By Frank Ashall
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Page ii Also of interest in popular science Hard to Swallow: A brief history of food RICHARD LACEY An Inventor in the Garden of Eden ERIC LAITHWAITE The Outer Reaches of Life JOHN POSTGATE Prometheus Bound JOHN ZIMAN Page iii Remarkable Discoveries! / Frank Ashall. p. cm. Discoveries in science. Title. D57A78 1994 509dc20 93-46796 CIP ISBN 0 521 43317 7 hardback eISBN 0511001614 virtual (netLibrary Edition) Page v To my daugher, Etty, and all children of her generation Page vii Contents Preface ix Useful Information xii 1 The Father of Electricity 1 2 One Giant Leap for Mankind 17 3 Medicine's Marvellous Rays 27 4 Things That Glow in the Dark 35 5 Parcels of Light 47 6 Dr Einstein's Fountain Pen 61 7 The Big Bang, or How It All Began 79 8 Molecular Soccerballs 93 9 Jostling Plates, Volcanoes and Earthquakes 105 10 Soda Water, Phlogiston and Lavoisier's Oxygen 121 11 Of Beer, Vinegar, Milk, Silk and Germs 131 12 Of Milkmaids, Chickens and Mad Dogs 153 13 Malaria's Cunning Seeds 171 14 Penicillin from Pure Pursuits 183 15 DNA, the Alphabet of Life 199 16 Cutting DNA with Molecular Scissors 219 17 DNA, the Molecular Detective 233 18 Magic Bullets 247 Further Reading 267 Index 275 Page ix Preface Scientists have a responsibility to inform the public about the good that basic scientific research has done and can do for humanity, and to educate everyone about the wonderful workings of Nature.
William Gilbert (15441603), who was physician to Queen Elizabeth I of England, was one of the first scientists to investigate thoroughly and systematically the scientific basis of magnetism. He demonstrated elegantly that a compass needle not only points in a north-south direction but also dips downwards. He shaped a piece of magnetic lodestone into the form of a sphere to mimic the Earth and discovered that a compass needle pointed in one direction only and also dipped when it was placed near to the sphere.
When a current flows through the wire it is conducted Page 9 by the mercury so that a complete electric circuit is created. The vertically fixed wire becomes a magnet by electromagnetic induction. When the magnetic field around this wire interacts with the pivoted magnet, the magnet is made to move around the wire in a circular motion. Figure 1. On the left a pivoted magnet was made to rotate around a fixed wire when a current flowed through the apparatus; on the right, a freely suspended wire was made to rotate around a fixed magnet.