115th Anniversary of the Discovery of X-rays

Source: http://www.google.com.vn/logos/2010/xraydiscovery2010-ps.gif

X-radiation (composed of X-rays) is a form of electromagnetic radiation. X-rays have a wavelength in the range of 0.01 to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30 petahertz to 30 exahertz (3 × 10¹⁶ Hz to 3 × 10¹⁹ Hz) and energies in the range 120 eV to 120 keV. They are shorter in wavelength than UV rays and longer than gamma rays. In many languages, X-radiation is called Röntgen radiation, after Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, who is generally credited as their discoverer, and who had named them X-rays to signify an unknown type of radiation.: Correct spelling of X-ray(s) in the English language includes the variants x-ray(s) and X ray(s). XRAY is used as a communications code word for the letter x. [Read more on Wikipedia]

25th Anniversary of Buckyball

Google has released another interactive animated HTML5 Google Doodle today. Spotted first on Google.co.uk, Google logo is made up of interactive colored balls.

Google Doodles never came without a reason. Most recently, Google Doodle celebrated buckyball's 25th-anniversary by embracing the carbon molecule in its logo. But today's different. Google.co.uk users are treated to a special mystery Google Doodle today -- and there doesn't seem to be any occasion that Google's celebrating.

The new mystery Google Doodle on Google.co.uk replaces the Google logo with a string of tiny circles or balls that disperse upon mouse movement on the page. Move the mouse over the Google Doodle quickly or slowly and the balls/circles making up the Google logo disperse according to momentum -- it's pretty cool.

Source: http://www.google.com/logos/2010/buckyball10-hp.gif

As with past interactive doodles, Google Doodle supports HTML5. We tried playing with Google Doodle on Google Chrome 6 and beta 7, Firefox 4 beta, and IE8 on Microsoft Windows 7. However, the Google Doodle didn't render at all on IE7 running on Microsoft XP.

Buckminsterfullerene (C60) is a spherical molecule with the formula C60. It was first prepared in 1985 by Harold Kroto, James Heath, Sean O'Brien, Robert Curl and Richard Smalley at Rice University.[1] Kroto, Curl, and Smalley were awarded the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their roles in the discovery of buckminsterfullerene and the related class of molecules, the fullerenes. The name is an homage to Richard Buckminster Fuller, whose geodesic domes it resembles. Buckminsterfullerene was the first fullerene molecule discovered and it is also the most common in terms of natural occurrence, as it can be found in small quantities in soot. [Read more on Wikipedia]

400th Anniversary of Galileo's First Telescope

Source: http://www.google.com/logos/galileo09.gif

400 years ago today, on 25 August 1609, the Italian astronomer and philosopher Galilei Galileo showed Venetian merchants his new creation, a telescope – the instrument that was to bring him both scientific immortality and, more immediately, a whole lot of trouble.