Lmst

Good Will Hunting in reverse: the real-life story of Peter Putnam, promising physicist turned janitor.

https://nautil.us/finding-peter-putnam-1218035/

#PeterPutnam #GoodWillHunting #NautilusMagazine #AmandaGefter #TheoreticalNeuroscience #ScienceMastodon #ScienceStories #JohnArchibaldWheeler #GayHistory #NeuralModels #LongReads #PrincetonUniversity #RobertFuller #HistoryOfPhysics #HistoryOfScience

Sic transit gloria mundi and the Unapologetic Vatican in the Shapley Supercluster: a recap on cosmic flows by Avi Loeb

https://avi-loeb.medium.com/the-unapologetic-vatican-in-the-shapley-supercluster-cc8e5023c305

#Cosmology #CosmicFlows #galaxies #AviLoeb #Vatican #science #history #HistoryOfScience #STEM #Laniakea #supercluster #LaniakeaSupercluster #DipoleReppler #Shapley #ShapleySupercluster #ZoneOfAvoidance #VelaSupercluster #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Astrodon #Cosmography #Earth #MilkyWay #Andromeda #LocalGroup

This week's #NewBooks at the library: Two academic books

- "Science for All: The Popularisation of Science in Early Twentieth-Century Britain" from the University of Chicago Press; and
- "The Creation of Inequality: How Our Prehistoric Ancestors Set the Stage for Monarchy, Slavery, and Empire" from Harvard University Press.

Completely unrelated, won at auction, a vintage artbook from #GamesWorkshop by John Blanche and one of my favourite illustrators, Ian Miller.

#HistoryOfScience #ScienceHistory #HistSci #Anthropology #Books #Scicomm #Bookstodon @bookstodon

A photo of three books standing on a small, brown, wooden table. On the left, standing up, Science for All, showing a collage of vintage science book covers. In the middle, lying down, Ratspike, showing two surrealistic drawings of human figures by Ian Miller and John Blanche. On the right, standing up, The Creation of Inequality, showing a yellow-tinted drawing of human figures, some naked, some wearing loincloths, in a savannah landscape. Most are kneeling in a large circle and have geometric figures painted on their chests, with some seemingly having some sort of bags or coverings on their heads and faces. Several other figures are standing behind the kneeling figures, bent over them and holding on to the coverings. The out-of-focus background shows black shelves full of books and part of the beech-coloured laminate floor.

Happy birthday, James Clerk Maxwell! 🎂 🎓 ⚡

Let's remember him not only for essentially formulating the full theory of electromagnetism, but also for founding kinetic theory and statistical mechanics (with Boltzmann and Gibbs), for his contributions to thermodynamics, the mechanics of continua, the theory of colours (I heard he took the world's first colour photograph); for his views about probability theory; and for MANY other things.

Among my favourite quotes:

> "They say that Understanding ought to work by the rules of right reason. These rules are, or ought to be, contained in Logic; but the actual science of Logic is conversant at present only with things either certain, impossible, or *entirely* doubtful, none of which (fortunately) we have to reason on. Therefore the true Logic for this world is the Calculus of Probabilities, which takes account of the magnitude of the probability (which is, or which ought to be in a reasonable man's mind)." – Letter to L. Campbell, 1850 <https://archive.org/details/lifeofjamesclerk00campuoft>.

> "In the popular treatise, whatever shreds of the science are allowed to appear, are exhibited in an exceedingly diffuse and attenuated form, apparently with the hope that the mental faculties of the reader, though they would reject any stronger food, may insensibly become saturated with scientific phraseology, provided it is diluted with a sufficient quantity of more familiar language. In this way, by simple reading, the student may become possessed of the phrases of the science without having been put to the trouble of thinking a single thought about it. The loss implied in such an acquisition can be estimated only by those who have been compelled to unlearn a science that they might at length begin to learn it." – In "Tait's 'Thermodynamics'", 1878 <https://doi.org/10.1038/017257a0>.

> "it is our part to provide for the diffusion and cultivation, not only of true scientific principles, but of a spirit of sound criticism, founded on an examination of the evidences on which statements apparently scientific depend." – Introductory Lecture on Experimental Physics, 1871 <https://archive.org/details/scientificpapers02maxwuoft>.

