The recently invented telescope acquired its name on 14 April 1611 #histsci #hitech
https://thonyc.wordpress.com/2011/07/12/teleskopos-how-the-telescope-got-its-name/
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This print “Occam’s Razor” is about the Law of Economy or Parsimony postulated by Scholastic philosopher William of Ockham (1287–1347), “pluralitas non est ponenda sine necessitate” or entities should not be needlessly multiplied. More simply this law, or really, rule of thumb is that the simplest explanation is usually right. The print shows Ockham himself, inspired by an image of him from a 
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#linocut #printmaking #Ockham #OccamsRazor #typography #sciArt #philosophy #histsci #MastoArt
**Descartes’ Mathematics**
“_In La Géométrie, Descartes details a groundbreaking program for geometrical problem-solving—what he refers to as a “geometrical calculus” (calcul géométrique)—that rests on a distinctive approach to the relationship between algebra and geometry._”
Domski, Mary, “Descartes’ Mathematics”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2025 Edition), Edward N. Zalta & Uri Nodelman (eds.), forthcoming URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2025/entries/descartes-mathematics/>.
#Agenda 1er mai, 9h-17h : Contagion and Contamination in the Nineteenth Century,
Free and Online One-Day Interdisciplinary Workshop http://histoiresante.blogspot.com/2025/04/contagion-et-contamination-au-xixe.html
#histsci #histlitt #histmed
Unser neues Heft #WerkstattGeschichte 91 "körpermaße" ist erschienen! 1/
Im Thementeil, hg. v. Cornelia Aust, geht es diesmal um das Vermessen & Vergleichen von Körpermerkmalen v.a. im 18./19. Jh. Wie trug dies dazu bei, geschlechtsspezifische & rassistische Differenz herzustellen und so Körpereigenschaften zu essenzialisieren?
Joanne Simpson (1923-2010)
1st woman in the U.S. to earn a #meteorology PhD
#pilot
her research & models revolutionized our understanding of #clouds & #hurricanes, helping to shape modern #weather forecasting
Photograph: Dr. Joanne Simpson (1923–2010) pores over reams of images of tropical clouds filmed during flights across the tropical Pacific. courtesy Schlesinger Library
**The Persistence of Tychonism**
“_In conclusion I will suggest that the historical longevity of
Tychonism has been considerably underestimated and also that Tychonists were not generally restrained from public endorsement of heliocentrism by religious pressure. On the contrary, I suggest that the continued acceptance of Tychonism was conditioned by its congruence with scientists’ religious beliefs._”
Barker, P. (2025) ‘The Persistence of Tychonism’, in Philosophical Readings. Zenodo, pp. 11–23. doi: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15035063.
#OpenAccess #OA #DOI #History #HistSci #EarlyModern #Science #Religion #Academia #Academic @science @religion
ZenodoThe Persistence of Tychonism
Happy birthday to one of greatest #mathematicians of all time Emmy Noether (1882-1935), here with her eponymous theorem, the backbone of modern physics. Noether’s theorem links any symmetry of a system with a conservation law. In my portrait, I chose to depict a young Emmy in front of a blackboard with a more simple formulation of her theorem and three specific applications of it, shown schematically, 1/
**Born On This Day**
Mathematician, astronomer, and physicist Pierre-Simon Laplace was born in Beaumont-en-Auge, Normandy, France on this day in 1749.
“_He proved the stability of the solar system. In analysis Laplace introduced the potential function and Laplace coefficients. He also put the theory of mathematical probability on a sound footing.”
https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Laplace/.
#BornOnThisDay #BOTD #History #Maths #Mathematics #Math #Science #HistSci #Astronomy #Physics @science
Maths HistoryPierre-Simon Laplace - BiographyPierre-Simon Laplace proved the stability of the solar system. In analysis Laplace introduced the potential function and Laplace coefficients. He also put the theory of mathematical probability on a sound footing.
Excited to launch the next season of #Cosmoimaginaries. Tomorrow we begin with a presentation from Gabriela Radulescu:
Earthly and extraterrestrial connections: CETI/SETI in Armenia and Czechoslovakia (Spojeni s mimozemskymi intelligencemi / the search for extraterrestrial intelligence)
Thurs, Mar 20 4pm EST / 8pm GMT / 9pm CET
Friday, 21 March 9am NZDT/7am AEDT
All welcome.
Registration link: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/JL-yhGskSLi74izOB6CoSw
ZoomWelcome! You are invited to join a meeting: 📡 "Earthly and extraterrestrial connections: CETI/SETI in Armenia and Czechoslovakia" | Gabriela Radulescu | Cosmoimaginaries Season 2. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting.This March, we have a conversation between Gabriela Radulescu and Nina Czegledy.
Gabriela (https://somatosphere.net/authors/gabriela-radulescu) will share the talk:
"Earthly and extraterrestrial connections: CETI/SETI in Armenia and Czechoslovakia"
Gabriela Radulescu’s research situates the history of SETI (the search for extraterrestrial intelligence) within a broader international context, focusing on Armenia and the former Czechoslovakia. Through ethnographic work at the Byurakan Astrophysical Observatory (BAO) in Armenia, she carefully uncovers the imaginaries that shaped ideas in the golden age of radio astronomy (1956-1976) and the study of extraterrestrial communication during the “CETI” period, before the field was renamed SETI. Through archives and interviews, Gabriela traces how the story of SETI rooted in Armenia during the Soviet era with the 1964 USSR Conference on Extraterrestrial Civilisations at BOA and the Observatory’s First Soviet-American Conference on Communication with Extraterrestrial Intelligence (CETI) in 1971. As Soviet radio astronomers sought to establish a scientific framework for communicating with extraterrestrial civilizations, their Armenian counterparts brought a distinct imaginary: one that linked cosmic contact to Armenia’s ancient astronomical heritage.
