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 #49
Monday 01 June 2015
EDITORIAL:
Although this is the forty-ninth edition of your weekly #histSTM links list this time it actually brings you some of the best in the histories of science, technology and medicine, not from the last seven days but from the last fourteen as I spent most of the last week travelling to and back from the North of England, as mentioned in the last edition, in order to attend the funeral of my elder brother. Despite this somewhat melancholic interruption we have another bumper crop of #histSTM delight for you perusal and edification.
In place of an editorial I have brought together some articles and comments about writing the history of science. To kick off we have an excellent article from Philip Ball about writing about the role of women in #histSTM.
Chemistry World: How do we solve a problem like Marie?
© Science Source/Science Photo Library
Illustrated by an example of how not to do it
The Guardian: The 10 best unsung female scientists
and a couple of pertinent comments picked up from Twitter
I think a fruitful direction for popular #histSTM would be re-examining our criteria for “greatness.” – Meg Rosenburg
“Women’s scientific work has been “obscured or devalued by the ideology of scientific heroism” – (Oreskes, 1996)
and an excellent older article on the problems of hagiography in #histSTM
The Toast: On Heroic Scientists and Hagiography
The OUP blog goes as far as to ask
Is the history of science still relevant?
Two major articles tackle the problems generated by Steven Weinberg’s recent blast on the history of science
Springer Link: Whose History Is It?
Shells and Pebbles: Weinberg, Whiggism, and The World in History of Science
Which elicited this comment from Rebekah “Becky” Higgitt: “Writing the history of physics deserves to be multi-faceted”
We close with two articles on the problematic presentation of the role of catholic clergy in the history of science
The Wall Street Journal: Planets, Priests and a Persistent Myth
Crown River Media.com: Climate of change: The Catholic church’s dance with science
Quotes of the week:
“Make tea not war.” – @AlmostSenseless
“The best way to find manuscript typos is to click submit”. – @AcademicsSay
“Every time someone brings up Gödel’s incompleteness theorem in a non-math context, God makes another theorem unprovable.” – @existentialscoms
“Some people think themselves clever if one has to be clever to understand them”. – Erasmus
“If you don’t read the newspaper, you’re uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you’re mis-informed.” ― Mark Twain
“In philosophy, if you think the answer is obvious, you haven’t understood the question”. – @keithfrankish
“Can you imagine what we could achieve if all the philosophers in the world got together?”
“Nothing?”
“Exactly!” – @ethicistforhire
“I shall assume that your silence gives consent”. – Plato
“Never laugh at the old when they offer counsel, often their words are wise.” —Hávamál
”No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment can prove me wrong.” – Albert Einstein
“How did we let “overmorrow” (meaning “the day after tomorrow”) obsolesce? It’s useful and beautiful”. – Ned Morrell
“One of the hardest and least frequently learned lessons of blogging is how to remain silent when you have nothing useful to add”. – Chad Orzel
“If at first you don’t succeed, read the instructions”. – @kellyflorentia
“Having a blog (or whatever) and making it work are two different things and that needs to be recognised!” – Richard Blakemore (@historywomble)
“I had rather be an oyster than a man, the most stupid and senseless of animals”. – George Berkeley
“The less men think, the more they talk”. – Montesquieu
“The only fence against the world is a thorough knowledge of it”. – John Locke
“Having an open mind is not the same as having an empty head”. – Peter Coles (@telescoper)
“No man is free who is not master of himself”. – Epictetus
“It is not irritating to be where one is. It is only irritating to think one would like to be somewhere else.” – John Cage
“Books are better than ever but there is no time for books, we must kill the internet.” – @mims
“A pencil is a magic wand that conjures whole worlds from graphite and dreams.” – @DublinSoil
Birthdays of the Fortnight:
Mary Anning born 21 May 1799
Mary Anning with her dog, Tray, painted before 1842; the Golden Cap outcrop can be seen in the background
Source: Wikimedia Commons
Natural History Museum: Mary Anning: the unlikeliest pioneer of palaeontology
History of Geology: The historical problem for women geologists: Travel and Gear
Letters from Gondwana: Mary Anning, The Carpenter’s Daughter
Forbes: Mary Anning: From Selling Seashells To One of History’s Most Important Paleontologists
BBC: Forgotten fossil found to be new species of ichthyosaur
Letters From Gondwana: Mary Anning’s Contribution to French Paleontology
Trowelblazers: Happy Birthday TrowelBlazers! And Happy Birthday Mary Anning!
