Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #HistSci

Most recents (17)

Earlier today, @STS_News asked about researchers studying the history of #standardization.

That reminded me that I haven't had a chance to share some of the highlights from @LindaHall_org's latest exhibition: The #Standards That Built America!

Time for a đŸ§”! (1/8) #histSTM #STS
Curated by reference assistant David Crawford, this exhibition showcases a few of the 100,000+ industrial #standards in LHL's stacks.

Many of these standards were once part of the Engineering Societies Library & are hard to find anywhere else! (2/8)

libguides.lindahall.org/standards_spec

LHL's #standards are often overlooked compared to our #RareBooks & #Journals, but they tell an important #engineering story. Groups like @ansidotorg, @IEEESA & @isostandards have helped promote interoperability, safety & accessibility in a variety of technological contexts. (3/8)
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Und jetzt neigt sich der Sonntag dem Ende entgegen. Ich hoffe euch haben die Tweets diese Woche interessiert. Wer sich nun immer noch wundert was das alles mit Alice im Wunderland zu tun hat (meinem Spezialthema): Auch Literatur kommuniziert Wissenschaft/1 academic.oup.com/jvc/article-ab

So ist Literatur & besonders Kinderliteratur, die oft erklaert ein Dokument der Wissenschaftsgeschichte, wie Menschen wissenschaftlich Themen verstanden. So behandelt Alice Themen von Optik bis zur Psychologiegeschichte - ja es gab echte Mad Tea Parties!/2 theconversation.com/alice-in-the-a
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Literatur traegt so viel zu allgemeinen Verstaendnis wissenschaftlicher Themen bei, formt - und verankert - Sprache, Narrative im kulturellen Gedaechtnis.
Alice spielte mit Narrativen der populaeren Naturbuecher fuer Kinder & popularisierte sie weiter /3
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Heute Themenwechsel: Insekten! Gestern zeigte ich wie sehr Narrative in der Wissenschaftskommunikation unsere GefĂŒhle und Handeln beeinflussen.
Bei Pandemie ist es klar warum es im allgemeinen Interesse ist, dass das nicht schief lÀuft, aber Insekten? #scicomm /1
Ein voriger Kurator dieses Accounts sprach bereits ausfĂŒhrlich ĂŒber das gigantische Insektensterben & dessen katastrophale Effekte auf, well, alles. Aber viele von uns denken vielleicht sofort "Insekten, ieeh, sollen die doch sterben ich hasse die Viecher." Das ist ein Problem/2 Hoe do you feel about Insects?
Allein den "Nutzen" wissenschaftlich erklÀren ("deficit theory") funktioniert eben nicht.
Hier ist Zusammenarbeit v Wissenschaft, Historikern, Kultur- & Kommunikationswissenschaftlern gefragt.
Denn was formt unsere EindrĂŒcke hier mehr als PopulĂ€rkultur?/3
insectweek.co.uk/news/royal-ent
 The Swarm FilmposterDie Schlussszene von Disneys Encanto: viele Schmetterlinge Animal Crossings Blathers, the owl: a museum curator who hat
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Made it to Edinburgh for the keynotes at #spnhc2022 ! Starting with Mark Maslin on the Anthropocene.
Yikes! An extremely Euro-centric view of the “modes of human society” on a timeline presented by Maslin (who is a geologist).
Just shows that we historians are doing a terrible job of breaking down this kind of narrative.
Now Hermione Cockburn on Edinburgh and the birth of deep-sea science.
Starts by saying we need ocean literacy among general public.
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The English-speaking folks here might have noticed something very unusual has happened in the Danish media regarding science communication/HEI this past week. I thought I’d give an English summary of what’s been going on, because it is wild 1/
#histsci @BSHSNews #AcademicChatter
The danish broadcasting company, DR, (our BBC) really wanted to engage younger audiences. DR had noticed that young folks watch a lot of videos on YouTube (😂!) and they wanted to get in on that. 2/
#videnerfandemeikkeetsynspunkt
Last year DR released a mission statement on their plans to reach young folks online “We want to show the world of the young, as it is, and not as the adults think it should be”. dr.dk/om-dr/nyheder/
 (see translation of screenshot in alt text) 3/ Translation of text from English to danish: We are now getti
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Let me continue with my journey throughout French positivism! Today: Louis Rougier. Fascinating figure who brought logical positivism to France; laid the foundation of neoliberalism; and participated in secret diplomatic missions between Vichy-France and the UK during WWII đŸ§” 1/
Louis Rougier (1889 – 1982) is more or less forgotten. This despite (or because) the controversies during his lifetime; typically seen as far-right figure, mainly due to his connections with the Vichy Regime in WWII and later with the New Right in France (e.g. GRECE) 2/
Together with @MasiglioFicino, I published an article on Rougier in @hoposjournal where we correct this view. it is misleading to label him as ideologically right-wing. Instead, we highlight the history of his projects that led him to that route. 3/ journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/71

