Today in History – February 3, 1958 -  Rachael Carson publishes the Silent Spring. Rachel Carson, a writer, scientist and ecologist, worked seventeen years for the US Fish and Wildlife Service, where she learned about the problems of pesticides on the environment. She is best known for her book called Silent Spring, which is often credited with shifting public consciousness about the environment and providing the foundation for today’s environmental movement. Carson faced much hostility from chemical companies due to her criticism of the over use of pesticides and the lack of scientific and public oversight.

The Engineering Pathway has a number of resources on Rachel Carson and environmental ethics. I am particularly impressed with the ethics module hosted by the National Academy of Engineering titled Rachel Carson – Silent Springs. For more educational resources, see our agricultural engineering education, environmental engineering education and chemical engineering education community pages. The Engineering Pathway also hosts Engineering Education communities in all ABET-accredited disciplines.

Carson was an engaging writer and some of her observations were hypotheses that did not stand the test of time after more thorough scientific analyses were conducted, making her the object of criticism even today. Yet one must understand that she was writing at a time that full scientific scrutiny was not available and it was “early days” of public disclosure of the effects of pesticides and other commonly used chemicals. I find John Tierney’s editorial in the New York Times, for example, to be unmindful of this context. He makes a good point that pesticides have had positive effects as well, such as greatly increasing yield of agricultural products and reducing the spread of diseases spread by insects; I agree, there are always tradeoffs in the implementation of any technology.

On the other hand, I find myself questioning Teirney’s own scientific integrity (no educational credentials in science that I know of) and have found his criticisms to often be out of context and misleading. I have been at the wrong end of his criticism for a report I co-authored with the National Academies titled: Beyond Bias and Barriers: Fulfilling the Potential of Women in Academic Science and Engineering. I suppose it helps sell newspapers, but for someone claiming the scientific high ground, he really seems to miss the point and loves to blow up controversial subjects in misleading ways. The Presidents of the National Academy of Engineering, National Academy of Science and The Institute of Medicine immediately wrote an excellent response to Tierney’s criticism. Interested readers might also be interested in the editorial by two of the report’s co-authors as well, Jo Handelsman and Robert Birgeneau. I can only imagine the attacks Carson must have lived through a half decade ago, with most of the chemical industry using their vast resources to discredit her and the environmental movement she inspired. Fortunately, these same companies have come to recognize the importance of the environmental impact and sustainability of their products, not to mention, the market sensitivities.

Today in History – December 14, 1967 – DNA was first created in a test tube. Working with a variety of bacteria, Arthur Kornberg synthesized genetically active DNA. He used very small bacterial viruses (phages), such as the phi X174 and M13 viruses of E. coli, for his study. Their relatively comparatively short DNA strands made these viruses easier to keep intact during handling and easier to observe their biological activity.

For more information, see the Engineering Pathway’s resources on Kornberg and DNA. For related educational resources, visit the Biological Engineering Education or the Biomedical Engineering Education disciplinary communities.

Today in History – December 1, 1955 – Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat in a bus in Montgomery and galvanized the civil rights movement. Rosa Parks showed the world that a single courageous act could positively change the course of history. How can we use engineering and human-centered technologies to positively impact local communities? How do we integrate human-centered approaches into our curricula? See the Engineering Pathway’s resources on human-centered design and computing and on community service learning. Of note is the EPICS (Engineering Projects for Community Service) program originated in the College of Engineering at Purdue and the 2005 winner of the National Academy of Engineering‘s prestigious Gordon Prize for Innovation in Engineering and Technology Education.

December 1 also marks the day of notable inventions in the twentieth century. Ford introduced the continuous moving assembly line in his Highland Park, Detroit, Michigan, factory. Faster than the “push” assembly processes before, it was capable of delivering a car every 2-min 38-sec. Using a continuous moving chassis line the method was so successful that the Ford Motor Company became the world’s largest car manufacturer in the world. For more information, see the Engineering Pathway’s resources on automotive engineering and manufacturing processes. Additional curricular materials on modern manufacturing practices can be found on the Manufacturing Engineering Education or the Industrial Engineering Education community sites.

December 1 also marks the day that the first U.S. patent was issued for the soil-less culture of plants in a large commercial hydroponicum (No. 2,062,755) to Ernest Walfrid Brundin and Frank Farrington Lyon as a “system of water culture” in 1935. Hydroponics – the growing of plants with their roots suspended in water containing mineral nutrients found in soil – was coined in the early 1930s by Professor Gericke at the University of California at Los Angeles from two Greek words: “hydro” (water) and “ponos” (work, labor). See our educational resources in hydroponics and agricultural engineering. Or visit our Biological Systems and Agricultural Engineering Education Community site.

