#Science History

[rubiscodisco]

The US military has done thousands of unconscionable things, each one more evil than the last, but on top of all of those things, on a minor but more spiteful level, I'll also never forgive them for what they did to Lithium

[dndspellgifs]

look, I know I've talked about this essay (?) before but like,

If you ever needed a good demonstration of the quote "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic", have I got an exercise for you.

Somebody made a small article explaining the basics of atomic theory but it's written in Anglish. Anglish is basically a made-up version of English where they remove any elements (words, prefixes, etc) that were originally borrowed from romance languages like french and latin, as well as greek and other foreign loanwords, keeping only those of germanic origin.

What happens is an english which is for the most part intelligible, but since a lot everyday english, and especially the scientific vocabulary, has has heavy latin and greek influence, they have to make up new words from the existing germanic-english vocabulary. For me it kind of reads super viking-ey.

Anyway when you read this article on atomic theory, in Anglish called Uncleftish Beholding, you get this text which kind of reads like a fantasy novel. Like in my mind it feels like it recontextualizes advanced scientific concepts to explain it to a viking audience from ancient times.

Even though you're familiar with the scientific ideas, because it bypasses the normal language we use for these concepts, you get a chance to examine these ideas as if you were a visitor from another civilization - and guess what, it does feel like it's about magic. It has a mythical quality to it, like it feels like a book about magic written during viking times. For me this has the same vibe as reading deep magic lore from a Robert Jordan book.

[othmeralia]

When you accidentally type “moon faces” into Google instead of “moon phases.” Oops!⁠ ⁠ This resting moon face is from Liber Chronicarum (1493).⁠

[thebotanicalarcade]

Beatrix Potter

Writer, illustrator, conservationist, natural scientist

For the inaugural Arcade Feature, I'm excited to tell you about Beatrix Potter. Most people (including me) know her best for her picture books-

-which have sold over 250 million copies since they were published in the early 1900s.

Fun fact: In 1903, Peter Rabbit was the first fictional character to be made into a patented stuffed toy, making him the oldest licensed character.

But what really caught my attention is the work she was doing before Peter Rabbit came along.

Beatrix Potter had a scientific eye for detail, and was able to faithfully depict the world around her. In particular, she was interested in mycology.

In 1897, she put forward a paper to the Linnean Society in London... but as a woman was not allowed to be a member of the society nor attend the meeting when her paper was read. When the society's members did not pay much attention to her work, and fearing her samples to be contaminated, Potter withdrew her paper, which became lost. Only after Potter left hundreds of mycological artworks to a museum in the Lake District, UK, on her death in 1943, were her scientific talents recognized... Potter's precise and beautiful paintings and drawings of fungi are now helping modern mycologists in their efforts to identify species.*

Potter eventually moved away from books in favor of land management and farming. She was a prize-winning sheep breeder and a prosperous farmer, and bought several farms surrounding her own to preserve the unique hill country landscape. Much of that land now constitutes the Lake District National Park.

Keep an eye out for more Beatrix Potter throughout the month of February.

* Fry, C., & Wayland, E. (2024). Introduction. In The Botanists’ Library, The Most Important Botanical Books in History (1st ed., pp. 9–10). introduction, Ivy Press.

[knuppitalism-with-ue]

how much of the fossil record do you think has been lost because of oil drilling / production?

How much? Hmmm, this is basically impossible to quantify, we would first need to know how large the fossil record was in the first place.

Human activity has certainly lead to the loss of many fossils, on the other hand such human activities also made paleontology only possible in the first place. It is no accident that this field established itself during the Industrial revolution, when quarrying and mining intensified. Human had known and wondered about fossils for a long time, but only a constant stream of new discoveries enabled Victorian scientists to reveal the first pages of the fossil record.

So although an incredible amount of fossils is lost each year thanks to mining, only these fresh exposures of deeper layers often times enable us to peak into these lost worlds.

On the other hand human activity seems insignificant compared to the fossils we lost to natural causes. The eastern US has for example far less dinosaur fossils because the glaciers of the last ice age scraped of all the Mesozoic rocks, grinding them into sand and gravel.

[unbfacts]

[mineralsrocksandfossiltalks]

Throwback Thursday: Let's Wander

In the early 20th century, instruments were invented that enabled geologists to measure the weak magnetic field produced by rocks. This led to an amazing discovery. Not all rocks had the same orientation of the dipole.

