Annals of SciencePub Date : 2023-04-08DOI: 10.1080/00033790.2023.2196981
Carol Pal
{"title":"Lady Ranelagh: the incomparable life of Robert Boyle’s sister","authors":"Carol Pal","doi":"10.1080/00033790.2023.2196981","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00033790.2023.2196981","url":null,"abstract":"lative level of Netz’s book be read as a stimulating invitation. I shall, however, make two minor corrections. Firstly, in order to avoid restarting an ancient academic war: Jacques Sesiano did not discover the Arabic Diophantos, and never claimed to have done so (pp. 396f ). Sesiano explains instead that ‘in 1973, my thesis adviser, Gerald Toomer, learned of the existence of this manuscript in A. Gulchin-i Maānī’s just-published catalogue of the mathematical manuscripts in the Mashhad Shrine Library, and secured a photographic copy of it’. Secondly, in order to avoid a false reconstruction of my own itinerary: My interpretation of Old Babylonian mathematical texts ‘strictly as a historian of mathematics’ did not precede their being put into the context of school and state administration (p. 25). That contextualization was actually my Mesopotamian starting point around 1975 (when I still believed in the Neugebauer–Thureau-Dangin interpretation), with the outcome first partially published in 1980. It was only in 1981/82 that a question after a lecture about this sociological topic provoked me to undertake philological work.","PeriodicalId":8086,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Science","volume":"80 1","pages":"296 - 299"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-04-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42530644","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 : 2023-04-01DOI: 10.1080/00033790.2022.2147216
Michael Wiescher
{"title":"A German physicist's travels in Great Britain Julius Plücker's visits from 1853 to 1866.","authors":"Michael Wiescher","doi":"10.1080/00033790.2022.2147216","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00033790.2022.2147216","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Today, we take international collaborations as a necessity, but 150 years ago, when travel was not so convenient, it involved an enduring and time-consuming challenge. This paper presents letters and reports written by German physicist Julius Plücker to his wife, Antonie née Altstädten describing his travels to Great Britain and France between 1853 and 1866. These letters provide a view into how international collaboration and communication were developed and maintained as well as how friendships were built within the scientific community during the early industrial age, prior to telegraph, telephone, email, and internet.</p>","PeriodicalId":8086,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Science","volume":"80 2","pages":"143-194"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10314390","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 : 2023-04-01DOI: 10.1080/00033790.2023.2181399
Jia Hui Lee
{"title":"Colonial rodent control in Tanganyika and the application of ecological frameworks.","authors":"Jia Hui Lee","doi":"10.1080/00033790.2023.2181399","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00033790.2023.2181399","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p><b>ABSTRACT</b>At the end of the 1920s, Tanganyika Territory experienced several serious rodent outbreaks that threatened cotton and other grain production. At the same time, regular reports of pneumonic and bubonic plague occurred in the northern areas of Tanganyika. These events led the British colonial administration to dispatch several studies into rodent taxonomy and ecology in 1931 to determine the causes of rodent outbreaks and plague disease, and to control future outbreaks. The application of ecological frameworks to the control of rodent outbreaks and plague disease transmission in colonial Tanganyika Territory gradually moved from a view that prioritised 'ecological interrelations' among rodents, fleas and people to one where those interrelations required studies into population dynamics, endemicity and social organisation in order to mitigate pests and pestilence. This shift in Tanganyika anticipated later population ecology approaches on the African continent. Drawing on sources from the Tanzania National Archives, this article offers an important case study of the application of ecological frameworks in a colonial setting that anticipated later global scientific interest in studies of rodent populations and rodent-borne disease ecologies.</p>","PeriodicalId":8086,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Science","volume":"80 2","pages":"83-111"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9269389","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 : 2023-04-01DOI: 10.1080/00033790.2023.2168060
Giulia Giannini
