Science History

George Best - An Elizabethan Climate Scientist whosoeuer could finde out in what proportion the Angle of the Sunne beames heateth, and what encrease the Sunnes continuance doeth adde thereunto, it…

Popular science writing today can be hit and miss. It can be truly awful; such as Brian Greene’s immensely dull Elegant Universe, Stephen Jay Gould’s idiosyncratically waffley Rocks of Ages, and…

What really comes to your mind when you read the title?? i am not asking this in the Shiv Khera-You can Win style... instead this question decides your fitness level to comprehend the blog to follow…

Ibn al-Haytham can be called the father of modern optics.  His 11th-century Book of Optics, which was published 1000 years ago, is considered by some to be in the same league as Newton's…

In the category of lesser-known holidays that could be celebrated on December 25th, the coronation of William of Normandy in 1066 A.D. as first King of what we know as modern England would have to be…

... India, actually. Today, Wikipedia flagged up a new article, Coffee production in India, with a interesting piece of history.  Quoting in full from the article: Coffee growing has a long…

A Waymark Called Hvitsark The Vikings did not use charts and instruments to navigate the open seas.  Having developed skills in coastal navigation they extended those skills to pelagic…

At The Hazard Of His EarsWhat has the hazard of a person's ears to do with science history? The history of Arctic science, exploration and discovery is sprinkled with many as yet unsolved mysteries,…

Having read the biography of Oliver Heaviside, I remain aware that I am not really au fait with inductance as I am with resistance and capacitance.  Searching without much success for a textbook…

“England is the paradise of individuality, eccentricity, heresy, anomalies.” So wrote George Santayana http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Santayana in 1922. Thus begin a few nuggets that I would…