There’s more than one history of facts. There’s “The History of Facts“, the doctoral-level course at Central European University. There’s the recent book A History of the Modern Fact, by Mary Poovey [pictured here], and the much older book A History of Facts, by Ebenezer Hinds. And now there’s an obituary of Fact. (HT Dan Falk)
Tag: history
How forensic investigations left the kitchen
Katherine Ford, in the History of Science Centre’s blog, writes about the history and advantages of science laboratories: I came across an unnamed manuscript dated c.1859, discussing the various effects of certain solutions on worms and other small things. What caught my eye, though, was the reference to a worm, post-dunking in a chemical solution, […]
Gutenberg’s desired output (toilet paper, of a sort)
The man who invented the printing press planned to make good, practical use of it, according to Michael Lewis (writing in Vanity Fair): The first thing Gutenberg [pictured here] sought to publish, after the Bible, was a laxative timetable he called a “Purgation-Calendar.” Here is a fragment of that Purgation-Calendar (reprinted in An introduction to […]
History of the universe, in brief: Twice
A group of engineering students at Purdue University built a Rube Goldberg machine that depicts a history of the universe, in about a minute. (Thanks to Scott Langill for bringing it to our attention.) See it in the videos below. It’s an alternative universe history to Eric Schulman’s classic “A History of the Universe in […]
Mutiny, research about
A University of Washington press release heralds Steve Pfaff‘s research on mutinies: Risking one’s neck for better grog: Mutinies reveal tipping points for collective unrest …Another seemingly odd reason for rebellion occurred in 1793 aboard the Minerva as it returned from the East Indies. Captain Whitby insisted the men exercise by fiddle-dancing, be quiet when […]
Good sketchy histories of the universe
Except for a very few people who know everything, nobody knows in detail how the universe started or what happened between then and now. But we’ve been given many interesting suggestions. Some, biblical in nature, tell take-it-leave-it stories. Others offer some combination of evidence and logical reasoning. John Baez‘s majestic “The Earth—for Physicists” appeared in […]
That Royal purveyor of asses’ milk
“Who was the purveyor of asses’ milk referred to in that sign?” inquires investigator Ernie Leighton, referring to a recent post about old London signs. The answer, as describe in Littell’s Living Age, volume 100: Mrs. Dawkins, Purveyor of Asses’ milk to the Royal Family : 66, Bolsover Street, New Road. Mrs. Dawkins enjoyed a […]
Great Microbiologists (en lego)
“Great Microbiologists” is a short lego stop-motion history of microbiology:
Old dinosaur beliefs: What’s new?
The dinosaur news from Texas contains little that’s new. The Texas Tribune reports, on February 17, 2010: Nearly a third of Texans believe humans and dinosaurs roamed the earth at the same time, and more than half disagree with the theory that humans developed from earlier species of animals, according to the University of Texas/Texas […]
History of homeopathic overdose
The vast archives of homeopathic literature do describe — once, in an 1864 book (see below for detail) — the danger of homeopathic medicine overdose. We mention this as background to today’s worldwide demonstrations — volunteers take massive amounts of homeopathic medicines (medicines from which all the medicine has been removed) to demonstrate that those […]