{"title":"Establishing an experimental agenda at the <i>Accademia del Cimento</i>: Carlo Rinaldini's book lists.","authors":"Giulia Giannini","doi":"10.1080/00033790.2023.2168060","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00033790.2023.2168060","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Information on the origins of the <i>Accademia del Cimento</i> is extremely limited. Almost all of the surviving correspondence relating to the year before the Academy began its activities variously concerns print culture. Lists of books (read, studied, purchased, and researched), handwritten notes on old or new publications, vernacular translations of edited passages, and inquiries about new works punctuate the archive. The study of these lists and of the relationship between reading practices and ones related to annotation and knowledge production leads to a reinterpretation of certain aspects of the Accademia del Cimento, suggesting the pursuit of a more flexible agenda.Through the analysis of some book lists, this contribution aims to shed light on the presence in Florence of interconnected groups of scholars, common epistemic practices, and a kind of methodological unity centred on the sharing of materials and agreement concerning the need to subject theories to experimental verification.</p>","PeriodicalId":8086,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Science","volume":"80 2","pages":"112-142"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9255599","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 : 2023-01-01DOI: 10.1080/00033790.2023.2168061
Gisela Mateos, Edna Suárez-Díaz
{"title":"The photographers' gaze: the Mobile Radioisotope Exhibition in Latin America (1960-1965).","authors":"Gisela Mateos, Edna Suárez-Díaz","doi":"10.1080/00033790.2023.2168061","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00033790.2023.2168061","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>During the IAEA's Mobile Radioisotope Exhibition (1960-1965) through the eventful roads of five Latin American countries (Mexico, Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, and Bolivia), a variety of photographs were taken by an unknown Mexican official photographer, and by Josef Obermayer, a staff driver from Vienna. The exhibition carried not only bits of nuclear sciences and technologies, but also the political symbolism of the 'friendly atom' as a token of modernization. The photographs embarked on different trajectories, though all of them ended up at the training and exchange official's desk in charge of the exhibition, Argentinian physicist Arturo Cairo. The ones taken in Mexico also had a local circulation as propaganda intended to promote radioisotope applications. The two sets of images were intended to show the contrast between modernity and traditional society, but they did it from different gazes. Our paper argues that, in the case of Mexico, the photographer reinforced representations of the country which were already popularized by Hollywood for foreign and local audiences. On the other hand, the Viennese photographer's gaze delivers an autoethnography of his dutiful journey. We also argue that Obermayer's projection is one of what Roger Bartra has conceptualized as the 'salvage on the mirror'.</p>","PeriodicalId":8086,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Science","volume":"80 1","pages":"62-76"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10673274","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 : 2023-01-01DOI: 10.1080/00033790.2022.2164616
Michaela Šmidrkalová
{"title":"Celebrating the Czechoslovak atom: from 'Atoms for Peace' to Expo 58.","authors":"Michaela Šmidrkalová","doi":"10.1080/00033790.2022.2164616","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00033790.2022.2164616","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The Czechoslovak-Soviet exhibition 'Atoms for Peace' was held in Prague and Bratislava in 1956. This exhibition became a symbol of Czechoslovak-Soviet 'friendship' and Soviet influence on the Czechoslovak nuclear programme. At the Brussels World's Fair in 1958 (Expo 58), one of the most popular Czechoslovak exhibits was the betatron, which would become a symbol of Czechoslovak nuclear pride. The article analyzes the planning, creation and reception of these two exhibitions, as well as the popular image of the Czechoslovak betatron in the Czechoslovak press and literature of that time. It shows how, in Czechoslovakia, the paradigm of Czechoslovak-Soviet friendship and Soviet dominance converged and became entangled with the effort to present Czechoslovakia as an industrially developed country capable of building the nation's nuclear industry (partly) on its own. One of the results of this entanglement was the betatron - a highly successful and celebrated Czechoslovak nuclear exhibit that captivated both domestic and international audiences.</p>","PeriodicalId":8086,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Science","volume":"80 1","pages":"38-61"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10660071","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 : 2023-01-01DOI: 10.1080/00033790.2023.2166114
Maria Rentetzi, Donatella Germanese
{"title":"Science diplomacy on display: mobile atomic exhibitions in the cold war: Introduction to Special Issue.","authors":"Maria Rentetzi, Donatella Germanese","doi":"10.1080/00033790.2023.2166114","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00033790.2023.2166114","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Despite the increasing interest in science exhibitions, there has been hardly any work on mobile science exhibitions and their role within science diplomacy - a gap this thematic issue is meant to fill. Atomic mobile exhibitions are seen here not only as cultural sites but as multifaceted strategic processes of transnational nuclear history. We move beyond the bipolar Cold War history that portrays propagandist science exhibitions as instances of a one-way communication employed to promote the virtues of the two major and conflicting political powers. Instead, <i>Science Diplomacy on Display</i> follows mobile atomic exhibitions as they move across national borders and around the world, functioning as spaces for diplomatic encounters. Exhibitions play a vital role not only in the production of knowledge and the formation of political worldviews but also as assets in diplomatic negotiations and as promoters of a new worldview in which nuclear stands at the centre. They are powerful <i>iconic diplomatic devices</i>, that is systems of representations that capture the diplomatic processes in action and make the nitty-gritty details of international relations visible. This issue seeks to trace the multiple and often contradictory meanings that mobile exhibitions took on for various actors.</p>","PeriodicalId":8086,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Science","volume":"80 1","pages":"1-9"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9236894","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 : 2023-01-01DOI: 10.1080/00033790.2022.2164794
