Whewell’s Gazette: Vol. #32

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 #32

Monday 26 January 2015

EDITORIAL:

Welcome dear readers to the thirty second edition of the Internet’s finest #histSTM weekly links list Whewell’s Gazette. The year 2015 is the two hundredth anniversary of the publication of the first ever geological map of an entire country by the surveyor and amateur geologist William Smith (1769–1839). Smith work for various mining companies and he realised that different geological strata were characterised by the fossils to be found in them, an important discovery in the history of geological dating. Given the importance of his work and the bicentenary of his map this edition of Whewell’s gazette id dedicated to William ‘Strata’ Smith.

Smith’s famous 1815 geological map of part of Great Britain
Source: Wikimedia Commons

Combe Down Heritage Society: William Smith Project

The Geological Society: The William Smith Map Bicentenary (1815–2015)

D News: 200-Year-Old Map Changed How We See the World

Ars Technica: Scientific Method/Science & Exploration: The first major geological map turns 200

The Washington Post: This beautiful map traces North America’s geological history

Quotes of the week:

“It’s never too late to procrastinate” @DublinSoil

“If there is one history of science show or book you must get acquainted with; it is “The Ascent of Man” by Jacob Bronowski. Please do it.” @fadesingh

Birthdays of the week:

Simon Marius born 20 January (ns) (10 January os) 1573

Simon Marius portrait from Mundus Iovialis 1614
Source:Wikimedia Commons

Simon Marius Portal

Yovisto: Simon Marius and his Astronomical Discoveries

Robert Boyle born 25 January 1627

Johann Kerseboom – Chemical Heritage Foundation, Photograph by Will Brown.

Early Modern Experimental Philosophy: The formation of Boyle’s experimental philosophy

Chemical Heritage Foundation: Robert Boyle

Wallifaction: Happy Birthday to Robert Boyle!

The Royal Society: The Repository: What Scientists Want: Robert Boyle’s to-do list

Early Modern Experimental Philosophy: Experimental philosophy and Religion

PHYSICS & ASTRONOMY:

Chronologia Universalis: In the year 252525…, or: How to bore your opponent to death

The Renaissance Mathematicus: The specialist in causing pain

Ptak Science Books: The Dots Between the Sun and the Stars

Atomic Heritage Foundation: Innovation Through Teamwork

Astrolabes and Stuff: Precision and accuracy in medieval astronomy

Slate Vault: Beguiling 19^th-Century Space Art, Made by a Self-Taught Astronomical Observer

“Aurora Borealis. As observed March 1, 1872, at 9 h 25m P.M.” E.L. Trouvelot, 1881–82.

Yovisto: Pierre Gassendi and his Trials to reconcile Epicurean atomism with Christianity

Voices of the Manhattan Project: Harold Fidler’s Interview

Space Watchtower: Part of Historic Westinghouse Van de Graaff ‘Atom Smasher’ Preserved

National Post: Incredible discovery of the oldest depiction of the universe almost lost to the black market

Atlas Obscura: Essential Guide: Ruins of Space Exploration

Scientific American; Cross-Check: Did Edgar Allen Poe Foresee Modern Physics and Cosmology?

Atomic Heritage Foundation: University of California, Berkeley

The Conversation: Let there be light! Celebrating the theory of electromagnetism

EXPLORATION and CARTOGRAPHY:

British Library: Maps and views blog: Fruits of Espionage in the K.Top

The Soft, Warm, Wet Technology of Native Oceania (pdf)

Voices of the Manhattan Project: Raemer Schreiber’s Interview

Medievalist.net: A 16^th century view of North America in the Vallard Atlas

MEDICINE:

NYAM: A Letter from Benjamin Franklin

BetaBoston: Leech bleedings and weather reports: Inside the first issue of the New England Journal of Medicine

Diseases of Modern Life: ‘Pearls before swine’ or heavenly messengers? The work of the Victorian Flower Missions

Robert Gavin, The Flower Mission

Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh: Surgeons’ Hall Museum: Object of the Week: Knuckle Duster

Medievalist.net: Toxicology and Treatment: Medical Authorities and Snake-bite in the Middle Ages