Today in History – November 24, 1859 – Charles Darwin publishes his “On the Origin of the Species“, explaining the theory of evolution.

Although controversial in some circles, the theory of evolution is a fundamental part of our understanding of biological systems and agricultural engineering and genetic engineering. The BioQuest biological curriculum uses controversy as part of their pedagogical approach based on a 3P’s approach to science education: Problem-posing, Problem-solving, and Peer Persuasion.

Evolution used to take a geologic time to take its course, but human intervention has now hastened that process into a matter of few months. Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are currently under the global limelight because of their increased presence in our food sources. A rising movement for food that has not been genetically engineered and is sustainably farmed is reflected in the booming organic food market in the recent few years. On November 12, latest research from Mintel confirms that, in light of prominent health and food safety concerns, the organic movement has most definitely burst onto the mainstream. Mintel reports that organic food sales have grown a whopping 132% since 2002, while organic beverage sales nearly doubled (97%) during the same period. Together, the organic food and beverage markets now make up a nearly $6 billion dollar a year industry.

The controversy on eating these genetically modified foods lies in the lack of information on the impact they may have on our health. Research dollars are being invested to elucidate the benefits and potential side effects on health due to consumption of genetically modified foods. Before any ill effects have yet to be found, the application of genetics to our foods already has some obvious advantages such as enhanced flavors and increased overall food production. Furthermore, before geneticists even tampered with our food, we have been eating foods that farmers grew using techniques to select for the most desirable qualities of each species and incorporating them into one superior product, only now genetics has made this process faster and easier to achieve the same effect.

For more information, see the Engineering Pathway‘s resources on Darwin and the theory of evolution, For related educational resources, visit the Biological Systems and Agricultural Engineering Education or the Bioengineering and Biomedical Engineering Education community sites. Or visit the BEN (Biological Educator’s Network), our Pathway Partner in the National Science Digital Library (NSDL).

Today in History – November 11, 1865 – Mary Edward Walker, the first Army female surgeon, was awarded the Medal of Honor for her work during the Civil War. Dr. Mary Walker changed the face of medicine as a physician and as an advocate for women’s rights and healthy cothing for women. As she concluded in 1897, “I am the original new woman…Why, before Lucy Stone, Mrs. Bloomer, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony were – before they were, I am. In the early ’40′s, when they began their work in dress reform, I was already wearing pants…I have made it possible for the bicycle girl to wear the abbreviated skirt, and I have prepared the way for the girl in knickerbockers.

Today, women make up over 50% of the medical school students and women students are reaching parity in bioengineering and biomedical engineering as well – yet they are still less than 10% of the medical and engineering faculty. A recent study of the National Academies titled Beyond Bias and Barriers: Fulfilling the Potential of Women in Academic Science and Engineering found unintentional biases were a major contributor to the low number of women on our science and engineering faculties. Women face barriers to hiring and promotion in research universities in many fields of science and engineering — a situation that deprives the United States of an important source of talent as the country faces increasingly stiff global competition in higher education, science and technology, and the marketplace. Eliminating gender bias in universities requires immediate, overarching reform and decisive action by university administrators, professional societies, government agencies, and Congress. The report was motivated by former Harvard President Larry Summers’ speculation that the low numbers of women in science and engineering are because women don’t want to work hard enough and that there may be a biological basis. His discounted discrimination as a tertiary factor. See the Engineering Pathway’s Engineering Diversity site and our resources on gender equity.

Also on this date, Milikan introduced cosmic rays in 1925 and the Nobel prize for physics is awarded for diffraction of electrons by crystals in 1937.

Today in History – October 18, 1962 - Watson, Crick, and Wilkins receive Nobel Prize for the discovery of DNA as a double helix. They first proposed their model for the structure of DNA in 1953. As this model was composed of two right-handed, antiparallel, polynucleotide chains coiled around a common axis it is sometimes referred to as the  double helix. They received the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1962 “for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material”.

