Template:Selected anniversaries/August 18: Difference between revisions
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||1986: Seventy-two Nobel Prize-winning scientists filed a legal brief with the U.S. Supreme Court challenging as unconstitutional a Louisiana law requiring schools that teach evolution to also teach “creation-science.” A news release described the scientists as “the largest group of Nobel laureates ever to support a single statement on any subject..” At a news conference in Washington D.C. the same day, they warned that the Louisiana law threatened scientific education by disparaging proven scientific facts to promote fundamentalist Christian beliefs. | ||1986: Seventy-two Nobel Prize-winning scientists filed a legal brief with the U.S. Supreme Court challenging as unconstitutional a Louisiana law requiring schools that teach evolution to also teach “creation-science.” A news release described the scientists as “the largest group of Nobel laureates ever to support a single statement on any subject..” At a news conference in Washington D.C. the same day, they warned that the Louisiana law threatened scientific education by disparaging proven scientific facts to promote fundamentalist Christian beliefs. | ||
||1988: Michael Willcox Perrin dies ... scientist who created the first practical polythene, directed the first British atomic bomb programme, and participated in the Allied intelligence of the Nazi atomic bomb. Pic. | |||
||1990: B. F. Skinner dies ... psychologist whose pioneering work in experimental psychology promoted behaviorism, shaping behavior through positive and negative reinforcement and demonstrated operant conditioning. The “Skinner box” he used in experiments from 1930 remains famous. To investigate the learning processes of animals, he observed their behaviour in a simple box with a lever which, when activated by the animal, would give a reward (or punishment). The reward, such as pellets of food or water, acts as a primary reinforcer. He observed the behaviour of animals adapted to utilize the opportunity for a reward. He extended his theories to the behaviour of humans, as a form of social engineering. Pic. | ||1990: B. F. Skinner dies ... psychologist whose pioneering work in experimental psychology promoted behaviorism, shaping behavior through positive and negative reinforcement and demonstrated operant conditioning. The “Skinner box” he used in experiments from 1930 remains famous. To investigate the learning processes of animals, he observed their behaviour in a simple box with a lever which, when activated by the animal, would give a reward (or punishment). The reward, such as pellets of food or water, acts as a primary reinforcer. He observed the behaviour of animals adapted to utilize the opportunity for a reward. He extended his theories to the behaviour of humans, as a form of social engineering. Pic. | ||
Revision as of 06:18, 30 December 2019
1633: Mathematician, physicist, inventor, and Christian crime-fighter Blaise Pascal demonstrates pioneering calculating machine which detects and prevents crimes against physics.
1634: Urbain Grandier, accused and convicted of sorcery, is burned alive in Loudun, France. He was the victim of a politically motivated persecution led by the powerful Cardinal Richelieu.
1909: Engineer, sociologist, economist, and crime analyst Vilfredo Pareto publishes new wealth distribution model which uses Gnomon algorithm techniques to detect and locate exotic materials such as Corinthium and Malvoleum.
1910: Mathematician Pál Turán born. He will work primarily in number theory, but also contribute to analysis and graph theory.
1910: Judge Havelock and Nikola Tesla demonstrate new data transmission protocols which will be useful in predicting and preventing crimes against mathematical constants.
1911: Computer scientist Klara Dan von Neumann born. She will be one of the world's first computer programmers and coders, solving mathematical problems using computer code.
1956: Inventor, writer, editor, and publisher Hugo Gernsback issues a call for entries for his new mathematical journal, Gnomon Chronicles Quarterly.
2016: Advances in zero-knowledge proof theory "are central to the problem of mathematical reliability," says mathematician and crime-fighter Alice Beta.
2017: Cowries stolen from the Museum of Modern Art in New York by agents of the Forbidden Ratio gang.
2019: "It’s because of your taste buds that the Yorkshire Tea hurt Daddy’s brain" is voted Joke of the Day by the citizens of New Minneapolis, Canada.