Whewell’s Gazette: Vol. 11

Whewell’s Gazette

Your weekly digest of all the best of

Internet history of science, technology and medicine

Editor in Chief: The Ghost of William Whewell

Volume #11

Monday 01 September 2014

EDITORIAL:

“… mere training in one or more of the exact sciences…is no guarantee of a humane or sceptical outlook …“ – George Orwell – What is Science?

Like the proverbial bad penny Whewell’s Gazette keeps turning up, today for the eleventh time. This week our editorial staff were very jealous because many of our Internet friends were at the XXXIII Scientific Instrument Symposium at the University of Tartu in Estonia enjoying some fantastic talks. You can watch them here on the website where they have been filmed by UT TV

In the history of astronomy Tartu is famous as being the workplace of Friedrich George Wilhelm Struve (1793-1864)

 

one of the Struve dynasty of telescopic astronomers, who measured the stellar parallax of Vega in 1843.

The great archetypal Fraunhofer refractor, 1824. Struve used it to measure the parallax of Vega

 

ON THE WEB BLOGS AND WEBSITES:

Birthday of the Week: Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier born 26 August 1743

The Metropolitan Museum of Art: The Collection Online: Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier (1743–1794) and His Wife (Marie-Anne-Pierrette Paulze, 1758–1836)

Chemical Heritage Foundation: Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier

h/t Ben Gross

Science Notes: Today In Science History – August 26 – Antoine Lavoisier

The Renaissance Mathematicus: The father of …

Ernest Rutherford born 30 August 1871

Martha Rutherford with Eva and (left to right) Charles, Ernest, Jim, and Herbert, 1885.
Ernest was 14. Credit: Tyree, Rutherford family.

AIP: Rutherford’s Nuclear World

Science Notes: Today In Science History – August 30 – Ernest Rutherford

Herman von Helmholtz born 31 August 1821

Hermann von Helmholtz (1821-1894) in 1876

Science Notes: Today In Science History – August 31 – Hermann von Helmholtz

Mary Shelly born 30 August 1797

Mary Shelley, by Richard Rothwell, 1840

History of Geology: Mary Shelley born Aug 30, 1797, was she inspired to write “Frankenstein” by the Tambora eruption?

Shelly’s Ghost: Mary Shelly (1797-1851)

Yovisto: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly, the Mother of the Monster

History Today: Science & Shelly: What Mary Knew

Science 2.0: Happy Birthday Mary Shelly

PHYSICS & ASTRONOMY:

Science Notes: Today in Science History – August 25 – Frerick William Herschel

PreservationNation Blog: Road Trip to the Secret City: Atomic History in Oak Ridge, Tennessee

University of California Museum of Paleontology: Paleontological field work and nuclear testing

The Renaissance Mathematicus Galileo, Foscarini, The Catholic Church, and heliocentricity in 1615 Part 2 the consequences: A Rough Guide

The Royal Institution: John Tyndall: written back into the history of magnetism

Science Notes: Today in Science History – August 27 – Ernest Lawrence

Skulls in the Stars: Physics Demonstrations: Faraday Disc

io9: 12 Diagrams That Changed How We Understand Out Solar System

Tusi Couple

The Crux: Like GPS? Thank Relativity

Science Notes: Today In Science History – August 30 – Ernest Rutherford

Friendly Atheist: Obituary: Victor Stenger, Physicist and Prolific Atheist Author, is Dead at 79

Yovisto: Fred Whipple and the Dirty Snowballs

Yovisto: Sir Bernard Lovell and the Radioastronomy

EXPLORATION and CARTOGRAPHY:

MEDICINE:

Perceptions of Pregnancy: Midwives Behaving Badly?: Complaints against Lying-In Charity Staff c.1800-1834

Circulating Now: Medicine, Morality, Faith, and Film

The Recipes Project: Exploring CPP 10a214: Wingfield Family Lines

Victorian Dotage: Why was someone with dementia called a ‘lunatic’?

