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
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Year 2, Volume #21
Monday 07 December 2015
EDITORIAL:
The season of Advent has started and Whewell’s Gazette the weekly #histSTM links list rolls relentlessly towards Christmas carrying with it, as always, a sledge full of the best history of science, technology and medicine that our ever assiduous elves could package up from the far flung corners of the Internet.
Our mailbox received a mysterious missive from one David Haden, which we reproduce below for all of our readers:
Dear Ghost,
Be it advised that a fellow ghost has spirited together all the spectral
shades who name themselves ‘open access journals’. Further, that this
fellow ghost has laboured for many years to seal each and every one of these
into a most marvellous spirit-bottle. Said bottle may be obtained at
http://www.jurn.org/ The manner of uncorking is of the simplest, yet an
adept seeker may then command a performance of the most marvellous gyrations
and revelations. Be pleased to note that no spirits are caused to be
summoned if they be weighed down in chains, or if they moan for payment, or
are of a false and predatory cast.
Yours,
David Haden.
If you follow the link you will be rewarded with a cornucopia of links to gladden the heart of every science fan.
Having no Advent calendar of our own we have stolen borrowed two excellent ones for your delectation. The first is from the Museum of the History of Science in Oxford and the second is from the Reading University Herbarium So get those chestnuts roasting, sit down under a sprig of holly and read your way through the first Advent edition of your favourite #histSTM gazette.
MHS Oxford Advent Calendar
Day 1: Celestial Table Globe by Johannes Schöner, Nürnberg 1531
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Day 2: Cuff-Type Compound Microscope by Dollond, London c. 1761
Day 3: Pocket Horizontal Sundial, by Augustine Ryther, London, 1585
Day 4: Collection of Sterol Chemicals Belonging to Dorothy Hodgkin, c.1934
Day 5: Painting (Oil on Canvas, Framed) of Rudolph II and Tycho Brahe in Prague, by Edouard Ender, 1855
Day 6: Dr James’s Fever Powder Medicine, by R. James, Oxford c. 1770
Culham Research Group: Advent Botany
Day 1: Balsam Fir – a popular Christmas tree in Canada
Day 2: Yule Log – a carbon neutral heat source?
Day 3: Galanthophilia
Clik here to view.
Galanthus reginae-olgae flowers in the autumn
Day 4: Lore of Hazelnuts, Corylus avellana
Day 5: Walnuts
Day 6: White Cedar
Quotes of the week:
Math with Bad Drawings: Report Cards for Famous Mathematicians
Clik here to view.
Go read them all!
“Given ships or sails adapted to the breezes of heaven, there will be those who will not shrink from even that vast expanse.” – Johannes Kepler in a Letter to Galileo 1610 h/t @TychoGirl
“Apparently, if you take STEM & add the Art, Humanities, and Social Sciences, Performance…you get a STEAMSHIP”. – Patrick McCray (@LeapingRobot)
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
“I don’t want to go to heaven. None of my friends are there.” – Oscar Wilde
“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.”― Mark Twain
A lunatic in Bedlam was asked how he came there. He answered, “The world said I was mad; I said the world was mad; and they outvoted me.” – @18thCenturyJoke
“I actually think that the difference between hallmark cards and “serious” euro-american philosophy is solely stylistic”. – @replicakill
Clik here to view.
Shit Academics Say
“Statistically, bouncy castles are more dangerous than sharks”. – Kylo Hill (@Sci_Phile)
“Mein Kampf is set to be re-published, although is still expected to be marginally less right wing than most Facebook posts about refugees”. – James Martin (@Pundamentalism)
“You’re Never Going To Kill Storytelling, It’s Built Into The Human Plan.” – Margaret Atwood h/t @JonathanGunson
“Whenever things sound easy, it turns out there’s one part you didn’t hear.” — Donald Westlake h/t @divbyzero
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Birthday of the Week:
John Ray was born on 29 November 1627
Clik here to view.
John Ray, by unknown artist. National Portrait Gallery
Source: Wikimedia Commons
Yovisto: John Ray and the Classification of Plants
The Renaissance Mathematicus: A boy from Essex who made good
PHYSICS, ASTRONOMY & SPACE SCIENCE:
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Yovisto: Christian Doppler and the Doppler Effect
AHF: Isotope Separation Methods
Universe Today: Who is Stephen Hawking?