Albrecht Dürer born 21 May
The earliest painted Self-Portrait (1493) by Albrecht Dürer, oil, originally on vellum (Louvre, Paris)
Source: Wikimedia Commons
Surviving Transition: Albrecht Dürer: Diary of a Journey to the Netherlands (July, 1520–July 1521)
The Renaissance Mathematicus: A maths book from a painter
Geschichte der Geologie: Kunst & Geologie: Albrecht Dürers Landschaftsbilder
PHYSICS & ASTRONOMY:
The Institute: Did You Know? Someone Else Wrote Maxwell’s Equations
True Anomalies: Exploring “Genius Day” with Annie Jump Cannon
Annie Jump Cannon
Source: True Anomalies
The Physics Mill: The Men Who Weighed Mountains
Time in Art: 1 Yemini Astrolabe
Descartes Project: Isaac Beeckman
Skulls in the Stars: 1975: The year that quantum mechanics met gravity
Royal Museums Greenwich: Spring Forward: 100 years of British Summer Time
Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage: The History of Early Low Frequency Radio Astronomy in Australia
Teylers Museum: Water hammer, 1874
Tand Online: Advances in optics in the medieval Islamic world
Science 2.0: The Culturally Subjective Nature of Good Acoustics
The Metropolitan Museum of Art: The Collection Online: Eclipse of the Sun
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Let’s talk about science: Van Gogh’s ‘Starry’ study
Space.com: The Father of SETI: Q6A with Astronomer Frank Drake
Starts With A Bang: Throwback Thursday: When We Changed The Laws of Gravity
Max-Planck-Gesellschaft: A solar eclipse sheds light on physics
John Gribbin Science: Why the Sky is Dark at Night
Ptak Science Books: A Not-Beautiful Confusion (1912)
Yovisto: The Life and Work of Georg von Peuerbach
AIP: Oral History Transcripts – Dr Martin Schwarzschild
Corpus Newtonicum: How to recognise a Newton library book in 60 seconds
James Musgrave’s bookplate, with the Barnsley Park shelfmark (here Case R. E.4.)
AIP: Oral History Transcript – J. Robert Schrieffer
EXPLORATION and CARTOGRAPHY:
Ptak Science Books: Zones of the Variable (Maps of the Winds, 1886)
Ptak Science Books: A Map of Currents and Seaweed, 1886
British Library: Plan of Plymouth harbour, 1693
Ptak Science Books: Ghost Trails of the Mississippi River: Harold Fisk’s Geological Map of 1944
Ménestral: Medievalists on the map (French)
Bibliothèque Numérique Patrimoine Des Ponts: Cartes et documents de CH-J. Minard
History Today: Alberto Cantino’s World Map
The Hakluyt Society Blog: The Cabot Project
Henry VII’s letter to John Morton, re William Weston, c. 1499, C82/332 piece 61 out of 74, TNA:PRO.
Courtesy of The National Archives
Made From History: 10 Medieval Maps of Britain
Canadian GIS & Geomatics: Collection of Early Canadian Maps (1556 to 1857)
Blink: The Compass Chronicles: A game of whispers
The New Yorker: Project Exodus: What’s behind the dream of colonizing Mars?
