There is a classicist named Ammon Hillman (a.k.a. David Hillman) who wrote a decent dissertation on ancient pharmacology and then went on to make absurd claims about the Gospels and early Christianity that verge into pedophilia and an obsession with genitals. And yes, your intuition is working here: all his weird theories about this are […]| Richard Carrier Blogs
In his book, The History of the Barometer (The Johns Hopkins Press, 1964), W. E. Knowles Middleton whilst discussing the contact between Isaac Beeckman (1588–1637) and René Descarte…| The Renaissance Mathematicus
A literal banana has published a method for volunteer investigators of suspicious science, this month in the Journal of Lexical Crime. From the abstract: Fact checking of scientific claims by lay volunteers, also known as recreational hostile fact checking or community-based science policing, is a growing hobby. A method for the evaluation of scientific claims … Continue reading "The Extended Sniff Test"| Carcinisation
The “Conflict Thesis” forms a kind of underlying historial metamyth that informs and undergirds a substantial amount of historical assumptions by anti-theist polemicists. This is the assumed and unquestioned idea that Science and Religion have been perpetually at war down the ages. Also known as the Draper-White Thesis or Warfare Model, it is a conception of the history of science that presents religion as the perpetual and consistent enemy of science, technology and progress. It is a per...| History for Atheists
Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour, manipulation, and detection of electromagnetic radiation, which for most of its history meant simply light. The study of light begins with three basic phenomena, the propagation of light, reflection, that … Continue reading →| The Renaissance Mathematicus
Today we look at the life and work of the physicist and mathematician, Evangelista Torricelli (1608–1647), who is the second member of what I have termed the Galilei-Castelli school of mathema…| The Renaissance Mathematicus
In California’s southeastern desert, the Salton Sea stretches across a wide, shimmering basin, a lake where there shouldn’t be one. At about 340 square miles, it’s the state’s largest lake. But it wasn’t created by natural forces. It was the result of a major engineering failure. I’ve long been fascinated with the place: its contradictions, … Continue reading The Salton Sea Was California’s Strangest Catastrophe→| California Curated
The Meselson-Stahl experiment didn’t just prove a point. It told a story about how knowledge is built: carefully, creatively, and with a precision that leaves no room for doubt. It became a model f…| California Curated
Images from the most powerful astronomical discovery machine ever created, and built in California A breathtaking zoomed-in glimpse of the cosmos: this first image from the Vera C. Rubin Observator…| California Curated
During the paleobiological revolution of the 1970s and 1980s, the status of paleontology as an evolutionary discipline was attempted to be established by a number of paleontologists. From 16th to 19th October 1980, the Field Museum of Natural History held the Macroevolution Conference, a historic event that challenged the four-decade-long dominance of the Modern Synthesis. […]| Letters from Gondwana.
One lesson we can learn from a fresh look at our historical sources is that leaders of modern sciences have been hopelessly polarized in their views on the empirical evidence for ‘occult’ phenomena. In my last post, I addressed this by noting deep disagreements among founding figures of modern psychology and psychiatry regarding the marvels ... Read more The post Clash of the Titans: William James vs. Alfred Russel Wallace first appeared on Forbidden Histories.| Forbidden Histories
The history of the incandescent electric light bulb goes way back to 1800, when Alessandro Volta invented an early form of battery called the Voltaic pile. This device produced continuous direct current, and it was soon discovered that when passed through conductive materials the current was capable of producing heat and, under certain circumstances, light. […]| carnotcycle
Back in 2021, John and Elizabeth sat down with Brandeis string and quantum theorist Albion Lawrence to discuss cooperation versus solitary study across disciplines. They sink their teeth …| Recall This Book
This Earth Month, Yale University Press authors reflect on the biggest threat to climate change mitigation while proposing new ways forward. Experts in ecology, weather patterns, climate technology, and even... READ MORE| Yale University Press
[PROLOGUE – EVERYBODY WANTS A ROCK][PART I – THERMOSTAT][PART II – MOTIVATION][PART III – PERSONALITY AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES][PART IV – LEARNING][PART V – DEPRESSION AND OTHER DIAGNOSES][PART V…| SLIME MOLD TIME MOLD
Every once in a while I come across an off-hand comment that immediately makes me need to know more. Recently, I’ve been researching the history of light polarizers, and turned to a paper1 by…| Skulls in the Stars
We who have nothing to “wind string around” are lost in the wilderness. But those who deny this need are “burning our playhouse down.” If you put quotes around certain words it sounds more like a m…| SLIME MOLD TIME MOLD
On 10 February 1825, Gideon Algernon Mantell’s paper “Notice on the Iguanodon, a newly discovered fossil reptile from the sandstone of Tilgate Forest” was read by Davies Gilbert MP at a meeting of the Royal Society of London. In the paper, Mantell gives a brief description of the characteristics of the sandstones of Tilgate […]| Letters from Gondwana.
In April 1842, Owen created the group “Dinosauria” using three taxa: Megalosaurus, Iguanodon, and Hylaeosaurus, based on three main characters: large size and terrestrial habits, uprigh…| Letters from Gondwana.
