FYI August 01, 2018

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On This Day

 
 
1774 – British scientist Joseph Priestley discovers oxygen gas, corroborating the prior discovery of this element by German-Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele.

Oxygen is a chemical element with symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group on the periodic table, a highly reactive nonmetal, and an oxidizing agent that readily forms oxides with most elements as well as with other compounds. By mass, oxygen is the third-most abundant element in the universe, after hydrogen and helium. At standard temperature and pressure, two atoms of the element bind to form dioxygen, a colorless and odorless diatomic gas with the formula O
2. Diatomic oxygen gas constitutes 20.8% of the Earth’s atmosphere. As compounds including oxides, the element makes up almost half of the Earth’s crust.

Dioxygen is used in cellular respiration and many major classes of organic molecules in living organisms contain oxygen, such as proteins, nucleic acids, carbohydrates, and fats, as do the major constituent inorganic compounds of animal shells, teeth, and bone. Most of the mass of living organisms is oxygen as a component of water, the major constituent of lifeforms. Oxygen is continuously replenished in Earth’s atmosphere by photosynthesis, which uses the energy of sunlight to produce oxygen from water and carbon dioxide. Oxygen is too chemically reactive to remain a free element in air without being continuously replenished by the photosynthetic action of living organisms. Another form (allotrope) of oxygen, ozone (O
3), strongly absorbs ultraviolet UVB radiation and the high-altitude ozone layer helps protect the biosphere from ultraviolet radiation. However, ozone present at the surface is a byproduct of smog and thus a pollutant.

Oxygen was isolated by Michael Sendivogius before 1604, but it is commonly believed that the element was discovered independently by Carl Wilhelm Scheele, in Uppsala, in 1773 or earlier, and Joseph Priestley in Wiltshire, in 1774. Priority is often given for Priestley because his work was published first. Priestley, however, called oxygen “dephlogisticated air”, and did not recognize it as a chemical element. The name oxygen was coined in 1777 by Antoine Lavoisier, who first recognized oxygen as a chemical element and correctly characterized the role it plays in combustion.

Common uses of oxygen include production of steel, plastics and textiles, brazing, welding and cutting of steels and other metals, rocket propellant, oxygen therapy, and life support systems in aircraft, submarines, spaceflight and diving.

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Born On This Day

 
 
1744 – Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, French soldier, biologist, and academic (d. 1829)
Jean-Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet, Chevalier de Lamarck (1 August 1744 – 18 December 1829), often known simply as Lamarck (/ləˈmɑːrk/;[1] French: [lamaʁk]), was a French naturalist. He was a soldier, biologist, academic, and an early proponent of the idea that biological evolution occurred and proceeded in accordance with natural laws.

Lamarck fought in the Pomeranian War (1757–62) against Prussia, and was awarded a commission for bravery on the battlefield.[2] Posted to Monaco, Lamarck became interested in natural history and resolved to study medicine.[3] He retired from the army after being injured in 1766, and returned to his medical studies.[3] Lamarck developed a particular interest in botany, and later, after he published the three-volume work Flore françoise (1778), he gained membership of the French Academy of Sciences in 1779. Lamarck became involved in the Jardin des Plantes and was appointed to the Chair of Botany in 1788. When the French National Assembly founded the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle in 1793, Lamarck became a professor of zoology.

In 1801, he published Système des animaux sans vertèbres, a major work on the classification of invertebrates, a term he coined. In an 1802 publication he became one of the first to use the term biology in its modern sense.[4][Note 1] Lamarck continued his work as a premier authority on invertebrate zoology. He is remembered, at least in malacology, as a taxonomist of considerable stature.

The modern era generally remembers Lamarck for a theory of inheritance of acquired characteristics, called soft inheritance, Lamarckism or use/disuse theory,[5] which he described in his 1809 Philosophie Zoologique. However, his idea of soft inheritance was, perhaps, a reflection of the wisdom of the time accepted by many natural historians. Lamarck’s contribution to evolutionary theory consisted of the first truly cohesive theory of biological evolution,[6] in which an alchemical complexifying force drove organisms up a ladder of complexity, and a second environmental force adapted them to local environments through use and disuse of characteristics, differentiating them from other organisms.[7] Scientists have debated whether advances in the field of transgenerational epigenetics mean that Lamarck was to an extent correct, or not.[8]

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FYI

 
 

By Clayton Purdum: Nico, 1988 unflinchingly portrays the death of an icon

Christa Päffgen (16 October 1938 – 18 July 1988),[1][2] known by her stage name Nico, was a German singer, songwriter, musician, model, and actress. She came to prominence in the 1960s as a Warhol superstar.

She recorded vocals for the Velvet Underground’s debut album, The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967), followed by several solo records. She also had roles in several films, including Federico Fellini’s La Dolce Vita (1960) and Andy Warhol’s Chelsea Girls (1966).

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By Alanis King: The 2019 Mazda Miata Only Costs $16 More per Horsepower
 
 
 
 
By Gary Price: New Online: Public Gets Digital Access to Little Bighorn Battlefield Collections
 
 
 
 
By Nick Dall: The Scotsman Who Imported ‘Imperial Trout’ to Kashmir
 
 
 
 
By Josh Jones: How Marcel Marceau Used His Mime Skills to Save Children’s Lives During the Holocaust
 

 
 
By DC: The Believer Magazine Has Put Its Entire Archive Online for Free
 
 
 
 

By Alex Pasternack: Cop cameras can track you in real-time and there’s no stopping them At the body camera and stun-gun giant Axon, a face off is brewing over the ethics–and potentially fatal errors–of automated face recognition.
 
 
 
 
By Daniel Terdiman: A wiser Monica Seles tells her younger self to chill–It’s just tennis, not life Once the best player in the world, Seles looks back at what she calls a “one-dimensional” life on the pro tennis tour and what she learned in the years since retirement.
 
 
 
 
And when your electronic devices crash???
By Vivian Giang: Kim Kardashian’s personal organizer on cleaning up your digital clutter
 
 
 
 


By Lee Aaron: Hearse/Pickup: 1987 Chevrolet Caprice
 
 
 
 

Ideas

 
 
The Interior Frugalista: Talk Of The Town Party 134

 
 
 
 

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