Tuesday, February 07, 2012
Yesterday’s fun with Wordle prompted me to see what would happen if I created a few word clouds from 16th-century astrological prognostications. I then used the results to think again about the usefulness of such a tool/analysis.
Posted by Darin Hayton on 02/07 at 12:16 PM
This post make available an ePamphlet version of my “Introductory History of Astrolabes.” The pamphlet is currently available as a PDF or an iBooks format.
Posted by Darin Hayton on 02/07 at 12:16 AM
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Monday, February 06, 2012
I wanted to see what happens when you feed a few plague tracts into Wordle and to think about whether or not it would be useful in my course on plagues and epidemics. While I’m not sure if it is useful, the results are interesting.
Posted by Darin Hayton on 02/06 at 01:40 PM
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
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
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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
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Recent articles about the presence or absence of water on Mars seem remarkably familiar. More than a century ago Percival Lowell made life on Mars a popular and a scientific question. Bookies no longer take bets on finding life on Mars while astronomers continue to argue about the evidence and what it implies.
Posted by Darin Hayton on 09/27 at 10:42 PM
Sunday, July 24, 2011
A walking tour of physics highlights in the nation’s capital, including stops at the Smithsonian Institution, the Carnegie Institution of Washington, and the Einstein Memorial.
Posted by Paul Halpern on 07/24 at 07:00 PM
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