Antoine César Becquerel and the Epic of Science – Diario Villa

Nestor Rivero Perez

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On March 7, 1788, Antoine César Becquerel was born in Châtillon Coligny (France), who went down in history as an initiator of the study of “the phenomenon of luminescence and a researcher in piezoelectricity” (https://es.wikidat.com), whose son Alexander Henri Becquerel and grandson Henri Becquerel developed first-class investigative work in the fields of science. In fact, the grandson won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903.

Soldier and scientist

In 1808, when he was eighteen, Antoine César graduated from the École Polytechnique, which was a fertile breeding ground for Gallic engineers founded in 1794, under the educational policies of the French Revolution.

Despite his profession, Antoine César Becquerel would enlist in 1810 as a soldier in the armies of Napoleon Bonaparte, and intervene in the campaign of the Iberian Peninsula, on the orders of Marshal Louis Gabriel Suchet.

In 1814 he retired from the army to devote himself entirely to scientific research. Featuring the works of Antoine César Becquerel Elements of geophysics and meteorologyBeside The history of electricity and its applications in chemistry, natural sciences, and the arts.

Becquerel Epic

The three sons of Antoine César had a great commitment to science. the eldest, Louis Alfred (1814-1866), a medical graduate, did research and wrote on urology; The second daughter, Pauline Becquerel (1819-1841), also a physician, performed proven studies on the ear.

Pauline’s husband, Prosper Minnier, on the observation of patients who had lost their balance and hearing and on the basis of the discoveries of Pierre Florens, about the workings of the brain, was the first to reasonably mention that the vertigo was not, as it was believed until then some kind of stroke, but “a problem of inner ear”https://www.historiadelamedicina.org). The last of Antoine César’s sons, Alexandre Edmond Becquerel (1820-1891) was a famous physicist with research in the fields of electricity, magnetism, and the solar spectrum.

Antoine César’s grandson, Henri Becquerel, was the discoverer of radioactivity, which allowed him to share the Nobel Prize in 1903 with the Curie couple.

Bq and luster

After completing his military career in engineering, Antoine César began expressing his interest in lighting, the phenomenon of flashes of light in the midst of dark spaces that fireflies reveal in nature. Becquerel’s first contact with luminous beings was in 1830, during a trip to Venice where he had the opportunity to contemplate the nocturnal glow of the sea.

Although he devoted himself to the study of newfound electricity, he passed on to his son Edmund his fascination with it. light emitting processes He devoted himself to his studies.https://www.esteve.org).

Today it is known that the glow of fireflies, as well as that which arises in the form of night glow in the seas “produce Through the reaction of oxygen With a molecule derived from chlorophyll, luciferin, catalyzed by the lucifer enzyme” (ibid.).

The line of research inaugurated by Antoine César attracted the interest of his son and grandson, who went deep into the subject, and rose in the understanding of the phenomenon of linking electricity to lighting and the development of atomic quantities, an area whose study should lead. Henri Becquerel’s grandson to radioactivity.

A grandfather’s merit is not to be underestimated in awakening the curious call of his grandchildren, and this would lead to nuclear power, whose energy, through thick and thin, is a giant escaping from Aladdin’s lamp.

Synoptic

332 BC

Aristotle

On this day, at the age of 62, the philosopher Aristotle died, having been a pupil of Plato, who formed the first global system of knowledge on which civilization had accumulated in antiquity.

Among his works stand out poeticAnd the physical – physicalAnd the metaphysics And the morale for nicomax. According to Federico Langa, the greatness of Aristotle lies in his ability to assimilate knowledge of different types, examine them, combine them, and obtain new combinations. These are the features of the great encyclopedic world of antiquity, who in this sense will continue Leonardo, Descartes and Leibniz.

The latter is considered to be the last exponent of that cyclical gift which consists in mastering all knowledge of the age. Stagirite appropriately immersed itself in the logic. And although he also had serious misunderstandings in astronomy and other sciences, his work constitutes a source of continuity in logic and refutation of various scientific assertions, as understood by his opponent Galileo Galilei at the beginning of the seventeenth century.

On morala text dedicated to his nephew Nicomachus, the philosopher linking the purpose of happiness with the ideal of virtue.