Whewell’s Gazette
Your weekly digest of all the best of
Internet history of science, technology and medicine
Editor in Chief: The Ghost of William Whewell
Volume #41
Monday 30 March 2015
EDITORIAL: Welcome to the forty-first edition of you weekly #histSTM links list Whewell’s Gazette, as always stuffed full of all the best that the Internet had to offer in the histories of science, technology and medicine over the last seven days.
This week we feature two science outsiders who share a birthday on 23 March and who have become historical icons over the years. First up is Amalie Emmy Noether the female mathematician from our own home base who set several milestones for women in the history of science in the early twentieth century. In a letter to the New York Times Albert Einstein wrote the following about her:
In the judgment of the most competent living mathematicians, Fräulein Noether was the most significant creative mathematical genius thus far produced since the higher education of women began. In the realm of algebra, in which the most gifted mathematicians have been busy for centuries, she discovered methods which have proved of enormous importance in the development of the present-day younger generation of mathematicians.
It is common practice to refer to Emmy as the greatest female mathematician of the twentieth century. This claim is however false, she was one of the greatest mathematicians male or female of the twentieth century.
Emmy shares her birthday with the nineteenth-century land surveyor and amateur geologist William Smith who produced the first ever geological map of an entire country; a map that celebrates its two hundredth birthday this year. Of working class origins Smith was originally treated with disdain by the gentleman of the Geological Society but they came to recognise their error and eventually awarded him their highest honour.
This edition of Whewell’s Gazette is dedicated to all those whose love of science is so great that they overcome the adversities that life throws into their paths to achieve their aims as did both Emmy and William
Quotes of the week:
When people on airplanes ask me what I do I used to say I was a physicist, which ended the discussion. I once said I was a cosmologist, but they started asking about makeup, and the title astronomer gets confused with astrologer. Now I say I make maps – Margaret Geller
‘When angry, count four; when very angry, swear.’ — Mark Twain h/t @girlinterruptin
“It’s a terrible tragedy & we can’t tell you anything meaningful so we won’t waste your time by speculating,” said no news broadcaster ever – Michael Brooks
Best panel title at Lunar & Planetary Sci Conf:”Your Last Chance to Talk about Ceres Before Data Wreck Your Theories” – Michael Robinson @ExplorationBlog
“Do not multiply emails beyond necessity” – Ockham’s Law of Academic Communication – Mark Eli Kalderon @PhilGeek
TELESCOPE, n. A device having a relation to the eye similar to that of the telephone to the ear, enabling distant objects to plague us with a multitude of needless details. Luckily it is unprovided with a bell summoning us to the sacrifice. – The Devil’s Dictionary – Ambrose Brice 1906 h/t @hist_astro
Galileo annoyed people in power; Ted Cruz is a person in power who annoys people – @drskyskull
“Pure mathematics, may it never be of any use to anyone.” A toast by Henry John Stephen Smith (1826-1883) h/t @cratylus
“Whoever becomes familiar with human anatomy and physiology, his faith in God increases.” – Ibn Rushd
There comes a time in life where a person is just left alone to walk and write. That’s true, isn’t it…isn’t it? – @DublinSoil
The great tragedy of Science – the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact -T.H. Huxley”
“Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts.” – Richard Feynman “Members of the public can have useful insights that the experts may not have thought about” – @Roland_Jackson
“Ecclesiastical history is long, life is short” – Anthony Grafton
Birthday of the Week:
Emmy Noether born 23 March 1882 
Google Doodle Archive: Emmy Noether’s 133rd Birthday 
The Renaissance Mathematicus: The house where Emmy Lived
Emmy was born in this house on the Hauptstraße in Erlangen
Photo: Thony Christie
The Renaissance Mathematicus: Emmy and the Habilitation
Time: New Google Doodle Honors Revolutionary Mathematician Emmy Noether
Vox: Emmy Noether revolutionized mathematics – and still faced sexism all her life
Galileo’s Pendulum: Emmy Noether and Symmetry, Revisited
The Washington Post: Emmy Noether Google Doodle: Why Einstein called her a ‘creative mathematical genius’
PACSL Finding Aids: Emmy Noether materials
Bitch Media: Happy birthday to brilliant mathematician Emmy Noether 3 Quarks Daily: Emmy Noether: Poet of Logical Ideas
William Smith born 23 March 1769
William Smith
Source: Wikimedia Commons
BBC: William Smith: Seminal geological map rediscovered
Flickr: Rediscovered Smith Map
UCMP Berkeley: William Smith (1769-1839)
More than a Dodo: Celebrating Smith
Science Daily: Archivists unearth rare first edition of the 1815 ‘Map that Changed the World’
The Independent: Rare first edition of 200-year-old William Smith ‘map that changed the world’ found William Smith’s Maps – Interactive
History of Geology: A History of Geological Maps: I. From Outcrop to the first Map
The Geological Society: ‘Strata Identified by Organised Fossils…’ 1816–1819
Typical fossils found in the Lower Chalk stratum
Image: Geological Society
PHYSICS & ASTRONOMY: Rundtaarn: The History
Rundetårn Copenhagen
Source: Wikimedia Commons
Physics Today: Remembering the oil-drop experiment
Yovisto: Ulugh Beg – Astronomer
AHF: James B Conant
Intellectual Ventures Laboratory: A Story of Invention: the Laser
Voices of the Manhattan Project: Wakefield Wright’s Interview
The New York Times: Hydrogen Bomb Physicist’s Book Runs Afoul of Energy Department
Space.com: Astronomy’s Oldest Known ‘Nova’ a Cosmic Case of Mistaken Identity
A chart showing the position of a “nova” that appeared in 1670 and was dubbed Nova Vul 1670. It would later be renamed CK Vulpeculae. Its location was recorded by the famous astronomer Hevelius and was published by the Royal Society in England in its journal Philosophical Transactions.
