Scientist of the day - Sir William Lawrence Bragg

Sir William Lawrence Bragg

William Lawrence Bragg was an Australian-British physicist, who won the Nobel Prize for Physics at the age of 25 and is the youngest ever Nobel Laureate in Physics so far. He and his father, William Henry Bragg, shared the ‘Nobel Prize for Physics’ awarded in 1915 for their work involving x-ray crystallography. Although he was a talented and able individual from an early age, it was assumed that his father had produced the bulk of the work and then generously shared the prize with his son for assisting him. But it was he who had the key idea and the skill to interpret the diffraction patterns to prove it and his father had contributed primarily developing instruments for the experiment. The effect of this slighting on him would shadow him for the rest of his life. He served for British army in both the World Wars and later became a popular lecturer known for his skill in making science exciting for the students. He enjoyed his job as a professor and most reports indicate he found happiness at the Royal Institute for perhaps the first time in his life. The foundation laid by his work and that of others in x-ray crystallography helped scientists to discover the structures of DNA and RNA, thereby creating the field of molecular biology. 

Childhood & Early Life

• He was born on March 31, 1890 in Adelaide, South Australia to Sir William Henry Bragg, a physicist, and his wife Lady Gwendoline Bragg. His father was a Professor of Mathematics and Physics at the University of Adelaide.
• He was the eldest of the three children. He had a younger brother, Robert Charles Bragg, who was killed in 1915 at Gallipoli, and a younger sister, Gwendoline Bragg Caroe.
• He had a keen interest in science and received his early education from the Queens Preparatory School, North Adelaide and St. Peter's College, Adelaide. He was a bright student and graduated from high school in 1904, at the age of 14.
• Later he enrolled at the Adelaide University to study d mathematics, chemistry and physics. He graduated in 1908, at an age when most boys were still in secondary school.
• In 1909, he attended the Trinity College, Cambridge, England and received a major scholarship in mathematics but after one year, he transferred to physics course, at the suggestion of his father. He continued his academic success by taking first class honors in Natural Science in 1912.

   

  Major Works

  • His most significant accomplishment is the Bragg’s Law, which he discovered along with his father. Bragg's Law makes it possible to calculate the positions of the atoms within a crystal from the way an X-ray beam is diffracted by the crystal lattice.
  • In 1948, while in Cambridge, he became interested in the structure of proteins. Although he played no direct part in the 1953 discovery of DNA's structure, his X-ray method developed forty years ago was at the heart of this profound insight into the nature of life itself.

     

    Awards & Achievements

    • In 1915, he was awarded the ‘Nobel Prize for Physics’ jointly with his father for their work in the analysis of crystal structure by means of X-rays, an important step in the development of X-ray crystallography. Until now, he is the youngest person ever to receive the Nobel Prize, at an age of 25.
    • He was honored as the ‘Knight of the British Empire’ by King George VI in the 1941 New Year Honours.
    • He received the ‘Royal Medal’ in 1946 and the ‘Copley Medal’ in 1966, both from the Royal Society.
    • Since 1992, the Australian Institute of Physics has awarded the Bragg Gold Medal for Excellence in Physics to commemorate him and his father, for the best doctorate thesis by a student at an Australian university.

       

      Personal Life & Legacy

      • On 10 December 1921, he married Alice Grace Jenny Hopkinson who pursued a successful career in municipal affairs in Cambridge. They were blessed with four children; Stephen Lawrence, David William, Margaret Alice and Patience Mary.
      • He loved spending time reading literature and painting alongwith a lifelong interest in gardening. His other interest was shell collecting; his personal collection amounted to specimens from some 500 species; all personally collected from South Australia.
      • He died on July 1, 1971 at a hospital near his home at Waldringfield, Ipswich, Suffolk. He was buried in Trinity College Chapel, Cambridge University, England.

      
      

      Trivia

      When he was five, he fell from his tricycle and broke his arm. His father used the newly discovered X-rays to examine his arm. It was the first recorded surgical use of X-rays in Australia.

