Although today Atkins’s prints are sold and viewed as art, they were originally made as botanical illustrations. By Elliot KrasnopolerPhD Candidate in Art HistoryBryn Mawr College Who Was Anna Atkins? We are looking at a white-ish blue, organically-shaped form radiating from a central point, and surrounded by a rich, flat cyan-blue tone. Little here gives[…]
Smart people can have really bad ideas – like selectively breeding human beings to allegedly “improve” the species. Introduction A popular pseudoscience was leaving its mark on American culture a century ago in everything from massive reductions in quotas for immigration to the U.S., to thousands of “fitter family” contests at county fairs, to a[…]
Studies on ancient Chinese science suggest that up till the 14th century CE it was much more advanced than Europe in a technological sense. Introduction Ancient China had seen little Western contact before the 16th century CE, the language, culture and science all being allowed to develop independently of foreign influence. By the time European Jesuit missionaries arrived in[…]
Examining early medieval approaches to various types of knowledge we might consider today to be ‘scientific’ and early universities. Introduction The idea of science in the early Middle Ages is a broad one that encompasses many subjects. To understand this, we should think of the root of the word ‘science’, which comes from the Latin[…]
Roman and early medieval scientific texts were read and studied, contributing to the understanding of nature in the light of reason. Introduction European science in the Middle Ages comprised the study of nature, mathematics and natural philosophy in medieval Europe. Following the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the decline in knowledge of Greek,[…]
How early modern science’s fascination with unfamiliar objects helped a new chapter of Scottish folklore. This article, The Orkney Finnmen Legends: From Early Modern Science to Modern Myth, was originally published in The Public Domain Review under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0. If you wish to reuse it please see: https://publicdomainreview.org/legal/ At the end of the 17th[…]
How artists and scientists around the world once made sense of the night sky. While we all (safely!) witness this surreal and spectral time, stars in the sky have stayed in isolation for billions of light-years, just to twinkle at you from a very safe distance in space and time. If you are existentially musing[…]
Thanks to the trend of publishing daily horoscopes in newspapers and magazines, every person in America knows about astrology. The general idea is that astrology calculates the position of the sun, moon, stars, and other celestial objects to determine the impact that can have on our everyday lives. However, most people are not aware of[…]
The earliest humans had and passed on knowledge about plants and animals to increase their chances of survival. Introduction The history of biology traces the study of the living world from ancient to modern times. Although the concept of biology as a single coherent field arose in the 19th century, the biological sciences emerged from[…]
Exploring scientific work and thought in ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Persia, Greece, Rome, India, and China. Introduction The history of science in early cultures refers to the study of protoscience in ancient history, prior to the development of science in the Middle Ages. In prehistoric times, advice and knowledge was passed from generation to generation in[…]
Exploring forms of image making which pushed the boundaries of 17th-century book printing. This article, “More Lively Counterfaits”: Experimental Imaging at the Birth of Modern Science, was originally published in The Public Domain Review under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0. If you wish to reuse it please see: https://publicdomainreview.org/legal/ From infographics to digital renders, today’s scientists have[…]
CRO (Contract Research Organization) companies can vary in size from global companies to small specialized groups. CRO companies offer services across all clinical trial phases and therapeutic areas including Feasibility Assessments, Ethics Committee, Regulatory Submissions, Data Management, Statistical Analysis, Medical Monitoring, Safety Services, Central Lab Services, Medical Write Ups and Project and Vendor Management. The[…]
Exploring a time when science emerged as a new way of gaining knowledge about the world. Introduction Before this time, Europeans relied on two main sources for their understanding of nature. One was the Bible and religious teachings. The other was the work of classical thinkers, especially the philosopher Aristotle. During the Scientific Revolution, scientists[…]
They improved ways of doing things that influenced the Scientific Revolution in Europe centuries later. Introduction In the Middle Ages, Muslim people developed a rich culture. Here are many contributions made by Muslims to world civilization. By 750 C.E., Muslims ruled Spain, North Africa, the Middle East, and much of central Asia. Over the next[…]
Exploring discoveries and inventions made by the Chinese between about 200 and 1400 C.E. Introduction Over the centuries, Chinese scholars and scientists studied engineering, mathematics, science, and medicine, among other subjects. Their studies led to scientific and technological progress that was often far ahead of advances in the rest of the world. To understand the[…]
