history of science

• 
• SOURCE: Boston Review
  5/17/2022
  

  What if Mental Illness Isn't All In Your Head?

  by Marco Ramos

  A historian of mental health reviews two new books and concludes that pharmaceutical and neurological approaches to mental health have failed and it's time to turn the lens onto society.

• 
• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  4/28/2022
  

  Dog Breed Stereotypes are Poor Guides to Behavior; Historian Explains Why they Are So Common

  Science Historian Michael Worboys explains that the Victorian craze for dog breeding enshrined both a focus on dogs' outward appearances and the idea that heredity was all-important to a dog's quality, leading to frequent disappointment for owners who find their pets don't fit expectations. 

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• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  4/19/2022
  

  These Books Tell of Change Happening Slowly, then Suddenly

  Historians Lynn Hunt, Adam Hochschild, Kate Clifford-Larse and Keenaga-Yamahtta Taylor are among the authors whose books dig beneath the surface of famous leaders to describe how social movements built the strength to change laws, institutions and ideas. 

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• SOURCE: Boston Globe
  4/16/2022
  

  Darwin's Enduring Hold on Our Imaginations

  by Tom Chaffin

  The excitement that greeted the return of missing notebooks by the British naturalist reflect the fact that his work, while foundational, remains both controversial and poorly understood. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  2/10/2022
  

  Why Following Joe Rogan Seems Easier than Following the Science

  by Yair Rosenberg

  "But in order for this science to be followed, it has to include the science of how people interact with each other. In other words, there has got to be a science of the virus, and there’s also got to be a science of society."

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  1/3/2022
  

  Richard Leakey, Finder of Fossils Key to Story of Human Origins, Dies at 77

  Leakey's discoveries were foundational both to the study of human origins and the model of scientific investigation. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  10/12/2021
  

  History of Past Pandemics Shows COVID Will Be an Era, not an Event

  Medical and Science Historians Allan Brandt, Jeremy Greene, Frank Snowden and Jonathan Moreno argue that we are unlikely to experience any clear end of the COVID pandemic. 

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• 10/3/2021
  

  Latitude: The Pioneering International Mission to Measure the Earth

  by Nicholas Crane

  The scientists and technicians of the Geodetic Mission to the Equator did more than measure a degree of latitude; they showed how a disparate group of human beings from different countries and backgrounds could pool their collective resources and solve problems.

• 
• SOURCE: The Nation
  9/7/2021
  

  Carl Zimmer's Planet of Viruses and the Politics of Popular Science Writing

  by Danielle Carr

  Carl Zimmer's work as a science popularizer has been hailed as a key to bringing Americans on board with public health measures in the pandemic. But does his approach to writing about the science of viruses obscure the context of politics in which science unfolds? 

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• SOURCE: Times of Israel
  8/27/2021
  

  Researchers Work on Mystery Uranium Cubes to Better Understand Nazi Progress on Atomic Bomb

  New forensic research techniques could fill in missing details of the progress of Nazi nuclear weapons programs and improve contemporary efforts to enforce nuclear nonproliferation. 

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• SOURCE: Chicago Tribune
  8/25/2021
  

  Noel Swerdlow, U. of C. Professor who Won a Macarthur ‘Genius Grant,’ Dies at 79

  Noel Swerdlow wove together the humanities and the sciences through his study of the history of science.

• 
• SOURCE: Inverse
  8/4/2021
  

  Proto-Geometry Found in Babylonian Tablet, a Thousand Years Older than Pythagoras

  "It’s generally thought that trigonometry — a subset of geometry and what’s displayed on the tablet in a crude sense — was developed by ancient Greeks like the philosopher Pythagoras. However, analysis of the tablet suggests it was created 1,000 years before Pythagoras was born."

• 
• SOURCE: Boston Review
  8/4/2021
  

  UFOs and the Boundaries of Science

  by Greg Eghigian

  The history of the UFO phenomenon is a lens on to the process by which scientists police the bounds of respectable inquiry. 

• 
• 6/20/2021
  

  Recovering the Stories of Pioneering Frenchwomen of Science

  by Nina Gelbart

  The stories of six French women of science show that women have been part of the scientific revolution from the beginning, and that moving toward gender parity in professional science is imperative.

• 
• SOURCE: Boston Review
  5/25/2021
  

  The Feminist Past History Can't Give Us

  by Paula Findlen

  "What it really meant to be a woman of science three centuries ago is not so easily conscripted into contemporary narratives of feminist liberation."

• 
• SOURCE: Smithsonian
  5/24/2021
  

  Looking Beyond the Female Firsts of Science History

  by By Anna Reser and Leila McNeill

  While celebrating the pioneering achievements of women in science is worthwhile, it shouldn't substitute for close scrutiny of how scientific communities include or exclude participants and how society's gender and racial norms shape the work of scientists in that society. 

• 
• SOURCE: ScienceNews
  5/4/2021
  

  2,500 Years Ago, the Philosopher Anaxagoras Brought Science’s Spirit to Athens

  2,500 years ago, Anaxagoras brought the Ionian philosophical outlook to Athens, where he helped to advance a naturalistic and empirical understanding of natural phenomena. 

• 
• SOURCE: Scientific American
  5/2/2021
  

  The Fermilab Muon Measurement May or May Not Point to New Physics, But ...

  by Robert P. Crease

  The measurement of the behavior of muons may or may not prove to be a groundbreaking discovery. But it is an achievement that demonstrates the collaboration across disciplines and national borders that represents the best of science. 

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• 5/2/2021
  

  Another Bite at the Apple: Isaac Newton's Time as a Man of Politics and Economics

  by Patricia Fara

  Isaac Newton's life has been retold according to the values of successive historians. Until now, most have shied away from Newton's second career at the Royal Mint, during which he was part of the growth of a British prosperity that was rooted in colonialism and slavery. 

• 
• 4/11/2021
  

  Can Space Exploration Restore American Faith in Science?

  by John Baick

  The 60th anniversary of the first manned space flight is time to reflect on the devolution of space exploration from an expression of science as a public and collective enterprise to a vanity project of fame-seeking billionaires.