Mark Twain once said, "A great deal has been said about the weather, but very little has been done about it." I attempt to dispel that myth in my new reference book, "A to Z Scientists in Weather & Climate," part of the Facts on File, Inc. Notable Scientists Series.

Thousands of people have been trying to study and predict the weather since Aristotle wrote his "Metereologica" over 2000 years ago. We probably would be way ahead of today's knowledge if Aristotle never wrote that treatment. He was so revered that it didn't matter that most of his conclusions were not scientifically accurate. Scientists used it as gospel and it wasn't until the 16th century and beyond with invention of instruments like the thermometer (Galileo), barometer (Torricelli), and hygrometer (De Luc) that empirical data finally was used for making observations and conclusions.

In the two millennia that followed thousands of men - and in the 20th century, women - made great strides in understanding weather and climate. Would you be surprised if I told you several major discoveries were from people locally?

While I feature a little more than 100 of the most interesting in my book, seven of them are from our region: Duncan Blanchard, Roger J. Cheng, Joseph Henry, Irving Langmuir, Vincent Schaefer, Maribeth Stolzenburg and Bernard Vonnegut.

Four of the seven, Duncan Blanchard, Irving Langmuir, Vincent Schaefer, and Bernard Vonnegut were part of the famous 1940's "Project Cirrus." Langmuir headed this military project at GE's research and development labs in Schenectady. The other three worked for Langmuir and became part of a team that not only invented cloud seeding, but went on to form the world renown Atmospheric Research Science Center (ARSC) based at the University at Albany. However each scientist made their own contributions to weather and climate.

Blanchard made several important discoveries dealing with electrical charges in the sea and atmosphere and also discovered that when volcanoes erupt through the surface of the sea, the emitting cloud contains droplets of seawater and fragments of lava ash that carry a positive charge. This helps shed light on the origin of lightning strokes from volcanoes when molten lava strikes seawater. His recent book, The Snowflake Man, is a biography of Wilson Bentley, the nearby Vermont farmer who was the first to photograph snowflakes.

Vincent Schaefer was a high school dropout, and amateur archeologist, who was handy with tools and knew how to design an experiment to solve problems. He worked for Langmuir as a toolmaker but also invented a way to cloud seeds - the first to do so. Schaefer discovered super cooled water droplets and that knowledge helped him create his famous cold box (GE brand, naturally) where he produced ice crystals that led to the first cloud seeding in 1946. His colleague Bernard Vonnegut, brother of writer Kurt Vonnegut, the following day used silver iodide as an effective seeding agent in Schaefer's experiment.

Roger Cheng, who was Schaefer's right hand man and ran the lab when Schaefer organized ARSC, went on to discover three major findings in cloud physics, marine aerosols, and environmental science all from studying a single drop of water. His beautiful photomicrographs have been on the cover of leading scientific journals.

Joseph Henry, who started his career as an actor, became a teacher at the Albany Academy and while there discovered mutual electromagnetic induction (magnets) and went on become the first Secretary of the Smithsonian. Henry created the first weather bureau by having military personnel send, via telegraph, daily weather reports from a number of locations around the country and also published what may be the first weather map.

Before the 1950's few women were in the field, but that changed when Joanne Simpson became the first female meteorologist in 1949. Others followed including Albany-born Maribeth Stolzenburg, whose work has helped bring the fields of atmospheric electricity and dynamical meteorology closer together.

All of these local scientists have one thing in common: the curiosity and drive to ask questions and seek answers through reason, resourcefulness, and perseverance. I have been fortunate to know Cheng, Blanchard, Schaefer, and Vonnegut personally. Schaefer was a mentor of mine during the 70's when I was Albany City archeologist and Pine Bush preservationist. Roger Cheng taught me how to use an electron microscope and continues to be a mentor and friend. However, all of these people have been an inspiration. Some of us are just lucky to be in the right place at the right time.