<https://clerkmaxwellfoundation.org>

#physics #electromagnetics #historyofscience #onthisday

James Clerk Maxwell with his colour wheel

#DrFatima published an awesome essay on Feyerabend's "against method" and I got thoughts now.

Her talk about heliocentrism vs geocentrism assumes that the two theories were in competition with each other. Which they were. But this "competition between theories" does not need to become a "competition between scientists". Heliocentrism did not have good arguments going for it when Galileo kept defending it, but if the only goal was to keep the theory alive until the data to prove it came along, then it could have existed as a funny thing to speculate about, or a world building exercise, or even just as a less proven theory. Scientists did not need to stake themselves in a theory (or stake each other). We could have kept it going in many ways that were not harmful to any participants.

It might be better if science worked that way, if we kept open to the range of possible theories given the facts we've built about the world, and did not try to snuff out theories that have less support, and treated the scientists saying those theories like people who have valuable things to contribute (even if we don't agree with their favourite explanation)

There is an asterisk with theories of reality that are actually harmful, but I don't have the energy to elaborate on that right now

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7a65AvELdU

#science #historyofscience #galileo #videoessay

🆕 Congratulations to Quintino Lopes, whose paper about Armando de Lacerda and the Coimbra Phonetics Laboratory (co-authored with Francisco de Lacerda and Ana Simões) was the winner of the 2025 edition of the A. H. de Oliveira Marques Prize for Portuguese History! 🥳

👉 Full story: https://ihc.fcsh.unl.pt/en/quintino-lopes-aholiveira-marques-prize/

@histodons
@histodon

#Histodons #PortugueseHistory #HistoryOfScience #HistoryfTechnology #Phonetics #Awards #ASPSH #AcademicLife #HistóriaDePortugal #HistóriaDaCiência #HistóriaDaTecnologia

🧵100 Jahre Quantenmechanik ⚛️
"Ich hatte das Gefühl, durch die Oberfläche der atomaren Erscheinungen hindurch auf einen tief darunter liegenden Grund von merkwürdiger innerer Schönheit zu schauen, und es wurde mir fast schwindlig bei dem Gedanken ..."
Werner #Heisenberg in: Der Teil und das Ganze (1969)

#Quantenmechanik #Physikgeschichte #Atomphysik #HelgolandMoment
#QuantumMechanics #HistoryOfScience #AtomicPhysics #Science #HelgolandMoment

https://www.derstandard.at/story/3000000269791/werner-heisenberg-der-aussenseiter-dem-die-neuordnung-der-physik-gelang
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Now online: Videos from the workshop "Large Language Models for the History, Philosophy, and Sociology of Science",
April 2-4, 2025, Technische Universität Berlin, Germany

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5rAX6ywmP7O_nT99Osd74uino78BJMVT

#LLM #historyofscience #HPSS

Said Robert Proctor: “If you don’t like the science that’s out there, create some of your own. And then claim ‘we need more research.’ And then label your opposition as a bunch of close-minded fanatics.”

https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/industry-weaponizing-science-agenda/

#history #learning #learn #sociology #reputation #truth #agnotology #historyOfScience #intelligence #ignorance #USPol #science #knowledge #politics #publicOpinion #mediaStudies #commOdon

For most of history, the disciplines of science and philosophy are tightly connected, arguably even the same.

Alchemy was considered a science, and indeed people like Newton and Bacon dabbled in it. Facts and theories as we now know them are much different, and bordered on philosophical arguments. Experimentation wasn't a standard procedure, and a community of scientific professionals hardly existed.

#history #histodons #quote #bookstodon #historyOfScience

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We do not just live with the technological benefits of science: the modern scientific way of thinking has become so much part of our culture that it has now become difficult to think our way back into a world where people did not speak of facts, hypotheses and theories, where knowledge was not grounded in evidence, where nature did not have laws.

The Invention of Science
David Wootton

⏱️ 90 segundos para a Ângela Salgueiro nos contar o que anda a fazer no projecto #PHONLAB, dedicado à História da fonética experimental em Portugal, nomeadamente ao Laboratório de Fonética Experimental instalado na Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Coimbra, em 1936, por Armando de Lacerda.

