Notices by Project Gutenberg (gutenberg_org@mastodon.social)

"The moment of discovery" does not always exist: the scientist's work is too tenuous, too divided, for the certainty of success to crackle out suddenly in the midst of his laborious toil like a stroke of lightening, dazzling him by its fire.

Marie Curie was born #OTD in 1867.

#physics #WomenInSTEM

#OTD in 1930.

American novelist Sinclair Lewis is awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. He was the first writer from the United States to receive the award.

Sinclair Lewis Nobel Lecture:
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1930/lewis/lecture/

#books #literature #nobelprize

#OTD in 1793.

The French dramatist Olympe de Gouges is sentenced to death by a revolutionary tribunal. Both she and her prosecutors quote the manuscript of her unfinished play La France Sauvée in evidence.

Les droits de la femme at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/53595

#books #literature

@daniel @todwest Already fixed, thanks @pspssp for your proper suggestion!

#OTD in 1520.

The Strait of Magellan, the passage immediately south of mainland South America connecting the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans, is known by this name after the Portuguese sailor Fernão de Magalhães sailed through it in the XVI century.

#travel

Japanese artist and printmaker Hokusai was born #OTD in 1760.

He is best known for the woodblock print series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, which includes the iconic print The Great Wave off Kanagawa.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hokusai

#art #painting #woodblockprinting

#OTD in 1938.

Orson Welles broadcasts a radio adaptation of H. G. Wells's The War of the Worlds, causing a massive panic in some of the audience in the United States.

The War of the Worlds at PG:
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/36

#books #literature

Italian physicist and academic, first woman to have doctorate in science Laura Bassi was born #OTD in 1711. Bassi became the most important populariser of Newtonian mechanics in Italy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Bassi

#science #physics #WomenInSTEM

#OTD in 1675.

Leibniz makes the first use of the long s (∫) as a symbol of the integral in calculus. He adapted the integral symbol, ∫, from the letter ſ (long s), standing for summa (written as ſumma; Latin for "sum" or "total").

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/7168

#books #mathematics

The Last Love of Jonas Salk

The unusual union of a renowned artist and the discoverer of the Polio vaccine.

By Charlotte Decroes Jacobs via @NautilusMag

https://nautil.us/the-last-love-of-jonas-salk-236974/?utm_campaign=website&utm_medium=email&utm_source=nautilus-newsletter

#art #health #vaccine

"When you inoculate children with polio vaccine, you don’t sleep well for two or three months."

American virologist & medical researcher Jonas Salk was born #OTD in 1914. He developed the first safe & effective vaccine for poliomyelitis.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonas_Salk

#virology #health

Viruses Through the Looking-Glass

The electron microscope brought about a paradigm shift in virology in the middle of the twentieth century.

By: Danny Robb via @JSTOR_Daily

https://daily.jstor.org/viruses-through-the-looking-glass/

#science #microscope #viruses

Italian violinist and composer Niccolò Paganini was born #OTD in 1782.

He was the most celebrated violin virtuoso of his time, and left his mark as one of the pillars of modern violin technique.

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=Paganini&submit_search=Go%21

#art #music

#OTD in 1726.

The novel Gulliver's Travels written by Jonathan Swift satirising both human nature and the "travellers' tales" literary subgenre is published. Swift claimed that he wrote it "to vex the world rather than divert it".

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/17157

#books #literature

Lise Meitner died #OTD in 1968.

She is known for her part in the discovery of nuclear fission. Among physicists she had been known for many years as one of the early pioneers in the study of radioactivity. Einstein nicknamed her ‘the German Madame Curie’ despite being Austrian.

#physics #science

"Science makes people reach selflessly for truth and objectivity; it teaches people to accept reality, with wonder and admiration, not to mention the deep awe and joy that the natural order of things brings to the true scientist."
— Lise Meitner (7 November 1878 – 27 October 1968)

#WomenInSTEM

French pianist and composer Georges Bizet was born #OTD in 1838.

Best known for his operas in a career cut short by his early death, Carmen, become one of the most popular and frequently performed works in the entire opera repertoire.

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/31624

#art #music

American astronomer Henrietta Hill Swope was born #OTD in 1902.

Working with H. Shapley, she helped establish
the famous period-luminosity relation for Cepheid variable stars, thereby permitting determination of the Sun's position in our galaxy and of distances
to other galaxies. In 1962, using plates taken with the 200" Hale reflector by W. Baade, she determined the distance to the Andromeda galaxy to be 2.2 million light years.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henrietta_Hill_Swope

#astronomy

#OTD in 1892.

Ida B. Wells began publishing her research on lynching in the United States, for which she was posthumously awarded a Pulitzer Prize special citation, in 2020.

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14975

#books #literature

English biologist & botanical artist Marianne North was born #OTD in 1830.

She was notable for her plant & landscape paintings, her extensive foreign travels, her writings, her plant discoveries & the creation of her gallery at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew.
#biology #botanics #science_illustrators