I’m a controversialist and catalyst, quietly enabling others to develop by providing different ideas and views of the world. Born in London in the early 1950s and initially trained as a research chemist I retired as a senior project manager after 35 years in the IT industry. Retirement is about community give-back and finding some equilibrium. Founder and Honorary Secretary of the Anthony Powell Society. Chairman of my GP's patient group.
Episode eight (for days 36 to 40) of my 100 day challenge to find words I don’t know. I’m scraping words from https://randomword.com/ and each day picking one that I find interesting and which is also in the OED.
Day
Date
Word
Meaning
36
Friday 6 December
lissotrichous
smooth-haired
37
Saturday 7 December
plenicorn **
of a ruminant: having horns that are solid rather than hollow
An Advent Calendar of Notable Scientists Rosalind Franklin
Image from Wikipedia
English chemist and X-ray crystallographer whose work was central to the understanding of the molecular structures of DNA, RNA, viruses, coal, and graphite. Although her works on coal and viruses were appreciated in her lifetime, her contributions to the discovery of the structure of DNA were really only recognised posthumously.
This year our Ten Things series is focusing on each month in turn. The Ten Things may include facts about the month, momentous events that happened, personal things, and any other idiocy I feel like – just because I can. So here are …
Ten Things about December
Decem – the tenth month of Roman calendar
Yule is celebrated by pagans on the Winter Solstice
Advent is the four weeks leading up to …
… Christmas Day
St Lucia, is the Scandinavian festival of lights (right)
Roman Saturnalia ran for five days staring on 17th
Feast of St Nicholas, which in many European countries is more important than Christmas Day
An Advent Calendar of Notable Scientists Galileo Galilei
Image from Wikipedia
An astronomer, physicist and engineer from Pisa. He has been called the “father of observational astronomy”, the “father of modern physics”, the “father of the scientific method”, and the “father of modern science”. His championing of heliocentrism and Copernicanism was controversial during his lifetime.
An Advent Calendar of Notable Scientists Carl Linnaeus
Image from Wikipedia
Swedish botanist, zoologist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming organisms. He is known as the “father of modern taxonomy”.
An Advent Calendar of Notable Scientists William Perkin
Image from Wikipedia
British chemist and entrepreneur best known for his serendipitous discovery of the first synthetic organic dye, mauveine, made from aniline. Though he failed in trying to synthesise quinine for the treatment of malaria, he became successful in the field of dyes.
An Advent Calendar of Notable Scientists Charles Darwin
Image from Wikipedia
English naturalist, geologist and biologist, best known for his contributions to the science of evolution. His proposition that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestors is now widely accepted, and considered a foundational concept in science. With Alfred Russel Wallace, he introduced the idea that the branching pattern of evolution resulted from the process of natural selection.
Episode seven (for days 31 to 35) of my 100 day challenge to find words I don’t know. I’m scraping words from https://randomword.com/ and each day picking one that I find interesting and which is also in the OED.
Day
Date
Word
Meaning
31
Sunday 1 December
pourpointerie **
Quilted material with studs at the seams, worn in the Middle Ages as armour
32
Monday 2 December
pongee
A soft, usually unbleached kind of Chinese silk fabric, woven from uneven threads of raw silk
33
Tuesday 3 December
scoliograptic
Marked by oblique lines
34
Wednesday 4 December
zenana
The system of segregating women away from men in harems
An Advent Calendar of Notable Scientists Gottfried Leibnitz
Image from Wikipedia
Prominent German polymath and one of the most important logicians, mathematicians and natural philosophers of the Enlightenment. As a representative of the seventeenth-century tradition of rationalism, Leibniz’s most prominent accomplishment was conceiving the ideas of differential and integral calculus, independently of Isaac Newton.
An Advent Calendar of Notable Scientists Marie Curie
Image from Wikipedia
Polish (naturalized-French) physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, is the only woman to win the Nobel prize twice, and is the only person to win the Nobel Prize in two different scientific fields.
Eccentric looks at life through the thoughts of a retired working thinker
