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
Volume #25
Monday 08 December 2014
EDITORIAL:
In the seven days covered by this, the twenty-fifth edition of the #histSTM links collection Whewell’s Gazette there have been two major #histSTM stories dominating the Internet. On the positive side the digital Einstein archive has gone online making vast quantities of Einstein stuff available to all and sundry. On the negative side misogynist, racist Nobel Laureate James Watson auctioned off his Nobel Prize medal to much clamour and ridicule throughout the Internet. Both events get a special section in this week’s edition.
In other news this week saw the start of Advent and because our editorial staff are too lazy to produce their own Advent calendar we have simply borrowed the #histSTM themed one posted by physics professor, science blogger and pop science author (and all round good fellow) Chad Orzel.
Uncertain Principles: Advent Calendar of Science Stories
3. Iceman
4. Solstice
Women preparing silk, painted around 1100 by Emperor Huizong of Song; from Wikimedia.
The Rise and Fall of a Nobel Laureate:
Genotopia: The Trouble with Jim
The Guardian: He may have unraveled DNA; but James Watson deserves to be shunned
Slate: James Watson Throws a Fit
Science League of America: “Not A Racist In A Conventional Way”
NBC News: DNA Biologist James Watson’s Nobel Prize Sells for $4.8 Million at Auction
Slate: James Watson’s Nobel Prize Medal Fetches $4.1 Million at Auction
The Guardian: DNA scientist James Watson sells Nobel prize medal
Nature: Watson’s Nobel medal sells for US$4.1 million
Watson’s Nobel prize.
Christie’s Images Ltd.
Einstein goes digital:
Princeton University Press Blog: Princeton University Press launches The Digital Einstein Papers
The New York Times: Thousands of Einstein Documents Are Now a Click Away
Caltech: The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein: The Digital Edition – Diana K. Buchwald (video)
The Chronical of Higher Education: Online Einstein Project Reveals Scientist’s Magnitude and Minutiae
Photo by Doreen Spooner, Getty Images
The Guardian: Albert Einstein archive reveals the genius, doubts and loves of scientist
Raw Story: Einstein’s letter defending Marie Curie shows just how long trolls have been slut-shaming women
Philly.com: Einstein was not the tweeting sort
History Physics: 99 years since General Relativity
PHYSICS & ASTRONOMY:
The Conversation: Stories from the sky: astronomy in Indigenous knowledge
Nautilus: The Loneliest Genius
Restricted Data: The Nuclear Secrecy Blog: Mushroom clouds strange, familiar, and fake
Leiden Islam Blog: An Ancient Zodiac from Arabia Discovered
Slate: 60 Years Ago Today: The Day a Meteorite Hit Ann Hodges
True: An impact crater is also called an “astrobleme.” Getting a bruise from a meteorite would then be an astroblemish.
The Manhattan Project an interactive history: CP–1 Goes Critical
Great American Eclipses: Total solar eclipses of the 19th century
PHL: We should prepare the map for the future space explorers
AIP: Oral History Transcript – Dr. George Uhlenbeck
Ptak Science Books: A Bit of Book Sleuthing on a Cyclotron Manuscript (1938–1941)
EXPLORATION and CARTOGRAPHY:
British Library: Maps and views blog: The Draw of the Arctic
Manchester Evening News: Rare 17th century map of Manchester found in John Rylands Library goes on show
Royal Museums Greenwich: Longitude Legends: James Cook
Big Think: 314 – Watch the Road: World’s Earliest SatNav
Yovisto: The Ambitions of Jane Franklin
Lady Jane Franklin (1791-1875)
Darin Hayton: Washington Irving’s Columbus and the Flat Earth
MEDICINE:
Unspoken Voices: Unspoken Voices from the Cambrian Institute
The Quack Doctor: On thorny ground: the human x-ray scientists
Perceptions of Pregnancy: The ‘Eggs Affair’: Egg Donations in 21st Century Israel
Yovisto: Christine Ladd-Franklin and the Theory of Colour Vision
Christine Ladd-Franklin
(1847 – 1930)
Visions of the Night: Western Medicine Meets Peyote 1887-1899 (PDF)
Clinical Curiosities: The curious case of Alice Beatty: medical provisions and the ethics of patient care
The Recipes Project: The dose makes the poison: dangerous plants
Poisonous hemlock (Conium maculatum) Courtesy of Kurt Stüber, http://www.biolib.de.
