Thank Marconi for Radio!

Do you remember the song "We Built This City (on Rock & Roll)" by Starship?

One of the lines in the song goes like this:

Marconi played the mamba

Listen to the radio

Do you know who Marconi was or what he had to do with the radio?

Guglielmo Marconi was an Italian inventor who lived from 1874 until 1937. He won a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1909 for his work in wireless telegraphy. Before Marconi, we had telegraphs, but they could only be used with a network of cables and wires. Marconi proved that it was possible to not only transmit information via wireless radio waves, but he was the first person to send such signals across the Atlantic Ocean. Other scientists believed, correctly, that wireless radio waves would be lost after travelling approximately 200 miles, because the would continue to travel in a straight line, rather than follow the earth's curvature; however, after much experimentation, Marconi was able to bounce signals off the Earth's ionosphere to reach a receiver in Newfoundland, Canada.

Marconi's wireless system was widely used on ships to maintain contact with the mainland. One of those ships was the RMS Titanic. The radio controllers aboard the Titanic who sent out the distress signal were employed by Marconi's company, Marconi International Marine Communication Company. Only one survived the sinking. Despite his injuries, he helped the radio controllers aboard the rescue ship, RMS Carpathia, to send wireless messages to New York regarding survivors, and to send messages from survivors to loved ones. Marconi's invention saved the lives of 706 passengers that night. Without it, more than 2,223 lives would have been lost.

Think about that the next time you turn on the radio!

Nobel Prize

It is a great honor to win a Nobel Prize. The Prize is given to people whose work over the previous has been a great benefit to mankind. It awarded annually in the categories of chemistry, physics, medicine, literature, and peace.

The Nobel Prize is named for a Swedish scientist named Alfred Nobel. Nobel invented dynomite and other explosives. When he died in 1896, his will stated that most of his fortune should be banked and the interested should be distributed each year to the person or group of people whose work over the past year had the most benefit to mankind. It is believed that Nobel created the award because he felt guilty that his inventions were used for violence.

The first Nobel Prize was awarded in 1901, five years to the day after Nobel's death. The awards are still given each year on December 10. The Nobel Prize is considered the most prestigious prize in the world. Winners are given a cash prize, as well as the gold medal pictured above.

Past Nobel Prize winners include Albert Einstein, Ernest Hemingway, the Dalai Lama, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Nelson Mandela.

For more information, and to find out about this year's winners, go to http://nobelprize.org/ or just watch the news today - December 10, 2010!

Tip of the Week -- Science

Marie Curie (1867-1934) was a pioneer in the field of radioactivity. She did not actually discover radioactivity, but she did give it the name, and she created the theory of radioactivity. She also developed techniques for isolating radioactive isotopes, and she discovered two elements, polonium and radium.

Marie was the first scientist to explore oncology. Today, when we hear of people undergoing radiation treatments for cancer, we can thank Marie Curie. The Marie Sklodowska-Curie Institute of Oncology in Warsaw, Poland, grew out of the Radium Institute, which Marie founded in 1932.

Although Marie was Polish, she was the first female professor at the University of Paris. Her husband, Pierre, was also a professor and a scientist. Together, they won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903. Their daughter, Irene, carried on the family tradition, winning a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935. Irene's children are prominent scientists as well.

Marie also won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1911. She was the first person ever to be awarded two Nobel Prizes.