In 2025, a quantum centenary, I'll tackle quantum questions. To start: the (in)famous double-slit experiment, examined with very great care.| Of Particular Significance
This essay is reproduced here as it appeared in the print edition of the original Science for the People magazine. These web-formatted archives are preserved complete with typographical errors and available for reference and educational and activist use. Scanned PDFs of the back issues can be browsed by headline at the website for the 2014 SftP conference held at UMass-Amherst. For more information or to support the project, email sftp.publishing@gmail.com| Science for the People Archives
Hubble and Einsten are often credited, but the real heroes of the Big Bang revolution are the Russian Alexander Friedmann and Belgian priest Georges Lemaître. The Big Bang Revolutionaries amends the record, telling the remarkable story of how these two men, joined by the mischievous George Gamow and in the face of conventional scientific wisdom, offered a compelling view of a singular creation of the universe in what Lemaître termed a “primeval atom.” Source| Books – Discovery Institute
Charles Darwin fathered not just a scientific theory, but a toxic social ideology that fueled racist colonial policies in Africa. In this sobering book, African scholar Olufemi Oluniyi traces the insidious impact of Darwinian ideas on British imperial policies in Northern Nigeria. Drawing on official documents, public statements, and well-attested historical events, Oluniyi documents how concepts such as evolutionary racism Read More ›Source| Books – Discovery Institute
To hear some tell it, Adolf Hitler was a Christian creationist who rejected Darwinian evolution. Award-winning historian Richard Weikart shows otherwise. According to Weikart, Darwinian evolution crucially influenced Hitler and the Nazis, and the Nazis zealously propagated evolutionary theory during the Third Reich. Inspired by arguments from both Darwin and early Darwinists, the Nazis viewed the “Nordic race” as superior Read More ›Source| Books – Discovery Institute
Science and faith are often presented as mutually exclusive, when in reality the scientific evidence provides powerful evidence that life and the universe were designed. The Comprehensive Guide to Science and Faith: Exploring the Ultimate Questions About Life and the Cosmos features more than 40 entries authored by over 30 qualified experts. Source| Books – Discovery Institute
University professor Neil Thomas was a committed Darwinist and agnostic — until an investigation of evolutionary theory led him to a startling conclusion: “I had been conned!” As he studied the work of Darwin’s defenders, he found himself encountering tactics eerily similar to the methods of political brainwashing he had studied as a scholar. Thomas felt impelled to write a Read More ›Source| Books – Discovery Institute
About the Book In 2000, biologist Jonathan Wells took the science world by storm with Icons of Evolution, a book showing how biology textbooks routinely promote Darwinism using bogus evidence — icons of evolution like Ernst Haeckel’s faked embryo drawings and peppered moths glued to tree trunks. Critics of the book complained that Wells had merely gathered up a handful Read More ›Source| Books – Discovery Institute
About the Book In this provocative history of contemporary debates over evolution, veteran journalist Tom Bethell depicts Darwin’s theory as a nineteenth-century idea past its prime, propped up by logical fallacies, bogus claims, and empirical evidence that is all but disintegrating under an onslaught of new scientific discoveries. Bethell presents a concise yet wide-ranging tour of the flash points of Read More ›Source| Books – Discovery Institute
Revolutionary: Michael Behe and the Mystery of Molecular Machines tells the story of Michael Behe’s transformation from mild-mannered biochemist to orthodoxy-challenging revolutionary through the publication of his path-breaking book challenging Darwinian evolution, Darwin’s Black Box. It also explores the rise of the broader intelligent design movement in biology, the attempt to silence supporters of intelligent design in federal court, and the eventual Read More ›Source| Books – Discovery Institute
The three-body problem, which discusses the gravitational relationship between three independent objects, has remained one of the most intriguing unsolved mysteries in physics. Kat Jivkova analyze …| Retrospect Journal
John and Elizabeth explore spectral radiation with Ryo Morimoto, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Princeton University. His new book Nuclear Ghost: Atomic Livelihoods in Fukushima’s Grey Zone is based on several years of fieldwork in coastal Fukushima after the triple disaster of earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear accident. Ryo’s book shows how residents of the region … Continue reading "100 Nuclear Ghosts: Ryo Morimoto (EF, JP)"| Recall This Book
Today we welcome Zachary Horton, Associate Professor of Literature and director of the Vibrant Media Lab at University of Pittsburgh; game designer, filmmaker and camera designer. Out of all these endeavors, he came to talk about his book The Cosmic Zoom Scale, Knowledge, and Mediation . This dizzying book begins with a bravura description of a movie … Continue reading "98 Horton’s Cosmic Zoom Room (EF, JP)"| Recall This Book
Our Books in Dark Times series offered John this 2021 chance to speak with Lorraine Daston of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science. Her list of publications outstrips our capacity to mention here; John particularly admires her analysis of “epistemic virtues” such as truth to nature and objectivity in her 2007 Objectivity (coauthored with Peter Galison). Although she … Continue reading "97* Lorraine Daston Books In Dark Times (JP)"| Recall This Book
Historian of science Lorraine Daston‘s wonderful new book, Rules: A Short History of What We Live By is just out from Princeton University Press. Daston’s earlier pathbreaking works include Against Nature, Classical Probability in the Enlightenment and many co-authored books, including Objectivity (with Peter Galison) which introduced the idea of historically changeable “epistemic virtues.” In … Continue reading "96 Lorraine Daston Rules the World (EF, JP)"| Recall This Book
Plesiosaurus dolichodeirus found by Mary Anning. From: W D Conybeare, 1824 Mary Anning was born in Lyme Regis on May 21, 1799. Her father was a carpenter and an amateur fossil collector who died wh…| Letters from Gondwana.
In June 2023, at the 104th meeting of the Wilson Ornithological Society, I delivered a plenary talk about the history of American ornithology, in which I identified Moses Williams (1777–1825), who …| Matthew R. Halley
The longest and most profitable expedition (in new species, if not subscribers) of Alexander Wilson (1766–1813), the Scottish-born poet and author of American Ornithology 9 vols. (1808–1814), began…| Matthew R. Halley
Today’s episode in the history of American science takes a closer look at Richard Harlan (1796–1843), namesake of Harlan’s Hawk (Falco harlani Audubon), which most ornithologists consid…| Matthew R. Halley
