Famous Left-hander Birthday, March 14

Albert Einstein, Theoretical Physicist, famous for the Theory of Relativity

It’s not easy to write about someone whose life and works have been written numerous times over.

Albert Einstein (14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955), was a German-born physicist who discovered the theory of general relativity, that affected a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics. He received the 1921Nobel Prize in Physics “for his services to theoretical physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect”. Earlier in his career, he thought that the Newtonian mechanics was no longer sufficient to hold on the laws of classical mechanics with the laws of the electromagnetic field. His scientific pursuits led to the development of his special theory of relativity.

Einstein also investigated the thermal properties of light that laid the foundation of the photon theory of light. Around 1917, Albert Einstein applied the general theory of relativity to model the structure of the universe.

Related articles:

Albert Einstein Biography

Albert Einstein as Philosopher of Science

Image Credit:  F Schmutzer, Wikimedia Commons

Famous Left-handers, February 28

 

• Linus Pauling, Scientist

• Milt Caniff, Strip Cartoonist

• Robert Sean Leonard, Actor

 

Milt Caniff created his first daily comic strip, “Dickie Dare” in 1933 before creating his more famous “Terry and the Pirates” and “steve Canyon” strips.

Lefty Celebrant, January 28

August Piccard, Swiss Physicist, Inventor and Explorer.

August Antoine Piccard (1884-1962) and his twin brother Jean Felix were born in Basel, Switzerland on January 28, 1884. As a child he showed great interest in science. He attended the Swiss Fereal Institute of Technology in Zurich, becoming a professor at the Free University of Brussels in 1922. He was a member of the Solvay Congress of 1927.

Around 1930, his interest in ballooning and the upper the upper atmosphere led him to design a spherical, pressurized aluminum gondola that allowed ascent to great altitude without requiring a pressure suit. Supported by the Belgian Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique or the FNRS, Piccard constructed his gondola.

In the mid-1930s, his interests shifted when he realized that a modification of his high altitude balloon cockpit would allow descent into the deep ocean. By late 30s, he designed a small steel gondola to withstand great external pressure. He work was interrupted by the outbreak of the Second World War but resumed work in 1945. Piccard completed the bubble-shaped cockpit that maintained normal air pressure for a person inside the capsule even as the water pressure outside increased.

Famous lefty birthday, April 15

Italian polymath, scientist, inventor, artist, writer Leonardo da Vinci – famous for Mona Lisa and The Last Supper

Leonardo da Vinci is famous for his masterful paintings Mona Lisa, The Last Supper and The Vitruvian Man.

Aside from being a painter, sculptor, engineer and architect, his notebooks also revealed he was a remarkable scientist and inventor. Interestingly, Leonardo da Vinci was constantly on the move between various Italian cities.

Childhood Life in Tuscan Town of Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci was born on April 15, 1452 in the small Tuscan town of Vinci. Born illegitimate, his father had little time for him and he was mainly looked after by his grandparents and an uncle.

As a child, he proved extraordinarily gifted. He played the lyre and sang beautifully; he was also great at horse riding, and had a brilliant aptitude for mathematics. Anywhere he went, Leonardo da Vinci carried a notebook in which he wrote an account of his observations and sketched things that interested him.

Read full article — Leonardo da Vinci Moves to Italian Cities

Famous Left-hander Birthday, March 14

Scientist Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein (1879-1955), German-born Swiss and American, mathematical physicist, and known for Theory of Relativity, is considered the world’s greatest scientist. His popular equation E=MC2 has practical application in the development of nuclear energy. Einstein was also a lifelong pacifist who corresponded with famous figures like Freud and Tagore, among others.

Einstein’s Early Life

Albert Einstein was born in Ulm, Germany, on March 14, 1879, and he grew up in Munich. There was little in his early life to suggest his destiny for greatness. The young Albert hated school, with its rigid teaching methods. His only pleasures were his violin, which he would play all his life, and mathematics. He left school at 15 without a diploma.

He gave up his German citizenship and moved to Switzerland to avoid the military duty. In Zurich, he succeeded in getting a place at the Polytechnic to study physics and mathematics. After trying hard, at 23, he got a job as a technical examiner at Bern, enough to marry his Hungarian fiancée, Mileva Maric.

