Monthly Archives: October 2012

Dear Stu, you might be a good novelist but you’re a lousy historian.

Posted on October 25, 2012 by

The latest Guardian science blog by Stuart Clark contains a piece of history of science stupidity that can only be explained by assuming that he hit the Kool Aid before putting finger to keyboard. [curious?]

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The other professor of mathematics at Wittenberg

Posted on October 23, 2012 by

Anybody who knows a bit about the history of astronomy in the early modern period or who has wasted their time and money reading Dava Sobel’s lasted perversion of the history of science will know that Copernicus was finally persuaded to publish … Continue reading →

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Another feminist Newtonian

Posted on October 16, 2012 by

Given that Newton boasted on his deathbed that he had never known a woman and that many modern historians are fairly convinced that he was homosexual it is somewhat ironic that his theories were defended against other competing systems of … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Physics | Leave a comment

The Heroic #52 Edition of Giants’ Shoulders is up.

Posted on October 16, 2012 by

Heroes, Anti-heroes, No more heroes, “Loads More Heroes” the heroic #52 edition of The Giants’ Shoulders history of science blog carnival has been posted by Mr. “Friends of Darwin” himself, Richard Carter at his The Friends of Charles Darwin blog. Go and find what … Continue reading →

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Oh boy! I done screwed up real bad and nobody noticed!

Posted on October 11, 2012 by

Regular readers of this blog will have noticed that when it comes to the history of science I have a pedantic streak about as wide as a six lane highway, which I subtly wield like a fifty ton steam roller … Continue reading →

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De Loys’ Ape

Posted on October 8, 2012 by

Louis François Fernand Hector de Loys, (1892-1935) was a Swiss geologist and pioneer of oil field prospection in Europe, Africa and America. Unfortunately de Loys is today less known for his geological work than for a story involving a strange … Continue reading →

Posted in Biology, Evolution, Geology | Leave a comment

An Italo-Chinese Jesuit

Posted on October 6, 2012 by

The first history of science post that I wrote for The Renaissance Mathematicus was about the Jesuit mathematicus and educational reformer Christoph Clavius and his introduction of the mathematical sciences into the curricula of the European Catholic schools, colleges and universities at … Continue reading →

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The wheel in the sky keeps on turning.

Posted on October 2, 2012 by

Having recently mostly blogged about bad popular history of science and questions of historiography and methodology I thought it was time to return to writing about some real history of science. Back in 2010, I blogged about the fact that there … Continue reading →

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