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 #25
Monday 04 January 2016
EDITORIAL:
Assuming you survived the artillery barrage and the alcohol excesses of the New year’s celebrations you now have before you the first 2016 edition of Whewell’s Gazette the weekly #histSTM links list, which continues to bring you are that we could find of the histories of science, technology and medicine over the last seven days throughout cyberspace.
Strictly the New Year’s celebration welcoming the beginning of the year 2016 CE only apply to those whose lives are regulated by the arbitrary prescriptions of the Gregorian calendar, which like all calendars is merely a social convention.
Those who live according to the Jewish calendar are still in the middle of the year AM 5776 which will end at sunset on 2 October 2016 according to the Gregorian calendar. The year will also end around 2 October for those living according to the Islamic calendar but in their case it will be the end of the year 1437 AH. Persians and Afghanis who live according to the Solar Hijri calendar will celebrate the end of their year 1394 on 19 march 2016. The tradition Chinese New Year celebrating the beginning of year 33 in their 60-year cycle will be on 8 February 2016 according to the Gregorian calendar.
For those who prefer to mark the passing of time according to the four principal points of the solar year, vernal or spring equinox falls on 20 March 2016 and the autumnal equinox on 22 September. The summer solstice is on 20 June and the winter solstice is on 21 December.
Whichever calendar you follow and whenever your year begins and ends we hope you will continue to follow Whewell’s Gazette the whole year round.
Quotes of the week:
“The problem with the future is that is keeps turning into the present.” – Bill Watterson “Calvin & Hobbes”
Math with Bad Drawings: A Mathematician’s New Year’s Resolutions
“I just read this on @TheAtlantic “There is just no acceptable level of any chemical to ingest, ever” and then my brain fell out of my ear”. – @Schrokit
“If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten.”― Rudyard Kipling h/t @ESA_History
Jonathan Swift
“Consider in last 10 seconds of 2015 – If earth´s age would be 1 year, written history of humankind would start at 23:59:46” – David Bressan (@David_Bressan)
“Smoking is a leading cause of statistics.” – Fletcher Knebel h/t @intmath
“Statistics means never having to say you’re certain”. – Murray Bourne (@intmath)
“I have not time nor Paper to describe this horrid spot of Hills, the like of which I never yet saw” – Halley unimpressed by Snowdonia. h/t @KateMorant
“Often history will work when nothing else will.” – J.H. Robinson (1863-1936) h/t @tabosaur
“…the pursuit of evidence is probably the most pressing moral imperative of our time.” – Alice Dreger (@AliceDreger)
“Anyone who finds “Lord of the Flies” incredible has not spent enough time in a British Isles’ secondary school”. – Liam Heneghan (@DublinSoil)
“Man produces evil as a bee produces honey…” William Golding (1965) h/t @DublinSoil
“What distinguishes humans from the rest of the animal kingdom is our capacity for hypocrisy”. – Peter Coles (@telescoper)
“I would like 2016 to be the year when people remembered that science is a method of investigation and NOT a belief system”. – John Cleese (@JohnCleese)
Birthday of the Week:
Ceres the asteroid discovered 1 January 1801
A view of Ceres in natural colour, pictured by the Dawn spacecraft in May 2015.
Motherboard: The 19th Century Space Controversy That Sparked a Planet Truther Movement
astropa.unipa.it: Bode’s Law and the Discovery of Ceres
The first element transmutation 3 January 1919 by Ernest Rutherford
AHF: Ernest Rutherford
Isaac Asimov celebrated his birth on 2 January 1920
PHYSICS, ASTRONOMY & SPACE SCIENCE:
Royal Museums Greenwich: Conserving Galileo
AIP: Maarten Schmidt
MSFC history Office: “The Disney-Von Braun Collaboration and Its Influence on Space Exploration”
erittenhouse: The Art of Making Leyden Jars and Batteries According to Benjamin Franklin
AHF: Klaus Fuchs
Darin Hayton: Maria Wants Her Sextant Back
The first building completed at Vassar College was the observatory, long called the Maria Mitchell Observatory.
