BeGreatest

Nelson Mandela

2012-09-16T19:41:00.000-07:00

It's fact
Mandela was married three times and his third wife Grace Machel became the only woman in history to hold the title of First Lady of two independent nations. She was married to the President of Mozambique, Sarnora Machel. Later in 1998 she married Nelson Mandela and became the First Lady of South Africa as well from 1998-1999.

Nelson Mandela
````````South Africa's Answer to Martin Luther King jr.
~~~~~~~~~~(1918 - )

Born: 18th July, 1918 Mvezo, Eastern Cape, Union of South Africa
Political party: African National Congress
President of South Africa: In office 27th April, 1994— 14th June, 1999
Vice President: Frederik Willem de Klerk Thabo Mbeki
Preceded by: Frederik Willem de Klerk (State President of South Africa)
Succeeded by: Thabo Mbeki

The word "apartheid" meaning segregation in Afrikann language was intimately associated with South Africa. The white people and black people were segregated and this was a part of the law in South Africa from 1948.

During this time a black lawyer Nelson Mandela who was in prison worked tirelessly against apartheid. He was sent to jail in 1961 and was charged with treason and was incarcerated in Robben Island from 1961-1990. He was later released from jail and in 1994 became the first black leader of South Africa.

Nelson Mandela was the most famous political prisoner of the last century. Mandela was in prison because he was the leader of the ANC(African National Congress) which was outlawed in South Africa at that time. He joined the ANC in 1944 as he was one of the founding members of its youth league. In 1960 the South African government outlawed the ANC and Mandela was sent to 5 years to jail together with Walter Sisulu.

Mandela's imprisonment became an international affair as many politicians worked for his release. In 1988 a concert attended by nearly 70,000 people, to celebrate his 70th birthday was heald at Wembley Stadium in London.

Mandela was released from Jail in 1990 and worked with then South African President F.W. de Clerk. In 1993 they were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace for bringing peace and reconciliation to South Africa. Next year the first nonracial multiparty election was held in that country where the ANC won convincingly. Mandela then became the President of South Africa and held this post from 1994-1999.

Mandela's political philosophy was built with the pillars of peace as he believed that his country should first heal the wounds of apartheid. He was successful in advancing this, making him another peacemaker in history.

It should be noted that Mandela was given the name Nelson on his first day in primary school, where his original name was Rolihalahla meaning "tree shaker". Mandela Later studied law and started South Africa's all black law firm with Oliver Tambo. At present Mandela is the elder statesman of South Africa and lives in semi-retirement.

Vladimir Lenin

2012-09-11T10:18:00.000-07:00

It's a Fact
Leon Trotsky, another giant in the Russian revolution arrived in London in1902 having escaped from exile in Siberia. The first meeting of Lenin and Trotsky who were to figure so prominently in momentous happenings which were to take place in Russia in 1917,took place at an early hour in the morning in Lenin's London home. Trotsky in his book, Lenin, describes the event: '1 arrived in London in the autumn of 1902. It must have been in October, and early in the morning. A cab that I engaged because I saw others doing so took me to an address jotted down on a scrap of paper my destination. This was Vladimir Ilyich's home. Before this (it must have been in Zurich ) I had been taught to knock at a door in a certain definite way. As far as I remember, Nadezhda Konstantinova (Madame Lenin) opened the door for me; I had fetched her out of bed with my knocking, as one can imagine. It was early in the morning, and any sensible man more familiar with the ordinary conventions of life, would have waited an hour or two at the station, instead of knocking at strange doors at dawn. But I was still completely under the influence of my flight from Verchotensk".

Vladimir Lenin
``````````(1870 - 1924)
~~~~~~~~~The Man Who Created Communist Russia

Born: April 22, 1870 Simbirsk, Russian Empire
Died: January 21, 1924 (aged 53) Gorki, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Nationality: Russian
Political party: Bolshevik Party
Spouse: Nadezhda Krupskaya
Profession: Politician, revolutionary, writer
Religion: Atheism

Karl Marx wrote "The Communist Manifesto" and "Das Kapital" in thel9th century and influenced communists the world over. According to Marx's view of history, the final stage of capitalism is imperialism.

Vladimir Lenin was a radical thinker in Russia in the 20th century who believed that Marx's philosophy could be of practical use in his country, "leap forging" some stages in Marx's view of history. In 1917 he revolutionized politics by establishing the first communist state in Russia.

Lenin was born Vladimir Ulayanov at Simbirsk in Russia, which was later renamed Lenin. His father was a school teacher. Revolution was in Lenin's blood of as his elder brother was executed for alledgly participating in an attempt to assassinate the Russian Tsar Alexander III in1887. Lenin later studied law at the University of Kazan and was banished for engaging in revolutionary activities. He later finished his studies independently and briefly worked as a lawyer. Later he gave up his practice, and went fulltime spreading his message of revolution among workers. He was later exiled to Siberia in 1895.

In his pamphlet, "What is to be done"(1902) Lenin wrote that only a very disciplined party of professional revolutionaries could bring about socialist changes in to Russia. In 1905 revolution broke out Russia, but failed to create a socialist state.

During World War I Lenin was in Switzerland and was helped by the Germans to get to Russia. By doing so the Germans hoped it could disrupt the Russian war effort. In 1917 the political upheavals in Russia , Lenin captured power and established the first Soviet government according to communist principles. It is notable that by this time Tsar Nicholas II had abdicated. In the power vacuum that was created, Lenin's supporters spread the simple message "Peace, Bread, Land". After assuming power in Russia, Lenin signed a armistice with Germany, as the Germans wanted.

Lenin later became Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars and virtual dictator, where Trotsky, Stalin and Rykov were the other important members. Bolsheviks(the majority), disagreed about the intentions of the revolution with Mensheviks(the minority) and had their ideological differences. Bolsheviks were spearheaded by Lenin.

After assuming power Lenin abolished private ownership of land and also nationalized banks. Lenin at this time was a ruthless leader who refused to compromise with his colleagues. He also established Cheka or secret police that suppressed all forms of opposed to Lenin. By 1922, Lenin had eliminated all opposition to him and silenced all his enemies within the communist party. He also retained the post of Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars and was a member of the ruling politburo of the Communist Party until his death. After suffering a stroke in 1922, Lenin left politics. One of the last letters he wrote was a letter condemning Stalin wanting Stalin's removal from the post of General Secretary of the Communist Party. It is claimed by some historians that Stalin did not allow Lenin proper medical care, in order to hasten Lenin's death.

Margaret Thatcher

2012-09-05T11:18:00.000-07:00

It's a fact
Margaret Thatcher graduated with a chemistry degree from University of Oxford in 1947.She later joined a research team that developed the first soft frozen ice cream.

Margaret Thatcher
``````(1925 -
~~~The iron Lady of British Politics

Born: 13 October 1925 Grantham, Lincotnshire, England
Nationality: British
Political party: Conservative
Spouse: Sir Denis Thatcher, Bt. (1951-2003)
Children: The Hon. Carol Thatcher, Sir Mark Thatcher, 2nd Bt.

A politician in 1975 said at a political conference that it would be years and years before , when a woman would become the leader of the conservative party in Britain. This remark was said by a politician, who in 1975 proved this wrong by becoming the leader of her party and four years later became the first woman prime minister in Britain as well as Europe. She is Margaret Thatcher.

Thatcher was the Prime Minister of Britain consecutively for 11 years-longer than anyone in 20th century. She won 3 successive elections in 1979, 1983, and 1987. She was nicknamed "Iron lady" by the Soviet media, because of her opposition to communism.

Thatcher was the Education Secretary under Edward Heath's government from 1970-1974 and later challenged him for the party leadership. She became the prime minister when she won the 1979 general election. During her time as prime minister, Thatcher formed a close alliance with then US president Ronald Reagan.

One of Thatcher's biggest achievements was the defeat of Argentina in the Falklands War in 1982. These islands named Las Malvinas by Argentina were also claimed by both Britain and Argentina. Thatcher dispatched the Royal Navy task force to retake the islands from Argentinian control.

Despite her great achievements, Thatcher's economic policies resulted in large scale unemployment in some parts of Britain. But after mid 80's the British economy grew and one of the reasons was the policies of Thatcher-Thatcherism. This involved reduced public spending, lower direct taxation, deregulation and an ambitious program of privatization of the government owned industries, which she thought made a more entrepreneurial culture in UK. Even before her election as the PM, she was sure about what to do in order to make the British economy prosperous. In 1975, she said, "Let me give you my vision, a man's right to work as he will, to spend what he earns, to own property, to have the state as servant and not as master these are the British inheritances. They are the essence of a free country": By carrying out such policies, she made the British working class into "inspirational voters". Thatcher's economic policies closely resembled that of Reagan's economic policies as well.

After the Falklands War, Thatcher's popularity soared and she used her fame to reform the trade unions in UK.

Margaret Thatcher's maiden name was Roberts. In 1951 she married Denis Thatcher. Their two children were Carol and Mark. In 2004, Mark Thatcher was arrested at his home in South Africa on a charge of financing an attempted coup in Equitorial Guinea. He later pleaded guilty to a charge of negligence, saying that he thought the money he financed was used to start an air ambulance service in that country.

Thatcher's popularity finally started to fall when she replaced the local government rates with the even less popular community charge, more commonly known as Poll Tax. She was later forced to resign because of various problems in the Tory Party as well as her divisive approach to Britain's role in Europe.

Thatcher later entered the House of Lords in 1992 as Baroness Thatcher of Kestevan and is the elder stateswoman of the Conservative(Tory) Party.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

2012-09-03T06:29:00.000-07:00

It's a Fact
Martin luther king was chosen as Time magazines Man Of The Year in 1964 and received the Nobel Prize for Peace in the same year as well. He is the youngest man to get the Nobel Peace Prize as of 2009.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
```````(1929-1968)
~~~~~~Afro-American Peace Maker

Born: January 15, 1929 Atlanta, Georgia, United States
Died: April 4, 1968 (aged 39) Memphis, Tennessee, United States
Movement: African-American Civil Rights Movement and Peace movement
Major organizations: Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
Notable prizes: Nobel Peace Prize (1964) Residential Medal of Freedom (1977, Posthu Mous) Congressional Gold Medal (2004, Posthumous)
Major Monuments: Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial (planned)
Alma mater: Morehouse College Crozer Theological Seminary Boston University
Religion: Baptist

One of the greatest pacifists of 20th century was Mahatma Ghandi who was assassinated by a Hindu fanatic in 1948. After this an Afro-American preacher Martin Luther King Jr who was inspired by Ghandi, spearheaded a pacifist campaign in USA to get equal rights to Americans of frican heritage.

