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Why do we learn little about Mendeleev when compared to other science figures?
This is not a question about chemistry as a science, but as a school discipline.
Why is it that Mendeleev as a person is barely mentioned in chemistry courses compared to all the others, like Coulomb, Bohr, Planck, Heisenberg, Boyle, Avogadro, etc.?…
FinnTheHuman
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7
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Who first suggested, contra the central dogma, that "junk" DNA may perform epigenetic functions?
There were in last several years papers in Science regarding DNA that does not code for any protein ("junk" DNA) as having epigenetic aspects, namely, switching on and off other genes and thus affecting heredity without coding. In the twisted and…
Gottfried William
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Origin of battery symbol?
What is the origin of the symbol for a battery cell, consisting of a long line and a shorter line? Was it derived from voltaic cells composed of unequal sized disks?
Example of symbol resembling Voltaic pile with differently sized electrolyte…
jkien
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Cancer treatments development from research in Nazi Germany?
Were cancer treatments developed using knowledge obtained in Nazi Germany using practices which would have been considered unethical in liberal democracies of the same era?
Reluctant_Linux_User
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7
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When did the idea of naming asteroids after humans come about?
There are some trends to naming celestial objects:
Planets and moons in the solar system may be named after ancient Greek and Roman gods
Comets may be named after their discoverer
Asteroids may be named after humans.
I'm curious about the last…
HDE 226868
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7
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What is the origin of the terminology 'spin up/down'?
In my research area one seminal reference is H. Bethe, ''Zur Theorie der Metalle'', Z. Phys. 71 205 (1931), see also the English translation by T. C. Dorlas (2009). On page 206 of the original reference we read
Solange von der Wechselwirkung…
Jules Lamers
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7
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4 answers
Why are canonical coordinates canonical?
Canonical coordinates are
coordinates $q_i$ and $p_i$ in phase space that are used in the Hamiltonian formalism. The canonical coordinates satisfy the fundamental Poisson bracket relations:
\begin{equation}
\{q_i,q_j\} = 0, \quad \{p_i,p_j\} =…
Matta
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7
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When were the abbreviations of chemical elements standardized?
This is going to be tricky because the discovery/synthesis of elements has taken place over centuries. It might be best to restrict this purely to the elements contained on Dmitri Mendeleyev's table, but I'd let the community decide. It may be too…
HDE 226868
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7
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3 answers
source of "logistic growth"?
I've been trying to find the source of the name of the DE modelling population growth known as logistic growth, for some time: why "Logistic" ? So far all my attempts to research it have hit dead ends - very curious if any math/ French language…
Rax Adaam
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7
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Who first proved the "Cantor-Heine theorem" on uniform continuity?
The theorem is that any continuous function on a compact is uniformly continuous.
It is called "Heine", and sometimes also "Heine-Cantor" theorem.
My question is: what is the contribution of Cantor to this theorem, did Heine proved it after…
Phil-W
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7
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How did Einstein arrive at his field equations without the Bianchi identities or variational formulation?
When we introduce the Einstein equations in courses on General Relativity we use either the Bianchi indentity or the the variational principle to motivate the appearance of the Einstein…
Thomas
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7
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1 answer
Publishing the Principia
It is well-known that Newton's Principia was published by Halley at his own expense, and the story of writing, editing, printing, correction and proofreading is well described in Newton's biographies. However I cannot find some important…
Alexandre Eremenko
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7
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Latin academic positions
I was wondering if there was a standard system, at some point in history, for academic positions in Latin.
What I mean is that today each country has a standard system that names each academic position, for example in England if you are the head of…
mathgenius
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7
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Why did the ancient Greek count 1 in case of perfect numbers but not otherwise
In the mathematics of the ancient Greek 1 has not been considered to be a number. Nevertheless 1 counted as a divisor of perfect numbers like 6 = 1 + 2 + 3. Is there any explanation for this inconsistency?
Franz Kurz
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7
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Why do English volume units use base 2?
I would post this on Quora, since it is more of a "just wondering" sort of question, except that I much prefer StackExchange's platform:
As weird as Imperial units generally are, English volume units surprisingly make a lot of sense. I'm thinking…
Mike Williamson
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