Shakespeare’s England: School of Physick

NYAM: “The Pest at the Gate”: Typhoid, Sanitation, and Fear in NYC

Somatosphere: The Recent History of “Contagious Shooting” (1982-2006) and more recent events in Ferguson, Missouri

Wellcome Collection Blog: Object of the Month: Cowrie Snuff Box

Science Notes: Today in Science History – August 29 – Werner Forssmann

Yovisto: Werner Forssmann and the dangerous Self Experiment in Cardiac Catheterization

The H-Word: Hospital food standards: did medieval hospitals do it better?

A nurse brings polte de orzo (possibly barley broth) to a patient. 15th century illustration courtesy of the Wellcome Library, London. Photograph: Wellcomeimages

Simons Foundation Autism Research Institute: Uta and Chris Frith: A partnership of the mind

Uta & Chris Frith

The Chirugeon’s Apprentice: The Saddest Place in London: A Story of Self-Sacrifice

NYAM: Global Celebration of Vesalius’s 500^th Birthday

NYAM: The Merits of Cocaine

CHEMISTRY:

Smithsonian.com: From Gunpowder to Teeth Whitener: The Science Behind Historic Uses of Urine

William O’Shaughnessy (1809-1889)

Conciatore: Neri’s Cabinet #3

Crystals of Copper Sulfate Pentahydrate
(Vitriol of Venus)

Vimeo: Video: “If It’s Fun on TV … “ 65 years in Mass Spectrometry Fred McLafferty

EARTH & LIFE SCIENCES:

Ockham’s Razor: The power of plants in science, culture and medicine

Science Direct: Friedrich Miescher and the discovery of DNA

The Embryo Project: Antoni van Leeuwenhoek

Wired: Fantastically Wrong: The Legend of the Homicidal Fire-Proof Salamander

A salamander relaxing in a fire, just minding its own business, is rudely prodded by a shirtless man. “A salamander lives in the fire, which imparts to it a most glorious hue,” reads the caption. Welcome to the wonderful world of alchemy. Wikimedia

io9: A Historic Experiment Shows Why We Might Not Want to Debate Fanatics

VICE: Why are Historians so Afraid of Fucking?

The Appendix: Space Cadets and Rat Utopias

Yale Alumni Magazine: The man who saved the dinosaurs

TROWEL BLAZERS: Zofia Lielan-Jaworowska

The #EnvHist Weekly

Letters from Gondwana: Haeckel and the Legacy of Early Radiolarian Taxonomists

TECHNOLOGY:

Yovisto: Lee de Forest and the Audion

Thick Objects: The Micromanipulator Project: A Rabbit Hole

The Appendix: Technology and Apocalypse in America

Science Notes: Today in Science History – August 28 – Godfrey Hounsfield

Conciatore: Manganese from Piedmont Reprise

British Library: Taking the Train to America: The Royal Scot and a ‘Century of Progress’

‘The Royal Scot’, Triumph of the Royal Scot (1933) [10350.pp]. Image: public domain. – See more at: http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/americas/2014/08/the-royal-scot-a-century-of-progress.html?utm_content=buffer660c6&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer#sthash.Q8s08Qs0.dpuf

New York Times: Werner Franz, Survivor of the Hindenburg’s Crew, Dies at 92

Medievalist.net: Ten Medieval Inventions that Changed the World

META:- HISTORIOGRAPHY, THEORY, RESOURCES and OTHER:

Fiction Reboot: Med-Hum Monday: The Medical Heritage Library’s “Never-Ending Work in Progress”

Yahoo News: Art, Science & Philosophy Behind Photos of Oldest Living Things

BSHS: Journal: Viewpoint 104 – Supernatural

Atomic Heritage Foundation: Books on the Manhattan Project

Guardian: Florence Nightingale Letters brought together online

George Orwell – What is Science?

Forbes: Peter Godfrey-Smith Takes On The Philosophy of Biology

Biblio Blog: Copernicus Book Thought Destroyed in Fire is Found Again

iai news: The End of Psychology?

The Journal.ie: Can you help identify these pioneering 1920s Irish science students?

Female science students at UCD

Double Refraction: How to save the symmetry principle in six easy steps

Wallifaction: the new martyrs of science

Forbes: Just How Much Did The Scientific Revolution Owe To The East?

