January 2026: Science History from 50, 100 and 150 Years Ago
Killer bees; Mars volcanoes
1976, Mars Volcanoes: “The Tharsis region is the most prominent volcanic region on Mars. This contour map, produced by the U.S. Geological Survey, outlines a broad bulge, informally called the Syria Rise, 5,000 kilometers across and seven kilometers high, on which the three shield volcanoes Ascraeus Mons, Pavonis Mons and Arsia Mons are located. Fractures radiate outward for several thousand kilometers.”
Scientific American, Vol. 234, No. 1; January 1976
1976
Killer Bees Won’t Invade
“Much attention has been given to the fact that honeybees of an African race (Apis mellifera adansonii) were accidentally released in Brazil in the mid-1950s, where they have been cross-breeding with commercial honeybee populations and also have established their own wild colonies. The northward and southward expansion of the bees’ range, coupled with the African race’s tendency to pursue any disturber of the hive with unusual persistence, have led to predictions that the ‘killer bees’ might eventually spread a reign of terror throughout the Western Hemisphere. Roger A. Morse, professor of apiculture at Cornell University, dismisses the threat as being grossly exaggerated. Morse points out that the African bees’ reputation for aggressiveness is no worse than that of other honeybee races regularly raised by beekeepers. As for a possible U.S. invasion, Morse notes that adansonii are adapted to living under tropical and subtropical conditions. They are unable to survive the cold season in temperate climates as other honeybees do by forming winter clusters, and the Africanized hybrids share this handicap.”
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1926
Pangaea Idea Is Absurd
“Professor Alfred L. Wegener at the University of Graz in Germany says that millions of years ago the two Americas, as well as Europe, Asia, Australia and Antarctica, were one continent centered around Africa. Tidal forces—the attraction of the sun and moon for the earth’s solid mass (not ocean tides)—broke this supercontinent up, and the pieces slowly dispersed in various directions, like the blocks of a great, flat cake of floating ice that is broken up by the waves. Some of these pieces are drifting still. This theory is startling. To many it seems absurd. It may prove to be erroneous. It may gain final acceptance among geologists. But there is something about it that seems to captivate the interest of scientists.”
Today scientists accept the idea that plate tectonics broke up Pangaea.
Start of Civilization
“Two factions of scientists are at odds. One faction says civilization started in one place in the world and spread from this center. They place it near Egypt. Sun worship, ear-piercing, tattooing, pyramids, irrigation, similarity of art and a long list of even more peculiar manners and customs argue for a common origin, they claim. The other faction says these similarities of manners and customs simply show that the human mind works about the same everywhere. Given two or several isolated peoples, as time goes on they will develop similar peculiarities because there is an inherent tendency in humans to develop culture by the same stages and in the same way. They call this tendency psychic unity.”
Chlorine Bombs Colds
“Two San Francisco chemists have perfected a chlorine gas bomb for the treatment of colds in the home, where the same results are obtained as with more elaborate apparatus. It eliminates the necessity of going to some central source for treatment, with possible exposure to bad weather and further lowering of body resistance. The bomb is made of glass and contains nothing but pure filtered chlorine gas. The patient takes the bomb in a closed room and breaks off the ends of the bomb, thus permitting the gas to mingle with the air in the room. The patient remains in this gas-filled room for one hour.”
1876
Mysterious Jade
“A number of sales of Japanese and Chinese curiosities have recently taken place in New York City that included objects made of a material little seen in this part of the world, and about which little is here known. It is a precious stone, valuable not on account of its scarcity, because in China and Burma large mines of it exist, but for the great difficulty encountered in cutting and carving it, necessitating an amount of patience and manual dexterity rarely found. It is a silicate of alumina called jade. The true jade is hard enough to cut glass or quartz, and the most valuable pieces are of an intensely bright green hue, the ordinary material being pink and yellow.”
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