Gyaat

Monday 23 February 2015

This prince of mathematics found his own date of birth!!!

He was a German mathematician who contributed significantly to many fields, including number theory, algebra, statistics, analysis, differential geometry, geodesy, geophysics, electrostatics, astronomy, matrix theory, and optics.

Sometimes referred to as the Princeps mathematicorum (Latin, "the Prince of Mathematicians" or "the foremost of mathematicians") and "greatest mathematician since antiquity", he had a remarkable influence in many fields of mathematics and science and is ranked as one of history's most influential mathematicians.

He was born to poor working-class parents. His mother was illiterate and never recorded the date of his birth, remembering only that he had been born on a Wednesday, eight days before the Feast of the Ascension, which itself occurs 40 days after Easter. He would later solve this puzzle about his birthdate in the context of finding the date of Easter, deriving methods to compute the date in both past and future years.

Read more & watch the video...: Gyaat:This prince of mathematics found his own date of birth!!!

Saturday 21 February 2015

This inspiration for wonder-woman had 3 degrees when girls were restricted in education!

She was an American psychologist. She was involved in various ways in the creation of the comic book character Wonder Woman in the early 1940s with her husband, William Moulton Marston (pen name Charles Moulton). She also participated with Marston in the development of the systolic blood-pressure test used to detect deception.

As noted by Boston University, "In an era when few women earned higher degrees, she received three." She received her B.A. in psychology from Mount Holyoke College in 1915 and would have liked to go on to join her then-fiance, William Marston, at Harvard Law School. However, according to an interview she gave to the New York Times in 1992, "Those dumb bunnies at Harvard wouldn't take women [...] so I went to Boston University."

According to her granddaughter, Susan Grupposo, when she asked her father to support her through law school, "He told her: 'Absolutely not. As long as I have money to keep you in aprons, you can stay home with your mother.' Undeterred, she peddled cookbooks to the local ladies' clubs. She needed $100 for her tuition, and by the end of the summer she had it. She married Marston that September, but still she paid her own way."

She received her LL.B from the Boston University School of Law in 1918, and was "one of three women to graduate from the School of Law that year. [She later stated] 'I finished the [Massachusetts Bar] exam in nothing flat and had to go out and sit on the stairs waiting for Bill Marston and another Harvard man . . . to finish.'"

Wednesday 18 February 2015

These are the EPONYMS behind VOLT and GALVANO !!!

He was an Italian physicist known for the invention of the battery in the 1800s. In 1774, he became a professor of physics at the Royal School in Como. A year later, he improved and popularized the electrophorus, a device that produced static electricity. His promotion of it was so extensive that he is often credited with its invention, even though a machine operating on the same principle was described in 1762 by the Swedish experimenter Johan Wilcke.

In the years between 1776–78, He studied the chemistry of gases. He discovered methane, and Volta searched for it carefully in Italy. He devised experiments such as the ignition of methane by an electric spark in a closed vessel.

He invented the voltaic pile, an early electric battery, which produced a steady electric current. He had determined that the most effective pair of dissimilar metals to produce electricity was zinc and silver.

Read more & watch the video...: Gyaat:These are the EPONYMS behind VOLT and GALVANO !!!

Tuesday 17 February 2015

He literally gave the digital world keys through his literary piano in 19th century!!!

Christopher Latham Sholes (February 14, 1819 – February 17, 1890) was an American inventor who invented the first practical typewriter and the QWERTY keyboard still in use today. He was also a newspaper publisher and Wisconsin politician. Born in Mooresburge, Pennsylvania, Sholes moved to nearby Danville, Pennsylvania and worked there as an apprentice to a printer. After completing his apprenticeship, Sholes moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1837, and later to Southport, Wisconsin (present-day Kenosha). He became a newspaper publisher and politician, serving in the Wisconsin State Senate from 1848-1849 as a Democrat, in the Wisconsin State Assembly from 1852-1853 as a Free Soiler, and again in the Senate as a Republican from 1856–1857.