Explore Whipple Collections: The parts of an astrolabe
Voices of the Manhattan Project: Rose Bethe’s Interview
AHF: Atomic Timeline
Polaroid: blipfoto: Inside Yale’s Van de Graaff Particle Accelerator
arXiv.org: The Reception of Newton’s Principia (pdf)
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Who owns the time capsule found at historic Brashear factory?
Corpus Newtonicum: Elected by God
Yovisto: Aristarchus of Samos and the Heliocentric System
Luminarium.com: Medieval Cosmology
Novus Light: International Year of Light 2015: Celebrating Ibn Al-Haytham
Longitude Project Blog: Richard Dunn uncovers the story of Flamsteed’s well telescope
EXPLORATION and CARTOGRAPHY:
Slate Vault: A 1935 Historical Map of Shanghai, Designed by an Enthusiastic Resident Expat
Carl Crow and the Shanghai Municipal Council, “Illustrated Historical Map of Shanghai,” 1935.
Longitude Project Blog: Observing at Greenwich with Dryden Goodwin
Longitude Project Blog: Where should you put your meridian?
MEDICINE:
Fiction Rebbot: Daily Dose: Early Ectogenesis: Artificial Wombs in 1920s Literature
Embryo Project: Elinor Catherine Hamlin (1924– )
NYAM: Lost and Found
David Livingstone (1813–1873), in Livingstone, Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa, opposite page 1.
Nobelprize.org: Robert Koch and Tuberculosis
NYAM: Roget Beyond the Thesaurus
The Recipe Project: Was there a recipe for Korean ginseng?
Social History of Medicine Advance Access: ‘Nature Concocts & Expels’: The Agents and Processes of Recovery from Disease in Early Modern England
The Conversation: Faecal transplants: not the first prescription of medicinal poo
TECHNOLOGY:
Nasa: Gemini A Bridge to the Moon
National Archive: Today’s Document: Radio, RCA victor, Coil Winder
Nasa: Dr Robert H Goddard, American Rocketry Pioneer
Atlas Obscura: Objects of Intrigue: Micky Mouse Gas Mask
Astrolabes and Stuff: Historical navigational instruments on trial
The Recipes Project: New-Fashioned Recipe: Angle Food Cake and Nineteenth Century Technological Innovation
Conciatore: Chalcedony Glass
17th century ribbed bottle,Brescia, Italy.
Conciatore: Aventurine
Small amphora in aventurine glass ”,
Murano, Salviati.
Opposing Views: Which Way Should Toilet Paper Be Put On A Holder? Original 1891 Patent Solves The Mystery (Photos)
Tech Republic: Hacking the Nazis: The secret story of the women who broke Hitler’s codes
Georgian Gent: Knives and scissors sharpened…
Low-Tech Magazine: Email in the 18th century: the optical telegraph
EARTH & LIFE SCIENCES:
Science News: Telling stories from stone tools
The Public Domain Review: Living Lights: a Popular Account of Phosphorescent Animals and Plants (1887) 
Notches: Beyond penetration: rethinking the murder of Edward II
Avidly: The Inhuman Anthropocene
H-Grad: Environmental History a reading list
Bioscience: Darwin’s Children’s Art Saved a Bit of His Science
Charles Darwin’s children drew serveral pictures on the original manuscript of his historic book “On the Origin of Species.” (Source: American Museum of Natural History)
Niche: Met Techs, the Environment and Science at the Joint Artic Weather Stations, 1947–1972
Notches: Reading Silences in Histories of Religion and Sexuality
History of Geology: A History of the Use of Illustrations in the Geosciences: I. Seeing is Believing…
NYAM: Happy Bird-Day Conrad Gessner
Audra J Wolfe: Germs in Space – Joshua Lederberg, Exobiology, and the Public Imagination, 1958– 1964
AIP: The Discovery of Global Warming
The Sloane Letters Blog: Of a leveret brought up by a cat 
CHEMISTRY:
Meteorite Manuscripts: John Dalton and the Curious Album Page
C&EN: 100 Years of Chemical Weapons
Narratively: Isabella Karle’s Curious Crystal Method
Sitting in her sunroom, Dr. Karle reviews her husband’s research documents and publications.
