Poe, Leidy, Morton, and Some Skeletons

Now that's a picture:
Edgar Allan Poe, Joseph Leidy, and Samuel George Morton at Philadelphia's Academy of Natural Sciences
Photo from A Glorious Enterprise: The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia and the Making of American Science. Via.

Also, did you know that "diddling" can be considered an exact science?  (This and other interesting tid-bits on Poe and early American science appear in Maurice Lee's recent Uncertain Chances.)

Popular posts from this blog

Science in the Streets

Image
Science in the Streets: A free public engagement event from the History of Science Society Thursday, Nov 21, 3-6 pm, Boston Convention & Exhibition Center [I have asked  Conevery Bolton Valencius , who teaches at UMass Boston, to write a guest post about an event she is helping to organize at this year's HSS.  Many readers of this blog are interested in popular science & science popularization, and I urge everyone to join us for what promises to be a fascinating discussion!] Current newspaper headlines make clear how anti-science and science-illiterate many Americans are, at least about some political issues.  But there are effective and interesting efforts going on all around to engage people in the workings and the wonderings of science.  Further, historians of science are doing a lot of that work – and sometimes have particular insight about what is new or very old about rhythms of scientific skepticism or scientific enthusiasm.  At next week’s annual...
Read more

Shotgunning, Inc.

Image
More thoughts on beer technologies! These should go down just as smoothly as  my post on canning craft beer (written up more fully here ). I'll focus on  MillerCoors, one of the industry's biggest packaging innovators, and  in particular on one of their best-selling beers, Miller Lite .  Look at that pour! The fact that taste isn't the most interesting thing about Miller Lite (as the company itself has basically suggested*) is, I'd argue, not unrelated to the fact that the brand has been on the leading edge of a packaging revolution for the last half-decade.  Consumers have a lot of trouble telling the difference between "light American lagers" by taste ( just listen to these experts !). To distinguish themselves on the marketplace, a lot goes into (big surprise) marketing – but here I think we've got something more. Differences in packaging might in fact be mostly talk, but there's at least a claim to technological superiority – and that's enoug...
Read more

The Secret Science Club Has Got Your Number @ the Bell House on Wednesday, October 1st at 8 PM with Cosmologist and Math Lover Tony Rothman!

Image
Secret Science Alert: This month, we will be meeting at the Bell House , an all-new all-awesome venue in Gowanus, Brooklyn, created by the owners of Union Hall (our lovely hosts). Move over Sudoku! Cosmologist Tony Rothman of Princeton University lectures on SACRED MATHEMATICS!!!! At work, Tony Rothman studies the Big Bang and the early Universe. He also researches black holes on the verge of becoming naked singularities. But what does he do for fun? He does sangaku —clever math puzzles that decorated Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines in 17th-century Japan. Wha—?? He even wrote a book about it: Sacred Mathematics: Japanese Temple Geometry . It all adds up! Don't forget to bring your slide rules and pocket protectors!! Before and After --Groove to an ever-multiplying collection of science-loving tunes and videos --Stick around for the calculating Q&A and to get a signed copy of Dr. Rothman's new book! --Sample our cocktail of the night, the Bamboozler . (It’s a conun...
Read more