Answer of the Day
How did the dwarf planet Pluto get its name? An 11-year-old girl, Venetia Burney, suggested the name "Pluto," remembering the Roman god of the underworld who could make himself invisible. Scientists liked that it started with "PL," the initials of astronomer Percival Lowell, who predicted the existence of a planet beyond Neptune. The astronomer who first actually spotted Pluto some 80 years ago, Clyde William Tombaugh, was born on February 4, 1906. He used a blink microscope to continue the search begun by Lowell and was finally rewarded with the discovery of what appeared to be the largest celestial body in the Kuiper belt. In 2006, Pluto's status was downgraded to that of a dwarf planet because of its orbital location in the Kuiper belt, composition of rock and ice and diminutive size.

Quote
"Imagination is as vital to any advance in science as learning and precision are essential for starting points." — Percival Lowell

Word of the day
daltonism
(DAWL-tuh-niz-em)

noun: Color blindness, especially the inability to distinguish between red and green.

Etymology
After John Dalton (1766-1844), chemist and physicist, who gave us Dalton's Law of Partial Pressures. He studied his own color blindness as well.

Usage
"Theodore R. Weeks refers to 'national daltonism: the extreme difficulty nationalists had... in perceiving and appreciating the viewpoints or needs of members of other nationalities." — Stephen D. Corrsin; Nation and State in Late Imperial Russia; Canadian Slavonic Papers (Ottawa); Sep-Dec 1999.

Weekly theme
eponyms (© Wordsmith.org)

Today's History

A Facebook Friend Wheel

• Confederate States of America: a new union broke away from the United States; it was formed by southern slave states (1861)
• Yalta Conference: the "Big Three" — Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin — met in the Crimea (1945)
• Yugoslavia: was formally replaced by Serbia and Montenegro; the two declared independence three years later (2003)
• Facebook: social networking site that redefined "friend" was founded by Mark Zuckerberg (2004)

Today's Birthdays

Betty Friedan

• Charles Lindbergh (1902-1974): the first aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic; flight pioneer Clement Ader (1841-1926) and Ludwig Prandtl (1875-1953), father of aerodynamics, shared this birth date
• Rosa Parks (1913-2005): the black woman who refused to give up her seat on the bus
• Betty Friedan (1921-2006): founder of NOW
• Dan Quayle (63): VP under George Bush
• Alice Cooper (62): rocker; also, musicians John Steel (69), Florence LaRue (66) and Clint Black (48)
• Oscar De La Hoya (37): middleweight boxing champ who is also a singer