Monthly Archives: November 2010

Splashdowns: Why Change a Good Thing?

Posted on November 24, 2010 by

I’ve recently begun the task of revisiting and reorganizing my master’s thesis in the hope of turning it into a book. The paper examines the push by NASA to incorporate a pilot-controlled land landing system into its second- and third-generation … Continue reading →

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The Two Cultures?

Posted on November 23, 2010 by

Slides from my history of science class. Update (11/28): Turns out this is the last set of slides from me this semester.

Posted in Teaching HPS | 6 Comments

Newton and alchemy: a constant surprise?

Posted on November 21, 2010 by

Recently there was an article in the New York Times, which, surprisingly enough, reported reasonably accurately and interestingly on the work of an historian of science, William Newman (who I mentioned in my previous post on 19th-century views of alchemy). In the … Continue reading →

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A rose by any other name …

Posted on November 21, 2010 by

Copernicus, Kopernikus or Kopernik that is the question?

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The Historiography of Agricultural Science

Posted on November 20, 2010 by

I have put together a survey of some of the literature on late 19th and early 20th-century agricultural science, focusing on the UK example, at Ether Wave Propaganda.  Although there have been diverse approaches, the history of genetics looms large … Continue reading →

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Science & Religion

Posted on November 18, 2010 by

Slides from my history of science course.  

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Giants’ Shoulders #29 is out

Posted on November 16, 2010 by

Egil at Heterodoxolgy has put together a feast of the truly esoteric in the history of science for Giants’ Shoulders #29 which is now up at his website. Go for a visit and enjoy the complete spectrum of all that is strange, … Continue reading →

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Kepler’s divine geometry.

Posted on November 15, 2010 by

Egil, the host for this month’s edition of The Giants’ Shoulders, wants esoteric episodes from the history of science for his Giants’ Shoulders, nobody in the history of science is more esoteric than Johannes Kepler.  Almost single handedly, Kepler dismantled … Continue reading →

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The Big Bang

Posted on November 14, 2010 by

Slides from my History of Science class this coming Tuesday.

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Exploded systems: views of alchemy in the 19th century

Posted on November 14, 2010 by

As has been highlighted in previous posts, we historians of science are on our guard against being whiggish in our discussions of past science but, in the process, have a tendency to be just that in our treatment of historiography: we … Continue reading →

Posted in Chemistry, History | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments