June 2026: Science history from 50, 100 and 150 years ago

June 2026: History of science 50, 100 and 150 years ago

By Jeanna Bryner

1976

An electron hole liquid

“Recently, scientists have discovered that electrical charge carriers inside a crystal can exist in a state that has many of the properties associated with water. For example, it can exist as a vapor, and when the relative humidity becomes high enough, the particles condense. Unlike water, the new liquid only exists inside a solid semiconductor and it cannot be extracted from that environment. Instead of atoms or molecules of an ordinary liquid, it is made up of electrons and “holes”, or positively charged voids formed by the absence of an electron. The electrons and holes continually annihilate each other and, in doing so, emit infrared radiation. As a result, the liquid is inherently unstable and disappears in a fraction of a second without a continuous supply of electrons and holes.

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“Finally, the new liquid is essentially a quantum mechanical fluid. Negligible effects in conventional fluids have a major influence on the electron-hole liquid. For these reasons, the new liquid provides a unique testing ground for some of the fundamental principles of physics.”

1926

How to observe sunspots

“During the last two years the number of sunspots has increased rapidly, as has their size. It is not unusual for a spot, or group of spots, to be large enough to be seen with the naked eye. “Unaided” is rather a misnomer, for no sane man would think of looking at the sun without some protective device, either the old-fashioned smoked glass or the more modern piece of densely fogged film. With this simple equipment the amateur can see the spots and watch them progress majestically across the solar disk day by day as the rotation moves them forward.

Is the interior of the Earth molten?

“Man has never been able to penetrate more than a kilometer below the Earth’s surface – a mere pinprick. Yet while science does not claim positive assurance regarding the actual conditions in the Earth’s inner layers, there are some things that we know are not true. One is that the Earth’s interior is a molten liquid. Probably nothing has tended to crystallize this widely held misconception more than the existence of volcanoes, pouring out liquid lava. At the center of the Earth, however, the pressure is too great. They are therefore as rigid as steel Seismologists can easily prove this last statement, because they record the seismic tremors which pass through the interior of the Earth prove that the interior is considered by the majority to be of local and not deep origin.

In 1936, a seminal paper first described the existence of a solid inner core of the Earth surrounded by a liquid outer core.

Eavesdropping in the Arctic

“There is no east, west or north at the top of the world, which is why thousands of shortwave radio receivers on every face of the Earth will have an equal opportunity to listen to the messages broadcast by the aviator-explorers participating in the race to the North Pole this summer.

“Ethereal channels from the ice-covered region will be broadcast throughout the world. Twelve Arctic expeditions are in preparation, and three are ready to jump from the northern points of the earth to the cradle of the storms. The journalists, accompanied by radio operators and wireless equipment, have established a base at Point Barrow, Alaska, from where they hope to pick up radio signals and then relay the biggest news of the year. Many amateurs using shortwave sets hear the explorers’ account firsthand in the split second after the words are broadcast in the northern air, because low wavelengths jump short distances and travel far.

1876

Door construction spiders

« At the Jardin des Plantes de Paris [a botanical garden in France]there is a curious spider belonging to the Mygale gender. Like all spiders, this strange creature has eight eyes. Its mandibles are armed with sharp teeth and its paws have retractable claws, resembling those of a cat.

“The most curious member is native to Corsica, a light brown spider which rests in tubes dug in clay embankments. The tubes are vaulted from one end to the other with a hard mortar, and this in turn is lined with a soft, silky web. But before covering its walls with their finest hangings, the spider attaches a coarse cloth, and to this, as a foundation, is fixed the most delicate material. Then it begins the construction of its door, an operation in which it would seem that almost every faculty of reasoning is brought to bear. Although barely a tenth of an inch thick, this door is constructed of more than 30 alternating layers of canvas and mortar, each layer being embedded within another, like a series of cups.

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