Morbid Anatomy: The Curiously Anatomized Bodies of John Ardene

History Today: The Dreaded Sweat: the Other Medieval Epidemic

Royal College of Physicians: The new light

The Guardian: Death in the city: the grisly secrets of dealing with Victorian London’s dead

The Quack Doctor: ‘Eat! Eat! Eat!’ Those notorious tapeworm diet pills

Taenia saginata Internal-medicine a work for the practicing physician on diagnosis and treatment 1920

CHEMISTRY:

Mirror: Six ridiculously dangerous science experiments from kid’s old chemistry sets

Chemistry Blog: 23 Million Times Slower than Molasses

Pitch Drop

EARTH & LIFE SCIENCES:

Synapse: 125,660 Specimens of Natural History

Embryo Project: “A Plant Genetically Modified that Accumulates Pb Is Especially Promising for Phytoremediation” (2003)

Horniman Museum: Bookblitz: Early Entomology

The monochrome images in ‘Johannes Godartius of Insects’ (published 1682) were printed from careful copper etchings made by a ‘Mr F Pl’.

Embryo Project: Edwin Stephen Goodrich (1868–1946)

Letters from Gondwana: The Great Acceleration

Audra J. Wolfe: Bentley Glass Project

Wired: Fantastically Wrong: The Silly Theory That Almost Kept Darwin From Going on His Famous Voyage (Read comment by @friendsofdarwin!)

National Geographic: Phenomena: Laelaps: How Paleontologists Uncovered the World’s Biggest Rhino

TrowelBlazers: Audrey Williams: Trowelblazing the Temple of Mithras

TwilightBeasts: Joseph Leidy’s atrocious baby

American lion reconstruction by Sergiodlarosa via Wikimedia Commons

Embryo Project: Paul Kammerer’s Experiments on Salamanders (1903-1912)

Slate Vault: The Documents That Trapped Poor Southern Farmers in a Dangerous Form of Debt

Embryo Project: Theodora (Theo) Emily Colborn (1927-2014)

BBC Earth: The 25 Biggest Turning Points in Earth’s History

Notches: Heterosexuality and Americanisation: “Social Education” for Immigrant Youth in the 1920s

Yovisto: Andrija Mohorovičić and the Mohorovičić Discontinuity

The Guardian: The secret history of same-sex marriage

The Friends of Charles Darwin: Charles Darwin on the family tree of languages

The Guardian: A language family tree – in pictures

Minna Sundberg

Big History Project: Chapter 3 LIFE

Renaissance Utterances: Dresden Conference: Chimeric Blobs, biological art or where I go off script

TECHNOLOGY:

Atlas Obscura: Objects of Intrigue: The Infernal Machine

Collectors Weekly: Flipping Out Over Handheld Movies, a Century Before Smartphones

Yovisto: John Fitch and the Steam Boat

Motherboard: Happy Birthday to the Cold War’s Most Eerie Technology: The ‘Atom Sub’

My Medieval Foundry: Bronze casting at the Experimental Archaeology Conference

Wired: These Priests’ Invention Could Help Us Drill Into Icy Alien Worlds Someday

Northwest Public Radio: Beware of Japanese Balloon Bombs

BBC: Goldsworthy Gurney: Inventor took hot air out of parliament

People on board Sir Goldsworthy’s steam carriage on its journey from London to Bath in 1827

Smithsonian.com: Exploring the Titanic of the Ancient World

Amazing Women in History: Sarah Guppy, Eclectic English Inventor

META – HISTORIOGRAPHY, THEORY, RESOURCES and OTHER:

SuperScholar: Paul Halpern Interview

Renaissance Utterances: Dresden Conference: Part One Cabinets of Curiosity/Wunderkammern/Kunstkammern

British Library: Help For Researchers: Concise History of the British Newspaper in the Seventeenth Century

Ships, Clocks and Stars Visitors Survey

Washington Post: Crowdfunding propels scientific research

Fiction Reboot: Daily Dose: MedHum Monday Presents: The Power of Story

Atlas Obscura: Collegium Maius

Collegium Maius
Photo by Andreas Welch on Flickr | Copyright: Creative Commons

The Guardian: How Britain’s world war spirit benefited science

The apparatus used by Robert Watson-Watt in 1935 to demonstrate radar technology. Photograph: Jennie Hills/Science Museum

Science Museum: Churchill’s Scientists

Wired: Exhibition reveals Churchill’s secret love of science

Inside the Science Museum: Celebrating Churchill’s Scientists with Sir Winston’s great-grandson

CBC News: Winston Churchill’s love of science helped Britain in WWII

The Alan Turing Internet Scrapbook

News.com.au: Code-breaker Alan Turing’s notes will be auctioned

AEON: Trick of the Eye: Optical illusion such as magic lanterns taught the Victorians what o trust. What can they teach us today?