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Want to hear a story abt Jewish astrolabes?

An #astrolabe is an astronomical instrument for various calculations, superseded by clocks, calculators, computers

But the astrolabe built the world as we know it & Jews played a key role in transferring this knowledge across cultures
The 14thcen Iberian astrolabe pictured above, w/ Hebrew lettering, was chosen by the @BBC for its History of the World in 100 Objects

You can see much more detailed info & images of it here: britishmuseum.org/collection/obj


There's robust scholarship on these

bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00

A mashup of Greek technologies, knowledge of the astrolabe wends its way, as with much ancient thought, into Syriac & Arabic then sometimes via Hebrew and/or European vernaculars into Latin.

Astrolabe is a Grk word transliterated in Arabic, Persian & Hebrew, at times translated
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As promised, a thread that collects all my threads about the history of French philosophy of science. I will add more in the future. It all started with a thread on LĂ©on Brunschvicg #histsci #philsci #hopos 1/

I also did one on Émile Meyerson 2/

I am doing a series on history of French positivism, starting with Auguste Comte 3/

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@AnnalsOfScience just published an article I wrote with my colleague @smolinab1 as part of our research on a chronological and cosmographical Tratado composed in the New Kingdom of Granada (c.1696) đŸ§”(1/17)
tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10

The manuscript presumably entitled "Treatise on astronomy and the reformation of time" is housed in the @BibliotecaNalCo. Using other sources (@ArchivoGeneral @Banrepcultural), we read this Tratado as part of the #earlymodern globalisation of Spanish cosmography (2/17) Heading of Sanchez's first ...
Under the influence of Spanish cosmography, the repertorios de los tiempos–books encompassing astronomical, agricultural, ecclesiastical, medical, and calendrical questions–incorporated cosmographical elements coming from Sacrobosco and the Theorica (3/17) Engraving of Jeronimo de Ch...
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A is for Artes Radium Cream. Launched in London in 1931 it was advertised as a revolutionary home beauty treatment: "the active properties in this scientific preparation stimulate the skin cells, clearing the complexion and refining the texture of the skin in a wonderful way." A close up of a photograph ...
This advert is from Tatler and is dated June 1932. "It was first thought of by Madame Maria Hornes .... while observing the wonderful rejuvenating action on the skin's texture of Radium Springs baths at a continental spa." Image
Day 2 of my Radium A-Z challenge. B is for Blandford's Radium Hair Food Tonic and Restorer. I will post more about this brilliant product throughout the day #HalfLivesBook Image
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So, as promised: why Brunschvicg claimed “Aristotle had the mental age of an 8-year old.” This was not just a random insult, but highlights a complex, yet forgotten research program in early 20th century French philosophy of science. A thread... 1/17

Short answer: Jean Piaget! Psychology had a central role in early 20C French #philsci, an aspect that disappeared after WWII, when structuralism took over. Let's have closer look.. 2/
Let me start by saying something about Brunschvicg. Though forgotten now, he was one of the most influential French philosophers at the beginning of 20C. He competed with Henri Bergson for the title, and was typically seen as his ‘rationalist’ opponent. 3/
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LAST CHANCE TO SEE (for now): talks and events from the @BSHSNews History of Science Festival #HistSciFest are online for the rest of today at bshsfestival.org.uk/index.php/prog
.