Martin Luther King came from a family of pastors as his father and grand-father were also pastors. After the American Civil War, there were others who stood up for the improvements in of Afro-Americans and civil rights advocates. These include Malcolm X, Stokey Car-michael etc. But what distinguished Martin Luther King was that he used his great oratory skills as well as his Baptist Christian background to take the message of peace and equality of humanity into the minds of Ameri-cans both white and black. He thought peace would be the vehicle that would take this message to eradicate desegregation in American society. In other words what king believed was that it was possible for blacks to live side by side with the whites peacefully. For this achievement King was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1964.

King came into the limelight of civil right movement in the late 50's as he became the pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Ala-bama. In 1955 he received his PhD from Boston University. In the same year a defiant action of an Afro-American woman came into limelight as she did not stand up and refused to give her seat in the bus to a white. She was Rosa Parks, who later became a civil rights activ-ist herself. (It should be noted that in some states of US during the 50's a black person was not allowed to sit in front seats of a bus. They had to give their seats to whites.) This was the time that King was also in Alabama and it was the right time for people like King to discuss and practically inspire the aspirations of the blacks to get equal rights. Around this time King initiated Southern Christian Leadership Conference(SCLC) and spearheaded the campaign that would repel unjust discriminatory laws against blacks. After Rosa Park's defiant act the blacks boycotted the buses and this strike went on till 1956. By December of that year the US Supreme Court passed the bill that desegregated these law as unconstitutional.

By this time King practically had implemented non-vio-lent acts against segregation and even toured India to learn about Ghandian methods of passive resistance.

The new president of USA in 1961 John F. Kennedy was suportive of Kings' activities. In 1963 August 28th King and his supporters marched into Washington D. C. to get support for Civil Rights Act which would be passed by Kennedy's succesecor Lyndon B. Johnson who hailed from the Ssouthern state of Texas. Dur-ing the civil rights march King delivered his famous "I have a dream "speech, where he said "I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character...".

King's acheivement of securing civil rights of blacks went a long way for other minorities of USA to get equal rights as well. These include Jews and Asians as well. During this time King was also a vocal opponent of the vietnam war, which was raging in vietnam.

In 1968 king was shot dead by James Earl Ray at Lorraine Motel in Memphis , while seeking to assist a garbage workers' strike.

Mahatma Gandhi

2012-09-02T10:32:00.000-07:00

It's a fact
Gandhi although was a Hindu, ate mutton as a child. But after he went to England for studies at the age of 18, he disliked his Landlady's mutton and cabbage so much he became a vegetarian.

Mahatma Gandhi
```````````````(1869 - 1948)
~~~~~~Father of Modern Day India

Born: 2 October 1869 Porbandar, Kathiawar Agency, British India
Died: 30 January 1948 New Delhi, Union of India
Cause of death: Assassination
Nationality: Indian
Other names: Mahatma Gandhi
Education: University College London
Known for: Indian Independence Movement
Political party: Indian National Congress
Religious beliefs: Hinduism
Spouse(s): Kasturba Gandhi
Children: Harilal, Manual, Ramdas, Devdas

In the end of 19th century, India was a colony of Britain. Various Indian Leaders were agitating for independence from Britain around this time. Among them was a lawyer who graduated from University College, University of London who took this Herculean task of liberating India and believed in peace as the medium of message he sent across the country. He is none other than Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, better known as Mahatma Gandhi.

Gandhi was identified with the name Mahatma because of his integrity and non-violent principles and means "Great Soul". It should be noted that Gandhi started his career as a lawyer not in India, but in South Africa. Around the turn of 20th century, South Africa was a country divided in the principles of segregation and inequality and discriminated against non-whites. After getting racially abused himself in South Africa, Gandhi opposed legislation that discriminated against the immigrant Indian population.

After staying in South Africa through the Boer War, Gandhi returned to India in 1915. Soon afterwards he supported the Indian National Congress and made a rousing speech which was able to convey his message of independence for India. He said staying in cities like Bombay would not work and the message of non-violent protest should be taken to the villages across India.

Even in South Africa as well as in India the message he began to teach was the policy of non-violence, non-cooperation with the British imperialistic masters and passive resistance against the English rule. Gandhi was inspired in this endeavour with the teachings of Jesus Christ, Lord Buddha and the work of the writers Leo Tolstoy and Henry David Thoreau. Later Gandhi came to the conclusion that passive resistance and civil disobedience inadequate for his purposes, and coined another term " Satyagraha". (meaning truth and firmness).

After the Indian parliament passed a law named RowLau Act, that gave powers to the Indian colonial authorities to deal with what they interpreted as revolutionary activities",Indians protested. As a protest for this Indians resigned .from public offices, and even school children were withdrawn from government schools. Later Gandhi was arrested and jailed.

Gandhi's message of non-violence, home rule for India and welfare for all people irrespective of caste or religion, was the formula, he advocated for restoring India's glory in the modern world. He was passionate about restoring homecrafts and later even boycotted Western clothes made in England. He covered himself with simple loin and cotton clothes. He even spun cloth from a simple spinning wheel used in the villages. Gandhi was arrested around 1930 when he led a pilgrimage about 400 km to the sea to collect salt as a protest against British governments monopoly of the salt industry.

Despite arrests, Gandhi continued to protest and was again arrested on several occasions. He firmly believed that violence should not be encouraged and held regular fasts as a protest against violence in the independence struggle. Gandhi said," An eye for an eye makes the whole world go blind".

After WWII, Britain finally agreed for home rule for India. The division of India to Hindu and Muslim parts greatly saddened Gandhi. During this time Gandhi tried to reconcile these two faction without much success. In 1948, Gandhi was shot dead by a Hindu fanatic, Nthuram Godse. Gandhis last words were, "don't harm that man".

Franklin Roosevelt

2012-09-02T05:36:00.000-07:00

It's fact
Franklin Roosevelt was an enthusiastic stamp collector. He was featured in a stamp of Western Samoa with his philatelic collection. This is the only instance where a stamp collector was featured in a stamp with his stamp collection.

Franklin Roosevelt
`````````(1882 - 1945)
~~~~~The President who tackled Communism, Fascism and Nazism

Born: January 30, 1882 Hyde Park, New York
Died: April 12, 1945 (aged 63> Warm Springs, Georgia
Birth name: Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Political party: Democratic
Spouse: Eleanor Roosevelt
Children: Anna Roosevelt Halsted James Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Jr. (I) Elliott Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Jr. John Aspinwall Roosevelt

In the 1930'5 there were 2 main problems that affected USA. One was the depression that started in 1929 and other was the uneasy peace thai prevailed in the world after the end of WWI. The President of US at that time Herbert Hoover could not solve these problems.

In 1932 a democratic party nominated a candidate for presidency Franklin D. Roosevelt who eventually won the presidential election and tackled problems that propelled USA into a world superpower.

Roosevelt was the only president in US history to be elected for four consecutive terms. He won the presidential elections of 1932, 1936, 1940 and 1944.

Roosevelt came from a prominent family in New York and was related to Thoedore Roosevelt who was a US president himself and the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906. Therefore the Roosevelt .family was well off and figured prominently in the New York high society. Franklin was educated at home and later attended Colombia University and became a lawyer. He briefly practised law but it was politics that attracted his temperament. He once told his colleagues in the Law firm he worked that he wanted to be the President of USA.

Roosevelt believed that the conflict in Europe that started WWI as well as the threat of Nazi Germany could not be ignored by USA. He said in 1940 "the experience of the past two years has proven beyond doubt that no nation can appease the Nazis. No man can tame a tiger into a kitten by stroking it. There can be no reasoning with an incendiary bomb". On 7th of December, 1941 the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour and afterwards Roosevelt declared war on Japan.

After this Roosevelt closely worked with British PM Winston Churchill. Roosevelt during his presidency made the famous remark , "we have nothing to fear except fear itself".

Roosevelt's alliance with Churchill and Stalin was the decisive factor that shaped the end of WWII, bringing defeat to the axis powers of Germany, Italy and Japan. When the end of the War was near, Roosevelt was instrumental in proposing the Atlantic Charter , which later became the corner stone of The United Nations.

It was not only the conflicts in Europe that challenged Roosevelt as the great depression was affecting the US economy as well. He came up with ideas known as the "New Deal", which included devaluing the dollar and established benefits for the unemployed. Success of these measures bought support of the average Americans for Roosevelt, whom they thought helped them during these troubled times.

Roosevelt's wife Elanore was also a prominent social worker as well. The couple tied the knot in 1905. It should be also noted that Roosevelt was also struck with polio in 1921 which limited movement of his legs for the rest of his life. This however did not dampen his spirits or his enthusiasm for politics.

Roosevelt suddenlly died in 1945 and was succeeded by Vice President Harry Truman.

Sir Winston Churchill

2012-08-30T08:42:00.002-07:00

It's fact,
Winston Churchill had other members of parliament arguing with him,specially Lady Nancy Astor,one of the first women MPs in Britain. He once told her that having a woman in Parliament was like having one intrude on him in the bathroom, to which she retorted, "You're not handsome enough to have such fears". Another time when Lady Astor was giving a costume ball, Churchill asked her what disguise she would recommend for him. She replied, "Why don't you come sober, Prime Minister?" The most famous of all such anecdotes occurred when Lady Astor said to Churchill, "If you were my husband, I'd poison your tea." To which he responded, "Madam, if you were my wife, I'd drink it!" However, the most famous of all exchanges between Churchill and Lady Astor is this one: Lady Astor: "Mr. Churchill, you are drunk!" Winston Churchill: "Yes, and you, Madam, are ugly but tomorrow I shall be sober and you will still be ugly."

Sir Winston Churchill
`````````````````(1874-1965)
~~~~~~~~~~The War time Leader of Great Britain

Sir Winston Spencer Leonard Churchill
Born: 30 November 1874 Blenheim, Oxfordshire, England
Died: 24 January 1965 (aged 90) Hyde Park, London, England
Resting place: St Martin's Church, Bladon
Nationality: British
Political party: Conservative (1900-1904, 1924-1964), Liberal (1904-1924)
Spouse: Clementine Churchill
Children: Diana Churchill, Randolph Churchill Sarah Tuchet-Jesson, Marigold Churchill, Mary Soames
Residence: Chartwell
Profession: Member of Parliament/soldier/ writer/historian
Religion: Anglican

Famous quotes by Winston Churchill
1. "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the oportunity in every difficulty".
2. "Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm."
3. "There are a terrible lot of lies going about the world, and the worst of it is that half of them are true".
4. "Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak: courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen". •

Second World War saw the emergence of Germany as a rejuvenated world power under the guidance of Adolf Hitler. And Great Britain had the task of almost single handedly to resist Germany in the initial stages of the War. The British politician who took on this endeavour to fight against Germany at that time was the first Lord of the Admiralty, Sir Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill was one of the greatest Prime Ministers of Great Britain. He was also a brilliant orator, writer, historian and a painter who came from a very influential family. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1953, a rare achievement for a politician. He is credited with the famous saying "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat" among others.

