Newton's Laws of Motion

Brief insight of Newton's laws of motion.

Any science student or follower of Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727) would know that his 3 laws of motion were framework for the mechanics of science. Newton calculated that the force of the attraction (gravity) between 2 objects is equal to the mass of each object multiplied by a gravitational constant and divided by the square of the distance between the objects.

What it means is that larger masses exert the stronger attraction, a reason why apples fall toward the Earth's gravitational centre. But, the force of gravity is reduced by distance - a reason why the Moon doesn't rush toward Earth or other larger celestial body. However, the earth's mass is much greater than that of the objects upon it that the force of attraction is large.

David E. Hughes and Carbon Microphone

Inventor of Carbon Microphone

English-born American David Edward Hughes is widely agreed as the inventor of the carbon microphone, a device important in the development of telephony. He also invented the induction balance for metal detectors and the printing telegraph system.

David Hughes was born in London, England on May 16, 1831. At the age of seven, he moved to the United States with his Welsh parents. In 1850, he became a music professor in Kentucky at the college of Bardstown. He later became a natural philosophy professor in the same school. Hughes only spent four years in the academic field, from where he began working on various devices, such as the type-printing telegraph and carbon microphone.

History of Films and Cinemas

Pre-Eastman Pioneers and Innovators

A nutshell history of films and cameras, including the early movie innovators and pioneers before Eastman are highlighted. When the celluloid film rolls were produced by American George Eastman of Kodak Company the motion picture became possible.

When the celluloid film rolls were produced by American George Eastman of Kodak Company the motion picture became possible. Earlier film innovators and pioneers before Eastman are also highlighted.

Hubble Space Telescope

Speaking of the birth of time, the Big Bang theory states that all matter and energy were once contained in compressed matter. It's really unimaginable.

We don't know whatever happened between the Big Bang and the tiny time afterward known as the "Planck Time" - named after the physicist Max Planck. The first evidence to support the theory of the expanding world was found by American astronomer Edwin Hubble in 1929.

Amalie Dietrich: 19th Century Natural Sciences Pioneer

Science/Scientists Datebook: 6 May

 

A brief profile of Amalie Dietrich   

 

 

Amalie Dietrich

 

 

Amalie Dietrich was a German botanist and naturalist best known for her pioneering work in introducing Australia’s natural wonders to Europe. Natural science students will recognize her name perpetuated in variety of botanical and entomological species – Acacia Dietrichiana, Bonamia Dietrichiana, Nortonia Amaliae Odynerus Dietrichianous, among others.  Dietrich spent 10 years in the wilds of northern Queensland, collecting specimens for the Museum Godeffroy in Hamburg, Germany.

Koncordie Amalie Dietrich (nee Nelle) was born on 6th May 1821, in Siebenlehn, Saxony, German Confederation. A daughter of a pursemaker, she came from a completely unscientific background, a working-class family at a time when scientists were considered upper-class, well-educated and male. She lived the life of a humble peasant until her late 20s. Her idea of fun was pottering around in the fields of her upbringing.  

 

In 1846, she was married to Wilhelm Dietrich, learning natural history and specimen gathering him. They separated in 1861 and she became an independent single mother, collecting specimens across Europe.  

 

Work in Australia

 

She arrived in Queensland, Australia in August 1863 on contract with Museum Godeffroy. She explored remote and newly settled regions largely on her own, enduring harsh wilderness conditions. She collected massive quantities of flora and fauna, including insects, snakes, and plants. Several Australian plant and animal species, such as the wattle Acacia dietrichiana, are named in her honour. 

 

Amalie Dietrich Legacy 

 

Amalie Dietrich is celebrated as a pioneering female scientist who succeeded in a male-dominated field in her day. In modern times, she has been re-evaluated regarding her collection of indigenous human remains and ethnographic materials.   

 

(Apology: In moving this piece from another website, my full article article had been immensely cropped.) 

Image Credit:

Amalie Dietrich.  Wikipedia Commons / Public Domain  

Resources: 

Amalie Dietrich. En.Wikipedia.org. Accessed May 6, 2016.

Amalie Dietrich (1821-1891). Australian Dictionary of Biography. Accessed May 6, 2026.

Note:  Originally written for Suite101, May 6, 2011.   


(c)  May 2016. Updated May 5, 2026. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.

Samuel Morse and His Code

This inventor gave us the famous Morse Code

American inventor Samuel (Finley Breese) Morse was born on April 27, 1791, in Charlestown, Massachusetts. Aside from being an inventor, he was also an artist. From 1832, Morse experimented on a practical system of using electricity to send messages by telegraphy.  He developed the Morse Code to simplify the system. In 1844, Morse sent the message "What God hath wrought?" from Washington to Baltimore. He collaborated with Cyrus Field in laying the first transatlantic cable.

