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 #28
Monday 25 January 2016
EDITORIAL:
Another seven days have passed and the Internet has delivered up another bumper crop of post and articles on the histories of science, technology and medicine collected here in your weekly #histSTM links list Whewell’s Gazette.
There is a common misconception, shared on occasions by you friendly sub-editor, that history is something that happens in an undefined ‘distant’ past. However in realty the happenings of yesterday are already history. In the last days we were spectacularly reminded of this fact in a dispute over the history of one of the most recent discoveries/inventions in the history of the life sciences CRISPR.
What started as a dispute amongst specialists in genetic biology quickly attracted the attention of the mainstream media and the history of gene editing had, to quote Andy Warhol, its fifteen minutes of fame.
To prove that Whewell’s Gazette is on the ball and not stuck in the sixteenth century we bring you, hot off the digital presses, the contribution to this debate that our busy elves found on their searches through cyberspace this week.
Genotopia: A Whig History of CRISPR
Engineering Life: CRISPR In the history of science and intellectual property
SciRants: CRISPR Controversy and the Nobel Prize
The Washington Post: A social media war just erupted over the biotech innovation of the century
Genotopia: Criticism of Lander reaches mainstream media
Crispr-Cas9: Bitter row breaks out over ‘official history’ of gene-editing breakthrough
it is NOT junk: The Villain of CRISPR
STAT: In The Lab: Why Eric Lander morphed from science god to punching bag
It would seem the problem started with a paper by Eric Lander on the history of CRISPR in which he tries to minimise the contributions of Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doubna in favour of Feng Zhang and George Church of Lander’s own Broad Institute. Although the motivation seems to be another is this yet another example of women being discriminated against in the history of science?
One website dedicated to correcting the picture of women in #histSTM is Lady Science and Anna Resner and Leila McNeill have revamped their, in our opinion excellent blog, and issued the first Lady Science ebook, which you can download for free. You can read all about it in this Slate article by Bad Astronomer Phil Plait
Quotes of the week:
“When I was a kid, we had bloggers who could actually write and didn’t just post youtube videos”. – Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet)
“I cannot better describe walrus.. meat than by citing..tough Texas beef, marbled with fat and soaked in clam juice.” – Schwatka (1892) h/t @labroides
“Mathematicians stand on each other’s shoulders while computer scientists stand on each other’s toes”. – R. W. Hamming h7t @CompSciFact
“David Bowie dies and then a week later a whole new awesome planet just appears in space… coincidence? I think not”. – Sarcastic Rover (@SarcasticRover)
“The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders of the universe, the less taste we shall have for destruction.” – Rachel Carson h/t @SciHistoryToday
“Did you know that Heraclitus was a pre-Socratic philosopher? He didn’t”. – @historyscientis
“Hey guys I found a really big prime num—”
“WE FOUND A PLANET!”
“Aww.” – Andrew Taylor (@Andrew_Taylor)
“I miss the good old days at Davos when everyone wore flowing robes & the entrail readings were an intimate affair among friends”. – Scott Gosnell (@infinite_me)
Birthday of the Week:
André Marie Ampère born 20 January 1775
Yovisto: André-Marie Ampère and Electromagnetism
The British Museum: André Marie Ampère (mathématicien et physicien) / Collection de tous les portraits célèbres
PHYSICS, ASTRONOMY & SPACE SCIENCE:
University Library Utrecht: Newton through the eyes of an amateur
Voices of the Manhattan Project: Robert Christy’s Interview
Yovisto: Simon Marius and his Astronomical Discoveries
Voices of the Manhattan Project: Jerome Karle’s Interview
Online Archive of California: Otto Stern Photograph Collection, approximately 1895–1969
Nautilus: These Astronomical Glass Plates Made History
The Atlantic: The Women Who Would Have Been Sally Ride
Voices of the Manhattan Project: Ralph Lapp’s Interview
Culture of Knowledge: ‘Skybound was the mind’: Johannes Kepler
Hyperallergenic: Rediscovered Glass Plate Photographs Show the Skies 120 Years Ago
Voices of the Manhattan Project: Bill Hudgins’s Interview
NASA: Jet Propulsion Laboratory: Voyager Mission Celebrates 30 Years Since Uranus
Space.com: Clyde Tombaugh: Astronomer Who Discovered Pluto
Royal Museums Greenwich: Robert Hooke: the man who knew everything
EXPLORATION and CARTOGRAPHY:
National Geographic: Making Maps Under Fire During the Revolutionary War
Atlas Obscura: Found: A Very early and Very Rare Ottoman Atlas
Medievalists.net: Ten Beautiful Medieval Maps
Yovisto: The World According to Sebastian Münster
AEON: Sky readers
Atlas Obscura: 100 Wonders: The Mapparium
Dawlish Chronicles: A Forgotten Hero of Exploration: Vitus Bering
MEDICINE & HEALTH:
Perceptions of Pregnancy: The Phantoms of Pregnancy
Wellcome Library: New database: Popular Medicine in America, 1800–1900
Advances in the History of Psychology: Surgery for Desperados: On Neurosurgical Solutions to Criminality
Thomas Morris: A dismal tail
John Rylands Library Special Collections Blog: Medicines of the 18th Century
Remedia: Between Photography and Film: Early Uses of Medical Cinematography
Harvard Gazette: Did famine worsen the Black Death?