Cooper Hewitt: The Great Moon Hoax of 1835
Atlas Obscura: In 1844, the Philippines Skipped a Day, and it Took Decades for the Rest of the World to Notice
Perimeter Institute: Pioneering Women of Physics
The Renaissance Mathematicus: Just another day
APS: Historic Sites Initiative
BBC Future: How the most expensive structure in the world was built
The ISS may lack the drama of missions like Apollo 13, but that’s how mission control would prefer it (Credit: Nasa)
New Historian: Demon Star Influenced Egyptian Calendars
Huff Post: The Blog: Peake and the Women that Science Forgot
AHF: John von Neumann
AHF: Jumbo
Atlas Obscura: Jantar Mantar
EXPLORATION and CARTOGRAPHY:
Cornell University Library: Division of Rare & Manuscript Collections: Persuasive Cartography
Barron Maps Blog: The persuasive power of maps – the Danzig Crisis & Nazi Propaganda map postcards, 1933–1939
Big Think: Is This Map Australia’s Clumsy Attempt at Fabricating a Japanese Invasion During WWII?
MEDICINE & HEALTH:
Thomas Morris: Sober up the nineteenth-century way
National Journal: That is the Brain that Shot President James Garfield: But why? A 135-year-old mystery
Chemical Heritage Magazine: Mummies and the Usefulness of Death
Atlas Obscura: The Toothbrush that Grows on Trees
Embryo Project: Test-Tube Baby
ODNB: Scarburgh, Sir Charles
The Victorianist: The ‘lady Doctor’ and the ‘helpless Native’: Constructing the Female Doctor/Patient Relationship in Nineteenth-Century India
Florence Dissent (From Indian Medical Record). Source: Library, Royal College of Surgeons of England
Ptak Science Books: The Leech Explorers of 1833
Thomas Morris: The child that cried in the womb
Advances in the History of Psychology: Special Issue on Cinema and Neuroscience
Greg Jenner: How did women deal with their periods? The history of Menstruation
Advances in the History of Psychology: The Pasteur Institute and the Study of the Animal Mind
Vesalius Census: New Blog
Vesalius Census: Bibliography as Search Engine
Thomas Morris: Death from too much pie
Wellcome Library: The ‘disease woman’ of the Wellcome Apocalypse
Source: Wellcome Library
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases: The 1899 United States Kissing Bug Epidemic
Thomas Morris: Impaled on a stake
British Library: Vesalius’s Anatomy
The Guardian: Opium-soaked tampons, voodoo elixirs and leeches: welcome to New Orleans’ Pharmacy Museum
CHF: Tryals and Tribulations: In 17th-century England, doctors battled illness and each other
TECHNOLOGY:
Ptak Science Books: Illustrating the Effect of Destructive Capacity: August, 1914
erittenhouse: The David H.H. Felix Collection and the Beginnings of the Smithsonian’s Museum of History of Technology
Corning Museum of Glass: Souvenirs and Mold-Blown Glass for the Marketplace
Techné: Reading Feynman Into Nanotechnology: A Text for a New Science (pdf)
Conciatore: Ultramarine Blue
Conciatore: Containing Hooke’s Tears
Glass drops or tears coated in glue,
after detonation, (cross section is left)
from Robert Hooke’s
Micrographia 1664, between p. 10, 11.
Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum: Rocket Engine, Liquid Fuel, R. Goddard
The Vault of the Atomic Space Age: The GE Performance Television
Newsworks: First flight or historic hop?
Mental Floss: The Theatrophone: The 19th-Century Version of Livestreaming
Ptak Science Books: Troncet’s Arithmograpphe, the “Instant Calculator” (1892)
Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum: Demonstrations in Europe
A refinement of the 1905 Flyer, the Wright Model A was flown on demonstration flights in Europe in 1908 and 1909.
Source: Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
Smithsonian.com: From Edison’s Light Bulb to the Ball in Time Square
The Telegraph: Robert Boyle’s prophetic scientific predictions from the 17th century go on display at the Royal Society
Canadian Science and Technology Museums: Collection Online: Cycle, stationary
EARTH & LIFE SCIENCES:
American Scientist: Rereading Darwin
Medium: We’ve been talking about climate change for a long time
The Royal Society: Notes and Records: A Yankee at Oxford: John William Draper at the British Association for the Advancement of Science at Oxford, 30 June 1860
Portrait of John Draper engraved by John Sartain
Source: Wikimedia Commons
Geschichte der Geologie: Vom Bergbau, Waldrodung und Umweltzerstörung
es.ucsc.edu: The Age of the Earth Debate (pdf)
The Public Domain Review: Sex and Science in Robert Thornton’s Temple of Flora
Georgian Gentleman: Saartjie Baartman – a reminder of a tragic life – and death – two hundred years ago
The Three Graces – A midget, the Hottentot Venus and an albino woman, shown courtesy of the British Museum
Science League of America: Absurdly Inadequate
Ptak Science Books: Antiquarian Comparative Analysis: Lakes, Islands, Mountains
Once Upon a Time…: A Dino-Lover’s Dream – 1853’s New Year’s Eve Dinner in Crystal Palace Park
Forbes: How to Celebrate the New Year Like a Victorian Paleontologist
Dinner in the Iguanodon Model, at the Crystal Palace, Sydenham, London Illustrated News, 7 January 1854 (image in public domain).
