(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . White to move and mate in two #449 - Mary Somerville, the world's first "Scientist" [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-12-26 Today, we celebrate the birthday of Mary Somerville (Dec 26,1780 – Nov 29, 1872), the brilliant Scottish scientist, writer, mathematician and science writer, for whom the word “Scientist” was coined. In 1827 she was asked to write a popularized rendition of LaPlace's Mecanique and Newton's Principia, aimed at reaching a larger audience by communicating the concepts clearly through simple illustrations and experiments. The Mechanism of the Heavens (1831) was a tremendous success. Mechanism was set as a textbook for undergraduates at University of Cambridge until the 1880s. Her book, On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences is one of the most celebrated works of science writing. Published in 1834, the 500-page book contained no equations, few diagrams and little mathematics. But it was a masterpiece of descriptive explanation and analogy, covering a vast landscape of science disciplines from astronomy, physics, chemistry, geography and meteorology to electromagnetism and insects. Among her contribution to astronomy was her prediction of the presence of Neptune based on the perturbations of the orbit of Uranus. The word scientist was not used before 1834 for men of science. They had previously been known as "natural philosophers" or "men of science". The name scientist was first propounded in the Quarterly Review for March, 1834, by Rev William Whewell (writing anonymously) as part of a review of Mrs Somerville's book On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences, since “men of science” seemed quite inappropriate. www.themarginalian.org/... Whewell was an English polymath, scientist, Anglican priest, philosopher, theologian, and historian of science. One of Whewell's greatest gifts to science was his wordsmithing. He often corresponded with many in his field and helped them come up with new terms for their discoveries. Whewell coined the terms scientist, physicist, linguistics, consilience, catastrophism, uniformitarianism, and astigmatism amongst others; Whewell suggested the terms electrode, ion, dielectric, anode, and cathode to Michael Faraday. We wrote more extensively about Mary Somerille 3 years ago in diary — Let's celebrate the 240th Birthday of Mary Somerville, the world's first "Scientist" Now let’s apply some science to today’s puzzle, composed in 1892 by Arthur Ford Mackenzie (1861-1905). P.S. The chess puzzle is published on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays at 6:00 p.m. ET. It is customary for advanced players to wait till midnight ET before posting the full solution. Before then, they provide some stats about the solution (e.g., the minimum number of distinct checkmate moves), help guide others, and sometimes post hints. But there are no hard-and-fast rules; feel free to post comments as you please. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/12/26/2213804/-White-to-move-and-mate-in-two-449-Mary-Somerville-the-world-s-first-Scientist?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/