Scientists and their Contribution

Today is the birthday of John Atanasoff, who was born in 1903 in Hamilton, New York. Atanasoff was working on a PhD in theoretical physics at the University of Wisconsin when the tedium of performing calculations inspired him to invent the world's first electronic computing device. The Atanasoff–Berry Computer (named after himself and his graduate student, Clifford Berry) made its debut in 1937. Although it wasn't programmable, the ABC had many of the features of modern computers, such as binary logic, Boolean operation and capacitor-based RAM. Happy b'day John Atanasof!

P.s. his family was from Bulgaria.
 
urmiladuhan said:
Today is the birthday of John Atanasoff, who was born in 1903 in Hamilton, New York. Atanasoff was working on a PhD in theoretical physics at the University of Wisconsin when the tedium of performing calculations inspired him to invent the world's first electronic computing device. The Atanasoff–Berry Computer (named after himself and his graduate student, Clifford Berry) made its debut in 1937. Although it wasn't programmable, the ABC had many of the features of modern computers, such as binary logic, Boolean operation and capacitor-based RAM. Happy b'day John Atanasof!

P.s. his family was from Bulgaria.
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Nothing is as amazing as the improvements in computer technology. In our own lifetime the size of computer has reduced from the room size to palm size. My first encounter with a computer was in 1973 at Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad. It was a IBM 370. Those were the days of punch cards. We won't know the error in our program till next day. My next encounter with a computer was to that of a mini computer from DEC. Programming was interactive to good extent, however, speed was still a big problem. Disk storage capacity was only 16K. These were 8 byte machines. This was 1975 when Sinclair, a British company came out with modern day laptop size home computers, which became very popular among children. Miniaturization of computers started in a big way around 1980. Desktop computers started appearing in market. However, the availability was still very limited and only few labs could have these devices. To best of my knowledge UPTRON was the first in India to launch a mini computer around 1985-86. I happened to get ne of these early machines at AIIMS New Delhi. Then came the XTs and ATs from all sorts of companies. Then came the real explosion and it became almost impossible to keep track of developments. Today my laptop is many thousand times faster than the IBM 370. Imagination is the only limitation and not the power of computers.

RK^2
 
I sent my first e.mail in 1998 I believe and that was also when I probably used Internet for the first time! That was from a desk top. I am happily amazed at the convenience factor and ease of communication via fast Internet connections and iPads. I carry iPad in my purse when on the move. Wonder what convenience will come next :)



rkumar said:
Nothing is as amazing as the improvements in computer technology. In our own lifetime the size of computer has reduced from the room size to palm size. My first encounter with a computer was in 1973 at Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad. It was a IBM 370. Those were the days of punch cards. We won't know the error in our program till next day. My next encounter with a computer was to that of a mini computer from DEC. Programming was interactive to good extent, however, speed was still a big problem. Disk storage capacity was only 16K. These were 8 byte machines. This was 1975 when Sinclair, a British company came out with modern day laptop size home computers, which became very popular among children. Miniaturization of computers started in a big way around 1980. Desktop computers started appearing in market. However, the availability was still very limited and only few labs could have these devices. To best of my knowledge UPTRON was the first in India to launch a mini computer around 1985-86. I happened to get ne of these early machines at AIIMS New Delhi. Then came the XTs and ATs from all sorts of companies. Then came the real explosion and it became almost impossible to keep track of developments. Today my laptop is many thousand times faster than the IBM 370. Imagination is the only limitation and not the power of computers.

RK^2
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urmiladuhan said:
I sent my first e.mail in 1998 I believe and that was also when I probably used Internet for the first time! That was from a desk top. I am happily amazed at the convenience factor and ease of communication via fast Internet connections and iPads. I carry iPad in my purse when on the move. Wonder what convenience will come next :)
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agreed. We are now almost wired with our near and dear ones 24x7. Not only we can talk, we can see them live. One big causality of this communication has been letter writing. I remember when I was student in UK. Only mode of communication was a fortnightly letter. Same happened when I got married. My wife was doing her MD in Meerurt and I was in Delhi. Once again the only mode of communication was letter writing. There were no phones and life was really hard. Wish there were cell phones and internet in those days. Only consolation of those hard days is that I still have all the letters. Its so refreshing to read them once in while.

