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[Phys-L] Re: Stories to share



At 01:24 PM 2/4/2006, Ludwik, you wrote:

[bc]
Very good -- we are taught the other kind (Ceylonitous), e.g.
Becquerel, Roentgen, quinine, etc. This will impress upon
students to follow up the unexpected.

[Ludwik]
Please write a clear summary paragraph about each of these cases. Do
not assume that all of us remember everything that we should. Who is
known to miss the discovery of natural radioactivity before Becquerel?
Who is known to miss the discovery of X-rays before Roentgen?

Ludwik Kowalski
Let the perfect not be the enemy of the good.


Ludwik,
I sometimes see bc as writing in a telegraphic manner. Perhaps as well,
cos Western Union has just given up on the traffic, I recall.
Here, I understood bc to say that in contrast to the people who
observe a novel effect but skate over the unique feature, there
are people who make the serendipitous (or "Ceylonitious") discovery
directly - which we take to mean a comparably anomalous and
fortuitous observation, but an observation that registers
immediately as novel and worthy of investigation.
The Roentgen story as retold, of a chance juxtaposition of an emitter
and a plate or scintillator, is in this genre of a lucky chance discovery.

I take it that bc suggests there is a class of discovery that did not go
previously unheeded by others.


Brian Whatcott Altus OK Eureka!
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