MEDICINE & HEALTH:
Forbes: Rotten Roman Baby Teeth Blamed on Honey, Porridge
JHU Collections Web: Online Exhibition: Explore the Wall
Atlas Obscura: See These Stunning Photos of Brain Surgery’s Earliest Patients
Oxford University Press: The Perils of Peace: The Public Health Crisis in Occupied Germany: Open Access Title
Mo Costandi: Harvey Cushing: The Father of Modern Neurosurgery
The Recipes Project: Hunting for herbs: chasing migraine remedies across the centuries
Seven different types of sage (Salvia species): Credit: Wellcome Library, London.
Spitalfields Life: In Search of Culpeper’s Spitalfields
NYAM: Damien the Leper (Part 3 of 3)
Forbes: Roman Forum Yields Stash of Teeth Extracted by Ancient Dentist
Erowid Experience Vaults: Remarks on the Effects of the Mescal Button: Peyote Extract by Dr. S. Weir Mitchell 1896
The Recipes Project: Conference Report: Materia Medica on the Move, Leiden, 15-17 April 2015
Early Modern Practitioners: Working Papers
Berfrois: The Poet, the Physician and the Birth of the Modern Vampire
Circulating Now: Physiological Ads for the Modern Self
Slate: How to Tell If You’re Dead: The 19th-century doctor who wanted to create a “death thermometer”
NYAM: Did Corsets Harm Women’s Health?
The title page of “Fashion’s Slaves,” 1892.
The East End: The London Burkers
Slate: A 16th-Century GIF Tour of the Inside of the Brain
The Art of Saving a Life. Edward Jenner’s Smallpox Discovery
TECHNOLOGY:
Ptak Science Books: Bad Sounds Department: the V-1, 1944
Ptak Science Book: Technical Report on the V-1, 1945
Conciatore: A Deeper Accomplishment
Conciatore: The Casino di San Marco
Conciatore: Don Antonio de’ Medici
Ptak Science Books: TomorrowVision: U-235, Project Orion, and City-Sized Space Ships, 1941–1968 (+)
Nova News Now.com: Dartmouth project unearths part of Shubenacadie canal’s history
Spitalfields Life: The Principle Operations of Weaving, 1748
ODNB: Edwin Beard Budding
Gebloggendings: Identifying ships in aerial photographs of the Crossroads Baker nuclear threat
Ptak Science Books: German Submarine Importance in Graphical Comparison, 1912
The Paris Review: A Brief History of Spacefarers
The Public Domain Review: The Emphatic Camera: Frank Norris and the Invention of Film Editing
Mental Floss: 6 More Magnificent Women in Their Flying Machines
KATHERINE STINSON
Special Collections & Archives at Mizzou: The Modern Geometrical Stair Builders Guide
Telegraph of India: History of Weave – Of tapestries, hookahs and howdas
Ptak Science Books: Pause-Giving Photographs of Artillery Shell Vastness, ca. 1917
Ptak Science Books: Electro-LUXurious 3: Anti-erection “Body Wear” 1889
Conciatore: Rosichiero Glass
Conciatore: The Importance of Being Diligent
Conciatore: A Matter of Plagiarism
Ptak Science Books: WWII Aircraft Cross Sections – the Schematics Work of G.H. Davis
Inside the Science Museum: Space pioneer Alexi Leonov on the birth of the space age
Ptak Science Books: Calculating Machine Article, 1885 – Full Text
Ptak Science Books: Another Rooftop Airport/Helipad, 1945
Vox: Meet Margaret Hamilton, the badass ‘60s programmer who saved the moon landing
Margaret Hamilton in an Apollo Command Module.
EARTH & LIFE SCIENCES:
Mental Floss: How One Woman’s Discovery Shook the Foundations of Geology
The Alfred Russel Wallace Correspondence Project: Mini Biographies of Wallace’s Correspondents
NMNH: The Plant Press: Botanical Treasures #1. Wilkes collection type specimen: holotype of Argyroxiphium macrocephalum
The first botanical treasure is the holotype of Argyroxiphium macrocephalum (US 59690).
Concocting History: The curious incident of the dog and the palm tree
Genome Biology: Raymond Gosling: the man who crystallised genes
Palaeoblog: Born This Day: William King Gregory
Embryo Project: Stephen Jay Gould (1941–2002)
Many Headed Monster: Women’s Work in Rural England, 1500–1700
Geschichte der Geologie: Kunst & Geologie: Eduard von Grützner – Der Mineraloge
Palaeoblog: Born This Day: Oliver Perry Hay
Richard Carter: Sir Thomas Browne observes a murmuration of starlings
AMNH: Darwin Manuscript Project
Blastr: Researcher photographs Leeuwenhoek’s ‘animalcules’ after 340 Years
The Mountain Mystery: Henry Hess and the Sea’s Floor
The Alfred Russel Wallace Website: Things named after Wallace: Alternative Realities
Scientific American: Why Carbon Is the Best Marker for the New Human Epoch
Quartz: Lessons from Charles Darwin on working from home
Essex Chronicle: Historical specimens from across the world arrive in Chelmsford
Trowelblazers: Elizabeth Anderson Gray
Elizabeth Anderson Gray spent her entire life fossil hunting. Her collections were vital to our understanding of early life on earth. © The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London
The Genealogical World of Phylogenetic Networks: Naudin, Wallace and Darwin: – the tree idea
The Friends of Charles Darwin: We receive feedback
The Washington Post Whoops! A creationist museum supporter stumbled upon a major fossil find
Nature: Correspondence: The mystery of the microscope in mud
CHEMISTRY:
Othmeralia: How best to use a blow pipe
The Royal Institution: Interactive timeline: Humphry Davy
META – HISTORIOGRAPHY, THEORY, RESOURCES and OTHER:
Angie Higgins: The Institute of Sexology
Maybe It’s Because: Forensics: The Anatomy of Crime
The Hindu Business Line: Rohit Gupta’s The Compass Chronicles
Medium.com: How to write a blogpost from your journal article
LSU Ichthyology: On Being a Natural History Curator
History Department at the University of York: Time to share some of the achievements of our department
Arms Control Association: Getting to Know Alex Wellerstein
Alex Wellerstein works at his home in Hoboken, New Jersey, on January 19. (Courtesy of Alex Wellerstein)
Curie: History matters to the present and the future
Panacea: Achoo!!!: The Humble Sneeze
Museums Association: Nine projects given green light for £98m HLF investment
The Atlantic: Reviving the Female Cannon
The Recipes Project: Translating Recipes 12: Recipes in Time and Space, Part 6 – BETWEEN
Society for Social Studies of Science: Primer Coloquio Colombiano de Estudios Sociales de la Ciencia y la tecnología
Inside the Science Museum: Space pioneer Alexei Leonov heralds Cosmonauts Exhibition
Storify: Cosmonauts exhibition announcement
Edge: We Need A Modern Origin Story: A Big History
The Royal Society: The Repository: The paper chase
The Guardian: Peter Gay obituary
The Telegraph: Libraries could outlast the internet, head of British Library says
UCL Press: Lisa Jardine: Temptation in the Archives: Essays in Golden Age Dutch Culture Free Download
The H-Word: Scientific publishing: how have changes over the last 50 years affected scientists?
Hooke’s Books.com: Robert Hooke’s Books
Ejournals@Cambridge: The Collected Papers of Einstein: Princeton University Press has made the Collected Works of Albert Einstein digitally available on an Open Access site. academia.edu: When the Printer Met the Virtuoso
Physics Today: The Dayside: Kissed by a prince
The Last Word on Nothing: Storia
The Boston Globe: Atop a sacred mountain, a skirmish between pure science and religion
A galaxy discovered in 2004 was identified by combining the power of the Hubble telescope and telescopes on Mauna Kea.
ESA, NASA VIA REUTERS
ESOTERIC:
distillatio: Is this an unusual and often overlooked piece of alchemical equipment?
Here it is, in a free copy of the picture taken from the, IIRC, 16th century copy in the Ferguson collection in Glasgow University:
Alchemical Emblems, Occult Diagrams, and Memory Arts: 20 Books to get started in alchemical studies
Jonathan Saha: The Imperial Science of Hypnotic Adverts
The Champlain Society: Listening through the Séance Trumpets: A Strange History of Communications in Canada
BOOK REVIEWS:
Claes Johnson on Mathematics and Science: Tragedy of Modern Physics: Schrödinger and Einstein, or Quantum Mechanics as Dice Game?
Occam’s Corner: Water Surprise: The Water Book Reviewed
New Scientist: Case of the Rickety Cossack reveals unease about our fossil past
Science, Technology and Society: Inventing Exoticism: Geography, Globalism, and Europe’s Early Modern World
JHI Blog: Meredith Ray, Daughters of Alchemy
New Scientist: Einstein and Schrödinger: The price of fame
The Renaissance Mathematicus: Teaching the Revolution
Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry: Jenkin’s “Extraordinary Conditions: Culture and Experience in Mental Illness”
Science Direct: The forgotten man of DNA
The Washington Post: Behind the making of a super bomb
New Books in Biblical Studies: Tom McLeish Faith and Wisdom in Science
Science Book a Day: Kevin Orrman-Rossiter Reviews The Romantic Machine: Utopian Science and Technology after Napoleon
Science Book a Day: It Began With Babbage: The Genesis of Computer Science
JHI Blog: Long Vacations: Big Histories
New Scientist: The whole hog: Unpacking our love-hate relationship with the pig
The Catholic World Report: Galileo was Right – But So Were His Critics
Byrne’s Blog: book review: before the industrial revolution
NEW BOOKS:
The Linnean Society: The Curious Mister Catesby – Book Launch
Brepols Publishers: Analysis of Ancient and Medieval Texts and Manuscripts: Digital Approaches
The Dispersal of Darwin: The Griffin and the Dinosaur
Profile Books: Life’s Greatest Secret
Historiens de la santé: Healing Words: The Printed Handbills of Early Modern London Quacks
ART:
World of Wallace: Exhibition Alfred Russel Wallace Collection Chelmsford Museums, 6 June – 19 July:
Bethlem Museum of the Mind: Held Exhibition, London, 30 May 2015 – 21 August
Bournemouth University: BLAST: Exhibition, Atrium Gallery, 30 May – 20 June
National Maritime Museum, Greenwich: The Art & Science of Exploration, 1768-80, Open until 26 July:
Museum of the History of Science, Oxford: Last Days: Alchemy and the Laboratory, Open until 7 June:
AreByte London: Last Days: The Microbial Verdict: You Live Until You Die, , Open until 06 June:
Florence Nightingale Museum: The Kiss of Light, Open until 23 October 2015:
THEATRE AND OPERA:
Swansea City Opera on Tour: Faust, Opera by Charles-François Gounod June 3
The Drayton Arms Theatre, London: Chamber Musical by Neil Bartram and Brian Hill The Theory of Relativity
National Theatre, London: The Hard Problem. A play by Tom Stoppard
The Guardian: Science on stage: should playwrights respect history and truth?