Slate: 60 Years Ago Today: The Day a Meteorite Hit Ann Hodges
Clik here to view.
True: An impact crater is also called an “astrobleme.” Getting a bruise from a meteorite would then be an astroblemish.
Yovisto: Ernst Chladni – The Father of Acoustics
Atlas Obscura: A Short History of Martians
Discover: Probing Einstein’s Brain for Clues to His Genius
Yovisto: The Fist Self-Sustained Nuclear Reactor
The Somnium Project: New Pages: On Summoning Daemons & Dangers of Daemonic Space Travel
Taylor & Francis Online: Physics: Advances in optics in the medieval Islamic world (oa)
ESA: SOHO Celebrates 20 Years of Discoveries
University of Cambridge Digital Library: Philosophiæ naturalis principia mathematica
The Sydney Morning Herald: Molongo Observatory Synthesis Telescope celebrates 50 years with a relaunch
Voices of the Manhattan Project: Ruth Kerr Jakoby’s Interview
Muslim Heritage: The Astronomical Clock of Taqi Al-Din: Virtual Reconstruction
Skulls in the Stars: Marguerite O’Loghlin Crowe steps from the shadows
Clik here to view.
Marguerite O’Loghlin Crowe, from her later years in Florida. Via the George A. Smathers Libraries Digital Collections.
Graphic Arts: The Comet of 1789
Silicon Ireland: Did you know that an Irish scientist discovered why the sky is blue
Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum: Engineering Model, Lander, Mars, Pathfinder
Restricted Data: The Nuclear Secrecy Blog: Why spy?
Smithsonian.com: How Twitching Frog Legs Help Inspire ‘Frankenstein’
The Conversation: Meet the real Frankenstein: pioneering scientist who may have inspired Mary Shelly
AHF: Werner Heisenberg
AIP: George Uhlenbeck
Public Domain Review: Transit of Venus 1882
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
EXPLORATION and CARTOGRAPHY:
Intelligent Life: Time Travel
Huffpost: Arts & Culture: They Don’t Make Maps Like this Anymore
British Library: Maps and views blog: The British Library Publishes War Office Archive Maps Online
M Library: Online Exhibits: Rediscovering the Jansson and Hondius Atlases of Henry Vignaud
Atlas Obscura: The Psychedelic Moon Maps of the 1970s
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Progressive Geographies: Digital Map of the Roman Empire
Boston Globe: At BLP, sharp eye steers missing map home
Atlas Obscura: Found: A 17th Century Map Stolen from a Library by a Notorious Art Thief
Maui Time: Story of Hawaii Museum in Kahului adds new Japanese strategic maps from World War II
Clik here to view.
Fanny at 21,000 feetcourtesy Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540
Science: 150-year-old map reveals that beaver dams can last centuries
MEDICINE & HEALTH:
Thomas Morris: Is that it?
Freud Quotes: A Clinical Lesson at the Salpêtrière
Clik here to view.
André Brouillet’s 1887 A Clinical Lesson at the Salpêtrière depicting a Charcot demonstration. Freud had a lithograph of this painting placed over the couch in his consulting rooms.
Motherboard: Switzerland Briefly Legalized LSD Therapy and Then Couldn’t Let It Go
Public Domain Review: Re-examining ‘the Elephant Man’
Yovisto: The Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Aids
Dr Jennifer Evans: Fabulous Facial Hair History
Recipes Project: Recipes to Entertain in an Exeter Cathedral Library Manuscript
Atlas Obscura: Objects of Intrigue: London’s Life-Saving Publicly Accessible Enema Kits
Dr Alun Withey: Healthy Beards? A ‘Decembeard’ Special
Yovisto: Christine Ladd-Franklin and the Theory of Colour Vision
Clik here to view.
Christine Ladd-Franklin
Source: Wikimedia Commons
The Glasgow Story: RCPSG: Illustrations in the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow
History Today: The history of deafness is as old as humanity
Concocting History: Of mice and frogs
Yovisto: Christiaan Barnard and the First Heart Transplant
The Recipes Project: Wormy Beer and Wet Nursing in the Roman Empire
The H-Word: 54 years of the Pill (on the NHS), and how Birmingham women got it first
Atlas Obscura: The First Planned Parenthood Only Lasted for 10 Days but Started a Revolution
Conciatore: Royal Apothecary
Clik here to view.
