Extraordinary Lives - Sir Francis Bacon

The person who can be said to be the first modern scientist was Sir Frances Bacon, 1^st Viscount St Albans (left). Even though his research methods were considered eccentric in his time they led the way in observation and experimentation in research.

For several centuries Bacon’s sexuality was either ignored or misinterpreted. Rictor Norton, one of the world’s current leading lgbt historians, has written: “Historians regularly hide what they cannot deny, and suppress evidence of the homosexuality of historical figures”. The evidence in Francis Bacon’s case is everywhere. During his lifetime he was known to show a particularly close interest in a string of young Welsh servants and attendants he employed. One of his contemporaries wrote an autobiography in which he goes into some detail about a certain “bedfellow” of Bacon’s by the name of Godrick. Even Bacon’s own mother complained about him allowing his servants to sleep (and more) with him in his own bed. It wasn’t the sex that offended her so much as the fact that the servants were allowed to enter the master’s bedroom!

The bulk of Bacon’s career was taken up with the law. He joined the Inns of Court in London in 1575. He was elected MP of several successive constituencies right up to 1614. By this time Bacon was also one of the most influential figures at the court of King James I. This started through his friendship with the Earl of Essex who tried to have Bacon appointed by Queen Elizabeth I to several key positions. When Essex fell out of favour and executed Bacon helped to prosecute him.

When James I succeeded to the throne of England Bacon tried to improve his standing further. Perhaps James recognised a kindred spirit in Bacon. The king had several toy-boys whom he advanced at court. The most important of these was George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham. Bacon’s letters show he obviously fancied Buckingham as much as the king did, but wisely kept his distance. It wasn’t long before Bacon was knighted and climbed the legal ladder from King’s Counsel to Solicitor General to Attorney General to Lord Keeper of the Great Seal and finally, in 1618, Lord Chancellor, the highest position in the country after the king himself.

One of the first responsibilities Bacon was charged with when James succeeded was as a member of the commission to unite the Crowns of Scotland and England politically into Great Britain. In the present day there’s a lot of talk about Scotland leaving the United Kingdom (leaving Great Britain, actually, as it would still leave England and Northern Ireland and the united kingdoms).

By 1621 Bacon had been given a peerage and was Viscount St Albans. But his influence at court was soon cut short. Through the machinations of his political rivals he was convicted to accepting bribes as a judge and briefly locked up in the Tower of London. On his release he had the chance to spend more time on his final career choice – that of scientific researcher and a writer.

Bacon had dabbled in science before his conviction. At university as a teenager he had no interest in the views of Aristotle which dominated scientific thought at the time and wanted to pursue his own experimental techniques.

In 1592 he said that all knowledge was his province, and over the next few years he gradually developed his theories of learning, so that by 1621 he was more than ready to pursue his dream of full-time research. The scope of Bacon’s research and thinking covers many subjects. From the origin of ancient myths to the nature of learning, from the causes of hiccups to the shortage of rain in Egypt, Bacon had a theory.

What amazes me about Bacon’s observations is that sometimes he noticed things that are not explained until 300 years later. Bacon had looked at maps of the coastlines of Africa and newly explored South America and noticed that they almost fitted together. Today we know why – because they DID fit together, many millions of years ago. Bacon didn’t try to explain continental drift, he didn’t think anything of it, he was just making an observation.

What Bacon espoused more than anything else is his scientific writing was that only proper experimentation led to the truth. This is best explained in his novel “New Atlantis”. It describes the fictional island of Bensalem and it’s scientific institute full of eager researchers into all things. From this fictional institute grew an idea among scientists to create something similar in reality, and in 1660 the Royal Society was founded in London. It was partly inspired by Bacon.

As a piece of fiction “New Atlantis” also influenced, and was satirised by, Jonathan Swift in “Gulliver’s Travels” (having read both in the past I recommend those who haven’t read either to read “Gulliver’s Travels” first – chapters 2 to 6 of Book 3; a parody often makes the original easier to read).

Perhaps the utopian island created by Bacon reflected his own belief in the creation of an ideal new state in the New World. The American colonies were just being established and Bacon had a leading role in the creation of Virginia.