Typewriters had been invented as early as 1714 by Henry Mill and reinvented in various forms throughout the 1800s. It was to be Sholes, however, who invented the first one to be commercially successful.

Monday 16 February 2015

This super-sharp genius pioneered and invented terms in various diverse areas like biology & statistics !!!

The best form of civilization in respect to the improvement of the race, would be one in which society was not costly; where incomes were chiefly derived from professional sources, and not much through inheritance; where every lad had a chance of showing his abilities, and, if highly gifted, was enabled to achieve a first-class education and entrance into professional life, by the liberal help of the exhibitions and scholarships which he had gained in his early youth; where marriage was held in as high honour as in ancient Jewish times; where the pride of race was encouraged (of course I do not refer to the nonsensical sentiment of the present day, that goes under that name); where the weak could find a welcome and a refuge in celibate monasteries or sisterhoods, and lastly, where the better sort of emigrants and refugees from other lands were invited and welcomed, and their descendants naturalized - Sir Francis Galton envisaged a situation conducive to resilient and enduring civilization. - Sir Francis Galton (16 February 1822 – 17 January 1911) was an English Victorian polymath: anthropologist, eugenicist,tropical explorer, geographer, inventor, meteorologist, proto-geneticist, psychometrician, and statistician.

Saturday 14 February 2015

Why is VALENTINE'S DAY celebrated & what is its RELEVANCE ANYWAY ???

Saint Valentine's Day, also known as Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is observed on February 14 each year. It is celebrated in many countries around the world, although it is not a holiday in most of them. St. Valentine's Day began as a liturgical celebration of one or more early Christian saints named Valentinus. Several martyrdom stories were invented for the various Valentines that belonged to February 14, and added to later martyrologies.

A popular hagiographical account of Saint Valentine of Rome states that he was imprisoned for performing weddings for soldiers who were forbidden to marry and for ministering to Christians, who were persecuted under the Roman Empire. According to legend, during his imprisonment, he healed the daughter of his jailer, Asterius. An embellishment to this story states that before his execution he wrote her a letter signed "Your Valentine" as a farewell.

Read more & watch the video: Gyaat:Why is VALENTINE'S DAY celebrated & what is its RELEVANCE ANYWAY ???

Friday 13 February 2015

The name NIGHTINGALE describes just a little of this versatile, free thinking leader !!

She was known by the sobriquet as The Nightingale of India, was a child prodigy, Indian independence activist and poet. She served as the first governor of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh from 1947 to 1949;the first woman to become the governor of an Indian state. She was the second woman to become the president of the Indian National Congress in 1925 and the first Indian woman to do so.

She met Govindarajulu Naidu, a doctor by profession, and at the age of 19, after finishing her studies, she got married to him. At this time, inter-caste marriages were not allowed, but her father approved the marriage.

She joined the Indian national movement in the wake of partition of Bengal in 1905. She came into contact with Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Rabindranath Tagore, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Annie Besant, C. P. Ramaswami Iyer, Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. She played a leading role during the Civil Disobedience Movement and was jailed along with Gandhi and other leaders. She was Sarojini Naidu.

Thursday 12 February 2015

This 17th Century Naturalist first observe RBC & pioneered various studies in entomology despite difficulties!!!

He was a Dutch biologist and microscopist. His work on insects demonstrated that the various phases during the life of an insect—egg, larva, pupa, and adult—are different forms of the same animal. As part of his anatomical research, he carried out experiments on muscle contraction. In 1658, he was the first to observe and describe red blood cells. He was one of the first people to use the microscope in dissections, and his techniques remained useful for hundreds of years.

His father cut off his financial support for Swammerdam's entomological studies. As a result, Swammerdam was forced, at least occasionally, to practice medicine in order to finance his own research.

Despite five intense years of beekeeping, the mode of honey bee reproduction escaped him as he wrote, "I do not believe the male bees actually copulate with the females."

