March 26

Continuing on the similar lines

Two famous scientist were born today...

Count Rumford was born this day (as Benjamin Thompson in Woburn Mass.) in 1753. He was quite a reckless fellow but amazingly brilliant. He escaped to Germany from US (where he had sided with Britain during the war of independence) leaving behind his wife and child. Rumford was a pioneer in thermodynamics (in his childhood, he thought he could build a perpetual machine) He was the first person to think of heat in terms of movement of particles. He discovered convection and curiosly thermal underwear and drip coffeemaker. Another interesting tidbit about Rumford was he manged to woo and marry Marie Ann Lavoisier, the widow of Antoine Lavoisier (the couple were probably the foremost chemist at that point in time) but soon divorced. The other most important position occupied in the history of science by Count Rumford was his selection of Sir Humphrey Davy to the position of professor of chemistry. The latter besides his own right to glory was responsible for the recognizing the brilliance of a young book binder, Micheal Faraday. The fabric of science weaves so elegantly...

The other person born more recently is Bernard Katz, the Nobel Laurate who contributed immensely to Neurobiology and Biophysics