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
Year 2, Volume #02
Monday 20 July 2015
EDITORIAL:
Welcome to the second edition of the second year of Whewell’s Gazette, the weekly #histSTM links lists, which brings you all that we could gather of the histories of science, technology and medicine throughout the Internet in the last seven days.
The last week has seen a great triumph for science and technology with the successful flypast of Pluto by the space probe New Horizons after more than nine years en route. This prompted many articles on the history of the discovery of Pluto and its discoverer Clyde Tombaugh.
However this week also saw the seventieth anniversary of what many consider to be the greatest ever fall from grace of science and technology with the detonation of the first atomic bomb at the Trinity nuclear test on 16 July 1945.
These two episodes show that science and technology being human activities are far from being the neutral subjects that many would like to claim them to be. Humans create science and technology and humans determine how they will be put to use. The achievements of both the New Horizons and the Manhattan Project teams are viewed objectively amongst the greatest technical triumphs that our approximately four thousand years of science have delivered. However whereas the one is a cause for jubilation the other, releasing as it did undreamed of forces of destruction, can only be viewed with horror by any rational human being.
The Triumph – Pluto:
Not that Pluto!
Johns Hopkins: Happy 100th Birthday, Clyde Tombaugh
Clyde Tombaughs notebook
io9: When We Discovered Pluto, It Changed How We Saw The Solar System
Cosmographia: Pluto – Predicted
Nautilus: A Visual History of Humanity’s Exploration of Pluto
PACHSmörgåsbord: Interview with Clyde Tombaugh, March 31, 1996
Clyde Tombaugh with his “automobile” telescope
Timothy Hughes: Rare & Early Newspapers: Planet Pluto officially discovered
The Mitchell Archives: The Discovery of Pluto
The New York Times: Says Pluto’s Size is That of Mars
Popular Science: How a ‘Farm Boy’ Found Pluto 85 Years Ago
Glass positive of The new planet Pluto; Lowell Observatory 42-inch Reflector
Academy of American Achiements: Clyde Tombaugh Photo Gallery
Modern Mechanix: Pluto is an Exceedingly Minor Planet (Nov, 1934)
Mammoth Tales: On Planet X and Naming Names
The Atlantic: The Women Who Rule Pluto
The H-Word: Seeing Pluto: strain, pain and ‘awesome’ science
Paige Fossil History: Retaining Childhood Curiosity: Pluto & Scientific Achievement
True Anomalies: Pluto, Mars, Moon, Earth
The Guardian: Pluto and other historical first pictures of planets
The New York Times: Summer of Science
The level of detail on the latest #PlutoFlyby images is astounding!
Source: Twitter originator unknown
The Fall From Grace – Trinity:
Dannen.com: Oak Ridge petition, mid-July 1945
Dannen.com: Oak Ridge petition, 13 July 1945
Dannen.com: July 17, 1945. Leo Szilard’s petition against using the atomic bomb
Ptak Science Books: The Atomic Bomb and Satan’s Release, 1947
Dannen.com: Target Committee, Los Alamos, May 10-11, 1945
Voices of the Manhattan Project: Lilli Hornig’s Interview
Voices of the Manhattan Project: George Kistiakowsky’s Interview
The Washington Post: Senator: Compensate residents near site of atomic bomb test
The Trinity explosion, 16 ms after detonation. The viewed hemisphere’s highest point in this image is about 200 metres (660 ft) high.
Source: Wikimedia Commons
The Trinity test bomb was the model dropped over Nagasaki. The bomb dropped over Hiroshima was never tested–not enough U-235 to spare. Audra J. Wolfe (@ColdWarScience)
ARD Mediathek: Zündung der ersten Atombombe am (16.7.1945) podcast
The New York Times: The First Light of Trinity
Restricted Data: Brig. Gen. Thomas Farrell, on the Trinity test, July 16, 1945
Ptak Science Books: Eyewitness Account “Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima” April 1946
The Boston Globe: The deterrent that wasn’t
AHF: News Articles on Trinity Test
Restricted Data: Trinity at 70: “Now we are all sons of bitches”
Quotes of the week:
“And remember, with great power comes great utilities bill”. – Peter Broks (@peterbroks)
“It’s the right idea, but not the right time.” – John Dalton.
“I don’t exactly know what I mean by that, but I mean it.” – J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye
“Personally, I’m always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.” – Winston Churchill
“You have to be nice to humans and when they don’t behave properly you can’t kill them” – Matthew Cobb (@matthewcobb)
“It took 100s of years to map the continents on Earth; it took just 50 years to see all the planets up close”. – John Grunsfeld
“In astronomy, looking over a long distance also means looking through expanses of time”. – Marek Kukula (@marekkukula)
“Frederick Great asked young Humboldt if he planned to conquer world like namesake Alexander the Great: ‘yes sir, but with my head’” h/t Andrea Wulf (@andrea_wulf)
“That men do not learn very much from lessons of history is the most important of all lessons that history has to teach.” – Aldous Huxley
“A coffee cup is homeomorphic to a donut”.