How do you sum up the life of a man like Sir Francis Bacon? I can think of no better way than to recount the manner of his death. It illustrates his enquiring mind, his eagerness to learn, and his approach to experimentation that is the basis of all science today.

One snowy day in March 1626 Bacon was travelling through the countryside. Looking at the snow through his carriage window he wondered if it would preserve food with its coldness. He asked his coachman to stop and buy a chicken from a nearby house (every country house kept chickens at this time). Bacon left the relative comfort of his carriage and began to stuff the dead chicken with snow. I know that Spring air can be a bit nippy at times, but March 1626 must have been particularly cold. Bacon caught a chill and it soon developed into bronchitis. Several days later, on Easter Day, 19^th April 1626. Sir Francis Bacon breathed his last.

An extraordinary end to an extraordinarily progressive mind.

On Track to the Outgames II

The first World Outgames took place in Montréal from 29^th July to 5^th August 2006. They were just a few days after the Gay Games in Chicago finished, and many people feared that one would overshadow the other or force athletes to chose which event to attend.

As it turned out both events proved equally popular. Montréal had an lgbt and human rights conference whose attendees are often added to the total figure for Rendez-Vous (the name of the overall sporting, cultural and conference events).

The format for the sporting competitions followed that of the Gay Games and other international lgbt events. Medals were awarded in age groups for many individual sports, like swimming and athletics. When it came to rowing, however, the sport’s sanctioning body, the International Rowing Association, said it would only recognise first place winners in each event. That meant no silver or bronze medals. Instead the Outgames organisers awarded gold medals to all heat winners as well as the winner of the final – all those in the rowing finals had already won gold by winning their heats.

The rowers included Danish Olympian Inger Pors, who won 3 gold medals ( and 2 bronzes in athletics). She was one of the organisers of the rowing competition at the 2^nd World Outgames in 2009 in Copenhagen.

Even though Montréal-born Christian Hogue and his American boyfriend James McAnally finished second in both of their heats in the coxed fours, they still had reason to celebrate. They took advantage of the Canadian same-sex marriage laws and tied the knot the day after their final race. Several other athlete couples got married during the Outgames as well.

One noticeable aspect of the Outgames was the number of openly straight athletes. The organisers estimated that about 5% of competitors were not lgbt. This was about the same at the Chicago Gay Games but was less obvious. This shows how many straight athletes are not conned by the homophobia of the majority of major professional sporting communities, and both the Outgames and the Gay Games have always been accepting of straight athletes (straight Olympic hammer thrower and world record holder George Frenn took part in the first Gay Games in 1982, for instance).

The powerlifting competition saw two straight athletes from the tiny island of Tahiti winning gold medals. Tahiti also sent 3 bodybuilders, including Patrick Praud who won 2 gold medals. The overall winner of the male bodybuilding competition was Chris Fillipelli, a well-known professional bodybuilder and gay erotic muscle model.

The Montréal games were not without their fair share of more well-known names, not least of all being the games co-president Mark Tewksbury. You’d have thought that being one of the organisers meant you were kept very busy, but Mark found time to get back into the pool for a couple of events.

Tewksbury provided one of the sporting highlights of the games. In the 100m backstroke (the event in which he won an Olympic gold medal in 1992) Mark was up against an old Olympic rival, the USA’s Dan Veatch. They had both swum in the 200m backstroke competition at the 1988 Seoul Olympics though not in the same heats (Dan came 7^th in the final, Mark came 4^th in the B final to decide the lower places). This time it Mark finished in first place, but in the way in which medals are awarded, both men won gold for being the top finisher in their age group.

Other less internationally-known names included top Canadian speed skater Mathieu Giroux. He was one of the many straight athletes and won a bronze medal in the roller-racing marathon. He went on to win a speed skating gold medal at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver in 2010.

An unusual combination of sport and politics could be found in the person of Réal Ménard, an openly gay member of the Quebec parliament who won a silver medal in the wrestling competition.