IEEE Spectrum: The Demo, a Musical About the Mouse
FILMS AND EVENTS:
Symetry Movie.com: Symmetry. A dance and opera film in collaboration with CERN
The Royal Society: Mendel’s Legacy. Celebrate 150 years since Mendel’s lectures
Wellcome Collection: Bernard Spilsbury: Forensic Pathologist 6 pm – 7 pm, June 4
MHS Oxford: From Crystals to Atoms. How did Henry Moseley investigate atoms using x-rays and crystals? June 7
Fine Books & Collections: Waterloo and More at 36th London Map Fair 6-7 June 2015
Taylor’s World: Conference: Celebrating the achievements and legacy of Frederick Winslow Taylor 24-25 September 2015
PAINTING OF THE WEEK:
Wellcome Library: Dr Jenner Performing His First Vaccination, 1796 Oil painting by Ernest Board
National Gallery: Joseph Wright: An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump, 1768, oil-on-canvas,
TELEVISION:
BBC Four: Inside the Medieval Mind. Knowledge
BBC Four: The last Explorers: John Muir
SLIDE SHOW:
VIDEOS:
Ri Channel: Christmas Lectures 1980: Max Perutz – Haemoglobin: The breathing molecule
Torch: Leviathan and the Air Pump: Thirty Year On
Youtube: The Royal Society: Science stories – controversy
Youtube: The Trowelblazers Channel
Youtube: John von Neumann Documentary
archive.org: Librarian, The (1947)
Youtube: The Royal Society: Science Stories
Graftoniana: Conference Program and Videos
Youtube: Fossil
Youtube: “Dum docent discunt”: vernacular pedagogy in medieval astronomy
RADIO:
BBC: Aryabhata: The Boat of Intellect
BBC: Science in Action: Exploring the State of Science in India (includes section on the history of science)
PODCASTS:
University of Oxford: Centre for the Study of the Book: Podcasts
CHF: Old Brains, New Brains: The Human Mind Past and Present
Triceratops: The Perils of Imagination: Why Historians Don’t Like Counterfactuals
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Royal Historical Society: CfP: Making ‘Big Data’ Human: Doing History in a Digital Age – deadline 20 June 2015
BSHS: 2015: Swansea: Registration and Programme
University of Strathclyde: Centre for the Social History of Health and Healthcare: Health, Healthcare and Society: Environment, Markets, Lifecycle and Location: Ten Years On’ 18–19 June 2015
Oral History Society: Oral histories of Science, Technology and Medicine: Royal Holloway, University of London 10-11 June 2015
Historiens de la santé: Conférence de Marie-Claude Thifault: Le branle-bas général à Saint-Jean-de-Dieu: Expérience de la désinstitutionnalisation, 1930-1976 03 juin 2015
Royal Society: “Archival Afterlives: Life, Death, and Knowledge-Making in Early Modern Scientific and Medical Archives” 2 June 2015
H-Histsex: CfP. Migration and Sexuality
British Academy/University of Warwick Interdisciplinary Workshop: Addiction and Culture since 1800 26 June 2015
King’s College London: Programme: Collections in Use: 6 July 2015
University of Durham: Lecture: Medical Ethics in 19th-Century Colombia
Royal Institution: Lecture: Hasok Chang, “If you can spray phlogiston, is it real?” 1 June 2015
Museum Boerhaave: Onthulling ‘nieuwe’ Leeuwenhoek-microscoop 2 Juni 2015
CRASSH: Objects in Motion: Material Culture in Transition 18-20 June 2015
University of Michigan: CfP: International Conference Scientific Utopias in Soviet Union
University of Valencia Instituto de Historia de la Medicina y de la Ciencia López Piñero CFP: ASTRONOMY AND ASTRONAUTICS UNDER DICTATORIAL REGIMES 24–25 September 2015
American Society for Environmental History: Award Submissions
H-Sci-Med-Tech: CfP Deadline Extended: 2015 Joint Atlantic Seminar for the History of Medicine University of Pennsylvania 16-17 October
LOOKING FOR WORK:
University of Edinburgh: Postdoctoral Teaching and Research Fellow – History of Medicine
University of Leeds: New round of Wellcome/LHRI Postdoctoral Fellowships
University of Kent: Material World: Three PhD Studentships
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine: Centre for History in Public Health: New Research Fellow position available
University of York: History Department: Teaching Fellow in the History of Science and Medicine
University of Portsmouth: PhD Studentships
University of Aarhus: Associate Professorship in the History of Ideas (History of Science and Technology)
University of St. Andrews: Postdoctoral Researcher: Publishing the Philosophical Transactions
BSHS: Master’s Degree Bursaries
University of Leicester: AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnerships
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