Two Temple Place: Exhibition: Cotton to Gold: Extraordinary Collections of the Industrial North West 31 January-19 April 2015

JHI Blog: The Gay Past and the Intellectual Historian

Curie: In the business of looking to the past

The Sloane Letters Blog: A Most Dangerous Rivalry

BSHS Travel Guide

Communiqué No. 88, Summer 2014: Canadian Society for the History and Philosophy of Science

Boston Review; The Virtue of Scientific Thinking by Steven Shapin

Recipes Project: Translating Recipes 7: Recipes in Time and Space, Part 1

Recipes Project: Translating Recipes 7: Recipes in Time and Space, Part 2 – WITH

Renaissance Utterances: Dresden Conference: Wildgoose Memorial Library

HUB: Johns Hopkins adds new interdisciplinary major: Medicine, science, and humanities

THE: The rise of the medical humanities

Design Week: Revelations: an exhibition of scientific discovery

Ether Wave Propaganda: Wakefield’s Nightmare, Pt. 1: The Enlightenment and Industrial Revolution Chain

Wikimedia Blog: Wellcome Library donates 100, 00 medical images to Wikimedia Commons

Dr Alun Withey: Fart Catchers and Duck F***ers! The World of 18^th-century slang

The Royal Institution: A fond farewell

The #EnvHist Weekly

Crux: Priest-scientists are at the crossroads of faith and reason

ESOTERIC:

Conciatore: The Kabbalah Reprise

Kabbalistic Sephiroth Tree,
from Portae Lucis, Paulus Ricius (Trans.)
Augsburg, 1516.

History of Alchemy: Archimastry – Giovanni Panteo

BOOK REVIEWS:

George Campbell Gosling: Healthcare: Private and Public from the Early Modern Period to 2000

Science Book a Day: In The Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette

SomeBeans: Sextant by David Barrie

Chemical Heritage Magazine: Lost at Home: Istan Hargittai: Buried Glory: Portraits of Soviet Scientists

Portrait of Soviet scientists Petr Kapitza (left) and Nikolai Semenov by Russian painter Boris Kustodiev (1921). Both scientists were later awarded Nobel Prizes, Semenov for chemistry in 1956 and Kapitza for physics in 1978

Science Book a Day: 10 Great History of (European) Science Books and more

Somatosphere: Daniel P. Todes’ Ivan Pavlov: A Russian Life in Science

Publishers Weekly: The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage: The (Mostly) True Story of the First Computer

NEW BOOKS:

The MIT Press: H.G. Bronn, Ernst Haeckel, and the Origins of German Darwinism

Conciatore: Conciatore: The Life and Times of 17^th Century Glassmaker Antonio Neri: An Excerpt

The University of Chicago Press: Haeckel’s Embryos: Images, Evolution, and Fraud

THEATRE:

The Guardian: Oppenheimer five-star review – father of atomic bomb becomes tragic hero at RSC

Intoxicating excitement’ … John Heffernan as Robert Oppenheimer and Ben Allen as Edward Teller in Oppenheimer at Stratford. Photograph: Tristram Kenton for the Guardian

The Telegraph: Oppenheimer, RSC Swan, Stratford-upon-Avon, review: ‘a dazzling spectacle’

The Independent: Oppenheimer, RSC Swan, Stratford-upon-Avon, review: Immaculately acted

homunculus: Are you ready? Then I’ll begin…

FILM:

TELEVISION:

SLIDE SHARE:

How To Make A Scientific Revolution: Lessons From 3000 Years of History @fadesingh

VIDEOS:

Youtube: Scientists You Must Know: Robert Gore Discovers ePTFE

Laughing Squid: Tom Scott Describes the British Rail Flying Saucer, A Scientifically Improbable Spacecraft Design

Youtube: Under The Knife: Episode 5 – Human Skin Books

RADIO: