The Zoologist’s Guide to the Galaxy | Undark Magazine
Q. But how do they look?
A. Nobody knows, we can only imagine.
For the Sake of Science | Distillations | Science History Institute
“That work would earn him the 1944 Nobel Prize for Chemistry and a postwar platform he would use to oppose nuclear weapons. Like many scientific feats, the discovery of nuclear fission was made with the help of others, including colleagues and close friends, such as Lise Meitner. But after the war Hahn minimized the contributions made by Meitner. Why did he do it—for the pursuit of personal glory or some other reason?”
Medieval Weather Prediction | Physics Today
Who created the term “weather forecast”? What is astrometeorology and why was it widely embraced? Is it all about ignorance or just a necessary step in the process of discovery? Plus, an account of life of Guido Bonatti. Have you heard his name? Happy Readings!
Suggested Readings | AEON | LowTechMagazine | MIT Press Reader
To wrap up this month of March I recommend three articles for those inclined to enjoy long reads. Fascinating stories about history of Cherokee numerals, sewage-fed aquaculture, and a French revolutionary, Madame Roland. Happy Readings!
The High-Flying, Death-Defying Discovery of Helium | Science History Institute
Pierre Jules Cesar Janssen ( February 1824- December 1907), also know as Jules Janssen, was a French astronomer “who will always rank as one of the most eminent scientific men of his country” ( click on PDF sign at the top of the name link to read in full).
An 81-Year-Old Snapper | Hakai Magazine
Why did I start to think about fish age determination? I read an article in Hakai Magazine that an 81-Year-Old Snapper was discovered off the coast of Broome, Australia and, obviously, the first question was “How do they know? “ There is no shame in saying “I don’t know”, right?
The Battery Invented 120 Years Before its Time - BBC Future
Q. Who coined the term “electric battery”?
A. Benjamin Franklin in 1748
18. Upon this, we made what we call'd an electrical-battery, consisting of eleven panes of large sash-glass, arm'd with thin leaden plates pasted on each side …
Why Computers Will Never Write Good Novels | Nautilus
Q. Would you read a computer generated romance novel?
A. May be, out of curiosity.
Q. Do you think such novel could bring tears to your eyes?
A. Oh, dear, I don’t think so - it takes a human to make other human cry.
Walter Friedrich, pioneer of X-ray diffraction | Penn State News
Behind any outstanding scientist we almost always find a family that offered unconditional support or a group of collaborators who were glad to remain in shadows. But it doesn’t mean that their names should vanish from the collective memory. From the Penn State News comes a story about a pioneer of X-ray diffraction Walter Friedrich (1883-1968).
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 Factorial Notation | Christian Kramp | 1808
“I have given it the name 'faculty'. Arbogast has substituted the name 'factorial' which is clearer and more French. In adopting his idea I congratulate myself on paying homage to the memory of my friend.”
How America Has Always Advertised the Next Golden Age of Computers | Literary Hub
“Computer advertisements from the 1950s were divided between two dominant styles: The first was the so-called shirt sleeve style of ad—a holdover from the 1930s and 40s—which tended to include several paragraphs of sales copy, sometimes in the form of a testimonial from a scientist or CEO, alongside decorative headline text and various overlapping elements—the overall result of which was a busy design and a hard sell. The second …”
Faxes, Mascots, and Manga: Science Communication in Japan | Physics Today
“If those anachronistic approaches seem surprising for a country popularly associated with cutting-edge tech, there’s a reason they persist. Traditional delivery mechanisms like faxes are part of a system that caters to domestic media and often results in Japanese science news never breaking abroad. The country’s unique approach to science communication also includes a plethora of costumed characters and comics that portray scientists as champions and make research accessible and playful.”
Scientists for the People | AEON Magazine
“‘There are two types of popularisers,’ he wrote for a broad scientific audience in 1929. The first ‘feigns sympathy with the less educated’, but takes a condescending tone and ‘grows cranky’ without the ‘crutch’ of ‘jargon and ‘mathematical formulas’. The second takes ‘pleasure and pride’ in letting go of those crutches and succeeds in raising ‘the reader and himself into a more general sphere that lies above that of technical expertise’. If the first type of populariser was arrogant and paternalistic, the second displayed humility and respect for the non-scientist.”
New Light Shed on Charles Darwin's 'Abominable Mystery' | BBC
“Darwin coined the phrase, abominable mystery, in 1879. In a letter to his closest friend, botanist and explorer Dr Joseph Hooker, he wrote: "The rapid development as far as we can judge of all the higher plants within recent geological times is an abominable mystery."
A Lunar Pandemic | AEON Magazine
“Hard as it is to believe now, in the summer of 1969, millions across the US worried that the returning astronauts would spark a lunar pandemic on Earth. Nor did their fears lack merit. Scientists, bureaucrats and engineers across the federal government and the major universities of the US had spent years preparing for that possibility. It was one potential outcome of what they called ‘back contamination’: the introduction to Earth of alien microbes that could multiply exponentially in our benign biosphere.”
The Dream of Total Information Became a Nightmare in Postwar China | Aeon Essays
“From the vantage point of today, the travails of China’s statisticians during the 1950s might appear quaint, their obsession with definitional issues and their rejection of probabilistic methods an artifact of a more ideologically driven time. That would be a mistake. The concerns that drove them are with us today, as alive and as urgent as they were 70 years ago. At their heart is a set of basic and timeless questions: what do we need to know and how should we know it?”
How Modern Mathematics Emerged From a Lost Islamic Library | BBC Future
“The House of Wisdom was destroyed in the Mongol Siege of Baghdad in 1258 (according to legend, so many manuscripts were tossed into the River Tigris that its waters turned black from ink), but the discoveries made there introduced a powerful, abstract mathematical language that would later be adopted by the Islamic empire, Europe, and ultimately, the entire world.”
The Doctor Who Challenged the Unicorn Myth | Wellcome Collection
“I do not believe in the existence of unicorns and therefore the remedy of the horn of the unicorns cannot be real. Some said it looked like a horse, others said it looked like a donkey, others claimed it looked like an elephant. Some claim that there is more than one unicorn species.”
When Birds Migrated to the Moon | The MIT Press Reader
“There were many factors that led to the recognition that birds migrate to other continents rather than the moon, but one which is pretty astonishing came about in 1882 in Mecklenburg, Germany. Someone shot a white stork, and when it fell, they saw that the stork had survived a previous attempt on its life.”