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 #52
Monday 22 June 2015
EDITORIAL:
We are proud to present the fifty-second edition of Whewell’s Gazette your weekly #histSTM links list, bringing all the best in the histories of science, technology and medicine from out of the depths of cyberspace onto computer screens all over the world.
Number fifty-two means that we have completed a nominal year. The calendar year was completed last week, as there was no edition for the week of Monday 25 May. Looking back over the completed year one can see that the production of #histSTM blog post and articles around the Internet is in a very healthy state being both extensive and diverse and covering a bewildering range of topics at a multitude of levels from totally popular to totally serious and very academic. It is to be hoped that the Internet #histSTM community continues to flourish and will, we hope, grow over the next year and for many years to come. We also hope that Whewell’s Gazette will continue to bring its readers, and may they too flourish and grow, all that it can find on its weekly expeditions through the depths of cyberspace.
As already announced last week, and posted in more detail on The Renaissance Mathematicus, out long suffering and intrepid chief sub-editor is going off to unsettle the good folks in the Bay Area of California for ten days so there will be a two week hiatus here at Whewell’s Gazette, with the fifty-third edition due to appear first on Monday 13 July, the fates willing.
Bill Watterson
Quotes of the week:
The Old English word for ‘solstice’ is ‘sunstede’, from sun + stede meaning ‘fixed place, position’ (cf. steadfast, homestead, Hampstead). – Eleanor Parker (@ClerkofOxford)
“Those who do not remember the past are condemned to misquote it”. – Erik Champion (@nzerik)
“It angers me when people use ‘critical thinking’ to mean ‘holds the same opinions that I do’” – @Canadian_Errant
“To think of any phase in history as altogether irrational is to look at it not as an historian but as a publicist, a polemical writer of tracts for the times”. — Collingwood, “The Idea of History” (1946) h/t @gabridli
“A man may be a Newton in either the political or mathematical world and still be a child in the ways of religion” – John Tyndall (1841)
“Hardware, n.: The parts of a computer system that can be kicked”. h/t Mike Croucher (@walkingramdomly)
“Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers.” – Alfred, Lord Tennyson
“It is the vice of a vulgar mind to be thrilled by bigness” – E. M. Forester h/t Christene D’Anca (@ChristeneDAnca)
“I’ve never felt I could claim to be a writer in that full sense. It just seems arrogant” – Anthony T. Grafton
“Through space the universe grasps me and swallows me up like a speck; through thought I grasp it” – Blaise Pascal , Penséees (1670)
“Do not look at stars as bright spots only. Try to take in the vastness of the universe” – Maria Mitchell h/t @hist_astro
“The truly learned are easily distinguished by their manners.” – Barthélemy Faujas de Saint-Fond, 1799 h/t Rebekah Higgitt (@beckyfh)
“To have pleasure, you need a bit of passion, a great & interesting purpose, a determined desire to learn” – Voltaire h/t Andrea Wulf (@andrea_wulf)
“How I love people who say what they think! People who only half-think are only half alive’”– Voltaire h/t Andrea Wulf (@andrea_wulf)
“There comes a time when you realize that everything is a dream, and only those things preserved in writing have any possibility of being real” – James Salter h/t Chris White (@bombaylychee)
Event of the Week:
June 16 1963
Science Notes: Today in Science History – June 16 – Valentina Tereshkova
Tereshkova in 1969
Source: Wikimedia Commons
Yovisto: The First Woman in Space – Valentina Treshkowa
PHYSICS & ASTRONOMY:
AIP: Voices of the past reimagined
Phys Org: What is Halley’s Comet?
Starts With a Bang: A Quantum of Parody: The Journal of Jocular Physics, a Cosmic Birthday Tribute to Niels Bohr
AHF: Hans Bethe
Smithsonian.com: Los Alamos’s “Atomic Secretary” Was Never Told What the Manhattan Project Was For
Dannen.com: Recommendations on the Immediate Use of Nuclear Weapons, June 16, 1945
Yovisto: William Parsons and his Large Telescope
The largest telescope of the 19th century, the Leviathan of Parsonstown.