Wednesday 11 February 2015

There is no expedient to which a man will not resort to avoid the real labor of thinking

He was born in Milan, Ohio, and grew up in Port Huron, Michigan. In school, the his mind often wandered, and his teacher, the Reverend Engle, was overheard calling him "addled". This ended his three months of official schooling. Recalling later, "My mother was the making of me. She was so true, so sure of me; and I felt I had something to live for, someone I must not disappoint." His mother taught him at home.

He developed hearing problems at an early age. The cause of his deafness has been attributed to a bout of scarlet fever during childhood and recurring untreated middle-ear infections. He sold candy and newspapers on trains running from Port Huron to Detroit, and sold vegetables to supplement his income.

He also studied qualitative analysis, and conducted chemical experiments on the train until an accident prohibited further work of the kind.

He had long streak of entrepreneurial ventures, as he discovered his talents as a businessman. These talents eventually led him to found 14 companies, including General Electric, which is still one of the largest publicly traded companies in the world.

He was THOMAS ALVA EDISON !!!

Tuesday 10 February 2015

This inventor of X-RAYS studied unconventionally !

Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen was a German physicist, who, on 8 November 1895,produced and detected electromagnetic radiation in a wavelength range today that was known as X-rays or Röntgen rays, an achievement that earned him the first Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901. In honour of his accomplishments, in 2004 the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry(IUPAC) named element 111, roentgenium, a radioactive element with multiple unstable isotopes, after him.

In 1865, he tried to attend the University of Utrecht without having the necessary credentials required for a regular student. Röntgen's original paper, "On A New Kind Of Rays" (Über eine neue Art von Strahlen), was published on 28 December 1895. On 5 January 1896, an Austrian newspaper reported Röntgen's discovery of a new type of radiation. Röntgen was awarded an honorary Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Würzburg after his discovery. He published a total of three papers on X-rays between 1895 and 1897. Today, Röntgen is considered the father of diagnostic radiology, the medical speciality which uses imaging to diagnose disease.

Read more & watch the video: Gyaat:This inventor of X-RAYS studied unconventionally !

Monday 9 February 2015

This Gardener sowed & reaped fruits with utter determination with grit to make an inspiring life story!!!

Christopher Gardener is an American entrepreneur, investor, stockbroker, motivational speaker, author, and philanthropist who, during the early 1980s, struggled with homelessness while raising his toddler son.

In 1987, Gardner established the brokerage firm, Gardner Rich & Co, in Chicago, Illinois, an "institutional brokerage firm specializing in the execution of debt, equity and derivative products transactions for some of the nation’s largest institutions, public pension plans and unions." His new company was started in his small Presidential Towers apartment, with start-up capital of $10,000 and a single piece of furniture: a wooden desk that doubled as the family dinner table.

Friday 6 February 2015

Wishing the Father of Social media websites on his birthday!!!

He is a Turkish software engineer who developed the famous social networking services of his time. He received both a M.S. and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Stanford University. His research at Stanford focused on Web search and efficient PDA usage. He introduced his first social network, named Club Nexus at Stanford in the fall of 2001. Club Nexus was the first college-specific social network.

It was a system built to serve the networking and communication needs of the Stanford online community. Students could use Club Nexus to send e-mail and invitations, chat, post events, buy and sell used goods, search for people with similar interests, place personals, display their artwork or post editorial columns. Within a few months of its introduction, Club Nexus attracted over 2,000 undergraduates. He said: "My dream was to connect all the Internet users so they can relate to each other, it can make such a difference in people's lives."

Currently, he is a product manager at Google. He also is a certified masseuse, an avid ballroom dancer and likes to make chocolate fondue. His webiste was shut down September 30, 2014.

Thursday 5 February 2015

In an attempt to try his son's tricycle; this doctor changed composition of wheels!!!