Being a brilliant orator he roused the feelings of the British public and inspired them to resist Germany during the World War. It is notable that he later coined the term "Iron Curtain" to denote the division between Eastern and Western Europe on the grounds of political affiliations of the European nations.

The Right Honorable Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill was born on November 30th 1874 at Blenheim Castle. His father was Lord Randolph Churchill and his mother was an American Jennie Jerome. In 1888 Winston entered Harrow School but never made the upper school and later graduated from Royal Military College at Sandhurst. Later he served as military observer with the Spanish forces in Cuba.

In 1897 he served in the Indian Army in the Malakand expedition, and in 1899 went to South Africa as a war corre-spondent for the London Morning Post to report on Boer war. He was later captured and taken to prison camp in Pretoria . He later made a dramatic escape which made him world famous.

On January 23rd ,1901 Churchill became a Member of Parliament of Oldham (Lan-cashir e) under the Conservative Party ticket. In 1908 to 1910 he served as a president of the Board of Trade and served as the Home Secretary from 1910 to 1911. At the outbreak of the Second World War he was appointed first Lord of the Admiraltya post he held earlier from 1911 to 1915. Thus Churchill with Lord Beaverbrook were the only two people to be members of cabinet of UK during both world wars.

On May 10th ,1940 Winston Churchill became Prime Minister and Minister of Defense of GB and spearheaded Britain's war against Germany . He again became the Prime Minister in 1951 and resigned in 1955. However he remaind a MP until the general election of 1964, when he did not seek reelection.

Churchill's literary career began with campaign reports: the story of the Malakand Field Force (1898) and the River War (1899). In 1910 he published his only novel Savrola which strangely anticipated later developments in history. Later he published biography of his father Lord Randolph Churchill and his great ancestor the Duke of Marlborough. Churchill's
"History of the First World War" which appeared in four volumes under the title of The World Crisis (1923-1929). And his memoirs on the Second World War ran to six volumes (1948-1954). He later wrote his History of the English Speaking Peoples (1956-1958). His brilliant speeches are recorded in the Unrelenting Struggle (1942), the Dawn of liberation (1945) and Victory (1946).

In 1.908 Winston Churchill married Clementine Hozier anc had one son and four daughters. It was later revealed by Churchill that the act of courting and marrying ClementinE was one of his greatest achievements. On April 9th 1963 hE received by a special Act of the US Congress, the unprece. dented honor of being made an honorary American citizen by President Kennedy.

Josef Stalin

2012-07-02T23:29:00.002-07:00

It's a Fact
Stalin wanted to create in Russia a breed of half man half ape super soldiers to fight in wars whom Stalin thought would be obedient to him.According to Russian newspapers Stalin' stated, "I want a new invincible human being,insensitive to pain, resistant and indifferent about the quality of food they eat.Needless to say, Stalin's plans were not successful.

Josef Stalin
```````(1878 - 1953)
~~~~~~Leader of Russia After Lenin.

Born : December 18,1878 Gori, Tiflis Governorate of the k Russian Empire(now Georgia)
Died : March 5,1953 (aged 74) Moscow,Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Nationality : Georgian
Political party : Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Religion : Atheist

There were many tyrannical leaders In world history , and this was true for Russia as Well. And in Russian history there were rulers lake Ivan the Ternble and Peter the Great who sent Many people to their graves because Of their despotic character and lot there lust for power. In the 10th century there was a communist ruler of Russia who developed its industries and the military and at the same time punished and killed his opponents In such a cruel manner his name became synonymous with the word the 'Cruel Dictator"

This 'Cruel Dictator' was Joseph Stalin Stalin was born to a Georgian family in Russia and his real name was Vissarion Djugashvilli. The name by which he was known was Stalin which means 'the man of steel" He spent his childhood in Southern Europe Stalin was doted upon by his mother who called him
"Soso" It shoutd be noted that his mother was one of the few in Russia who was able to speak against Stalin's cruelty to his face!

Stalin liked to read books and later entered a theological seminary. Although he received good grades from his teachers. Stalin later grew fond of revolutionary activities and read books by Marx.The teachers one day found revolutionary books in his room and they expelled Stalin for indiscipline.

Stalin later joined an underground revolutionary group and sided with the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social-Democratic Workers Party in 1903. He later became a follower or Vladimir Lenin and later appointed to the Bolshevik Central committee in 1912. He Was later exited to Siberia which was described by Stalin as the happiest period of his life! He returned to Russia in 1917. Bolshevik party members named him "Koba"

Stalin was also instrumental in carrying out a series of bank robberies in order to find money for the political activities of the Bolsheviks, which was abhorred by other Bolsheviks including Lenin.During 1917-23 he served asCommissar for Nationalities and for state control in the Bolshevik Government. When Lenin died in 1924, Stalin became the ruler of Russia. He later consolidated his position as a dictator by overcoming nil rivals including Rykov. Trotsky, Bucharin and others

In 1928 Stalin initiated his first five year plan, which brought Russia both glory and suffering Some historians say that the Industrialization of Russia during Stalin's time was the fastest in history During 1930's because of his methods at developments, millions at People starved to death These casualties include the 'Kulak' farmers in Ukraine. who were the relatively rich peasant farmers, who defied Stalin's laws of collective Ownership. They were later killed by the orders of Stalin. It is also said that nearly 30 million deaths happened in Russia due to intentional famine that Stalin initiated.

In 1930's Stalin signed a non-aggression treaty with Hitler. Later when Hitler invaded Russia. Stalin refused to acknowledge this and locked incased up in his room Because of this the Russians were unnecessarily killed as Stalin as the ruler did not order any retaliation. Later Stalin dismissed the military plans or Georgi Zhukov and insisted that his own military plans should be implemented. These plans were not very successful but later the Russian army inflicted heavy casualties on the Germans notably at Stalingrad in 1943, which was a turning point in WWII,

The Russians under the political leadership of Stalin annexed parts of Eastern Europe and implemented the defeat of Germany and its leader Hitler. It should be noted that in the late 1940'S Stalin had a secret plan to invade Western Europe as the most of the European countries were incapacitated by War.

In1941, Stalin commented "History shows that there are no4 invincible armies and never have been. Napolean's army was considered invincible but it was beaten successively by Russia, English and German armies. The same must be said of Hitler's German facisist army today"

Abraham Lincoln

2012-07-02T08:56:00.001-07:00

It's Fact
Lincoln was watching the play "OUR AMERICAN COUSIN" when he was shot by Booth at the Ford Theatre in Washington D.C.The same play was running at the Maverick Theatre in Chicago on May 18th, 1860, the day that Lincoln was nominated for president in that city.

Abraham Lincoln
```````````(1809 - 1865)
~~~~~~~The Great Emancipator of Blacks in USA

Born : February 12,1809 Hardin County, Kentucky
Died : April 15,1865(aged56) Washington D.C
Nationality : American
Political party : Whig (1864-1865)
Republican (1854 - 1864)
National Union (1864 -1865)
Spouse : Mary Todd Lincoln
Children : Robert Todd Lincoln
Edward Lincoln,Willie Lincoln,Tad Lincoln
Occupation : Lawyer

If there was anyone who embody the concept of the "consummate US president" it was Abraham Lincoln. Ha was a lawyer, political philosopher, legislator and read avidly books that came Into his hands as he wanted to "improve his mind'. He was the real politician behind civil rights given to Afro-American slaves initiating the emancipation proclamation. This dream of his achieved results later with the emergence of politicians like Merlin Luther king II . and recently when US elected Barak Obarna, an Afro-American as their new president in 2008.

Abraham Lincoln became the 16th president of USA after defeating Stephen Douglas in 1861. Soon after Lincoln was Inaugurated he became the president of a divided country and his election sparked the US civil war The cause of this was that Southern states known as the confederated states did not want to abolish slavery, where slavery played a big part in the economy. based on plantations like cotton etc. The Northern states wanted to abolish slavery and the antislavery sentiments of Lincoln was appealing to the legislators in the North. the democratic candidate of 1861 election Douglas was supporting the idea that each state would decide whether to abolish slavery independently. Lincoln said on the other hand that slavery should be outlawed in the whole country and believed that It was all the freedom for blacks and nothing else.His single mindedness in this matter was an ideal that Lincoln believed should reverberate through America from north to south.Later Lincoln ideas and attitudes weakened the intolerance that Was wielded against afro-Americans.

Abraham Lincoln was born on 12th February. 1809 in Kentucky and recently in 2009 his 200th birth anniversary was celebrated in USA under the auspices of US president Barak Obarna. It Is notable that Lincoln was the first president of US to he born In a state outside the original 13 colonies. And it is also notable that the great biologist Charles Darwin was also born on the same day in England.

Although Lincoln was an educated Person his parents were illiterate He later Said he wanted to become "a little machine who know no bounds" and worked hard as a lawyer and a politician,

There are very Interesting facts about Lincoln. as he was the first US president to have a beaid as well as the tallest US president as of 2008 should also be noted that he received a patent for a device for Idling boats over shoals, thus becoming the only US president to receive a patent.

Lincoln was also the first US president to be photographed at his inauguration.In this photo Lincoln's assassin John Wilkes Booth can be seen in the background as well!

Lincoln is also the most portrayed US president in films. a strange coincidence for a president shot by an actor.

Thirty-nine days after Lincoln's inauguration, the US Civil War started and took lives of nearly 600.000 Americans.Despite this Lincoln stood by his idea that slavery should be abolished in USA altogether. On Good Friday in 1865 Lincoln was shot by actor John Wilkes Booth and six weeks later the Southern confederates finally surrendered ending the Civil War.

father of modern photography

2012-06-01T22:34:00.000-07:00

Today photography get massive development and there are lot of technology to use.But do you know who is put the first step to the modern photography.We call him to father of modern photography.He is non other than Alfred Stieglitz.

Alfred Stieglitz was an American photographer and modern art promoter in his whole 82 life period.Alfred Stieglitz was born in January 1, 1864 at Hoboken, New Jersey, U.S.photography is some Art, science with including lot of other elements like lighting,landscaping etc.But in this period is the beginning of all technology and lot of scientists do their experiment to make new invention.

