Annals of SciencePub Date : 2024-07-01Epub Date: 2023-06-13DOI: 10.1080/00033790.2023.2218854
Cristiano Zanetti
{"title":"A telescopic paradox: the artisans of the Accademia del Cimento, their instruments and their (in)visibility.","authors":"Cristiano Zanetti","doi":"10.1080/00033790.2023.2218854","DOIUrl":"10.1080/00033790.2023.2218854","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The brief life of the Accademia del Cimento (1657-1667), the first known society with a purely experimental programme,<sup>1</sup> is entangled with the most surprising advancements in the history of scientific instruments of that century, from the telescope to the microscope, the thermometer to the barometer, the hygrometer to the pendulum as a time-regulator, and more. The making of instruments at the Florentine court shows the interaction of princely, scholarly and artisanal actors. This paper explores this collaboration and shows how the supposed \"invisibility' of artisans depended on their proximity to the academicians and princes, who mainly communicated verbally with them, directly or through middlemen. The visibility of artisans increases proportionally to their physical distance from the Court. In this essay I unveil the identity of the artisans of the Cimento and, finally, attempt to attribute five instruments (some lost and others still extant) to specific makers, shedding light also on relations between the artisan and his patron.</p>","PeriodicalId":8086,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Science","volume":" ","pages":"309-358"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2024-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9627837","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Annals of SciencePub Date : 2024-05-16DOI: 10.1080/00033790.2024.2351511
Francesco Cassata
{"title":"A 'heavy hammer to crack a small nut'? The creation of the European Molecular Biology Conference (EMBC), 1963-1970.","authors":"Francesco Cassata","doi":"10.1080/00033790.2024.2351511","DOIUrl":"10.1080/00033790.2024.2351511","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This article reconstructs the complex diplomatic negotiations that led to the peculiar organization of molecular biology at the European level, by focusing in particular on the establishment of the European Molecular Biology Conference (EMBC), the intergovernmental structure founded in 1969-70 to support the scientific program of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO). By combining the analysis of the informal decision-making kept in the Nobel Prize laureate John C. Kendrew's personal papers (Oxford) with the in-depth exploration of the institutional documentation available in the EMBO and CERN archives (Heidelberg and Geneva) and the Swiss Federal Archives (Bern), the article sheds light on the importance of the EMBC not only for the construction of molecular biology as a scientific, social, and political field in the European context, but also for the broader process of definition of the European research policy. Far from being just a mere replica of CERN, the EMBO/EMBC inaugurated in fact an alternative and flexible 'bottom-up' model of science policy in the European context, based on competition, networking, and scientific excellence, which paved the way to the establishment of the European Research Council (ERC) in the early 2000s.</p>","PeriodicalId":8086,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Science","volume":" ","pages":"1-48"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2024-05-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140943898","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Annals of SciencePub Date : 2024-05-13DOI: 10.1080/00033790.2024.2349878
Jean De Groot
{"title":"The first six propositions of Archimedes' <i>on equilibrium of planes</i> 1.","authors":"Jean De Groot","doi":"10.1080/00033790.2024.2349878","DOIUrl":"10.1080/00033790.2024.2349878","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Modern commentators have doubts about the authenticity and cogency of the early propositions of Archimedes' <i>On Equilibrium of Planes</i> Book 1. Ernst Mach famously said that the proof of Prop. 6, the so-called law of the lever, assumes what is to be proven. Comparing the initial text in Heiberg's modern edition (1881, 1913) to the first propositions in Eutocius' commentary on <i>EP</i> 1, J. L. Berggren ([1976]. 'Spurious Theorems in Archimedes' Equilibrium of Planes: Book I', <i>Archive for History of Exact Sciences</i> 16.2 (1976), 87-103.) claimed that the propositions up through Proposition 3 of the standard modern edition are schoolbook additions written by an ancient author inferior to Archimedes. The present paper argues for the logical connectedness of Postulates 1-5 to Props. 1-6, by means of a detailed examination of the course of the argument and a re-examination of Eutocius' remarks. The paper reinterprets the role of the empirical in the early propositions and offers a reading of the contribution of Archimedes' mechanics to the method of <i>EP</i> 1.</p>","PeriodicalId":8086,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Science","volume":" ","pages":"1-29"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2024-05-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140911259","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Annals of SciencePub Date : 2024-05-05DOI: 10.1080/00033790.2024.2332876
Gert Schubring