The figure skating competition saw Joel Mangs win 2 silver medals. He was a former Swedish Junior Champion and future professional dance partner in the Dutch version of “Dancing on Ice”. But he was more familiar to a lot of gay men in 2006 as gay porn actor Brad Patton.

To round up this short recap of the sport at the first World Outgames here is an almost surreal image from the swimming pool. New Zealand lawyer Jills Angus Burney competed in 5 swimming events but she broke no records. However, she was already a record holder. In 1989 she became the world’s fastest female sheep shearer, shearing 541 lambs in 9 hours – a record which she held for 18 years!

Despite fears that the first Outgames would be overshadowed by the immediately preceding Gay Games, or vice versa, Montréal Rendez-Vous and the World Outgames were a huge success. This was hinted at in the pre-games registration period when thousands of athletes signed up, though no-one was sure how many would actually turn up, especially as a good proportion of them had signed up for the Gay Games as well.

What marked out Montréal’s success was the professional organisation and an atmosphere of friendliness and acceptance felt by the athletes in the host city. Many athletes who had also competed in Chicago said that Montréal “felt better”. The Montréal organising committee had proved they were more than capable of organising the large-scale event that was envisaged from the start. Even though they and the Chicago Gay Games suffered financial losses, the success of both in such a short period of time (and relative geographical proximity), the success of both ensured that they would both continue.

In my next Outgames post I’ll look briefly at the element which distinguishes these games from any other – the human rights conference.

Black Scientists for History Month

In celebration of the US Black History Month here are some black lgbt scientists and mathematicians. I have been unable to find a group or organisation specifically for black lgbt scientists, though there are several for black scientists in general, and it is believed in scientific circles that there are many who are not out. However, I have selected the following to illustrate the variety of subjects where black scientists have made, and are still making, a contribution.

First and foremost is George Washington Carver (d.1943), perhaps the only black scientist known outside science circles. Perhaps you’ve never hear of him until now, but I bet you’ve eaten something he developed. In fact, his life is so full and varied that it seems more appropriate to feature him in one of my Extraordinary Lives series. Which is exactly what I’m going to do later this month, so sorry if I’m leaving you in tenterhooks!

Born over a hundred years before George Washington Carver was Benjamin Banneker (1731-1806). Having been born in the age of slavery Benjamin was fortunate in actually having been born a free man. Like Carver after him, Benjamin left little real evidence of his sexuality and historians have suggested the probability that both were closeted gay men. Both came from an era, country and ethnic community in which homosexuality wasn’t accepted. There were multiple prejudices against them. However, there was no intolerance when it came to their skills.

Like most pre-Industrial Revolution scientists, Benjamin didn’t specialise in any specific subject. Mathematics was the basis of most sciences in those days. Benjamin used his great mathematical mind to show off his mechanic skills. He built a clock made entirely out of wood – cogs and wheels included. It was perfect, and kept time from the day he constructed it at the age of 22 to over 40 years later.

Among Benjamin’s other achievements was the compiling of an almanac of dates and calendars, mainly for the agriculture industry. He even predicted an eclipse without the use of pre-published tables. The biggest physical legacy he left behind is the layout of present day Washington DC. After the original city architect stormed off in a huff with all the plans Benjamin managed to reproduce them all from memory in 2 days. Otherwise another architect would have been brought in to draw up new plans.

Benjamin is now regarded as the first African-American scientist, and possibly also the USA’s first native-born lgbt scientist. Today there are many lgbt black scientists, but few of them are not, believing they are the still subject to double-discrimination.

This has been the experience of Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, a theoretical physicist who found that both her sexuality and race were the subject of questions when she was interviewed for a postdoctoral research position. Being a woman also brought her triple discrimination in her chosen subject. Today Chanda is at MIT’s Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research.

One black scientist who has done well in his chosen career is Dr. Ron Buckmire, known on the blogosphere as MadProfessah. He is Associate Professor of Mathematics at Occidental College, California, where he first arrived in 1994 as a Minority Scholar-in-Residence Postdoctoral Fellow. As an out gay man for many years Ron has also carved out a place in lgbt rights in America, particularly California. As a mathematician he is a keen advocate of the more pro-active teaching of maths and algebra in schools, and is Program Director in the Division of Undergraduate Education of the National Science Foundation. In 1996 Ron was listed in the Top 100 Gay and Lesbian Activists of the Year by “Out” magazine.