     

   

 

Scientist of the day - Alexander Grothendieck

 

Alexander Grothendieck

Alexander Grothendieck was a German-born French mathematician who made significant contributions to algebraic geometry. One of the pioneers in the field of modern algebraic geometry, he added elements of commutative algebra, homological algebra, sheaf theory and category theory to its foundations. Regarded as one of the greatest pure mathematicians of the second half of the 20th century, he reformulated algebraic geometry so as to enable geometric methods to be applied to problems in number theory. Born in Germany, he moved to France with his mother during the World War II. His early life was very difficult, and he spent several years in camps for people displaced during the war. As a refugee child, he attended a secondary school founded by local Protestant pacifists and anti-war activists. He became fascinated with mathematics and received his higher education from University of Montpellier and University of Nancy. Soon he embarked on a very productive career as a mathematician and became a leading expert in the theory of topological vector spaces. He was a brilliant mathematician who made major contributions to algebraic geometry, number theory, topology, category theory and complex analysis. However, he abandoned his thriving academic career in the 1970s and retired into obscurity a few years later. 

Childhood & Early Life

• Alexander Grothendieck was born on 28 March 1928 in Berlin, Germany to anarchist parents. His mother’s name was Johanna "Hanka" Grothendieck and she was married to the journalist Johannes Raddatz at the time of Alexander’s birth. However, Alexander’s biological father was Alexander "Sascha" Schapiro (also known as Alexander Tanaroff). His mother’s marriage to Johannes Raddatz ended in 1929.
• He lived with his parents till 1933 when his father moved to Paris to evade Nazism. His mother too followed suit, leaving behind her little son in the care of Wilhelm Heydorn, a Lutheran pastor and teacher.
• Alexander went to France during the World War II in 1939 and lived with his mother in various camps for displaced people. They spent the later years of the war in the village of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, sheltered and hidden in local boarding houses. His father was killed in the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1942.
• He attended the Collège Cévenol (now known as the Le Collège-Lycée Cévenol International), a secondary school founded in 1938 by local Protestant pacifists and anti-war activists. It was at this school that he discovered his love for mathematics.
• After the war he studied mathematics at the University of Montpellier. Working on his own he rediscovered the Lebesgue measure, and conducted several independent studies over the next three years.
• In 1950 he moved to the University of Nancy where he wrote his dissertation under Laurent Schwartz and Jean Dieudonné in functional analysis and received his doctorate in 1953. By this time he had become a leading expert in the theory of topological vector spaces.
• From 1957 onwards, he shifted the focus of his studies to algebraic geometry and homological algebra.

  Major Works

  The most influential works of Alexander Grothendieck were in the field of algebraic geometry. His article, ‘Sur quelques points d'algèbre homologique’, also known as "Tôhoku paper" is considered to be one of his most important works. In this paper, he introduced abelian categories and applied their theory to show that sheaf cohomology can be defined as certain derived functors in this context.

  Personal Life & Legacy

  • Alexander Grothendieck was once married to a woman called Mireille Dufour and had three children with her.
  • He also had a son with his landlady during his time in Nancy and one child with a woman named Justine Skalba, with whom he lived in a commune in the early 1970s.
  • He became increasingly reclusive during the later years of his life. In 1991, Grothendieck moved to a new address which he shared with only a few of his contacts.
  • He died in the hospital of Saint-Girons, Ariège, on 13 November 2014, aged 86. At the time of his death, it was revealed that he had been living alone.

WORLD WATER DAY

 

World Water Day is held annually on 22 March as a means of focusing attention on the importance of freshwater and advocating for the sustainable management of freshwater resources.

An international day to celebrate freshwater was recommended at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro. The United Nations General Assembly responded by designating 22 March 1993 as the first World Water Day.

The United Nations General Assembly adopted resolution A/RES/47/193 of 22 December 1992 by which 22 March of each year was declared World Day for Water, to be observed starting in 1993, in conformity with the recommendations of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) contained in Chapter 18 (Fresh Water Resources) of Agenda 21.

States were invited to devote the Day, as appropriate in the national context, to concrete activities such as the promotion of public awareness through the production and dissemination of documentaries and the organization of conferences, round tables, seminars and expositions related to the conservation and development of water resources and the implementation of the recommendations of Agenda 21.

Why a World Water Day?

