Scientist of the Day

Walther Hermann Ryff, a German writer about surgery, architecture, and machines, was born about 1500 in Strasbourg, and died on Sep. 29, 1548...

Edwin H. Colbert, an American vertebrate paleontologist, was born Sep. 28, 1905, in Clarinda, Iowa. He grew up in Maryville, Missouri, and attended...

Alfred Vail, an American inventor and machinist, was born Sep. 25, 1807, in Morristown, New Jersey. His father was a manufacturer who established...

Theodor Seuss Geisel, an American children's book author and illustrator, died Sep. 24, 1991, at the age of 87.  He started writing under the name...

Ruth Patrick, an American ecologist and microbiologist, died on Sep. 23, 2013, at the age of 105. She was born in Topeka on Nov 26, 1907, and was...

Ibn al-Haytham, an Arabic mathematical scientist, was born in Basra about 965 CE and died in Cairo about 1040 CE.

Charles Nicolle, a French physician and bacteriologist, was born September 21, 1866, in Rouen.

Strabo, a Greek geographer, was born around 63 BCE in Amaseia in Pontus, a kingdom on the Black Sea in what is now northern Turkey. He lived...

John James Abert, a U.S. Army officer and Topographical Engineer, was born Sep. 17, 1788, in what is now West Virginia. He was one of the early...

Engelbert Kaempfer, a German naturalist and traveler, was born on Sep. 16, 1651, in Lemgo, Lippe, in what is now central Germany. He studied at a...

Agatha Christie, an English writer of mystery novels and stories, was born Sep. 15, 1890, in Torquay, Devonshire. She had a privileged upbringing... 

Peter Lely, a Dutch/English portrait painter, was born on Sep. 14, 1618. He showed artistic promise at an early age, and when the Flemish portrait...