Perhaps MadProfessah’s first taste of fame came at the age of 17, when he beat Geoff Lawton, an international Chess Master, at the British Chess Championships in Edinburgh in 1985 – in just 14 moves! By the next year he was a US Chess Master himself.

There are many, many more black and ethnic lgbt scientists and I hope to include as many as possible throughout the year.

Quiz Answers

Here are the answers to the quiz I posted yesterday.

1)  Mr Spock (character) and George Takei (actor).

2)  b) From a chill he caught after stuffing a dead chicken with snow.

3)  c) bicycle.

4)  Ganymede.

5) True – it was part of his study into morphogenesis, the theory of growth and form in biology.

6)  The sea around South America.

7)  Patient Zero.

8)  Lord Byron.

8)  a) Hyacinth

10)  “Frankenstein”.

11)  The “gay gene”.

12)  a) 18^th – he was born in 1731.

13)  b) the Shroud of Turin.

14)  a) Germany. It was first coined by Austro-Hungarian writer Károly Mária Kertbeny in a letter dated 6 May 1868 to the sexologist Karl Heinrich Ulrichs.

15)  ♂ - Mars   ♀ - Venus

16)       A-e)  Freddie Mercury - Cirolana mercuryi

B-c)  Leonardo da Vinci - Davincia

            C-a)  Bram Stoker (author of “Dracula”) - Draculoides

            D-d)  Sheldon Cooper - Euglossa bazinga (his catchphrase)

            E-b)  Sappho - Heliconius sapho

17)  Red, yellow, green, blue and violet.

18)  c) smallpox.

19) The Roman Empire, from 218 to 222.

20) False. Leonardo never learnt Latin. He wrote in Italian.

History Month Quiz

To help your LBGT History Month celebrations go with a swing here’s a quiz for you to try out. All questions are science based. Answers tomorrow.

1)  Which two asteroids are named after a Vulcan character and an Asian-American actor from the original “Star Trek” series?

2)  Sir Francis Bacon – philosopher, statesman and pioneering experimental scientist – died as a result of what?

a)      From a nosebleed received when he was hit in the face by a barmaid,

b)      From a chill he caught after stuffing a dead chicken with snow,

c)      By decapitation by riding into an overhanging tree branch while chasing a thunderstorm.

3)   For which one of the following did Leonardo da Vinci NOT draw a design?

            a) helicopter

            b) armoured vehicle

            c) bicycle.

4)  The satellites of the planet Jupiter are all named after the god’s lovers and children. Which is the only one named after his male lover?

5) True or false? Alan Turing used maths to discover how leopards get their spots?

6) Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859), a German explorer, gave his name to the Humboldt current. To which part of the Earth’s surface does this name apply?

7) Until recent research identified earlier AIDS victims, Gaetan Dugan was given which medical name, a term given to the first known victim of a disease?          

8) Ada, Countess of Lovelace, was a Victorian computer – someone who did mathematical calculations. Charles Babbage called her his Enchantress of Numbers. Who was her famous pansexual poet father?

9) Which of the following flowers and plants is named after a male lover of the Greek sun god Apllo?

            a) Hyacinth

            b) Peony

            c) Holly

10) When electricity was first discovered in the 19^th century it led to speculation that it might revive the dead. Which novel, written by a woman and revised by her bisexual husband, did this idea inspire?

11) What did gay geneticist Dean Hamer controversially claim to have located in human DNA – something which supports the “nature over nurture” side of the origins of homosexuality?

12) Benjamin Banneker has been called the first Afro-American (and probably the first gay American) scientist. In which century was he born?

a)      18^th

b)      19^th

c)      20^th

13) One of Alan Turing’s code-breaking colleagues at Bletchley Park during World War II, Noel Currer-Briggs, went on to become a leading expert in the 1960s into which mysterious artefact?

            a) the Holy Grail

            b) the Shroud of Turin

            c) the Ark of the Covenant.