Source: Wikimedia Commons
The Sydney Morning Herald: Renaissance man emerged from shadows
Science Notes: Today in Science History – 18 June – William Lassell
The Conversation: When science gets ugly – the story of Philipp Lenard and Albert Einstein
Phillipp Lenard in 1900. Source: Wikimedia Commons
Voices of the Manhattan Project: Stanisluas Ulam’s Interview
The Conversation: From Newton to Hawking and beyond: a short history of the Lucasian Chair
arXiv.org: Edgar Allan Poe: the first man to conceive a Newtonian evolving universe
Wellcome Trust Blog: Image of the Week: The Earth’s orbit around the Sun
NASA: Veteran NASA Spacecraft Nears 60,000th Lap Around Mars, No Pit Stops
Symmetry: Mathematician to know: Emmy Noether
Muslim Heritage: Arabic Star Names: A Treasure of Knowledge Shared by the World
The Renaissance Mathematicus: For those who haven’t been paying attention
EXPLORATION and CARTOGRAPHY:
J D Davies: The Lost Journal of Captain Greenvile Collins, Part 1
Yovisto: “Because it’s there” – George Mallory and Mount Everest
1921 Everest Expedition; Mallory at right on rear row; Bullock at left on rear row
Source: Wikimedia Commons
Halley’s Log: Halley writes from the Downs
French of Outremer: The Oxford Outremer Map
MEDICINE & HEALTH:
BBC: Wales: What role did disabled people play during industrial revolution?
NYAM: The Legacy of Aloysius “Alois” Alzheimer
The Recipes Project: The Vegetarian Society, Victorian Style
Yovisto: Hubertus Strughold – the Father of Space Medicine
Mo Costandi: An Illustrated History of Trepanation
The operation of Trepan, from Illustrations of the Great Operations of Surgery: Trepan, Hernia, Amputation, Aneurism and Lithotomy, by Charles Bell, 1815. (John Martin Rare Book Room at the Hardin Library for the Health Sciences, University of Iowa.)
Remedia: Britain’s Sonic Therapy: listening to birdsong during and after the First World War
io9: This Fungus Was A Medieval Mass Murderer
The Paris Review: Monkey Glands for Everyone
Nursing Clio: The International History of Women’s Medical Education: What Does Imperialism Have To Do With It?
Stylisticienne: On his heid-ake: A Medieval Migraine
Strange Remains: The Macabre History of Harvard Medical School
Thomas Rowlandson: Resurrection Men, 18th century.
Source: Wikimedia Commons
The Royal Institution: Doctors – all over royalty like a rash
TECHNOLOGY:
Stuff Mom Never Told You: The Blog: 15 Rare Photos of Black Rosie the Riveters
Conciatore: Thévenot Continues East
DPLA: We, Robots: Robots from the 1920s to the 1990s
History Today: Mysticism and Machines
A scene from Karel Čapek’s 1920 play R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots), showing three robots.
Democrat & Chronicle: George Eastman House collection honored
Yovisto: Henry Ford and the Ford Motor Company
Ptak Science Books: Empty and Missing Things9: the Skeleton of the Statue of Liberty
Tycho’s Nose: The violent history of train-wreck publicity
Conciatore: Weights and Measures
Science Notes: Today in Science History – June 22 – The standard metre and kilogram
davidsharp.com: Manchester Baby Simulator
BBC: Remembering the US’s first female rocket scientist
Mary Sherman Morgan, c. 1950s
Source: Wikimedia Commons
EARTH & LIFE SCIENCES:
Capitalism’s Cradle: How Microfinance helped farmers adjust to the Great Irish Famine
The Public Domain Review: Nature Through Microscope and Camera (1909)
Homunculus: Christiaan Huygens – the first astrobiologist?