In 1871 Stieglitz was sent to the Charlier Institute,This institute is one of best privet school in New York.Stieglitzes had five children call Flora, twins Julius and Leopold, Agnes and Selma After he finishing his study in Charlier Institute Stieglitz began studying mechanical engineering at the Technische Hochschule in Berlin.Because his father Edward Stieglitz sold their company an move to Europe in 1881.

photography schools

By chance he enrolled in a chemistry class taught by Hermann Wilhelm Vogel, who was an important scientist and researcher in the then developing field of photography.At the same time he met German artists Adolf von Menzel and Wilhelm Hasemann.both of whom introduced him to the idea of making art directly from nature. He bought his first camera and traveled through the European countryside, taking many photographs of landscapes and peasants in Germany, Italy and the Netherlands.

In 1884 his parents return to America but he stay at Germany for his rest of the decade.In this time Stieglitz began to collect the first books of what would become a very huge library on photography and photographers in Europe and the America. He read extensively as he collected, and through his library he formulated his initial thinking about photography and aesthetics

1887 he wrote his very first article, to the new magazine The Amateur Photographer. with header "A Word or Two about Amateur Photography in Germany",After that he keep continue writing to the magazine in Germany and England.

That same year he submitted several photographs to the annual holiday competition held by the British magazine Amateur Photographer. His photograph The Last Joke, Bellagio won first place – Stieglitz's first photographic recognition. The next year he won both first and second prizes in the same competition, and his reputation began to spread as several German and British photographic magazines began publishing his work.

To be continue....

the greatest quotes ever

2012-04-26T19:52:00.002-07:00

1."The world is a dangerous place,not because of those who do evil,but because of those who look on and do nothing." -Albert Einstein-
(1879-1955 greatest scientists in 20th century,he famous in physics experiment)

2."Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little."-Edmund Burke-
(He was born in Ireland and well famous with philosophy in 18th century)

3.“There are two kinds of people who never amount to much: those who cannot do what they are told, and those who can do nothing else.” -Cyrus Curtis-
(He was a American publisher and well popular with Ladies' Home Journal and the Saturday Evening Post)

4."To avoid criticism do nothing, say nothing, be nothing."- Elbert Hubbard-
(He was a multitalanted person and make successes in Writer, publisher, artist, philosopher)

5."Now we has a only two nation one is who loves to the nation and others are who hate to the nations"- -president Mahinda Rajapaksha-
(He said that after winning third Elam war between Srilanka Army and LTTE organization)

William Herschel

2012-04-20T02:06:00.001-07:00

It's fact
Despite his numerous important scientific discoveries, Herschel was not averse to wild speculation. In particular, he believed every planet was inhabited, even the Sun: he believed that the Sun had a cool, solid surface protected from its hot atmosphere by an opaque Layer of cloud, and that a race of beings adapted to their strange environment lived there and had enormous heads.

William Herschel
```````````````(1738-1822)
~~~~~~~~~"colombus on the sky"

Birth: November 15th ,1738, in Hanover, Germany.
Death: August 25th, 1822 SLough, England.
Nationality: German born British National
Field: Astronomy ,Optics, Music

William Herschel's father was a Jewish composer and William 's mothei was a Christian. William's brothers were also musicians. William later moved with the family members to Britain and changed the name Wilhelm to William and permanently settled in England. At the age of 35, he purchased a book on astronomy and discovered his affinity to this discipline.

Sir William Herschel was an astronomer and composermusician of German origin. He started his career as a musician and at the age of 35, became a full time astronomer. After grinding his own lenses and constructing his own telescopes he discovered the planet Uranus on March 13th, 1781. He also made one of the greatest surveys of the sky and discovered Infrared radiation as well.

He Later discovered the planet Uranus which made him famous and drove him to a fulltime career in astronomy. This was the first planet found since the ancient times and Herschel was made a fellow of the Royal Society in 1781.

In his later career, Herschel discovered two moons of Saturn, Mimas and Enceladus; as well as two moons of Uranus, Titania and Oberon. He did not give these moons their names; rather, they were named by his son John in 1847 and 1852, respectively, well after his death.

He worked on creating an extensive catalogue of what were named "nebulae". He continued to work on double stars, and was the first to discover that most double stars are not mere optical doubles as had been supposed previously, but are true binary stars, thus providing the first proof that Newton's Laws of gravitation apply outside the solar system.

From studying the proper motion of stars, he was the first to realize that the solar system is moving through space, and he determined the approximate direction of that movement. He also studied the structure of the Milky Way and concluded that it was in the shape of a disk.

He also coined the word "asteroid", meaning starlike (from the Greek asteroeides, aster "star" + eidos "form, shape"), in 1802 (shortly after Olbers discovered the second minor planet, Pallas, in late March of the same year), to describe the starlike appearance of the small moons of the giant planets and of the minor planets; the planets all show discs, by comparison.

Herschel discovered infrared radiation by passing sunlight through a prism and holding a thermometer just beyond the red end of the visible spectrum. This thermometer was meant to be a control to measure the ambient air temperature in the room. He was
shocked when it showed a higher temperature than the visible spectrum. Further experimentation led to Herschel's conclusion that there must be an invisible form of light beyond the visible spectrum.

S. Chandrasekhar

2012-04-20T00:21:00.004-07:00

It's a Fact
In the 1940,s Chandrasekhar drove 200 miles round trip each week from Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wis., to the University to teach a class on stellar atmospheres. One day he insisted on driving from Yerkes to teach the class despite a heavy snowstorm. He ended up teaching a class of only two that day. The two students —Tsung Dao Lee and Chen Ning Yang—won the Nobel Prize in physics in 1957, obtaining this distinction even before Chandrasekhar himself.

S. Chandrasekhar
``````````(1910-1995)
~~~~~~~~Indian "Starry Messanger"

Born: 19 October 1910, Punjab Lahore, British India, now in Pakistan.
Died: August 21, 1995 (aged 84), Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Residence : U.S. (1937-1995), British India (1910-1930) Britain (1930-1937)
Nationality: U.S. (1953-1995), British India (1910-1947) India (1947-1953)
Field: Astrophysics
Institutions: University of Chicago, University of Cam-bridge
Alma mater: Trinity College, Cambridge, Presidency College, Madras
Academic advisor: R.H. Fowler
Known for : Chandrasekhar limit, Stellar Dynamics
Notable prizes: Nobel Prize, Physics (1983) Copley Medal, Royal Society (1984) Nat'l Medal of Sci-ence (1967)
Religion: None, atheist

In 1999, NASA named the third of its four "great observatories'" after Chandrasekhar. The Chandra X-ray Observatory was launched and deployed by Space Shuttle Columbia on July 23, 1999.

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar was an Indianborn American Nobel Prize winning astrophysicist who is considered as one of the most important astronomers of 20th century. His work in white dwarfs and stellar evolution was pivotal in the developments in modern astronomy and influenced scientists like Stephan Hawking's later work in black hole theory. The name Chandrasekhar is one of the appellations of God Shiva meaning "holder of the moon" in Sanskrit and is a common Tamil name and Chandrasekhar was known by his colleagues affectionately as "Chandra".

The Chandrasekhar number, an important dimensionless number of magnetohydrody-namics, is named after him. The asteroid 1958 Chandra is also named after Chandrasekhar.

Chandrasekhar shared the Nobel prize with William Fowler in 1983 for his contributions to theoretical physics specially astrophysics. Chandrasekhar's uncle C. V. Raman also won the Nobel Prize for physics in 1930.

Chandrasekhar studied at PS high School and then Presidency College in Madras, now Chennai, from which he graduated with a degree in physics. He received his PhD. in 1933 from University of Cambridge and was a research fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge as well.

Chandrasekhar's most famous success was the astrophysical idea of Chandrasekhar limit. The limit describes the maximum mass (-1.44 solar masses) of a white dwarf star, or equivalent, the minimum mass for which a star will ultimately collapse into a neutron star or black hole (following a supernova). The limit was first calculated by Chandrasekhar while on voyage in a ship from India to Cambridge, England, where he was to study under the eminent astrophysicist, Sir Ralph Howard Fowler. When Chandrasekhar first proposed his ideas, he was opposed by the British physicist Arthur Eddington, and this may have played a part in his decision to move later to the University of Chicago in the United States.

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Chandrasekhar developed a style of working continuously in one specific area of astrophysics for a number of years; consequently, his working life can be divided into distinct periods. He studied stellar structure, including the theory of white dwarfs, during the years 1929 to 1939, and subsequently focused on stellar dynamics from 1939 to 1943. Next, he concentrated on the theory of radiative transfer and the quantum theory of the negative ion of hydrogen from 1943 to 1950. This was followed by sustained work on hydrodynamic and hydromagnetic stability from 1950 to 1961. In the 1960s, he studied the equilibrium and the stability of ellipsoidal figures of equilibrium, but also general relativity. During the period, 1971 to 1983 he studied the mathematil theory of black holes, and, finally, during the late 80s, he worked on the theory of colliding gravitational waves.

During the years 1990 to 1995, Chandrasekhar worked on a project which was devoted to explaining the detailed geometric arguments in Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophia Naturalis Principia Mathematica using the Language and methods of ordinary calculus. The effort resulted in the book Newton's Principia for the Common Reader, published in 1995.

Tycho Brahe

2012-04-19T20:35:00.003-07:00

It's fact
While a student, Tycho Lost part of his nose in a duel with rapiers with Manderup Parsbjerg, a fellow Danish nobleman. This occurred in the Christmas season of 1566, after a fair amount of drinking, while the just turned 20-year-old Tycho was studying at the University of Rostock in Germany. Attending a dance at a professor's house, he quarrelled with Parsbjerg. A subsequent duel (in the dark) resulted in Tycho losing the bridge of his nose. A consequence of this was that Tycho developed an interest in medicine and alchemy. For the rest of his life,he was said to have worn a replacement made of silver and gold blended into a flesh tone, and used an adhesive balm to keep it attached. However, in 1901 Tycho's tomb was opened and his remains were examined by medical experts. The nasal opening of the skull was rimmed with green, a sign of exposure to copper, not silver or gold. Some historians have speculated that he wore a number of different prosthetics for different occasions, noting that a copper nose would have been more comfortable and less heavy than a precious metal one.

Tycho Brahe
(1546-1601)
Greatest "observational" astronomer of 16th century

Born: December 14, 1546, Knutstorp Castle, Denmark
Died: October 24, 1601, Prague,
Nationality: Danish
Education: Private
Occupation: Nobleman, Astronomer
Spouse: Kirsten lorgensdatter
Children: 8
Parents: Otte Brahe and Beate Bille

it is noted that Tycho's birth place is now part of Sweden and was given he name Tyge by his parents. At age 15 he changed his name to Tycho. His father was a from the Danish Royal family and had close contacts with the King.

