Author Archives: Will Thomas

In the latest Nature, Paul Ginsparg reflects on the history of, and intentions behind arXiv, the internet-based preprint distribution system used mainly by physicists.  The arXiv resource is, of course, a topic of much interest to anyone interested in the … Continue reading →

Joseph Banks (1743-1820) became a giant in the growing world of British natural history following his voyage with James Cook aboard the HMS Endeavour from 1768 to 1771, though he himself published almost nothing.  He was the informal director of … Continue reading →

The BBC is now doing a tremendous service in making portions of its programming archive available online.  Today I learned that this includes the Reith Lecture archive, which contains all the transcripts and a growing collection of audio (audio may … Continue reading →

I’ve been noticing lately that historians of philosophy have been articulating some friction with the mainstream philosophy community.  The issues seem to be the straightforward problems of building a history when present disciplinary concerns are overbearing.  In the New York … Continue reading →

I’ve just learned that historian of science Roger Hahn of the University of California at Berkeley has died.  Prof. Hahn was responsible for the fine work, The Anatomy of a Scientific Institution: The Paris Academy of Sciences, 1666-1803 (1971), as … Continue reading →

The Royal Institution is now best known as the scientific home of Michael Faraday, Humphry Davy, and (for a short while) Thomas Young.  As such it was one of the cornerstones of nineteenth-century British chemical and physical research.  However, it … Continue reading →

Thomas Hobbes thought that human emotions could be explained in terms of their reflection of self-interest.  David Hume, writing much later, thought that it was absurd to portray genuinely benevolent sentiments as the result of some “abstruse” mental calculation.  Far … Continue reading →