Monthly Archives: January 2012

The place of science in history and history in science

Posted on January 30, 2012 by

As an historian of science working between two museum sites and with people researching or communicating both history and science, I often feel I’m a stuck-record, piggy-in-the-middle, harping on to the historians to pay attention to the science and the … Continue reading →

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The last great naked eye astronomer

Posted on January 28, 2012 by

Anybody cognizant with the history of astronomy in the Early Modern Period almost certainly thinks that the tittle of this post alludes to Tycho Brahe but in fact it refers to a man born ten years after the death of … Continue reading →

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Discovering HistSci stupidity in the Intertubes

Posted on January 26, 2012 by

Sometimes I get the feeling that I’m developing into the Orac of history of science and that I should concentrate on posting original thoughts on things mathematical or astronomical but then I stumble over something that however hard I try I simply … Continue reading →

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The active observatory

Posted on January 24, 2012 by

The following review was written for the new Science Studies section of the website Dissertation Reviews, and can also be read there. It is an outline of Alistair Kwan’s Architectures of astronomical observation: from Sternwarte Kassel (circa 1560) to the Radcliffe … Continue reading →

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Objects and storytelling

Posted on January 22, 2012 by

Some weeks ago on the Medical Museion blog, Thomas Soderqvist wrote an interesting and, perhaps, provocative post on Narrativity in exhibition making, suggesting that “the current enthusiasm” for stories, storytelling and narrative in object displays “is problematic”. As an historian, … Continue reading →

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Submitting posts to Giants’ Shoulders #HistSci blog carnival

Posted on January 21, 2012 by

Giants’ Shoulders only works if people submit posts[1]. A person can only submit posts when they know they exist. The first person to know about the existence of a post is the author. When you write a blog post about … Continue reading →

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A black spot in science writing

Posted on January 21, 2012 by

I really don’t know why Esther Inglis-Arkell thinks that she is qualified to write about science, the examples I have seen so far show very clearly that she should spend her time doing something else. After her Cantor debacle she now screws up … Continue reading →

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