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
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Year 2, Volume #23
Monday 21 December 2015
EDITORIAL:
Christmas is coming and the goose is getting fat and here is a fat edition of Whewell’s Gazette your weekly #histSTM links list bringing you all the best of the histories of science, technology and medicine from the Internet over the last seven days, to give you something to read whilst you’re trying to digest all of that food you’ve stuffed in over Christmas.
Most of the celebrations at this time of year are actually not connected with the birth of Christ but with the Winter Solstice, which this year is on the 22 December. On this day the sun reaches the southern most point on its yearly journey over the Tropic of Capricorn, turns (the word tropic derives from the Greek topikos meaning ‘of or pertaining to a turn’) and starts its long trek back up to the north bringing first spring and then summer to the northern climes and leaving those in the south their winter.
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Solstice is a more better day to celebrate than 25 December or 1 January being a natural end and beginning to the annual solar cycle, so all of the owls here at Whewell’s Gazette wish all of our readers all the best for the holiday season and look forward to greeting you again after this years Christmas weekend.
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MHS Oxford Advent Calendar
Day 14: Marble Copy of John Dee’s 1582 Holy Table, English, Mid C.17th
Day 15: Gelatine Print of Henry Moseley, Balliol-Trinity Labs, Oxford,1910
Day 16: Exploding Horizontal Cannon Dial, English?, c.1900
Day 17: Astrolabe, by Muhammad Muqim, Lahore, 1641/2
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Day 18: Instruction Booklet For Aircraft Wireless Telephone Transmitter
Day 19: Armillary Orrery, by Richard Glynne, London, c. 1710-30
Day 20: “Chemical Magic” Chemistry Set, by F. Kingsley, London, c. 1920
Culham Research Group: Advent Calendar
Day 14: the Olive
Day 15: Mahleb
Day 16: Straw or Hay, which will make Dr M’s day?
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Loose stacked hay built around a central pole, Romania
Day 17: Sgan t’sek
Day 18: The Tangerine – Just Like a Virgin
Day 19: Popcorn tree decorations
Day 20: Sugar
Quotes of the week:
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“We all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible player”. – Albert Einstein h/t @phalpern
“To fathom hell or soar angelic
Just take a pinch of psychedelic.” – Adam Lagerqvist (@adamlagerqvist)
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This is my favorite Hindi curse: “Why are boring me with all this useless narrative?” – Gabriel Finkelstein (@gabridli)
“We become what we pay attention to, so we must be careful what we pay attention to.” – Kurt Vonngut
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Joseph Stalin and Keith Richards
were born on Dec. 18th.
Can you guess which one
was born 137yrs ago? – @Marcywords2
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Men: Not ALL men.
Men to their daughters: Yes, all men. Every single one of them. – @ChiefElk
Birthday of the Week:
Gabrielle Émilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil, Marquise du Châtelet born 17 December 1706
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Gabrielle Émilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil, marquise du Châtelet
Portrait by Maurice Quentin de La Tour
Source: Wikimedia Commons
The Renaissance Mathematicus: A feminist Newtonian
Yovisto: A great man whose only fault was being a woman – Émilie du Châtelet
Tycho Brahe Born 14 December 1546
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Tycho Brahe (1596) Artist unknown
Source: Wikimedia Commons
The Renaissance Mathematicus: Financing Tycho’s little piece of heaven
Yovisto: Tycho Brahe – The Man with the Golden Nose
Bildgeist: Tycho Brahe, Astronomical Instruments (1598)
The Royal Library: Astronomiæ instauratæ mechanica
esa: space for europe: 14 December
British Museum: Effigies Tychonis Brahe
Star Child: Tycho Brahe
BibliOdyssey: Tycho Mechanica
Humphy Davy born 17 December 1778
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Sir Humphry Davy, Bt
by Thomas Phillips
Source: Wikimedia Commons
Chemical Heritage Magazine: Science and Celebrity: Humphry Davy’s Rising
A Covent Garden Gilflurt’s Guide to Life: The Invention of the Davy Lamp
PHYSICS, ASTRONOMY & SPACE SCIENCE:
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Yovisto: Max Planck and the Quantum Theory
History Extra: Life of the Week: Albert Einstein
Muslim Heritage: The Armillary Sphere: A Concentration of Knowledge in Islamic Astronomy
AIP: N. G. Basov
Yovisto: Nikolay Basov and the Development of the Maser and Laser
Museum Victoria Collections: Great Melbourne Telescope
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Erection of Great Melbourne Telescope, 1869
Source: Museum Victoria
This image is: Public Domain
3 Quarks Daily: Maxwell and the Mathematics of Metaphor
Atlas Obscura: Leiden Observatory
Leaping Robot: Astronomers and the Art of Reconciliation
Voices of the Manhattan Project: Carl Higby’s Interview
Somnuium Project: Project the First Interactive Rudolphine (Under Construction)
The Saturday Evening Post: “Imagination Is More Important than Knowledge”
AHF: Nuclear Reactors
Living in the Chinese Cosmos: The Chinese Cosmos: Basic Concepts
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The Yinyang Symbol
Diagram of the Supreme Ultimate, from the Compendium of Diagrams (detail), 1623
Zhang Huang (1527-1608)
Voices of the Manhattan Project: Franklin Mattias’s Interview
collections.ucolick.org: The Lick Observatory: Historical Collections
The Renaissance Mathematicus: Mensis or menstruation?
Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum: Communications Satellite, SCORE
The Renaissance Mathematicus: The greatest villain in the history of science?
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Andreas Ostinater by Georg Pencz
Source: Wikimedia Commons
Alex Wellerstein: The Secrets Patents for the Atomic Bomb
AIP: David Bohm
AHF: Espionage
EXPLORATION and CARTOGRAPHY:
Yovisto: Amundsen’s South Pole Expedition
Library of Congress: Putting Boston on the Map: Land Reclamation and the Growth of a City
Atlas Obscura: Maps of the World’s Most Cursed Destinations
Nuuk Marluk: Inuit Cartography
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In English, the caption reads: “Kuniit’s three wooden (tree) maps show the journey from Sermiligaaq to Kangertittivatsiaq. Map to the right shows the islands along the coast, while the map in the middle shows the mainland and is read from one side of the block around to the other. Map to the left shows the peninsula between the fjords Sermiligaaq and Kangertivartikajik.” From “Topografisk Atlas Grønland”, published by Det Kongeglige Danske Geografiske Selskab, 2000 (pg 171).
Atlas Obscura: The Hidden Bolts That Drive Manhattan’s Infrastructure Nerds Nuts
Atlas Obscura: How the World Looked When Jesus was Born According to Roman Geographers
The Tablet: The Priest who Mapped the World
Haaretz: Old Maps of Jerusalem Combine the Sacred With the Realistic
MEDICINE & HEALTH:
Thomas Morris: There was an old woman who swallowed a fork…
The Kansas City Star: Kansas City’s nuclear legacy trails weapon makers and their families
Fugitive Leaves: Letting Fall Grains of Sand or Pins into a Glass: Finding the Poetry of René Laennec at the Historical Medical Library
The Champlain Society: Performing Blindness: A Postcard of the Taylor Concert Company, c1910, and the Canadian History of Disability
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Med. Hist: Digitisation, Big Data, and the Future of the Medical Humanities
Yovisto: Niels Ryberg Finsen and the Phototherapy
The Recipes Project: Van Helmont on the Plague Again!
Thomas Morris: A beetle in the bladder
Wellcome Library Blog: A gift for Disability History Month
Thomas Morris: Death by Christmas dinner
History of Medicine in Ireland: Medical Practitioners in Early Modern Irish Wills
Res Obscura: The Alchemy of Madness: Understanding a Seventeenth-Century “Brain Scan”
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“Le Médecin guérissant Phantasie,” Mattheus Greuter, 1620 (Bibliothèque nationale de France).