Here is a slightly random thread of things I attended and enjoyed... ImageImageImageImage
(The intention – to be confirmed – is to make all the videos available again long-term on a different platform, if participants agree... but we need to take them off the current system now, as it's costing the Society a lot and mainly designed for live events) #HistSciFest
I'll start with the session which generated the biggest buzz from attendees: FUTURE DIRECTIONS
bshsfestival.org.uk/index.php/prog
, featuring five PhD students on their experiences and plans, with a particular focus on the opportunities and challenges of decolonising academia. #HistSciFest Image
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Hi #histSTM #histsci #histmed #twitterstorians of #biology & #biomedicine!

I haven't seen a list of digital #archive materials to use in this moment of quarantine, so I'll start one

Emphasis on collections with broad & eclectic materials.

picture: me in papery days. Image
the @CSHLLibrary has a digital repository which includes papers of individual life scientists but also lots of the material they accrued on related issues (the war on cancer, human genome project, etc.)

archivesspace.cshl.edu/repositories/2
@nlm_news maintains the "Profiles in Science" page, which has scanned and distributed papers from numerous (bio)medical researchers-- once again a great collection to run keywords through!
lhncbc.nlm.nih.gov/project/profil

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Today I visited a skull that is arguably my favorite fossil in paleoanthropology’s history, the Gibraltar Neanderthal from Forbes Quarry. Here’s why (a short #histsci thread): Image
The skull was discovered in 1848 and considered noteworthy enough to be presented at a meeting of the Gibraltar scientific society. They likely viewed the skull as simply human (though perhaps a slightly odd one) and left the specimen on a shelf to collect dust. Image
Over the next few years, it was packed away and shuffled around, before resting in a cabinet of the local library. Then, an event occurred—8 years later and 2,000 kilometers away—that brought the skull into the limelight: a similarly oddly shaped skull was uncovered in Germany. Image
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So @sapinker is talking trash about me re: my piece in #Nature150 (nature.com/articles/d4158
). <cracks knuckles>
The scrumptious irony is how well Pinker’s tweet makes the central argument in my @Nature article. Here’s the tweet in question.
1/
I write satire from time to time, and I’d be hard-put to parody Pinker’s language. So let’s break down his own words:
“Unlike past anti-scientism rants in lit/cult/pol mags, this [my piece] is in Nature.”
nature.com/articles/d4158

2/
My @nature piece is not a rant, @sapinker, either in tone or in argument. It’s an analysis and a plea for more good science and less bad science. (You do believe there’s bad science?)
Now THIS, now, is a rant.
3/
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Irish-born Oliver Byrne (1810-1880) was an innovator in mathematics education, particularly in the teaching of geometry.
His most well known book was his colorful version of ‘Euclid’s Elements’, published in 1847.
www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/history/Biogra
 #science
Nearly a century before Mondrian made geometrical red, yellow, and blue lines famous, mathematician Oliver Byrne employed the color scheme for the figures and diagrams in his most unusual 1847 edition of Euclid's Elements.
brainpickings.org/2013/11/29/tas

Byrne faced physical and financial hardship and ridicule from his contemporaries for his mathematical and pedagogical innovations. He also published How to Measure the Earth with the Assistance of Railroads (1838). #maths #histsci
math.ubc.ca/~cass/Euclid/b

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Metrodora was a Greek physician sometime around 200-400 CE. She was the author of the oldest medical book known to be written by a woman, "On the Diseases and Cures of Women".#WomenInMedicine #HistSci #WednesdayWisdom opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/cgi/viewconten
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Greek physician Metrodora was one of the first to suggest surgical treatment for both breast & uterine cancers. Her manuscript was translated into Latin somewhere between the 3rd & 5th centuries.
#WomenInMedicine #histsci #WednesdayWisdom nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/ody
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Aspasia of Athens (ca 4th century AD). She founded the origins of the obstetrical practice, both regarding the early techniques of induced abortions & the surgical management of the early failure of pregnancy.#WomenInMedicine
jusurgery.com/universalsurge
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