Monthly Archives: December 2012

Christmas Trilogy 2012 Part III: What to do if your mother’s a witch.

Posted on December 27, 2012 by

Johannes Kepler certainly lived in interesting times in the sense of the old Chinese curse.  Born 27th December 1571 he lived through the most intensive phase of the Counter-Reformation being forced, as a Protestant living and working in Catholic territory, to … Continue reading →

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Christmas Trilogy 2012 Part II: Charles and Ada: A tale of genius or of exploitation?

Posted on December 26, 2012 by

This year Ada Lovelace Day, a celebration of women in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fuelled by the Finding Ada website and twitter account took off big time. Now I have nothing against this celebration and have actively supported it on this blog … Continue reading →

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Christmas Trilogy 2012 Part I: Did Isaac really victimise Stephen?

Posted on December 25, 2012 by

Isaac Newton was not a nice man. When he was holding court in a London coffee house dispensing wisdom and his mathematical manuscripts to his acolytes he was probably friendly and magnanimous. Also, when he was chatting over breakfast with … Continue reading →

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Pseudo-science, proto-science, pre-science or just plain science?

Posted on December 22, 2012 by

Having posted my recent article on the history of pseudo-science and science I went off to bed. Whilst I was wrapped in the arms of Morpheus an interesting little debate was taking place on my twitter stream. One of the participants thought … Continue reading →

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The History of Science Santa is early this year: Giants’ Shoulders #54 “A Sleigh Load of History” is up.

Posted on December 16, 2012 by

December’s host Michelle Ziegler, the history of science Santa, has put together a massive sleigh load of #histsci goodies at her blog Contagions in Giants’ Shoulders #54 to see you through the holiday season. So when you’ve polished off the goose and the plum … Continue reading →

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Giants’ Shoulders The Apocalypse Edition

Posted on December 14, 2012 by

Apparently the world is going to end on 21st December, if this is the case you have just two days to submit those posts to the last ever history of science blog carnival Giants’ Shoulder # 54. Let’s close out the … Continue reading →

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Killed by Homeopathy

Posted on December 8, 2012 by

The mathematician, philosopher and logician George Boole died on the 8th December 1864. What most people don’t realise is that he was in all probability killed by homeopathy. [curious?]

Posted in History, logic, mathematics | Leave a comment