Friedrich Bergius: The Bergius Process

Friedrich Bergius, German chemist known for Bergius Process

Friedrich Karl Rudolf Bergius (Oct 11, 1884 – March 30, 1949), was born in Goldschmieden near Breslau (Wroclaw), within the German Empire's Prussian Province of Silesia. He was a German chemist known for the Bergius process that produces synthetic fuel from coal. His discovery converted wood into sugar, and coal into petrol products.

He was educated at the universities of Breslau, Berlin and Leipzig.  His book which was published in 1913, The Use of High Pressure in Chemical Actions, explains his work.

Theobald Böhm (Boehm): Flute Inventor

Theobald Böhm or Boehm (April 9, 1794 – November 27, 1881) was a German inventor and Bavarian court musician. He is credited for inventing the Western concert flute and its improved fingering system known as the "Boehm System."

Boehm was a virtuoso flautist and composer for the flute. He was born in Munich, Bavaria. He learned goldsmithing through his father's trade. He made his own flute and played in an orchestra at the aged of 18. At 21, he became the first flautist in the Royal Bavarian Orchestra.

Melvin Calvin: Calvin Cycle and Photosynthesis

American chemist famous for Calvin Cycle discovery and photosynthesis

Melvin Ellis Calvin (April 8, 1911 – January 8, 1997), was an American chemist famous for his work on photosynthesis and discovering the Calvin cycle along with Andrew Benson and James Bassham. He contributed in all areas of Chemistry and  spent most of his career at the University of California, Berkeley. He was awarded the 1961 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

M. Calvin Brief Profile

The son of Russian and Lithuanian immigrants to the U.S., Melvin Calvin was born in St. Paul, Minnesota. The family settled in Detroit, Michigan, where he attended the Michigan College of Mining and Technology, becoming the school's first chemistry major. He completed his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Minnesota.  He also studied at the University of Manchester and University of California, Berkeley.

It was in the early 1940s when Calvin began to focus his work on photosynthesis by using radioactive tracers in chemical reactions. During this period in his researches and experiments, his now known Calvin Cycle of plant photosynthesis took fruition.

The Calvin Cycle and Photosynthesis

The Calvin Cycle or the Calvin-Benson-Bassham Cycle - is a system that describes the series of biochemical reactions taking place in the chloroplasts of photosynthetic organisms.  Further, the cycle describes a light independent reaction (that is, without any need for visible or ultraviolet light), where stored energy is used to convert carbon dioxide and water into organic compounds.  In each stage of the process of  "carbon fixation," carbon dioxide is added with a carbon-14 tracer to explain the chemical pathway.



Resource:

"Melvin Calvin - Biography". Nobelprize.org. 9 Apr 2012.

Image Source:

Melvin Calvin, Nobelprize.org.

The Doppler Effect

It is extremely noticeable when police sirens or ambulance emergency vans rise in pitch as they approach us, and then eventually the pitch lowers down when they go off away from us into the distance.  This is referred to as Doppler effect.  More recently, the Doppler effect took centre-stage as investigators used it to trace the Malaysian aircraft Flight 370's disappearance.

The purpose of this post is to introduce in simple terms the concept of Doppler effect, what it is about and it's effect, and not to quantify intricate scientific formulations of frequency and the relationship of source and observer velocities.

Bunsen-Kirchhoff and Spectroscopy Theory

Science / Discoveries & Inventions

 

When a chemical element is heated to incandescence, it produces its own characteristic lines in the spectrum of light.

As a chemistry student moons ago, I'll never forget the Bunsen burner as a constant laboratory companion in my numerous "flame test" experiments. Bunsen developed the burner in 1855. The test is used to identify the presence of a particular metal by the colour of the flames produced. The burner's non-luminous flame is basically used as it does not interfere with the coloured flame given off by the sample metal being tested.

Bunsen-Kirchhoff Spectroscopy theory and other Discoveries

Together, Bunsen and Kirchhoff developed the first spectroscope, a device used to produce and observe a spectrum. Using their spectroscope, in 1860, they went on to discover two elements: caesium and rubidium. These discoveries ushered a new era in ways used to find new chemical elements.


The first 50 elements discovered (beyond those known since ancient times) were either the products of chemical reactions or were released by electrolysis. From 1860, however, thanks to Burner and Kirchhoff, the search was on for trace elements detectable only with the help of specialized instruments like the spectroscope. The Bunsen–Kirchhoff Award for spectroscopy is named after Bunsen and Kirchhoff.

Kirchhoff also discovered that when heated to incandescence, each chemical element produced its own characteristic lines in the spectrum. For instance, sodium (Na) has a spectrum with two yellow lines, wavelengths about 588 and 589 nanometres.  Extending experiments beyond Bunsen and Kirchhoff, later scientists were able to determine the presence of elements, for example, in the sun or stars once similar wavelengths were identified in their spectra. 

Matchbox Cars

A die cast toy that puts on happy smiles in children's faces.

Did you know that some toys were originally modeled in size and style to boxes of matches?  Leslie Smith and Rodney Smith (not related) were friends during their school days in Middlesex, England. After graduation, they went their separate ways. They found themselves together again in the navy during World War II. After the war, they decided to start their own company.

