The Name of Microscope | The Microscope and Its Revelations
“As I also mention his new occkiale to look at small things and call it microscope, let your Excellency see if you would like to add that, as the Lyceum gave to the first the name of telescope, so they have wished to give a convenient name to this also, and rightly so, because they are the first in Rome who had one.”
Charles Darwin’s Descent of Man, 150 Years Later | JSTOR Daily
“My conviction of the power of sexual selection remains unshaken; but it is probable, or almost certain, that several of my conclusions will hereafter be found erroneous; this can hardly fail to be the case in the first treatment of a subject. When naturalists have become familiar with the idea of sexual selection, it will, as I believe, be much more largely accepted; and it has already been fully and favourably received by several capable judges.”
The Classification of Humankind, and the Birth of Population Science | The MIT Press Reader
“While others made similar claims before him — Machiavelli, for example, asserted that population will expand until “the world will purge itself” through means of plagues or famines — Malthus’s pessimistic provocation provided fertile and innovative ground for later engineers, futurists, and optimists alike.”
How Storytellers Use Math ( Without Scaring People Away) | Literary Hub
Dan Rockmore on Infinite Powers by Steven Strogatz and The Weil Conjectures by Karen Olsson.
The Comet Book (1587) | The Public Domain Review
“As any dinosaur would tell you, the association of comets and meteors with calamitous events are not entirely unfounded — one comet, named here “Veru” (depicted as a fiery lance) and now known as Swift-Tuttle, has been described as "the single most dangerous object known to humanity" (though the chances of it hitting Earth are still extremely small).”
Would a Book Lie? | Distillations | Science History Institute
Louis XIV and his advisers—specifically, Jean-Baptiste Colbert—saw danger in free expression. There were an uncomfortable number of small print shops with only one or two presses that were difficult to keep tabs on and, when idle, might resort to unregulated printing of heterodox or politically incendiary tracts. The government’s strategy was to consolidate printing in a smaller number of larger print shops, the reasoning being that the larger ventures would be easier to regulate and their owners would have more to lose and thus less incentive for unauthorized printing.”