Embryo Project: Charles Robert Cantor (1942– )
The Friends of Charles Darwin: The great Darwin fossil hunt
Embryo Project: Francois Jacob (1920–2013)
Paige Fossil History: The Rickety Cossack: A Great Title & Moment in History
The Public Domain Review: A Bestiary of Sir Thomas Browne
Look and Learn: The young naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace had three escapes from death
Alfred Russel Wallace watched the Helen go down consumed by fire
The History Girls: Dr Merryweather’s Un-Merry Weather
Natural History Apostilles: Lamarckism in Naval Timber and Arboriculture (Matthew 1831)
Science Notes: Today in Science History – 20 June – Frederick Gowland Hopkins
Ptak Science Books: An Annotated Poetry of Clouds
British Library: Science Blog: Fishing from the Earliest Times: A very brief history
Wonders & Marvels: Cabinet of Curiosities: Ancient Animal Tales
Forbes: Without a Doubt, Kennewick Man Was Native American, Anthropologists Say
CHEMISTRY:
Science Notes: Today in Science History – June 17 – William Crookes
Illustration portrait of William Crookes in 1875 (age 43). Credit: Popular Science Monthly Volume 10, 1876.
Science Notes: Today in Science History – June 19 – Friedrich Wilhelm Adam Sertürner
META – HISTORIOGRAPHY, THEORY, RESOURCES and OTHER:
The many-headed monster: What is history for: Doing history/thinking historically
Medicine, ancient and modern: Thoughts on Galen and Pseudo-Galenic Texts
Indian science.org: Science and Social Movements in India
The Royal Society: Email newsletters
New York Times: Naomi Oreskes, a Lightning Rod in a Changing Climate
Naomi Oreskes in her office at Harvard University’s Science Center. She has been praised by climatologists for communicating climate science to the public.
Kayana Szymczak for The New York Times
The Chronicle of Higher Education: Scholars Talk Writing: Anthony Grafton
io9: Incredible Pictures of Early Science Labs
Capitalism’s Cradle: Can Policy boost Innovation? Lessons from 18th Century Scotland’s Linen Industry
The Renaissance Mathematicus: Three strikes and you’re out!
Indian Journal of History of Science: Why Did Scientific Renaissance Take Place in Europe And Not In Indian (pdf)
The Atlantic: Who’s Afraid of the Metric System?
The Telegraph: In pictures: 10 trailblazing British women in science and maths
Dame June Goodall
Photo: AP
The Recipes Project: Exploring CPP 10a214: The Place of Devotion
The H-Word: The Geneva Protocol at 90: An Anchor for Arms Control?
Pay Scale: STEM is Important, But Let’s Not Forget About the Humanities
Conciatore: Old Post Road
Nature: Books and Art
HSHS: BJHS Preview: Issue 2, 2015
Science & Religion: Exploring The Spectrum
BBC: The women whom science forgot
Dublin Science Gallery: Fail Better
Alembic Rare Books: Watermarks & Foolscaps: Exploring the History of Paper Production
storify: Objects in Motion: Materiality in Transition
ESOTERIC:
BOOK REVIEWS:
Science Book a Day: Interviews Michael Gordin
Babelia: La exploración de la mirada
The Public Domain Review: A Journey in Other Worlds: A Romance of the Future (1894)
Notches: The Origins of Sex: An Interview With Faramerz Dabhoiwala
Metascience: What’s so great about Feyerabend? Against Method, forty years on (oa)
Popular Science: The New Wild
Reviews in History: The Oxford Handbook of Environmental History
WSJ: They Really Do Speak Another Language
NEW BOOKS:
Historiens de la santé: Thomas Bartholin: The Anatomy House in Copenhagen
BSHS: He is no loss: Robert McCormick and the voyage of HMS Beagle
JISC: Scientific Controversies: A Socio-Historical Perspective on the Advancement of Science
Historiens de la santé: Stress in Post-war Britain. 1945–1985
ART & EXHIBITIONS
Strange Remains: The ‘Rembrants of anatomical preparation’ who turned skeletons into art
Engraving of a tableau by Frederik Ruysch (1744) Etching with engraving Image credit: . National Library of Medicine.
