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history of science

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.

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.

SOURCE: Washington Post
4/7/2021

Our Greatest Libraries are Melting Away

by David Farrier

Ice core samples from the Greenland shelf are a physical archive of the long sweep of human history, and demonstrate the connections of humanity's past and future.

SOURCE: Science Focus
3/8/2021

Beyond Marie Curie: The Women In Science History We Don’t Talk About

Historian Anna Reser: "I think one of the things that [coauthor Leila McNeill and I] had to do for this book, and that I think we need to do more broadly when looking at the history of women in science, is to rethink what counts as science."

SOURCE: KJZZ
2/22/2021

As A New Blue Is Discovered, ASU Professor Details History Of The Color Blue

Arizona State's Theresa Devine discusses the discovery of a new blue pigment and the social significance of blue coloring from the ancient world to today.

SOURCE: Public Books
1/18/2021

When Black Humanity is Denied

by Edna Bonhomme

Enlightenment institutions – the prison, science, and asylums – are organized through binaries that draw boundaries between people who are and are not able to exercise freedom. Black artistic work supports Black freedom by challenging those boundaries.

SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
12/9/2020

What Attacks on Science Get Wrong

by Andrew Jewett

Reductive diagnoses of a "war on science" ignore the specific political and cultural stakes of controversies around vaccination, climate, or creationism.

SOURCE: Boston Review
12/8/2020

How Americans Came to Distrust Science

by Andrew Jewett

Scientists and their supporters cannot overcome the current moment of hostility toward their profession and rejection of their expertise unless they confront the cultural history of skepticism toward science, in both conservative and liberal forms.

SOURCE: New York Times
11/12/2020

Newton’s Daunting Masterpiece had a Surprisingly Wide Audience, Historians Find

Two historians of science have traced the ownership and sharing of Sir Isaac Newton's first edition of "Principia" to conclude that the book was more widely read and influential among Enlightenment thinkers than previously believed.

SOURCE: Scientific American
8/24/2020

Reckoning with Our Mistakes

"If Scientific American is to help shape a more just and hopeful future, we must learn from the arrogance and exclusions of our past. Not just because it is right, but because the power of scientific knowledge is stronger for it."

SOURCE: Public Books
6/29/2020

Naomi Oreskes: Feminist Science is Better Science

Historian Andrew Needham interviews Naomi Oreskes about her new book Why Trust Science and the crisis of expertise in American society.

5/17/2020

A Mathematical Duel in 16th Century Venice (Excerpt)

by Fabio Toscano translated Arturo Sangalli

The advancement of mathematics in renaissance Italy was complicated by a context of secrecy, jealousy, and competitive dueling governed by implicit codes of honor.

SOURCE: The New Yorker
5/7/2020

How Racism Is Shaping the Coronavirus Pandemic

An interview with historian Evelynn Hammonds on the relationship between African-Americans and epidemics in American history, from the eighteenth century to the present day.

SOURCE: WBUR
5/3/2020

Science, Politics, And The Coronavirus: "A Tragedy of Denial"

An interview with science historian Naomi Oreskes on the impact of the coronavirus on the relationship between science and politics.