“A coffee cup with a broken handle is homeomorphic to a donut with a bite taken out”. – @TopologyFact
“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed”. –Hemingway
“Nature never deceives us; it is we who deceive ourselves”. – Rousseau
“All a musician can do is to get closer to the sources of nature, and so feel that he is in communion with the natural laws” – John Coltrane
“I can’t understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I’m frightened of the old ones.” – John Cage
“Physics is the unfolding of the laws of the intelligible world, pure mathematics is the unfolding of laws of human intelligence”. – J Sylvester
Birthdays of the Week:
John Dee born 13 July 1527
The Renaissance Mathematicus: John Dee, the “Mathematicall Praeface” and the English School of Mathematics
A 16th-century portrait by
an unknown artist
Source: Wikimedia Commons
Royal College of Physicians: Scholar, courtier, magician: the lost library of John Dee
English Historical Fiction Authors: “This Rough Magic”: The Secrets of the Tudor-Era Seers
PHYSICS & ASTRONOMY:
Science Notes: Today in Science History – 15 July – Jocelyn Bell Burnell
Jocelyn Bell Burnell in 2009
Source Wikimedia Commons
Starchild: Jocelyn Bell Burnell
AIP: Leon Lederman
arXiv.org: Records of sunspots and aurora during CE 960–1279 in the Chinese chronicle of the Song Dynasty
Forbes: History of Science Notes: For Whom The Prague Tolls
NASA Mars Exploration: Mars @ 50
Royal Museums Greenwich: A Glimpse of Mars Through Fractured Illusion: The Materiality of the Stereo Image
Daily Sabah: Astrolabe: the 13th Century iPhone
Science 2.0: Big Science: Ernest Lawrence Gets His Hagiography
The New Atlantis: The Unknown Newton (Introduction)
The New Atlantis: The Unknown Newton (Articles)
Astronomy Magazine: Pioneering Rosetta mission scientist Claudia Alexander dead at 56
Claudia Alexander
Source: Wikimedia Commons
Los Angeles Times: Claudia Alexander dies at 56; JPL researcher oversaw Galileo, Rosetta missions
Teyler’s Museum: Planetarium, George Adams, London
EXPLORATION and CARTOGRAPHY:
Atlas Obscura: Curiouser and Curiouser: The World’s Most Unusual and Beautiful Maps
Yovisto: Edward Whymper and the Matterhorn
Yovisto: Salomon August Andrée’s Artic Baloon Expedition of 1897
S. A. Andrée and Knut Frænkel with the crashed balloon on the pack ice, photographed by the third expedition member, Nils Strindberg
Ptak Science Books: The Unstoppable Mawson (1914)
Royal Museums Greenwich: Looking across the Atlantic in 18th-century maps
I Like: The Map That Came To Life
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
MEDICINE & HEALTH:
Forensic Anna:thropology: the sent of death
Conciatore: Francesco and Bianca
Remedia: Cinchona
17th century jar of quinine. The jar is believed to be from the pharmacy of the Milosrdnych Bratri Monastery and Hospital Brno, in the Czech Republic. L0057596 Credit: Science Museum, London, Wellcome Images
Morbid Anatomy: Fabulous Senior Thesis Project Inspired by Remmelin’s Flap Anatomy
academia.edu: Médecine et hellénisme à la Renaissance: Le problème du grec chez Baillou
Nain, Mam and Me: Allenburys milk foods: a triumph of industrialisation
The Atlantic: The Victorian Anti-Vaccination Movement
A cartoon from a December 1894 anti-vaccination publication
Courtesty of The Historical Medical Library of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia
The Guardian: CIA torture is only part of medical science’s dark modern history
Mosaic: Step-by-step: prosthetic legs through the ages (gallery)
The Sloane Letters Blog: On Hans Sloane’s Copies of De Humani Corporis Fabrica
RCS: William Clowes – A prooved practice for all young chirurgiens, 1588
CHoM News: Bernard D. Davis Papers Processing Has Begun, as part of Maximizing Microbiology Project
Collectors Weekly: Bloodletting, Bone Brushes, and Tooth Keys: White-Knuckle Adventures in Early Dentistry
TECHNOLOGY:
Invention: A twist of Fate: The Invention of the Rubik’s Cube
Today’s Document: Eli Barum & Benjamin Brooks Still Patented 13 July 1808
Thick Objects: Remaking a local object: The Kirschmann coaxial colour mixer
National Museum of American History: Galileo Pendulum Clock Model, Replica
Nautilus: The Rube Goldberg Machine That Mastered Keynesian Economics
Schematic diagram of the MONIAC machine
LSE Library collections, Meade/16/3
web.stanford.edu: The Defecating Duck, Or The Ambiguous Origins of Artificial Life
The Guardian: The world’s first hack: the telegraph and the invention of privacy
The National Museum of Computing: EDSAC Shortlisted for prestigious ICON Award
Ptak Science Books: Heavy Electricity, 1879
Conciatore: Vitrum Flexile
Teyler’s Museum: Sound Synthesizer, after Helmholtz, Rudolph Koenig Paris
Vox: 7 horrifying attempts at building a better mousetrap
Yes, this is an actual mousetrap patent from 1882.
