Tag Archives: science

September 20, 1995

Posted on September 20, 2019 by Joel Byers

On September 20, 1995, the US House of Representatives voted to do away with the national speed limit and allow the States to set their own. States like Wyoming, Montana and California were ecstatic, since on many of their highways a majority of drivers ignored the 55 mph maximum anyway. Hill Valley, California did establish … Continue reading →

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August 12, 1865

Posted on August 12, 2019 by Joel Byers

On August 12, 1865, British surgeon, Dr. Joseph Lister used a disinfectant for the first time during surgery. Not only did he use carbolic acid to sterilize the patient’s wound, but he also used it to sterilize his surgical equipment, which was practically unheard of at the time. They used to think that just scraping … Continue reading →

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July 25, 2017

Posted on July 25, 2019 by Joel Byers

On July 25, 2017, the scientific journal, “Human Reproduction Update” reported that sperm counts in the western World have halved in the last forty years. The researchers stated that they aren’t sure why this has happened, but in Britain, it really seems to be extremely pronounced in men who voted for Brexit.

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July 11, 2011

Posted on July 11, 2019 by Joel Byers

On July 11, 2011, the planet Neptune completed its first orbit around the sun since it was discovered by Johann Gottfried Galle on September 23, 1846. It only took Neptune 165 years or 60,182 Earth days to complete a Neptunian year. In the time it took Neptune to make one complete orbit, the people of … Continue reading →

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June 19, 240 BCE

Posted on June 19, 2019 by Joel Byers

On June 19, 240 BCE Eratosthenes estimated the circumference of the Earth using a well in Syene and a stick at Alexandria and some simple geometry. He’d previously noted that on the summer solstice, in a well at Syene, you could see the reflection of the sun at noon. The well was sufficiently deep enough … Continue reading →

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June 13, 2013

Posted on June 13, 2019 by Joel Byers

On June 13, 2013, the US Supreme Court ruled that naturally occurring DNA segments were not patent eligible just because some firm or company or individual had isolated it. Synthetically created DNA segments, on the other hand, were eligible for patents, since they did not occur naturally. Myriad Genetics, a Utah biotech company had discovered … Continue reading →

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June 4, 1876

Posted on June 4, 2019 by Joel Byers

On June 4, 1876, an express train, called the Transcontinental Express, arrived in San Francisco 83 hours and 39 minutes (3 days and 12 hours) after leaving New York City. To put this in perspective, the wagon trains of the 1840s and 1850s, with good weather, would take about five months to make the 2,000 … Continue reading →

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March 6, 1665

Posted on March 6, 2019 by Joel Byers

On March 6, 1665, Henry Oldenburg, the first Secretary of the Royal Society, published the first issue of ‘Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society’, the world’s longest-running scientific journal. Young Mary Billington was the first centerfold and her turn-offs consisted of The Plague, beer with arsenic in it, and Tad Thaddeus, the baker’s son, who … Continue reading →

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January 12, 1998

Posted on January 12, 2019 by Joel Byers

On January 12, 1998, nineteen nations decided to ban the cloning of humans. The Council of Europe issued an amendment to its ‘Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine”, where it and its member nations prohibit any intervention seeking to create a human being identical to another human being, whether living or dead. Russia, not being … Continue reading →

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January 10, 1946

Posted on January 10, 2019 by Joel Byers

On January 10, 1946, Project Diana was successfully completed. The United States Army Signal Corps bounced radio waves off the Moon and received the reflected signals, thereby proving that the Moon was real and probably not made of brie, green or otherwise. Flat Earthers cried foul, claiming that the US Army’s science was inadmissible, as … Continue reading →

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