Blink: Death of the floating world
Process: Has Environmental History Lost Its Way?
TrowellBlazers: TrowelBlazers 2015 Review
Geschichte der Geologie: Gottes Werk und Teufels Beitrag: Der Vulkan als Gott und Höllentor
CHEMISTRY:
Chemical Heritage Magazine: Cabinets for the Curious
Len Fisher: How Robert Boyle and I Became Chemists
Beautiful Chemistry.net: Beautiful Chemistry Instrument
Boyle’s Vacuum Pump (1660)
Reproduced based on Robert Boyle’s book, New Experiments Physico-Mechanical, Touching the Spring of the Air, and Its Effects (1660).
CHF: Robert Boyle
META – HISTORIOGRAPHY, THEORY, RESOURCES and OTHER:
Environmental History: Volume 21 Issue 1 January 2016 Table of Contents
eRittenhouse: Vol. 26 2015 Issue 74 Table of Contents
Brooklyn Magazine: From Bumper Cars to Torah Taxidermy: A Guide to 25 of Brooklyn’s Most Unusual Museums
The Morbid Anatomy Museum
American Panorama: An Atlas of United States History
Lady Science: Lady Science Reading List
Literacy of the Present: Living in the past: advice to a time traveller
Scientific American: Gone in 2015: Commemorating 10 Outstanding Women in Science
Aída Fernández Ríos
GALICIAN ROYAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
Ether Wave Propaganda: The Empiricist Potential: EWP at 8
MHS Oxford: New on Instagram
New York Times: How to Cultivate the Art of Serendipity
ESOTERIC:
h/t Anna Resner (@AnnaNResner)
Conciatore: The Kabbalah
Mysterious Universe: Was John Dee’s Fascination With the Occult Driven by Espionage?
BOOK REVIEWS:
Science League of America: The Rocky Road to Acceptance, Part 1
Science League of America: The Rocky Road to Acceptance, Part 2
Science League of America: The Rocky Road to Acceptance, Part 3
Science League of America: The Rocky Road to Acceptance, Part 4
PLOS: Genetics: Women Don’t Give a Crap
Gizmodo: The Discovery of the Solar System Included Some Dead Ends In The Hunt for Vulcan
Granta: Best Book of 2003: The Curious Life of Robert Hooke
NEW BOOKS:
Routledge: Women and Gender in the Early Modern World
Penguin Random House: Magic in Islam
Springer: A History of Women Philosophers A.D. 500–1600
torriherridge.com: The World’s Smallest Mammoth
Palgrave: Conjuring Science: A History of Scientific Entertainment and Stage Magic in Modern France
ART & EXHIBITIONS
Inside MHS Oxford: What happens to loan objects?
New-York Historical Society: Silicon City: Computer History Made in New York 13 November 2015–17 April 2016
Two women wiring the right side of the ENIAC with a new program, ca. 1946. Courtesy US Army. Standing: Marlyn Wescoff, Crouching: Ruth Lichterman.
