Professional Association

Unraveling past climate conditions by drilling through kilometers of ice is surely one of our era's grand accomplishments. Future generations will want to study how it was done but they will fail unless the participants act now to secure a high-quality historical record. Around 1999 three leading scientific organizations, the American Meteorological Society (GATE project history), the American Geophysical Union (solar variability history), and the American Institute of Physics (Center for History of Physics), with support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, formed a consortium to experiment with using the World Wide Web to locate, create, and preserve historical documentation in science and technology. The aim was to find ways to establish low-cost mechanisms for gathering much historical information that would otherwise be lost to posterity. A continuation of this effort is the History of Recent Science and Technology Project.

Three leading scientific organizations, the American Meteorological Society (AMS), the American Geophysical Union (AGU), and the American Institute of Physics (Center for History of Physics) (AIP), have formed a consortium to experiment with using the World Wide Web to locate, create and preserve historical documentation in science and technology. For selected research topics, pioneers are urged to submit personal recollections, documents or pointers to collections of documents, and comments on materials submitted by others. The material will be gathered in databases, through discussion forums and other mechanisms familiar to most scientists. If we succeed, we will have shown other scientific organizations how to establish low-cost mechanisms for gathering much historical information that would otherwise be lost.

Forty years later, a CDC researcher, horrified by the study's continuation, gave his notes to an Associated Press reporter who broke the story in the nation's media in July 1972. With the ensuing publicity and uproar, there was a Senate hearing, state and federal investigating commissions, and a $1.8 billion lawsuit filed by civil rights attorney Fred Gray that was settled out of court in 1974 for $10 million

Profiled here are African American men and women who have contributed to the advancement of science and engineering. The accomplishments of the past and present can serve as pathfinders to present and future engineers and scientists. African American chemists, biologists, inventors, engineers, and mathematicians have contributed in both large and small ways that can be overlooked when chronicling the history of science. By describing the scientific history of selected African American men and women we can see how the efforts of individuals have advanced human understanding in the world around us.

The process of scorching bread to preserve it spread through many cultures. The word toast comes from the Latin Torrere, Tostum - to scorch or burn. The Romans, in their conquests, took their love of toasted bread with them and spread the custom farther, even up into Britain. Later, English colonists brought the tradition to the Americas.

In 1969, a group of women and men of Seneca Falls created the National Women's Hall of Fame, believing that the contribution of American women deserved a permanent home in the small village where it all began. The Hall is home to exhibits, artifacts of historical interest, a research library and office. The National Women's Hall of Fame, a national membership organization, holds as its mission:

"To honor in perpetuity these women, citizens of the United States of America whose contributions to the arts, athletics, business, education, government, the humanities, philanthropy and science, have been the greatest value for the development of their country."©
The Hall is a shrine to some of the greatest women in the history of this country and a tribute that grows annually with each induction ceremony as we learn to appreciate more about the wonderful contributions that women make to our civilization.

This month's inventor may look like a 19th century pirate. But you cannot judge this book by its cover. His invention was first, but Congress decided his invention was too important to be monopolized by a single man. One of our previous inventors, patented his invention a year after this month's inventor and his marketing skills beat out our mystery man

The Charles Babbage Institute is an historical archives and research center of the University of Minnesota. CBI is dedicated to promoting study of the history of information technology and information processing and their impact on society. CBI preserves relevant historical documentation in all media, conducts and fosters research in history and archival methods, offers graduate fellowships, and sponsors symposia, conferences, and publications.

Ordered to copy the Nieuport 17, the Albatros company developed the impressive D.I. Unlike other fighters at the time, its fuselage was covered with sheets of plywood rather than stretched fabric. This gave the D.I great strength and rigidity. Despite poor visibility to the front and above, Oswald Boelcke used this plane to achieve 11 victories in 16 days. The Albatros D.I reestablished German air superiority and made the British "pusher" designs obsolete.

The Alexander Graham Bell family collection brings together a wide range of documents accumulated by Dr. Bell and his family during their time in Baddeck, Nova Scotia. The Alexander Graham Bell Institute has developed a comprehensive index of these materials. This index, with online access to several components of the Bell collection, can be accessed using the World Wide Web.