Irish Philosophy: Frozen in Time the Edward Worth Library
The Guardian: Britain’s teeth aren’t that bad – but what do you know of their rotten history?
Atlas Obscura: Peek Inside the Grisly, Salacious Case Files of NYC’S Head Coroner in the Early 1900s
Emory News Center: Vaccines in U.S. have complex history, says Emory expert
TECHNOLOGY:
Yovisto: Hans von Ohain and the Jet Engine
Los Angeles Times: Weekend: Looking at aerospace’s place in history
Conciatore: Glass Beads
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Six-layer glass chevron trade beads
(photo attr. unknown)
Conciatore: Roasting the Frit
Conciatore: Neri the Scholar
Historic England: Navel and Maritime Military Heritage
Medievalists.net: Food and technology – Cooking utensils and food processing in medieval Norway
Wired: The Secret History of World War II-Era Drones
Yovisto: The Wright Brothers Invented the Aviation Age
Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum: 1903 Wright Flyer
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Ptak Science Books: The Horizontal Section of the Deep Dark (1887)
Smithsonian.com: Did John Deere’s Best Invention Spark a Revolution or an Environmental Disaster?
Engineering and Technology History Wiki: Edwin H. Armstrong
columbia.edu: History of Science, Mathematics, Technology, #171
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Attack: The World’s Most Desirable (and Valuable) Electronic Music Gear
Ptak Science Books: Blowing Up Hell(gate), 1876
distillatio: Using Oak Galls to dye wool
EARTH & LIFE SCIENCES:
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Yovisto: Sir William Hamilton and the Volcanoes
rs21: A homosexual Christmas in 1905 Berlin
Slate Vault: Poe’s Only Bestseller as a Living Author Was This Schoolbook About Seashells
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A Lance Eye View: Alfred Russel Wallace
Yovisto: Margaret Mead and Modern Anthropology
Yovisto: Alexander Ross Clarke and the true Shape of the Earth
The New York Times: Evelyn Witkin and the Road to DNA Enlightenment
Imperial Weather: New Paper: meteorology as an imperial science
Forbes: How Creationism Has Evolved Since The Dover Trial
Public Domain Review: The Snowflake Man of Vermont
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Bentley Snowflake
The New Yorker: Humboldt’s Gift
Heavenfield: The Bavarians from the Ground Up
umich.edu: Obituary: Jack McIntosh
Biodiversity Library: BHL Isn’t Just for Biologists
ars technica: Scientific Method/Science & Exploration: An evolutionary analysis of anti-evolution legislation
BioLogos: The First Major Evolution Controversy in America
CHEMISTRY:
Yorkshire Evening Post: Leeds scientists who discovered the atomic world to be honoured 100years after 1915 discovery
Voices of the Manhattan Project: Harold Urey’s Interview
CHF: Harold C. Urey: Science, Religion, and Cold War Chemistry
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After helping create the atom bomb as part of the Manhattan Project, Harold Urey focused on uncovering the age and origins of Earth and the solar system. In this 1951 photo Urey inspects a ‘fossilized thermometer’ of belemnite (a prehistoric squid-shaped creature). Urey used information from these fossils to estimate the temperature of oceans from as far back as 100 million years. (USC Digital Library)
Research Gate: The discovery of the periodic table as a case of simultaneous discovery
newser: A Sophomoric Prank Lurks on the Periodic Table
Chemical Heritage Magazine: Not-So-Great Moments in Chemical Safety
META – HISTORIOGRAPHY, THEORY, RESOURCES and OTHER:
Ether Wave Propaganda: Against Methodology by Cryptic Aphorism
Nautilus: Living in the Long: Art & Engineering Peers Into Our Future
University of Zurich: Corpus Corporum
Royal Museums Greenwich: Samuel Pepys and the Royal Society
Lady Science: Issue 15: Gender in the Mid-Century Kitchen
JHI Blog: Thinking About Knowledge in Motion and Social Engagement at HSS
Sandwalk: Did Michael Behe say that astrology was scientific in Kitzmiller v. Dover?