Royal College of Physicians: Scholar, courtier, magician: the lost library of John Dee 18 January–29 July 2016
Royal Geographical Society: Enduring Eye: The Antarctic Legacy of Sir Ernest Shackleton and Frank Hurley 21 November 2015–28 February 2016
The Huntarian: The Kangaroo and the Moose Runs until 21 February 2016
Science Museum: Cosmonauts: Birth of the Space Age
Closing Soon: Museum of the History of Science: Henry Moseley: A Scientist Lost to War Runs until 31 January 2016
Museum of Science and Industry: Meet Baby Meet Baby Every Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, & Saturday
Last Chance: Southbank Centre: Faraday’s synaptic gap Runs till 10 January 2016
Science Museum: Leonardo da Vinci: The Mechanics of Genius 10 February 2016–4 September 2016
The Mary Rose: ‘Ringing the Changes’: Mary Rose Museum to re-open in 2016 with unrestricted views of the ship
The Hull of the Mary Rose in her drying out period
Royal Museums Greenwich: Samuel Pepys Season 20 November 2015–28 March 2016
Royal College of Surgeons: Designing Bodies 24 November 2015–20 February 2016
Natural History Museum, London: Bauer Brothers art exhibition Runs till 26 February 2017
Science Museum: Ada Lovelace Runs till 31 March 2016
British Library: 20th Century Maps 4 November 2016–1 March 2017
Royal Pavilion, Brighton: Exotic Creatures 14 November 2015–28 February 2016
National Maritime Museum: Samuel Pepys: Plague, Fire, Revolution Runs till 28 March 2016
Bethlem Museum of the Mind: The art of Bedlam: Richard Dadd Runs till 6 February 2016
National Library of Scotland: Plague! A cultural history of contagious diseases in Scotland Runs till 29 May 2016
Royal Geographical Society: The Enduring Eye: The Antarctic Legacy of Sir Ernest Shackleton and Frank Hurley 21 November 2015 – 28 February 2016
THEATRE, OPERA AND FILMS:
Gielgud Theatre: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Booking to 18 June 2016
Royal Astronomical Society: “The Way to the Stars” – a dramatized celebration of the history of women astronomers leading up their admission as Fellows of the RAS in 1916 8 January 2016
EVENTS:
Gresham College: Lecture: Babbage and Lovelace 19 January 2016
CRASSH: Cambridge: Symposium: Death and the Afterlife 22 January 2016
CRASSH: Cambridge: Workshop: Orientalism and its Institutions in the Nineteenth Century 18 February 2016
EconoTimes: Historymiami Museum to Host Largest Map Fair in the Western Hemisphere for 23rd Year 5–7 February 2016
Dittrick Museum: Book Signing, Death’s Summer Coat 20 January 2016
11th Cambridge Wellcome Lecture in the History of Medicine: Michael Stolberg: Curing Diseases and Exchanging Knowledge: Sixteenth-Century Physicians and Their Female Patients 14 January 2016
Schwetzingen: Astronomie-Tagung: Von Venus-Transit zum Schwarzen Loch 19 März 2016
Chelsea Physic Garden: Round Table Discussion: Dark brilliance: Agatha Christie, poisonous plants and murder mysteries 2 February 2016
Royal Astronomical Society: RAS Public Lecture: 100th Anniversary of the election of Women to the RAS Fellowship 12 January 2016
Science Museum: Symposium: Revealing the Cosmonaut 5 February 2016
British Library: Medieval manuscripts blog: Postgraduate Open Day on our Pre-1600 Collections 1 February 2016
CHF: Science on Tap: Gas on Tap: Loony Gas and the History and Science of Gasoline 11 January 2016
PAINTING OF THE WEEK:
Michael Faraday at work in his laboratory in the basement of the Royal Institution in London. Painting by Harriet Moore
Source: Wikimedia Commons
TELEVISION:
Royal Institution: Christmas Lecture 2015
SLIDE SHOW:
VIDEOS:
Youtube: Electric Love
Vimeo: The Mystery of Matter: Other Discoverers of the Periodic Table
Science Friday: Diary of Snakebite Death
RADIO:
BBC World Service: Royal Institute Lectures 2015
BBC Radio 4: Science Stories: Submarine for a Stuart King
PODCASTS:
University of Oxford: Enchantress of Numbers or a mere debugger?: a brief history of cultural and academic understanding of Ada Lovelace
New Books in East Asia Studies: Rice: Global Networks and New Histories
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum: VDI Ausschuss Technikgeschichte: Objektgeschichte(n) Jahrestagung Bochum, 11.‐12. Februar 2016
Stevens Institute of Technology: The Maintainers: A Conference, April 8, 2016
Calgary, Alberta: 2nd Call for Abstracts: CSHPS Annual Conference Calgary 28-30 May 2016
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens: CfP: Music and the animal world in Hellenic and Roman antiquity 15 March 2016
LOOKING FOR WORK:
ChoM News: 2016-2017 Women in Medicine Fellowship: Application Period Open
Trinity College Dublin: Ussher Assistant Professor in Environmental History Since 1800
Amsterdam School for Heritage and Memory Studies: PhD Candidate
MHS Oxford: Team Leader, Move Project – MHS Project Assistant (2 posts) – Move Project
The Centre for the History of the Emotions at Queen Mary University of London: Three funded PhD studentships on ‘Living With Feeling’ project
University of Groningen: New MA Programme in Theory/history of Psychology
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