I sometimes thought my father thought he could't die while he still had books on his pending pile (a stab at immortality I seem to be replicating)... so, it was strangely touching to see Tom Gauld has had similar thoughts.
My heart aches for the children who will no longer have access to their local library because some arrogant assholes decided to be offended by books with new ideas and different perspectives.
This picture was commissioned by the Translators’ Section of the Swedish Writers’ Union. The creator has received fair remuneration and has chosen to remain anonymous. They have given their permission to the Union for unlimited dissemination and downloading of the picture.
So please, post it on Social Media, send to writers, journalists, teachers, publishers, etc.!
American physicist Richard Feynman was born #OTD in 1918.
He developed the Feynman diagrams, a pictorial representation of the mathematical expressions governing the behavior of subatomic particles, which provided a powerful tool for calculating complex interactions among particles. He received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965 jointly with Julian Schwinger and Shin'ichirō Tomonaga for their fundamental contributions to the development of quantum electrodynamics (QED).
In addition to his research contributions, Feynman was known for his exceptional teaching ability & engaging lectures. He authored several popular science books, including "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" & "What Do You Care What Other People Think?" Many of his lectures & miscellaneous talks were turned into other books: The Character of Physical Law, QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter, Statistical Mechanics, Lectures on Gravitation, & the Feynman Lectures on Computation.
"...the full appreciation of natural phenomena, as we see them, must go beyond physics in the usual sense. We make no apologies for making these excursions into other fields, because the separation of fields, as we have emphasized, is merely a human convenience, and an unnatural thing. Nature is not interested in our separations, and many of the interesting phenomena bridge the gaps between fields.
Vol. I; lecture 35, "Color Vision"; "The human eye".
The Feynman Lectures on Physics
"If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain."
Life, p. 6 - Collected Poems (1993)
American lyric poet Emily Dickinson died #OTD in 1888. Although she wrote 1789 poems, only a few of them were published in her lifetime, all anonymously, and some perhaps without her knowledge.
English social reformer, statistician and the founder of modern nursing Florence Nightingale was born #OTD in 1820.
Nightingale became famous for her work as a nurse during the Crimean War (1853–1856). Beyond her work in the Crimean War, Nightingale was a prolific writer and statistician. She used statistical methods to analyze and present data on healthcare and public health, making significant contributions to the field of medical statistics.
Kafka's works were not widely known during his lifetime, and he published only a few of his stories. Most of his major works were published posthumously by his friend and literary executor, Max Brod, despite Kafka's instructions to destroy his manuscripts.
English self-taught mathematician and physicist Oliver Heaviside was born #OTD in 1850.
He invented a new technique for solving differential equations, independently developed vector calculus, and rewrote Maxwell's equations in the form commonly used today. He significantly shaped the way Maxwell's equations are understood and applied in the decades following Maxwell's death. His practical experience in telegraphy provided a foundation for his later theoretical work.
@weekend_editor He made a significant contribution by providing a new interpretation of Maxwell's equations. And probably his mental issues were due to the intense dedication to his work. We should look at his legacy instead...
@gutenberg_org its true that some use the equation used by Maxwell but they are a rehash of a 20 year early set of Fourier based derivation by another Scottish mathematician as stated by Faraday .
British mathematician, logician, philosopher, & public intellectual Bertrand Russell was born #OTD in 1872.
One of Russell's most significant achievements is the co-authorship of "Principia Mathematica" (1910-1913) with Alfred North Whitehead. His works, such as "The Problems of Philosophy" (1912) & "Our Knowledge of the External World" (1914), explored issues related to knowledge, perception, & the scientific method.
"Physics is mathematical not because we know so much about the physical world, but because we know so little: it is only its mathematical properties that we can discover."
An Outline of Philosophy Ch.15 The Nature of our Knowledge of Physics (1927)
"The pursuit of philosophy is founded on the belief that knowledge is good, even if what is known is painful."
In 1897, Ross made a significant breakthrough when he discovered that malaria parasites were transmitted by mosquitoes. He found malaria parasites in the stomach tissue of a mosquito and demonstrated their life cycle in the insect. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1902, becoming the first British Nobel laureate in Medicine.
"What can any individual do? Of that, every individual can judge. There is one thing that every individual can do, — they can see to it that they feel right."
Harriet Beecher Stowe's anti-slavery serial, Uncle Tom's Cabin, or Life Among the Lowly, starts a ten-month run in the National Era abolitionist newspaper.
@purplepadma I appreciate it. If they're willing to markdown over there, they can do it here!
As an aside, I wish that UK and US publishing were more merged. There are so many books which we can't get in libraries until a US publisher picks it up. I have one silly book which I loved, which was never picked up by a US publisher. I had to get it through the British author. TBF, I don't think that it had a large print run, but I'm convinced that people here would have enjoyed its quirky humor with reimagined roles for Tom Sawyer, Becky Thatcher, and a reanimated Lincoln. (Lincolnstein, by Paul Witcover)
Virginia Woolf's novel Mrs Dalloway is published by the Hogarth Press in Bloomsbury, London.
The working title of Mrs Dalloway was The Hours. The novel originated from 2 short stories, "Mrs Dalloway in Bond Street" & the unfinished "The Prime Minister". In autumn 1922, Woolf began to think of the "Mrs. Dalloway" short story as the first chapter of her new novel, and she completed the manuscript in late autumn 1924.
French illustrator, etcher, lithographer, caricaturist, and novelist Albert Robida was born #OTD in 1848.
One of Robida's most significant contributions to literature and art was his pioneering work in the genre of science fiction. He was a visionary artist who imagined futuristic worlds filled with advanced technology, air travel, space exploration, and other innovations that were ahead of his time.