Tycho Brahe was a 16th century Danish astronomer, who rejected the Copernican system of the Solar System and gave an alternative view, which held till mid-17th century. He thought the Earth was stationery and had the advantage of avoiding the problems introduced by ascribing motion to Earth as Copernicus did. Tycho with his naked eye made so many observations and corrected values of basic astronomical tables and provided the necessary data for later pivotal work by his assistant Kepler.

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Tycho began his studies at the University of Copenhagen in 1559 intending to study Law. He Later went to the University of Leipzig in 1562,where he started his famous observations of the night sky without the aid of telescopes, because the telescope was not invented. In this context he was able to observe and record a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, which were neither predicted by Copernican and Ptolemic tables. At this time Tycho collected and amassed a large number of astronomical instruments.

Tycho constructed an Observatory in Herrevad Abbey . On 11th November,1572 at the age of 25, Tycho saw a temporarily exploding star and proved Later it had no parrallactic shift. This disproved the popular belief at the time that it was an object near Earth moon System or in the atmosphere of Earth. This star is usually known as "Tycho's Supernova".

By the end of 1575 he received funds from the King of Denmark to build the first modern observatory, named "Uraniborg" meaning Sky castle.

Observations that Tycho made gave the basis of his star catalogue he made between 1576 and 1596. He believed that the Earth was stationary and central around which Moon and Sun revolve. He believed that all the other planets revolved around the Sun ,which in turn revolved around Earth.

After his pension was withdrawn by the king of Denmark, Tycho moved to Prague in 1599 where he was joined by a 30 year old assistant, Johannes Kepler.

Claudius Ptolem

2012-04-19T09:40:00.003-07:00

It's a Fact
Although Ptolemy was an influential astronomer, Later scientists like Brake and Laplace made charges of forgery against Him. The accusations of forgery made against Ptolemy came from Sir Isaac Newton as well. Newton wrote.... This is the story of a scientific crime.... I mean a crime committed by a scientist against fellow scientists and scholars, a betrayal of the ethics and integrity of his profession that has forever deprived mankind of fundamental information about an important area of astronomy and history. Newton claimed to prove every observation claimed by Ptolemy in the Almagest was fabricated, and wrote... "[Ptolemy] developed certain astronomical theories and discovered that they were not consistent with observation. Instead of abandoning the theories, he deliberately fabricated observations from the theories so that he could claim that the observations prove the validity of his theories. In every scientific or scholarly setting known, this practice is called fraud, and it is a crime against science and scholarship."

Claudius Ptolem
````````(83AD-161AD)
~~~~~~Astronomer of "Geocentrism"

Born: After 83 AD, Roman Province of Egypt
Died: 161 AD Roman Province of Egypt
Occupation: Mathematician, geographer, Astronomer, Astrologer

His name, Claudius Ptolemy, is a mixture of the Greek Egyptian 'Ptolemy' and the Roman 'Claudius'. This would indicate that he descended from a Greek family living in Egypt and that he was a citizen of Rome.

Claudius Ptolemaeus better known as Ptolemy, was a Greek astronomer who flourished in Alexandria in the 1st century AD. He was also a mathematician of the first rank, geographer and astrologer as well as being an excellent astronomer. It is said that Ptolemy is the most discussed Greek mathematician in history.

Ptolemy published several scientific treatises and the first was the 'Almagest' (meaning the greatest) It is the only surviving comprehensive ancient treatise on astronomy. The Almagest is the earliest of Ptolemy's works and gives in detail the mathematical theory of the motions of the Sun, Moon, and planets. Ptolemy made his most original contribution by presenting details for the motions of each of the planets. Ptolemy is claimed to have derived his geometrical models from selected astronomical observations of previous astronomers going back several centuries. Ptolemy presented his astronomical models in convenient tables, which could predict the positions of planets and stars in the past and future.

The Almagest also contains a star catalogue. It included 48 constellations and is believed to be the predecessor of the modern constellations which number 88. The Ptolemian model of the solar system was geocentric, with Earth at the centre of the Universe. Almagest became the authoritative astronomical text for nearly 14 centuries until his views were challenged by Nicholas Copernicus in the 16th century and culminating in the work of Galileo

Ptolemy also did what many writers of deep scientific works have done, and still do, in writing a popular account of his results under the title "Planetary Hypothesis". This work, in two books, again follows the familiar route of reducing the mathematical skills needed by a reader. Ptolemy does this rather cleverly by replacing the abstract geometrical theories by mechanical ones. Ptolemy also wrote a work on astrology. It may seem strange to the modern reader that someone who wrote such excellent scientific books should write on astrology. However, Ptolemy sees it rather differently for he claims that the Almagest allows one to find the positions of the heavenly bodies, while his astrology book he sees as a companion work describing the effects of the heavenly bodies on people's lives. Ptolemy's published works on astrology enjoyed success in the Islamic world and the Medieval West.

Geography washis other interest and wrote the book 'Geographia' which is a collection of geographical data during his time. Ptolemy's major work Geography, in eight books, attempts to map the known world giving coordinates of the major places in terms of latitude and longitude. It is not surprising that the maps given by Ptolemy were quite inaccurate in many places for he could not be expected to do more than use the available data and this was of very poor quality for anything outside the Roman Empire, and even parts of the Roman Empire are severely distorted. Ptolemy also included Sri Lanka in the maps and called Sri Lanka, Taprobane.

Ptolemy also wrote on mathematics governing music in his music theory. He described how musical notes could be translated into mathematical equations and vice versa.

Pierre-Simon deLaplace

2012-04-18T05:33:00.002-07:00

It's fact
In 1784 Laplace was appointed as examiner at the Royal Artillery corps and Later passed then Napoleon Bonaparte, aged 16. At a later time Laplace went to beg Napoleon to accept a copy of his work, but Napoleon had heard that the book contained no mention of God. Napoleon, who was fond of putting embarrassing questions, received it with the remark, "M. Laplace, they tell me you have written this large book on the system of the Universe, and have never even mentioned its Creator." Laplace, who, though the most subtle of politicians, was as stiff as a martyr on every point of his philosophy, drew himself up and answered bluntly, "I did not need to make such an assumption". Napoleon, greatly amused, told this reply to Lagrange, who exclaimed, "AM that is a beautiful assumption; it explains many things". Laplace then declared, "This hypothesis, Sire, does explain everything, but does not permit to predict anything. As a scholar, I must provide you with works permitting predictions". Laplace thus defined science as a predicting tool.

Pierre-Simon deLaplace
````````(1749-1827)
~~~~~~~~~~The great astronomer who believed in "Determinism"

Born: 1749-03-23, Beaumont-en-Auge, Normandy,France
Died: March 5, 1827 (aged 77), Paris, France
Residence: France
Citizenship: French
Field: Astronomy, physics, Mathematics
Institutions: Ecole Militaire (1769-1776)
Known for: Nebular hypothesis of Solar System formation, determinism.

Pierre-Simon Laplace was an astronomer mathematician of Frew origin. He is known as "The French Newton" because of his ability to appl, mathematics to problems of astronomy very successfully and immensely contributed to the development of mathematical astronomy

The idea that science would predict accurately the future events of a system is known as determinism. This idea was put by a French scientist who popularized this idea. He is none other than Pierre-Simon Laplace.

Laplace summarized and extended the work of his predecessors in his five volume Mecanique Celeste (Celestial Mechanics) (1799-1825). This seminal work translated the geometric study of classical mechanics, used by Sir Isaac Newton, to one based on calculus, opening up a broader range of problems of astronomy.

Pierre-Simon Laplace at 16, entered Caen University to study theology according to his father's wish. He later realised his mathematical ability and went to meet D'Alembert with a letter of introduction by one of his teachers at Caen. As a 19year old , Laplace was soon able to impress D'alembert and it is said that a problem that D'alembert gave him was solved by the youthful Laplace in a day!!and Laplace was appointed as a professor of Mathematics at Ecole Militaire.

Laplace first worked on Differential equations other than working on mathematical astronomy and probability theory. By 1780's he was profoundly influencing the scientific community with his research and writings on mathematics and was continued doing important work in astronomy.

Independently from philosopher-mathematician Immanuel Kant, Laplace formulated the nebular hypothesis of the origin of the solar system , which states that solar system originated from the contraction and cooling of a large and flattened cloud of gas that was also rotating. He was one of the first scientists to postulate the existence of black holes and the notion of gravitational collapse, which did not enter mainstream astronomy till mid,20th century.

He also formulated Laplace's equation and invented the Laplace transform which appears in many branches of mathematical physics, a field that he took a Leading role in forming. The Laplacian differential operator, widely used in applied mathematics, is also named after him. He also did work in physics researching on capillary action, speed of sound as well as the theory of heat.

Nicolaus Copernicus

2012-04-16T21:58:00.003-07:00

It's Fact
Legend has it that the first printed copy of De revolutionibus was placed in Copernicus' hands on the very day he died (May 24th, 2543), alluvving him to take farewell look at his life's work. He is believed to have woken from a stroke-induced coma, looked at his book, and died peacefully.

Nicolaus Copernicus
```````````````````````(1473-1543)
~~~~~~~~~Astronomer who displaced the Earth from the "Center"

Born: February 19, 1473, Torun (Thorn), Royal Prussia, Poland.
Died: May 24, 1543 (aged 70), Frombork (Frauenburg), Warmia, Poland
Field: Mathematician, astronomer, jurist, physician, classical scholar, Catholic cleric, governor, administrator, military commander, diplomat, economist
Alma mater: Krakow University, Bologna University, University of Padua, University of Ferrara. Known for Heliocentrism (sun centerd solar system)
Religion: Roman Catholic

Copernicus was educated in Italy and was inspired by the scientific and philosophical atmosphere prevailing in that country during the rebirth in arts and sciences known as "the Renaissance". He corresponded with many Intellectuals in Europe and began observations of the night sky at the age of 24.

Nicolaus Copernicus was a Polish intellectual and Cleric who is considered as the founder of modern astronomy. He is ranked with Galileo and Newton as one of the all time greats in astronomy. Copernicus was not the first scientist to believe and come up with the idea that the Earth is not at the centre of the Universe, and the sun is at the centre of the Solar System. His achievement was to analyze this idea mathematically and write the book "On the revolutions of the Celestial Spheres" which became one of the most influential books in Science history.

Copernicus also came to the conclusion that the Earth rotates daily on its axis and gave a clear account of the cause behind seasons.

It is notable that he did not have the luxury of using a telescope because it was invented after his death. But Copernicus made lot of observations with whatever aid he had and at the age of 31 observed a rare conjunction of all five known planets as well as the sun and the moon into the constellation of Cancer. He found that their position differed from his set of Alfonsine tables.

For reasons like this, Copernicus challenged Aristotle's and Ptolemy's commonly accepted geocentric(Earth centred) model of the universe which was encouraged by the Catholic Church. Copernicanism as his Heliocentric theory(Sun centred) was known, also opened the way to "Immanence", the view that a divine force, or divine being, pervades all that exists — a view that has since been developed further in modern philosophy. Immanentism also leads to subjectivism: to the theory that it is perception that creates reality, that there is no underlying reality that exists independent of perception. Thus some argue that Copernicanism demolished the foundations of medieval science and metaphysics and also influenced philosophy of science of later generations.

Copernicus' concept also marked a beginning of the Scientific Revolution. The publication of his book ''De revolutioni bus orbium celestium" is often taken to mark the beginning of the Scientific Renaissance of Europe and proved that observations in astronomy were sometimes doubtful This idea was in conflict with Aristotle's system which placed much importance on deriving knowledge through sense experience.

Familiar with several classical alternatives to Ptolemy's system , Copernicus realized that the Solar System would be simpler and the predictions of Planetary positions easier if the Sun was placed at the centre and planets around it. Around 1512 he circulated a short commentary outlining his theory.

Copernicus was fearing that his theory would trigger controversy and delayed publicaon of his idea in book form. Later his theory was explained in the book "On Revolutions" including facts and observations supporting his theory. Copernicus thus gave a new impetus to observational technique in science fully developed later by Galileo.

Because of this idea Copernicus came under fire from some theologians and Aristotelian scholars. In 1539, Martin Luther called Copernicus "That fool who would reverse the entire art of astronomy...Joshua bade the Sun and not the Earth to stand still...." . Copernicus's book was published in the year of his death in 1543.

Johannes Kepler

2012-04-16T21:46:00.003-07:00

It's fact
Kepler is famous now an astronomer although in his life time he earned money by practicing astrology. It is said that he was at home calculating orbits of planets as well as casting horoscope for the nobility. In December 1998, Anthony Misch, an astronomer at the Lick Observatory at UC Santa Cruz, came across a 400 year old horoscope manuscript, by chance, while leafing through old documents purchased by the observatory over a century ago. Misch had the document authenticated, by a European firm, which penned by was Johannes Kepler, considered to be one of the fathers of modern astronomy along with Copernicus and Galileo.

Johannes Kepler
```````(1571-1630)
~~~~~~~The first Astrophysicist in the Western World

Born: December 27, 1571, Well der Stadt near Stuttgart, Germany
Died: November 15, 1630 (aged 58), Regensburg, Bavaria, Germany
Residence: Baden-WOrttemberg; Styria; Bohemia; Upper Austria
Field: Astronomy, astrology, mathematics and natural philosophy
Institutions: University of Linz (Alma mater University of Tubingen)
Known for:1<epler's laws of planetary motion, Kepler Conjecture
Religion: Lutheran

Before Kepler, path of planets were computed by combinations of the circular motions of the celestial orbs. After Kepler, astronomers shifted their attention from orbs to orbits — paths that could be represpnted mathematically as an ellipse.

Johannes Kepler was a German astronomer and astrologer who was considered to be the most illustrious theoretical astronomer of all time by Nobel Laureate Shelly Glashow. Carl Sagan described him as the " The first astrophysicist and last scientific astrologer". Kepler was the student of Tycho Brahe and used Brahe's observational records to come up with the 3 laws of planetary motion eponymously known as Kepler's laws of planetary motion.

Kepler's laws also provided one of the foundations for Isaac Newton's theory of universal gravitation and helped get support for Galileo's work in observational astronomy. Later the derivation of Kepter's laws from Newton's theories was an exercise for advanced students of natural science in Europe.

Kepler analyzed the vast amount of data he received upon Brahe's death. From this data, he prepared new planetary tables (called the Rudolphine Tables). At first, he determined the shape of planetary orbits to be ovoid, but rejected this result for aesthetic reasons. Going back over his calculations, he found and corrected an error. The new shape turned out to be an ellipse, which fit well into Kepler's views on nature. Kepler later sent his theories to the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe. Brahe was impressed with Kepler and employed Kepler as an assistant. Upon Brahe's death, Kepler inherited the vast data collection of Brahe's.

Kepler tried all sorts of mystical notions to describe planetary orbits, using the Platonic solids and musical analogies. Spread out through his voluminous calculations in "Astronomia Nova", however, were three gems: Kepler's laws of planetary motion. For the formulation of these taws, Kepler is considered the founder of physical astronomy.

The first law states that the planets move in elliptical orbits with the Sun at one focus. The second law states that the planets sweep out equal areas in equal times (which is equivalent to the statement of conservation of angular momentum.) The third law states that the period squared in proportional to the semimajor axis cubed. Kepler believed that the planets were kept in their orbits by a "anima matrix" (motive soul), but later modified it to "vis matrix" (life force). He also studied optics as an aspect of astronomy in "Astronomiae Pars Optica"(1604), and developed the concept of a ray.

Kepler was a brilliant thinker and a lucid writer, but he was a disaster as a classroom teacher. "He mumbled. He digressed. He was at times utterly incomprehensible... He was distracted by an incessant interior clamor of associations and speculations vying for his attention. And one pleasant summer afternoon... he was visited by a revelation that was to alter radically the future of astronomy..." Carl Sagan commented.

Fred Hoyle

2012-04-13T11:59:00.004-07:00

It's a Fact
During 1960's Hoyle gave a lecture at Royal Society meeting attended by lot of eminent scientists. After the lecture when Hoyle asked for questions a young man in the audience said Hoyle's calculations were inaccurate. The whole gathering was surprised by this as Hoyle was the most eminent cosmologist and astrophysicist in the World. "Would you like to tell us how you know this, young man?" asked Sir Fred, with heavy sarcasm. "Because I worked it out," said the young man . And he had. Any guesses who this young man is? He later became world famous as an eminent Theoretical Astrophysicist by the name of Stephen Hawking!!!

Fred Hoyle
```````(1915-2001)
~~~~~~~Originator of the steady state theory

Born: June 24, 1915, Gilstead, Bingley, West Ridin of Yorkshire, England
Died: August 20, 2001 (aged 86), Bournemouth England,

Occupation : Astronomer,Writer
Religious stance : Atheist
Spouse: Barbara Clark (28 December 1939)
Children: Geoffrey Hoyle, Elizabeth Hoyle

Sir Fred Hoyle was born on 24th June, 1915 in Bingley, Yorkshire in England to Ben Hoyle and Mabel Hoyle. Fred first attended private school for a few weeks in July, 192 land entered a school near Thundersley and later returned to the former school.

Sir Fred Hoyle was an English astronomer and author who suggested a scheme for nuclear reactions inside stars. He also proposed exploding star theory of the Solar System in 1946. He is best known for steady state theory of universe and coined the term 'big bang' to ridicule the rival theory.

Later Hoyle entered Morning road school in Bingley and Bingley Grammar School in September 1926.After taking a scholarship examination in September 1932 to study at Leeds University he narrowly missed out. In 1932 he sat for scholarship examination in Emmanuel College in Cambridge and in autumn of 1933 entered this college to read for a degree in science.

Hoyle was taught by some outstanding scientists at Cambridge including Max Born, Sir Arthur Eddington and Paul Dirac.

After doing research in Applied mathematics Hoyle studied the problem of accretion of gas by a large gravitational body, which started his interest in astronomy. During World War II Hoyle married Barbara Clark in December 1939. They had a daughter and a son Geoffrey who later did research with him. During the war Hoyle worked for the Admiralty on radar, doing most of his work in Nutbourne. At the Admiralty, Hoyle met Hermann Bondi and Thomas Gold who would later propose "Steady State Cosmology" for which Hoyle was best known.

They proposed that the Universe on the large scale looks the same not only in each region of space but also in different eras of time. The idea was that as the galaxies moved away from each other, new galaxies were continually forming in the gaps in between from new matter that was being continually created. Then the universe would therefore took roughly the same way at all times as well as all points of space. One of the predictions of the theory was that number of galaxies or similar objects in any given volume of space should be the same wherever you look and whenever you look in universe. After 1948 when Hoyle published his theory a group of astronomers led by Martin Ryle did a survey of radio wave sources from outer space. Ryle and his team showed that most of these radio sources must lie outside our galaxy as results indicated and he was able to show that there were more weak radio sources than strong ones. They interpreted the weak sources as being more distant ones and strong sources as nearer ones. Then there appeared to be less common sources per unit volume of space for the nearby sources than for the distant ones. The results implied that we are in a region of the universe in which the radio sources are fewer than elsewhere. This indicated that radio sources were more numerous in the past then now. Either explanation contradicted the Steady state theory although Hoyle believed the results were misinterpreted.

After 3 years as a junior lecturer in mathematics Hoyle was appointed as lecturer in mathematics at Cambridge. In 1957 Hoyle published his first science fiction novel "The Black Cloud". In this book Hoyle imagined an interstellar nebular cloud with matter and electromagnetic fields organized in such a way that it developed a consciousness or will of its own.

Hoyle became Plumerian professor of astrophysics and natural philosophy on October 1st, 1958 and in 1966 founded the Institute of Theoretical Astronomy at Cambridge and was its director till 1972. Renowned Sri Lankan Astronomer N.C. Wickremasinghe is one of his students.

Later in life Hoyle came up with novel ideas regarding origin of life in universe, Darwinism and Stonehenge.

Edwin Powell Hubble

2012-04-10T20:21:00.001-07:00

It's a Fact
When he died , Hubble's wife, Grace, did not have a funeral for him and never revealed what was done with his body it was apparently Hubble's wish to have no funeral service and be buried in an unmarked grave, or that he wanted to be cremated. As of now, the whereabouts of his remains are unknown.

Edwin Powell Hubble
```````````(1889 -1953)
~~~~~~~~~~~The "Galactic" astronomer

Born : November 20, 1889 Marshfield, Missouri, U.S.
Died : September 28, 1953 (aged 63) San Marino, California
Residence : U.S. Nationality: American
Field : Astronomy
Institutions : University of Chicago
Mount Wilson : Observatory
Alma mater : University of Chicago Orford University
Known for : Big Bang, Hubbies taw Redshift, Hubble sequence

Edwin Hubble forever changed our view of the Universe. In 1929 he showed that galaxies are moving away from us with a speed proportional to their distance, and showed that the Universe is expanding.

During the early years of 20th century people thought Milky Way was the only galaxy. But by 1920's an astronomer of American birth disproved this by discovering more galaxies or what Immanuel Kant named "Island Universes" . He is none other than Edwin Hubble. Edwin Hubble thus founded the study of the Universe and gave a new dimension to the study of cosmology, the scientific study of the Universe as a whole. He discovered some 'nebulae', later realized to be galaxies, were outside our galaxy.

