Monthly Archives: November 2012

Humanity’s interest in the so-called pseudo-sciences has not always been bad for science

Posted on November 27, 2012 by

In a recent piece on her excellent Guardian Science blog, The H Word, my #histsci soul sister Rebekah “Becky” Higgitt asked, “Is there a rising tide of irrationality?” summarising her opinion with the following subtitle: Despite claims that pseudoscientific views are on the … Continue reading →

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The Curious Edition of Giants’ Shoulders

Posted on November 17, 2012 by

Need some #histsci reading matter? Then pop on over to The Scicurios Brain at Scientific American Blogs where the one and only Scicurious has put together the 53rd edition of Giants’ Shoulders the history of science blog carnival. The 54th edition will be hosted by Michelle Ziegler at her Contagions blog on … Continue reading →

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The pocket diary: A great Renaissance invention

Posted on November 15, 2012 by

The other day Kate Morant, author of the interesting Halley’s Log Blog, tweeted the following question on my twitter stream: Help! My iPhone diary’s become corrupted. By month ok, but by list all the apptmts randomly reassigned to diff dates. Any … Continue reading →

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Whewell’s Ghost on Facebook and Twitter

Posted on November 14, 2012 by

I have decided that it is time to take the Facebook page and Twitter account of Whewell’s Ghost in a new direction. In part inspired by our earlier discussions about the future of The Giants’ Shoulders history of science blog … Continue reading →

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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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Just three days left to submit those #HistSci gems!

Posted on November 12, 2012 by

You only have three days left to submit your history of science blog posts for Giants Shoulders #53 the one and only history of science blog carnival, which will be hosted by Scicurious at her blog The Scicurious Brain on the 16th … 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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Earthquake Beasts

Posted on November 2, 2012 by

Myths and legends maybe represent the oldest efforts to record and deal with geological phenomena.  The Japanese Namazu-myth is one of the most popular and remembers the tragic connection between society and earthquakes. However many other societies incorporated earthquakes into … Continue reading →

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