He argued with Newton, and both were partially right. Introduction Groundbreaking discoveries in science often come with two iconic images, one representing the breakthrough and the other, the discoverer. For example, the page from Darwin’s notebook sketching the branching pattern of evolution often accompanies a portrait of Darwin in his early years when the notebook[…]
Geologist and cartographer Tharp changed scientific thinking about what lay at the bottom of the ocean. Introduction Despite all the deep-sea expeditions and samples taken from the seabed over the past 100 years, humans still know very little about the ocean’s deepest reaches. And there are good reasons to learn more. Most tsunamis start with[…]
Franklin was born a century ago, and her X-ray crystallography work crucially contributed to determining the structure of DNA. Introduction What do coal, viruses and DNA have in common? The structures of each – the predominant power source of the early 20th century, one of the most remarkable forms of life on Earth and the[…]
The increased study of plants for artistic purposes during the Renaissance led to the development of the modern field of botany. Early Renaissance Italy witnessed a remarkable flowering of the arts and sciences. Humanist scholars looked to medieval libraries to discover works from the past, which they copied, studied and developed in new ways. They[…]
For Georgian Londoners, the allure of electric animals was both intellectual and sensual. By Ruth Garde / 04.06.2017 Curator, Creative Producer, Writer For Georgian Londoners, the allure of electric animals was both intellectual and sensual. By the time James Munro wrote these words, scientific investigations into the electrical properties of torpedo fish and electric eels had been[…]
Making sure what’s intended is what’s heard can be more difficult than it seems. Melvin Gaal (mindsharing.eu) A lot of problems are caused by an incorrect or incomplete understanding of terms we use regularly. By Peter Ellerton / 08.25.2012 Lecturer in Critical Thinking The University of Queensland As scientists, one of our responsibilities should be[…]
Is or is not? Albert Einstein and Nils Bohr attend the Solway conference in 1920 in Brussels, Belgium. / Wikimedia Commons Einstein was responding to a letter from the German physicist Max Born regarding quantum mechanics. By Jim Baggott / 11.21.2018 ‘The theory produces a good deal but hardly brings us closer to the secret[…]
Fire in the sky has always exerted a powerful hold on our imagination, even as early scientists started unlocking the secrets of atmospheric electricity. By Ruth Garde / 03.29.2017 Curator, Creative Producer, Writer It might come as no surprise that Michael Faraday, one of the most influential scientists in the history of electricity, would give[…]
In the 19th century, electricity held life in the balance, with the power to execute – or reanimate. By Ruth Garde / 04.20.2017 Curator, Creative Producer, Writer The devastating power of electricity gave good cause for the unease and fear it evoked. And yet the risk of lethal injury was what made it so fascinating and its[…]
Electrified humans brought education and performance together with a spark in the 18th century. By Ruth Garde / 04.12.2017 Curator, Creative Producer, Writer Eels had become unwitting performers in demonstrations of natural electricity after the 1770s, but the human body had been an indispensable element in public displays of artificial electricity since the 1730s. Enthusiasm for such[…]
Science is one thread of culture – and entertainment, including graphic books, can reflect that. ‘The Dialogues,’ by Clifford V. Johnson (MIT Press 2017), CC BY-ND By Dr. Clifford Johnson / 01.18.2018 Professor of Physics and Astronomy Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences University of Southern California How often do you, outside the requirements of an[…]
Scientific investigation was a central part of eighteenth century philosophical inquiry. By George Goodwin / 12.18.2017 Eccles Centre Makin Fellow, British Library Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the Royal Society of Arts Scientific investigation was a central part of eighteenth century philosophical enquiry. A desire to understand the detailed workings of the natural world[…]
Eruption of Mount Vesuvius. 1794. (British Library: Maps K.Top.83.61.i) That the American Declaration of Independence was based on ‘natural law’, rather than divine sanction, stemmed from preceding century’s increasing reluctance to define natural phenomena as purely ‘Acts of God’. By George Goodwin / 10.05.2017 Eccles Centre Makin Fellow, British Library Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the Royal Society of Arts[…]
By Brad Bowman / 05.17.2018 Sosland Family Graduate Fellow in the History of Science Harvard University In the waning years of 1940, Mary Jane Cook began work in the Health Physics department of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, named for the dusty Manhattan Project boomtown that hosted it. One of her primary responsibilities was to collect[…]
Peter Harrison reviews Rob Iliffe’s Priest of Nature: The Religious Worlds of Isaac Newton. By Dr. Peter Harrison / 02.02.2018 Australian Laureate Fellow Director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities University of Queensland When Isaac Newton died on March 31, 1727, his estate included a massive amount of unpublished material. Almost 2000 short manuscripts, haphazardly[…]