He classified galaxies according to their shape as elliptical (designated E), spiral (5), and irregular (Ir). He later calculated their real velocities and by doing this he put forward the idea of 'expanding Universe', a name coined by British astronomer Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington in 1933. However the phenomenon might be also be called mutual recession of galaxies.(This phenomenon was also discovered by Vesta Stipher, but Hubble's discovery is better known.)

Hubble was born in the Midwest and moved with his family to Chicago Illinois in 1898 where he attended high school. He was an above average student though not the most exceptional. He was more promising as an athlete breaking the Illinois state high jump record. At University he was an accomplished basketball player, playing for University of Chicago. He later won a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford where he studied law. After returning to USA he decided to study astronomy.

In the early 1920's Hubble did lot of research in establishing just what galaxies are. It was known that some spiral nebulae i.e. fuzzy clouds of light in the night sky, contained individual stars. But there was no agreement as to whether these were relatively small collections of stars within our own galaxy, the Milky Way that stretches right across the sky or whether these could be separate galaxies or 'Island Universes'. In other words Hubble in 1924 proved that ours is not the only galaxy, and later worked out the distances to nine different galaxies.

In 1924 Hubble measured the distance to the Andromeda nebula, and showed that it was about a 100 thousand times as distant as nearest stars. He postulated that it had to be a different galaxy, comparable in size to our own Milky Way but much further away. Thus Hubble is credited with "discovering" Andromeda galaxy.

Hubble was able to measure the distances to only a handful of other galaxies as mentioned above and used as a rough guide , apparent brightness of galaxies as an indication of their distance. The speed with which a galaxy was moving toward or away from us was relatively easy to measure due to the Doppler shift of red light. Just as a sound of an ambulance becomes lower as it speeds away fryom us, so the light from a galaxy becomes redder and red shifted as it recedes. Though our ears can hear the change of pitch of the ambula1ance, our eyes cannot detect the very small redshift of light, but using a sensitive spectrograph Hubble was able to determine the redshift of light from distant galaxies.

Hubble later found out that this redshift of moving galaxies was proportional to the distance. i.e. distant galaxies are moving with faster velocity. This relationship of recession velocity of galaxies increasing with distance was called Hubble's relation. The proportionality introduced to this relation was called Hubble's constant and is known as H. This observational evidence vindicated the theoretical physics research done by Einstein, which was published in 1915, namely General theory of Relativity and later research by Alexander Friedmann in Russia. These investigations paved the way for modern cosmology and the theory of the Big Bang.

Edmond Halley

2012-04-08T09:16:00.001-07:00

It's fact
An alternative (and incorrect) pronunciation of Halley's surname, to rhyme with "Bailey", has led to rock and roll singer, Bill Haley punningly to call his backing band "Comets" after Halley's Comet.
Halley's Comet.

Edmond Halley
(1656-1742)
The discoverer of the most "famous" comet

Birth : 8th November, 1656 in Haggerston, England
Death : 14th January 1742 in Green-wich, England
Fields : Astronomy, Physics, Mathematics, Geophysics, Meteorology, Science History

Edmund's father was a successful soap trader and boiler, who was also named Edmund Halley and provided generously to his son's education. The young Halley studied at Queen's college, Oxford and published work on the Solar System and sunspots.

It is said that the Halley's comet that appears every 76 years can be viewed by a man once in a life time. It appeared to Earth last time in 1986.The astronomer who "discovered" this was none other than Edmund Halley and he correctly presumed that the comet that appeared in 1305,1380 ,1456 , 1531, 1607, and 1682 was the same comet. This comet is now known by Halley's name.

On leaving Oxford, he went to south Atlantic island of St. Helena to study the stars of the southern hemisphere. This endeavour was taken by Halley because the northern hemisphere stars were mapped by another great astronomer and colleague, John Elamsteed who would later become Halley's arch enemy. In the same year, Halley published 'Catalogus Stellarum Australium' which included details of 341 southern stars and earned him a reputation among scholars as a notable astronomer. In 1686 Halley published the second part of the results from his expedition, and a paper and charts on trade winds and monsoons. In this he identified solar heating as the cause of atmospheric motions. He also established the relationship between barometric pressure and height above sea level. Halley also did pioneering work in magnetic surveys of the oceans as well.

After marriage, Halley spent most of his time on observing the moon, but was also interested in the problems of gravity. He was particularly interested in proving Kepler's laws of planetary motion. He went to Cambridge to discuss the issue with Sir Isaac Newton, only to find he had solved the problem tong time ago, but has not published anything. It was Halley who helped and encouraged Newton to publish the 'Principia Mathematica Philosophiae Naturalis', at Halley's own expense, which became the most influential book in the history of physical sciences.

In 1703, Halley was appointed as Savilian Professor of Geometry at Oxford University. By this time Halley and Flamsteed were not in good terms. For this reason Flamsteed commented that "Dr. Wallis is dead Mr. Halley expects his placewho now talks, swears and drinks brandy like a sea captain".

When Flammteed became the first astronomer Royal and withheld astronomical data from the Great Newton, Halley took Newton's side. Flamsteed later went to courts to get back his data from Newton's clutches.

Halley was also a pioneer of actuarial sciences as well. He compiled records of people needing pensions and clearly advised the government of his day regarding this matter.

Carl sagan

2012-04-07T02:41:00.001-07:00

It's fact
Sagan predicted on ABC's Nightline in 1991 that smoky oil fires in Kuwait set by Saddam Hussein's army during the first Gulf War would cause an ecological disaster and send black clouds into the atmosphere resulting in global cooling. Retired atmospheric physicist and climate change sceptic Fred Singer dismissed Sagan's prediction as nonsense,predicting that the smoke would dissipate in a matter of days. In his book The Demon-Haunted World, Sagan gave a list of errors he had made, including his predictions about the effects of the Kuwaiti oil fires, as an example of how science is tentative, a self-correcting process which displayed Sagan's modesty.

Carl sagan
````````(1934-1996)
~~~~~~The popularizer of the "Cosmos"

Born: November 9, 1934 Brooklyn, New York
Died: December 20, 1996 (aged 62) Seattle, Washington, U.S.
Residence: Ithaca, New York, U.S.
Nationality: American
Field: Astronomy and planetary science
Institutions: Cornell University, Harvard University
Alma mater: University of Chicago
Known for: Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Cosmos: A Personal Voyage Voyager Golden Record Pioneer plaque, Contact
Notable prizes: Oersted Medal (1990) NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal (twice) Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction (1978) NAS Public Welfare Medal( 1994)

Carl Sagan contributed to the space projects and helped to popularize science among the public. In fact he wanted to give the layman the joy of learning astronomy by his books as astronomy made a very big impression on Sagan's life. In fact it was his life blood.

In the 1990's film The Contact", academy award winning actress Jodie Foster plays an astronomer who discovers extra terrestrial signals from space. This film was based on a book by an astronomer whose passion for astronomy and science was unparalleled in 20th century science.. He died in 1996 and the afore mentioned film was dedicated to his memory. He is none other than Carl Sagan.

Sagan attended the University of Chicago, where he received a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in physics, before earning his doctorate in astronomy and astrophysics. Sagan lectured at Harvard University until 1968, when he moved to Cornell University to become a full professor in 1971 and directed the Laboratory for Planetary Studies there. From 1972 to 1981 he was associate director of the Center for Radio Physics and Space Research at Cornell.

Sagan was involved in the U.S. space program since its inception and worked as an adviser to NASA since the 1950s. He had to brief the Apollo astronauts before their actual flight and contributed to robotic spacecraft missions to the planets. He brought forward the idea of adding a universal message on spacecraft so that any intelligent life in the universe that comes in contact with the message can understand our existence. Sagan assembled the first physical message that was sent into space: a goldanodized plaque that was attached to Pioneer 10 and 11.

He was among the first to hypothesize that Saturn's moon Titan and Jupiter's moon Europa may possess a subsurface ocean under its icy covering. This hypothesized water ocean on Europa made it potentially habitable for life. Europa's subsurface ocean was later indirectly confirmed by the spacecraft Galileo, thus giving credibility to Sagan's idea. Following his studies about the temperature of Venus, he perceived global warming as a growing, manmade danger and likened it to the natural development of runaway green house effect on Venus. Sagan was a pioneer in the search for extraterrestrial life. He urged the scientific community to "listen" with radio telescopes for signals from intelligent extraterrestrial life forms. So persuasive was he that by 1982, he was able to get a petition advocating SETI(search for extraterrestrial intelligence)published in the journal Science, signed by 70 scientists including seven Nobel Prize winners. Carl Sagan also helped Dr. Frank Drake write the Arecibo message,a radio massage beamed into space from the Arecibo radio telescope. It was aimed at informing extraterrestrials about Earth the human race.

Sagan's ability to describe things clearly and lucidly enabled him to popularize astronomy among the public. He hosted and, with Ann Druyan, cowrote and coproduced the highly popular thirteenpart PBS television series "Cosmos: A Personal Voyage" modelled on Jacob Bronowski's television programme "The Ascent of Man". Sagan also wrote books to popularize science, such as Cosmos, which reflected and expanded upon some of the themes of A Personal Voyage, and became one of the bestselling science books ever published in English.

Late in his life, Sagan's books developed his skeptical, naturalistic view of the world. In The "Demon Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, " he presented tools for testing arguments and detecting fallacious or fraudulent ones, essentially advocating wide use of critical thinking and the scientific method. The compilation, Billions and Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium, published in 1997 after Sagan's death, contains essays written by Sagan, such as his views and his widow Ann Druyan's account of his death as a skeptic, an agnostic, and as a freethinker.

Sir Arthur Eddington

2012-04-05T22:20:00.002-07:00

It's a Fact
There is a story which states that when a journalist asked if it is true that only three people understood relativity in the world, Arthur Eddington replied, "Oh, Who's the 3rd?"(implying that the other two are Einstein and himself).

Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington.
`````(1882-1944)
~~~~~~~~~~~~The astronomer who "expanded" the Universe

Born : December 28, 1882 Kendal., England
Died : November 22, 1944 (aged 61) Cambridge, England
Residence : UK
Nationality : British Field : Astrophysicist
Institutions : University of Cambridge
Alma mater : University of Cambridge
Academic advisor : Horace Lamb
Notable students : Leslie Comrie
Known for: Eddington limit, Eddington number, Eddington-Dirac number
Notable prizes: Royal Society Royal Medal (1928)
Religion : Quaker

Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington was an English astronomer and physicist of the early twentieth century. He made groundbreaking research in astronomy, especially theoretical investigations into the interior of stars. Eddington was knighted in 1930 and received the Order of Merit in 1938.

