possible to build the first commercially viable television set.
Jan. 30, 1925- Birthday of the American electrical engineer Doug Engelbart, who invented the computer mouse.
Jan. 31, 1862- The American astronomer Alvan Clark discovered Sirius B, the white dwarf companion of Sirius. It was the first white dwarf star to be discovered.