An interesting "Time Line".

I discovered this list of “Definitive moments in Science” in a book called “Why Us” by the science author James Le Fanu.

I have amended it with a couple of very important events – not recorded in the original list (amended 11/09/17).

1940 – I was born!

1945 - The atomic bomb used in anger, for the first and only time, dropped on Japan.

1946 – The electron microscope reveals the internal structure of the cell.

1947 – The invention of the transistor launches the Electronic Age.

1953 – Theory of the formation of the chemical elements of life by nuclear fusion

within stars.

1953 – The laboratory simulation of the “origin of life”.

1953 – James Watson and Francis Crick discover the “Double Helix” of DNA.

1955 – The first polio vaccine.

1957 – The (then) Soviet Union launches Sputnik and the epoch of planetary exploration.

1960 – The oral contraceptive first marketed.

1961 – The genetic code deciphered.

1965 – The theory of the “Big Bang” creation of the Universe confirmed by the discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation.

1967 – The first heart transplant.

1969 – US astronaut Neil Armstrong becomes first man on the moon.

1969 – James Lovelock proposes theory of a life-sustaining atmosphere.

1973 – The advent of genetic engineering.

1973 – First ever call on a mobile (cell) phone.

1973 - The invention of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) of the brain.

1974 – The discovery of “Lucy”, Australopithecus afarensis, dated 4 million years ago, our earliest known humanoid ancestor.

1974 – The first Grand Unified Theory of particle physics.
1977 - The first personal computer designed for the mass market.

1977 – The first complete genetic sequence of an organism.

1979 – Voyagers I and II relay data from Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune (and they are still going – now in deep interstellar space).

1979 – The first “test tube baby”.

1980 – The asteroid impact hypothesis for the mass extinction of dinosaurs.

1984 – The discovery of  “Turkana Boy”, the first complete skeleton of Homo erectus, dated 1.5 million years ago – the precursor of us, Homo sapiens.

1984 – Confirmation of the theory of “plate tectonics” – moving “plates” forming the continents.

1987 – Formulation of the “out of Africa” hypothesis of human evolution.

1989 – Launch of the World Wide Web (the internet).

1990 – The Decade of the Brain (the “plasticity” of the brain discovered – for example).

1999 – The Hubble space telescope observes the birth of stars, for the first time, in the constellation Taurus.

2000 – The first self-balancing, transport machine – the Segway Human Transporter.

2001 – Publication of the Human Genome.

2001 – Apple’s iPod invented.

2001 – Invention of the first “bio-artificial” liver – functioning in place of a liver.

2002 – The first birth control “patch” produced.

2003 – The world’s first battery/petrol “hybrid” car produced by Toyota.

2005 – YouTube invented.

2007 – Apple’s iPhone invented.

2007 – The first “fast radio burst” from interstellar space identified.

2010 – The Neanderthal Genome project completed showing interbreeding with ancient humans.

2015 – Traces of liquid water discovered on Mars.

2016 – Gravitational waves discovered for the first time from a “black hole “ merger”.

2017 – The first Earth-like planet which may have liquid water on its surface, located “just” 21 light                                                                                                                                                                          years away.

Pretty impressive, Huh! All since I was born!! Mmmm.

Dates – for rememberance.

(Amended 20^thSeptember 2019)

By dates I do not refer to the palm fruit variety or those arrangements to meet someone. No. I refer to those dates in time – referring to events in life that are important to us individually and to the world. The Portuguese sailor, Bartolomeu Diaz – who rounded the Cape of Good Hope in 1488, the “First Fleet” that arrived in Botany Bay (Sydney, Australia) in 1788 are but two that immediately spring to my mind.

Dates are significant for a variety of reasons and each are important in their own way. Birthdays, anniversaries, and important historical occurrence – any date that marks an event on the journey of one’s life. They are reminders of wayfarers we have met, of things we have done. 

For me certain dates have a special meaning. Being a “war baby” – (Second World War) I have the dates of the beginning and end of that tumultuous time firmly set (generally accepted as 1 September 1939 -2 September 1945). And also the First World War (the War to end all wars!) because both my grandfathers were combatants in that one (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918). 

When a child I was taught to always remember “Armistice Day”, or “Poppy Day” as it is sometimes called – 11^thNovember. 

Nearer home, as it were, are the dates of my retirement – 19^thOctober 2012. Now another date – a date recording a death, 21^stJanuary 2016 as is 1^stJune. Every 21^stis for me both a time of celebration (in October, it is my birthday) and every 1^stJune, a time of reflection, of remembrance and of great sadness. The 21^stJanuary is the date of the death of my best friend – my wife, Magucha, and 1^stJune is the date my first wife Frances, died (in 1977).

As anyone who reads these rambling posts well knows that poetry has a special meaning for me. There is a poet my late bother, Bruce, enjoyed – a Canadian by the name of Robert Service, and a poem he wrote:

 “Unforgotten” 

I know the garden where the lilies gleam,

  And one who lingers in the sunshine there;

  She is than white-stoled lily far more fair,

And, oh, her eyes are heaven-lit with dream!

I know the garret, cold and dark and drear,

  And one who toils and toils with tireless pen,

  Until his brave, sad eyes grow weary – then

He seeks the stars pale, silent as a seer.

And ah, it’s strange; for, desolate and dim,

  Between these two there rolls an ocean wide;

  Yet he is in the garden by her side

And she is in the garret there with him.