The Toast: Doctors Performing Surgery For The First Time in Western Art History
The Appendix: Blurred Forms: An Unsteady History of Drunkenness
Cosmopolitan: I Lent My Vagina To Science
The Guardian: The baffling case of the 100 missing brains
NYAM: From Master Dissector to Accomplished Author: Johann Gottlieb Walter
Yovisto: Karen Horney’s Struggle with Neurosis
Medievalists.net: Birth Control and Abortion in the Middle Ages
Wellcome History: Beautifully hideous: Pioneering plastic surgery in World War I
RCP: Richard Bright
CHEMISTRY:
Meteorite Manuscripts: New Evidence Suggests Origin of John Dalton’s Atomic Theory May Be Linked to Work of Irish Chemist Bryan Higgins
The New York Times: My Great-Great-Aunt Discovered Francium. And It Killed Her
Sonia Cotelle (left) and Marguerite Perey (second from left) at the Curie laboratory in 1930. Each died from radiation exposure. Credit Musée Curie/ACJC Collection
Yovisto: Ellen Swallow Richards and Home Economics
The Recipes Project: Beauty Recipes: A December Series
Yovisto: Nicolas Leblanc and the Leblanc Process
EARTH & LIFE SCIENCES:
Conciatore: Metal Veins Reprise
The Dispersal of Darwin: Darwin and Wallace notebooks in the news
The Embryo Project: Theophilus Shickel Painter (1889-1969)
Past Horizons: Ancient dental plaque contains evidence for milk drinking habits
Notches: Uncovering Cleveland Street: Sexuality, Surveillance and late-Victorian Scandal
Trowelblazers: Rosemary Camp
Environment and Ecology: History of Ecology
Dr Alun Withey: The New York Beard Tax and Other Strange Beard Facts
The Hindu: 50 years since Haldane’s death
Nature: Homo erectus made world’s oldest doodle 500, 000 years ago
Scientific American: Observations: World’s Oldest Engraving Upends Theory of Homo sapiens Uniqueness
The Appendix: Lobsters in the Archive
Self portrait of Tupaia, Captain Cook’s Polynesian navigator, bartering a lobster c. 1769.
British Library
VICE: We Talked to a Scientist Who Gave LSD to Cats Back in the 70s
The Embryo Project: Thomas Hunt Morgan (1866–1945)
Darin Hayton: Eratosthenes and Second Graders
Yovisto: Elizabeth Cabot Agassiz Educator and Naturalist
Scienceline: Natural history museums: facts or fictions?
Yovisto: The Discovery of Nefertiti
Taming the American Idol: Hitting Dogs with Hammers: Animals, Auto Safety, and the Angel History
History of Geology: How it all ends…
TECHNOLOGY:
Slate: The Antikythera Mechanism: An Ancient Computer of Astounding Complexity
Atlas Obscura: Double Sunsets and Peasants with Pitchforks in the Trials of 18th century Balloonists
The Jardin des Tuileries depicted during the balloon launch (hand-colored etching, 1783) (via Library of Congress)
IGN.com: The World’s Oldest Known “Computer” Is Older Than We Thought
Now Appearing: Computers as commodity
BBC: Does AI really threaten the future of the human race?
Conciatore: Yellow Glass
Ptak Science Books: On Building a Vertical City in the Grand Canyon and Covering It Up
Live Science: 18th Century Mandolins Were a Symphony of Rare Ingredients
META – HISTORIOGRAPHY, THEORY, RESOURCES and OTHER:
U.S. Intellectual History Blog: A Reading List for the Social Sciences in the Cold War
Asian Scientist: Is There A History of Science? Yes… And It Works
Early Modern Experimental Philosophy: Kant’s Campaign against the Synthesis of Empiricism and Rationalism
MBS Birmingham: Thoughts on The History Manifesto Twitter Response
The Recipes Project: First Monday Library Chat: Chemical Heritage Foundation
MIT News: Stefan Helmreich: MIT anthropologist of science explores how scientific “things” emerge.
Scottish Indexes: Learning Zone – Mental Health Records in Scotland – Volunteers Needed!
Royal Society: Philosophical Transactions: 350 years of publishing at the Royal Society (1665 – 2015) Exhibition Brochure
Royal Society: The Repository: Making the first scientific journal
Front covers of the Philosophical Transactions from 1665 and 2010.
THE: World’s oldest scientific journal is focus of new exhibition
Western Michigan University: The Medieval Globe: New OA Journal
CHoM News: Body of Knowledge Receives “Great Exhibitions” Award
Nature: Nature makes all articles free to view
History of Science Society: History of Science Society Strategic Plan – 2014
Frontline: Science as solution: Nehru’s view of science
The Guardian: Dürer’s polyhedron: 5 theories that explain Melencholia’s crazy cube
HYLE: International Journal for the Philosophy of Chemistry 20th Anniversary Issue
Philosophy of Biology PhD Programs Wiki
Wellcome Collection: Mindcraft – a virtual exhibition
Yovisto: Man is Man’s Wolf – Thomas Hobbes and his Leviathan
Oregon State University: School of History, Philosophy, and Religion: Hamblin Wins the 2014 Paul Birdsall Prize
Vitae: Doing Scholarship from Outside Academe – Audra Wolfe
HSS: First Person: Pamela O. Long – “On Being an Independent Historian”
The Toast: On Heroic Scientists and Hagiography
Ashmolean: Ashmolean wins two Apollo Awards
The Guardian: Science and history rarely collide, so make the most of Richard III
Tori Herridge.com: Mammoths in the Media
ESOTERIC:
Corpus Newtonicum: Of alchemy and dogears
Brain Pickings: The Book of Miracles: Rare Medieval Illustrations of Magical Thinking
BOOK REVIEWS:
The Dispersal of Darwin: Darwin’s Wild Pursuits Around Down
The Unz Review: Books to Learn Evolution from (?)
