This Day In Science

The following historical events in science occurred on July 25th

1715 - The small toe was discovered by French lumberjack and amateur barber Pierre Du Bois Frontenac.
Also called 'the pinky toe", this mysterious digit was theorized but unconfirmed until an unfortunate tree cutting accident caused Frontenac to famously call out "Hé, regardez ici, mes amis! Il ya un petit orteil dans l'autre partie de la botte!" ("Hey, look at this, my friends! There's a little toe in the other part of the boot!") The existence of the little toe was initially dismissed by the conservative French L'Acadmie Des L'Artes Medicin until 1721 when Paris musician Marie leBec formally submitted her children's song This Little Piggy to "L'Acadmie" and Frontenac's discovery was accepted.

1794 - British avarian Roswall Liverspode shocked the scientific world with his announcement that pigeons can get the hiccups (also known as hiccoffs and whoopclucks).

1821 - Soviet physicist Andrei Kornyakova released his famous research paper proving that taller people do in fact receive more solar radiation than short people though the difference is now considered largely ceremonial.

1998 - Graduate agriculture students at The Univesity of Florida demonstrate that the avocado transmits sound 9.4% better than its second place rival, the cumquat. Scientists believe that some day this discovery could yield edible cell phones or better sound insulation for farm fields.