He studied veterinary medicine at the Dick Vet, University of Edinburgh. He pursued veternary profession for nearly ten years at home. He was one of the founders of the rubber company.

Observing his son having trouble with tricycle; in 1887, he developed first practical pneumatic or inflatable tyre for his son's tricycle, fitting it to a wooden disc 96cm across in the yard of his home in Belfast. The tyre was an inflated tube of sheet rubber. He then took his wheel and a metal wheel from his son's tricycle and rolled both across the yard together.

His development of the pneumatic tyre arrived at a crucial time in the development of road transport.

The materials of modern pneumatic tires are synthetic rubber, natural rubber, fabric and wire, along with carbon black and other chemical compounds. A tire carcass is composed of several parts: the tread, tread lug, tread void, rain groove, sipe, wear bar, bead, sidewall, shoulder, and ply.

Wednesday 4 February 2015

Realizing the importance of this Physicist's work; Einstein got the polygot's work published!!!

He was an Indian physicist specializing in mathematical physics. He is best known for his work on quantum mechanics in the early 1920s. A self-taught scholar and a polyglot, he had a wide range of interests in varied fields including physics, mathematics, chemistry, biology, mineralogy, philosophy, arts, literature and music.

As a polyglot, he was well versed in several languages such as Bengali, English, French, German and Sanskrit as well as the poetry of Lord Tennyson, Rabindranath Tagore and Kalidasa. He could also play the esraj, a musical instrument similar to a violin.

Along with Meghnad Saha, he prepared the first book in English based on German and French translations of original papers on Einstein's special and general relativity in 1919.

Though not accepted at once for publication, he sent the article(a paper deriving Planck's quantum radiation law without any reference to classical physics by using a novel way of counting states with identical particles) directly to Albert Einstein in Germany. Einstein, recognising the importance of the paper, translated it into German himself and submitted it on his behalf to the prestigious Zeitschrift für Physik. As a result of this recognition, he was able to work for two years in European X-ray and crystallography laboratories, during which he worked with Louis de Broglie, Marie Curie, and Einstein.

Monday 2 February 2015

Though denied by university of Moscow; he stunned the world with his table & used Sanskrit to attribute it's due stature!!!

He was a Russian chemist and inventor. He formulated the Periodic Law, created his own version of the periodic table of elements, and used it to correct the properties of some already discovered elements and also to predict the properties of eight elements yet to be discovered.

He born in the village of Verkhnie Aremzyani, near Tobolsk in Siberia. The university in Moscow did not accept him.

He quoted ,"I saw in a dream a table where all elements fell into place as required. Awakening, I immediately wrote it down on a piece of paper, only in one place did a correction later seem necessary."

By giving Sanskrit names to his "missing" elements, he showed his appreciation and debt to the Sanskrit grammarians of ancient India, who had created sophisticated theories of language based on their discovery of the two-dimensional patterns in basic sounds.

Sunday 1 February 2015

International Seminar on "Role of E-Learning in Quality Education" on 22-23 February, 2015 at RH Government PG College Kashipur, Udham Singh Nagar, Uttarakhand

The participants are requested to send their abstracts in about 200-250 wordson or before 1st February 2015 and full papers in English or Hindi on or before 10thFebruary 2015 through E-mail to nshuklan@gmail.com.
Theme

Role of E-learning in Quality Education

Sub-themes

Right to education act 2009
Information and Communication Technology
Open and Distance Learning
Inclusive special Education of children with special needs
Role of print and Electronic media in enhancing Quality education
Financing in Education
Curriculum designing and Quality assessment
Use of ICT in various subjects
Role of E-Learning in Electronic Blended Learning
Read Complete information here: Gyaat:International Seminar on "Role of E-Learning in Quality Education" on 22-23 February, 2015 at RH Government PG College Kashipur, Udham Singh Nagar, Uttarakhand

Friday 30 January 2015

If only 'MOUSE' was not invented; this guy pioneered the term bootstrapping in twentieth century!!!

