The Weekly Smörgåsbord #5
Posted by Darin Hayton on 03/21 at 08:51 AM
This week’s list of links is short, in part because I didn’t want to duplicate The Giant’s Shoulders #21 and in part because putting together the carnival took a lot of time and energy. In any event, here are some of the posts that attracted my attention this week:
- “From Prester John to Higher Mathematics” — Thony at The Renaissance Mathematicus reminds us that science and mathematics did not progress in some clean, purely abstract or intellectual manner.
- “The Darkened Room” — Thony at The Renaissance Mathematicus elaborates on a tweet by Dr. Skyskull at Skulls in the Stars about Ibn al-Haytham and the camera obscura.
- “Forgotten Milestones in the History of Optics” — speaking of Skulls in the Stars, Dr. Skyskull has posted his talk on this history of optics.
- “Why I am not a Humanist” — Erik Michael Johnson over at The Primate Diaries continues his war on religion.
- “Anthropological Cosmology and Anti-Demarcationism, Pt. 2” — Will Thomas at Ether Wave Propaganda continues his historiographic work (read part 1).
- “The Thrill of Science, Tamed by Agendas” — This NY Times article looks at the history of science museums and asks about recent developments to attract more visitors. It was ideal for my class on the history of museums (the course is “Collecting Nature, Displaying Authority”—the previous syllabus is here).
- “Hypatia, Ancient Alexandria’s Great Female Scholar” — I don’t know how I missed this article last week. Anyway, a nice article on Hypatia.