Donatella Germanese
{"title":"The ingredients of a successful atomic exhibition in Cold War Italy.","authors":"Donatella Germanese","doi":"10.1080/00033790.2022.2164794","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00033790.2022.2164794","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The organization of the mobile atomic exhibition, <i>Mostra Atomica</i>, designed by the United States Information Service to travel through Italy in 1954-55, had to meet technical, scientific, artistic, and political challenges. The head of the group in charge of the exhibition was architect Peter G. Harnden whose pedigree in the intelligence and training in architecture were an ideal match for leading the unit dedicated to exhibitions. The political sensitivity of the <i>Mostra Atomica</i> also required the intervention of the Italian Ministry of the Interior to guarantee safe mobility and secure shows. In every major town, American and British diplomats attended the local opening ceremony, while the very symbol of science diplomacy was Enrico Fermi, whose recorded message praised international cooperation. All in all, the USIS campaign promoting peaceful applications of nuclear physics was successful in reaching and involving Italian society. Visual and spatial aesthetics were particularly relevant: the geometrical design of the exposition rooms conveyed a strong sense of modernity that contrasted with the artistic heritage of Italian cities. The present article is based on archival files, newspaper reports, and photographs that document who was responsible for planning, setting up, and reporting this Cold War propaganda event.</p>","PeriodicalId":8086,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Science","volume":"80 1","pages":"10-37"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10673275","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 : 2022-11-25DOI: 10.1080/00033790.2022.2150307
K. Olesko
{"title":"Helmholtz and the conservation of energy: contexts of creation and reception","authors":"K. Olesko","doi":"10.1080/00033790.2022.2150307","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00033790.2022.2150307","url":null,"abstract":"Equally telling is the omission of any reference to the Boyle Lectures that Boyle founded, which should surely have been taken up to illustrate the effective synthesis of science and religion represented by the tradition of physico-theology that flourished throughout the eighteenth century. Along with this goes a slight narrowness in the book’s conception. Thomas Hobbes nowhere appears in it, yet at least some reference to Hobbes would have been useful in drawing attention to the source of the widespread anxiety that existed about the supposedly atheistic corollaries of the new science, which in Waddell’s exposition is slightly hard to understand. We could also have heard more about the fashionable penumbra of the new science as it spread to the salons and coffee houses (referred to in the book’s blurb but not mentioned at all in its text), and the extent to which ‘wits’ rather than scientists made the running in the abandonment of magic which is here seen as characteristic of the Enlightenment. Lastly, the book is slightly unfortunate in its timing, in that its author did not have the opportunity to read William R. Newman’s magisterial study, Newton the Alchemist (2019), which once and for all scotches the view that Newton’s alchemy formed the source of his ideas about gravitation. Here, this claim is reprised at length on the basis of the writings of B.J.T. Dobbs and R.S. Westfall, forming the climax to the chapter on alchemy which is thus unfortunately already dated. Hence Waddell’s volume displays various shortcomings. In spite of these, however, it should have some value in providing students with a serviceable introduction to the complex interrelationship between magic, science and religion in this pivotal period.","PeriodicalId":8086,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Science","volume":"80 1","pages":"78 - 81"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-11-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44905563","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 : 2022-10-07DOI: 10.1080/00033790.2022.2130979
I. Maclean
{"title":"Renaissance medicine: a short history of European medicine in the sixteenth century","authors":"I. Maclean","doi":"10.1080/00033790.2022.2130979","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00033790.2022.2130979","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":8086,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Science","volume":"80 1","pages":"195 - 197"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-10-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47868831","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}