Lesney Products Launch

In 1947, the two launched Lesney Products, a die-casting business, in an abandoned pub called the Rifleman in East London. It was Rodney who had previous experience in die-casting, the process by which metal or plastic is poured into a mould. 

Georg Ohm

German physicist who formulated Ohm's Law.

He worked on electric currents and acoustics. The unit of electrical resistance (Ohm) was named after him.
 
Georg Simon Ohm (16 March 1787 (89?) – 6 July 1854) was a German physicist born in Erlangen, Brandenburg-Bayreuth. He began his research as a high school teacher, used an electrochemical cell invented by Italian Count Alessandro Volta that time. Ohm taught in Cologne, Nuremberg, and finally in Munich.

A highly methodical experimenter, Ohm also availed his own created equipment to determine that there is a direct proportion between the potential difference (voltage) applied across a conductor and the resultant electric current.  This relationship is known as Ohm's law, an empirical law (found by experiment), which he formulated in 1827.

Radio Waves and the Pioneers

Science / Radio Waves Milestone

What are Radio Waves?

Radio waves are electromagnetic waves that transmit sound and pictures through the air.   Scottish scientist James Maxwell (1831-1879), known for his development of the single force field, electromagnetism, predicted that radio waves existed. German scientist and professor Heinrich Hertz (1857-1894), wanted to find out more and experimented using circuits and electric currents. In 1886, Hertz created and measured radio waves for the first time. This phenomenon of electromagnetic waves that he demonstrated is referred to as "Hertzian waves" coined after his name. He further showed that their velocity and length could be measured, and that heat and light are electromagnetic waves.

Watson, Crick and Wilkins: DNA and Genetics

Something about the DNA Structure and GENETICS

The structure of the DNA is considered one of the most profound discovery of the 20th century. DNA is the material that stores genetic information in chromosomes. By the time  Watson and Crick showed it was a "double helix," geneticists knew that it stored all the information needed for an organism to build and operate. 

DNA is short for deoxyribonucleic acid, a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of living organisms.  The primary role of DNA molecules is the long-term storage of information.

Joseph Priestley and Oxygen

British chemist and clergyman, chemistry of gases pioneer

Joseph Priestley (1733-1804), English clergyman and chemist, one of the discoverers of oxygen, was born on March 13, 1733, in Fieldhead, Leeds. He spent four years at a dissenting academy in Daventry and later became a minister at Needham Market.

Priestley wrote The Scripture Doctrine of Remission, Letters to a Philosophical Unbeliever, and his controversial History of Early Opinions Concerning Jesus Christ (1786.) In 1761, he became a teacher at Warrington Academy. It was during his visits to London that he met Benjamin Franklin who supplied him with books for his History of Electricity published in 1767.

Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier

Science/Astronomy Datebook:  March 11

French astronomer and mathematician Urbain J.J. Le Verrier co-discovered planet Neptune

Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier (1811-1877), was a French astronomer who co-discovered planet Neptune (with John Couch Adams), was born on March 11, 1811, in St. Lo, Normandy.  He became a teacher of astronomy at the Polytechnique.

Ernest Rutherford: Nuclear Physics Pioneer

Science Datebook: March 11

Baron Ernest Rutherford, Father of Nuclear Physics

Baron Ernest Rutherford (b. August 30, 1871-d. October 19, 1937), was a New-Zealand born British physicist. 

This day on March 11, 1911, Ernest Rutherford is considered the father of nuclear physics, as he published his atomic theory describing the structure of the atom for the first time at the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society.

He described the atom as having a central positive nucleus surrounded by negative orbiting electrons. His model suggested that most of the mass of the atom was contained in the small nucleus, with the rest of the atom mostly empty space. His conclusion followed what we now know as Rutherford's "gold foil experiment" especially amongst science students and other advocates.

Otto Hahn: Nuclear Fission

Science Datebook: March 8

Otto Hahn discovered nuclear fission

Otto Hahn (1879-1968), German radio chemist and Nobel Prize winner, is born on March 8, 1879, in Frankfurt, Germany, and died July 28, 1968, in Gottingen, Germany. He discovered nuclear fission, in particular, the split of uranium atom into barium and krypton.

Hahn was awarded the 1944 Nobel Prize in chemistry, and shared the 1966 Enrico Fermi Award. He was involved in the discovery of several new radio elements, among them radiothorium, radioactinium and mesothorioum.

John Philip Holland

 Irish engineer, father of modern submarine who designed and developed the submarine, the first underwater vessel

John Philip Holland (29 February 1840 – 12 August 1914), was an Irish engineer who designed and built the first submarine formally commissioned by the U.S. Navy, and the first Royal Navy submarine, the Holland 1.

He was a school teacher in Ireland, his country of birth but in 1873, emigrated in New Jersey, USA. In 1875, he offered a submarine design to the US navy but it was rejected as not practicable. Despite this rejection, he continued his experiments.