RK^2
 
Today is the birthday of Robert Goddard, who was born in 1882 in Worcester, Massachusetts. Goddard earned a PhD in physics from Clark University in 1911. Three years later, he filed his first patent for rocketry. On 17 March 1926, after a decade of R&D, Goddard conducted the world's first successful launch of a liquid-fueled rocket.

Happy B'Day Robert Goddard!
 
urmiladuhan said:
Today is the birthday of Robert Goddard, who was born in 1882 in Worcester, Massachusetts. Goddard earned a PhD in physics from Clark University in 1911. Three years later, he filed his first patent for rocketry. On 17 March 1926, after a decade of R&D, Goddard conducted the world's first successful launch of a liquid-fueled rocket.

Happy B'Day Robert Goddard!
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Rockets were already around for quite sometime. For the first time crude rockets were used by Tipu Sultan against British. Originals of those rockets are still available in British war museum.

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHnjq4-Ixck

These were solid fuel rockets without gyroscopic controls. Goddard is quite a later player in the field as far as concept is concerned. His major contribution is on aerodynamics and nozzle design etc which made rockets potent enough for space travel.

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blrockethistory1.htm

RK^2
 
Very interesting information. thanks for sharing :)
As the article also shows, science sometimes requires lot of patience. As per the report, Hans Wolter proposed in 1952 that neutrons can be effectively reflected and hence can be focussed into a beam, and from that point, it took these many years to finally get the idea into an application form of microscopes.
Wow! i learnt about the concept of shallow reflection through this paper even though we are taught in schools about mirage formation - but that is more as a rote learning.

rkumar said:
After Optical and electron microscopes comes the neutron microscope;

http://www.science20.com/news_articles/move_over_electrons_here_comes_neutron_microscope-121773

This development should open new vistas in science.

RK^2
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urmiladuhan said:
Very interesting information. thanks for sharing :)
As the article also shows, science sometimes requires lot of patience. As per the report, Hans Wolter proposed in 1952 that neutrons can be effectively reflected and hence can be focussed into a beam, and from that point, it took these many years to finally get the idea into an application form of microscopes.
Wow! i learnt about the concept of shallow reflection through this paper even though we are taught in schools about mirage formation - but that is more as a rote learning.
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large penetration depth of neutrons and modern image processing computer algorithms are going to produce never before seen images. We should know the real impact in next few years.

RK^2
 
Today is the b'day of Niels Bohr.

Happy 128th birthday to Niels Bohr!

Niels Bohr was a physicist from Denmark. He is most well known for the Bohr model, which theorized that electrons orbit an atom’s nucleus, similar to planets orbiting the sun. He also worked extensively in quantum mechanics.

He was awarded the 1922 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his services in the investigation of the structure of atoms and of the radiation emanating from them.”

He opened Institute for Theoretical Physics of the University of Copenhagen in 1921, which would later be renamed the Niels Bohr Institute in his honor.

Other tributes to Bohr include the naming of an asteroid, 3948 Bohr, and element 107, bohrium.

Bohr passed away in 1962, at the age of 77.

More info on the life of Niels Bohr: http://bit.ly/16tGPTE
 
Neil Bohr is the first Physicist whose name makes to the first page of nuclear physics books. First half of 20th century can be called golden age of physics. here is a rare picture of greatest of the great scientists;
 
Nobel Prize in Physics goes for God Particle (Higgs Boson) discovery;

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162...-god-particle-awarded-nobel-prize-in-physics/

Nice to see word Boson and God particle together. Elementary particles are called Boson after the name of great Indian Physicist SN Bose. India also made significant contributions towards cern hadron collider equipment which led to Higgs Boson discovery (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...el-prize-for-physics/articleshow/23738500.cms)

RK^2
 
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Today is the birthday of Karl Schwarzschild, who was born in 1873 in Frankfurt. After studying astronomy, mathematics and physics, Schwarzschild held various posts. He was the director of the Potsdam Astrophysical Observatory when World War I broke out in 1914. Despite being 40 years of age, he joined the German army. During his service on the Russian front, he worked out the first exact solution to Albert Einstein's field equations: for the case of a single, spherical, non-rotating mass
 
Thanks for the rare photo :).


rkumar said:
Neil Bohr is the first Physicist whose name makes to the first page of nuclear physics books. First half of 20th century can be called golden age of physics. here is a rare picture of greatest of the great scientists;
Click to expand...
 
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