He was an American engineer and inventor, and an early computer and Internet pioneer. He is best known for his work on the challenges of human–computer interaction, particularly while at his Augmentation Research Center Lab in SRI International, resulting in the invention of the computer mouse, and the development of hypertext, networked computers, and precursors to graphical user interfaces. These were demonstrated at The Mother of All Demos in 1968. His Law, the observation that the intrinsic rate of human performance is exponential, is named after him.

In the early 1950s, he decided that instead of "having a steady job" (such as his position at NASA's Ames Research Center) he would focus on making the world a better place, especially through the use of computers. He was therefore a committed, vocal proponent of the development and use of computers and computer networks to help cope with the world’s increasingly urgent and complex problems. He embedded a set of organizing principles in his lab, which he termed "bootstrapping strategy". He designed the strategy to accelerate the rate of innovation of his lab.

Thursday 29 January 2015

This son on a locomotive driver initially interested in lock-smithy changed the way of commute via road !!!

He was a German engine designer and car engineer, generally regarded as the inventor of the petrol-powered automobile, and together with Bertha, pioneering founder of the coveted automobile manufacturer. He received a patent for his work and all the processes that made the internal combustion engine feasible for use in an automobile. In 1879, his first engine patent was granted to him, and in 1886, he was granted a patent for his first automobile.

He was born in Mühlburg, now a borough of Karlsruhe, Baden, which is part of modern Germany, to a locomotive driver. Despite living in near poverty, his mother strove to give him a good education. He attended the local Grammar School in Karlsruhe and was a prodigious student.

He had originally focused his studies on locksmithing, but eventually followed his father’s steps toward locomotive engineering.

Wednesday 28 January 2015

We need more lions like HIM who believe in self reliance and self sufficiency !!!

He was popularly known as Punjab Kesari meaning The Lion of Punjab also known as "Sher-E- Punjab" in Hindi. He was also associated with activities of Punjab National Bank and Lakshmi Insurance Company in their early stages. He was part of the Lal Bal Pal trio.

He was born in Dhudike which is now in Moga district, Punjab on 28 January 1865. His father, Radha Krishan, was an Urdu teacher.

He advocated the Swadeshi movement involving the boycott of all imported items and the use of Indian-made goods in 1907.

The last years of the nineteenth century, saw a radical sensibility emerge among some Indian Intellectuals. This position burst onto the national all-India scene in 1905 with the Swadeshi movement - the term is usually rendered as "self reliance" or "self sufficiency".

Read more & watch the video: Page on gyaat.com

Tuesday 27 January 2015

The society that has shown the world through fresh eyes; has amazing perspective depicted through NGC !!!

The National Geographic Society (NGS), headquartered in Washington, D.C. in the United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational institutions in the world. The National Geographic Society began as a club for an elite group of academics and wealthy patrons interested in travel. On January 13, 1888, 33 explorers and scientists gathered at the Cosmos Club, a private club then located on Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C., to organize "a society for the increase and diffusion of geographical knowledge."

Its interests include geography, archaeology and natural science, the promotion of environmental and historical conservation, and the study of world culture and history. The National Geographic Society's historical mission is "to increase and diffuse geographic knowledge while promoting the conservation of the world's cultural, historical, and natural resources.

The Society has published maps, atlases, filmstrips, and numerous books. It also lends its license to other publishers, for example to Thames & Kosmos for a line of science kits. In October 2007, National Geographic created a new Global Media group composed of its magazine, book publishing, television, film, music, radio, digital media and maps units.

Monday 26 January 2015

SAMVIDHAAN: The constitution of India!!!!

The Constitution of India is the supreme law of India. It lays down the framework defining fundamental political principles, establishes the structure, procedures, powers and duties of government institutions and sets out fundamental rights, directive principles and the duties of citizens. It is the longest written constitution of any sovereign country in the world, containing 448 articles in 25 parts, 12 schedules, 5 appendices and 98 amendments (out of 120 Constitution Amendment Bills). Besides the English version, there is an official Hindi translation. Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar is widely regarded as the architect of the Indian Constitution.

