Scientist of the Day

Gregor Reisch, a German monk, died on May 9, 1525, at the age of about 58.

Adèle Dumont d'Urville, the daughter of a French watchmaker named Pépin, died May 8, 1842, in a dramatic demise detailed below.

Amiel Weeks Whipple, a U.S. Army officer and engineer, died May 7, 1863, having been born on Oct. 21, 1817, in Greenwich, Mass.  

Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, a French civil engineer, was born Dec. 15, 1832.

Ferdinand von Richthofen, a German geographer, was born May 5, 1833, in Carlsruhe, in what was then Prussian Silesia.

Athanasius Kircher, a German Jesuit natural philosopher working in Rome, was born May 2, 1601 (or 1602), in Fulda, Germany.

Orazio Grassi, an Italian Jesuit mathematician and astronomer, was born May 1, 1583.

David Thompson, a British/Canadian explorer and cartographer, was born Apr. 30, 1770, in Westminster, London.

Mary Ward, an Irish microscopist, popular science writer, and illustrator, was born Apr. 27, 1827, at the family estate, Castle Ward, County Down.

Guglielmo Marconi, an Italian electrical engineer and inventor, was born Apr. 25, 1874, into a wealthy family in Bologna.

Poul La Cour, a Danish scientist, teacher, and inventor, died on Apr. 24, 1908, at the age of 62. He was born on Apr. 13, 1846, in east Jutland...

Louis Bourguet, a French/Swiss naturalist, philosopher, and historian, was born Apr. 23, 1678, in Nîmes. His parents were Huguenots, and when...