Sunday, January 29, 2012
An article in the NY Times reports on Mary Ebeling’s recent research on direct marketing in the pharmaceutical industry. It recalls for me the techniques used a century ago to sell patent medicines.
Posted by Darin Hayton on 01/29 at 12:06 PM
Friday, January 27, 2012
The recent article at NPR on grinding mirrors for the Giant Magellan Telescope reveals that tacit knowledge and skills are as important now as ever. Technological developments and sophistication do not reduce the role of the skilled technician.
Posted by Darin Hayton on 01/27 at 02:06 PM
(2) Comments •
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Shanna Freeman over at Curiosity.com made a significant error in her comments about the astrolabe. In order to correct her missteps, I decided to post a draft of a history of astrolabes I wrote a few years back.
Posted by Darin Hayton on 01/26 at 10:58 PM
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Friday, January 20, 2012
Yesterday’s debates about whether or not to continue inserting a leap second are nothing new. In fact, these most recent debates and, ultimately, the decision to postpone making decision, sound a lot like medieval and early modern effort to reform a calendar or adjust time keeping practices.
Posted by Darin Hayton on 01/20 at 10:53 AM
(7) Comments •
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
In recent efforts to retro-diagnose a plague physicians have turned their attention to a fictional plague. How can this be good history or good science?
Posted by Darin Hayton on 01/17 at 03:47 PM
Saturday, January 14, 2012
The British Society for History of Science seeks articles about Philadelphia history of science attractions.
Posted by Paul Halpern on 01/14 at 07:22 PM
Thursday, January 05, 2012
This post takes Shari Roan to task for her recent article on obesity that appeared in the LA Times and has since been reposted around the internet. Roan’s article is a shoddy piece of reporting.
Posted by Darin Hayton on 01/05 at 01:58 PM
(2) Comments •
Saturday, December 31, 2011
The NY Times recently posted a “Room for Debate” topic asking “Why we Collect Stuff.” This post reflects on what I think worked well in that debate and where I would have liked to see the participants say more.
Posted by Darin Hayton on 12/31 at 12:54 AM
Thursday, December 29, 2011
A recent article in The Economist on Luther prompted me to think about ephemeral astrological literature in early modern Europe. Here I suggest that we need to take this literature more seriously than we typically have.
Posted by Darin Hayton on 12/29 at 04:58 PM
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
In this final review of my “Biography of a Map” project I try to indicate where the project worked well, at times really well, and where there remains some room for improvement. In the end, I would say this experiment in pedagogy was a success.
Posted by Darin Hayton on 12/27 at 02:29 PM
(2) Comments •