14) The word “homosexuality” entered the English language in 1892. It was created by a sexologist (researcher into the biological and psychological origins of sexuality and gender) in which country?

            a) Germany

            b) Australia

            c) India

15) The astrological symbols for male and female - ♂ ♀ - were first used to signify gender in plants in 1756. They are often seen doubled and linked to create same-sex symbols. But from which planets were these gender symbols originally attributed?

16) The scientific names of many animals have come from people. Can you match up the lgbt people listed here, or something with which they are associated, to the scientific name they inspired?

            NAMES :

A) Freddie Mercury

            B) Leonardo da Vinci

            C) Bram Stoker

            D) Sheldon Cooper of “The Big Bang Theory”

            E) Sappho

            ANIMALS :

a)      Draculoides, a species of Australian arachnid

b)      Heliconius sapho, a butterfly

c)      Davincia, a genus of wasps

d)      Euglossa bazinga, a species of bee

e)      Cirolana mercuryi, a marine crustacean

17) The colours of the rainbow flag have become synonymous with the lgbt community. Even though the rainbow has been a familiar sight since time began it wasn’t until Sir Isaac Newton studied light that actual colours were attributed to it. Newton originally suggested only 5 colours of the rainbow. Which 5?

18) Whilst living in Turkey in the 1700s Lady Mary Wortley-Montagu (at one time romantically linked to her husband’s sister) saw how the Turks inoculated against a particular disease. She brought the process back to England. Thanks to inoculation, and later vaccination, this disease was declared eradicated in 1979 by WHO. Which disease was it?

            a) chicken pox

            b) cowpox

            c) smallpox

 

19) Emperor Elagabalus took his name from a large meteorite which he worshipped as the sun god El-Gabal. Over which empire did this meteorite-worshipping emperor rule?

20) True or false? Leonardo da Vinci wrote all the notes on his technical, scientific and anatomical drawing in reverse in Latin.

LGBT History Month UK

With today being the start of the official LGBT History Month I will have a general look at lgbt scientists throughout February.

When the organisers of LGBT History Month UK announced that this year’s theme would be science, maths and engineering I was perhaps just one amongst many who didn’t think there were many out scientists. But I was wrong. The more I looked through my databases the more scientists I found. In doing new research for my Ologies of the Month I have been surprised at how many universities, colleges and scientific groups have lists of lgbt members.

As this is also Black History Month in the USA I will have a more specific look later in the month at black lgbt scientists.

The lgbt group which I want to highlight this month is the National Organisation of Gay and Lesbian Scientists and Technical Professionals – NOGLSTP (usually pronounced Noggle-step). They are base in Pasadena, California, and were founded in 1983. NOGLSTP developed out of the 1980 annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, which discussed homophobia in the science institutions and universities at one of their sessions. They came up with the idea of an lgbt network, and NOGLSTP emerged from it.

One reason why I am bringing this particular group to your attention is that although it is based in the US it has members and connections around the world. Another is that each year they make several awards to lgbt scientists, the only awards given to openly lgbt scientists by their peers in recognition of ground-breaking achievements in their field or in science education.

There are several categories in which NOGLSTP give their awards, and I have listed the main one below :

LGBT SCIENTIST OF THE YEAR

2004    Dr. Larry Wagner, Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff, Texas Instruments, for his work on the reliability semiconductors and microchips.

2005    Dr. Sim Aberson, research meteorologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, for research into hurricane tracking.

2006    Dr. Kerry Sieh, Professor of Geological and Planetary Sciences at the California Institute of Technology, for research into earthquake geology around the Pacific Rim, and for his services as faculty adviser to Calthech’s Student Pride Association.

2007    Dr. Carolyn Bertozzi, Professor at the University of California and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, for the use of chemical research to help answer biological questions related to health and disease.

2008    Dr. Arnold Zwicky, Visiting Professor of Linguistics at Stanford University and Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Linguistics at Ohio State University, for his outstanding achievements in the field of linguistics. He has written many articles on lgbt language in the popular gay press.

