history of 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.
-
SOURCE: New York Times
4/27/2020
Overlooked No More: Eunice Foote, Climate Scientist Lost to History
Eunice Foote’s ingenious experiment more than 150 years ago yielded a remarkable discovery that could have helped shape modern climate science had she not been overshadowed.
-
SOURCE: New Yorker
4/13/2020
The Pandemic Is Not a Natural Disaster
by Kate Brown
Zoonotic diseases can seem like earthquakes; they appear to be random acts of nature. In fact, they are more like hurricanes—they can occur more frequently, and become more powerful, if human beings alter the environment in the wrong ways.
-
SOURCE: Nature
4/6/2020
How Physics is Rocked by the Waves of History
Up close, the all too human business of doing science is messy.
-
SOURCE: New York Times
3/1/2020
What the Plague Can Teach Us about the Coronavirus
by Hannah Marcus
The distant past is not our best source of advice for pathogen containment. But it does offer clear lessons about human responses to outbreaks of infectious disease.
-
12/22/19
The Real Alexander von Humboldt: A Scientist of the Romantic Age
by Maren Meinhardt
Putting people on pedestals, beyond the reach and understanding of lesser mortals, does not help us understand them better. If, perhaps, we lose a hero, we may gain, in Humboldt, an extraordinary scientist who was affected by the extraordinary times he lived in.
-
SOURCE: NY Times
10/23/19
Climate Change Will Cost Us Even More Than We Think
by Naomi Oreskes and Nicholas Stern
Economists greatly underestimate the price tag on harsher weather and higher seas. Why is that?
-
5/19/19
Thomas Harriot and the lost North Carolina Algonquian Language
by Robyn Arianrhod
In this UN International Year of Indigenous Languages, here is the story of a pioneering linguist and ethnographer.
-
4/21/19
The History of the Meaning of Life
by Michael Ruse
And how we can find meaning in a "Darwinian existentialism.”
-
SOURCE: Nautilus
2-6-14
How the Cold War Created Astrobiology
Life, death, and Sputnik.
-
SOURCE: BBC News
11-14-13
The periodic table: how elements get their names
Their chosen names were influenced by an ever changing mix of language, culture and our understanding of chemistry.
News
- The Deficit Hawks That Make Moderate Democrats Cower
- The Muddled History of Anti-Asian Violence
- Massive Investment in Social Studies and Civics Education Proposed to Address Eroding Trust in Democratic Institutions
- Lightning Strikes Twice: Another Lost Jacob Lawrence Surfaces
- Former Procter and Gamble CEO: America and the World Need History Majors
- Part of Being a Domestic Goddess in 17th-Century Europe Was Making Medicines
- How Dr. Seuss Responded to Critics Who Called Out His Racism
- Discovery Of Schoolhouse For Black Children Now Offers A History Lesson
- People Longing for Movie Theaters During the 1918 Flu Pandemic Feels Very Familiar in 2021
- How Did "Bipartisanship" Become a Goal In Itself? (Podcast)