#science

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American botanist, bryologist, and educator Elizabeth Gertrude Britton was born in 1858.

She was a co-founder of the precursor body to the American Bryological and Lichenological Society. She was an activist for the protection of wildflowers, inspiring local chapter activities and the passage of legislation. Elizabeth Britton made major contributions to the literature of mosses, publishing 170 papers in that field.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Gertrude_Britton

Elizabeth Gertrude Knight (Later Britton) (1858-1934) using a microscope, 1886. Elizabeth Gertrude Knight Britton is depicted at work, focused on using a microscope. Her posture suggests careful observation, emphasizing her commitment to precision and her scientific expertise. She is dressed in typical 19th-century clothing, likely a high-collared, long-sleeved dress or blouse with practical yet elegant details. She is seated or leaning slightly toward the microscope, actively engaged in examining specimens. Her hands rest on the table or adjust the microscope, indicating a moment of scientific inquiry.

English astronomer Frank Watson Dyson was born in 1868.

Dyson was noted for his study of solar eclipses and was an authority on the spectrum of the corona and on the chromosphere. Dyson presented his observations of the solar eclipse of May 29, 1919 which confirmed Albert Einstein's theory of the effect of gravity on light which until that time had been received with some scepticism by the scientific community.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Watson_Dyson

Eclipse photograph from 1919 expedition. Frank Watson Dyson / Arthur Eddington / Charles Rundle Davidson - F. W. Dyson, A. S. Eddington, and C. Davidson (1920). "A Determination of the Deflection of Light by the Sun's Gravitational Field, from Observations Made at the Total Eclipse of May 29, 1919". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: 332. ISSN 1364-503X. From the report of Sir Arthur Eddington on the expedition to verify Albert Einstein's prediction of the bending of light around the sun. In Plate 1 is given a half-tone reproduction of one of the negatives taken with the 4-inch lens at Sobral. This shows the position of the stars, and, as far as possible in a reproduction of this kind, the character of the images, as there has been no retouching. A number of photographic prints have been made and applications for these from astronomers, who wish to assure themselves of the quality of the photographs, will be considered as as far as possible acceded to.

The yellow structure depicted is the Laniakea Supercluster, a vast cosmic region that houses approximately 100,000 galaxies. The red dot in the image represents our home, the Milky Way, which boasts around 300 billion stars, including our very own Sun.

📸 Visual Cortex

Lovely conjunction between the and Venus after ! Saturn, Jupiter and Mars are also visible at the same time. Uranus is up there too, but it's not visible without a telescope.

If you're in a dark enough location to see the , this is a nice chance to notice that the plane of our Solar System is inclined about 60º with respect to the disc of the Milky Way.

Screenshot from https://stellarium.org/

 

A circular star map of the whole night sky. The cardinal points are indicated along the edge of the circle. The Moon and Venus are very close to each other towards the south-west. Saturn is not far from them. Jupiter and Uranus are high up in the sky, and Mars is close to the eastern horizon. All planets are roughly aligned – the imaginary line that connects them is at a 60º angle with respect to the faint band of the Milky Way.

'Modern medicine has saved the lives of countless children. But anti-science sentiments could set us back.'

https://www.inverse.com/health/victorian-child-mortality-rate-vaccines

'In the first half of the 19th century, between 40% and 50% of children in the U.S. didn’t live past the age of 5. While overall child mortality was somewhat lower in the U.K., the rate remained near 50% through the early 20th century for children living in the poorest slums.'