🎧 https://www.90segundosdeciencia.pt/episodes/ep-2026-angela-salgueiro/

#Histodons #HistoryInThePublicSphere #SciComm #SciComPT #HistóriaNaEsferaPública #FonéticaExprimental #ExperimentalPhonetics #HistoryOfScience #HistóriaDaCiência #Coimbra

Imagem ilustrativa composta por uma fotografia da Ângela Salgueiro sobreposta sobre outra foto de detalhe de um gira-discos

‘Science is a human endeavor’: astrophysicist uses art to connect Black and brown kids to the Stem fields https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/30/nia-imara-painting-cosmos-stem #Historyofscience #USeducation #Astronomy #Science #Science #History #USnews #Race

Today it is 69 years ago the world lost #GeorgeMurrayLevick.This British Antarctic explorer made observations on penguins that were considered too shocking for the world. They are recounted in A Polar Affair, an unusual and colourful book of #PolarExploration, #Penguins, and perversion.

https://inquisitivebiologist.com/2020/02/20/book-review-a-polar-affair-antarcticas-forgotten-hero-and-the-secret-love-lives-of-penguins/

#Books #BookReview #Bookstodon #HistoryOfScience #ScienceHistory #HistSci #SciComm

📖 In an paper published in History of Science, Inês Gomes and Frederico Ágoas examine ‘the intersection of environmental history and the history of science, specifically the impact of forestry science and fire management on land use and community dynamics in rural Portuguese mountains’.

An output of the #FIREUSES project!

👉 https://doi.org/10.1177/00732753241304144

@histodons
@envhist

#Histodons #HistoryOfScience #EnvironmentalHistory #FireManagement #LandUse #Wildfires #HistóriaAmbiental #HistóriaDaCiência

Cover of issue 4 of volume 62 of the journal History of Science

149 years ago today, #HMSChallenger returned to Spithead from a scientific expedition that birthed the discipline of #Oceanography, but what did they find? Read more about this in Full Fathom 5000, an engaging book that focuses on the many animals the expedition found in the deep sea.

https://inquisitivebiologist.com/2024/07/30/book-review-full-fathom-5000-the-expedition-of-hms-challenger-and-the-strange-animals-it-found-in-the-deep-sea/

#Books #BookReview #Bookstodon #Scicomm #Oceans #MarineBiology #HistoryOfScience #ScienceHistory #HistSci

318 years ago today #CarlLinnaeus was born. The scholarly #biography The Man Who Organized Nature provides a full immersion in his life, revealing the polymath behind his reputation as the father of taxonomy.

https://inquisitivebiologist.com/2024/12/05/book-review-the-man-who-organized-nature-the-life-of-linnaeus/

#Books #BookReview #Bookstodon #Taxonomy #Botany #HistoryOfScience #ScienceHistory #HistSci #SciComm @princetonupress

🆕 On 25 May, the exhibition Angola: Saberes em movimento [Angola: Knowledge on the Move] will open at the Frei Manuel do Cenáculo National Museum in Évora, as part of the KNOW.AFRICA project.

👉 We tell you all about it here: https://ihc.fcsh.unl.pt/en/knowafrica-exhibition-evora/

@histodons

#Histodons #ColonialCollections #AfricanExpeditions #PortugueseColonialism #HistoryOfScience #Exhibition #HistoryInThePublicSphere #IndigenousKnowledge #ColecçõesColoniais #ExpediçõesAfricanas #HistóriaDaCiência #ColonialismoPortuguês

Illustration of a group of black men crossing a watercourse carrying white men on their backs and parcels on their heads.

CEA: Une histoire spatiale qui commence en 1959

Pour traquer les poussières radioactives liées aux essais nucléaires, le CEA embarque un compteur Geiger dans un missile. À 100 km d’altitude, surprise : des rayons gamma viennent d’au-dessus. C’est le début de l’astrophysique au CEA.

📷 CEA/D. Baclet/C. Jehanno/J.Labeyrie
https://www.cea.fr/Pages/actualites/sciences-de-la-matiere/aventure-astrophysique.aspx

#CEA #Saclay #Astrophysics #Astrodon #space #science #missile #nuclear #physics #astronomy #astrodon #STEM #CEA80 #history #HistoryOfScience #rocket