The Constitution, in its current form (September 2012), consists of a preamble, 25 parts containing 448 articles, 12 schedules, 5 appendices and 98 amendments to date.
The individual Articles of the Constitution are grouped together into the following Parts:

Preamble
Part I – Union and its Territory
Part II – Citizenship.
Part III – Fundamental Rights.
Part IV – Directive Principles of State Policy.
Part IVA – Fundamental Duties.
Part V – The Union.
Part VI – The States.
Part VII – States in the B part of the First schedule(Repealed).
Part VIII – The Union Territories
Part IX – The Panchayats.
Part IXA – The Municipalities.
Part IXB – The Co-operative Societies.
Part X – The scheduled and Tribal Areas
Part XI – Relations between the Union and the States.
Part XII – Finance, Property, Contracts and Suits
Part XIII – Trade and Commerce within the territory of India
Part XIV – Services Under the Union, the States.
Part XIVA – Tribunals.
Part XV – Elections
Part XVI – Special Provisions Relating to certain Classes.
Part XVII – Languages
Part XVIII – Emergency Provisions
Part XIX – Miscellaneous
Part XX – Amendment of the Constitution
Part XXI – Temporary, Transitional and Special Provisions
Part XXII – Short title, date of commencement, Authoritative text in Hindi and Repeals

Read more & watch the video: The constitution of India!!!!

Sunday 25 January 2015

This father of the Nuclear programme had a long journey uplifting India's status to higher technological advancements & research!!!

Colloquially known as "father of Indian nuclear programme", He was the founding director of two well-known research institutions, namely the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) and the Trombay Atomic Energy Establishment (now named after him); both sites were the cornerstone of Indian development of nuclear weapons which he also supervised as its director.

Conducting experiments on particles which also released tremendous amount of radiation, was his lifelong passion, and his leading edge research and experiments brought great laurels to Indian physicists who particularly switched their fields to nuclear physics, one of the most notable being Piara Singh Gill.

Tata Trust for establishing 'a vigorous school of research in fundamental physics'. In his proposal he wrote :

“ There is at the moment in India no big school of research in the fundamental problems of physics, both theoretical and experimental. There are, however, scattered all over India competent workers who are not doing as good work as they would do if brought together in one place under proper direction. It is absolutely in the interest of India to have a vigorous school of research in fundamental physics, for such a school forms the spearhead of research not only in less advanced branches of physics but also in problems of immediate practical application in industry.

If much of the applied research done in India today is disappointing or of very inferior quality it is entirely due to the absence of sufficient number of outstanding pure research workers who would set the standard of good research and act on the directing boards in an advisory capacity ... Moreover, when nuclear energy has been successfully applied for power production in say a couple of decades from now, India will not have to look abroad for its experts but will find them ready at hand. I do not think that anyone acquainted with scientific development in other countries would deny the need in India for such a school as I propose.

The subjects on which research and advanced teaching would be done would be theoretical physics, especially on fundamental problems and with special reference to cosmic rays and nuclear physics, and experimental research on cosmic rays. It is neither possible nor desirable to separate nuclear physics from cosmic rays since the two are closely connected theoretically."

Friday 23 January 2015

The Patriot who's seldom acknowledged by the country!!!

He came fourth in the ICS examination and was selected but he did not want to work under an alien government which would mean serving the British. As he stood on the verge of taking the plunge by resigning from the Indian Civil Service in 1921, he wrote to his elder brother Sarat: "Only on the soil of sacrifice and suffering can we raise our national edifice". Finally, he resigned from his civil service job on 23 April 1921 and returned to India.

He was imprisoned by the British authorities eleven times. His famous motto was: "Give me blood and I will give you freedom". Jai Hind, or, "Glory to India!" was another slogan used by him and later adopted by the Government of India and the Indian Armed Forces.