World Water Day is an international observance and an opportunity to learn more about water related issues, be inspired to tell others and take action to make a difference. Each year, UN-Water — the entity that coordinates the UN’s work on water and sanitation — sets a theme for World Water Day corresponding to a current or future challenge. The engagement campaign is coordinated by one or several of the UN-Water Members with a related mandate.

 

World Forestry Day

World Forestry Day or International Day of Forests is celebrated worldwide every year on 21^st of March at the international level in order to increase the public awareness among communities about the values, significance and contributions of the forests to balance the life cycle on the earth.

World Forestry Day 2016

World forestry day 2016 would be celebrated on 21^st of March, at Monday.

History of World Forestry Day

The World Forestry Day was established in the year 1971 at the 23^rd General Assembly of European Confederation of Agriculture. And it was decided to be celebrated as an annual event celebration on 21^st of March by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. World Forestry Day was established in the Conference of States members of Food and Agriculture Organization by voting to establish it. This event was originated in well planned manner to give support in contributing towards the public awareness about the importance of the forests.

International Day of Forests was first established in the year 2012 on 28^th of November to be celebrated on 21^st of March every year by the decision of the United Nations General Assembly by uniting the two international commemorations; the World Forestry Day and Forest Day.

Like other branches of the agriculture, forestry is also an important field which requires the public attention to be taken. It is very necessary for the common public to understand the forest value in our daily lives as a raw material source, local employment source as well as the national income source. Forests plays great role in gathering and releasing the water on the earth and maintain the flora and fauna habitat balance. Forests are the natural beauty on the earth which is very necessary to be conserved to go everything in balance.

Why World Forestry Day is Celebrated

Forests are very essential part of the life on Earth. They always fulfill the demands of the human beings by providing shadow, shelter, refreshment including clean air and water. In the modern world of growing global population increases the demands of forest products so the forests are at big risks of deforestation and degradation.

Forests are the complex living community of the trees which provides home and shelter to a big range of animals and the soil beneath it inhabit the variety of invertebrates, fungi and bacteria playing significant role in balancing the nutrients cycle in the soil and forest. World forestry day celebration provides a big opportunity to all the people to learn more about their contributions in maintaining the well-being of people. During this event celebration people share their views and ideas by working together to incorporate the forests into future climate change strategies.

According to the resources it has been noted that there is an annual loss of around 13 million hectares or 32 million acres of the forests by the people. Loss of the forests enhances the loss of inhabitant animal species to the forest. Deforestation imbalances the balance of natural climate which lead to the global warming by increasing the CO2 and decreasing the O2 percentage all across the world.

Almost 30% of the total land worldwide is occupied by the forests containing over 60,000 tree species which are ultimately the great resources of the food, fuel, fodder, essential oils, resins, latex, gums, medicines, fiber, water, woods for the population of around 1.6 billion poorest people of the world.

How World Forestry Day is Celebrated

World forestry day is celebrated every year by visiting the local forests in order to learn more about their contributions towards the well-being of people. The countries which are the forest-rich (occupying almost 2/3 of total forested area) includes Canada, the Russian Federation, Brazil, the United States, Democratic Republic of Congo, Australia, Indonesia, China, Peru and India.

Almost 1/3^rd of all the forests are considered as the primary forests where no any human activities are seen and the ecological processes are balanced. Around 6 million hectares of the forests are getting lost due to deforestation on annual basis.

During the event celebration the tree plantation campaign is encouraged among the common people through many activities. People are the main target of this campaign to get aware about the serious imbalance of food production and population explosion day by day including the contribution of forests in their lives. They get motivated towards the plantation in the nearby areas as well as stop the deforestation.

Earth Hour

 

Every year during Earth Hour, millions of people around the world join together to highlight the urgent need to address climate change. But this year, something is different.

For the first time in the fight against climate change, momentum is on our side. In December, leaders from 196 nations heeded the world’s collective call to act together with urgency to address climate change.

We have reached a turning point, but we still need your support to secure a low-carbon world. We know that it will take collective action from everyone—governments, businesses, communities and individuals—to turn the tide and stop the worst effects of a warming world.

Let’s keep the momentum going. On March 19 join the world in a historic lights-out display by turning off all non-essential lights at 8:30 p.m. your local time and recommit to the fight against climate change. Together, we can tackle climate change and create a future where people and nature thrive.