When Germany went to war with Britain in 1914 the First World War started and this was caused by the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand by a Serbian anarchist. This war ended in 1919 and Germany was defeated by allies. In 1919 there was an English astronomer who vindicated a theory by a German physicist. The theory was General Relativity and the English scientist who proved this was none other than Sir Arthur Eddington. This was taken by the media as a reconciliation between the two countries after The Great War.

Eddington was awarded a natural science scholarship of 75 pounds a year to study at Trinity College, Cambridge University, which he entered in 1903. He graduated with Masters in 1905. Before the end of 1905, Eddington made the move to astronomy from mathematics with his appointment to a post at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich. Being appointed to fill a vacancy at the Royal Observatory he was immediately involved with a research project which had been underway since 1900 when photographic plates of Eros had been taken over the period of a year.

Eddington's first task was to complete the reduction of these photographic observations to determine an accurate value for the solar parallax. He developed a new statistical method based on the apparent drift of 2 background stars that won him a Smith's prize in 1907 and a Trinity College Fellowship. In 1913 Eddington was appointed to fill the vacant position of Plumian Professor of Astronomy at Cambridge University.

Originally the Plumian chair covered t e observational side of the astronomical research while the Lowndean chair s the other astronomy course which covered the theoretical side of Astronomy When the holder of the Lowndean chair, Robert Ball, died in 1913, Eddingto t ok over his post as well and was named the director of the entire Cambri ge ,bservatory the next year. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society slortlyafterwards. During World War I, Eddington refused military service, because of his pacifist views and Quaker tradition ideas. During this period of 1914-1918 he became interested in General Theory of Relativity. Eddington in 1919 wrote an article report on the relativity theory of gravitation, which introduced Einstein's general theory of relativity to the English speaking world.

After the war in 1919, Eddington travelled to the island of Principe near West Africa to watch the solar eclipse of May 29, 1919. During the eclipse he took pictures of the stars in the region around the sun. According to the theory of general relativity stars near the sun will appear to have been slightly shifted because their light will be curved by its gravitational field. This effect is only noticeable during an incident like an eclipse because sun's brightness obscures the nearby stars. Eddington's observations verified Einstein's theory, although on Eddington's part there were inaccuracies in some of the plates he developed. Nevertheless this verification was considered as proof of the validity of Einstein's theory and became a media sensation.Throughout his career Eddington lectured on relativity as well,and wrote the book "Mathematical Theory of relativity" in 1923, which Albert Einstein suggested was the finest presentation of the subject in any language.

Eddington strongly opposed the young Indian Physicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar about his theory on the maximum mass of stars known as white dwarfs, the mass above which the star collapses and becomes a neutron star, Quark star or a black hole. Chandrasekhar was later proven to be right and later shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1983 with William Fowler.

In later years Eddington became fascinated by the idea that intelligent creatures like man could mentally derive the appearance of the universe without actually observing more than a few fundamental relations of physics. It is thus possible that a single complex theory, using the measured values of various physical constant would allow prediction of everything that can be measured about the universe. Eddington came up with this theory which had not been widely accepted by the other physicists.

Ernest Rutherford

2012-04-03T03:47:00.002-07:00

It's a Fact
Rutherford had such a loud and a booming voice that he disturbed experiments in the Cavendish laboratory and other experimentalists had to hang up "Quiet Please" signs near experiment setups specially near Vivien Bowden's laboratory. Nick-named 'Crocodile' by fellow Nobel Physics Laureate, Peter Kapitza, Rutherford was a nononsense ,tough man. On the side of the Mond Laboratory at the site of the original Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, there is an engraving in Rutherford's memory in the form of a crocodile.

Sir Ernest Rutherford
``````````````````````````(1871-1937)
~~~~~~~Father of Nuclear Physics.

Born: August 30, 1871, Brightwater, New Zealand
Died: October 19, 1937 (aged 66) Cambridge, England
Residence: England
Nationality: New Zealand
Field: Physicist
Institutions: McGill University, University of Manchester
Alma mater: University of Canterbury, Cambridge University
Academic advisor:]. IThomson
Notable students: Hans Geiger, Niels Bohr, Charles Galton Darwin
Known for: Being "The Father" of Nuclear Physics
Notable prizes: Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1908 Copely Medal (1922)

Ernest Rutherford was a pioneering Physicist who became a Nobel Laureate for his work in Nuclear science. It is said that during his time in Cambridge he directly or indirectly influenced almost all the experimental physics that was done at Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge during first half of 20th century.

The creation of gold from metals like lead was a dream for medieval alchemists. In 1919 A New Zealand born physicist conducted an important experiment in nuclear physics by bombarding nitrogen gas with alpha particles and obtained an oxygen isotope . This was considered by some as a realization of alchemists dream .i.e. turning one element to another, and this was the first time an artificially induced nuclear reaction was performed. The physicist who spearheaded this experiment was Ernest Rutherford.

Ernest Rutherford was unique among experimentalists as the person who tackled any problem with the most simple, the most easy to implement and the most cost effective way. He once said "If your result needs a statistician then you should design a better experiment".

Ernest Rutherford was not fond of being called a chemist but wanted to be known as a physicist and made the comment, "In science there is only physics; all the rest is stamp collecting."

Rutherford was educated at Government schools and later at Nelson Collegiate School. In 1889 he was awarded a university scholarship and entered the Canterbury College( Now known as Canterbury University).He received his B.Sc. degree in 1894. After this he was awarded a 1851 Exhibition Science Scholarship that enabled him to go to Trinity College, Cambridge University to study under Sir J.J. Thompson. In 1898 Rutherford became a physics professor at McGill University in Canada. Rutherford returned to England in 1907 to become Longworthy Professor of physics at University of Manchester, and in 1919 accepted the Cavendish Chair at Cambridge.

In the summer of 1900 Rutherford travelled to New Zealand to marry Mary Newton. When their first daughter was born, he wrote to his mother that" ... it is suggested that I call her ' lone' , after my respect for ions in gases".

Rutherford started experimenting on Radioactivity in 1896. He identified the 3 main radioactive emissions and studied Alpha and Beta rays. He also named alpha and beta radiation and discovered Gamma radiation as well.He also found that Alpha particles are helium nuclei. His study of radiation led to his formulation of a theory on atomic structure, still accepted today. This model of the atom describes an atom having a very dense and very small nucleus ,around which electrons travel. This was proved experimentally by Rutherford with assistants , Geiger and Marsden, and is known as the famous Gold foil experiment. Rutherford was reputed to have stated that the idea of using nuclear reaction to generate useful power was "moonshine". This was heard by Leo Szilard ,a Hungarian physicist who was upset that one of his esteemed colleagues like Rutherford made such a comment. Later Szilard was a part of the team in the construction of the first Atomic Bomb, which proved Rutherford was wrong in a very destructive way.

Max karl planck

2012-03-28T23:28:00.002-07:00

It's a Fact
Max Planck had to endure suffering like no other modern scientist. His first wife died in 1909, and during 9/WI Planck's eldest son Karl was killed in action at Verdun. Both his daughters died white giving birth to children. His second son Erwin was taken prisoner by French during WWII and in 1944 was executed by Nazis because of his participation in an attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler. Planck was not Jewish but felt very disturbed with the atrocities committed against Jews by the Nazis. Planck thought it was the best thing to ignore these incidents and kept working on physics. It is said that Einstein never forgave Planck for not doing enough to counter Nazi activities in German universities.

Max karl planck
``````````(1858-1947)
~~~~~~Physicist Who Took the "Quantum Leap"

Born: April 23, 1858 Kiel, Germany
Died: October 4, 1947 (aged 89) Gottingen, Germany
Residence: Germany
Nationality: German
Field: Physicist and scientific administration
Institutions: University of Kiel Humboldt-Universitat zu Berlin Georg-August-Universitat Gottingen Kaiser-Wilhelm-GeselLschaft
Alma mater: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat Munchen
Academic advisor: Philipp von Jolly
Notable students: Gustav Ludwig Hertz, Erich Kretschmann, Walther Meigner, Walter Schottky, Max von Laue, Max Abraham, Moritz Schlick, Walther Bothe
Known for: Planck's constant quantum theory and black body radiation, plasma physics.
Notable prizes: Nobel Prize in Physics (1918)

Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck was a German theoretical physicist who discovered the Quantum Theory, one of the two greatest ideas of 20th century physics, the other being Einstein's relativity. Planck won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1918 for this discovery.

Quantum theory states that energy is emitted or absorbed in only discrete packets (that Planck called quanta) and not continuously as previously believed. Planck put forward his revolutionary idea in 1900. Few days before he put forward his revolutionary idea he took his son for a walk after lunch and told his son that he was writing a theory that is epoch making and compared it to Newton's groundbreaking work!!!

Only a handful of fellow scientists like Einstein recognized the importance of quantum theory and Planck was one of the earliest supporters of Einstein's work. It should be noted that when the Nobel Prize for physics of 1921 was awarded to Einstein specially for applying quantum theory to explain the photo electric effect (which is the emission of electrons from the surface of a metal when light is shone on the surface of the metal). It is said that Planck made two major discoveries in his life time. The quanta of energy and ion Albert Einstein.

Planck started conceiving this revolutionary idea around 1894 when he turned his attention to the problem of Black-body radiation, where he was commissioned by Electric companies to look for ways to create the most light from light bulbs, using minimum energy. In order to explain the black body problem Wilhelm Wien put forward Wien's Law and Lord Raleigh and Sir James Jeans proposed Raleigh-Jeans law. But Wien' s law broke down at low temperatures and worked in high temperatures. Raleigh-Jeans law only worked at low temperatures and not in high temperatures. In a "quantum Leap" of reasoning Planck combined the above two laws and derived a formula now known as Planck's Radiation Formula in 1900. Within several weeks Planck made a complete reasoning of his formula which renounced classical physics and introduced the idea of the quanta of energy. Most physicists believe this was the start of modern theoretical physics.

In 1905 the three epochal papers of the hitherto unknown Albert Einstein were published in the journal Annalen der Physik. Planck was among the few who immediately recognized the significance of the special theory of relativity. Thanks to Planck's influence this theory was soon widely accepted in Germany. Planck also contributed considerably to extend the special theory of relativity into theoretical physics.

During the 1930's Planck was not involved with Nazis and witnessed the atrocities inflicted upon Jewish community by Nazis. Planck did not support this activities and distanced himself. Later Einstein accused him of being too soft on the Nazi activities. Even during the WWI he was not involved with the war activities and said that his job is to propagate knowledge, not war.