Science Museum: Thalidomide’s legacy
The Sunday Times: “I heard a baby cry and the doctors talking. I knew something wasn’t right”
The Guardian: Sixth-century wooden foot thought to be Europe’s oldest prosthetic implant
NYAM: The Nightmare of Imminent Baldness
Yovisto: Vladimir Bekhterev and the Bekterev’s Disease
Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow: H.T. Hamblin: Opthalmologist and Mystic
Thomas Morris: Suffocated by a fish
npr: Was Dr. Asperger A Nazi? The Question Still Haunts Autism

Dr. Hans Asperger with a young boy at the Children’s Clinic at the University of Vienna in the 1930s.
Courtesy of Maria Asperger Felder
Thomas Morris: The man who fought a duel in his sleep
Cleveland Historical: The Cunningham Sanitarium
Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh: The Cullen Project: digitizing medical history
Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh: Robert Burns and his medical biographer Dr James Currie
Early Modern Medicine: Frances’ Frigidity
emroc: Medicine in the Granville Family Manuscript
Randi Hutter Epstein: Elusive Powers of Estrogen
Anthropology Now: Zika and Microcephaly: Can We Learn from History?
Thomas Morris: Fruit, feathers and hair
Medievalists.net: 23 Medieval Uses for Rosemary
Cambridge Journals: Medical History: The Sources of Eucharius Rösslin’s ‘Rosegarden for Pregnant Women and Midwives’ (1513)
Wellcome Library: Linking letters across archives
TECHNOLOGY:
Yovisto: Thomas August Watson – Recipient of the Very First Phone Call
Medievalists.net: Printing with gold in the fifteenth century
Conciatore: Reflections on the Mirror
Conciatore: Like Snow From Heaven
JHI Blog: Hippie Bibliography
Open Culture: Why Violins Have F-Holes: The Science & History of a Remarkable Renaissance Design
Morbid Anatomy: Midcentury Stereopanorama
Yovisto: Who remembers Apple’s Lisa?
Yovisto: The Steel of Sir Henry Bessemer
Yovisto: Ray Dolby and the Noise Reduction System
The Recipes Project: Searching, Sieving, Sifting, and Straining in the Seventeenth Century
Yovisto: Umberto Nobile and his Airships
Yovisto: John Fitch and the Steam Boat
Fact:Danish electronic music legend Else Marie Pade dies at 91
Academia: A natural draught furnace for bronze casting (pdf)
Engineering and Technology History Wiki: Women Computers in World War II
Atlas Obscura: The First Cross-Country Road Trip Took 2 Men and a Pitbull 63 Days
PM: The Obscure History of the World’s First Synth, Built in 1901
My medieval foundry: Ongoing bell posts – Part 2 – making small bells
Collecting and Connecting: The story that changed my mind
Atlas Obscura: 160-Year-Old Ganges Canal Super-Passages Are An Engineering Marvel
Science Museum: 30 Years On: The Rise of the Macintosh Computer
National Library of Scotland: Scottish glass industry
Science & Society: Picture Library Prints: De Dondi’s ‘Astrarium’, the world’s first astronomical clock, 1364
Tenby Observer: Pembroke Dock maritime museum reflects on first year of operation
EARTH & LIFE SCIENCES:
Yovisto: Caspar Friedrich Wolff – the Founder of Embryology
This Day in Water History: January 14, 1829: First Slow Sand Filter in England
Royal Museums Greenwich: ‘The Most ingenious book that ever I read in my life’ Pepys and Micrographia
Notches: The Cologne Sexual Assaults in Historical Perspective
The Public Domain Review: In Search of the Impossible: The Perfect English Rabbit
Genes to Genomes: Calvin Bridges: Bringing genes down to earth
Notches: After Roe: Engaging the Lost History of the Abortion Debate
BHL: Fantastic Worlds: Exploring the Ocean through Science and Fiction
The Public Domain Review: The Bestiarium of Aloys Zötl (1831–1887)
TrowelBlazers: Zelia Nutall La Reina de Arqueologiá
The Public Domain Review: The Embalming Jars of Frederik Ruysch
Understanding Race: Science 168s–1800s: Early Classifications of Nature
TrowelBlazers: Mary Ann Woodhouse Mantell
AMNH: How Hot is Hot? Chile Pepper in Our Global Kitchen
Atomic Surgery: The Life of Louis Agassiz (Real Life Comics, #30)
Joides Resolution: Happy Birthday Andrija Mohorovicic!
