Last month, on an arts & sciences theme, we focused on science and asked you to identify the scientific discovery associated with February 18th that was subsequently overturned in 2006. We asked you to tell us what the discovery was, who discovered it and what happened?
Guess who was first with all the right answers! None other than good friend, long-time Legal Bytes reader and a senior executive with the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Mark S. Frankel. Congratulations.
Mark correctly told us that while Pluto, the ninth planet in the solar system, was discovered by American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh on February 18th, Pluto was recategorized as a dwarf planet and ‘plutoid’ in 2006.
Runner-up kudos goes to another friend and loyal reader, Samuel J. Dressler; who was a friend growing up in Washington Heights, a fraternity brother in university and remains a distant friend to this day. Sam noted that the name Pluto was first suggested by an 11-year-old English girl named Venetia Burney. The suggestion fit with the unofficial practice of giving planets the name of a Roman God (Pluto is the Roman God of the underworld). Coincidentally the name starts with the initials of the Planet X crusader, Percival Lowell, among other things, an astronomer best remembered as a key proponent of the notion that there were canals on Mars, founder of the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona and who is widely credited with being responsible for starting the work that ultimately led to the discovery of Pluto 14 years after his death. Thank you Samuel!
I can’t resist also giving an honorable mention to another good friend, David A. VanderNaalt, one whom I have known since my days at American Express, for sending me this:
Thanks Dave!