2009    Dr. James Nowick, Professor of Chemistry at the University of California, Irvine, for research into molecular chemistry, and his activism for lgbt issues. He was mentioned in my 12 Gay Days of Christmas on New Year’s Day.

2010    Dr. Jesse Michael Bering, Reader at the School of History and Anthropology, and Director of the Institute of Cognition and Culture at Queen’s University, Belfast. Awarded for his research into the evolution of human psychology and comparisons to chimp psychology.

2011    Dr. Bill Hendrix of Dow AgroSciences, for research into seed pest control and for creating less toxic pesticides for developing economies. He is leader of the Dow Gay Lesbians and Allies group, and has campaigned for gender identity and partner rights in at Dow.

2012    Dr. Martin Lo of the High Capability Computing and Modeling Group at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and member of the Instrument Software and Science Data Section. As mentioned a few days ago Lo discovered the interplanetary superhighways – the gravitational “tunnels” – that will make space travel easier.

NOGLSTP also gives awards for LGBT Engineer of the Year and LGBT Educator of the Year, as well as the Walt Westman Award, named after a founder of the group, which is given to a NOGLSTP member in recognition of their outstanding contribution to the organisation. Later in the year, for LGBT History Month USA, I will give a full list of these awards.

All Kinds of Astronomy

The Outlist of lgbt astronomers which I mentioned in the introduction to the Ology of the Month on 8^th January contains just a handful of the living out lgbt space scientists around the world. Many other, such as Frank Kameny and Sally Ride are no longer with us.

Even using the word “astronomer” hides the wide range of areas and specialisations within the subject, each with their own qualifications and skills. Its like grouping footballers, darts players and boxers together as sportspeople.

So here’s a sample group of experts in various different aspects of astronomy.

Lisa Harvey-Smith (b.1979) – radio astronomy.

English-born Lisa is a research astronomer at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, one of the largest and most diverse research agencies in the world, in Sydney, Australia. Lisa specialises in radio astronomy and is one of the leading advocates for the Square Kilometre Array, a radio telescope comprised of many separate radio telescopes linked together to form a total collecting area of, as the name suggests, about a square kilometre.

Todd B. Hawley (1961-1995) – space education and international collaboration.

When humanity finally decides to get round to space travel again, perhaps back to the Moon, some people will have been influenced by the International Space University, co-founded in 1985 by Todd Hawley. The university’s aim it to promote international co-operation in developing human space exploration. Perhaps the best way I can do justice to Todd is to direct you to this video.

Laura Kay – research into active galactic nuclei (AGN), and an “umbraphile”.

Professor and Chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Barnard College, Columbia University, USA. Her first research after graduating was studying auroras and cosmic rays at the Amundsen Scott station at the South Pole. Laura’s main research interest now is in AGN, galaxies with huuuge black holes in their centre, and their relationship to seyfert galaxies, galaxies with huuuuuuuuuuge black holes at their centre. She is also an out and proud umbraphile – an eclipse lover.

Martin Lo – space navigation.

Every probe launched into space needs to have its complete journey planned in advance – it needs a map. This is the responsibility of the Navigation Manager. Martin Lo has worked on many space missions plotting and calculating the best routes. Usually this is done using the gravitational pull of the sun, planets and moon. Perhaps Martin’s great achievement is his discovery of the Interplanetary Superhighway – a network of “tunnels” between the planets created by the combined gravitational forces of several planets. This superhighway is the most efficient and quickest way to navigate through the solar system.

James B. Pollack (1938-1994) – planetary atmospherics.

James, a colleague of the great Carl Sagan, studied atmospheres on other planets in our solar system, especially Mars and Venus, which is why a Martian crater is named after him. He was involved in all the interplanetary missions that NASA undertook after the Apollo missions ended. Using his studies of the evolution of the atmospheres on Venus and Mars James and Sagan came up with theories on the extinction of the dinosaurs and a nuclear winter on Earth. The theories on the nuclear winter helped campaigners to urge governments to reduce nuclear weapons and led to disarmament treaties.