His stance did not change with the outbreak of the Second World War, which he saw as an opportunity to take advantage of British weakness. At the outset of the war, he left India, travelling to the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, seeking an alliance with each of them to attack the British government in India.

With Imperial Japanese assistance, he re-organised and later led the Azad Hind Fauj or Indian National Army (INA), formed with Indian prisoners-of-war and plantation workers from British Malaya, Singapore, and other parts of Southeast Asia, against British forces. With Japanese monetary, political, diplomatic and military assistance, he formed the Azad Hind Government in exile, and regrouped and led the Indian National Army in failed military campaigns against the allies at Imphal and in Burma. Swami Vivekananda's teachings on universalism, his nationalist thoughts and his emphasis on social service and reform had all inspired him from his very young days. He formed ,"The Provisional Government of Free India" , or, more simply, Free India(Azad Hind), was an Indian provisional government established in Singapore in 1943 and was supported by Japan. Azad Hind was a part of a political movement originating in the 1940s outside of India with the purpose of allying with Axis powers to free India from British Rule.

The true judgement of success or failure of the movement remains open to historians. However, the true extent to which the INA's activities influenced the decision to leave India is mirrored by the views of Clement Attlee, the British prime minister at the time of India's Independence. Attlee cites several reasons, the most important of which were the INA activities of his, which weakened the very foundation of the British Empire in India, and the Royal Indian Navy Mutiny which made the British realise that the support of the Indian armed forces could no longer be relied upon.

Read more & watch the video...Gyaat:The Patriot who's seldom acknowledged by the country!!!

Thursday 15 January 2015

This doctor invented Basketball in order to calm down students of a rowdy class!!!

James Naismith (November 6, 1861 – November 28, 1939) was a Canadian American sports coach and innovator. He invented the sport of basketball in 1891. He wrote the original basketball rulebook, founded the University of Kansas basketball program, and lived to see basketball adopted as an Olympic demonstration sport in 1904 and as an official event at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, as well as the birth of both the National Invitation Tournament (1938) and the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship (1939).

At Springfield YMCA, Naismith struggled with a rowdy class which was confined to indoor games throughout the harsh New England winter and thus was perpetually short-tempered. Under orders from Dr. Luther Gulick, head of Springfield YMCA Physical Education, Naismith was given 14 days to create an indoor game that would provide an "athletic distraction": Gulick demanded that it would not take up much room, could help its track athletes to keep in shape and explicitly emphasized to "make it fair for all players and not too rough."

Wednesday 14 January 2015

In order to save his children from his unpleasant experiences on the war-front, this civil engineer created Dr. Dolittle!!!

Hugh John Lofting (14 January 1886 – 26 September 1947) was a British author, trained as a civil engineer, who created the character of Doctor Dolittle, one of the classics of children's literature.

He travelled widely as a civil engineer, before enlisting in the Irish Guards regiment of the British Army to serve in the First World War. Not wishing to write to his children about the brutality of the war, he wrote imaginative letters which later became the foundation of the successful Doctor Dolittle novels for children.

The series has been adapted for film and television many times, for stage twice, and also for radio. His other writing works include, "The Story of Mrs Tubbs (1923) and Tommy, Tilly, and Mrs. Tubbs (1936) , Porridge Poetry (1924), Noisy Nora (1929) & The Twilight of Magic (1930) .

Tuesday 13 January 2015

This mathematician's brother did famous research in diabetes through dogs!!!

Oskar Minkowski (13 January 1858 – 18 July 1931) held a professorship at the University of Breslau and is most famous for his research on diabetes.

Minkowski worked with Josef von Mering on the study of diabetes at the University of Strasbourg. Their landmark study in 1889 in dogs induced diabetes by removing their pancreas. It was Minkowski who performed the operation and made the crucial link to recognize that the symptoms of the treated dogs were due to diabetes.