2009 is the Year of Science (and the Year of Astronomy, the Year of Darwin…) and there’s no shortage of activities to keep your curious mind engaged and entertained this year. Check out the exhaustive calendar of events here. 
We witnessed incredible breakthroughs in science and technology (more here) last year and promises of new paradigms await us, invited or otherwise. Before we look too far ahead, let’s take a quick look back at some pivotal moments in science history. 
Philly Over the Microscope: A Timeline  Presented by the City Paper, Philadelphia, PA
1751 Broke physicianThomas Bond hits up his rich friend Benjamin Franklin to co-found Pennsylvania Hospital, the first in America. The hospital quickly drew attention for its innovations in maternity care and mental illness — until its mental health department moved to West Philly in 1841, with the founding of the bluntly christenedPennsylvania Hospital for the Insane.
1765 Philly botanist John Bartram makes his most famous discovery with the floweringFranklin Tree, a rare genus saved from an 1803 extinction by its popularity in private gardens. His son William gave the tree its famous nickname in his book, Travels through North & South Carolina, Georgia, East & West Florida, the Cherokee Country, the Extensive Territories of the Muscogulges, or Creek Confederacy, and the Country of the Chactaws; Containing an Account of the Soil and Natural Productions of Those Regions, Together with Observations on the Manners of the Indians. Embellished with Copper-Plates. Seriously.
Read full City Paper timeline.