Fresco, early 16th century speziale,Castello di Issogne, lower Aosta Valley, Italy.
Reuters: Modern science detects disease in 400-year-old embalmed hearts
Thomas Morris: The case of the missing pen
Res Obscura: Why Did Seventeenth-Century Europeans Eat Mummies?
Thomas Morris: On leeches, and how to catch them
TECHNOLOGY:
Engineering and Technology History Wiki: John Fleming
Hackaday: The Antikythera Mechanism
Georgian Gentleman: The March of Intellect – another William Heath caricature…
Journal of Art in Society: Prussian Blue and Its Partner in Crime
Google.com: 1938–1945 The Women of Bletchley Park
West’s Meditations: Artillery in Melaka, 1511 CE
Hyperallergic: The 19th-Century Tomb That Inspired London’s Iconic Telephone Box
Clik here to view.
London telephone box and Eliza Soane’s tomb (all photos by the author for Hyperallergic unless otherwise noted)
Collecting and Connecting: “Get Thee to a Nunnery”: Finding the History of Metallurgy in a Monastery
Conciatore: Yellow Glass
Yovisto: Merry Christmas or How the SMS was born
The Huntarian: Robert Stirling’s Model Air Engine
NMOC: Winter 1975/6 from the pages of Computer Weekly
Library of Congress: Flights of Fantasy and Fact: Man-made Wings in Literature and History
Clik here to view.
Lithograph of man who flies with wings attached to his tunic. From the Library of Congress Tissandier Collection.
Google Patents: Space Vehicle
The New York Times: After 60 Years, B-52s Still Dominate U.S. Fleet
The New York Times: The Bullet That Changed History
EARTH & LIFE SCIENCES:
Yovisto: Pierre André Latrille – The Father of modern Entomology
UCL: Underwhelming Fossil Fish of the Month
Road to Paris: A very short history of climate change research
Paige Fossil History: Meet Mrs. Ples: 4 Facts about The Australopithecine Skull
Embryo Project: St. George Jackson Mivart (1827–1900)
The Friends of Charles Darwin: The great Darwin fossil hunt
AEON: Through a glass, sadly
Clik here to view.
A large travelling circus aquarium filled with sharks, alligators, seals, octopus, narwhal whale and a spouting sperm whale; lithograph, 1873. Photo by GraphicaArtis/Getty
Science Gossip: Decoration, Ornamentation, Illustration or why we classify on Science Gossip
The Sloane Letters Blog: Grading Sir Hans Sloane’s Research Paper
The Linnean Society: 1st December 2015: Alfred Russel Wallace Bronze arrives at the Linnean Society
Avacta Life Sciences: A History of Affinity Molecules – Infographic Poster
The Guardian: Fossils: Extinct thinking: was the hapless dodo really destined to die out?
PRI: What we can learn from the ancient Egyptian practice of beekeeping
Vintage Everyday: The Discovery of Tutankhamun in the 1920s in Color
Clik here to view.
29th November 1923, Tutankhamun’s Tomb | Howard Carter (on the left) working with his friend and colleague Arthur Callender on wrapping one of two sentinel statues of Tutankhamun (Carter no. 22) found in the Antechamber, before their removal to the ‘laboratory’ set up in the tomb of Sethos II (KV 15). These statues had been placed either side of the sealed entrance to the Burial Chamber.
Making Science Public: Climate science and climate fiction: Alarmist, really?
Independent: Historic hunting ponds uncovered in Kent marshes
CHEMISTRY:
Victorian Web: The Chemistry of the Candle Percival Leigh and Charles Dickens
Yovisto: Ellen Swallow Richards and Home Economics
Clik here to view.
Piedmont College home economics lab circa 1909
META – HISTORIOGRAPHY, THEORY, RESOURCES and OTHER:
American Science: HSS 2015: A Roundtable Review
Anne Krook: Writing our history is part of our jobs
The Guardian: Science: Not just for scientists
The Guardian: Why the history of maths is also the history of art
Clik here to view.