Rosalind Franklin’s work was pivotal in the development of the understanding the structure of DNA as well. She discovered the existence of the A and B forms of DNA and her X-ray crystallographies clearly showed x-ray diffraction patterns of DNA. Alas Rosalind Franklin died of cancer in 1958 at the young age of 37, possibly due to expose to the X-rays she worked with. Watson, Crick and Wilson only recently credited her contributions as key to the development of their model of DNA. Many have speculated that sexism was the reason for not giving her more credit earlier. Regardless, Nobel Prizes are never awarded posthumously so this would not have changed the names on the 1962 award. For more information, see the Rosalind Franklin Society, whose goal is to honor the achievements of Rosalind Franklin by recognizing, fostering, and making known the important contributions of women in science.  “Franklin symbolizes progress for women in science — her contributions were not recognized during her lifetime or for many years after her death but today her work is highlighted in textbooks around the world. “

Today, women make up over 50% of the medical school students and women students are reaching parity in bioengineering and biomedical engineering as well – yet they are still less than 10% of the medical and engineering faculty. A recent study of the National Academies titled Beyond Bias and Barriers: Fulfilling the Potential of Women in Academic Science and Engineering found unintentional biases were a major contributor to the low number of women on our science and engineering faculties. Women face barriers to hiring and promotion in research universities in many fields of science and engineering — a situation that deprives the United States of an important source of talent as the country faces increasingly stiff global competition in higher education, science and technology, and the marketplace. Eliminating gender bias in universities requires immediate, overarching reform and decisive action by university administrators, professional societies, government agencies, and Congress. The report was motivated by former Harvard President Larry Summers’ speculation that the low numbers of women in science and engineering are because women don’t want to work hard enough and that there may be a biological basis. His discounted discrimination as a tertiary factor.

See the Engineering Pathway’s Bioengineering / Biomedical Engineering Community site or our resources on Rosalind Franklin, Engineering Diversity site and our resources on gender equity.

Also on this date, October 18, 1955, the antiproton is discovered. See our related resources on antimatter.

Today in History – August 31, 1921 – Lt. John A. Macready performed the first crop dusting flight on a surplus World War I Curtiss JN-6H (Jenny), taking off from McCook Field near Dayton, Ohio. The goal was to attack the Catalpa sphinx moth by dusting an orchard with a load of lead-arsenate from a makeshift metal hopper attached to the Jenny’s fuselage. The maneuver was successful and the moths had been wiped out on that orchard.

Recently, the broad use of pesticides is coming into question due to issues with wildlife, water contamination, energy usage and farm worker exposure. See the February 3 blog on the publication of Rachel Carsons book the Silent Spring.

The Engineering Pathway has a number of resources on pesticides, agricultural engineering, Rachel Carson and environmental ethics. For more educational resources, see our agricultural engineering education community site. The Engineering Pathway also hosts Engineering Education communities in all ABET-accredited disciplines.

John McMasters was an enthusiastic engineer with a passion for designing aircraft and inspiring the next generation of engineering designers. He was a tireless advocate for industry integration into project-based learning and in developing sustainable industry-academe partnerships. He was named a Technical Fellow at Boeing, a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and an Outstanding Aerospace Engineer by Purdue.

After graduating with a BS and MS in engineering from the University of Colorado at Boulder, John went on active duty with the U.S. Air Force where he was awarded the Air Force Commendation Medal in 1965 for his conceptual design, deployment and testing of air-to-air guided missiles. He earned a Ph.D. in aeronautical engineering from Purdue University in 1975 and joined Boeing as an aerodynamics engineering soon after graduating, where he was instrumental in developing many innovative design concepts.

Inspired by the wonders of flight in nature, John was a strong advocate of biomimetic approaches to design. He was involved in the early development of human-powered aircraft design projects and worked with Paul MacCready in developing a flying pterodactyl he called the “Altostratus“.  He was also instrumental in the design of a solar-powered sailplane that is on permanent display at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum (see both left photos above). John may be best known to the younger generation, however, as the engineer that proved that bumble bees could fly, in spite of rumors to the contrary by scientists who claimed they could not.

At a talk given to NASA on biomechanics of flight he said: Aeronautics in its traditional form is usually presumed to have started as a engineering discipline somewhere in historical time between the mythological experiments of Daedalus and his ill-fated son, Icarus; and the dreams and schemes of Leonardo da Vinci during the Italian Renaissance, which eventually led to the Wright brothers’ success a century ago. . . . “aeronautics” has a far richer and longer (though less disciplined) history extending over a period of about 300 million year beginning with the evolution of the ability of insects to fly. With the advent of the success of the early 20th Century pioneers, technologists quickly turned their attention from the inspirations and lessons provided by natural models of flying machines to a more practical quest for increasingly dramatic improvements in speed, range and altitude performance, far beyond the limits of what muscles and flapping wings could provide. Thus a field of further productive inquiry was left to a few amateur aeronauts, eccentrics and biologists.

