Category Archives: Science

A.R. Wallace on Geology, Great Glaciers and the Speed of Evolution

Posted on November 8, 2013 by

When Charles Darwin published “The Origin of Species” in November 1859 geologists were still discussing the age of the earth. Deep time was an essential prerequisite to explain the recent biodiversity by gradual and slow changes in the remote past.  … Continue reading →

Posted in Biology, Biology, Exploration, Geology, Science | Leave a comment

Granite Wars – Episode I: Fire & Water

Posted on September 28, 2013 by

In 1820 the Italian engineer Count Giuseppe Marzari-Pencati (1779-1836) published a short article about the stratigraphic succession found near the small village of Predazzo. At the “Canzoccoli” -outcrop Pencati observed a grayish granitic rock overlying white marbles. What today is … Continue reading →

Posted in Exploration, Geology, Science | 1 Comment

How Forensic Seismology investigates into Ship-Disasters, Terrorist-Attacks and secret Nuclear Tests

Posted on January 13, 2013 by

The collision of the cruise ship “Costa Concordia” on January 13, 2012 was recorded by the seismograph station “Monte Argentario“, situated on the Italian mainland. From the eyewitness testimony and the Automatic System of the ship the time of collision … Continue reading →

Posted in Geology, Science | Leave a comment

The Earth-like Mars

Posted on August 14, 2012 by

Mars – a distant, extraterrestrial world, but it shares some surprising similarities with Earth. The rotation period is almost the same with 24 hours, 39 minutes and 21,67 seconds (as measured by astronomer William Herschel in 1777-1783), the planet possess … Continue reading →

Posted in astronomy, Biology, Geology, Science | Leave a comment

Cutting a dash: men of science as ‘historical hotties’

Posted on May 17, 2012 by

I had a bit of fun this week tweeting links to portraits of some 19th-century men of science, suggesting that they were ’19thC scientific hotties’. Such a phrase is not, I should add, my usual vocabulary, and nor is a … Continue reading →

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Inside a Herbarium (finding history amongst the science)

Posted on April 6, 2012 by

This week I had the pleasure of seeing inside the Herbarium at the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh. I have, very often and from earliest childhood, enjoyed walking in the gardens and hothouses, but this was the first time I … Continue reading →

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Geologizing Women into the Field!

Posted on March 8, 2012 by

Geology usually requires outdoor activities in remote, inhospitable, hazardous or dirty environments. At the beginning of the 19th century it was hard to imagine that a gentleman would engage voluntarily in such an activity and it’s seemed even less comprehensible … Continue reading →

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Being wrong is not a crime; knowing what’s right and deliberately saying the wrong thing is!

Posted on March 2, 2012 by

Inspired or, perhaps better said, provoked by my last post mathematician and artist Edmund Harriss has written a thoughtful post on the virtues of being wrong at his blog Maxwell’s Demon. This reaction to my post has prompted me to try to explain … Continue reading →

Posted in Historiography, History, Philosophy, Science | Leave a comment

Frauds, Fakes and Fossils

Posted on February 7, 2012 by

Almost every student of earth sciences knows the hoax perpetuated on poor Dr. Johann Bartholomäus Adam Beringer (1667-1738), often told in textbooks as warning of blind faith and argument from authority in science. However careful study of the still existing “lying … Continue reading →

Posted in Biology, Biology, Geology, History, Philosophy, Religion, Science | Leave a comment

The place of science in history and history in science

Posted on January 30, 2012 by

As an historian of science working between two museum sites and with people researching or communicating both history and science, I often feel I’m a stuck-record, piggy-in-the-middle, harping on to the historians to pay attention to the science and the … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Science, Teaching HPS | Tagged , | Leave a comment