Reza Sarhangi (Iranian-born American, b. 1952) and Robert Fathauer (American, b. 1960), Būzjānī’s Heptagon, 2007. Digital print, 13 × 13 in. (33 × 33 cm). Courtesy of the artists.
Science League of America: Say What? The Theory of the Terrible MinutePhysics Video
The Royal Society: The Repository: Hooke’s books and ‘the man who got everything wrong’
CHoM News: In Memory of Kathryn Hammond Baker
Clik here to view.
Source: CHoM News
Sandwalk: Facts and theories of evolution according to Dawkins and Coyne
Blink: The Platonic Verses
Clik here to view.
Zoomorphic calligraphy Here script transforms into an elephant Courtesy Bibliodyssey
The Forgotten Sciences: First Issue of “History of Humanities” is in Production
Smithsonian Libraries: Smithson’s Library
Bible, Archaeology, Travel with Luke Chandler: Walk through the British Museum without going to London
ESOTERIC:
Conciatore: The Knights
History Extra: What would your face and body have said about you in the 19th century
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
distillatio: When did Medieval Europeans think that Hermes was alive? And a new question.
BOOK REVIEWS:
Quill & Pad: The Mastery of Time by Dominique Fléchon
The Dispersal of Darwin: Alfred Wegener: Science, Exploration, and the Theory of Continental Drift
Washington Post: Long before Pluto, a false planet confused scientists
The New York Times: ‘Map: Exploring the World,’ ‘The Curious Map Book’ and More
Science Book a Day: Spaceshots and Snapshots of Projects Mercury and Gemini: A Rare Photographic History
Notches: Found in Translation: How Sexual Debates Developed Across the Modern World
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Public Books: The Inventor of Nature
Five Books: Matthew Cobb on the History of Science
Landscape Notes: A Natural History of English Gardening
Brain Pickings: Hidden Treasures: 10 Centuries of Visualising the Body in Rare Archival Images
Physics World: Top physics books 2015
History News Network: Herodotus Lives!
Geographical: The London County Council Bomb Damage Maps 1939–1945
NEW BOOKS:
Springer: The Lost Constellations: A History of Obsolete, Extinct, or Forgotten Star Lore
The Voorhes: Malformed: The forgotten Brains of Texas State Mental Hospital
Amazon: Time and a Place: An Environmental History of Prince Edward Island
Springer: The History of Physics in Cuba
NHM: Rare Treasures
Anita Guerrini: The Courtier’s Anatomists
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
NYAM: A Coloring Book from our Collections
The History Press: Edward Jenner: pocket Giants
Historiens de la santé: Charles Bell and the Anatomy of Reform
University of Pennsylvania Press: Sociable Knowledge: Natural History and the Nation in Early Modern Britain
ART & EXHIBITIONS
The Scotsman: Killer of an exhibition about deadliest plagues
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Wellcome Collection: States of Mind: Tracing the edges of consciousness
ICE: ICE Christmas Exhibition Past, Present and Future 4–18 December 2015
The Huntarian: The Kangaroo and the Moose Runs until 21 February 2016
Science Museum: Cosmonauts: Birth of the Space Age
Royal Society: Seeing closer: 350 years of microscope Runs till 17 December 2015
Museum of the History of Science: Henry Moseley: A Scientist Lost to War Runs until 31 January 2016
Clik here to view.
Henry Moseley
Source: Wikimedia Commons
Guiding Lights: 500 years of Trinity House and safety at sea Runs till 4 January 2016
Museum of Science and Industry: Meet Baby Meet Baby Every Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, & Saturday
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
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
THEATRE, OPERA AND FILMS:
Chemistry World: Weapons of mass discussion
Gielgud Theatre: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Booking to 18 June 2016
Upcoming: The Old Operating Theatre: Surgeon to the Dead 10-12 & 15-17 December 2015
SpArC Theatre: Opéra National De Paris: La Damnation De Faust 17 December 2015
The Guardian: Tom Stoppard’s Hapgood comes in from the cold
Clik here to view.
