Physics

Meissner's Corpuscles: The Touch Sensor in 40% of Hand Nerves

The 1852 discovery that ended a friendship, the 2020 mouse study that finally proved what these receptors do, and why touch sensitivity fades with age faster in some receptors than in others.

Newtonian Fluid: The 1687 Rule Water Follows and Quicksand Breaks

Isaac Newton described the rule in 1687. A 2005 Nature study on quicksand and a 1998 calculation on cathedral glass show exactly where it holds and where it breaks.

Stokes' Law: The 1851 Formula for How Slowly Small Things Fall

Stokes derived it in 1851 correcting pendulum clocks for air drag. Millikan used it in 1913 to measure the electron’s charge, and got the number slightly wrong.