Ptak Science Books: Table of the Compass of Voices and Instruments (1814)
HuffPost Science: Blog: What Science Is – and How and Why It Works
Histoire, médicine et santé n° 7: New Issue
Commission for the History and Philosophy of Computing: Special Issue HPL on History and Philosophy of Computing Contents
Museums Association: Report finds lack of diversity in curators at Major Partner Museums
h-madness: Obituary: Gerald N. Grob (1931–2015)
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Recipes Project: Searching for Recipes: A Glimpse of Early Modern Upper Class Life
Warburg Institute News: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize 2016 awarded to Professor Dr Dag Nikolaus Hasse, an Alumnus of the Warburg Institute
The Ordered Universe Project: Generating sounds: help us write our next paper!
OUP Blog: Eric Scerri: A new philosophy of science
Inside MHS Oxford: Christmas has come early for MHS!
homunculus: Talking about talking about history
December HPS&ST Note: is on the web
Capitalism’s Cradle: AI and the Problem of Ideology
The Ordered Universe Project: Unity in Diversity
Medievalists.net: The Medieval Magazine: The Top 50 Medieval Books of 2015 (Issue 46)
The Public Domain Review: Japanese Prints of Western Inventors, Artists and Scholars
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The Englishman Watt wanted to make a steam engine. He spent so much time on it that he upset his aunt. Finally, however, he was successful.
ESOTERIC:
Correspondence: Volume 3 (2015) Contents
Chemical Heritage Magazine: The Secrets of Alchemy
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Detail from The Alchemist. Francois-Marius Granet, 19th century. (Gift of Roy Eddleman, CHF Collections/Will Brown)
BOOK REVIEWS:
Science Book a Day: Remaking the John: The Invention and Reinvention of the Toilet
idées.fr: Cette médicine qu’on dit « parallèle »
Nature: the view from the bridge: The top 20: a year of reading immersively
Science Book a Day: Life on a Young Planet: The First Three Billion Years of Evolution on Earth
Some Beans: The Invention of Nature by Andrea Wolf
Symmetry: Physics books of 2015
Science Book a Day: The Triumph of Seeds: How Grains, Nuts, Kernels, Pulses, and Pips Conquered the Plant Kingdom and Shaped Human History
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Cambridge News: Cambridge historian Ruth Scurr on her Costa Awards-shortlisted book, John Aubrey: My Own Life
Brain Pickings: Buckminster Fuller’s Manifesto for the Genius of Generalities
idées.fr: Le corps de la science
Diebedra.de Prof Alan Turing decoded
Science Book a Day: Inventions That Could Have Changed the World… But Didn’t!
NEW BOOKS:
Historiens de la santé: Contagious Communities: Medicine, Migration, and the NHS in Post War Britain
OUP: The History of Chemistry: A Very Short Introduction
OUP: Essays in the Philosophy of Chemistry
Amazon: Science and Empire: Knowledge and Networks of Science across the British Empire, 1800–1970
MIT Press: Anachronic Renaissance
Historiens de la santé: Révélations: Iconographie de la Salpêtrière. Paris, 1875–1918
Amberley Publishing: Historical Falconry
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Palgrave: Why We Need the Humanities
University of Chicago Press: Life Atomic: A History of Radioisotopes in Science and Medicine
ART & EXHIBITIONS
Oxford Thinking: ‘Dear Harry…’ An exhibition of a scientist lost to war
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
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
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Museum of the History of Science: Henry Moseley: A Scientist Lost to War Runs until 31 January 2016
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
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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
Oxford University Museum of Natural History: Handwritten in Stone: How William Smith and his maps changed geology Runs to 31 January 2016
National Library of Scotland: Plague! A cultural history of contagious diseases in Scotland Runs till 29 May 2016
THEATRE, OPERA AND FILMS:
Gielgud Theatre: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Booking to 18 June 2016
EVENTS:
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
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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
Royal Institution: Christmas Lecture 2015
PAINTING OF THE WEEK:
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Louis Pasteur (1885), by A. Edelfeldt
TELEVISION:
io9: The Inside Story of Manhattan, the Best TY Show You Haven’t Been Watching
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National Trust for Historical Preservation: Trinity Test, Gadget, Spies: What’s True in Season 2 of Manhattan?