Naturally Curious: / Million Wonders: How natural history museums help people and nature flourish in the North West
Slate: The Vault: A Victorian Argument That Snow is Holy, Illustrated by a Beautiful Catalog of Flakes
Letters from Gondwana: The Geological Observations of Robert Hooke

Hooke’s drawing of fossil bivalves, brachiopods, belemnites, shark teeth and possibly a reptilian tooth (Copyright © The Royal Society)
Sinc: La ciencia es notica: The five bird species that Darwin couldn’t discover in Medeira and the Azores
Scripturient: The Flat Earthers Respawn
CHEMISTRY:
Chemical Heritage Magazine: Going to Pieces: A Detective Story
Muslim Heritage: From Alchemy to Chemistry

Front cover of Dix traités d’alchimie de Jâbir ibn Hayyân – Les dix premiers Traités du Livre des Soixante-dix (French translation by Pierre Lory). (Paris, 1983).
Scroll.in: How the romance between an Aligarh Muslim and a Lithuanian Jew has shaped an Indian pharma major
CHF: George Hitchings and Gertrude Elion
META – HISTORIOGRAPHY, THEORY, RESOURCES and OTHER:
vistorica: Mathematics, science, engineering, 1500–1600 European
BBC News: Cash to preserve and digitise historical documents
The Public Domain Review: Japanese Prints of Western Inventors, Artists and Scholars

The Englishman Arkwright wanted to make a spinning-frame. It took him such a long time that he became very poor and so his wife got mad and broke his machine. Angry at her, he sent her away. But even after all this, he succeeded and became extremely rich.
Wynken de Worde: what those libraries were in The Toast
Science, Spies, and History: Job Market Stats for the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
The Hindu: Scientific Histories
Melissa Terras: A Few Words for Professor Lisa Jardine
The Arts Newspaper: The Buck Stopped Here: a grand send-off for the polymath powerhouse Prof Lisa Jardine
Avoiding the Bears: Multum in Parvo (said the cupcake toppers)
Cornell College: News Center: Alumna pursuing history career in collections
Londonist: London’s Entire History To Be Mapped By New Project
The H-Word: Flat-Earthers aren’t the only ones getting things wrong
Readex: Early American Newspapers, 1690–1922: By Series
Catholic Herald: Meet five Catholic heroes of science
SocPhilSciPract: January HPS&ST Note
Feministing: New Website Aims to Transform the Philosophy Canon by Highlighting Women
The Guardian: ‘People think curating just means choosing nice things’ – secrets of the museum curators
Darin Hayton: The Use and Abuse of Kuhn’s “Paradigm Shift”
ESOTERIC:
BOOK REVIEWS:
facebook: History Physics: Volume 1 of Tyndall project reviewed
THE: The Work of the Dead: A Cultural History of Mortal Remains, by Thomas W. Laqueur
Conciatore: CONCIATORE Book Excerpt
The Guardian: Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs by Lisa Randall – when will anther asteroid wreak havoc on Earth?
