December 21, 1898: Pierre & Marie Curie, French scientists, discovered radioactive element radium. Curium, element 96, is named in honor of both Pierre & Marie Curie. The curie is the international unit of measurement for radioactivity. Although originally defined as the radioactivity of 1 gram of pure radium, it is now specified as 3.7 x 10 to the 10th power atomic disintegrations per second or 37 gigabecquerels. December 21, 1995: Occidental Chemical agreed to pay $129 million to the federal government “superfund” to cover toxic waste cleanup costs at Love Canal in Niagara Falls, NY. Twenty years earlier, Love Canal was subject of national & international attention after it was revealed that the site had formerly been used to bury 21,000 tons of toxic waste by Hooker Chemical (now Occidental Chemical). December 21, 1972: U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), which outlawed all commercial whaling & established strict limits on the taking of seals, became effective. MMPA defines take as the act of hunting, killing, capture, and/or harassment of any marine mammal; or, the attempt at such. MMPA defines harassment as any act of pursuit, torment or annoyance which has the potential to either: a. injure a marine mammal in the wild, or b. disturb a marine mammal by causing disruption of behavioral patterns, which includes, but is not limited to, migration, breathing, nursing, breeding, feeding, or sheltering. It was first act of Congress to call specifically for an ecosystem approach to natural resource management conservation. December 21, 1946: Undersea earthquake (8.5-magnitude) created powerful tsunami that devastated Honshu (main island of Japan), where 1,086 people died. When tsunami hit, 20-foot waves obliterated 40,000 homes & buildings, 2,000 ships were capsized, & 60,000 square miles were flooded. December 21, 1910: Coal mine explosion occurred in Hulton, England; where 344 miners died. Damaged safety lamp ignited methane/firedamp, which triggered a devastating coal dust explosion in the Pretoria coal mine. December 21, 1904: Tom Bacon, English mechanical engineer, was born. He pioneered first modern hydrogen-oxygen fuel cells, which electrochemically convert air & fuel directly into electricity. This principle had been first observed by Sir William Grove when he supplied oxygen & hydrogen to platinum electrodes immersed in sulfuric acid & a current was produced in an external circuit. It remained a curiosity until Bacon began serious research for proposed application in submarines. When fuel cells were used by U.S. Apollo space vehicles, they could both provide in-flight power & clean drinking water (by-product of the electrochemical reaction). December 21, 1890: Hermann Muller, American geneticist, was born. He demonstrated that mutations & hereditary changes could be caused by X-rays striking genes & chromosomes of living cells. He developed genetic experiments whereby nearly 100 per cent of the offspring of irradiated flies showed mutations. December 21, 1868: George Fuller, American sanitary engineer, was born. Trained in both bacteriology & chemistry, he was regarded as the greatest sanitary engineer of his time. Fuller’s basic designs for water filtration & chlorination systems and sanitary sewage treatment are still in use today.
Posted on: Sun, 21 Dec 2014 12:06:18 +0000
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