World Sleep Day

 

World Sleep Day is annually celebrated on Friday of the second full week in March. Originally this holiday was celebrated on March 14, but later it's date became movable.

The first World Sleep Day observation took place in 2008. The holiday was established by the World Sleep Day Committee of the World Association of Sleep Medicine aiming to celebrate the benefits of good and healthy sleep.

World Sleep Day features various events, like discussions, presentations, exhibitions etc. They are held to raise public awareness of social, medical and educational aspects of sleep problems. Sleep disorders and their prevention are paid particular attention and international health organizations remind people about the problems of lack of sleep and insomnia, calling humanity to a healthy way of life. More than 10% of the population of developed countries suffer from insomnia, and every second person on Earth has one or more symptoms of sleep disorders.

World Sleep Day helps not only raise awareness of sleep disorders. It also constitutes, that problems of sleep have reached the level of global epidemic and it threatens health and quality of life of as much as 45% of world's population

Inventor of the day - Alexander Graham Bell

Alexander Graham Bell

One of the greatest inventors of the late 19th century, Alexander Graham Bell is probably most famous for the invention of the telephone and the ‘Bell Telephone Company’, he formed soon after. Throughout his life, he sought to foster the advancement of scientific knowledge with his utmost dedication and sincere efforts. His career only began in earnest after his family moved from London, England to Ontario, Canada in an attempt to improve his health. He started as an elocution teacher for the deaf people where he worked tirelessly to spread an early form of sign language across America. He displayed his innovative talent with his invention of various sound recording and transmission devices. In his later years, his research interests shifted away from transmission devices to transport, including both aeronautics and experimental forms of boats that would later progress to become known as hydrofoils. His greatest achievement remains the invention of the telephone that has changed and continues to change the way people communicate around the world. He was a pioneer, who gifted mankind with one of the most astonishing and trailblazing discoveries in human history, the telephone. 

Childhood & Early Life

• He was born on March 3, 1847, in Edinburgh, Scotland, to Prof. Alexander Melville Bell and his wife Eliza Grace Symonds. He had two brothers—Melville James Bell and Edward Charles Bell—both of whom died of tuberculosis.
• His father taught elocution to the deaf and had developed what was called the ‘Visible Speech’ system to help deaf children learn to speak. He received most of his early education from his mother who was an unusually gifted painter and pianist, despite her deafness.
• Throughout his childhood, he spent short periods of time in traditional educational institutions including Edinburgh's Royal High School, which he left at the age of 15.
• He initially attended University of Edinburgh and then the University College, London, England, but did not receive a formal education comparable to his peers in Victorian Britain.
• In 1870, after the death of two of his brothers, the Bell family moved to Canada for the sake of his health. Expanding on his father's work of teaching deaf people to communicate, he began working on transmitting telephonic messages.

   

  Major Works

  • He is most famous for his pioneering work on the development of the telephone. He worked with Thomas Watson, his assistant, on the design and patent of the first practical telephone.
  • Many other inventions marked his later life including the refinement of the phonograph. His other exceptional works were in the field of hydrofoils and aeronautics. In all, he held 18 patents in his name alone and 12 that he shared with collaborators.
  • He was one of the founders of the National Geographic Society in 1888 and served as its president from 1896 to 1904.

     

    Awards & Achievements

    • In 1880, Bell received the Volta Prize with a purse of 50,000 francs for the invention of the telephone from the Académiefrançaise, representing the French government.
    • He received the Légion d'honneur (Legion of Honor) from the French government in 1881.
    • In 1902, The Society of Arts of London, England, awarded him the Albert Medal for his invention of the telephone.
    • In 1912, The Franklin Institute awarded him the Elliott Cresson Medal in the field of Engineering for "Electrical Transmission of Articulate Speech".
    • He was awarded the AIEE's Edison Medal in 1914 "For meritorious achievement in the invention of the telephone".
    • He also received at least a dozen honorary degrees from numerous academic institutions, including eight honorary LL.D.s (Doctorate of Laws), two PhD, a D.Sc. and an M.D.