Google patents
BBC: Flying Scotsman nearing end of decade-long overhaul
The York Press: Flying Scotsman restoration enters final stage
The New York Times: The Bicycle and the Ride to Modern America
Canadian Science and Technology Museum: Cycling: The Evolution of an Experience, 1818–1900
Science Notes: Today in Science History – 19 July – Percy Spencer and the Microwave Oven
EARTH & LIFE SCIENCES:
Nature: Deciphering the evolution of birdwing butterflies 150 years after Alfred Russel Wallace
Embryo Project: Friedrich Tiedemann (1781–1861)
Environmental History Resources: Timeline of environmental history
Recipes Project: How to brew beer with a ‘paile of cold water’
The Bigger Picture: William Stimpson and the Smithsonian’s First Aquarium
An aquarium has recently become “a necessary luxury in every well-appointed household, both of Europe and America.” Henry D. Butler, The Family Aquarium (New York, 1858). Colored frontispiece, Biodiversity Heritage Library.
Yovisto: Carl Woese and the Archaea
Embryo Project: Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov (Elie Metchnikoff) (1845–1916)
big think: Charles Darwin Would Be Ashamed of ‘Social Darwinism’
History of the Marine Biological Laboratory: The MBL Embryology Course 1939
Smithsonian Libraries: The Body Electric: Inspiring Frankenstein
OUP Blog: Alice down the microscope
Down the Microscope and what Alice found there. Biochemical Society, December 1927 by the Wellcome Library, London. CC-BY-4.0 – See more at: http://blog.oup.com/2015/07/alice-microscope/#sthash.t8XwoS6I.dpuf
The Royal Society: The Repository: A bad break in the Lakes
The New York Times: David M. Raup, Who Transformed Field of Paleontology, Dies at 82
David M. Raup in 1981. Credit William Franklin McMahon/The LIFE Images Collection, via Getty Images
Why Evolution is True: David M. Raup, 1933–2015
The Nation: Can We Cure Genetic Diseases Without Slipping Into Eugenics?
AMNH: Epitonium scalare
10 Things Wrong With Environmental Thinking: The Pastoral, literal and environmental, defined
NPR: The Salt: We Didn’t Build This City on Rock’N’Roll. It Was Yogurt
Data is Science: Thomas Sopwith’s Stratigraphic Models
CHEMISTRY:
Science Notes: Today in Science History – 13 July – August Kekulé
1979 East German stamp of Kekulé, in honour of the sesquicentennial of his birth.
Source: Wikimedia Commons
storify: Science on Tap: A History of the Chemical Elements for (Big) Kids
META – HISTORIOGRAPHY, THEORY, RESOURCES and OTHER:
Ether Wave Propaganda: If You Read Joseph Agassi, Man and Nature Become More Complex
Niche: ICHG 2015: History and Geography in a Digital Age
JHI Blog: The Archival Agenda: Thinking Through Scientific Archives at the Royal Society
Museum of HSTM Blog: Gillinson Room Project
storify: Science in Public 2015
Environmental History Resources:
Bishop Blog: Publishing replication failures: some lessons from history
THE: Can history and geography survive the digital age?
The History Vault: Reading Anatomy in Francis J. Cole’s Collection
Francis J Cole
Source: Franklin, K. J
Conciatore: Montpellier
Public Domain Review: Cat Pianos, Sound-Houses, and Other Imaginary Musical Instruments
University of Leicester: From Citizen Science to Citizen Humanities – 19th Century history in the digital age
Punk Rock Operations Research: Life was simple before World War II. After that, we had systems
A view from the bridge: Of mud pies, muscle and science education
Faith and Wisdom in Science: The Faith and Wisdom in Science Story in Three Steps
Spitalfields Life: Kirby’s Eccentric Museum, 1820
This wonderful boy, who in early age outstripped all former calculators, was born in Morton Hampstead on 14th June 1806
ESOTERIC:
tspace.library.utoronto.ca: Cultural Uses of Magic in Fifteenth-Century England (pdf)
BOOK REVIEWS:
Philadelphia City Paper: “What’s the Matter with Pluto?”