The Royal Society: Rumford – the colourful Count
CHF: James Bryant Conant
Embryo Project: Diethystibestrol (DES) in the USA
Chemical Heritage Magazine: The DDT Collector
META – HISTORIOGRAPHY, THEORY, RESOURCES and OTHER:
Centre for Medical Humanities: Why Medical Humanities?
Niche: Postcards from America I 
Conciatore: Mother Dianora
The Bigger Picture: Science Service, Up Close: “Stealth Authors” and An Appreciation of Honesty
Huffpost Tech: Gather Your Allies, Engage in Unorthodox Thinking – 300 Year Old Lessons in Innovation
Nature: A criticism of ‘science fandom’ prompts online reflection
CHF: Distillations: Spring 2015 Volume 1 Number 1
CHoM News: Getting the Word Out
NCSE: Friends of Darwin and Friend of the Planet awards for 2015
Ptak Science Books: Great Babies: Baby Einstein, Baby Feynman, Baby Schroedinger, and More
Niels Bohr, 1890, age about 5. Source: http://www.nbi.ku.dk/english/www/niels/bohr/barndom/
The Guardian: Remembering an overlooked treaty
From Factory to the Future in Ambler Pennsylvania: History. Health. Community.
Storify: Museum objects and non-museum objects: bicycles and chairs: An exploration Mapping the Past with Linked Data in OpenHistoricalMap
The Washington Post: Ted Cruz invokes Galileo to defend climate scepticism – and historians aren’t happy
Compasswallah: The Needle and the Rainbow
Blink: The light and the sea
Reflected glory ‘The Shipwreck of the Minotaur’ (1810) by JMW Turner, who was the first to tear down the distinction between subject and object, presaging what would be later known as impressionism.
Source: Wikimedia Commons
JHI Blog: The Bookends of Chronicles: Decisions About Time
ESOTERIC:
Open Culture: Goethe’s Theory of Colors: The 1810 Treatise That Inspired Kandinsky & Early Abstract Painting 
Forbidden Histories: Carl Gustav Jung and the Clairvoyant, Mrs. Fäßler
BOOK REVIEWS:
The New York Times: Apple Opens Up to Praise New Book on Steve Jobs, and Criticize an Old One
Rosetta Stones: A Perfect Book for Hooking Kids on Rocks
Self-Awareness.com Eye of the Beholder: Johannes Vermeer, Antoni van Leuwenhoek and the Reinvention Of Seeing
Thinking Like a Mountain: Anatomy & the Organisation of Knowledge, 1500–1850
L0021649 A. Vesalius, De humani corporis fabrica
Credit: Wellcome Library, London. Wellcome Images
images@wellcome.ac.uk
http://wellcomeimages.org
‘Tertia musculatorum’ (third muscle man).
De humani corporis fabrica libri septem
Andreas Vesalius
Published: 1543
Copyrighted work available under Creative Commons Attribution only licence CC BY 4.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews: Knowledge: The Philosophical Quest in History
Science Book a Day: Street-Fighting Mathematics: The Art of Educated Guessing and Opportunistic Problem Solving
Science Mag: Ivan Pavlov, revealed
The Wall Street Journal: Through a Glass, Brightly
n+1 Magazine: What Did You Do In The War, Doctor?