Je Suis, Ergo Sum: Gone fission: WGN’s Manhattan brings something new into the world
SLIDE SHOW:
Scientific American: Aviation in 1913: Images from Scientific American’s Archives [Slide Show]
VIDEOS:
Youtube: God, Science and Atheism
Youtube: Globus Weigla
Youtube: Steps to Flourishing Sessions 3: Anton Howes present his thesis
Youtube: Fighting Firedamp – The Lamp that Saved 1,000 Lives
RADIO:
PODCASTS:
npr: ‘Map’ Is An Exquisite Record of the Miles – And The Millennia
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Virginia Campbell MD: Matthew Cobb on “Life’s Great Secret”
Science Friday: Do Scientists Have the Duty to Speak Out?
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
University of Durham: Workshop: The Graphic Evidence of Childhood, 1760–1914 15 April 2016 (N.B several #histsci papers)
German Historical Institute Paris: CfP: Masculinity(/ies) – Femininity(/ies) in the Middle Ages 2–3 March 2016
Notches Blog: Call for Submissions: The History of Venereal Disease Deadline 15 January 2016
University of Vienna: CfP: Claiming authority, producing standards: The IAEA and the history of radiation protection
Rowan University, Glassboro, NJ: CfP: Society for Philosophy of Science in Practice (SPSP) Sixth Conference 17–19 June 2016
Joint conference of the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) and European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST). CfP: What is a Problem? Problematic Ecologies, Methodologies and Ontologies in Techno-science and Beyond Barcelona 31 August–3 September 2016
Institute of Historical Research: University of London: CfP: International Postgraduate Port and Maritime History Conference 14–15 April 2016
University of Shanghai: CfP: International Health Organizations (IHOs): People, politics and practices in historical perspective 21–24 April 2016
University of Bucharest: Institute of Research in the Humanities: An Interdisciplinary Master class on the Nature and Status of Principles in Western Thought 15–18 March 2016
Barts Pathology Museum and the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons, London: Call for participation: Corpses, Cadavers and Catalogues: The Mobilities of Dead Bodies and Body Parts, Past and Present 17–18 May 2016
LOOKING FOR WORK:
H-Sci-Med-Tech: Summer Research Fellowships: History of Women in Medicine
University of Twente: Two Assistant Professors Philosophy of Science
Pembroke College Cambridge: Abdullah Al-Mubarak Research Fellowship in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies
QMUL: Three new Wellcome funded PhD Studentships in History of Emotions
University of Cambridge: UL in Philosophy of Life Sciences
University of Cambridge: UL in Science, Technology, and Medicine before 1800
University of Southern California: One Year Mellon Sawyer Postdoctoral Fellowship Visual History: The Past in Images
University of Notre Dame: Two Postdoctoral Fellowships in History and/or Philosophy of Science
University of Glasgow: The Leverhulme Trust: “Collections” Scholarships
Brunel University London: The Leverhulme Trust – Early Careers Fellowships
UCL: CELL: Research Assistant
BSHS: Part-time BSHS Intern
CHF: Fellowships
ChoM News: 2016–17 Women in Medicine Fellowship: Application Period Open
LMU Munich: 10 Postdoctoral Research Fellowships
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