Back Re(Action): Eureka by Chad Orzel
Popular Science: The Lightness of Being – Frank Wilczek
Los Angeles Review of Books: James K. A. Smith on The Territories of Science and Religion
NEW BOOKS:
Historiens de la santé: Psychiatry in Communist Europe
Remedia: Charismatic Substances
CHF: Pure Intelligence: The Life of William Hyde Wollaston
Historiens de la santé: The Evolution of Forensic Psychiatry: History, Current Developments, Future Directions
Historiens de la santé: Plague and Empire in the Early Modern Mediterranean World. The Ottoman Experience, 1347–1600
Wiley Online Library: The International Handbooks of Museum Studies
ART & EXHIBITIONS
Irish Tech Times: Boolean expressions: Art meets maths to celebrate George Boole bicentennial at Lewis Glucksman Gallery, UCC
tatsuo-miyajima-life-palace-tea-room-designboom-04
George Boole 200: The Life and Legacy of George Boole
The Irish Times: George Boole exhibition opens in UCC to mark bicentennial
Royal College of Physicians: Re-framing disability: portraits from the Royal College of Physicians
Natural History Museum: Images of Nature
The Queen’s Gallery, Palace of Holyroodhouse: Gold Last Chance closes 26 July 2015
The Royal Society: Seeing Closer: 350 years of microscopy 29 June–23 November 2015
THEATRE AND OPERA:
What’s on Stage: Jonathan Holloway’s Jekyll & Hyde Starts 28 July 2015
Winterbourne Opera: Gounod’s Faust 28 July–1 August 2015
Worthing Theatres: Dr Bunhead’s Secret Science Lab 24-25 July 2015
National Theatre: The Curious Incidence of the Dog in the Night-Time 21-29 July 2015
FILMS AND EVENTS:
Wellcome Collection: Minds and Bodies 23 July 2015
Royal Observatory Edinburgh: Astronomy Evenings Every Friday
Discover Medical London: Walking Tour: Sex and the City
PAINTINGS OF THE WEEK:
Gregor Johann Mendel (20 July 1822 – 6 January 1884)
From the Album Benary
TELEVISION:
HSS: PBS Series to Portray the History of Chemistry
SLIDE SHOW:
BHL: Sloths!
VIDEOS:
Youtube: The History and Philosophy of Science in 6 Easy Steps – Intro
Fusion: Why would a scientist inject gonorrhoea pus into his own penis?
Youtube: Unnatural histories Amazon
Youtube: The Phoenix Index
The Telegraph: Apollo 11:12 key steps to the moon in video
RADIO:
BBC Radio 4: Natural Histories
PODCASTS:
Filament Communication: Episode 3: Matthew Cobb on writing science history
Folger Shakespeare Library: The Shakespearean Moons of Uranus
British Academy: Who reads Geography or History anymore? The challenge of audience in a digital age
Big Picture Science: It’s All Relative
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Framing the Face: CfP: One-day workshop Friend’s Meeting House Euston Road London 28 November 2015
Royal Society: 4th Notes and Records Essay Award
Imperial & Global Forum: CfP: Colonialism, War & Photography
University of York: Medical History William Bynum Essay Prize
HSS: Preliminary Program 2015 History of Science Society Meeting San Francisco 19–22 November
University of Toronto: HPS100 Trailer – Why History & Philosophy of Science?
Wikimedia: Wikipedia Science Conference: The Henry Wellcome Auditorium London 2-3 September 2015
University of Wuppertal: CfP: Workshop: Early modern Jesuit science in a digital perspective – The Jesuit Science Network 26–27 November 2015
V&A Museum: On the Matter of Books and Records: Workshop: 23 November 2015 – Programme
University of Oxford: CfP: 6th SHAC Postgraduate Workshop: Alchemy and Chemistry in Sickness and in Health 30 October 2015
H-Sci-Med-Tech: Call for Reviewers
Advances in the History of Psychology: CfP: Special Issue of HoP on History of Psychotherapy in North and South America
LOOKING FOR WORK:
Manchester University: CHSTM: Taught master’s in history of science, technology and medicine Applications close 31 July 2015
Notches: Assistant Editor Positions at Notches
Eccles Centre for American Studies: Eccles Centre Writers in Residence – 2016 Awards Applications Open
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine: Research Assistant #histMed
Jacobs Foundation: Jacobs Science Writers Fellowship
Atomic Heritage Foundation: Program Manager
Whewell's Ghost 