Why is that such a big deal? Let's imagine for a second that we are on the equator in South America where the inclination and declination should be 0 degrees. If you measure the weak magnetic field in a 100 million year old rock, you'll find that it doesn't point to the present day north pole. This is because it's declination is different than the declination the compass would normally display at that spot. We call this paleomagnetism.

So, why don't paleomagnetic dipoles point to today's north pole? That was a tough question to answer for a long time. Most geologists at the time still believed that the continents were in a fixed position so they concluded that the magnetic poles had moved over time. With this concept in mind, geologists set out to measure the "paleopoles". What they found surprised them.

They measured the paleomagnetism in a succession of rocks of different ages in the same general location on a continent. Seems simple enough...until they put multiple continents apparent polar-wander paths together.

If the pole was moving, all the polar-wander paths should match. Clearly, they do not. How is that possible? Unless Wegener was correct and the continents moved not the poles.

This combined with sea floor spreading really brough continental drift to reality for many geologists. Tune in tomorrow to learn about a fossil that was part of Wegener's evidence of continental drift. Fossilize you later!

[arconinternet]

Your Trip Into Space (Book, Lynn Poole, 1953)

You can digitally borrow it here.

[materialsscienceandengineering]

Science and Scientists Throughout History

It is easy enough to look through the records of history and pinpoint famous scientists who have made incredible contributions to the field of materials science and engineering. One can come up with a list of the top 100 most cited materials scientists published since January 2000, or generate a list of the top 100 moments in materials science history, or even just look up all the materials scientists important enough to have a Wikipedia page. None of these methods are comprehensive but none of them are inherently wrong if one is looking to celebrate scientific achievement through the ages. I used the list of top 100 moments to come up with many of the scientists (though not all) that I posted about on this blog over the past year.

However, it is important to acknowledge that science is - like life - a collaborative effort. Scientists build on the knowledge of those who come before them and publish to share their own discoveries with those who will come after. No one scientist ever accomplished any task alone.

Image source.

Be proud of what you contribute to the world, scientist or not! All the ScientistSaturday posts can be found here.

[dinosaurspen]

John von Neumann and Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) Director J. Robert Oppenheimer in front of the IAS Computer in Princeton, New Jersey. Ca. 1952 — Via CHM

From what I've read of their friendship/rivalry, this picture's always cracked me up. Particularly the way von Neumann is looking at Oppenheimer.

[nazrigar]

It's the 200th anniversary of Megalosaurus' description.

Happy Birthday to the ORIGINAL Dinosaur!

[lichenaday]

hi!! I was doing some research for a lil project a while back, and I stumbled across the funniest article of all time imo. You probably know about it given lichens and all that, but if you haven't I think it would be a shame to be missing out on it.

I'm not sure if Tumblr blocks links on anon so it's A Short History of Lichenology by Charles C. Plitt! Favorite quotes include:

Even Linnaeus dubbed them the "rustici pauperrimi" of vegetation, which has been quite properly translated, the "poor trash" of vegetation.

It goes without saying, that most of these ideas were not founded upon direct observations, but were merely opinions.

It invests them as a spider her prey, with a fine meshed web, which gradually is converted into an impregnable integument, but, whilst the spider sucks out her prey and throws it aside when dead, the Fungus stimulates the Algae, found in its net, to more lively activity, in fact, causes them to grow larger and causes thereby a luxuriant growth and the thrifty appearance of the whole colony.

- @hotmushroompics

Oh my gosh I love old descriptions of lichens. First off, Linnaeus, RUDE. I can't believe that guy. Second, so much lichenology still rests in the realm of opinion since lichen observation is difficult. Why do they do everything so slowly??? Third, not a good enough reason to use the word "stimulate," but ok, whatever. I will have to make a post on historical lichenology one of these days. It's so fascinating and dramatic, and includes a long-standing feud between Beatrix Potter (yes THAT Beatrix Potter) and the Linnean Society (sexist asshats).

[oldbooksarchive]

Iconographic Encyclopedia Of Science Literature And Art 1851 Volume 1 (1851)

[othmeralia]

Look! It's freakin' bats. I love Halloween.

Image from: A philosophical account of the works of nature (1721) by Richard Bradley

[dailyhistoryposts]

On This Day In History

March 6th, 1665: The first issue of the longest-running scientific journal in the world, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, was published.

March 6th, 1869: Dmitri Mendeleev presents to the Periodic Table of the Elements for the first time.