       

      Personal Life & Legacy

      • In 1877, he married Mabel Hubbard, his deaf student, ten years his junior. She had become deaf at the age of five after contracting scarlet fever.
      • They had four children including two daughters; Elsie May Bell and Marian Hubbard Bell. Unfortunately, both their sons, Edward and Robert, died in infancy.
      • He died on August 2, 1922 at his private estate, Beinn Bhreagh, Nova Scotia, Canada due to complications from diabetics. On his funeral, every phone on the continent of North America was silenced in his honor for one minute.

World Consumer Rights Day 2016

 

World Consumer Rights Day
March 15, 2016 in the World

World Consumer Rights Day (WCRD) is an awareness day, which is observed on March 15, 2016. The WCRD was first celebrated in 1983 and became an important annual occasion for mobilizing citizen action and solidarity within the international consumer movement. The day is an opportunity for promoting the basic rights of all consumers, demanding that those rights are respected and protected and protesting about the market abuses and social injustices which undermine them.

The day takes place on 15 March to mark the definition of consumer rights, outlined by US President John F. Kennedy. He was the first world leader to set out a vision of consumer rights and he also recognized the importance of consumers as a group. Kennedy gave the American consumer four basic rights: the right to safety, to choose, to information and to be heard. The aim of WRCD is to celebrate solidarity within the international consumer rights movement.

The day is organized by Consumers International (CI), which is the world federation of consumer groups that serves as the only independent and authoritative global voice for consumers and was founded in 1960. Currently it has over 220 member organizations in 115 countries around the world.

Each year, the CI Council selects a theme for the following World Consumer Rights Day activities, for example: “Our money, our rights” in 2010, “Consumers and water” in 2004 or “Unethical Drug Promotion” in 2007. Around the world the day will be marked with local initiatives, including campaigns, press conferences, workshops and street events.

Commonwealth Day - 2016

The Commonwealth of Nations celebrate Commonwealth Day every year, on second Monday in March. The Commonwealth is an inter-governmental organization consisting of 52 former British colonies along with Rwanda and Mozambique, founded in 1959 and united by the Singapore Declaration of 1971. The Declaration outlines common goals for Commonwealth countries, including the promotion of democracy, human rights, egalitarianism and world peace. The Commonwealth is also connected through a shard culture, expressed through sports, literary heritage and political and legal structures. 

Commonwealth Day was marked for the first time as "Empire Day" on the last school day before Queen Victoria's birthday, 24th May, in 1898. In 1904 it was introduced in the UK and the other members of the erstwhile British Empire, and in 1958 it was renamed Commonwealth Day. It began as an opportunity for people to show pride in being the Queen's people, i.e. allegiance to the British Empire, and continued as a celebration of the new post-colonial relationship shared between Britain and its former colonies. It was often conflated with Victoria Day, which was a commemoration of the monarch's life marked with bonfires and fireworks. It was finally instituted as a Commonwealth-wide holiday in 1976, based on a recommendation by the Royal Commonwealth Society's National Council in Canada. The second Monday in March was chosen as a day with no existing historical connotations. 

While Commonwealth Day is not a public holiday, the Canadian federal government orders government installations worldwide, such as federal buildings, airports, military bases etc. to fly the Royal Union Flag alongside Canada's own flag on this day. There is a multi-faith service at Westminster Abbey, usually where the Queen delivers an address to Commonwealth which is broadcast throughout the world. In Canada, the Prime Minister and other ministers make statements as well. Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, Jason Kenney noted in 2012, "Our historical Commonwealth ties have provided Canada with many of the fundamental values that are at the foundation of our society, such as freedom, democracy, and the rule of law." The Prime Minister called it an "opportunity to celebrate the strong bonds of cooperation and friendship that exist among the 54 countries that form the Commonwealth." 2012 has special significance since it is also the 60th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's rule. Apart from governmental observances however, it is not a widely celebrated holiday, though sometimes there are receptions and exhibitions held in the honor of the Commonwealth. 

Certain other countries like the UK, Australia, Belize and the Bahamas also celebrate Commonwealth Day with special programs, assemblies and flag-raising ceremonies in schools. Overall, the day is observed to mark the contribution of the Commonwealth of Nations to the creation of a harmonious global environment

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