Chemistry World: The birth of he pill – how four pioneers reinvented sex and launched a revolution
Science Book a Day: The Composition of Kepler’s Astronomia nova
Rhapsody in Books Weblog: Review of The Invention of Science by David Wootton
Science Book a Day: Empires of Food: Feast, Famine, and the Rise and Fall of Civilisations
Providence Journal: The genius of astronomer Johannes Kepler
NEW BOOKS:
Historiens de la santé: The Antivaccine Heresy
ART & EXHIBITIONS
Etcetera: Inside the lost library of John Dee, a Tudor wizard
Smithsonian.com: A Painting of John Dee, Astrologer to Queen Elizabeth I, Contains a Hidden Ring of Skulls
The Guardian: John Dee painting originally had circle of human skulls, x-ray imaging reveals
History Extra: In pictures: John Dee, the ‘Elizabethan 007’
streetsofsalem: John Dee, Renaissance Man
Culture 24: New John Dee discovery reveals resemblance to mother and a mysterious ‘dwarf’
The Spectator: John Dee though he could talk to angels using medieval computer technology
The John Rylands Library: Magic, Witches & Devils in the Early Modern World 21 January–21 August 2016
Museum für Naturkunde Berlin: Dinosaurier in Berlin: Brachiosaurus as an Icon of Politics, Science, and Popular Culture 1 April 2015–31March 2018
Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise: Galileo exhibit to feature books, art at OU art museum
OU Lynx: Plan Your Visit
Universty of Cambridge: Research: Newton, Darwin, Shakespeare – and a jar of ectoplasm: Cambridge University Library at 600
allAfrica: Algeria: Exhibition on Algeria (cartography) Marseille 20 January–2 May 2016
Osher Map Library: Masterpieces at USM: Celebrating Five Centuries of Rare Maps and Globes 19 November 2015–12 March 2016
Historiens de la santé: Sang sens : observations médicales, interprétations fluides Exposition Bibliothèque Osler d’histoire de la médecine Le vernissage, qui aura lieu le 27 janvier
NewsOK: Galileo magnifico: University of Oklahoma continues yearlong ‘Galileo’s World’ project with exhibit ‘An Artful Observation of the Cosmos’
Advances in the History of Psychology: Mar. 12th Pop-Up Museum Explores Contributions of Women of Colour in Psych
Royal College of Physicians: Scholar courtier, magician: the lost library of John Dee 18 January29–July 2016
The Telegraph: The best art exhibitions of 2016 (some #histSTM connections!)
Historical Medical Library: Online Exhibition: Under the Influence of the Heavens: Astrology in Medicine in the 15th and 16th Centuries
British Museum: The Asahi Shimbun Displays: Scanning Sobek: mummy of the crocodile god Room 3 10 December 2015–21 February 2016
Horniman Museum & Gardens: London’s Urban Jungle Run until 21 February 2016
Somerset House: Utopia 2016: A Year of Imagination and Possibility
New York Public Library: Printmaking Women: Three Centuries of Female Printmakers, 1570–1900
New-York Historical Society: Silicon City: Computer History Made in New York 13 November 2015–17 April 2016
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
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
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
Last Chance: 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
Royal Geographical Society: The Enduring Eye: The Antarctic Legacy of Sir Ernest Shackleton and Frank Hurley 21 November 2015 – 28 February 2016
Science Museum: Churchill’s Scientists Runs till 1 March 2016
Oxford University Museum of Natural History: Henry Walter Bates Until 26 February:
THEATRE, OPERA AND FILMS:
Daily Motion: Life Story: The race for the Double Helix [1/2]
Daily Motion: Life Story: The race for the Double Helix [2/2]
The Denver Post: “Vera Rubin” performance a collaboration of the BETC and Fiske Planetarium
Gielgud Theatre: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Booking to 18 June 2016
The Cockpit – Theatre of Ideas: Jekyll and Hyde 13 January–6 February 2016
The Regal Theatre: The Trials of Galileo International Tour March 2014–December 2017
New Diorama Theatre: Reptember Reloaded 10 January–1 February 2016
Coming Soon: The Crescent Theatre: Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
EVENTS:
Discover Medical London: “Dr Dee” & The Magic of Medicine A Special Half Day Tour 23 March & 27 May 2016
CHF: Brown Bag Lectures Spring 2016
NYAM: Credits, Thanks and Blame in the Works of Conrad Gessner
Discover Medical London: Walking Tour: Harley Street: Healers and Hoaxers
Royal College of Physicians: Dee late: inside Dee’s miraculous mind
City Arts and Lectures: Steve Silberman: The Untold History of Autism 28 March 2016 Live on Public Radio
Cardiff University: Lecture: Framing the Face: A History of Facial Hair, 1700–1900 20 January 2016