Trowelblazers: Archaeology, Sexism, and Scandal
Popular Science: Scientific Babel – Michael D. Gordin
Science Direct: The Age of Scientific Naturalism: Tyndall and his Contemporaries Forbes: Steven Weinberg Tackles The History of Science
NEW BOOKS:
University of Chicago Press: Making Marie Curie 
Historiens de la santé: Too Hot To Handle: A Global History of Sex Education
THEATRE:
FILM:
Exploring the Past: National Geographic Films and Historical Progress
TELEVISION:
SLIDE SHARE:
VIDEOS:
Brunelleschi IMHS: Galileo’s Telescope the Invention
Youtube: AMNH: Inside the Collections: Wasps
Bloggingheads.tv: Science Faction John Hogan & Neuroskeptic
Brain Pickings: Jane Goodall Tells Her Remarkable Life-Story, Animated
BBC: A History of Ideas
Science Daily: On the hunt for astronomical artifacts
Vimeo: Engineering fiction: literature and science in interwar Britain
Youtube: Houghton Library: Starry Messengers
Youtube: Emily Winterburn discusses Caroline Herschel’s 1787 account of a new comet
Youtube: Erwin Schrödinger – Do Electrons Think? (BBC 1949)
RADIO:
Siren FM: History of Science – Power Plants
BBC: In Our Times: The Curies Graham Farmelo: Wells and the Bomb
PODCASTS:
Science Friday: Writing Women Back Into Science History
Nature: Audiofile: Music and the making of science
Physics Buzz Blog: Manhattan Project Historical Park
Blog Talk Radio: Virtually Speaking Science: Kelly Hills & Alice Dreger – Galileo’s Middle Finger
365 Days of Astronomy: Cultural Astronomy – Easter and the Missing Days
Star Date: African Astronomy
BBC: The Clocks Go Forward Tonight
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Museum Boerhaave: Registration: Materia Medica on the move: trading, studying, and using plants in the early modern period 15-17 April 2015
The Royal Society: Science on myself: Explore the history of ethics and self-experimentation in medicine 9 April 2015
INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION ON SCIENCE AND LITERATURE DIVISION of HISTORY of SCIENCE and TECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL UNION for the HISTORY and PHILOSOPHY of SCIENCE and TECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL SUMMER SCHOOL ON SCIENCE AND LITERATURE Greek island of Andros 22-26 June 2015
The Royal Society: Mendel’s legacy 2 June 2015
academia.edu: Programme: The History of the Body: Approaches and Directions Institute of Historical Research, London 16 May 2015
SIGGIS: Call for Submissions: Computer History Museum Prize
Oxford MHS: Exhibition: ‘Dear Harry…’ – Henry Moseley: A Scientist Lost to War 14 May–18 October 2015
H-ArtHist: Call for Publications: Tales from the Crypt: Museum Storage and Meaning
Main Point Books: Book Launch with Paul Halpern for Einstein’s Dice and Schrödinger’s Cats 18 April 2015 Bryn Mawr
Oxford University: Unique Course: The History and philosophy of Evidence-Based Health Care 15–19 June 2015
Universitat Pompeu Fabra Barcelona: International Workshop: A Comparative Study of Nuclear Energy Programs from the 1940s until the 1970s 7-8 May 2015
AJS Annual Meeting 2015 Boston – CfP: Jewish medical knowledge and rabbinic discourse(s) in Late Antiquity
University of Edinburgh: Beyond Leeches and Lepers: Medieval & Early Modern Medicine 2 May 2015
The Royal Society: Archival afterlives 2 June 2015
Science History Publications/USA: Savant Remains: Brains and Remains of Scientists 4th Watson Seminar in the Material and Visual History of Science Organized by Marco Beretta, Maria Conforti, Paolo Mazzarello University of Pavia, Pavia, September 4th, 2015.
Atomic Heritage Foundation: Register Now for 70th Anniversary Events 2-3 June 2015
SHNH: Invitation for submissions to the Stearn Student Essay Prize 2015 for natural history
Centre for the History and Philosophy of Physics: Physics and the Great War One-Day Conference Oxford 8 June 2015
Natural History Museum: Talk: Robert Hooke and the Miracles of the Miniature 1 April 2015
CHF: First Friday: The Alchemist’s Cookbook 3 April 2015
Heterodoxology: ContERN meeting at ESSWE5 in Riga 18 April 2015
BSHM: LMS 150th Anniversary BSHM–LMS De Morgan Day 9 May 2015
SEAC 2015: Astronomy in Past and Present Cultures
New University of Lisbon: CfP: 2nd Portuguese-Brazilian Meeting on the History of Tropical Medicine 14-16 October 2015
LOOKING FOR WORK:
Swansea University: Fully-funded PhD Studentship: Swansea Science: The First 100 Years
Birkbeck: University of London: PhD Studentship
Swansea University: AHRC Funded PhD Studentship: Calculating Value: Using and Collecting the Tools of Early Modern Mathematics
ADHO: Apply to Become AHDO’s Next Communications Fellow
University of Warwick: Assistant Professor in the History of Medicine
Mendeley Blog: Lets talk about science – Scopus Young Researchers’ Award for science communications
Burns Library, Boston College: Head of Public Services and Instructional Outreach
The dual carriageway to Damascus: Assistant for the public engagement project Nappy Science Gang
Queens University: Term Adjunct appointment to teach history of medicine
