Monthly Archives: March 2018

Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier — March 21 is Jean Baptiste Fourier’s birthday. Fourier was a French mathematical physicist who is best known for the Fourier series. The Fourier series is a method to express any general periodic function into an infinite sum of simple sine and cosine expressions. Converting a periodic function into an infinitely […]

Today in Science History – March 21 – Jean Baptiste ...

This entry was posted on March 20, 2018 by Todd Helmenstine (updated on May 10, 2021)

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This entry was posted on March 20, 2018 by Todd Helmenstine (updated on June 24, 2022)

Julius Robert von Mayer — March 20 marks the passing of Julius Robert von Mayer. Mayer was a German physician who had a hobby of studying physics. Most of his work centered around how energy was transferred from one form to another. He was one of the first to recognize that plants converted light into […]

Today in Science History – March 20 – Julius Robert ...

This entry was posted on March 19, 2018 by Todd Helmenstine (updated on May 10, 2021)

Norman Haworth — March 19 is Walter (Norman) Haworth’s birthday. Haworth was a British chemist who was awarded half the 1937 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his contributions to carbohydrate chemistry and the synthesis of ascorbic acid, also known as vitamin C. Prior to Haworth’s work, many chemists believed sugars were linear chains […]

Today in Science History – March 19 – Walter Haworth ...

This entry was posted on March 18, 2018 by Todd Helmenstine (updated on September 4, 2021)

Marcellin Berthelot — March 18 marks the passing of Marcellin Berthelot. Berthelot was a French chemist who believed all chemical reactions depended on the action of physical forces that could be measured. Berthelot was also partly responsible for the end of the vitalism theory of organic chemistry. Vitalism theory was based on the […]

Today in Science History – March 18 – Marcellin Berthelot

This entry was posted on March 17, 2018 by Todd Helmenstine (updated on May 10, 2021)

Christian Doppler — March 17 marks the passing of Austrian physicist Christian Doppler, best known for the Doppler effect. Doppler wrote in a paper titled “On the Colored Light of Double Stars and Certain Other Stars of the Heavens” an explanation for the apparent color change of the frequencies of light from stars. […]

Today in Science History – March 17 – Christian Doppler

This entry was posted on March 16, 2018 by Todd Helmenstine (updated on May 3, 2023)

Heinrich Kayser — March 16 is Heinrich Kayser’s birthday. Kayser was a German chemist who worked with German mathematician Carl Runge on identifying the spectra of the elements. Kayser noticed that the intensity of the spectral lines of many elements tended to group together in mathematical series. Both men worked together to develop […]

Today in Science History – March 16 – Heinrich Kayser

This entry was posted on March 15, 2018 by Todd Helmenstine (updated on May 10, 2021)

Johann Josef Loschmidt — March 15 is Johann Josef Loschmidt’s birthday. Loschmidt was a Bohemian physical chemist best known for determining the size of air molecules. Some could argue he was the first to suggest molecules could be formed by rings of carbon atoms, like benzene. His work would influence many other scientists who […]

Today in Science History – March 15 – Josef Loschmidt ...

This entry was posted on March 14, 2018 by Todd Helmenstine (updated on May 10, 2021)

Thomas Willson — March 14 is Thomas “Carbide” Willson’s birthday. Wilson was a Canadian chemist and inventor that is known for the discovery of the industrial process to produce calcium carbide and its byproduct, acetylene. The discovery of his process was also a byproduct. He was attempting to discover an inexpensive method to […]

Today in Science History – March 14 – Thomas Leopold ...

This entry was posted on March 13, 2018 by Todd Helmenstine (updated on October 25, 2023)