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May 15, 1953: Cookin’ Up Some Primordial Soup
1953: Stanley Miller, just 23 years old, publishes his landmark work on the production of amino acids, a necessary component of life, in a jar. The slight, 800-word paper — accompanied by just two...
View ArticleJuly 27, 1888: Electric Tricycle Jolts Proper Bostonians
1888: Philip W. Pratt demonstrates the very first American electric tricycle. Pratt’s e-trike was built for him by Fred M. Kimball of, naturally, the Fred M. Kimball Company. Pratt took the editor of...
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Oct. 19, 1941: Electric Turbines Get First Wind
The giant turbine in Vermont was the first wind machine to feed the electrical grid. And then, disaster struck.
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Nov. 11, 1930: Einstein Gets Ice Cold
Some say the world will end in fire; some say in ice ... chests. Two pioneering physicists delve from the highly theoretical down to the mundane world of refrigerators.
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Dec. 11, 1997: World Signs Onto Kyoto Protocol
1997: Negotiators from every country in the world agree on a deal to cut the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. After years of global negotiations and more than a week of round-the-clock meetings in...
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Feb. 23, 1987: ‘Quintessential’ Supernova Bursts on the Scene
Light from the brightest supernova of the 20th century reaches Earth from 168,000 light-years away.
View ArticleMarch 22, 1995: Longest Human Space Adventure Ends
1995: Cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov returns to Earth from the longest-ever stay in space by a human. He spent just over 437 days in the Mir space station. Thanks to a strenuous workout regimen, he returned...
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May 6, 1953: The Heart-Machine Age Begins
1953: Philadelphia surgeon John H. Gibbon Jr. performs the first successful human-heart surgery assisted by a heart-lung machine. For 26 minutes, Gibbon unhooked his patient’s heart from its usual...
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June 3, 1889: Power Flows Long-Distance
1889: The first long-distance transmission of electricity takes place, linking a powerhouse at Willamette Falls to a string of lights in Portland, Oregon, 14 miles to the west. The power lines...
View ArticleSept. 2, 1859: Telegraphs Run on Electric Air in Crazy Magnetic Storm
1859: A magnetic explosion on the sun causes bright auroras on Earth and upends the the fledgling telegraph network. On Sept. 2, 1859, at the telegraph office at No. 31 State Street in Boston at 9:30...
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A Writer’s Plea: Figure Out How to Preserve Google Books
The dispute over Google Books continues to rage in the courts and op-ed pages of the country. There are legitimate questions about Google, profit sharing and privacy. But let’s not let the litigation...
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