ZNet Commentary
A Famous [But Unknown] Scientist March 11, 2008
By Nikos Raptis
Suzan Elizabeth Hough is an American seismologist and a writer. She
is the author of four books. Her fourth book, published in 2007, is
the "measure of a man" [her words] whose name is arguably one of the
most known [and repeated] names of a scientist in the world. In my
country, Greece, his name is in the papers almost daily!
On April 26, 1900 a boy "was born near Overpeck, Ohio, north of
Cincinnati". His father's surname was Kinsinger. After his mother was
divorced from his father the child adopted his mother's maiden name:
Richter. So, the man into which the boy grew is known to the world as
Charles Frances Richter.
......
The remark that Richter's name is almost daily in the Greek papers is
based on the fact that there are about 30,000 quakes of magnitude 4
Richter all over the earth, annually. A great percentage of them hit
Greece. As a matter of fact, during the last couple of weeks the
coverage is not only rich but "scary", as there is the usual rumor
for a "big one" in Athens, very soon, according to some
seismologists, etc, etc.