Lisa Dillon as Hapgood at Hampstead theatre. Photograph: Manuel Harlan
EVENTS:
Royal Society: Lifting the lid – the Royal Society since 1960 10 December 2015
Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford: Ada Lovelace Symposium 8–10 December 2015
Science Museum: In Conversation with Alexei Leonov 15 December 2015
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution: The Legacy of the Enlightenment 11 December 2015
Glam Café, Philadelphia: Building a Digital Repository from Scratch 8 December 2015
British Library: Medieval manuscripts blog: Postgraduate Open Day on our Pre-1600 Collections 1 February 2016
PAINTING OF THE WEEK:
Clik here to view.
Leonardo da Vinci
TELEVISION:
io9: In This Week’s Manhattan, the Most Crucial Bomb Is the One That Doesn’t Go Off
AHF: Manhattan Season 2, Episode 8: Let’s Make a Deal
BBC: James Clerk Maxwell
SLIDE SHOW:
VIDEOS:
Astronomy Central: Great Astronomers from the Medieval Islamic World – Islamic Astronomers Documentary
Youtube: Gresham College: 1295: The Year of the Galleys – Dr Ian Friel FSA
Youtube: AHF: Dimas Chavez supports AHF!
Youtube: Pathe: Excavation (1957)
Youtube: Steps to Mass Flourishing Session 3
Youtube: Kepler’s Third Law of Motion (Astronomy)
Sploid: Gorgeous video shows just how incredible the Apollo missions were
Youtube: Gresham College: Harnessing the Power of Chant – Professor Christopher Page
Youtube: Geological Society: Apollo and the Geology of the Moon
RADIO:
BBC Radio 4: The Beauty of Equations
BBC Radio 4: In Our Time: Voyages of Captain Cook
PODCASTS:
WUWM: Wisconsinite Henrietta Swan Leavitt’s Impact on Astronomy
Science & Religion Exploring the Spectrum: Science & Secularisation John Hedley-Brooke
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Archives nationales Pierrefitte-sur-Seine: Colloque: Santé et environnement : Parcours et constructions historiques 9 et 10 décembre 2015
University of Galway: CfP: 6th International Conference on the Science of Computus in the Middle Ages
ESHS Prague: CfP: The Power of the Historiography of Science
SHOT: Dibner Award for Excellence in Museum Exhibits Deadline 15 December 2015
Boole/Shannon: Compute and Communicate Upcoming Evens 2016
St. Cross College, Oxford: One-Day Conference: Medieval Physics in Oxford 27 February 2016
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Birkbeck College: CfP: Sensing the Early Modern Birkbeck EMS’s 9th Annual Student conference 20 February 2015
Royal Anthropological Institute: History of the RAI: 1871 to 1918 8–9 December 2015
University Portucalense, Portugal: CfP: History of Psychopathology and Psychotherapy: Iberoamerican Theories and Practices 4–6 May 2016
SHOT: CfP: Society for the History of Technology Annual Meeting – Singapore 22–26 June 2016
University of Birmingham: The EAHMH Bok award 201: Granted for best medical history monograph
CEU Summer University: Call for Applications: Cities and Science: Urban History and the History of Science in the Study of Early Modern and Modern Europe 1827 July 2016
H-Environment: CfP: Business and Environment in History Portland Oregon 28–30 2016
MPIWG: Art and Knowledge in Pre-Modern Europe Colloquia 2015/2016
LOOKING FOR WORK:
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine: Research Fellow on a project on sex, drugs and HIV/AIDS in prison since the 1980s
University of Edinburgh: Research Fellow position in Science, Technology and Innovation Studies
University of Edinburgh: Postdoctoral Research Fellow (Synthetic Yeast in Context)
Niels Bohr Archive, Copenhagen: Archivist
Cambridge: Lloyd-Dan David Research Fellowship at the Needham Research Institute and Darwin College Cambridge
University of Liverpool: 2 Stipendiary Graduate Teaching Fellowships
University of Pittsburgh: Center for Philosophy of Science: Visiting Fellows Program
University of Durham: PhD Position in Philosophy of Social Technology
LAHP: Apply for a Studentship
University of South Carolina: PhD positions in Philosophy
Birkbeck University of London: Senior Lecturer/Reader/Professor in the History and Theory of Photography/Digital Culture
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