{"title":"Analysing Hermann Graßmann's works - retrospecting and re-assessing.","authors":"Gert Schubring","doi":"10.1080/00033790.2024.2332876","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00033790.2024.2332876","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The life and work of Hermann Günther Graßmann (1809-1877) attract not only ever again the attention of mathematicians, mathematical historians and those interested in the history of mathematics, they constitute also a challenge for the methodology of historiographical research. This challenge persists since Friedrich Engel's biography of 1911; there, two sources were presented and interpreted in a not legitimate manner which even mislead since then various scholars. This paper faces the intricate task to unravel not only the methodological shortcomings of Engel's biography, but also to re-assess the misinterpretations - particularly of alleged influences on Graßmann's approaches - induced by Engel's misleading claims. Based upon broader historically contextualised analyses of Graßmann's innovative elements in his theory of extension and upon new primary sources for his student times at the Gymnasium and Berlin University, the paper presents a novel assessment of Graßmann's approaches.</p>","PeriodicalId":8086,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Science","volume":" ","pages":"1-48"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2024-05-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140850182","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Annals of SciencePub Date : 2024-04-29DOI: 10.1080/00033790.2024.2346380
{"title":"Correction.","authors":"","doi":"10.1080/00033790.2024.2346380","DOIUrl":"10.1080/00033790.2024.2346380","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":8086,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Science","volume":" ","pages":"1"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2024-04-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140847726","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Annals of SciencePub Date : 2024-04-08DOI: 10.1080/00033790.2024.2337136
Charles D. Gunnoe
{"title":"Paracelsus and the Tyrolean Plague Epidemic of 1534: context and analysis of Von der Pestilentz an die Statt Stertzingen","authors":"Charles D. Gunnoe","doi":"10.1080/00033790.2024.2337136","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00033790.2024.2337136","url":null,"abstract":"The study offers an analysis of the treatise Von der Pestilentz an die Statt Stertzingen (first edition 1576, ed. Michael Toxites) in the context of Paracelsus’s likely sojourn in Tyrol in 1533/153...","PeriodicalId":8086,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Science","volume":"25 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2024-04-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140562678","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Annals of SciencePub Date : 2024-04-05DOI: 10.1080/00033790.2024.2335542
William R. Newman
{"title":"A Chymist Among Beasts: Reading Paracelsus Literally (with a translation of De lunaticis, chapter two)","authors":"William R. Newman","doi":"10.1080/00033790.2024.2335542","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00033790.2024.2335542","url":null,"abstract":"Paracelsus is an extraordinarily difficult author to interpret, in part because of the seemingly elusive boundary between literal and metaphorical levels of meaning in his work. The present paper a...","PeriodicalId":8086,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Science","volume":"116 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2024-04-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140562690","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Annals of SciencePub Date : 2024-04-04DOI: 10.1080/00033790.2024.2337846
James L. Zainaldin
{"title":"The Mechanical Tradition of Hero of Alexandria: Strategies of Reading from Antiquity to the Early Modern Period","authors":"James L. Zainaldin","doi":"10.1080/00033790.2024.2337846","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00033790.2024.2337846","url":null,"abstract":"Published in Annals of Science (Ahead of Print, 2024)","PeriodicalId":8086,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Science","volume":"46 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2024-04-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140562802","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Annals of SciencePub Date : 2024-04-04DOI: 10.1080/00033790.2024.2306141
Joachim L. Dagg, J. F. Derry
{"title":"The book of Matthew ‘On naval timber and arboriculture’. Its structure and development","authors":"Joachim L. Dagg, J. F. Derry","doi":"10.1080/00033790.2024.2306141","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00033790.2024.2306141","url":null,"abstract":"The book of Patrick Matthew (1790–1874) ‘On Naval Timber and Arboriculture’ has regularly thwarted readers’ attempts of interpretation. The problems seem to extend beyond analysing and interpreting...","PeriodicalId":8086,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Science","volume":"58 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2024-04-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140562794","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Annals of SciencePub Date : 2024-04-03DOI: 10.1080/00033790.2024.2337140
Stephen Bocking
{"title":"A lab for all seasons: the laboratory revolution in modern botany and the rise of physiological plant ecology","authors":"Stephen Bocking","doi":"10.1080/00033790.2024.2337140","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00033790.2024.2337140","url":null,"abstract":"Published in Annals of Science (Ahead of Print, 2024)","PeriodicalId":8086,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Science","volume":"47 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2024-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140562795","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}