The Guardian: The impossible world of MC Escher
RCS: Surgeons at Work: The Art of the Operation Hunterian Museum 31 March–19 September
Modern Art Oxford: Lynn Hershman Leeson: Origins of the Species 29 May–9 August 2015
THEATRE AND OPERA:
National Theatre: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time at the Gielgud Theatre
Theatre Royal Haymarket: The Elephant Man
FILMS AND EVENTS:
Slate: Watch the Evolution of Movie Dinosaurs From 1914 through Today: (They’ve Definitely Improved.)
Popular Science: A Brief History of Science Gone Mad:
The Fly-Human Hybrid
James Vaughan/CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
UCL: Grant Museum of Zoology: Strange Creatures: The art of unknown animals: Closes 27 June 2015
Science Museum: Revelations: Experiments in Photography 20 February–13 September 2015
io9: An Animated Musical About Lilian Todd, First Woman to Design an Airplane
Dudley News: Groundbreaking map celebrates its 200th birthday at Dudley Museum display
CHF: The Museum at CHF
Discover Medical London: Walking Tour: Sex and the City Dates see website
Discover Medical London: Walking Tour: “Path-ologies”: A capital’s contagious geography
Oxford University Museum of Natural History: Evolution of Mammals 27 June 2015
Bath Chronicle: Brought to Light: the 18th Century Book Explosion Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution 2 May–5September
Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution: Bath and the Nile Explorers Closes 27 June 2015
Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution: Online-Exhibition: Mr. Darwin’s Fishes
PAINTING OF THE WEEK:
BBC: A Barber-Surgeon Attending to a Man’s Forehead
(c) Wellcome Library; Supplied by The Public Catalogue Foundation
TELEVISION:
BBC Four: Catching History’s Criminals: The Forensics Story
SLIDE SHOW:
VIDEOS:
Youtube: Always/Never: The Quest for Safety, Control, and Survivability – Part 1
TED: Steve Silberman: The forgotten history of autism
British Library: Voices of Science
Silicon Republic: Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell: Well-behaved women rarely make history
Museo Galileo: Mutimedia Helioscope
RADIO:
BBC: Science Stories
PODCASTS:
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Birkbeck Cinema: The Hidden Persuaders Project and the Birkbeck Institute: Workshop: Brainwash: History, Cinema and the Psy Professions 3-4 July 2015
Educación Científica, Educación Humanística: CfP: Llamada de la participación
Advances in the History of Psychology: CfP: Contribute to the Psychologist “Looking Back” Column!
University of Boulder: CHPS: 31st Boulder Conference on the History and Philosophy of Science: Emergence: 16-18 October 2015
University of Wuppertal: CfP: Before Montucla: Historiography of Science in the Early Modern Period 3-4 March 2015
UCL: Workshop: Psychoanalytic Filiations: Mapping the Psychoanalytic Movement 18 July 2015
Center for Khmer Studies, Siem Reap, Cambodia: CfP: 6th International Conference on The History of Medicine in Southeast Asia (HOMSEA 2016) 13–15 January 2016
German Chemical Society: Paul Bunge Prize 2016: History of Scientific Instruments: Call for Entries
Notches: CfP: Histories of Asian/Asian American Sexualities
Framing the Face: CfP: Workshop: Friends Meeting House, Euston Road London: 28 November 2015
LOOKING FOR WORK:
Science Museum: Research Fellow History of British nuclear power in international context
Centre for History at Sciences Po Paris: Assistant Professor in Environmental History
Whewell's Ghost 