Read full article — Albert Einstein, Scientist

Famous Lefthander Birthday, February 28

Scientist Linus Pauling

Linus Carl Pauling (February 28, 1901 – August 19, 1994) was born in Portland, Oregon. He was an American chemist, peace activist, author, and educator. He was one of the most influential chemists in history and ranks among the most important scientists in any field of the 20th century. Pauling was among the first scientists to work in the fields of quantum chemistry, molecular biology, and orthomolecular medicine. He is one of only 4 individuals to have won multiple Nobel Prizes. He is one of only two people to have been awarded a Nobel Prize in two different fields (the Chemistry and Peace prizes), the other being Marie Curie (the Chemistry and Physics prizes), and the only person to have been awarded each of his prizes without sharing it with another recipient.

Famous Left-hander Birthday, February 11

Inventor Thomas Alva Edison

Thomas Alva Edison is the most productive American inventor of his time. He received over 1,000 patents for practical applications of scientific principles, among them,  the electric light bulb and phonograph. He introduced one of the first cinematographs and improved Alexander Bell’s telephone by means of the carbon transmitter that increases the volume of the signal.  He also discovered the Edison Effect.

Thomas Alva Edison was born in Milan, Ohio on February 11, 1847. He spent most of his childhood in Port Huron, Michigan. He was largely self-taught, thanks to his mother’s patience with a smelly laboratory that he first set up when he was 10-years-old. At the age of 12, he became a railroad newsboy, printing his own newspaper of the Grand Trunk Railway. He moved his laboratory to a disused railway carriage.

Read more — Biography of Inventor and Scientist Thomas Alva Edison

Famous Left-hander Birthday, January 17

American Polymath Benjamin Franklin – Inventor, Statesman, Writer, Printer, Political Leader, Scientist, Soldier

Benjamin Franklin (January 17, 1706  – April 17, 1790) was born in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He was one of the Founding Fathers of the U.S. A polymath, he was an author, printer, satirist, diplomat, politician, scientist, inventor, statesman,  and soldier.  His legacy of scientific and political achievement, and distinction as one of America’s most influential Founding Fathers, saw Franklin honored in the U.S. currency, both in coinage and money; the names of many towns, counties, educational institutions, namesakes, and companies; and numerous more references.

As a scientist, he was a major figure in the Enlightenment Era.  He became remowned for his many inventions. He invented many things, such as the Franklin stove, lightning rod, bifocals, odometer, and many more. He also made discoveries relating electricity.

Franklin formed the first public lending library in America and the first fire department in Pennsylvania. An early proponent of colonial unity, and as a political writer and activist, he supported the idea of an American nation. As a diplomat during the American Revolution, Franklin secured the French alliance that helped to make independence of the U.S. possible.

Franklin became a newspaper editor, printer, and merchant in Philadelphia. He published Poor Richard’s Almanac and The Pennsylvania Gazette. He played a major role in establishing the University of Pennsylvania and was elected the first president of the American Philosophical Society.

Benjamin Franklin became a U.S. national hero when he spearheaded the effort to have Parliament repeal the unpopular Stamp Act.  An accomplished diplomat, he was a major figure in the development of the Franco-American relations, widely admired among the French as American minister to Paris.

From 1775 to 1776, Franklin was the Postmaster General, and from 1785 to 1788, the President of the Supreme Executive Ocuncil of Pennsylvania. Bejmain Franklin became one of the most prominent abolitionists in the last years of his life.

Photo Credit:  Wikimedia Commons

Photo by Michael Parker.
James Earle Fraser, sculptor

Famous Left-hander Birthday, January14

Missionary and Doctor Albert Schweitzer

Quote from Dr. Schweitzer:

“There is no higher religion than human service.

To work for the common good is the greatest creed.”

~ Dr. Albert SChweitzer

Lefty Trivia on Leonardo da Vinci

Lefty Leonardo da Vinci – Italian polymath, scientist,  inventor, artist, mathematician, writer – was a man so much ahead of his time. Not only did he conceive of a flying wing, he also sketched the design for a telescope 100 years before it was even invented.