Throughout his career John was a strong advocate for engineering education reform and held a number of faculty and teaching appointments, including serving as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Washington. He worked with the engineering education community to develop Boeing’s list of “Desired Attributes of an Engineer”. He helped design and launch the Boeing A.D. Welliver Faculty Summer Fellowship internship program and served as program manager for the Ed Wells Initiative, a joint program between Boeing and the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace charged with enhancing the excellence of the SPEEA represented Boeing technical workforce. He was insistent that “we as an aeronautics community (industry, government and academe) have much to do to create a positive vision of our future as vivid as that which has driven our past, and assure the proper education and professional development of a future generation of technical talent in our always dynamic and evolving enterprise.”

In the month prior to his passing, John prepared a set of annotated slides and documents to preserve his legacy of innovations in biomimetics design and engineering education.  These documents are being made accessible on the Engineering Pathway digital library and will be presented at a dinner tribute to John at the Mudd Design Workshop VII on May 29, 2009. Paul Dees from Boeing also provided this list of publications by John McMasters.

We welcome you to browse the John McMasters Collection in the Engineering Pathway educational digital library. Or look for resources in his areas of passion:

• Biomechanics of Flight and Biomimetic Design
• Aircraft Design
• Industry and Engineering Education

For more information, see the Engineering Pathway’s educational resources on aircraft design,  aerodynamics, fluid dynamics and aeronautic engineering. For related curricula, visit the Aeronautical Engineering Education or the Mechanical Engineeirng Education communities.

Today in History – May 23, 1930 – U.S. Plant Patent Act of the Hawley-Smot Trariff allows plants to be patented. This new U.S. Plant Patent Act provided, for the first time, patent protection for new and distinct varieties of asexually reproduced plants. Plant breeders now had a financial incentive to perform plant breeding experiments and exercise control over their discoveries. The new law was motivated by the work of Luther Burbank, who had performed over 100,000 horticultural experiments and developed more than 800 strains and varieties of plants during his 50 years of dedication to plant improvement. After selling his rights to the Russet Burbank potato in 1871 he moved to California and established a nursery garden, a greenhouse and experimental farms in Santa Rosa that one can visit today as a park and museum.

Thomas Edison testified before Congress in support of the 1930 Plant Patent Act saying: This [bill] will, I feel sure, give us many Burbanks.

Luther Burbank died in 1926, but he was granted 16 patents posthumously. He set the precedent for plant breeding in agricultural engineering and bioengineering.

The Engineering Pathway has a number of resources on Luther Burbank. For more educational resources, see our agricultural engineering education community site. The Engineering Pathway also hosts Engineering Education communities in all ABET-accredited disciplines.

Today in History – May 13, 1958 – Velcro® trademark is registered for a fabric hook and loop fastener.

The way George de Mestral, a Swiss mountaineer, tells the story, he was hiking with his dog in 1948 and was frustrated to see all of these burrs covering them both when he returned home. He says he was fascinated by how tough they were to take off and looked at them in a microscope. He saw that they had small hooks that enabled the seed-bearing burr to cling effectively to the small fabric loops on his pants. This was an “aha” moment and he was inspired to design a fastener using the same concept. He called  his invention ‘velcro’, combining the French words velour (velvet) and crochet (hook). He predicted: “It will rival the zipper in its ability to fasten.”

The idea was not an immediate success and met with derision by some. He persevered and worked with a  weaver from a textile plant in France to develop a nylon type fabric that had the hook and loop fastener concept, patented it in 1955 and trademarked it in 1958. A U.S. patent was filed on May 9, 1958 and awarded on Nov. 21, 1961. The original Velcro® company was formed in 1952 to manufacture this invention and now Velcro® is a multi-million dollar industry.

One interesting note on trademarks: if it becomes a commonly used generic word, then the trademark can be invalidated. Thus Velcro International emphasizes: “Velcro is the name of our companies and is a registered trademark for our products,” the highly protective company says. “It is not the generic name of the product that… is generically known as ‘hook-and-loop fastener’ or ‘touch fasteners’.”

Velcro® is a wonderful example of biologically-inspired design, or biomimicry.

Also on this day, the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (to later merge with another society to become the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, IEEE) is founded.

For more information see the Engineering Pathway’s educational resources on biomimetic design and trademarks and patents. For related curricular resources, visit the Materials Engineering Education, Materials Engineering Education and the Chemical Engineering Education community sites.