Category Archives: History

The Tycho Myth

Posted on November 13, 2012 by

The last couple of days have seen two astronomical anniversaries associated with the great Danish observational astronomer Tycho Brahe. Tycho first observed the super nova of 1572 from Herrevad Abbey in Southern Sweden on 11th November and five years later he … Continue reading →

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Monday morning smack-down: Sherlock Holmes rather than Dirty Harry.

Posted on November 12, 2012 by

Science writer Judith Dutton at mental _floss blogged about Isaac Newton’s activities at the Royal Mint last Friday. She chose to retell the story of Newton’s pursuit of the coiner William Chaloner. The main part of her piece is OK when somewhat sensationalist but the first … Continue reading →

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The “first” Atlas

Posted on November 6, 2012 by

I’m holding a semi-popular public lecture on Gemma Frisius and Gerhard Mercator in Nürnberg next Wednesday (tomorrow) as part of a series on the history of cartography to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Mercator’s birth and the 250th anniversary of Tobias Mayer’s death. My emphasis on … Continue reading →

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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?]

Posted in astronomy, History | Leave a comment

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 →

Posted in Astrology, astronomy, History | Leave a comment

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

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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Not a martyr for science.

Posted on September 29, 2012 by

Those who still mistakenly subscribe to the White-Draper hypothesis of a war of religion against science, and these days it is mostly gnu atheists and their ilk, invariably produce lists of the martyrs of science, those considered to have fallen … Continue reading →

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