Ether Wave Propaganda: Derek Price on Automata, Simulacra, and the rise of “Mechanism”

Sagansense: the manuscripts of the masters

BBC: Millions of historical images posted to Flickr

Manhattan District History: Manhattan Project’s history in 36 volumes written in 1940s declassified & available for download

Physics Today: The Dayside: Rutherford, Bohr, and the rise of Nature

Commission for the History and Philosophy of Computing Website

Zetatrek: The Freedom of Going Back

The National Archives: Accessions to Repositories h/t Nicky Reeves

ESOTERIC:

Conciatore: Alchemy in the Kitchen

Tesoro del Mondo, “Ars Preparatio Animalium”
Antonio Neri 1598-1600, f. 10r (MS Ferguson 67).

Forbidden Histories: Who was Dr. Karlo Marchesi? The Zagreb-Durham Transoceanic ESP Experiments. Guest Post by Boris Kožnjak, Zagreb

The Recipes Project: The (lack of) power of gemstones

Forbidden Histories: Clever Hans and the Origins of German Experimental Parapsychology: Sixth Pre-Print Article from SHPSC Special Issue

BOOK REVIEWS:

Some Beans: Degrees Kelvin by David Lindley

Some Beans: Greenwich Time and the Longitude by Derek Howse

Some Beans: Finding Longitude by Richard Dunn & Rebekah Higgitt

Early Modern Medicine: Old Age and Disease in Early Modern Medicine

THE: From Eve to Evolution: Darwin, Science, and Women’s Rights in Gilded Age America

Australian Journal of Philosophy: Philosophy of Biology by Peter Godfrey-Smith

NEW BOOKS:

Historiens de la santé: New Book: Medical Transitions in Twentieth-Century China

MIT Press: New Book: Beyond Imported Magic: Essays on Science, Technology and Society in Latin America

Astro Pixels.com: New Book: Thousand Year Canon of Solar Eclipses 1501 to 2500

Historiens de la santé: New Book: Histories of Health in Southeast Asia: Perspectives on the Long Twentieth Century

TELEVISION:

YOUTUBE:

The Chemical Heritage YouTube Chanel

The Royal Institution YouTube Chanel

RADIO:

Guardian: Author responds to Katherine Hodgkin’s criticism of his play The Chemistry Between Them

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Historiens de la santé: CfP The 2nd What is & How to Do LGBT History Conference Manchester 14-15 February 2015

New Blog: Faith and Wisdom in Science Discussion Blog: an invitation

University of Kent: School of English: Conference: Liminal Time and Space in Medieval and Early Modern Performance 5th-7th September 2014

University College London: Institute of Making: CfP Hidden histories of things: genealogies of the non-human 26 January 2015

Guardian: Exhibition: London maps: a unique view of the capital through classic cartography 4-14 September

Georg Braun & Franz Hogenberg: Londinium Feracissmi Angliae Regni Metropolis. Published in Braun & Hogenberg’s book Civitates Orbis Terrarum, 1572

The Natural History Museum: Grand Opening September 13-October 4 The Queens Museum

New York Academy of Medicine: Calendar

Brewery History: The Geoffrey Ballard Essay Award

Science Museum: Conference: Interpreting the Information Age: New Avenues for Research and Display 3-5 November 2014

British Museum: Museum of the Future debate 11 September 2014

H-net: New books in medicine seeking podcast hosts

The Royal Society: Lecture: Longitude back and forth across the years Martin Rees and Rebekah Higgitt 25 September 2014

Royal Museums Greenwich: Expert talk: The Art of Longitude – the Famous Quest from Print to Film 4 September 2014

The Canadian Society for the History of Medicine and the Canadian Association for the History of Nursing CfP Congress for the Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Ottawa 30 May – June 1st.

Science Museum: Science Museum to create new home for the Clockmakers’ Collection

LOOKING FOR WORK?

University of Kent: School of European Culture and Languages: Research Associate in Philosophy ‘Grading evidence of mechanisms in physics and biology’

University of Oxford: Sackler Keeper of Antiquities

University of Bristol: ‘The Life of Breath’ Philosophy of Medicine Wellcome Trust PhD Studentship