AbeBooks.com: Andreas Vesalius’ Fabrica: The Anatomy of a Revolution
Brain Pickings: Great Children’s Books Celebrating Science
The New York Times: Learning Our Roots, Inside and Out The Invisible History of the Human Race’ Provides Transparency on Our Genetic Heritage
History Today: Books of the Year
idées.fr: Les maux de la mine, diagnostic et actions
The Dispersal of Darwin: Terra Tempo: The Academy of Planetary Evolution
NEW BOOKS:
Historiens de la santé: La propreté de l’enfant en Europe entre médecine, politique et éducation. Regards croisés de sociologues et d’historiens
Financial Times: Best Books of 2014 (includes some #histSTM)
Pickering & Chatto: Insanity and Lunatic Asylum in the Nineteenth Century
Le comptoir des presses d’universités: Les Narrateurs fous
Historiens de la santé: Ivan Pavlov: A Russian Life in Science
L’Harmattan: Merleau-Ponty – Freud et Les Psychanalystes
Historiens de la santé: Intolerant Bodies: A Short History of Autoimmunity
THEATRE:
FILM:
The Guardian: Scientists disappointed Jurassic World dinosaurs don’t look like dinosaurs
TELEVISION:
SLIDE SHARE:
VIDEOS:
Vimeo: CHF: The Evolution of HIV/AIDS Therapies
CHoM News: Video Now Online: “Anatomy and its Legacies: Artistic, Ethical, Scientific”
Vimeo: Books of Secrets: Writing and Reading Alchemy
Top Documentary Films: Secrets of the Star Disk
RADIO:
PODCASTS:
Cambridge University: Things Seminar 41 podcasts
Watch Magazine: Discuss: Hermeticism and the occult with Kyle Fraser
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Historiens de la santé CfP: The Eighteenth–Century: Who Cares? The Indiana Center for Eighteenth-Century Studies fourteenth annual Bloomington Workshop (May 13-15, 2015)
Society for the Philosophy of Information: CfP: Seventh Workshop on the Philosophy of Information “Conceptual challenges of data in science and technology”
MPIWG: Technical Art History Talk Series Monday, Oct 27, 2014 – Monday, Jan 19, 2015
NEH: NEH Creates New “Public Scholar” Grant Program Supporting Popular Scholarly Books in the Humanities
MPIHS: Privileged Knowledge: The Politics of Print in the early Dutch Republic
University of Leeds: CfP: Community and its Limits, 1745-1832 4-6 September 2015
The Royal Society: Exhibition: Philosophical Transactions: 350 years of publishing at the Royal Society 2 Dec 2014 – 23 June 2015
Royal Society: Publishing 350 – from foundation to the future
UCL: F58 BSHS Postgraduate Conference 2015 7–9 Jan 2015
AIP: Announcing the Recipients of the 2014 Grants to Archives
The Origin of Life: Second Conference on History and Philosophy of Astrobiology Höör Sweden 8-10 May 2015
Casa de Oswaldo Cruz: CfP: Tropical Diseases in Latin America and the Caribbean: a historical perspective Casa de Oswaldo Cruz / Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 1-4 July 2015
University of Leeds: CfP: The History and Future of Rationing’ Leeds 25th March 2015.
EPSA: CfP: Düsseldorf 2015 September 23-26 2015
Digital Heritage Conference Granada Spain 28 Sept–2 Oct 2015
University of Warsaw: Faculty of “Artes Liberales”: CfP: The Tree of Knowledge: Theories of Sciences and Arts in Central Europe, 1400−1700
Calenda: L’aventure des neurosciences Des territoires de la recherche aux défis de l’éducation
Design week: Wellcome Collection launches online exhibition on madness
Journal of Early Modern Studies: Call for Papers: Fall 2015 Special Edition: The Care of the Self in Early Modern Philosophy and Science
Historiens de la santé: Call for Applications: History of Medicine Travel Grants
LOOKING FOR WORK:
University of Durham: Research Assistant – Social Relations and Everyday Life in England, 1500–1640
University of Cambridge: Darwin Correspondence Project Web Development
York Museums Trust: Digital Learning Apprentice
St Andrews University: The School of History at the University of St Andrews welcomes applications for the Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship scheme
University of Kent: School of History: Postgraduate Funding (Do a PhD with @beckyfh)
University of Manchester: Research Fellow in the History of Biology/Medicine
University of British Columbia: STS Graduate Program
University of Durham: Research Assistant: ‘Contemporary Scientific Realism and the Challenge from the History of Science’
