Showing posts with label scientist. Show all posts
Showing posts with label scientist. Show all posts

January 2 - Happy Birthday, Isaac Asimov

 Posted on January 2, 2021



Isaac Asimov is a Russian-born American scientist and writer. And he is one of my heroes!

Asimov was born on this day in 1920, and he became one of the most prolific and respected science-fiction and science-fact writers of all time!


Asimov, who moved to New York City with his family at age three, is particularly known for his robot novels and his Three Laws of Robotics. The movie I, Robot was loosely (VERY loosely) based on some of his stories. Asimov's most famous books, arguably, are the Foundation series.

Since Asimov wrote for kids (some of these under the pen name Paul French) as well as adults, short stories as well as novels, fiction as well as non-fiction, mysteries and fantasy as well as sci-fi, and about Shakespeare and the Bible as well as about chemistry and astronomy—obviously, there's something for everyone among his more than 500 books. According to Wikipedia, Asimov's books have been published in nine of the ten major categories of the Dewey Decimal System!

Here are a few quotes from Asimov:

  • "If knowledge can create problems, it is not through ignorance that we can solve them."

 

  • "Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what's right."

 

  • "The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' (I found it!) but 'That's funny...'"

 

Celebrate Asimov by reading him!

Most libraries will have several books to choose from by the man. Remember, he wrote and edited more than 500!


These are most of my favorite Asimov books. I arranged the 14 books that make up Asimov's “future history” – a blend of robot novels, empire books, and Foundation novels – not in the order in which Asimov wrote them, but in the chronological order that they supposedly represent. Since he had not originally intended the various books to fit together in one series, until he hatched the plan later in life to write some “blending books” that bridge the various series, there were some contradictions—but it was still fun to read them “in order.”

Asimov's robots are general-purpose humanoid-formed machines. In other words, like so many other science fiction books and movies, the robots look like metal or plastic people. Some of Asimov's robots look EXACTLY like people, with realistic, warm artificial skin and perfect artificial hair.

The two faces are both humanoid robots -
the one on the left is really-REALLY humanlike!

Here is a video and interview of a humanoid robot that is an artist!

Check out this gallery of humanoid-robot photos and art.


Obviously, most robots are NOT general-purpose, and they are NOT humanoid in the slightest. Here is a short article about industrial robots.



Interested in robotics?

Here is a video about building a simple robot. On this NASA website is a tutorial called Robotics 101.



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November 22 - Meet Francis Willughby

Posted on November 22, 2020


Born in England on this date in 1635, Francis Willughby is billed as an ornithologist (a biologist who specializes in the study of birds), an ichthyologist (a biologist who specializes in the study of fish), and "an early student of linguistics and games."

That last bit - "an early student of games" - surprised me and made me curious about this 17th-Century scientist. 

Willughby went to Cambridge and was tutored by mathematician and naturalist John Ray - and Ray turned out to be a friend and coworker for the rest of his life. 

Willughby and Ray were awesome in that they studied life science by observing and classifying creatures rather than by merely studying and regurgitating early attempts at describing the natural world - like Aristotle's work in the 300s BCE. Not only did Willughby and Ray collect specimens, and museums and libraries and private collections, and study living plants and animals everywhere they went, Willughby and Ray encouraged other scientists to rely less on "authority" and more on observation and evidence. Which is super rad!

Ray refused to sign the Act of Uniformity, in 1662, which was a law passed by Parliament that detailed the way to pray and celebrate the rites of the Church of England. Because of this refusal, Ray lost his job. Willughby rescued him by allowing Ray to live with his family and by paying him to teach his sons.

Willughby died way too early (at age 36, of pleurisy), but he had already married and had three children, AND he had been a Fellow of the Royal Society for almost a decade by then. 

Okay, what about those games?

Willughby and Ray wrote books on birds, fish, and "insects" - although the word "insect" then included lots of other creepy-crawlies that we no longer classify as insects: worms, spiders, millipedes, for example. Most of the books were finished and published by Ray, after Willughby's untimely death.



Willughby's Book of Games was written by Willughby alone - but it was unfinished at his death. This book was published for the first time in - get this! - 2003!

Willughby described dozens of games and sports, including lists of rules and equipment for each entry. Check out the variety of games he covered:

Card games 
Board games, including children's board games
Word games
Football
Cockfighting (which is now illegal in many places in the world)
Informal games that babies play, and that parents play with babies!
A mathematical section describing the bounce of tennis balls (!)



Some games Willughby wrote about were unknown, other than the fact that some character in English literature would mention the game by name - and when people discovered Willughby's unfinished manuscripts, voila! We suddenly now know exactly how games like "Lend Me Your Skimmer" are played! LOL

 



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