University of York: Lecture: Not Everyone Can Be A Gandhi: The Global Indian Medical Diaspora in the post-WWII Era 3 March 2016
NCSE: Darwin Day Approaches
University of Leeds Museum of the History of Science, Technology and Medicine: Lecture: Object 1. Horse and Rider 26 January 2016
London PUS Seminar: Celebrity Science – How Does Ancient DNA Research Inform Science Communication? 27 January 2016
University of Kent: Trial by water, or, seafarers’ perspectives on the quest for longitude, 1700–1830 27 January 2016
UWTSD London Campus: The Study Day: Introduction to Egyptian Astronomy 6 February 2016
Dittrick Museum Blog: Conversations: Edge of Disaster – Vaccines and Epidemics 21 January 2016
UCL: Lecture: Henry Nicholls: The Galapagos. A Natural History 27 January 2016
The Washington Post: These are the most exciting museum happenings in 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
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
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
PAINTING OF THE WEEK:

Dr William Gilbert (1544-1603) showing his Experiment on Electricity to Queen Elizabeth I and her Court, 19th century (oil on canvas)
TELEVISION:
SLIDE SHOW:
VIDEOS:
Simon Singh on Tudor code breaking and John Dee
Open Culture: Prize-Winning Animation Lets You Fly Through 17th Century London
London Live: John Dee exhibit opens at Royal College of Physicians
Niche: Clearing the Plains and Clearing the Air: Environmental History and National Memory
PBS Newshour: Author explores life on the expanding autism spectrum
Youtube: Royal College of Physicians: Scholar, courtier, magician the lost library of John Dee at the Royal College of Physicians
Youtube: Royal College of Physicians: A constellation for John Dee by Jeremy Millar, 2016
Rune Soup: John Dee: Scholar, Courtier, Magician
RADIO:
BBC Radio 4: Science Stories: The Meteorite and the Hidden Hoax
BBC Radio 4: An Eye for Pattern: The Letters of Dorothy Hodgkin
PODCASTS:
Ben Franklin’s World: Bonus: Why Historians Study History
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Society for the Social History of Medicine: Upcoming History of Medicine Events
University of Leeds: Workshop on Interwar Telecommunications History 29 January 2016
Museum für Naturkunde Berlin: Dinosaurs in Berlin. Perspectives on the Berliner Brachiosaurus brancai, 1906˗2015 10–11 March 2016
Museum für Naturkunde Berlin: CfP: Working on Things: On the Social, Political, and Economic History of Collected Objects 21–22 November 2016
University of Bristol: CfP: Philosophy of Biology in UK: 8–9 June 2016
Conference Centre Kaap Doorn, near to Utrecht: Philosophy of Science in a Forest 19–21 May 2016
Marsh’s Library: CfP: Newspapers and Periodicals in Britain & Ireland, 1641–1800
Notches: CfP: Histories of Sexuality in Antiquity
British Society for the History of Mathematics: Research in Progress 2016 Queen’s College Oxford 27 February
British Society for the History of Mathematics: History of Mathematics in Education: An Anglo-Danish collaboration Bath Spa University 21–24 August 2016
British Society for the History of Mathematics: Mathematics in the Enlightenment Rewley House Oxford 25 June 2016
British Society for the History of Mathematics: Celebrating the History of Women in Mathematics at Manchester: Manchester University 9 March 2016
University of Cumbria: CfP: The World of Outdoors 24 June 2016
Society for Renaissance Studies: Book Prize
Birkbeck University of London: ‘Fluid Physicalities’ speaker programme 2016
European Society for Astronomy in Culture (SEAC): 24th SEAC Conference Bath 12–16 September 2016
The Royal Society: Call for Nominations: Wilkins-Bernal-Medawar Prize
University of Nottingham: CfP: Medieval Midlands Postgraduate Conference 13 April 2016
New York University: Conference: Experimental Philosophy Through History 20 February 2016
University of Kent: CfP: Society for the Social History of Medicine Conference 2016 Medicine in its Place: Situating Medicine in Historical Contexts 7–10 July 2016
LOOKING FOR WORK:
Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin: Postdoctoral Fellowship
University of Westminster: Professor of Modern History of Science and Innovation
University of Glasgow: The Leverhulme Trust: Collections Scholarships
Humboldt-Universitaet zu Berlin: Post-Doc Fellow, Archaeology Collection Research
CHoM News: 2016-2017 Foundation for the History of Women in Medicine Fellowship: Application Period Open
University of London: Alan Pearsall Postdoctoral Fellowship in Naval and Maritime History
Wellcome Library: Wikimedian in Residence at the Wellcome Library
Museum of Health Care: Margaret Angus Research Fellowship