Gabriela presents CETI as a relational and interdisciplinary endeavour, entangled in Soviet science-based imaginaries, the history of the space race and the international astronautical community, and political upheavals through the Prague Spring. This blending of scientific and historical imaginaries, combining the emerging field of radio astronomy with millennia-old traditions of celestial observation, reinforced national and collective identity, positioning Armenia as an astronomical civilization with deep temporal roots. These powerful imaginaries continue to shape contemporary perspectives on the earthly and extraterrestrial today.
More Info: https://cosmoimaginaries.com
« Je ne suis pas un microbe ordinaire. Reconnaissez en moi le bacille d’élite, illustre entre ses congénères, auteur d’une grande œuvre. J’ai fait beaucoup déjà ; je ferai plus encore. Autant que Dieu me prêtera vie, je poursuivrai ma tâche, avec l’aide imbécile des hommes ; et tant qu’un nouveau Pasteur n’aura pas trouvé le moyen de détruire notre race puissante et prospère, la mémoire de mon génie subsistera dans la gratitude de mes arrière-neveux. »
Edmond Haraucourt, Mémoires d'un bacille,
https://laporteouverte.me/2017/02/19/memoires-dun-bacille/
#histsci #microbio #fiction
la porte ouverte · EDMOND HARAUCOURT : MÉMOIRES D’UN BACILLE Le récit de mon existence déjà longue ne vous étonnera peut-être guère. Mais ce qui vous surprendra sans doute, c’est que j’aie pu l’écrire ou du moins le dicter ; c…
Continued thread
Toujours sur les météorites, une bourse de thèse est proposée !
"Quatre axes de travail, dont la particularité est d’être chacun fondés sur une « facette » de la météorite d’Ensisheim, permettront de répondre de manière croisée aux grandes questions de départ :
1. Des pierres tombées du ciel ;
2. Collecter et collectionner le vivant ;
3. Genèses minérales ;
4. Une histoire graphique de la Terre."
à faire circuler ! Ce n'est pas tous les jours qu'on peut faire une thèse en collaboration Centre Chastel - Muséum d'histoire Naturelle - IMPMC !
#histsci #histart #sciart
http://blog.apahau.org/poster-doctorant-h-f-these-histoire-de-lart-histoire-des-sciences-la-graphie-des-origines-epoque-moderne-xve-xviie-siecles/
blog.apahau.orgPoste : Doctorant H/F Thèse Histoire de l’art/Histoire des sciences “La graphie des origines” (époque moderne, XVe-XVIIe siècles) « Le blog de l'APAHAU
Happy birthday to botanist & photography trailblazer Anna Atkins (1799-1871), née Children!
Atkins’ mother died when she was still an infant, but she was close with her naturalist father & received a much more scientific education than was common for women in her time. Her 250 detailed engravings of shells were used to illustrate her father’s translation of Lamarck’s ‘Genera of Shells’; 1/n
Happy birthday to Caroline Herschel (1750 – 1848) a trail blazing woman in #astronomy. Hers was a real life Cinderella story, where rather than marrying a prince, she made a life and career for herself. Marriage her expected role but she was deemed unmarriageable, since a childhood bout of typhus stunted her growth. Her mother thought she should train to be a servant, & purposely stood in the way of her learning French, or music,
This week's #NewBooks at the library: Second-hand copies of The Theory of #Evolution: Principles, Concepts, and Assumptions from The University of Chicago Press; An Intimate History of Evolution: The Story of the #Huxley Family from Allen Lane (sans dustjacket); and Mind Over Magma: The Story of #IgneousPetrology from @princetonupress #Books #Scicomm #Bookstodon #HistoryOfScience #ScienceHistory #HistSci #EarthSciences #Geology
Mercury, final prompt for #printerSolstice2425, made me think of #alchemy. It is an element the alchemists favoured & felt was fundamental in their efforts to transmute base into precious metals, both in western & Chinese alchemy (from whence western alchemy emerged).
This is my #linocut portrait of an #alchemist known as Master Geng (before ~975, 耿先生; Gěng Xiānshēng, sometimes Kêng Hsien-shêng). 1/n
This week's #NewBooks at the library: Two more copies of the #CharlesDarwin correspondence project, obtained via second-hand booksellers at very reasonable prices; Multicellularity: Origins and Evolution from @themitpress; and Diana Preston's The Evolution of Charles Darwin from Grove Press
For #InternationalWomensDay a short thread of my ongoing series of portraits of women in science through history. If you look for them, they’re there. I’m up to 67 now! Here’s to the day when a scientist’s sex is no longer remarkable in any field!
Radical by Nature is out in paperback! This is an in-depth, intimate, and tremendously enjoyable biography of the long and remarkable life of Victorian naturalist #AlfredRusselWallace.
#Books #BookReview #Bookstodon #Evolution #HistoryOfScience #ScienceHistory #HistSci #Scicomm @bookstodon @princetonupress @princetonnature
The Inquisitive Biologist · Book review – Radical by Nature: The Revolutionary Life of Alfred Russel WallaceRadical by Nature is an in-depth, intimate, and tremendously enjoyable biography of the long and remarkable life of Victorian naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace.
Happy birthday to Gerardus Mercator (1512-1594) renown Flemish cartographer.
What made Mercator a great #cartographer, was in fact his abilities as a #mathematician -and like those of us scientists who feel compelled also to create art he was wasn’t hindered by his immense ability as an engraver. He produced beautiful world maps (a version of which is depicted in this print), globes, 1/n
